Buying a Ormerod or not ?

Hi everyone.
I will start to say that i totally new to 3d printing and i´m trying to learn as quick as possible.
I been looking at this printer and my first thought was that this machine i want !
But when i started to read in this forum i become more and more unsure because of all the problems there seams to be.

At this moment i thinking about if i will buy this one or the older mono mendel.

Are there anyone who can explain why i should buy the Ormerod instead of the mendel (or should I)

I´m interested in raspberry pi and Arduino and looking forward to trying use the Raspberry camera to view the print and show data from the printer.
When i was reading about the mendel I saw something about that but do you think it will be possible on this one as well in the future.
It is possible to communicate with the electronics on the I2c port or i must buy the expansion board to do that.

Has anyone tried to put the Ormerod in a box ? If yes, It is possible to handle the extra fan in the box to keep a steady temperature while printing ?

If i buy one from RS today will some of the problems a read about be fixed on that one ?

Many difficult questions but i hope someone take time to answer some of them.

regards Peter

I just found this one Ormerod vs Mendel info
but still need answer on the other questions and if there are something to add on the Ormerod vs Mendel battle.

//Peter

Hi Peter,

Many of the problems have indeed been solved, and the machine can work admirably. I haven't used another machine, so I can't compare unfortunately. Many problems stem from the SD card shipped with the first machines, I understand that now RRP ship a Kingston which performs properly, there were also electronics problems on the first batch of duet controllers, these seem to have been reliably replaced with working duets. The firmware was another source of common problems, many of these problems have been fixed by RRP and others (notably dc42, who has made major steps in removing some bugs and adding better functionality), RRP and others are actively improving the machine to the extent that if you buy one tomorrow (and update the firmware and replace the SD card if it isn't Kingston branded), you'll encounter very few problems in my opinion.

One thing I must comment on is that RepRapPro do a LOT of their customer support/relations in public - on this forum in fact, so you see all of the bad stuff and some of the good stuff when reading here - most manufacturers I've dealt with in the past are much less open about product problems (normally indeed, very secretive and misleading), RRP's openness makes it all look pretty scary I think (when used to the normal customer support model. In fact, they act very quickly (and if they don't someone else will) to fix problems you might encounter.

I intend putting mine in a box, with fume extraction (for solvent removal mainly, but also for better temperature control and to shield from draughts) - but haven't done so yet. As far as I know the external fan option is there on the duet controller, but not implemented in software. it would be quite easy to monitor box temperature and control this using a dedicated arduino though.

on the raspberry pi front - I've been trying to download octopi [docstech.net] for a few days (very sluggish server, keeps dropping) - this would let one use a raspberry pi instead of a PC to control the print over USB, as well as making timelapse movies and broadcasting progress via a webcam (I don't know if it works with the Ormerod though, since the download still hasn't finished),

Regards

Ray

Thanks for a quick and useful answer.

I read some information about printing in ABS can become a problem with the PLA parts in the printer.
Do you or anybody else know if it´s good enough to print new parts to the printer in ABS.
I think this will be a problem if you put the printer in a box, if it get warm the PLA will start to fail.

I´m not so updated about the software you need to use with 3d printers but if I understand it correct you can make the design in a couple of 3d software like 3d studio Max or Designspark and many more, then you export the build to slic3r (linux or windows) to fix the layers.
then you put that file on the sd card and put it in the printer and starts to print ? or you need to send the file from the computer to the sd card with usb, then starts the print from the computer ?

Do you use the software the same way on a Ormerod and the Mendel ?

Hi Peter,

I have printed with ABS and not PLA for some weeks now, and haven't had the softening problems that others have had (I work in a cool well ventilated place) - it's almost guaranteed that if you enclose the machine then the PLA parts will become soft (PLA has a low heat deflection temperature) - however, you can print ABS for long periods of time - definitely long enough to replace all of the printed parts that matter - during a european winter with the heating off . I've printed quite a few replacement parts for mine and some people have replaced all of the parts just for fun victors, who lives in south africa and is printing at ambient temperatures approaching 30°C has had some problems with PLA parts as provided, indeed, but he reports that he's managed to get enough of the important bits made now in ABS to be functional (I think).

I've mainly used ViaCAD (simple and cheap - around $100 once the two week trial runs out), to design some parts - I can't use DesignSpark on my Mac, so haven't really got to grips with it. Recently, markbee from these forums suggested I try openscad, which is a very powerful scripting program that lets you describe in a programming language the shapes you want to combine - it then renders them (fast in opengl using your graphics card, or slowly and reliably in its own renderer), these programs have their own way of storing models (as most do), but they also export in a format known as stl, which you then open in slic3r (or skeinforge or other programs) - these slicing programs take the description in the stl and convert it into flat layers (with pathways for your printer to follow), using a descriptive language called gcode (which is primarily telling the printer how far to move and how fast, and in which direction, and how much filament to lay down as it moves) - you can save the gcode files to SD card and run them direct and then tell the printer to use them (by the web interface, or a host program such as pronterface or repetier), but you can also send the gcode file "live" to the printer using a host (this lets you monitor the progress of the print, and fine tune some behaviour as it progresses - actually iamburny and dc42 are working on improving the web interface sothat it works in a similar way to pronterface or repetier, and dc42 is to be thanked for getting the usb printing working properly too).

All of the programs I've mentioned apart from ViaCAD are free to download and use, and they're amazingly good (ViaCAD is amazingly good too, but isn't free to use after the trial)
and I hope you're as impressed as I am once you start using them.

Ray

edit: ps yes the workflow is similar on all of the reprap style machines as far as I can see, model in your favourite program, export as stl , slice in slic3r or similar (by the way this is integrated in pronterface and repetier host)to convert to gcode, then use a host to upload the gcode to the machine direct as a print job or onto local storage, if you upload to local storage the host can then tell the printer to print from file.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2014 06:14PM by rayhicks.

Thanks for that useful answer.
I will look little bit more on the forum for the Ormerod and the Mendel before i choose one of them.
The sad thing about the Mendel is that the delivery time is about 3-4 weeks. So thats one reason to choose the Ormerod :-)