I have no hair left because I pulled it all out!
Posted by shadowphile
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I have no hair left because I pulled it all out! October 31, 2014 04:17AM |
Yes, the subject line is useless. So far so is this project.
I just bought my first printer, a Kossel Mini kit. I've already had multiple printed-parts break, the autolevel screwed-up so bad that a following homing command did not respect the level switches and broke a switch mount, it's now held in place with electrical tape. The custom-designed extruder-tip-as-z-probe I received was not only jammed up useless, but when I fixed it the very idea sucked because there were so many torquing forces on the extrude platform that all the autolevel level was horrible mucked up. I ended up taping down a sheet of foil on the bed and using the extruder tip to close a circuit as the limit switch. Works sweet but it is obviously not a long-term solution.
Anyway, this is turning into far more of science project than I anticipated. My biggest headache for a while is trying to get to a state of extruding+moving. It's seems like a big balancing act.
This biggest hurdle seems to be keeping the extruder from clogging up if I let it sit for more than a few seconds. So I jump over, manual extrude while forcing the filament with my hand hard enough to break through the sieze up. (the extruder stepper either chews a bite out of the filament or it skips) But while it's cleaning out it's extrudant, I can't move the head into place or anything else because I'm only allowed one interactive command at a time. If I want to do more than one thing at a time, it seems I have to design a script and then hit 'go' and watch it crash and burn over and over until I get close to the magic formula. Is it basically a difficult task to manually lay down a line using the command line? I've been just using basic command-line g codes. Is that what I'm expected to do? I've been easing toward my first print by doing these simple exercises to understand what is going on. All my basic mechanical calibrations are good.
I did reach a certain point using ABS where I thought I might be ready to do a simple print. I used Slic3r on a simple 10mm cube and it puked up something unrecognizable. When I decided to try it anyway because Pronteface seems to have graphics issues on my computer (Surface Pro with Win 8.1), it promptly did an end-run on my Z=0 setting, changed it to 12mm, then smashed the head into my plate. WTF? I did discover online that Slic3r will erase your autolevel data unless you delete the startup command to Home but I don't see how that would add 12mm to my height.
For now, here are my two questions:
Why is there no command to just stop the motion? If I start a move that isn't working right I just want to stop and retry, but nothing will actually kill the motors. M112 doesn't respond and if it did it basically resets the pcb anyway and I can do that (and constantly doing so) with the hardware reset button. I just want to abort the move, not nuke my setup.
Anyway, a merciful soul would be nice right now, feel like I'm smashing things in the dark hoping I will invent a cure for cancer
I thought this would be easier because I'm an engineer with significant experience writing motion-control firmware, designing electronics and mechanical systems, plus a physics degree so I tend to know materials and other arcane aspects of engineering.
Basics: Marlin firmware from the repository, basic RAMPS 1.4, Pronterface, Slic3r. I have an all-metal head (V6 e3d after deciding the extruder that came with the kit was junk because I never could get PLA to extrude after a few seconds. It would promply sieze up so bad I kept taking it apart. I think the heat-break tube surface quality was crap. Anyway, the e3d seems to run better.)
I just bought my first printer, a Kossel Mini kit. I've already had multiple printed-parts break, the autolevel screwed-up so bad that a following homing command did not respect the level switches and broke a switch mount, it's now held in place with electrical tape. The custom-designed extruder-tip-as-z-probe I received was not only jammed up useless, but when I fixed it the very idea sucked because there were so many torquing forces on the extrude platform that all the autolevel level was horrible mucked up. I ended up taping down a sheet of foil on the bed and using the extruder tip to close a circuit as the limit switch. Works sweet but it is obviously not a long-term solution.
Anyway, this is turning into far more of science project than I anticipated. My biggest headache for a while is trying to get to a state of extruding+moving. It's seems like a big balancing act.
This biggest hurdle seems to be keeping the extruder from clogging up if I let it sit for more than a few seconds. So I jump over, manual extrude while forcing the filament with my hand hard enough to break through the sieze up. (the extruder stepper either chews a bite out of the filament or it skips) But while it's cleaning out it's extrudant, I can't move the head into place or anything else because I'm only allowed one interactive command at a time. If I want to do more than one thing at a time, it seems I have to design a script and then hit 'go' and watch it crash and burn over and over until I get close to the magic formula. Is it basically a difficult task to manually lay down a line using the command line? I've been just using basic command-line g codes. Is that what I'm expected to do? I've been easing toward my first print by doing these simple exercises to understand what is going on. All my basic mechanical calibrations are good.
I did reach a certain point using ABS where I thought I might be ready to do a simple print. I used Slic3r on a simple 10mm cube and it puked up something unrecognizable. When I decided to try it anyway because Pronteface seems to have graphics issues on my computer (Surface Pro with Win 8.1), it promptly did an end-run on my Z=0 setting, changed it to 12mm, then smashed the head into my plate. WTF? I did discover online that Slic3r will erase your autolevel data unless you delete the startup command to Home but I don't see how that would add 12mm to my height.
For now, here are my two questions:
Why is there no command to just stop the motion? If I start a move that isn't working right I just want to stop and retry, but nothing will actually kill the motors. M112 doesn't respond and if it did it basically resets the pcb anyway and I can do that (and constantly doing so) with the hardware reset button. I just want to abort the move, not nuke my setup.
Anyway, a merciful soul would be nice right now, feel like I'm smashing things in the dark hoping I will invent a cure for cancer
I thought this would be easier because I'm an engineer with significant experience writing motion-control firmware, designing electronics and mechanical systems, plus a physics degree so I tend to know materials and other arcane aspects of engineering.Basics: Marlin firmware from the repository, basic RAMPS 1.4, Pronterface, Slic3r. I have an all-metal head (V6 e3d after deciding the extruder that came with the kit was junk because I never could get PLA to extrude after a few seconds. It would promply sieze up so bad I kept taking it apart. I think the heat-break tube surface quality was crap. Anyway, the e3d seems to run better.)
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