Newb Here, Just Built Sunhokey Prusa i3 Kit. What Next?

I think I got this thing put together correctly. The display lights up and shows "0" on all three axes, and about room temp, for I guess the hot bed. But it just sits there, staring at me, like, "Hey, stupid, come on, tell me what you want!" And here I sit, staring at it staring back at me, neither one of us actually saying anything, it doing nothing, me just scratching myself, blinking occasionally, and yawning. I thought 3D printing would be a LITTLE more exciting than this, anyway.

So I guess my question is, what next? Is there a "3D Printing for Dummies" online guide somewhere? I imagine I need to get everything calibrated/aligned first. I hope I dont have to flash any firmware or anything... I dont think I do, since the display is showing the kind of data I would expect. Yeah I realize I have a crappy little printer and I know I will be upgrading one of these days, but for now this one is my gateway drug and Im gonna make it do something useful before pulling the trigger on a better one.

Well I have been at the computer long enough. I better get back to watching my new 3D printer. Thanks for any pointers or advice.

Yes but you have to read googling for dummies first to find it!

seriously there are 1000's of videos like this, you just have to search youtube

So your printer is together, wired up according to instructions, and powered on with whatever firmware came pre-loaded? You haven't done anything else?

Do you have a copy of the firmware that was installed? If so, install the Arduino IDE and open up the files. You are looking for the Configuration.h file or something similarly named. Any edits you might need to make to your firmware should be made in this file, but since you don't want to re-flash your firmware at the moment, we need to search the file and make sure that the EEPROM is enabled. Of course this will only tell us if it is enabled in the files that came with your printer, that doesn't mean it was enabled in the files installed on your printer. Not sure if their is a command to check if the EEPROM is installed or not. If nothing else though, you should become familiar with this file and what the options in it do.

To actually make your printer do something, beginners need some kind of control software. I started out with Repetier Host, though there are various other options out there. Install it on a computer that you can plug your printer into via the USB port. Hopefully Sunhokey provided instructions for a recommended software package, though there are plenty of online resources for configuring and connecting to Prusa i3's. Having the Arduino IDE installed before plugging in your printer should help to identify your COM port, at least it always helped for me on Windows computers.

After connecting the software to your printer, you should be able to jog the extruder around the bed, home the extruder, and play with the hot end / heated bed temperatures to make sure everything is wired and put together correctly. You will want to search for a calibration guide for the printer, starting with the filament and extrusion steps per mm settings. I think Triffid's Calibration Guide is the starting point for most people and is on the RepRap website. After you can correctly extrude plastic from your hot end you will want to calibrate you Z height, X and Y steps per mm, and start printing out calibration objects. You will want to pick up a mm gauge from Harbor Freight or similar to measure the dimensions of printed objects. It is also recommended to use larger calibration objects rather than the standard 10mm or 20mm cubes.

Hopefully that is enough to get you started. But be prepared to do a lot of online research and reading on your own. I think there is also a forum dedicated to Prusa i3's that might provide you with better support if you have issues.

Wow, thanks for the reply! THATS the way we help noobs on BadgerAndBlade!

I figured out I needed to install repetier host, from the supplied DVD which had the windows version of it. Those Chinese are crazy about windows, huh? Anyway, I found the Linux port and installed it, and managed to connect computer to printer. Still haven't got it to do anything but your post gives me some clues. I saw some vids that seem to show a self test and calibration, with the print head moving by itself in all three axes but haven't got mine to do that yet. The printer is at work so I will mess with it more Monday. I tried to print something but got a time out error. Probably some kind of port conflictwhich I hope to fix Monday.

I had hoped that such an entry level printer would come with more complete instructifications suitable for a complete newbie, but I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.

I was not successful in trying to manually jog the print head, yet. I will hit it again next week. Thanks for the suggestion; I will check out Triffids calibration guide. This thing is gonna happen. Thanks for your help!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 08:17PM by GrowleyMonster.

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GrowleyMonster
Honemeister, Razorsmith, EV guy. Go ahead, ask me something.

Okay, time for an update.

I fiddled around with every single setting I could find, just about, and nothing. Kept getting the same communication time out error even though the app said "connected". Finally I tried a different usb port and I was successful in printing something that looks like a cross between a booger and a hairball that a cat coughed up. Definitely on the right track, now. This evening I will go through Triffid's calibration routine and see if I can make something a little bit more coherent.

FWIW here are the printer settings I ended up with. Maybe it will help somebody on down the line.

Connector: Serial Connection
Port: Auto
Baudrate: 115200 (This was a complete surprise because the vids all showed like 243000 or something like that)
Transfer Protocol: Autodetect
Reset On Emergency:send emergency command + DTR high->low
recieve cache size: 127
Timeout: 30

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GrowleyMonster
Honemeister, Razorsmith, EV guy. Go ahead, ask me something.

Well I didnt understand the calibration thingie but I got the printer working okay. Printed up some useful stuff last night and this morning. I would post a pic but its not exciting to anybody but me and i would have to trim the file size from 2.4MB to 614kB and I dont feel like jumping through those hoops, as busy as I am today. Anyway Merry Christmass everybody and happy printing.

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GrowleyMonster
Honemeister, Razorsmith, EV guy. Go ahead, ask me something.

Glad you made some progress. When you are ready for some more help, let us know what part of the calibration process you are having trouble with.

Quote
Kurzaa
Glad you made some progress. When you are ready for some more help, let us know what part of the calibration process you are having trouble with.

Thanks! Since you were kind enough to ask:

3. Know your stepper motors' full steps per revolution value. steps = 360 / angle, so 1.8° = 200 steps, 0.9° = 400 steps, etc.
4. Know your stepper drivers' microsteps setting. Most Pololus are set to 16x. GEN3 driver 2.3 is fixed t

Dont have a clue about how to find that out. Thats as far as I got so far in the Triffid's Guide. I have just been winging it on my own and adjustifying all sorts of parameters to see what works and what doesnt.

Basically I think I need to absorb some of the terminology and background knowledge, too. But I did get the two Z motors synced, the bed level, the three limit switches adjusted, the nozzle set at the right height, and the feed and flow speeds balanced where I get a good fill. For simple slab shaped parts thats all that is needed, it seems. Currently I am printing some heavy tags with raised edges and raised numbers, for the mooring lines on my ship, for inventory purposes. I wanted something pretty indestructible because past efforts at this usually have resulted in tags being torn off or obliterated as the line passed through chocks or around fairleads, or dragged up out of the water over dock edges. These will last and they look very professional. The first two were horrible and unusable. The next one, not so bad. Then a better one but still a lot of voids. Then I got it right and I have done 5 so far and they look pretty neat. It is taking over an hour to print one but that is no big deal to me at this stage. I will work on that as my understanding of the system grows. I still have not tried ABS yet but that is gonna happen soon. I want to print hub and blades for a new prop for my e-boat and also for the trolling motor I plan to use on my pirogue. I may print some parts for mounting my battery packs to the front forks of my ebike, and due to the constant shock I think ABS will be the way to go. I was gonna fabricate with aluminum but that was before I pulled the trigger on this printer. I may even print a drone or a 3D scanner.

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GrowleyMonster
Honemeister, Razorsmith, EV guy. Go ahead, ask me something.

3. Know your stepper motors' full steps per revolution value. steps = 360 / angle, so 1.8° = 200 steps, 0.9° = 400 steps, etc.

The most common stepper motors I am aware of are all 1.8 degree motors, so 200 steps per full rotation. I believe the 0.9 degree motors are higher end motors, so you won't likely find them on a low-end kit.

4. Know your stepper drivers' microsteps setting. Most Pololus are set to 16x. GEN3 driver 2.3 is fixed t

Again, I think the most common assumption is 16x micro-stepping. On a RAMPS board, underneath the stepper driver plug-in boards, is space for three jumpers. This sets the standard A4998 drivers for 2x, 4x, 8x, and 16x micro-stepping, though some boards hard code the stepping to 16x as it provides the best resolution (?) for the printer. There are times where you might only want 8x or smaller micro-stepping, but this would be a more advanced user case for added torque on the extruder motor, very rarely on the X, Y, and Z motors.

In most cases, the above two calibration steps are for correcting the dimensional accuracy of the X and Y planes, as well as the Z height of your printer. In the case of your kit, I would assume based on your successes so far, that the correct values were already uploaded to your firmware.

Thanks Kurzaa! You have been a big help. I will try those values when I come back to work next week. Merry Christmas!

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GrowleyMonster
Honemeister, Razorsmith, EV guy. Go ahead, ask me something.