My Replikeo Prusa i3 Rework Build

My thoughts are also that your Mosfet died from the inside. Sorry to hear that Trike.

TheHackerArtist

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TheHackerArtist

What did Replikeo have to say about it, anything?

I guess maybe I should order a spool of PLA and start with that just in case. Thanks for the heads up and continued updates!

Good luck getting it sorted, I wish I could help.

I haven't contacted replikeo yet. It was late last night and got frustrated because of the problem. I spent a couple hours physically leveling the bed, and wanted to try a test print.
I think I'll swap the fan with the heated bed for now until the replacement mosfets show up. Seemed pretty easy to swap the pins around in the firmware.

Have you tried the hairspray trick? I've heard you can get prints to stick to the plate better if you spray the plate with hairspray. A quick search would tell you the best approach I'm sure.

Finally my printer has made it into the china post database. It was scanned 3x today, the last said "In Customs-Control warehouse". I hope it doesn't sit there long...

Mine was "In Customs-Control warehouse" for 4 days. Now i am waiting with status "Sent to airline".

Trike: maybe you can check this topic [forums.reprap.org]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2014 08:04PM by Allnei.

Thanks for the heads-up Allnei. I hope you get yours soon!

Might be a good thing that I just ordered a bunch of little heat sinks...

www.ebay.com/itm/111341703714

I did some more troubleshooting last night, I moved the bed to the fan output and changed the pins in the firmware. The first heat up to 60C worked just fine, I shut it off to get ready for a print. I heat the bed back up, and it's shutting down at 34C. The PTC is extremely hot when it shuts down. The resistance measures 1.0ohms at both the PCB and end of the wires. Either the PTC is damaged and or the mosfets are damaged. I should get my replacements soon. In the mean time, I hooked up the positive wire on the Bed directly to the power supply and wired in a 30A 12v relay between the ground. I'm using the heater output from the ramps to trigger the relay. The clicking isn't soo bad, but I have no idea how long the relay will last with the amount of actuation's happening. With this setup, It takes about 7mins to heat up to 60C, 15mins to 90, 28mins to 110C. This is with no insulation over the bed. The bed is only getting 11.2V during the heatup from a server power supply i'm using to test everything. I'm going to hook it back up to the power supply that came with the kit and see how it performs. If the replacement mosfets don't fix the issue, I'll wire in a solid state relay for the bed.

During the 110C heatup test, I'm a little concerned about the heat coming from the bed wires. I can still hold it without burning me, but it's still a little warmer than I like. I don't think the 16g wire that came with it, is adequate enough. Especially if you're printing ABS. Once I get some time, I'm going to replace it with 14g.

I finally was able to do a test print on the newly leveled bed. It came out pretty good. On the long perimeter runs, i'm noticing some slight vertical banding. You can only see it at a certain angle against the light. I think once I get that figured out, it'll be pretty dialed in. Then I'll start tuning the speeds and acceleration to see how fast I can get it to print without quality issues.

Quote
gadget_greg
Might be a good thing that I just ordered a bunch of little heat sinks...

www.ebay.com/itm/111341703714

I like the black anodizing on those

I ordered these when I got the printer. Should get them anytime.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300993674705

I plan on using some Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive that I have laying around to stick them on permanently. I'll have some spares now in case I blow anymore drivers.

Hmm, hope you get it all sorted out soon.

Maybe try upgrading your structure to something like this :


It`ll help keep the heat inside, so your mosfets wont burn out, and reducing banding.

In other words, build yourself a oven! AAAnd bonus advantage is you can heat up your food in there while printing.

Thanks for the link to that enclosure Hacker. I'm thinking of making something like that because of the dusty basement I'm setting up in. I was going to add filtered ventilation with a fan but maybe now I won't. The basement stays pretty cool most of the year so the enclosure might really help contain the heat.

Trike, yeah, I dig the black too but I just bought them because they were cheap, though not as cheap as yours! This set has two different sizes and I really got them for my Raspberry Pi (which will be my basement computer), but I figured I'd need extras for things... like MOSFETs! I'm not a big fan of self adhesive but it'll do. I only have regular heat transfer paste, not adhesive. I should probably order some to have around...

What is the link to the enclosure? My kit from Replikeo is stuck in New York ISC. Hopefully it will clear soon.

The link is just above the pic. I had a hard time finding it too. lol

Trike sorry for hijacking your topic again , but it is only relevant topic about Replikeo.

My package arrived today to my country and is in status "The consignment is being prepared for customs clearance." and probably i will go pay fees tomorrow (or Monday, i don't know how fast will be customs clearance). So for me shipping took 10-14 days (6.5. - 15-19.5.)

For gadget_greg: Track your package on page [www.17track.net] because on [track-chinapost.com] you will not see any info after "Sent to airline"

Awesome Allnei, let us know how much fee you had to pay?

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TheHackerArtist

21% VAT (kit + shipping*0,21) and maybe 1-10% customs tax (i don´t know what is category for 3d printers ).

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2014 11:18AM by Allnei.

No worries... It all relates to the kit anyways. I'm just happy that I'm not talking to myself.

I ordered a roll of ABS from the same place I get PLA from (Push Plastic) to test. The replikeo roll varied quite a bit over a meter or so. From 2.89 - 3.02mm. From the failed test print, it wasn't really black, more like gray. So I figure I try out a more "quality" roll. So far it has been difficult to print ABS on this machine. Mostly due to the Mosfets dying while trying to heat up the bed to 130C.

I swapped back in the power supply from replikeo to see if it'll perform better due to higher output voltage. Now I heat up to 70C@4-5 mins, 90C@10mins, 110C@22mins. It seems to really start struggling after 70C. During the warm up, the wires from the bed were quite a bit hotter. I think resistance is increasing in the wire under heavy load. I'm going to clean it out and replace it with 14g wire. So far ABS has been quite a bit more effort to get going. I'm hoping to get it printing ABS reliably soon. I want to print out some of the i3 frame parts and would prefer ABS for those parts.

I printed out one of these to mess with: go pro mount Since I have a gopro
I never really liked the placement of the Y end stop. Since this gopro mount will interfere with the Y end stop, It was a good chance to move it.
I printed this end stop holder that clips onto the smooth and threaded rods on the side. Clip On Y end stop holder
Once clipped onto the rods, it feels pretty secure. I like this setup better, since it's a bit cleaner and gets the endstop out of the way. I would always hit it while cleaning the bed.

Today it went from Xiamen to Shanghai and it's back in "Export Customs Scan" mode. I really shouldn't check it daily...

I think I'm going to get a roll of PLA coming and start with that. Then once everything is working I can play with ABS. PLA just seems less problematic for a beginner.

I'm already thinking about building a filament extruder...

lol... I did the same thing.... I was checking at least twice a day. Drove myself mad for a few days waiting for it to leave US customs. In my case, once it left customs, I got it in two days.

I am happy that i live in small country. Usually customs -> me =1-2 days, because i can go to the customs office (part of our post office in my city), pay fees and take my package.

China post is very dangerous place i think... My package was damaged during transport (one edge was torn, and there was medium gap) and lost 10g of weight. I am still counting parts, so I don't know if something is missing (i will post update after I finish counting). And some good news, for others, that are waiting on kit. Glass was replaced by carbon plate (3mm) and it survived shipping. Some parts (X end idler, y idler) were strengthened and for me, all parts are ok (not broken). Quality of parts is OK-ish, some are little warped, have little blobs, etc... But they are usable I think.
TheHackerArtist: Fee (just VAT) was ~120 USD

Damage is under white tape, black straps were attached by me, just for better handling.






Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2014 04:26PM by Allnei.

Mine shipped right around the time that they updated the kit with a new heat-plate. I hope I got the new one. Did you, Allnei?

"2014/05/08 : Heatbed updates to Mk2b version. Full polystyrene packaging."

Greg

PS, mine's still sitting in Shanghai... :/

I have old Mk2a (with terrible soldering work , i must resolder cables), because my order was shipped 5.5. Tomorrow i will make album with plastic parts

Trike: Did you have 4x M3x ~5mm grub screw for GT2 pulley? Because I found only 3.
Edit: nwm I found it

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2014 08:53PM by Allnei.

I'll keep an eye out for the 'a' model. If I get that one what am I supposed to do, solder on heavier gauge wire?

You got your printer in 11 days?!? That's pretty impressive!

I'm getting super excited about this!! Is that bad? LOL

Today I got my Reprap RAMPS1.4 12864 LCD display with 128 x 64 dot matrix LCD display. Only took a week to get here from China! Also impressive!
[www.ebay.com]

I agree that the packaging needs to be better. I was surprised more parts weren't broken when I received my package. It looked like a truck ran over it. I'm still waiting for my replacement parts. China post can be real slow sometimes. Check over your m5 Z rods. Mine were pretty bent, I bent them back as good as I can. Still not happy totally with it. Need to pick up a stainless rod and some brass nuts. I wish there is a better solution to the m5 rods without the leadscrew cost.

I replaced the mosfet last night with the upgraded one. The PTC fuse is still tripping when trying to heat up to 110C. I put the relay back in for now. I need to see if I can get a PTC fuse that has a higher current rating. I ordered a bunch of silicone wiring, I'll rewire the bed once I get it. I inspected the soldering a little closer and I agree it isn't that great and could be a reason why the wires are getting soo hot. I'm going to reflow it and see if it'll help.

My M5 threaded rods (Z rods) are ok, but one of Ø8x350 mm smooth rods is bent. Actually all my smooth rods are bend, more or less. I will try print with them, and if it will be big problem, i will replace them.

Btw, how did you secure thermistor in heat bed? I read about high temperature silicon, but I don't have any right now.
another question, how did you put Endstops on holders on all axis? I have holes for screw right under the connector.

Soldering work on my HB


Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2014 07:10PM by Allnei.

Do you have any Kapton tape? Use that to tape the thermistor to the middle of the bed heater.

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MakerFarm 8" Prusa i3v
RAMPS 1.4
0.4mm E3D v6 for 1.75mm

Yes, I have Kapton tape, just don´t know if thermistor will have good contact with bed, because in MK2a there is hole in the middle for thermistor.

Another problem are endstops (Mech Endstop v1.2 by MakerBot).. I don´t know who designed them in MakerBot, but mounting holes under connector? RLY?

Ok, solution for endstop problem found. Slide knife under the connector and bend it up. Then you can put screw under it.
I found it here [facebook.com]