Migbot Prusa i3 Unofficial Support Thread

@ 3DST

I found the FT232R USB UART, but the driver won't install for it.

Quote
wallygator801
@ Ukemaxxer / 3DST

Thanks for the response. I have tried to manually install the driver many times as 3DST suggested, but I don't see a port to update the driver with? Also, where do you find the "allow windows to manage power on this device" check box?

THANKS.

If you go to your Device Manager screen, expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers tab
Then double click one of the USB Root Hub entries. Go to Power Management as in the pic, make sure there are no ticks in the two boxes.
This stops your computer turning USB power off while it is sending data to the printer.

Quote
jgschmidt
It takes an hour to heat to 100C. I confirmed the temp with my own lab-type thermocouple thermometer. Each additional degree beyond that seems like a battle. The printer is partially enclosed and I'm using the supplied 12V 20A power supply. Based on other posts here I'll look at the heater board to be sure all loops are working. Any other suggestions? Higher wattage power supply perhaps?

The hot end gets to 250C in a few minutes, but then there is considerably less mass to heat, compared to the alluminum bed.

Have you tried glue stick on your bed? set your temp to 70*C give that a try. I never have warping issues with large abs prints 195X240 close to the max and not a problem.
Glue stick works for pla also.

Quote
wallygator801
@ Ukemaxxer / 3DST

Thanks for the response. I have tried to manually install the driver many times as 3DST suggested, but I don't see a port to update the driver with? Also, where do you find the "allow windows to manage power on this device" check box?

THANKS.

you need to manual select the drivers when you update the drivers and do that for the ftdi bus the port drivers, the serial converter you can pick from the Ftdi driver vendors list.

If anyone has any problems with drivers, or their firmware and settings id be glad to help. I also have had every problem known to this printer but i also know how to fix them now.

Quote
Yakuza

Quote
jgschmidt
It takes an hour to heat to 100C. I confirmed the temp with my own lab-type thermocouple thermometer. Each additional degree beyond that seems like a battle. The printer is partially enclosed and I'm using the supplied 12V 20A power supply. Based on other posts here I'll look at the heater board to be sure all loops are working. Any other suggestions? Higher wattage power supply perhaps?

The hot end gets to 250C in a few minutes, but then there is considerably less mass to heat, compared to the alluminum bed.

Have you tried glue stick on your bed? set your temp to 70*C give that a try. I never have warping issues with large abs prints 195X240 close to the max and not a problem.
Glue stick works for pla also.

Thanks for the suggestion. Bed adhesion hasn't been a problem, I've been using ABS sauce on top of kapton tape and it works great. FOr PLA I use plain kapton tape wiped with acetone, also works great. However, upper layer (above the first 3 or 4) adhesion with ABS has been a problem. The consensus solution from various forums seems to be to raise bed temperature and have an enclosure.

The resistance on this heater is 1.8ohms. I have a spare with a resistance of 1.3ohms. Perhaps that will heat faster. I will try out both options over the weekend.

---

Jurgen
www.instructables.com/id/Migbot-I3-3D-Printer-Assembly-and-Use
www.jgscraft.com

After all my troubles and toils, I'm almost there!

The motors seem to be working, but the only problem that I'm having now is that my Z-axis motors do not move downward. They're wired up the same as the others and I'm using the z-min end-stop switch. When trying to move the axis downward by itself, it gives echo:Z probe out. bed, switch leads me to thinking that the end-stop is not working for some reason. Hopefully all I need to do is fix this error and I can print, though later I will need to buy new fans that I accidentally burnt out.

keitarocos, Check and make sure your sensor wires are wired like this. Black wire to Signal, Blue wire to (-) Brown wire to (+)

jgschmidt, Measure your filament in about 10 places about 3 feet apart and average the diameter and put that into the slicer. It sounds more like a under extrusion problem i was having, 240*C works great for me printing abs on glue stick with just aluminum with a bed temp at 65*C.

Interesting, maybe some shady buisness going on over at 3dprintersonline.com. Where I bought mine. Several days ago there were 43 reviews, with several new ones being one or two star. Those have since disappeared, along with others. There is only 26 reviews now. I mean there is still a couple 1 stars up there, but 17 review difference is quite a bit.

@ yakuza

I have tried every method I know to get the driver installed with no luck. I even had my buddy who is an IT guy come and look with no luck. ANY help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Quote
gatorNic
Interesting, maybe some shady buisness going on over at 3dprintersonline.com. Where I bought mine. Several days ago there were 43 reviews, with several new ones being one or two star. Those have since disappeared, along with others. There is only 26 reviews now. I mean there is still a couple 1 stars up there, but 17 review difference is quite a bit.

No shit there is something shady going on there. Ordered my printer last month around 5-23. Got TWO fake tracking numbers before getting a tracking number that could be found. Tracking number shows it is still in HK, has been for the past 2 days. Have yet to receive the printer. Im getting ready to file a fraud claim with Paypal.

Sorry for the hijack.

Quote
veaceonee

Quote
gatorNic
Interesting, maybe some shady buisness going on over at 3dprintersonline.com. Where I bought mine. Several days ago there were 43 reviews, with several new ones being one or two star. Those have since disappeared, along with others. There is only 26 reviews now. I mean there is still a couple 1 stars up there, but 17 review difference is quite a bit.

No shit there is something shady going on there. Ordered my printer last month around 5-23. Got TWO fake tracking numbers before getting a tracking number that could be found. Tracking number shows it is still in HK, has been for the past 2 days. Have yet to receive the printer. Im getting ready to file a fraud claim with Paypal.

Sorry for the hijack.

Ignore the reviews on the website, they moderate all posts. If you submit anything negative posts, it won't get uploaded..

Dodgy is an understatement. You've got one of many Leo's who never reply to emails, you've got 'sales' from the website who also refuse to help...they just pass it all to Leo and then Leo promises to get his 'engineer expert' to contact you (which doesn't happen). And now there's abusive boofhead in Canada who claims to be the messiah for all things problems with these printers.
If you haven't had a response, raise a dispute with PayPal and see how quickly they reply full of apologies, guarantees and praise for their service and product. Don't do what I did though and think they'll honour their word, you'll just get stuck with a kit of deformed and missing parts and no hope of support unless you're lucky to find a forum like this one.
I don't think there is anyone posting here who hasn't had some problem dealing with them.
I'm lucky enough to have a friend who hasn't minded printing off replacement parts so I could at least get the thing together enough to look like a printer.

My advice? Steer well clear of this lot.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2015 04:18AM by steaneb.

i will give it until Monday. If it isn't out of Hong Kong by Monday morning then I will file a dispute. I have the entire email trail, and website screenshots as evidence of there fraudulent business practices. I am just praying IF it ever shows up its not a lump of plastic. I knew I should have spent the extra $25 and gotten the machine I was looking at before this one.

I found these If anyone needs them. Hope it helps. Im printing a new set asap lol

@veaceonce Mine sat in HK for two weeks. Once it got to the states I had it the next day. Took over a month to receive it once it was ordered.

Changed power supply and now my printer is working. Only 23.00 for a 30amp one. Only thing is I can't change the temperature settings on the extruder and bed. Starts at 205 on the extruder and 65 on the bed for the first layer.then drops to 200 extruder and 60 on the bed, Tried changing it in rep and also start in the g-code with no luck. Stuck at 200 and 60. Also can't gat auto-bed leveling to work. I rather have the probe for Z axis any way because I think it is more accurate the relay.

Let's address the whole temperature versus power supply thing, just so everyone understands the basics.

The first thing to measure is the heat bed and hot end resistance values. These two measurements will tell you how many Amps each will draw from the power supply. This will also give some idea of how much heat you can get, since more amps = more temperature. If resistance is too high, you wont get enough heat. If resistance is too low, you will either blow a fuse, or burn out the bed or hot end. You also need additional amps for each motor/fan/lcd/led/main board/etc. So if total current requirement is 20 amps, you should get a supply that can do 28 amps continuous.

To those that have some experience with these printers: Do acrylic frames warp over time?

Also, is the SD slot located by the LCD, or on the main board?

the SD slot is on the LCD board to the left and in back.

I completed my first real print!!
Thank you for your help & comments
Mark

I was told that the ribbon cable for the SD card will pick up interference, if it's not on the main board. I think Melzi has it on the board.

Has anyone increased their auto levelling probe points to more than 9, say 12 points.
My bed has a dip in it, and its not picked up by the current probing points

I have mine at 16 point auto level right nows with 9000mm/s probe speed. fun to watch

Well my z-axis problem was do to the fact that the sense wire was not soldered correctly and completely fell off.

Now I just need to level my bed and try and get a print running. Finally! Almost there!

Hello all. I got one of these, and I got it to run manually very well. I was quite pleased. This is my 4th printer and I happily entered all parameters then sliced, and saved the gcode to the SD card given to me in the kit. I put the SD card in the printer, the screen flashes, and the printer says "Card inserted." I press the knob in and the last menu option, the SD card menu, says "No Card." There are no files under this directory. What's going wrong?

Quote
Yakuza
I have mine at 16 point auto level right nows with 9000mm/s probe speed. fun to watch

Can I ask what settings you put in your config h file. I'm trying to get mine to work, but arduino says cant upload the file

Edit, bloody printer. Yesterday, I tried numerous times to upload settings to make it auto level 16 times, no way would it accept the upload.
Just tried exactly the same setting now, and its uploaded straight away, and is auto leveling on 16 points

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2015 06:05AM by Ukemaxxer.

Quote
thisguyaves
Hello all. I got one of these, and I got it to run manually very well. I was quite pleased. This is my 4th printer and I happily entered all parameters then sliced, and saved the gcode to the SD card given to me in the kit. I put the SD card in the printer, the screen flashes, and the printer says "Card inserted." I press the knob in and the last menu option, the SD card menu, says "No Card." There are no files under this directory. What's going wrong?

I found the same on mine. I think the card slot is a waste of time. I will be running mine direct via USB.

Quote
Ukemaxxer

Quote
thisguyaves
Hello all. I got one of these, and I got it to run manually very well. I was quite pleased. This is my 4th printer and I happily entered all parameters then sliced, and saved the gcode to the SD card given to me in the kit. I put the SD card in the printer, the screen flashes, and the printer says "Card inserted." I press the knob in and the last menu option, the SD card menu, says "No Card." There are no files under this directory. What's going wrong?

I found the same on mine. I think the card slot is a waste of time. I will be running mine direct via USB.

Mine will occassionally say that, I just have to remove and reinsert the card a time or 2 and it will read it fine. The more I've used the SD-Card slot the less this has happened.

Quote
Ukemaxxer

Quote
Yakuza
I have mine at 16 point auto level right nows with 9000mm/s probe speed. fun to watch

Can I ask what settings you put in your config h file. I'm trying to get mine to work, but arduino says cant upload the file

Edit, bloody printer. Yesterday, I tried numerous times to upload settings to make it auto level 16 times, no way would it accept the upload.
Just tried exactly the same setting now, and its uploaded straight away, and is auto leveling on 16 points

Can you post your auto level settings? Mine probes the 4 corners and works pretty well but I know it could be more accurate

Quote
CAlleman

Quote
Ukemaxxer

Quote
Yakuza
I have mine at 16 point auto level right nows with 9000mm/s probe speed. fun to watch

Can I ask what settings you put in your config h file. I'm trying to get mine to work, but arduino says cant upload the file

Edit, bloody printer. Yesterday, I tried numerous times to upload settings to make it auto level 16 times, no way would it accept the upload.
Just tried exactly the same setting now, and its uploaded straight away, and is auto leveling on 16 points

Can you post your auto level settings? Mine probes the 4 corners and works pretty well but I know it could be more accurate

These are the settings I changed in my config-h file.
I have the large bed option though, so if you don't have this, don't change the position settings.

Changing the Auto Bed Leveling points to 6, means it will probe at 36 points. This is complete overkill, but my aluminium plate has a bloody uneven patch, where if I only probe at 9 points, the nozzle will occasionally hit the bed

#ifdef AUTO_BED_LEVELING_GRID

// set the rectangle in which to probe
#define LEFT_PROBE_BED_POSITION -12
#define RIGHT_PROBE_BED_POSITION 185
#define BACK_PROBE_BED_POSITION 200
#define FRONT_PROBE_BED_POSITION -12

// set the number of grid points per dimension
// I wouldn't see a reason to go above 3 (=9 probing points on the bed)
#define AUTO_BED_LEVELING_GRID_POINTS 6

For those of you struggling with bed leveling, some advixe. Auto Bed Leveling is not a feature. It is a crutch. Better to address the root cause of the problem, and either replace the bed, or resurface it to be flat. You can do this by adding a sheet of glass of thickness between 3 and 5mm. Use silicone adhesive against the edges, but not under the glass.

Once you have a flat surface, do a three point manual leveling with the screws.