Migbot Prusa i3 Unofficial Support Thread

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Canadian Geek

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Ax
Also, If you lot get bored and want to stare at printers or see what I'm printing you can check my Printers out at [www.sledz-uk.co.uk]

There's currently a couple of enclosures going, which are tests of a design I put together yesterday and the plastic parts for my CoreXY project. Yes, they're pink, deal with it.

LOL, I have IP cameras facing mine also. I only have one printer right now. I bolted it down to some melamine (http://www.rona.ca/en/house-construction/wood-panels/melamine-panels) and put it into my CNC router enclosure. Woe is the day I want to use the CNC router and the printer at the same time. The enclosure is vented outside so printing ABS isn't a problem. This is all in my basement and it keeps - she who must be obeyed - happy.

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Ax
//#define ENCODER_PULSES_PER_STEP 1 // Increase if you have a high resolution encoder
//#define ENCODER_STEPS_PER_MENU_ITEM 5 // Set according to ENCODER_PULSES_PER_STEP or your liking

Can't find these settings. Are they in configuration.h or some other library? Or do I need to add them?

Jeff

Oops, don't know if you read this yet. Anyway, I found it. I had flashed the wrong firmware. :-O

D'oh. 'least you found it. The cams are needed mainly due to the fact that I'm about 3 miles (4.8km) away from my workshop where the printers are. I have full remote access to the laptop there so I can kill any prints, I don't like making Octoprint world facing even with the logins, so remote access to the Laptop is a must. Although it looks like one of the parts for the new printer is curling up I'm not sacrificing the plate of parts for it though as it seems to be stuck. I'll just reprint it with the rest of the parts.

Hey guys,
Been working through getting my new printer working. Had some issues with the auto level learning itself into some way out of level. Also couldn't work around the aluminum plate being far from flat. So now I'm back to the switch for Z and a glass plate. The test prints are staying stuck down great and the first layer thickness looks very uniform.
So now the problem.. When printing a test calibration cross (looks like a big plus "+" sign) the leg lengths are very different. Well, more like one leg length is is very short and the other three the same. The print is running with X and Y, the X legs are both 57mm and the Y legs are 57mm and 18mm. The shape is 2 perpendicular lines, with the short leg being the more positive in Y.
I've tried this through reptier and through slic3r on an SD.
Had a print go bad last week on the aluminum plate and completely encased the hot end with plastic. Now that I've gotten the glass, a new hot end, and up again I've apparently fouled up a setting. The steps per mm for X and Y are the same, and the same as they were.
I ran EEPROM clear, but it didn't help much.
The file attached was downloaded, and what I'm trying to print.

Anyone able to direct me as to what I've done?

Thanks,
Sam

Ax thanks for helping
i will dig more to find out more about mosfets and get a SSR ordered and what ever comes first will be installed. i don't really care my PSU to be controlled by the board, prefer switching it on and off my self so i will have the control of it.not to be a wise guy but i think you was referring to 20A psu and not a 20W as 20W at 12v is something like a 1.5A psu
i want to report back what i have faced so far.
all previous verifications for firmware was made on a pc with arduino ide 1.6.1 and ax's firmware was ok but when i switched pc with a 1.6.7 ide i had some warnings(doc1 attached) so installed 1.6.1 and all went fine.
flashed my board with Ax's firmware with the standard Bed - No Auto level configuration.h file . i did not enable the eeprom fuction as i thought that would be better to flash when new settings will be needed.
one thing i didnt know and found out while troubleshooting was i could not set home offfsets in the configuration.h file and had to uncomment the following line

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//#define MANUAL_HOME_POSITIONS // If defined, MANUAL_*_HOME_POS below will be used

to enable manual home positions

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//Manual homing switch locations:
// For deltabots this means top and center of the Cartesian print volume.
#define MANUAL_X_HOME_POS -10
#define MANUAL_Y_HOME_POS -40
#define MANUAL_Z_HOME_POS 0

i used repetier for host to send g code to do a pid autotune and the line i send was this

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M303 S230 C10

needed spaces between to start the pid autotune


don't really know if the changes i made are correct but things seem to be good so far. have not printed anything with the new firmware as i have only abs and bed isn't working properly (low temp and bad aluminium bed have ordered a glass and have to buy a pla roll) maybe i find time tomorrow to get a roll and test what i have done so far.

cheers


EDIT:
seems things are not ok now
had some time to spend with the printer and wanted to finish my extruder calibration to see if steps are ok. preheated my nozzle through repetier so i can extrude filament to see if its ok and now extruder output is not working. swapped motor cables on board with x axis and extruder motor worked fine through x axis output but x motor didn't work on E0 output. nozzle was preheated in both cases.
everything was working fine before and the only thing i did is to flash my board with new firmware no hardware changes. no smoke and no smell from the board but cant make extruder to work.
now i really need some help to find out what's going on.
hope board didnt die just with a firmware flash

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2016 02:21PM by insanegr.

Hey Ax,

Are your 3D printer beds heated? If so, where is the heater located? Under the aluminium plates?

Jeff

p.s. Who's the person with the blue hair? :-)

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insanegr
EDIT:
seems things are not ok now
had some time to spend with the printer and wanted to finish my extruder calibration to see if steps are ok. preheated my nozzle through repetier so i can extrude filament to see if its ok and now extruder output is not working. swapped motor cables on board with x axis and extruder motor worked fine through x axis output but x motor didn't work on E0 output. nozzle was preheated in both cases.
everything was working fine before and the only thing i did is to flash my board with new firmware no hardware changes. no smoke and no smell from the board but cant make extruder to work.
now i really need some help to find out what's going on.
hope board didnt die just with a firmware flash

quoting my self because i found a solution. this printer is going to drive me crazy.
Ax i needed to change output on board to make the extruder work again from E0 to E1.
my board is MKS v1.4 .did anything change in your firmware or my board has freaked out?
my wiring before was like the one in the pic1 i attached bellow

If E1 is the one thats its pin out too. wont you just use it. it isnt going to hurt anything

what Fw was it you used? Ill take a look at it

EDIT---never mind i read it wrong.. you "need" E1 to work and now its not after flash

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2016 04:49PM by Wes78.

@wes78
everything was working as they should before and had made my firsts prints too with extruder's motor at E0.
the only thing i wanted is to store my calibrations settings and for firmware i choose Ax's firmware and copied the configuration.h file for my printer and flashed it. after that i had to connect extruder's motor to E1 to work again .link for MKS pic
is anyone else using Ax's firmware with the standard Bed - No Auto level configuration.h file to report back.
need to find some time tomorrow to do more testing and hope i wont see any smoke

insanegr - The errors you are getting whilst compiling with the latest IDE are due to the Marlin code not being compatible. Personally I use 1.0.5 and it's fine. The Problem with the extruder not working was probably due to you picking up my firmware with the Modified pins.h. That was my fault, I'd switched E0 and E1 for someone as their E0 stepper driver was b0rked. It's been switched back since and if you grab the Marlin folder again it'll be back on E0. I realised this when I was helping Accidental Wisdom the other night, my screw up, sorry!

Canadian Geek - aye the PCB heaters are under the ally plates. The heat transfers fine without an issue, and the Blue-haired guy is me..

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Ax
Canadian Geek - aye the PCB heaters are under the ally plates. The heat transfers fine without an issue, and the Blue-haired guy is me..

Cool. I was watching while waiting for one of my own prints and this guy with blue hair kept popping in and out of the picture.

Jeff

thanks Ax for the info
remembered now reading a member that had a problem with a motor but had forgot about it.
trying to figure out what was the problem i read some interesting things and found out more.
will report back when i flash again my board with the right firmware
cheers

I have the Electron version of this printer and I hope this question has not already been asked but if so I apologize.
The extruder is a complete mess. The pictures do not match the parts and there is supposedly a printed part that goes on the bottom of the stepper motor that holds the spring etc but I do not have that part and I
wonder if I should print one or is there another way to assemble the MK8 extruder with the parts that they sent with the printer. Anyone who has assembled this printer should know exactly what I am talking about.
Thanks!

Hey, I got the same printer but with the metal extruder.
Anyway, can you post a pic of your parts? From all the looking around I've been doing at other's machines I might be able to help.

Mine came with a couple parts preassembled. Made the instructions a bit more confusing than they already were. Been thinking about giving it a pretty horrible review where I bought it. Got to wonder what I really expected for the money though, if I can get the crazy out of the Marlin I'll be happy.

Sam

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Eaglezsoar
I have the Electron version of this printer and I hope this question has not already been asked but if so I apologize.
The extruder is a complete mess. The pictures do not match the parts and there is supposedly a printed part that goes on the bottom of the stepper motor that holds the spring etc but I do not have that part and I
wonder if I should print one or is there another way to assemble the MK8 extruder with the parts that they sent with the printer. Anyone who has assembled this printer should know exactly what I am talking about.
Thanks!

that depends on if you got the "pro version" of the extruder as there are different parts to them, can you take a picture of the parts and the extruder so i can get a better understanding of what you got

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gotswrv
Hey, I got the same printer but with the metal extruder.
Anyway, can you post a pic of your parts? From all the looking around I've been doing at other's machines I might be able to help.

Mine came with a couple parts preassembled. Made the instructions a bit more confusing than they already were. Been thinking about giving it a pretty horrible review where I bought it. Got to wonder what I really expected for the money though, if I can get the crazy out of the Marlin I'll be happy.

Sam

To be honest tho... for the money these printers are pretty good ive gotten some print off this that i didnt think was capable of doing.
the true issue here is bad QC very bad... if you can work thru them you'll be happy with your buy, as i was when i got it all going my way

Thanks for all the answers but I found an all metal MK8 extruder that works perfectly, I just have to make a mounting plate for it and tap some holes.
These printers can be great for someone who can modify and have a well supplied "junk" box. Happy Printing to everyone!

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gotswrv
Hey, I got the same printer but with the metal extruder.
Anyway, can you post a pic of your parts? From all the looking around I've been doing at other's machines I might be able to help.

Mine came with a couple parts preassembled. Made the instructions a bit more confusing than they already were. Been thinking about giving it a pretty horrible review where I bought it. Got to wonder what I really expected for the money though, if I can get the crazy out of the Marlin I'll be happy.

Sam

Sam, check my firmware, I've pretty much ironed out all the kinks already Have also been working on the Standard bed version with a couple of people here and it should pretty much work out of the box.

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Wes78

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gotswrv
Hey, I got the same printer but with the metal extruder.
Anyway, can you post a pic of your parts? From all the looking around I've been doing at other's machines I might be able to help.

Mine came with a couple parts preassembled. Made the instructions a bit more confusing than they already were. Been thinking about giving it a pretty horrible review where I bought it. Got to wonder what I really expected for the money though, if I can get the crazy out of the Marlin I'll be happy.

Sam

To be honest tho... for the money these printers are pretty good ive gotten some print off this that i didnt think was capable of doing.
the true issue here is bad QC very bad... if you can work thru them you'll be happy with your buy, as i was when i got it all going my way

Shove an E3D on it and it'll do 0.05mm layer heights too.. just found that out at a client request a couple of days ago..

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Ax
Sam, check my firmware, I've pretty much ironed out all the kinks already Have also been working on the Standard bed version with a couple of people here and it should pretty much work out of the box.

Will do, just haven't found it yet.
I had it working good, then I incased the hot end in 6hrs of plastic.. Swapped to a glass bed and went back to the mechanical Z. The test print quality is great, the bed is working great (too good with glue)
Gonna box up some EPP then it's time to have supper, create a new test model and flash your firmware.

It's a neat thing to fix up. A lot like building an old car for me, you know it's not gonna be what you want without work. Still a bit of shock when you open the package and find missing parts, no instructions, printed parts are really crappy, etc. But, just like an old car, I got it to have something to work on and fix stuff up. Had thought I would be using it to fix other stuff up first, but whatever.
Once it's working I need to make some parts that are nearing failure. The Y belt clamp has always been badly distorted and had to glue the belt on with very light tension for now, stuff like this. After that I've got a couple ideas for some fun upgrade type things. Like an optical Z mounted on the X carriage the utilizes a break beam plunger. Should be way lighter than the inductive and be able to read the glass height. Also want to make a filament driver that I think might be a new approach. Anyway, I'm not super down on the machine or its design. Just going through the China supplied,open source blues type thing. That feeling fades instantly when the bugs get worked out. I've had a Dimension printer, and for $30k... It had bugs too.

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gotswrv

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Ax
Sam, check my firmware, I've pretty much ironed out all the kinks already Have also been working on the Standard bed version with a couple of people here and it should pretty much work out of the box.

Will do, just haven't found it yet.
I had it working good, then I incased the hot end in 6hrs of plastic.. Swapped to a glass bed and went back to the mechanical Z. The test print quality is great, the bed is working great (too good with glue)
Gonna box up some EPP then it's time to have supper, create a new test model and flash your firmware.

It's a neat thing to fix up. A lot like building an old car for me, you know it's not gonna be what you want without work. Still a bit of shock when you open the package and find missing parts, no instructions, printed parts are really crappy, etc. But, just like an old car, I got it to have something to work on and fix stuff up. Had thought I would be using it to fix other stuff up first, but whatever.
Once it's working I need to make some parts that are nearing failure. The Y belt clamp has always been badly distorted and had to glue the belt on with very light tension for now, stuff like this. After that I've got a couple ideas for some fun upgrade type things. Like an optical Z mounted on the X carriage the utilizes a break beam plunger. Should be way lighter than the inductive and be able to read the glass height. Also want to make a filament driver that I think might be a new approach. Anyway, I'm not super down on the machine or its design. Just going through the China supplied,open source blues type thing. That feeling fades instantly when the bugs get worked out. I've had a Dimension printer, and for $30k... It had bugs too.

Aye.. you've got to mod it to get it how you want it. With regards to the Y belt clip, I've got a solution on Thingiverse here I got fed up of too loose or too tight belt clips (trying to stuff the belt in is a royal pain), this one clamps so you can get it tight and have no slipping.

I can say for my one month knowledge in 3d printing Ax's firmware works great.
the only thing we have to do is calibrate our printer and flash again with the new (calibrated) settings.
now firmware is done from the to do list and going to bed problems.
waiting for a glass and a ssr relay and connect a new psu.
i have done some printings but need to fix the bed temp problem and the crappy alu plate.
also waiting my sensor to arrive and then hook it to my printer.
Ax thanks for helping and making the wiki to this printer. it really saves a lot of time and searching. all in one place
Cheers mate

I just wanted to pass on a little tip for those in North America (I don't know if this vehicle is sold elsewhere - let me know). Go to your local auto wrecking yard and find any Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth van. In the lower track for the rear sliding doors is a wire/cable chain of the exact size we need for our printers. I yanked out two (one from each side) but you probably only need one. Cost me $5.00. The only tool you'll need are a pair of wire cutters to cut the existing wires out.

These are what I'm using as cable guides on my unit. I know we can print them ourselves, but this will save you a lot of print time, and is exactly the size that we want.

Jeff

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2016 10:43AM by Canadian Geek.

Got it sorted!
I had a cousin over while swapping over to the glass bed and replacing the hot end. Somehow we had put the Z value for travel into the Y slot. Would have never guessed that the soft stop just crowds the model rather than stopping the print and posting a travel limit error message.

Anyway, it's all back up and working. Loving the glass bed, it's just so flat compared to what the aluminum was.


Thanks guys!

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Canadian Geek
I just wanted to pass on a little tip for those in North America (I don't know if this vehicle is sold elsewhere - let me know). Go to your local auto wrecking yard and find any Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth van. In the lower track for the rear sliding doors is a wire/cable chain of the exact size we need for our printers. I yanked out two (one from each side) but you probably only need one. Cost me $5.00. The only tool you'll need are a pair of wire cutters to cut the existing wires out.

These are what I'm using as cable guides on my unit. I know we can print them ourselves but this saved me a lot of time printing and are exactly what we want.

Jeff

Got any pics of the install?

Here's a picture of my (Migbot) Electron Prusa i3 with the dragchains attached. You can see the all the wires from the extruder encased in one chain and if you look closely, you will see the second dragchain under the plates for the Y axis and heater wires. A spare bit of the chain is coiled up on the bench. My whole unit is bolted down to the white melamine to prevent the unit from twisting etc. I'm quite pleased with this setup.

Jeff

Need to get drag chains sorted for my 3..

Sorry if this has been covered, I did google search for about 2 hours last night

Where are the migbot/electron 8mm acrylic cut files? I'd like to make a quick solidworks assy before I start modeling up some ideas

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gotswrv
Sorry if this has been covered, I did google search for about 2 hours last night

Where are the migbot/electron 8mm acrylic cut files? I'd like to make a quick solidworks assy before I start modeling up some ideas

Not available.. at some point I'll be modelling it out as I want to get it cut in Aluminium.

I couldn't find the Migbot/Electron drawings exactly. But if you google for "laser cut prusa i3 frame", you will find a lot of drawings in various formats (eps, dxf, pdf) that are very close to our units. These drawings might get you started.

Jeff

Have a super awesome, totally professional, messy bench, super shaky camera guide on tightening the Belts on a Migbot. xD

[youtu.be]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2016 04:19AM by Ax.

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Ax
Have a super awesome, totally professional, messy bench, super shaky camera guide on tightening the Belts on a Migbot. xD

[youtu.be]

I have one of those x-axis belt tighteners from Thingiverse but I like how you tighten that axis better. I may revert and tighten the X-axis belt your way. What surprises me is, I haven't seen anyone invent a way to use a spring (other then those close line pin springs) or maybe a rubber/silicone grommet to keep constant tension on the belt without adding too much tension. Hmmm, thinking hat on time or time to scour Thingiverse.

Jeff

p.s. Yep, totally professional, messy bench, super shaky camera...sounds like my videos. Well for sure the messy bench