Migbot Prusa i3 Unofficial Support Thread

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gwc2795

Quote
veaceonee
Any idea why the LCD goes all fritzy during prints? Does it every time about 5 minutes into the print. Still prints ok.

When it does it measure the 5V line to make sure you are not having a voltage drop.

forgive the noobness, which one is that?

General SPEED question:

Got mine working so far so good - quite good results - but for the most time I have to tune the FEEDRATE on the LCD while printing down to get a good result.

My question:
Is this in the LCD while printing tuneable "FEEDRATE" a sort of "over all general" speed for the printer and is therefore also in Slic3r a designatet valule to implement this alreade in the G-Code ?

I set up all the different speeds in Slic3r - I think its quite rite - I mean the speed relative to each other - but what I cant to is to bring them all in one down - or up - depending on the type of print

Looking therefore for something as a "main" speed in Slic3r

Hello everyone as I am new to the thread and new to the 3d printing world, and I am to one of the suckers that bought the Electron 3D - Sixth Generation Prusa i3 from the worst place on the planet..... www.3dprintersonlinestore.com

Link to the one I bought [www.3dprintersonlinestore.com]

How I wish I found this thread 3 days ago before I purchased it, they tell me its too late to cancel so I'm pretty much stuck with it.
I decided to step into this hobby due to my other hobby which consists of building and flying multirotors, now that the winter months are upon me it seems like it would be a good time to invest into 3d printing. As I plan on designing and building mounts and various types of micro multi-rotors,

I am a CNC Machinist by trade so this in the same territory of the machines that I run.With being a CNC mill machinist I already see me upgrading the printed parts with billet aluminum, as I see many of the problems that I've read in this forum is badly printed printer parts

Anyway to the matter at hand..
I have not yet received my printer so I'm not 100% sure on what all the obstacles that I'm going to encounter, I have spent the hole day reading through this entire thread, there's lots of good information and I have definitely appreciate finding this thread as I would have had a headache trying to figure it out by my onesies.

My first question.. is there anyone actually running this on to 220 vs 110? (I live in the usa)
And is there any advantages to running on 220 perhaps more efficient power consumption wise?
I'm going to be running the printer on a dedicated breaker so it wouldn't be too hard for me to wire it for 220.

My next question would be is it even worth messing with the FM that actually came on the SD card( if it isn't corrupted) or should I just go ahead and flash it with Marlin?

next question, Is there any real advantages over using CuraEngine over Repetier-Host? (I assume this has something to do with witch FM I run?)

I have a flash things with the Arduino before.. But I'm the type of person that likes to have a good guide before i get started I like to fully understand something before I actually do it, it is likely flashing the Marlin filmware will be like flashing anything else, but with that said does anyone have a link to a guide on how to flash to this particular board?


Once my printer gets here I will document everything here, what troubles that I ran into in the modifications that I've done, this thread has been invaluable and I want to keep it going.

Thanks for your advice and wonderful information that this thread has offered

Wes.

Hi,

we are also the same idiot which purchase from them, first the power supply can choose 110 or 220, please select carefully before you use. If the program able to use then don't mess with it till you know your printer better. there's alot for you to play with. Any question do read all link in this forum it really helpful. Because i'm the first Idiot over here.

Tell you two possibility, one is somewhere wire loose, second somewhere wire break. check it careful with eyes and torch light.

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Wes78
Hello everyone as I am new to the thread and new to the 3d printing world, and I am to one of the suckers that bought the Electron 3D - Sixth Generation Prusa i3 from the worst place on the planet..... www.3dprintersonlinestore.com

Link to the one I bought [www.3dprintersonlinestore.com]

How I wish I found this thread 3 days ago before I purchased it, they tell me its too late to cancel so I'm pretty much stuck with it.
I decided to step into this hobby due to my other hobby which consists of building and flying multirotors, now that the winter months are upon me it seems like it would be a good time to invest into 3d printing. As I plan on designing and building mounts and various types of micro multi-rotors,

I am a CNC Machinist by trade so this in the same territory of the machines that I run.With being a CNC mill machinist I already see me upgrading the printed parts with billet aluminum, as I see many of the problems that I've read in this forum is badly printed printer parts

Anyway to the matter at hand..
I have not yet received my printer so I'm not 100% sure on what all the obstacles that I'm going to encounter, I have spent the hole day reading through this entire thread, there's lots of good information and I have definitely appreciate finding this thread as I would have had a headache trying to figure it out by my onesies.

My first question.. is there anyone actually running this on to 220 vs 110? (I live in the usa)
And is there any advantages to running on 220 perhaps more efficient power consumption wise?
I'm going to be running the printer on a dedicated breaker so it wouldn't be too hard for me to wire it for 220.

My next question would be is it even worth messing with the FM that actually came on the SD card( if it isn't corrupted) or should I just go ahead and flash it with Marlin?

next question, Is there any real advantages over using CuraEngine over Repetier-Host? (I assume this has something to do with witch FM I run?)

I have a flash things with the Arduino before.. But I'm the type of person that likes to have a good guide before i get started I like to fully understand something before I actually do it, it is likely flashing the Marlin filmware will be like flashing anything else, but with that said does anyone have a link to a guide on how to flash to this particular board?


Once my printer gets here I will document everything here, what troubles that I ran into in the modifications that I've done, this thread has been invaluable and I want to keep it going.

Thanks for your advice and wonderful information that this thread has offered

Wes.

220v - I'm in the UK, so it's 240 or nothing, I wouldn't think there's any advantage to the 220v over the 110v, it's just going to convert to the same 12v 20A output.

Firmware - if you've bought the one with auto-levelling, you'll need to grab the firmware from the repository (linked in the wiki page) and set the Z offset. Other than that, it should run right out of the box, as it runs Marlin anyways.

Cura/Repetierhost - They're just used for slicing the model, you can use any slicer to do this job, it doesn't matter what firmware is on it. Personally, I use Simplify3D, but have used Slic3r in the past too. It's all down to personal preference.

Flashing the firmware - Thomas Sanladerer's guide playlist is a good place to start and will give you a lot of the basics you'll need with regards to 3D printing. There is a short how to on the Wiki page as well.

These printers aren't that bad and can produce decent prints. I have 2 of the exact one you linked off and use them on a commercial basis. I have upgraded the hot end, changed the smooth rods out due to them being bent and changed the wire from the power supply to the board, but you can pretty much forgo the rods and hot end. You REALLY need to use 14 AWG from the PSU to the board as the wire provided is really sub-standard, there is also a marked improvement to power delivery doing so.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2015 03:49AM by Ax.

Quote
veaceonee

Quote
gwc2795

Quote
veaceonee
Any idea why the LCD goes all fritzy during prints? Does it every time about 5 minutes into the print. Still prints ok.

When it does it measure the 5V line to make sure you are not having a voltage drop.

forgive the noobness, which one is that?

Power delivery, I used to get this now and again, but I changed the wires from the PSU to the Board to 14 AWG and it's not happened since. Give that a shot and see what happens.

@ Wes78
I purchased the same one about 3 weeks ago - had the same questions
Let me tell you - the support of this company - I bought it via EBay isnt really that good - but I have to say with a few mods the printer is for that price quite decent.
Ive seen much more worse products coming out of china ;-)

- Powersupply - use what you have - if you just have 110 - -use it
- defenitely a better cable (bigger diameter) froom the PSU to the Mainboard - also upgraded the cable froom the Manboard to the heatingbed
- regarding FW: I was asking the company that they would please send me a copy of the FW that is ACTUALLY on the board when they sell it - that if I mess around I still could go back to original - no luck - no response
there is also no easy way of "backing up" the FW installed
I played around anyway - the steps where total off for example - printed not the right sizes
- I use Slic3r - as standalone or even more often now in Repetier Host - I got very used to it now and it does a decent job - if the settings are right ;-)

Like I said - its for me also my first 3D printer - and I think for that price quite ok and really does some nice decent prints - I expected a lot worse

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Marty77
@ Wes78
I purchased the same one about 3 weeks ago - had the same questions
Let me tell you - the support of this company - I bought it via EBay isnt really that good - but I have to say with a few mods the printer is for that price quite decent.
Ive seen much more worse products coming out of china ;-)

- Powersupply - use what you have - if you just have 110 - -use it
- defenitely a better cable (bigger diameter) froom the PSU to the Mainboard - also upgraded the cable froom the Manboard to the heatingbed
- regarding FW: I was asking the company that they would please send me a copy of the FW that is ACTUALLY on the board when they sell it - that if I mess around I still could go back to original - no luck - no response
there is also no easy way of "backing up" the FW installed
I played around anyway - the steps where total off for example - printed not the right sizes
- I use Slic3r - as standalone or even more often now in Repetier Host - I got very used to it now and it does a decent job - if the settings are right ;-)

Like I said - its for me also my first 3D printer - and I think for that price quite ok and really does some nice decent prints - I expected a lot worse

Marty - the firmware that is on the board is that which is on the Github, those are what the Migbots come with pre-installed.

Ax - thanks - thats good to know - in case of a needed backup ;-) but then they have there 3 different versions - or at least 2 of each kind
whats the best having my autolevel kicked out - 1.0.2 or the stable or the one just labeled "Marlin" ?

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Marty77
Ax - thanks - thats good to know - in case of a needed backup ;-) but then they have there 3 different versions - or at least 2 of each kind
whats the best having my autolevel kicked out - 1.0.2 or the stable or the one just labeled "Marlin" ?

My firmware version is based off of the Large area with auto leveling-Marlin.rar, the Marlin.zip'll be the base unconfigured, Marlin 1.0.2 - Standard Bed.zip - will be the base firmware for the standard bed without auto-levelling and Large area -Marlin.rar will be the large bed without auto-levelling.

Ax - thanks a lot - your always a great contribution and help !!!

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Marty77
Ax - thanks a lot - your always a great contribution and help !!!

No worries, I'd rather people have an easy time with the Migbot, opposed to tearing their hair out with it. I'm probably going to put my Firmware Versions up soon as they're about there really.

Thanks guys for the reply's and good advice
Ax- I totally forgot about mentioning what options I bought.
Unfortunately... I didn't know at the time I could add them later for much cheaper.
I had got the "pro" mk8 and self leveling.

Since I have self leveling were you referring that I need to flash the firmware?
Setting the Z off that I think was mentioned more than once in the form I'll read back again as a reference. reading everything in one day kinda mushe'd it together so I need to go back and reread

Thanks again

Thanks to @Ax and @gwc2795 for their reaponses, and also jcarber who I had PM'd.

I started from scratch and still had the same issue and couldn't find the fuse644 settings.

It transpires what I needed to do was invert the endstops (i.e. chage 'false' to 'true' in the configuration.h)

I had originally tried this before starting from scratch and hadn't worked, but after starting from the beginning and then changing the endstop inversion has worked and I am now back up and running.

Thanks again for the advice.

Cheers,
David

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Wes78
Thanks guys for the reply's and good advice
Ax- I totally forgot about mentioning what options I bought.
Unfortunately... I didn't know at the time I could add them later for much cheaper.
I had got the "pro" mk8 and self leveling.

Since I have self leveling were you referring that I need to flash the firmware?
Setting the Z off that I think was mentioned more than once in the form I'll read back again as a reference. reading everything in one day kinda mushe'd it together so I need to go back and reread

Thanks again

No worries. you will need to set the correct Z offset for the printer, so you will need to re-flash it. There's full instructions on how to do it on the Wiki page..

Awesome thank you sir!
I haven't had a chance to look the wiki page over but I will when I can.

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Marty77

Like I said - its for me also my first 3D printer - and I think for that price quite ok and really does some nice decent prints - I expected a lot worse

Exactly. First 3d printer, expected worse, but pleasantly surprised it works pretty well. The biggest thing for me we just making sure you diligently calibrate all the axis. Most important the z-axis and the extruder steps. Next up was having a level, unwarped print surface. I just went ahead and got a glass surface and gave up on the cheap aluminum sheet. Saves a lot of pain in the long run. Other than that I have had very good results, atleast to what I was expecting.

Seems most of the trouble I have seen people have has been from a faulty/underpowered power supply. Mine seemed ok out of the box. Powers fine, I can reach 110 degree bed in about 10mins.

What mods did you do to your bed?

I've seen a few on here such as change to a bigger gauge wire and insulating underside of the bed

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gatorNic

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Marty77

Like I said - its for me also my first 3D printer - and I think for that price quite ok and really does some nice decent prints - I expected a lot worse

Exactly. First 3d printer, expected worse, but pleasantly surprised it works pretty well. The biggest thing for me we just making sure you diligently calibrate all the axis. Most important the z-axis and the extruder steps. Next up was having a level, unwarped print surface. I just went ahead and got a glass surface and gave up on the cheap aluminum sheet. Saves a lot of pain in the long run. Other than that I have had very good results, atleast to what I was expecting.

Seems most of the trouble I have seen people have has been from a faulty/underpowered power supply. Mine seemed ok out of the box. Powers fine, I can reach 110 degree bed in about 10mins.

Yeah, both mine have issues hitting 80 rapidly, 24v supplies are the next on the list along with replacing the crappy LM8UU and SC8UU bearings on the first one. Glass plates are the way to go, even with auto levelling. You can just use metal contact points on the plate to level off, I'm using copper taps, which is what both my Migbots have.

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Wes78
Awesome thank you sir!
I haven't had a chance to look the wiki page over but I will when I can.

Not a problem. The wiki page is still a work in progress but I'm adding to it when I get time.

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Ax


Yeah, both mine have issues hitting 80 rapidly, 24v supplies are the next on the list along with replacing the crappy LM8UU and SC8UU bearings on the first one. Glass plates are the way to go, even with auto levelling. You can just use metal contact points on the plate to level off, I'm using copper tapes

Well that brings me to two more questions lol

Where is the best place to be replacement parts such as the bearings.

And I know there's different types of glass. And there are better types to use. Can you recommend one for me and a link if you can spare the time.

As always thank you

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2015 12:53PM by Wes78.

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CrackinX
Well I have been working on my rework for well over a month now and think I have it pretty good. Everything is solid, I have it bridging really well at 30mm, haven't tested much more than that but I think it will do double that fine.

I will post a link to my STLs here but it is also in the migbot wiki if you need it in the future without digging through here.

DISCLAIMER: I can not take credit for a good portion of items here as most I got from thingverse and reworked to fit the Migbot. However a good chunk I did design from scratch
[drive.google.com]

I am still working on the under carriage cable management and will add things as I finish them.

All parts are printed from PLA but I have my hotend insulated with a silicon self fusing tape I got from home depot for $6, It's good up to 500F (260C) which should be good for anything up to nylon. It keeps the heat in real well I can touch the hotend for a few seconds before it gets too hot to touch but does not radiate heat.


Hope this helps somebody!! As always if you guys have any questions feel free to ask.

I've downloaded the STLs from you setup but I'd like to see more pictures of your setup. Are you using the metal mount that came with the Migbot or is everything ABS or PLA?

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

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Wes78

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Ax


Yeah, both mine have issues hitting 80 rapidly, 24v supplies are the next on the list along with replacing the crappy LM8UU and SC8UU bearings on the first one. Glass plates are the way to go, even with auto levelling. You can just use metal contact points on the plate to level off, I'm using copper tapes

Well that brings me to two more questions lol

Where is the best place to be replacement parts such as the bearings.

And I know there's different types of glass. And there are better types to use. Can you recommend one for me and a link if you can spare the time.

As always thank you

Can't say for the US, but eBay are generally good, and there are generally some dedicated eBay stores for 3D Printing.. In the UK I'd be going to either wedo3dprinting.co.uk or to E3D for parts, E3D ship internationally I believe as well.

Just to Pre-empt, filament choice, I use ColoFabb exculsively, and I've just got their new NGEN in today, All I can say is that it's simply one of the best and easiest plastics I've tried to print, even easier than PLA. Yes, it's a little more expensive, but hell, you pay for quality and I can't even start to sing the praises of this stuff. I've not even completed a full print of Battery Sleds with it and I can say that it's going to be my go-to filament now. I've used their PLA/PHA (stronger PLA) for a while and have used the XT too. All their filaments are spot on and I've not had a blockage on the Migbots since using them. The CTCforge is a different matter, that's just crap extrusion hardware, even then the blockages have reduced substantially.

One upgrade I will say makes ALL the difference is to put an E3D Lite6 on it, with my mounts, which are linked in the Wiki, the hot end is almost plug and play. It's just a matter of print and install. It's something you may want to think about a little down the line, for £21.50 for a E3D Lite6 kit, which is the hot-end and all the fixtures, it's pretty much a no-brainer. Marked improvement on the MK8 extruder for such a cheap upgrade and a little plastic.

Something like this?




[m.ebay.com]

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Wes78
Something like this?




[m.ebay.com]

Yeah, although that looks like a Chinese copy. personally I'd only buy from E3D direct (http://e3d-online.com/) or one of their resellers [e3d-online.com] as they may not be machined correctly.

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Wes78
What mods did you do to your bed?

I've seen a few on here such as change to a bigger gauge wire and insulating underside of the bed

No changes to the wiring, it was working decently fine already. I was having trouble getting to 110 bed temp in an acceptable amount of time, so I insulated the underside of the bed with a cork board and sheet of aluminum foil. Worked great. I believe It also has the added benefit of insulating the acrylic bed base which some have reported can warp over time when using high bed temps with long prints.

Mods to bed: cork board insulation, removed aluminum bed, added 3mm borosilicate glass sheet.

Here is my previous post with times. I can now easily reach 115, and warm up times were pretty much cut in half.

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Wes78
And I know there's different types of glass. And there are better types to use. Can you recommend one for me and a link if you can spare the time.

Would recommend the borosiclicate glass. Its more resistant to cracking while heating and cooling, unlike regular glass you find in a picture frame or something. I got mine from Matterhackers because I knew it had ground edges, unlike some of the cheap ones, plus free shipping Glass bed There are cheaper ones you can find on ebay and amazon, but its only like $9-10 more.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2015 01:39PM by gatorNic.

Ahhh OK thanks for the tip

[www.matterhackers.com]

How about this one ?

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Wes78
Ahhh OK thanks for the tip

[www.matterhackers.com]

How about this one ?

So you haven't even gotten the printer yet? Why don't you just try it with the current hotend? I mean the mk8 is no e3d but its not bad either. I get fine results with it.

If I was going to get a e3d a would probably just get the full one. If I am doing an upgrade like that I would want to be able to use hotter temperatures for different materials. Plus to make the e3d work you need to print new brackets...but if you don't already have a working printer how would you do it?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2015 01:54PM by gatorNic.

Wes, that's the one. Hoeever as gatorNic said, the MK8 us fine. Ut's something to think about down the line.

About the only thing I've come across wirh the Lite6 is that you can't do Polycarbonate. Otherwise it'll hit 260c and be fine for most things, It'll do nylon and flexables and should do most filled plas too.

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gatorNic

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Wes78
Ahhh OK thanks for the tip

[www.matterhackers.com]

How about this one ?

So you haven't even gotten the printer yet? Why don't you just try it with the current hotend? I mean the mk8 is no e3d but its not bad either. I get fine results with it.

If I was going to get a e3d a would probably just get the full one. If I am doing an upgrade like that I would want to be able to use hotter temperatures for different materials. Plus to make the e3d work you need to print new brackets...but if you don't already have a working printer how would you do it?

No I haven't got it yet and of course I'll have it running before I do a mod like that.

But its something I had been thinking about cause I want to go to a bowden extruder.
Unfortunately it was after I had bought this one and some how stumbled on that there is better not ends like the e3d.
Just part of playing the game I guess lol.

As far as the brackets and things of that nature goes, being a machinist I will design and build all that out of billet aluminum