Folger Tech 2020 i3 Printer Kit (Official Thread)

Thanks again animoose I tried to check that using the method called out in this video where he has you mark the shafts and measure. I checked X and it was off so using his formula I tried setting the X value to 81.09 and it still moved the same distance. After I edited the configuration.h I just uploaded it to the arduino again and disconnected / reconnected usb. Do I need to do something else after changing the value?

[youtu.be]

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msaeger
Thanks again animoose I tried to check that using the method called out in this video where he has you mark the shafts and measure. I checked X and it was off so using his formula I tried setting the X value to 81.09 and it still moved the same distance. After I edited the configuration.h I just uploaded it to the arduino again and disconnected / reconnected usb. Do I need to do something else after changing the value?

[youtu.be]

I think that should do it, but I would suggest looking more carefully at whether there is a mechanical or electronic problem rather than just adjusting it in firmware. The X steps should be set by two physical constraints, namely the number of teeth on the X motor gear (or whatever it's called) and the tooth spacing on the GT2 belt. For the parts that Folger supplies, 80 should be exactly correct. This is a great video on the subject: [www.youtube.com]. By tuning it to what you observe, you could miss a problem such as a misalignment which might change over time.

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See my blog at [moosteria.blogspot.com].

I watched that video too but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try changing the value.

I think I will take the sections apart and check it out mechanically wise some more. The way the infill is diagonal to the shell makes me think maybe Y axis isn't perpendicular to the X.

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mel0n

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Aridad

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mel0n
Just curious, is anybody else's printer really loud? Mine has been really loud, and getting progressively louder the more I print with it. Its completely related to the X-Axis and its a really loud vibration. I have tried messing with belt tension to make sure its not too tight, but the sound is still loud...My Y is nice and quiet even during rapid movements that usually have my X axis screaming.

This is the one of the only complaints I have about this printer. My printer performs and prints beautifully. My wife and I have run it probably 16 hours a day for the last three weeks!

My printer rapids in x perfectly, but at fill speed in the X direction, it resonates super loud. It'll wake me up if I'm printing overnight.

My Y-axis got really noisy for a bit, but I printed and installed this: ytensioner and I tensioned it to what I felt was appropriate, and the noise went away. (Great part, difficult to assemble/install)

I also had to put foam in between the Y-bearing carriages and the aluminum plate (I actually used ear plugs cut in half). The printed carriages are not perfect and put twist into the aluminum plate when tightened completely. I placed the foam and tightened the screws until the distance between the O.D. of the bearings and the top of the aluminum plate were within 0.002". I also had to increase the size of the clearance holes in the printed carriages for the same reason. The screws were so tight in the holes, that they created a bind in the assembly when tightened.

I'm thinking of installing this to tension X appropriately: xtensioner but I'm not sure I like the design yet. I think it needs a slot for the stock bolt for more stability.

The only other thing is that it doesn't come close to the advertised max print height. Like someone else said, it's max is somewhere around 145mm.

The better (more accurately) set up the machine is, the better it will print!

Thanks for the response/reassurance that its not just my printer that's loud. I am very greatful that we have such great people in the community and i have been giving back as much as I can. That was actually me who said that 140mm was the "comfortable max" and 145mm was the absolute max. I have an x axis tensioner in my print queue that i am waiting on my abs spools in the mail for. I dont think that will help much though as the vibration seems to be coming from the motor on the x axis. I will probably use some foam board cut to size for now. But i will eventually make a 3d model to be printed in ninja flex and then upload it for you all. I also have found some lm8uu printable bushings that look. Good as well a nce half the noise comes from the bearings.

Also i saw where they m recommended using one zip tie and it makes sense. But i haven't tried it yet.

On a side note, i am confident in my ability to get my printer printing well at this point and have learned a lot through trying to help other people out that i think my next priority is cable chains and quietness. I may also be condensing current information on known issues and fixes, along with current upgrades.

I was so glad to read this this morning - my x-axis is very loud/buzzy. I will also try removing one of the zip ties. I was planning to remove both and reinstall them to make sure they are sufficiently tight, but I was afraid that might make the situation worse.

Aside from the noise, I'm concerned that some of the jaggedness of my prints might be caused by this vibration. Sure would be nice to have the x-axis as quiet as the y-axis. I'll take a look at that YouTube video too! Thanks!

Let me know if removing the zip ties works for you, I don't have any spares so I haven't removed mine yet.

I am very pleased with my new 2020 i3 printer. There is an issue with the X axis logistics. When homing the X axis, my print head would travel about 10 MM and then declare that it had hit the home switch even though it was a great distance from it. I believe that the head actually travelled away from the end stop switch when "detecting" home. On this forum, I read many solutions of others who were having similar issues and arranged to get a new RAMPS 1.4 to be sent to me, because all diagnostic tests pointed to a hardware issue on that board (like swapping X for Y - motor drive plug & end stop plugs only to have the problem migrate to the Y axis).

While waiting for the new RAMPS board, I did some additional fiddling to circumvent the cold solder joint (or whatever). I moved the X endstop plug from its prescribled location one set of pins towards the Y endstop plug (X-MAX position). This solved the problem, after changing the X-HOME printer configuration to MAX rather than MON. So I now have a functioning

HOWEVER .... I now have a printer that mechanically travels properly, 3 home commands work as expected BUT I have yet to be able to lay down any filament, after many hours of fiddling. I have tried two brands of PLA. Both behave in a similar fashion. With the head elevated above the table, with both heaters up to requirements, I can squirt a stream of liquid PLA out the nozzle using the manual command in Repetier-Host (hitting the up portion of that tool). When I attempt to print, no filament gets deposited. HELP!!!

How close to the table should the nozzle be when at elevation Z=0 MM. Should it be touching? I assume that there needs to be a gap of about 0.4 MM between the tip of the hot end and the layer below (or the table on the first layer). I have tried printing on glass, on wide masking tape and on wide Kapton tape. All produce the same results - nothing gets deposited. Any suggestions that you may have will greatly be appreciated. I'll even purchase a set of feeler guages, if that will help with establishing the proper Z axis position.

Bill

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robodog
I am very pleased with my new 2020 i3 printer. There is an issue with the X axis logistics. When homing the X axis, my print head would travel about 10 MM and then declare that it had hit the home switch even though it was a great distance from it. I believe that the head actually travelled away from the end stop switch when "detecting" home. On this forum, I read many solutions of others who were having similar issues and arranged to get a new RAMPS 1.4 to be sent to me, because all diagnostic tests pointed to a hardware issue on that board (like swapping X for Y - motor drive plug & end stop plugs only to have the problem migrate to the Y axis).

While waiting for the new RAMPS board, I did some additional fiddling to circumvent the cold solder joint (or whatever). I moved the X endstop plug from its prescribled location one set of pins towards the Y endstop plug (X-MAX position). This solved the problem, after changing the X-HOME printer configuration to MAX rather than MON. So I now have a functioning

HOWEVER .... I now have a printer that mechanically travels properly, 3 home commands work as expected BUT I have yet to be able to lay down any filament, after many hours of fiddling. I have tried two brands of PLA. Both behave in a similar fashion. With the head elevated above the table, with both heaters up to requirements, I can squirt a stream of liquid PLA out the nozzle using the manual command in Repetier-Host (hitting the up portion of that tool). When I attempt to print, no filament gets deposited. HELP!!!

How close to the table should the nozzle be when at elevation Z=0 MM. Should it be touching? I assume that there needs to be a gap of about 0.4 MM between the tip of the hot end and the layer below (or the table on the first layer). I have tried printing on glass, on wide masking tape and on wide Kapton tape. All produce the same results - nothing gets deposited. Any suggestions that you may have will greatly be appreciated. I'll even purchase a set of feeler guages, if that will help with establishing the proper Z axis position.

Bill

Are you sure your extruder isn't turning the wrong way? When I set my printer up, the extruder direction was reversed, so it retracted instead of printing. Have you tried switching the polarity on the extruder motor?

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robodog
I am very pleased with my new 2020 i3 printer. There is an issue with the X axis logistics. When homing the X axis, my print head would travel about 10 MM and then declare that it had hit the home switch even though it was a great distance from it. I believe that the head actually travelled away from the end stop switch when "detecting" home. On this forum, I read many solutions of others who were having similar issues and arranged to get a new RAMPS 1.4 to be sent to me, because all diagnostic tests pointed to a hardware issue on that board (like swapping X for Y - motor drive plug & end stop plugs only to have the problem migrate to the Y axis).

While waiting for the new RAMPS board, I did some additional fiddling to circumvent the cold solder joint (or whatever). I moved the X endstop plug from its prescribled location one set of pins towards the Y endstop plug (X-MAX position). This solved the problem, after changing the X-HOME printer configuration to MAX rather than MON.

Bill

I'm glad for this forum... I went nuts last weekend trying to diagnose and solve this very problem and I arrived at the same conclusion of having a bad RAMPs board. Can't wait to test out this solution.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2015 03:28PM by go_gn.

I am very happy, I just found out my 2020 shipped out today for real. It will be here Wednesday the 8th .

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nonfish


Are you sure your extruder isn't turning the wrong way? When I set my printer up, the extruder direction was reversed, so it retracted instead of printing. Have you tried switching the polarity on the extruder motor?

nonfish:

You win the prize. THANK-YOU THANK-YOU THANK-YOU.

Reviewing the Build Manual, the extruder wires as plugged into the RAMPS board appear three times in pictures. In step 20:5, you are instructed yo insert that wire backwards (red to the right). In step 27, you are asked to verify you wiring against the provided pictures, which shows red to the right. However, in Step 30, where you are asked to clean up the wires, the plug has mysteriously switched to "green to the right."

Today is actually my birthday. That was a wonderful birthday gift. My first print went way better than anticipated. So now, it is time to play with the "head to table spacing" & some other parameters so that the remaining prints come out as best as can be expected.

DAN: time to fix your documentation so that others don't waste their time!!!

Bill

Bill:

I had the same problem when i built my printer. X just wouldnt home properly. What fixed it for me, is actually moving the x endstop at the left as denoted by the origin point of the cartesian plane on repetier(front left of the bed). With this, ive got my firmware home to x-min, all the connectors at ramps follow the same color coding, X_dir set to reverse(-1) same with other axes dir if i recall correctly, And no mirrored prints.
What the stock firmware and documentation was trying to achieve is to get your x-min at the right so you could get your origin at the front right of the bed. I was able to make it work before by changing the x_dir to 1, however, i got mirrored prints. The above settings corrected it for me. What i realized just now, is that the latter settings might have worked just fine if i flipped the x connector on ramps (which isnt given much empasis on the docs btw). So, this goes to show, there's a lot of ways to get the settings correctly, and to mess it up as well.

As for the extruder, if you havent noticed, there are two holes on the aluminum block, left and right. There are also two corresponding locations on the extruder assembly where you you could place the v bearing (youll see it if you open it). Of course both of them should be inline. However, the motor rotation needs to switch direction depending on where your hotend is placed. Mine is at the right os the stepper should rotate clockwise to extrude. As i have mentioned, my z-dir is -1 (if i recall correctly) and my ramps connector follows the same color coding as the rest of the axes.

For best first layer results, i suggest you setup the auto bed levelling. Its the best upgrade ive ever done with this printer.

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robodog
Today is actually my birthday. That was a wonderful birthday gift. My first print went way better than anticipated. So now, it is time to play with the "head to table spacing" & some other parameters so that the remaining prints come out as best as can be expected.
Bill

Congratulations! Glad you got this working.

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See my blog at [moosteria.blogspot.com].

Speaking of auto-level (which is something that requires the updated firmware), I forked the latest release of Marlin and made all the Folgertech/Prusa changes to the configuration files. I just loaded it on my printer and everything works as expected. You can find it here.

Just added a quick note at [moosteria.blogspot.com] on some changes to the speed parameters. Use at your own risk - any parts of the printer that come loose are not my problem

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See my blog at [moosteria.blogspot.com].

Ive been thinking, isnt the extruder tip a bit far away from the rod. You guys know any x carriage design that can make it a bit closer to the rods.? Cause i have been observing my prints for a while and noticed that the laid down a plastic is a bit zigzag-y and the layer heights are sometimes, a bit uneven. Ive been contemplating whether this is due to motor vibrations. This problem can be compounded if the rod slots on x ends are a bit loose too. Plus the fact that the 8mm rods aint that stiff at all.
So these are what ive been considering:
1) get bigger rods - 10 or 12 mm. 16 mm might be a bit overkill.
2) get/make x ends where i could secure/clamp the rods with screws.
3) get/make x carriage design that can move the extruder tip near the rods
4) triple the x rods then double each of the z rods
5) switch to bowden.

What do you guys think?

Btw, on my printer, i can easily see the extruder tip moving if i tip the fan with little force.

I haven't seen any sign of it moving, but I did have some similar thoughts. I was wondering if you could mount the motor on one side of the X carriage and the rest of the mechanism on the other, to bring the center of mass closer to the x rods. I think it's possible, but then you'd need a longer shaft from the motor to the filament drive, and you would have to carefully lay it out so that it didn't interfere with the drive belt. It's beyond my design skill, I think.

---

See my blog at [moosteria.blogspot.com].

So I've looked at the stepper driver calibration document and I'm pretty lost.. Can someone give me the cliffs notes edition of what I all need to do? What is the ideal voltage/setting am I aiming for?

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msaeger
I watched that video too but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try changing the value.

I think I will take the sections apart and check it out mechanically wise some more. The way the infill is diagonal to the shell makes me think maybe Y axis isn't perpendicular to the X.

I got it working much, much better. I did two things to the Y axis.

First I took the bed off and mad sure the rods were at the right spacing and parallel using a calipers. When I assembled it the first time I just was counting on the bed to line it all up.

Second the holes on the bearing blocks the bed is mounted to were too far apart and didn't line up with the holes in the bed. When I assembled it the first time I just made the screws go in because I was afraid to mess up the blocks by drilling holes. This time I put one screw in each block then drilled through the existing hole in the bed and the block for the second screw then put the second screw in.

After doing these two things the bed moved much more freely.

I had a similar experience with the X axis so I plan to take that apart next and make sure it moves freely.

Here's the cube I printed now. [goo.gl] It's far from perfect but is a huge improvement. This was with no effort to level the bed and I still haven't verified the Z axis is the same on both sides.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2015 11:34PM by msaeger.

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animoose
I haven't seen any sign of it moving, but I did have some similar thoughts. I was wondering if you could mount the motor on one side of the X carriage and the rest of the mechanism on the other, to bring the center of mass closer to the x rods. I think it's possible, but then you'd need a longer shaft from the motor to the filament drive, and you would have to carefully lay it out so that it didn't interfere with the drive belt. It's beyond my design skill, I think.

You're right, mounting the motor on the other side of the x carriage would have been good if only the motor shaft were longer.
If there was enough space between the x carraige bearings, we could probably stick the motor between them. The x-ends could probably be redesigned to accommodate this but this calls for a lost build height.
In both cases, the belt will need to be taken care of.

Or, we could probably position the stepper sideways such that its side faces the x-carriage. This will require the least modification i think and can considerably place the extruder tip near the carriage and rods.

Does anyone know of a way to easily turn on/off the power supply? There doesn't seem to be any switch that I can see. I'm just asking because the extruder fan is continually on the way the guide says to wire it. I suppose the alternative is to wire the fan into the RAMPS board?

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arxidon
Does anyone know of a way to easily turn on/off the power supply? There doesn't seem to be any switch that I can see. I'm just asking because the extruder fan is continually on the way the guide says to wire it. I suppose the alternative is to wire the fan into the RAMPS board?

Just an idea.

You might be able to utilize RAMPS PS-ON pin. However, this was intended for use on ATX power supplies which has a standby 5V line that can power-up the ramps (which is necessary to get it to drive the PS-ON pin low). This is a good read: PS-ON pin

To control the power supply that comes with the kit, you might need: An external 5V power-source for the ramps board since it needs to be always on; a 5v relay that can connect/disconnect your 110V/220V ac line; and depending on the current requirement, a simple transistor switch to drive the relay.

But, if your motivation is just to get the fan switched off, then there's a better approach for that: RAMPS

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therippa
Speaking of auto-level (which is something that requires the updated firmware), I forked the latest release of Marlin and made all the Folgertech/Prusa changes to the configuration files. I just loaded it on my printer and everything works as expected. You can find it here.

Doesn't auto bed leveling require some extra hardware? Or is it software only? Could anyone explain to a newbie how I would go about setting this up?

It requires extra hardware which is a servo and a few settings to modify on the firmware to enable this feature as well as to set the correct offsets from the extruder tip to the z endstop. Basically, your z endstop will be relocated on the servo which is attached at the X carriage/extruder motor or wherever it can be practically placed. During bed levelling/calibration, the servo will extend and retract this z endstop on different calibration points of the bed to get the its plane. That's the gist of it. For detailed instructions, this Guide from Zenmaster was my reference.

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wderoxas
It requires extra hardware which is a servo and a few settings to modify on the firmware to enable this feature as well as to set the correct offsets from the extruder tip to the z endstop. Basically, your z endstop will be relocated on the servo which is attached at the X carriage/extruder motor or wherever it can be practically placed. During bed levelling/calibration, the servo will extend and retract this z endstop on different calibration points of the bed to get the its plane. That's the gist of it. For detailed instructions, this Guide from Zenmaster was my reference.

I'll be darned. I thought you needed an extra end-stop (which actually came with the kit). How does the Z-axis "home" if the end-stop is hanging past the hot end? Do you calibrate the distance between the stop and hot end?

During homing, the servo arm lowers the arm with the z endstop. Then raise it again once the z endstop is triggered. During bed level calibration, it will do the same behavior.
Yes, you will need to get the offsets (x,y and z) from the extruder tip to the endstop. You will also need to set the servo angles for the arm retract and lowering.

Thanks for the link.

I need to finish all my purchases by this month as I'll be leaving the US. In case the Folger tech auto level kit doesn't come in soon, I'll have to get it from somewhere else.

Any idea about other kits that can be modified slightly to fit our Prusa i3?

You mean kit for the bed levelling? Never had the chance to look for a kit since im staying in singapore. So i just designed my own. Bought a servo, designed an attachment on the extruder motor and servo arm for the z endstop.

By the way, should you go for auto bed levelling, you have to consider the additional wear that it woud impose on your m5 threaded rods and its nuts. Ive also read some feedback that an anti backlash mechanism for z is necessary, but i never really get the reason why. As for my kit, i had some acetal (delrin) plastic lying around so i tapped it and substituted it for the nut.