Electron 3D - Sixth Generation Prusa i3 Anyone?

I'm curious if anyone here has purchased this kit? I did a forum search and couldn't find any threads on it.

I saw this kit at 3dprintersonlinestore.com, printer was a great deal. With Large print area add on, self leveling kit, and MK* 'Pro metal extruder', the kit came to 415.00 with free shipping.

Box arrived in good shape, all looked well. Unfortunately it's been a week trying to build this, and I'm still not printing yet.

Following the build instructions, some of the extruder components were different in the build instructions than what was shipped. Although the you tube video was basically the same. However many of the holes in the extruder components for the screws are mis-drilled and the parts don't line up with the mounting holes in the brackets.

The spring that is supposed to provide tension for the bearing that the filament rolls over was too short, and required a lot of effort for me to jury rig something that provided tension to the bearing.

No instructions provided for the self leveling kit at all.

There were no wiring instructions available until a few days ago.

I'm not even sure what to say about support here. I sent pictures, with very specific straightforward questions, and instead of answering, I was told to check the link on the product page for instructions.
Told them that was what I was going by, still no answer.

The 'large build area' option, was an aluminum plate. With the holes drilled wrong, and do not line up with the holes in the heating element or the platform. Again, no reply to my questions, just refer to website. Then they want me to add them to skype so they can figure out why the printer doesn't work. I was also told I needed to finish the build so they can debug it and see why it isn't working.......huh?

I'm feeling like we are having two distinctly different conversations at this point.

I really wish I had purchased this here in the states where I could have gotten decent support.

So build is still incomplete, I have to buy another aluminum plate from someone here in the US and spend another 50.00, try to figure out how the self leveling and height detection hardware is supposed to attach to this thing, and hopefully start printing eventually.

This was not how I had hoped to get started with this.......

I have the same kit although I didn't have any of the trouble you are having. Most of the info you are looking for is in this forum: [forums.reprap.org] The Migbot is the same printer, different name.

Hope this helps.
Jeff

Thanks, that's good to know.

Once they upgraded the instructions online, things went much better. And the kit is pretty much finished, just finicky details to do still like cleanup the wires and make it pretty.

I'm still waiting to hear from them regarding replacing the aluminum plate for the 'large print area' upgrade, I'm really not keen on the idea of having to go out and pay a metal shop here to make me a new one and pay for it a second time.

A quick modification or two on the pieces for the extruder took care of the problem, although I think that it's a bit unreasonable to have to do that, it should work out of the box. And I found MK8 metal parts for this at Newegg.com (10.00 USD) which I ordered to replace the ones supplied with the kit.

Really my bggest complaint was support. I emailed a sequence of pics, each one numbered, hi res close ups, asking is this corect on each pic and got no reply beyond check the website even after telling them I had already done so. Usually I don't need to deal with support, but this was my first printer so I wanted to verify steps as I knew the spring and parts on the extruder were wrong. But otherwise it seems like a great kit.

I can't wait to get started printinng.

Don't you have a drill to make new holes to fit the large aluminum sheet ?
BTW, a new drill is cheaper than buying a new sheet.
-Olaf

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o_lampe
Don't you have a drill to make new holes to fit the large aluminum sheet ?
BTW, a new drill is cheaper than buying a new sheet.
-Olaf

No, becasue the positions were so close I'd have to drill into the edges of at least one of the existing holes, and I really don't feel like making a mess of it, plus the holes were not countersunk like the ones on the outside corners, and the screws were meant to fit into the conical shaped holes.

I don't really want to mess with it. I can be a little picky when I pay for something and not looking like I had to make a last minute kludge of it.

An interesting note here... I did a search on the Migbot printer, found a pretty decent number of threads on the subject. What I did find interesting is I am not the only one who had complainnts about poorly drilled holes, and no luck talking to the tech support guys. (Same company)

What I did find scary was that they (the manufacturer) printed the parts from PLA, and I found pics of badly warped extruder x carriage brackets.

I'm planning on upgrading this to an aluminum unit for the Prusa i3 that I found on Amazon for 20.00, so I should be good there as well. Not all that worried about the z and x axis, although I probably should care about the x axis since it's close to the heating unit, but I'll keep an eye on it.


One observation I have is this prnter seems to really be in need of some support. The whole thing flexes a lot when you pick it up to move it, I'm thinking it needs a pair of D buckles and cable running in an x pattern under the base to keep it nice and square. Should provide a lot of support for the unit.

The extruder that my steel Createc came with was also printed in PLA but was very good, with no warp. However I'm now printing it in PETG.

I bought the same kit about a month ago, and while I have similar issues, I do have to say support was rather bad. I tried a Skype (to a cell phone in China) and the support guy wasn't fluent in English, and I could tell he was getting frustrated with my issue after an hour of a crappy Skype session.

The bed fits for me, but am having issues with the smooth support rods (Z won't travel with them in) and the Y End stop doesn't seem to trigger. I sent an email to support asking for replacement smooth rods and new X supports (there are ball bearing units inside the printed PLA that are losing the bearings) and I didn't get a reply, not even a "No we won't replace them" so now I'm trying o track them down on eBay.

It was super cheap and the build was relatively straightforward but I'm still not printing either. Just wanted to say "You're not alone".

Best of luck.

-Knight

TYo be honest the mechanical stop switches are dirt cheap, it's easier to just shell out for them locally and not have to wait. Also, I've seen a few optical kits that are supposed to be much better for a relatively minimal investment.I might replace mine with the optical kits.

So my list of 'replacements' just to get up and running is:

Optical switches (not required as far as I know)

All aluminum x axis carriage

New all metal extruder setup (50.00, but I figured a back up nozzle and stepper were worth having around anyway)

'large area print bed' which the holes are drilled wrong on and they quit responding when I asked for a replacement.



Considering an aluminum y axis tray to mount the heating element on.

For what it cost me, I don't really mind so much. The positive take away here is I learned a LOT about 3D printers, and feel confident I can source parts and build my own from scratch parts now.

Ok, so I'm trying to finish this up over the weekend here and just have a couple of probably really dumb questions regarding the wiring on this........

1. All the extruder wiring is done except the nozzle wires. They are identical, no markings as to being positive or negative, they are both the same color, no stripes or other identifying marks. IS there a psoitive and negative on this or does it even matter?

2. The heat bed wiring. THe heating element itself has a white wire and a black wire, as opposed to red and black. IS the white positive and the black remains negative like the rest of the wiring?

The only other wire I need to install is the heavy wire from the power supply to the motherboard. I connected the motherboard end, and began tying up and trying to make the wiring look like it wasn't done by a blind person. I didn't connect the other end because I really didn't want to flip the printer on the side to see if this is clearly marked or not. I'll look at it later today after I get some sleep.



Thanks.

What online instructions have you found? All I had is the info on the SD card.

Has anybody got their hands on the marlin source for this one? I'm using what was posted for the migbot in another thread. Works fine except for offset.
I can't get this puppy to print centered and calibrating Z height is driving me nuts!

This is what I've used to set my printer up, and has the build of Marlin I've been using:

[github.com]

I use Repetier rather than the provided Cura and I'm finally seeing some success using ABS over PLA.

Printer is still missing the smooth rods (They were preventing smooth Z movement, I know I'll have to replace - I've asked for replacements and they never replied.) so I know the prints won't be great. Z has been a real challenge, i've even managed to etch into my aluminum bed.....

Would it help if I took a photo of my board all wired up, and labeled them?

For power, the two hot wires (white and red) were twisted and put in the positive, and the two negatives were twisted and put into the negative port on the green "master" power plug.

My Y belt keeps popping after a few prints - anybody got any suggestions?

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knightsnavi

Would it help if I took a photo of my board all wired up, and labeled them?

that would be very useful.....

I finaly gave up on the stock ALU hotbed... Nothing sticks to it, using hairspray or glue didn't help. Tape worked great, as long as I was printing small parts. When the parts became larger, they warped taking the tape with them (printed part was still perfectly stuck to the tape, but the tape lifted from the ALU printbed.
The reason why I resisted the change for so long is the auto tramming. The induction sensor doesn't work on the glass bed, but finaly I found a solution...
I bought a siutable size glass from a local shop (paid 1,5€), and tried printing on it - works like a charm. The largest peaces that I can barely fit to the buildplate only diagonally finished perfectly - no more warping. i used 70 degree C temp for the bed (PLA) and applied some UHU glue to the glass.
But the real discovery is the tramming / leveling sensor that works on glass: [www.pibot.com]
I just ordered it today, so can't tell how well it works yet, but have high expectations for it... Will report back after I try it out.

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FirstAvenger
Ok, so I'm trying to finish this up over the weekend here and just have a couple of probably really dumb questions regarding the wiring on this........

1. All the extruder wiring is done except the nozzle wires. They are identical, no markings as to being positive or negative, they are both the same color, no stripes or other identifying marks. IS there a psoitive and negative on this or does it even matter?

2. The heat bed wiring. THe heating element itself has a white wire and a black wire, as opposed to red and black. IS the white positive and the black remains negative like the rest of the wiring?

Anyone?

I've been trying to find this, even watched dozens of youtube videos and can't find a clear answer to this........

The wires for the thermistors for both the extruder and heated bed can be either positive or negative. no difference.

The wiring for the heated bed will have a definite positive and negative if you have LED indicator lights in the circuit. You will know if it is wired backwards if the LEDs do not light up when heating.

The wiring for the extruder heater can be wired either way.

That was my assumption, was just looking for validation.

Thanks.

So today was the big day.


After checking and rechecking every connetion, looked at the instructions over and over, I said what the hell..... and plugged it in.

It started up, LCD came on, LED's on motherboard lit up, Printer ready to receive programming. Yay!!!

BUT..........

The round fan on the extruder that cools the hot end nozzle is dead. Defective. Oh well, better than a bad motherboard I guess, just annoying. Not really willing to wait on these idiots to send me a fan, they'd probably want to skype first. I went to the instructions online, tried to look at the inventory sheet and big surprise, I'm told sorry, file is too large for us to display at this time. Typical.

Anyone with a Migbot or whatever know what round cooling fan I should get?

thanks.

Are you sure it's dead?
The nozzle cooling fan is OFF by default (the extruder cooling one is constantly on). It turns on only if the gcode demands it (you can set when and how much it should cool the just printed plastic in the slicer).

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cmaet
I finaly gave up on the stock ALU hotbed... Nothing sticks to it, using hairspray or glue didn't help. Tape worked great, as long as I was printing small parts. When the parts became larger, they warped taking the tape with them (printed part was still perfectly stuck to the tape, but the tape lifted from the ALU printbed.
The reason why I resisted the change for so long is the auto tramming. The induction sensor doesn't work on the glass bed, but finaly I found a solution...
I bought a siutable size glass from a local shop (paid 1,5€), and tried printing on it - works like a charm. The largest peaces that I can barely fit to the buildplate only diagonally finished perfectly - no more warping. i used 70 degree C temp for the bed (PLA) and applied some UHU glue to the glass.
But the real discovery is the tramming / leveling sensor that works on glass: [www.pibot.com]
I just ordered it today, so can't tell how well it works yet, but have high expectations for it... Will report back after I try it out.

I run a standard sensor and auto-level on glass. You're right that the stock Ally bed is junk hence me doing this. Basically I use a glass plate with 4 copper tape pads on which trigger the sensor. Works a charm. Can be done with any thin metallic item, steel tape is better than copper due to the higher Iron content, Razor Blades and Super (Crazy for you 'muricans) glue works well too.

Yep, I have the same unit but I did my research on the upgrades before buying. I'm not trying to make anyone feel ripped or anything but the only upgrade that is worth anything is the build plate, but not really. seeing the fact that the auto level upgrade is a $5 USD sensor and you could have made the mount, $50 is way too high. The large bed, you do need larger acrylic, heat pad, and aluminum so $60 is justifiable. The "Pro Metal Extruder" is total BS, seeing the fact that you can buy the parts for less than $10 USD, a little cheaper than their $50 upgrade price.

Anyways, the only upgrade I bought was the auto level. I didn't have any major issues except etching the aluminum a few times. I think the construction of the standard size unit is pretty sturdy. The extruder came with a metal carriage which was a surprise seeing the fact that all the pictures it was supposed to be PLA. I used threadlocker on anything that I was not going to be adjusting later on, mostly everything. I took my time with the entire assembly, about 11 hours from opening the box to running (trying to) my first print.

I have to go to work right now and will post more a little later. I just wanted to let others know that I also experienced the Electron Prusa i3 and the wonderful 3dprintersonlinestore support, NOT. They SUCK.

I'll write more later.

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D3

Previously I was writing about my experience with the Electron Prusa i3 Sixth Gen. Like I said I got the standard edition with the one upgrade for the auto level and height. A coworker bought the same but got all 3 upgrades. This was nice since I could do a side by side comparison and like I stated previously, I believe the only cost effective upgrade was the larger bed, everything else could have been bought later on for just a fraction of the cost. BUT I'm a newbie, so I learned like others.

On to other issues. This website and a few others are your only means of legit support, 3dprintersonlinestore is there to sell stuff, and that's it. Firmware and instructions can be found here FILES and STUFF and assembly here ASSEMBLY and USE. I would be happy to post pictures of mine if anyone is interested.

The setup of the auto level is a pain in the butt. I ended up having to drill additional holes using different screws to adjust the level since the original holes placed the nozzle way too high. I ended up with the prox (auto level) at about 1mm difference than the nozzle height. I placed a index card under the nozzle and a piece of the cardboard from the power supply box under the prox. That worked rather than the 2mm that is suggested which made my nozzle etch a nice square on my bed. Battle scars I guess.

My suggestion to FirstAvenger (and others) for your bed is that you can put the screws thru the heatpad and then just use binder clips to hold the aluminum plate in place. Or upgrade to pyrex glass, some people are using a mirror bed instead of glass which resolves the auto level issues with glass. Also, the vortex fan will come on after the nozzle raises .5mm (default) or you can change that to constantly on or whatever height if you want. It is done like that so it will help the adhesion of the plastic to the bed. The square fan is always on when the system is powered up.

Let me know if anyone is interested in pictures. I can take them and post them later today.

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D3

Just ordered the Electron 3D from 3Dprinter online (no upgrades) and looking forward to the challenge of making it work. Thanks for the info and wisdom you folks share here. I'm sure I'll find it very useful as I am brand new to 3D printing.

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rowdyjoe
Just ordered the Electron 3D from 3Dprinter online (no upgrades) and looking forward to the challenge of making it work. Thanks for the info and wisdom you folks share here. I'm sure I'll find it very useful as I am brand new to 3D printing.

With all the headaches I've had with 3dprinter online I'll never deal with them again. I've had to buy way too many parts to replace stuff that was wrong or bad, with little to no support from these guys.

You would probably have been better off with eBay.

Based on pics I've seen online and videos, it appears that the heat bed is generally the same size as the printing bed, be it aluminum or borosilicate.

I purchased the 'large print area' upgrade when I bought this Electron, and the heat element supplied is the same width, but distinctly shorter length than the Aluminum bed supplied.

Am I going to need to purchase a new heating element to match the size of the bed?

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FirstAvenger
Based on pics I've seen online and videos, it appears that the heat bed is generally the same size as the printing bed, be it aluminum or borosilicate.

I purchased the 'large print area' upgrade when I bought this Electron, and the heat element supplied is the same width, but distinctly shorter length than the Aluminum bed supplied.

Am I going to need to purchase a new heating element to match the size of the bed?

Most likely not. I would think it would still be able to handle it. So for the upgrade to the larger bed, they just sent you a longer aluminum bed but not a larger carriage or heat pad ?? So that's what they charged $60 for ?? WOW, never again 3dprintersonlinestore.

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D3

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dburas
So for the upgrade to the larger bed, they just sent you a longer aluminum bed but not a larger carriage or heat pad ?? So that's what they charged $60 for ?? WOW, never again 3dprintersonlinestore.

that is exactly correct.

They sent the same carriage and heat pad as if it had been the so called standard printer. For 60.00, they supplied a 225mm x 290mm piece of aluminum, that had holes out to the corner edges that were nicely counter sunk so that the screws provided would sit nice and flush. However, to fit the standard size bed, there were 4 very sloppy holes drilled to 'match' the holes in the heat plate, said holes were off center and didn't fit properly, and lacked being counter sunk so that the screws provided actually stick up. Looks extremely ugly. Very poorly done.

Also the 'all metal extruder' they advertised was the parts that held the gear and roller that pulls the filamnet through, which a lot of people use ABS for. The bottom metal block should have had 3 holes drilled and tapped for the bolts to secure to the extruder carriage. The block I got has two holes on the left side that were within reason, the third hole, the one on the right, had one hole tapped, which didn't align with the holes in the extruder carriage, and then had a second hole drilled just a fraction to the side, and a different size, making the mounting useless. Because the carriage isn't straight, the extruder doesn't sit flush and is a little off. They charged 50.00 for this nonsense. FYI, I found out later that Newegg sells metal extruder parts for the MK8 for $9.95, as opposed to the 50.00 these ripoffs charge.

And needless to say I was pretty steamed when the auto leveling upgrade they sold for 50.00 could have been purchased on Amazon for 10.00

I had asked for replacements or refund on the parts that were done wrong, and they quit responding after that. Several messages later, no reply from them. To fix the things that should have been right from the start has cost me around 200.00 to date.

Honestly I would advise anyone that is contemplating an inexpensive printer kit to look elsewhere and avoid 3D Printers Online. From other complaints I have seen, this is not a reputable company and the service seems to be universally horrible.

The only plus I take away from this is that I started as a complete noob regarding 3D printers, and got slightly screwed on this deal. But After successfully building, sourcing my own parts to fix the problems and making some modifications to get everything to work, I could source and build a system from scratch without much assistance at this point and no longer need to rely on ripoffs like 3D Printers Online Store.

Further, for what I ended up spending, I could have bought an assembled and ready to run Prusa i3 locally, within driving distance from my house for around just over 600.00 and been printing the same day. Odd as this may sound though, I'm glad I did it this way because now I KNOW every part in detail, how they work and why they work.


On a positive note, Repetier was stupidly simple to set up and get running, but I do need to dig into the manual a little to see about upgrading the version of slic3r it uses to the latest stable release.

Netfabb basic won't run on my machine, but I have other options. for design anyway. Besides using FreeCad, I also use an amazing 3D modeling combination of Modo, a 3D animation/modeling app from the Foundry and an incredible app called MeshFusion which does ridiculously amazing boolean operations and makes 3D fabrication of complex amazingly detailed objects ridiculously simple. MeshFusion only works with Modo and in the last Modo upgrade it is now integrated into Modo instead of a separate package. And yes, the combo is a natural for 3D printing.

Yea, I spoke to my coworker with the same upgrades as you FirstAvenger and his bed was the exact same......hard to believe how much they marked up the upgrades for simple things. Yea I'm glad I got the DIY kit. I do know a lot more now than if I would have bought a out-of-box assembled unit. I'm still trying to figure out my printing issue. The unit prints fine but not where it is supposed to. Everyone says it is the offsets.

Quick question for anyone. On the LCD screen, when you click on Home Axis, I know it goes to the mechanical stops for the axis, but what is the choice right below that option, it says Set Home Offsets ?? When do you click on that. I thought you were supposed to click it when everything was at home not at zero since it zeros it. Help me ??

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D3

Due to all the hassles and additional costs, as well as outright gouging on the upgrades without really telling you what they were for I've opened a dispute with Paypal on this.

So I don't know if I should continue this here, or go to the Migbot threads or whatever.....

Build is done, everything works. I'll still have some modifications to do to fix their crap, but I can do that later. I found a kit for the large bed upgrade already to go which I'll add later.

Anyway, now I am curious about software upgrades. The github page for this printer has CUDA (won't be using), Marlin firmware (several flavors of this) and I'm presuming I want the Marlin firmware that says large bed and auto level, drivers, CDM 2.08.28 or something like that.

AND.....There doesn't seem to be any instructions for any of it.