Couple of basic questions on Sintron Prusa I3

Hello all and a Happy New Year to all.

My first post and a newbie to 3d printing so forgive me if I appear a bit dumb!

I have assembled my Sintron Prusa I3.
I fried the Mega 2560 by connecting the end switch incorrectly (wrong pin - as in I nconnected all 3 wires supplied when instruction specifically tell you not to do this).
It blew the voltage regulator.
Got new Mega 2560 and Ramps 1.4 (Polulus were OK).
Set up and installed the firmware with a few late nights!

Finally got to printing 20mm cube (does everyone print this first??).
I have a few issues with extruder/bed adhesion/quality etc but I am working through these with the help of all the useful posts on this forum.

However, I have a question about the Mega 2560 board.
The voltage regulator feels hot under the board - touchable but definitely hot.
Is this normal?

The printer works OK, the 12864 display is normal.
I just get worried when I feel hot electronics.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Ricky

The voltage regulator converts the supplied 12v to 5v, the 7volts has to go somewhere, it gets turned into heat, how much depends on the current being drawn

a mega + ramps and a 12864 glcd is not the best combination... the 12864 lcd takes to much current. (and too many atmel 2560 cpu cycles)

I would recommend switching to a 2004 lcd or change your electronics to something with a better power supply.


So is it normal, yes. Is it desirable? no, Is it going to last long term? probably not.

I have a similar problem some of the high power devices were in my opinion were getting extremely hot.
Knowing hot is not good for electronics decided to purchase heat sinks for all components that were getting too hot.

The TO-220 devices got a simple bar aluminum bar strap with TO-220 mounting kit. Similar the one that is in a lot of 3D Printers power supplies.





Then I used adhesive fin heat sinks for all the stepper drivers, designed, 3D Printed a controller case connecting cooling fan in parallel with the parts cooling fan.
Do not have design capabilities yet, search Thingiverse most likely is is already designed for you.




Now some may say that all this is an over kill, Oh Well ... Had fun doing it.

---

Computer Programmer / Electronics Technician

Thanks for the fast response Guys.

Dust.
I will order the 2004 lcd and then hold the 12864 in reserve.
In the meantime, is it possible to just disconnect the 12864 and just control the printer via the laptop usb or is the lcd a required item?
Probably a daft question.

Clif.
Thanks for the ideas!
Overkill? I like overkill, belt and braces etc. It can save going back to the same problem and fixing again.

As an aside, I have just printed another cube.
Turned out pretty well really.
Just the starting edge/corner has too much extrusion so maybe too hot or retraction wring or something but I will play with it and sort it.
Great fun!

Preferably, replace the awful Arduino Mega/RAMPS combination by something that was actually designed to run a 3D printer with 12864 display. But there are workarounds, such as replacing the Arduino by a Taurino, or removing diode D1 from the RAMPS and replacing it by 4 diodes connected in series.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Seems as though Sintron has improved it's product since I bought mine.
I had so many problems, it ended up costing me far more than expected. printed parts splitting at the seams. power supply to only 10 amps, and many more. No offer to replace parts.

It might be worth putting a small heat sink on the Arduino's voltage regulator, of course being careful not to short anything. Also,you can probably fix your damaged board by wiring a 7805 voltage regulator and heat sink in place of the blown one, so its worth hanging on to it for a back up. I use such a solution on one of my machines, where the regulator is mounted externally with wires leading in to the board, ensuring adequate cooling. I use the 12864 display with it too. It may be wise to disconnect the display and print tethered until the 2004 display arrives or until you install a heat sink.