I've been following this thread with interest, and am now amassing parts to make my second Mendel as a prism. I've got an Azteeg X3 and a new heated bed on pre-order, and will start sourcing in the motors and endswitches in a couple weeks. Has anybody tried, or thought of using extrusions as axis ways, instead of smooth rod?by Circuits - General Mendel Topics
Dirty Steve Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Are there any issues keeping the two Z-axis > steppers in sync, with the TB6560 or other > controllers? Have searched but haven't found it as > a major issue. Wired in series, and with sufficient current, they rarely seem to get out of sync. You can and still should check your alignments and setups periodicby Circuits - General Mendel Topics
Plaster is probably too brittle to clamp mild steel for this purpose. I have low temp moldable plastic (brand name instamorph) and fixturing alloy on hand I'd be using. Given the part is metal, some resin should work for you, then simply heat the part to burn or slough it off when done. I doubt you'll be able to get tape concentric enough for good threads, though.by Circuits - General
Odd shaped or thin walled parts often get a fixture cast around them to enable clamping and properly support the piece. There are low-temp, usually reusable metal alloys called fixturing alloys specifically for this purpose. Plastic or plaster might be usable for you for this purpose as well. Presuming the shaft you wish to thread is clampable, fixture the other side of the piece and turn it cby Circuits - General
Read the wiki articles here, and ask questions. There are some books out or coming out, check your local libraries. I dont think $650 will get you a complete kit anywhere, but should be enough to buy all the parts piecemeal, if you shop smart. You should be able to stay completely on debian/linux if you want. I ended up getting a complete kit from reprappro.com in the UK, which was $750 incluby Circuits - General
I've been in contact with RepRapPro about my z-axis problem, and they are sending me a new melzi board under warranty.by Circuits - General Mendel Topics
I can only suggest you verify that the switches are wired to the correct terminals, so their unactivated condition is a closed circuit, which opens when they are contacted. Then verify that your leads are connected to the proper terminals on the controller board, and verify the switch operation at the terminals. If they're still not working, then it's down to bad connections on the controller bby Circuits - General Mendel Topics
I can tell you what I got in my kit, if that would help. You can also reverse-engineer the parts list from the build instructions, more or less. Each build subsection has a mostly-complete parts manifest at its top. I say mostly-complete, because it does not necessarily list the exact size of each bolt, screw or nut for each step, though it's pretty good about it.by Circuits - General Mendel Topics
With the e-stepper controller adjusted to .42V, it fires both the extruder and z-motors just fine, so it's not a current or voltage limitation, but thanks for the suggestion. I hooked the z-motors to the e-stepper and was able to traverse them up and down multiple times from the command line, so there's no physical or electrical problems with the motors, just the z-stepper or its control lines.by Circuits - General Mendel Topics
I ran some tests on the extruder, and marked down with a sharpie all the points where it was having stoppages. Then I disassembled the extruder gearing, and hit all the teeth with a small needle file on both the stepper motor and extruder head gear wheels. Took about three tries, but after that that, it cycled smoothly through mutiple 200mm extrusion commands without stopping or jamming. Nextby Circuits - General Mendel Topics
Oh, and the extruder works - was just being gated from pronterface by not being heated. When I brought hotend and hotbeds up to temp, the extruder controller works. The gears don't mesh well, but that's a different issue.by Circuits - General Mendel Topics
So, I been checking things out, and ended up ringing out all the traces between the atmega and the stepper controllers to make sure there were no bad traces on the board. These melzis (reprappro.com parts) are wired differently than the schematic I found online, but all the signals are there, and get routed. Now I'm trying to access the device from a programming environment in order to manuallyby Circuits - General Mendel Topics
Story to date is available in my other post here but the short of it is that my z-axis and extruder motors are not responsive to commands from pronterface on my reprappro.com mendel kit build. I pulled the motor controller wires for each and attached them to the x-axis stepper controller, and was able to verify the motors themselves work, and are responsive in both directions. This means the z-by Circuits - General Mendel Topics
Got it assembled and passed the first smoke test. x and y axes are fine under pronterface, z is stone cold and unresponsive, while e is a bit warm and unresponsive. More details in my thread in the Mendel subforum for those interested. Anyone have any suggestions on debugging my z and e motor problems?by Circuits - Reprappers
Build Day 11: about four hours. Completed routing all the wires. Took some time to wire up the hot end fan, which I'd neglected during the hot end assembly. Began final length checking, trimming, stripping, tinning and wiring all the connectors. Passed all the wiki wiring tests, so I plugged it up to one of my PCs (after d/ling and installing all python packages). Plugged in the USB - recogby Circuits - General Mendel Topics
Build Day 10: Spliced the z-axis motors, and wired up the axis endswitches. Wiki instructions claimed there would be enough slack from cutting off the routed motor wires at the controller board, with slack, to effect the endswitch wiring, but that was not the case in my build. I scavenged some old phone wire from my electronics/parts stash to wire the x- and z-axis endswitches, and spliced somby Circuits - General Mendel Topics
Build Day 9: put together the power supply. Supposed to be a 110/220 switchable, but it's not. I can see the solder pads for the switch so i make and install some 110 jumpers and cross my fingers. It lights up and tests out ok, so I proceed to the general wiring. Got the PCB installed, and about 2/3 of the wire runs laid out before calling it an evening. Still have to splice the Z motors togeby Circuits - General Mendel Topics
Build Day 8: about three hours so far. Well, I remembered I had an old external drive enclosure with a temp probe on it, so I went and salvaged that thermistor for my build. It's about 8.5kohm, so I'll have to wait and see if that's within acceptable adjustment range, or just eventually replace it when the 10k I ordered finally arrives. I quickly finished up the heated bed assembly, and installby Circuits - General Mendel Topics
I ordered one of the RepRapPro Mendel kits back in April, and have been eagerly awaiting its arrival. It got here Tuesday, 5/29, and I've been working most evenings on putting it together since. Build Day 1: Spent about five hours total, and got to end of assembling the basic box frame - the two triangles and the six crossbars. Kit arrived, and I took about an hour looking over the pieces andby Circuits - General Mendel Topics
Hello all. Recently got a RepRapPro Mendel kit in, and I've been putting it together. Looking forward to getting it running and enjoying the possibilities of solid printing and rapid prototyping it makes possible. Circs.by Circuits - Reprappers