And while you're at it... port marlin's implementation of Matthew Roberts advance algorithm... lol!by AphoticJezter - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
One other possible suggestion (and the big thing I'm waiting for before I go back to experimenting with bowden extruders) is the Matthew Roberts advance algorithm which currently is partially supported by the Marlin firmware. It basically introduces spring/pressure modelling into the e axis. It's useful with non-bowden designs, and IMO essential for bowden designs. I don't know what the state oby AphoticJezter - General
Perhaps you have some kind of homing code that is moving your z axis -200 units to find the min endstop? (I'm guessing in start.gcode?)by AphoticJezter - Skeinforge
I've also had a hinged idler de-laminate near the middle. In my case, I was printing at a lower temperature and had frequent de-lamination issues. Once I raised my extrusion temperature these issues have entirely disappeared, and while I'll admit that I haven't likely run the volume through my machine that you would in a 6 month period, I made a point to over tighten to try and make it fail. Sby AphoticJezter - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Hey all, I'm running a stock Prusa Mendel with a custom extruder, and my bushings keep loosening. They remain attached to the x-axis, however they no longer grip the smooth rod tightly. I'm suspecting that this is due to the temperature of the heated bed (Printing ABS on Kapton so I'm heating the bed to 120 C) but I'm wondering if anyone else has seen similar issues. My extruder barrel may beby AphoticJezter - General Mendel Topics
PLA has a very low glass transition temperature. If it warms up to about 50 or 60 degrees Celsius it will tend to swell slightly and will press into the inside walls of your extruder barrel. I'm not familiar with the design of the extruder that the Shapercube uses, but can you check the temperature at the top of the extruder barrel where the PLA is pushed in? I'll bet that the top of the barreby AphoticJezter - Reprappers
Hah, that's what I get for not leaving the Craft module Many thanks mate!by AphoticJezter - Skeinforge
Hey all, Not sure if I just can't find the option anymore... but Skeinforge 38 let me dump statistics about the model to a text file. This file included things like the volume of plastic, the min and max x,y,z coordinates used, as well as projected time to print, etc. Since switching to Skeinforge 40 this file is no longer produced and I can't find any mention of it in the export, or any otherby AphoticJezter - Skeinforge
syncra Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I actually found something interesting, like a > sort of "micro-waving" in the thickness of a thin > wall (this affects the quality of external > straight walls as well). My modified Wade feeds a > bowden cable of nearly 50cm to the hot end. Is it > this spring effect of material in the cable that > cauby AphoticJezter - Skeinforge
One thought about putting your taper in the opening of the nozzle... The nozzle itself being brass will likely be roughly the same temperature, and then above it you will see a (hopefully) sharp gradient from your nozzle temp down as you go up the barrel. The issue I see here, is that your plastic will be warming up before it enters the taper, and if it reaches 40-80 degrees Celsius then it wilby AphoticJezter - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Markus Amsler Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > At low speeds (F<1500 on a belted mendel) or short > moves the problems are hard to see. > With something like G1 F3000 G1 Y0 G1 Y200 you > should hear the steppers running not smoothly, > there are some irregularities in the timers. > Also for close speeds (like F1400 and F1300) you > hear thby AphoticJezter - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
jmgiacalone Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > long bowden tube, (AphoticJester: how is your > bowden tube only 40mm long?!) My bad, it's 400 mm, not 40 (I've edited my original post to reflect this)by AphoticJezter - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Just an addition, when using Skeinforge to produce 5D gcodes (you have to enable the Dimension feature) there is an option for entering how many mm of feedstock to push/pull at the beginning and end of extrusion moves. In my setup, my bowden cable is only about 400mm, but I have this value set to 200 mm. (This value is proportional to he extruded output, not the feedstock input to the extruder)by AphoticJezter - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Just a note about printing on acrylic: I've been doing this with my repstrap, and ABS bonds very well to acrylic. So a properly filled solid layer should be... as you found out... almost impossible to remove. I'd highly recommend printing on a raft. I've had to spend a bit of work tuning the parameters to get the raft to bond well enough to itself to resist warping forces, but once the part isby AphoticJezter - Reprappers
Traumflug Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'd be interested in how you "see" such short > pauses. So far, the sound coming from the motors > is the only indication wether they work proper or Hey Traumflug, I can actually hear it in the motors... when making moves at 500 mm/minute (as per F500 in my move commands). The older firmware produces nice consiby AphoticJezter - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
AphoticJezter Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ... > signals would show worse gaps than I was seeing > with the official firmware, albeit only 2ms > instead of 4 but far more often. I traced this > down to the TICK_TIME (which surprise surprise was > set to 2ms), and changing this to 250 US > eliminated the jitter in the step signals however &by AphoticJezter - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
I just got my printer working. Still tuning software, but have printed a few things and thought the edmonton forum could use a post! Cheers Jesby AphoticJezter - Canada, Edmonton RepRap User Group
Well, as I promised several months ago I'm attaching photos of my modified extruder. This uses a hobbed bolt similar to the one in Wade's extruder. I made a tensioning arm out of a small piece of 1/4 inch sheet metal. A small spring on a guide arm applies the force through the arm which has a bearing bolted to it. Aside from the arm, the rest of the design is unmodified from James's original.by AphoticJezter - General New Machines Topics
Hey all, First I just want to say that I'm very impressed with this firmware. I've tried a few different firmwares trying to find something that will work with my setup (A threaded rod driven "Catalyst" mendel) and have had nothing but problems. I've found that the official firmware consistently has 4ms gaps in the step signals, and it seems to be due to the way the arduino libraries handle seby AphoticJezter - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
Hey james, good to see you around. Thought I would mention that I am now running FiveD on Arduino and have downgraded back to the duemilanove and seem to have everything working. Some calibration is in order, but triffid's branch has got everything needed. I'm hoping he'll be ready for an official release soon. As for the host, replicatorg version 0022 is looking promising. The printer succeby AphoticJezter - General New Machines Topics
Hey all, time for a much overdue update on my progress. The hardware seems to be working well, however finding firmware that performs reliably has had me hung up for a while now. I've found that the Recommended firmware does not run reliably and as a result I started exploring alternatives. The Arduino that comes with this kit, while upgraded to the Atmel 328P does not run the official firmwarby AphoticJezter - General New Machines Topics
Hey all. I'm running with the "Recommended" firmware from James's page, and have just gotten the extruder more or less working. I'm still trying to better understand how to tune the Reprap host software to talk to the catalyst. (Currently running version 20100308) There don't seem to be many settings that apply to the pwm for the heater, and setting the feedrate for the extruder doesn't seemby AphoticJezter - General New Machines Topics
Ok, so I did some reading and matching up the specs in the datasheets and had a couple interesting findings. 1) I goofed when reading the dips. (ok maybe that isn't interesting) The board was actually configured for 1/8th steps and not full steps. It's full stepping that wasn't working, and according to the arduino source, this appears to be as designed. 2) The Z-Axis motors, being hooked upby AphoticJezter - General New Machines Topics
I found a datasheet that's pretty close to those steppers here The 103H548-5040 seems to be the closest, however the resitance of the coils is a bit off. I haven't had the chance to tune my controller board yet, but hopefully in the next day I'll get to and post my results. Jesby AphoticJezter - General New Machines Topics
I did actually try reversing one pair. That made no difference in how it worked when set to full stepping, and no difference to how it didn't work at any other fraction of full stepping. The entire kit is assembled, with the exception of the extruder. None of the motors are loose, and I'm not sure that they'd be binding if they all function the same at full stepping. I'm going to check the arby AphoticJezter - General New Machines Topics
No go, all 3 axes are already hooked up, and they all behave the same way unless I have them at full step. Just a loud buzz, with no motion. I've tried all other stepping options, but haven't tried adjusting the current or PFD yet. As I said, these are still set to the board's default. I presume we all got the same steppers, 1.6 ohm, 1.8 deg/stepby AphoticJezter - General New Machines Topics
Hey all, I've got the bot assembled, but I'm not quite sure about getting the steppers hooked up & tuned. I have the Z axis motors hooked up to the driver board in parallel, and the driver board is still configured to defaults (as per the manual) What's odd, is the test software doesn't move the axes unless I have the board set to full stepping (even though the arduino firmware I'm using fby AphoticJezter - General New Machines Topics
Hey all, I too am a part of this great saga of ordering a catalyst mendel. Everything looked good, as I received prompt email responses from James including confirmation of my payment. After 8 weeks of no contact, I started emailing to inquire as to the status of my order. Over the span of 2 weeks I sent 3 emails, and finally received a response to my third saying little more than that my kitby AphoticJezter - For Sale