I think the price is fair, but I'm not a huge fan of the Wade's reloaded extruder. It's big and requires a lot of space, and I'm not particularly fond of the idler/tensioner system. That said, it works well on the TAZ, and it's certainly a usable and popular design.by TheSerialHobbyist - General
I like the Buda, it works really well and is pretty reliable. That said, I think the design has some faults. I chose not to use one with my DIY TAZ. They work really nicely when they're working, but are big, can't get particularly hot, and have potential for clogging. I also don't particularly like the E3D that I purchased to use instead. I haven't been able to get it to extrude reliably, and haby TheSerialHobbyist - General
Yup, absolutely. That's what I did. My heat bed uses like 30A, so I have about 8 wires grouped together for the heat bed, and 2 grouped together for the RAMPS board. Basically, take the total amp rating of your PSU on the 12V rail, and divide it by the number of yellow wires. So if it's 30A and there are 10 wires, you'd get 3A per wire. Since your heat bed needs 11A, use at least 4 wires for thaby TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but if you're slicing in Slic3r, then all you have to do is rotate your .STL in Slic3r. You just rotate is on the X or Y axis to flip it.by TheSerialHobbyist - General
In your situation then, the Prusa i3 wood frame seems like it would be perfect. You could build it with what you have, and will be able to use a lot of the parts you already have. As far as the TAZ, they only sell a built one right now (although they're coming out with a kit soon). But it's open source, so you can DIY it. That's what I did, total build cost was about $750. But you'd have to buyby TheSerialHobbyist - General
I think it really depends on what you want out of it, and what tools you have at your disposal. For instance: how big of a print volume you want (and can achieve with your steppers, heatbed, PSU, etc.), how portable you want it to be, how professional/finished you want it to look, how sturdy/rigid you want it to be, etc. As far as tools at your disposal: do you have a 3d printer to print parts?by TheSerialHobbyist - General
I just went ahead and pulled apart the wiring and used a drill to quickly twist each pair of endstop wires (didn't bother with the stepper wires). It seems to be working fine now, even with the endstop wires running in the same bundle as the stepper wires (and all wires are unshielded). It seems twisting really is a useful technique!by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
I was actually thinking about using cat5 if I had to rewire them (which I think I'll go ahead and do). I sure wish I had thought about that when I did the wiring the first time! It's going to be a pain to redo it all...by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
If you're still looking for info, I just posted my review here:by TheSerialHobbyist - General
I'll double check to make sure the internal pullups are on (I'm pretty sure they are). I think I've got a logic analyzer laying around somewhere, so I'll see if I can find it. As far as adding a resistor, I would think it would need to be a pull down resistor since it's wired for normally open and getting false triggers?by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Hey guys! So I just finished building my DIY TAZ, and it's printing well. But homing isn't working that well. The when homing, it often stops short of the endstops (on all axes). I suspect cross talk to be the issue, as I didn't do anything special with the wiring (like braiding). I'm using RAMPS 1.4, basic mechanical endstops, and have it wired for normally open. Is there a simple solution to tby TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Woah, that looks really, really cool! Seriously awesome! I can totally see that being useful for fixing small g-code problems manually, for when the automatic slicing just doesn't want to cooperate. Good work, I'm extremely impressed!by TheSerialHobbyist - General
Thanks! I went ahead and got an Ultimachine RAMPS board. I finished building the printer, so I'll be doing the electronics/wiring over the next day or two.by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Ah, okay, I'll switch the firmware to bang-bang.by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
ATX PSUs should actually improve as they get more load (from what I understand), and need at least a minimal load to work at all.by TheSerialHobbyist - RAMPS Electronics
I think you need fast switching for the PWM for PID temperature control (at least that's my understanding).by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Well, from what NoobMan was saying, that's not ideal because it slows things down.by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Okay, I'll check that when I get home (shorting the probes). I mean, it's a pretty huge bed, and the description said it needed a lot of current, so I wasn't too surprised (I thought it would be 20-25A). Not a big deal though, I already ordered the ATX power supply, which I think will work better anyway.by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Ultimachine seems to be a good choice. I bought this package: It came with a real Arduino and an Ultimachine RAMPS board.by TheSerialHobbyist - General
Fun new problem: I got the heatbed in last night and measured the resistance, and it's .4 ohms! At 12V, that's 30A/360W, which exactly what my power supply is rated for. Which means I need to add an additional power supply to power the board, steppers, hotend, etc. or find a more powerful power supply. Edit: went ahead and ordered a ATX PSU that's 480W and can deliver 40A on the 12V rail, whichby TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Cool, sounds like a plan, I'll report back with the results when I have them!by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Awesome, thank you! You're right, there isn't any reason to solder a wire from the + terminal to the other + terminal. I think I'll just go ahead and use the wire for the - terminal > source pin and drain pin > negative, just in case. I'm not sure if those traces can handle the current, and it's pretty easy to add the wire. Should a 10AWG wire do the job?by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Ah, okay, I see. So if STP55NF06L is the MOSFET on my board (it's an Ultimachine board, I'll check the MOSFET on it when I get home), then by far the easiest solution would be to: Solder wire from + input terminal to + output terminal Solder wire going from - input terminal to onboard MOSFET source Solder wire going from MOSFET drain to - output terminal Is that right? If so, that's pretty darby TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Here is a simpler diagram of what I'm thinking:by TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Thanks for that thorough explanation! Unfortunately, I'm still not following 100%. I had already ordered this MOSFET: I'm pretty sure that one should be able to handle the current and voltage with no problems. When I ordered it, I was planning on using the heatbed output from the board as the gate for a circuit like this: Obviously the motor stuff would be replaced with the heatbed. Butby TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Thanks for the reply! This is the board I ordered: I haven't received it yet, but I'll measure the resistance when I get it. But the add says I'll probably need a relay (and I've read that elsewhere for large boards). So what's limiting the current on the RAMPS 1.4 board to 10A? Is it just the MOSFET that's built into the board that can't handle more than 10A? If so, maybe I can just desolderby TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Hey guys! So I'm building a DIY Taz, and I'm trying to figure out how to properly hookup the heatbed to the RAMPS 1.4 board. The heatbed is 12"x12" and 12V, and it will be connected to a regular RAMPS 1.4 board. The power supply is 12V, 360W, 30A. I've read that the RAMPS board can't supply the necessary current to run the heatbed (supposedly at least 15A), and that I need to wire it via a relby TheSerialHobbyist - Controllers
Well, I haven't noticed any of those problems. I printed for a few hours in PLA, and didn't get any leaking. I also haven't noticed any slop caused by the bearings. Those IGUS bearings are actually more expensive than standard LM10UU ball bearings, so I imagine they did it because they think they perform better. Personally, I haven't had any problems at all and love the thing. I've probably prinby TheSerialHobbyist - General
I have a Taz 4 I'm currently testing for a review I'll be posting soon. I can say it's awesome and I love it. But is there something specific you wanted to know about it? I've posted a first print and unboxing videos on YouTube.by TheSerialHobbyist - General