Can anyone tell me if these motors are powerfull enough for a Prusa or are they barely usable? I bought 5 of them and wired them up and they will move the axis but not easily. If i turn the trim pots up beyond about 25% the motors get screaming hot and doesnt seem to make any difference in motor torque. I have not found any literature instructing how to correctly set motors and drivers beyondby GITRDUN - General
I found the problem, just didnt post it, my bad. The problem turned out to be the fan blowing to much air on the hot end and cooling it to fast. I forgot that i had opened up my fans nozzle to allow more air to blow. After disconnecting the fan it works fine everytime. I just have to make sure the fan is not running when the print is started, once its started the fan can run and the hot end wilby GITRDUN - General
I am using the hot end from my Makergear kit and a wades extruder. I made my extruder from PLA but the Makergear nozzle mount plate wont fit the wades extruder without some modification thats why im trying to make my own mounting plate. I think if i had used ABS for the extruder it wouldnt be a problem. I checked the temp of the mounting plate after 30minutes of printing and if i recall correctlyby GITRDUN - General
I have the PTFE and PEEK and have my design cad drawn and ready to machine. Does anyone know what type of plywood is used for most adapter plates, my Makergear kit came with a very hard ply and works great. I have tried balsa ply and aluminum neither of which worked for me. The aluminum transfers to much heat to the base of my extruder which causes it to soften and or warp.by GITRDUN - General
I use the makergear plastruder and had serious problems trying to tweak in the retract settings on it. I ended up at 1.75mm and a speed of 7mm/sec for retraction. If its not set right you will get either voids from plastic not coming out on restart or blobs from the extruder slipping during retraction. I hate running it that slow but any faster and i have problems. If you suspect the retract isby GITRDUN - General
With that said i certainly will use it then. I would assume the reason for using PEEK for the insulator is its heat resistance, but any metal should also have great enough heat resistance. So i assume using the PEEK helps to prevent the heat from soaking in and transferring into the parts higher up such as the mounting plate? Is that correct. Anyone tried using standard yellow brass with lots oby GITRDUN - General
The PEEK insulator should provide a slippery surface for the filament shouldnt it? Im just not understanding what the purpose is of lining the PEEK insulator with a PTFE tube rather than just drill the right sized hole in the PEEK and leave out the PTFE. If its absolutely necessary i will certainly use it.by GITRDUN - General
Im getting ready build my hot end for my second prusa so i am assembling the parts needed and getting ready to machine but i have a few questions. I have a question about the PTFE liner that is used in the J-head nozzles on the wiki page. Is it really necessary? What purpose does it have beyond preventing leaks? Does it insulate the filament from the hot metal sides of the drilled hole in theby GITRDUN - General
I have a Prusa with the Mega 2560 board and ramps but i am seriously thinking about trying the Sangui and stepstick drivers out on my second printer i have mostly built. I just cant figure out why everyone isnt using the Sangui board instead of the mega's. Its much cheaper from what i can see. So what gives? I am looking to print only with PLA and no heated bed. Is there a reason to go with the hby GITRDUN - Sanguino(lolu)
Call me crazy but i didnt really think the pricing on the filament was crazy high. I manage a 20+ machines CNC machine shop and purchase plastics all the time mostly for parts going into the food industry. Plastics are a very expensive material to start with compared to metals, and when you add one extra operation to get from bulk plastic pellets to high tolerence filament the price is probably mby GITRDUN - General
Slic3r has a z lift parameter that will lift Z before it moves to the XY start point to print. I think with some tweaking and tuning this also could be used to get out of the backlash area on the Z axis for the first layers. I probably will try it but it will take some fine measuring to get it correct.by GITRDUN - General
Yes i got it running fine and i am more than satisfied with the quality of the kit, especially the extruder and hot end. I print regularly at 120mm/sec and im sure i could go faster but im a bit worried about the amount of inertia being generated when you get to fast. Ya the instructions for the MakerGear were online, im sure most are as its much easier to make a master copy and upload it thanby GITRDUN - General
. I use this fan design on mine. Its somewhat adjustable, and to get max cooling cut the front off of the nozzle to open it up as the designer aparently didnt calculate the fan sweep area to figure the correct nozzle diameter. But like aplavins said be sure to insulate the hot end or it will suck the heat right out of it in a hurry.by GITRDUN - Printing
I might try some weights on mine, im always game for an easy fix. I love your Mendel 90 design, thats the simplest design ive seen yet.by GITRDUN - General
I bought the Makergear prusa kit version as my first printer, i had 0 knowledge about 3d printing other than what i had read and basic common knowledge. And by kit version i mean a real do it yourself, the ramps board was only about 50% put together, i had to get on the net and figure out where all the rest of the chips and such were suposed to be soldered onto the board. My advice is, dont buy aby GITRDUN - General
What are the techniques everyone uses to deal with Z axis backlash? The only time the Z axis changes direction is after homing out and then running the first layer which ive had alot of headaches from. The first layer prints fine but layer 2 sometimes just drags across the top of the first layer and then the third layer starts to get better but its usually layer four when everything settels inby GITRDUN - General
I have to get some prototype prints ran out for a customer as im a little behind shedule but ill play with it some more in a day or two and see exactly what the problem is. Ill post back when i get the riddle completely solved.by GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
Ok, gotcha. Ive stared at that setting a few times and read the comment about untested and could be disastrous and moved on. I might play with it at some point. Whatever the issue it certainly has to do with the fan. A bit ago i was running a print and it turned on the fan for bridging and a minute or so later the temp had dropped to 85C and was still dropping. It ruined the print and i stopped iby GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
I have no idea what the PID coefficients are, youre over my head but that aint sayin much. Its back to working so ill just change the slic3r cooling settings and live with it. Thanks for the help.by GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
I know theres not an auto mode. I have a hard time explaining things clearly so i was just using that statement as a reference to pushing the print button vs typing in commands and sending them. I think i may have the problem solved. I read your post about a fan running and decided to turn off my fan. Whoala, it printed the first time i tried it. So i then turned the fan on using m106 s255, theby GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
Thats what im not getting here. Manually sending the commands seems to work fine but when you let it heat up in auto mode it dont get there. I do have a fan that runs non stop but no heated bed. I am going to try the default settings in slic3r and see if it does anything different with the G-code. I dont know what else to try at this point.by GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
I just tried running a print after successfully setting temps using M104 and M109 and it still wont hit the target temp in auto mode. This is crazy.by GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
I just noticed you stated - "When you set it in Pronterface I expect it sends M104. When building I expect it uses M105 to set the temperature and wait." Looking at the G-code for a sliced file it uses M109 to set the temp and wait. Not M105. I didnt try M105 i tried M109. Was that a typo?by GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
I tried setting temps in Pronterface using M104 and M109 as you said and each time i tried it worked for both. I then set it using the set temp button and it worked as well. Heck i dont even know where to start looking. I checked all my settings in Sprinter and nothing looks amiss. What do you mean by "Or perhaps just increase the I term a bit." ? What is the I term?by GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
I just tried setting it in pronterface about 5c high so i could start a print and it did not reach temp. Stopped exactly 2c below the target temp as it does in auto mode. Im about to pull my hair out with this thing..by GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
I posted this in the general forum but have no responses so im trying here as i suspect the problem could be hardware or firmware related. I am using Pronterface, slic3r, and sprinter. Have a mega 2560 board with ramps 1.4 . When i load a file in pronterface and hit print, it homes as it should then starts heating up. When it gets to within 2C below the target temp it will stop heating up anby GITRDUN - RAMPS Electronics
So here i go again. I connected to my laptop that i use to run the printer with and same problem. Stops within 2 degrees of target temp and will go no higher. So i disconected and hooked up to my cad-cam computer and it did the same thing. So its not the computers, its definately something with my firmware or hardware. What the heck could cause this?by GITRDUN - General
I fought this problem all day. Still have no resolution. I re-downloaded Pronterface, same problem. I re-downloaded Sprinter and uploaded the firmware and again, same problem. So i connected the printer to my cad-cam computer and whoala, it ran fine first try. I only had time to run one print so i didnt get a chance to retry multiple times to see if it worked consistently or not. But once again iby GITRDUN - General
I just ran a print and it wouldnt go, so i stopped everything, i manually set the target temp to 185C and when it reached the temp i hit print. It loaded the file and then took off and printed just fine. Just wont reach target temp in auto mode.by GITRDUN - General
Ok i have another weird problem. I am using Pronterface and Slic3r 8.2 and Sprinter firmware. Never had this problem before so i dont know whats going on here. If i connect to printer with pronterface and set the temp to say 170C it will heat up to temp just fine. If i load a sliced g-code file and hit print, it will heat up to about 2 degrees below the target temp and then drop a degree or twby GITRDUN - General