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General discussions. For specific printers / electronics / fabrication methods / softwares, please see other sections.
Re: Shortage of filament? - 13 years ago
Anyone have experience with "Zen Toolworks" PLA from Amazon? It's available again. The Amazon reviews are mixed, but with free shipping (Amazon prime) and $37/KG, significantly less expensive than Ultimachines. Is Zen Toolworks PLA adequate or is it garbage and really worth have the cost of Ultimachines? I don't want to spend money on garbage filament, but I'm also on a budget and $37/KG souby cobrageek - General
Shortage of filament? - 13 years ago
I've been browsing around for my first batch of PLA filament and it seems like a lot of places are really short of stock. I see a lot of "currently unavailable" or "temporariliy out of stock". Even Amazon is virtually out of filamanet. I'm looknig for decent quality PLA 1.75mm in the US and it's looking like it may be difficult to find.by cobrageek - General
Re: ATX power supply and Sanguinololu controller - 13 years ago
Thanks for the tips brnrd. Is there a way to power the Sanguinololu electronics with the +5V supply but feed the +12V for all the mosfets and controls? That would help slightly reduce the load on the 12V supply but also provide that minimal load on the +5V that ATX supplies require. I'm just not sure how or if it can be done. Thanks, Bretby cobrageek - General
Re: Mendel - X-ends upside down? - 13 years ago
Yeah, I was thinking about doing that at some point too. You would have to replace all of the vertices so that the upper bars are at a different angle, but then the whole extruder could fit between the top bars and get another few cms of Z height. But taking the X ends off is easier and less of a back track that taking the whole frame apart. Maybe just redoing the extruder to be a bit thinnerby cobrageek - General
Re: ATX power supply and Sanguinololu controller - 13 years ago
James, I'm not sure if 18A is for all the 12V's or just the high current one. It's just listed as 18A on the label for the 450W ATX supply. On the Sanguinilolu how do I wire up the different supplies? If I do the trace bypassing idea, I guess I can take the high current supply and tie it into the bypass to the heater bed. Then use the other 12V supply(s) for the main supply connection. Isby cobrageek - General
Re: ATX power supply and Sanguinololu controller - 13 years ago
Thanks brnrd. That sounds like the direction I was going. It's good to have confirmation. Nice to be clear on the tip for bypassing the traces on the heated bed for the sanguinololu board. Sounds like I should be in good shape with the ATX supply then. -Bretby cobrageek - General
Re: Mendel - X-ends upside down? - 13 years ago
Thanks Dale. I think I'll take your advice about getting it working in the normal configuration, but there's always the temptation to fiddle with things :-). I think there are some X designs that will make it easier to do the flip so I'll probably just pring those and then do the flip.by cobrageek - General
Re: ATX power supply and Sanguinololu controller - 13 years ago
It's interesting the conflicting information I'm getting on power supply. The PCB is 1 to 1.2 ohms so it should be around 10-12A when heating. On the Sanguinololu page it suggests wiring a bypass for the traces for the heated bed because the board can't handle it. They also suggest a heat sink for the FET (I'll scrounge one from the lab or make one our of some scrap aluminum I have). So I'm gby cobrageek - General
Re: Mendel - X-ends upside down? - 13 years ago
I checked with the exruder in place and the big gear was close to one of the top rods but actually went between the rods if the belt didn't hit the side bar first. That's for my setup anway. I'm not sure but I think it's a greg's modification to the basic wade's extruder. I'm also playing with the print bed to get the maximum Z-height. I think the configuration I'm going with is the smooth Yby cobrageek - General
Re: Sanguinololu connectors - 13 years ago
Thanks Xiando. I am in the US so the digikey link is probably what I need. I'm hoping the guy I bought it from has them somewhere adn they just got lost after he stopped working on the kit. But if I can't find them I'll head to digikey (assuming I can't scrounge some from the scarp heap in the lab at work).by cobrageek - General
Re: Sanguinololu connectors - 13 years ago
OK, thanks guys. I'll check with the craig's list seller to see if he has found them. Otherwise I may have to find some somewhere.by cobrageek - General
Sanguinololu connectors - 13 years ago
I have a kit I picked up off of Cragslist (if you can't tell from all the questions). It came with Sanguinololu electronics and some wire. It also has some connectors that work with the 5 stepper motors, but the only things I can find that might be for the sanguinololu side of the wiring were these strange connectors. I can see that one side is where the wire comes in and you crimp down on tby cobrageek - General
Re: Mendel - X-ends upside down? - 13 years ago
I analyzed the standard carriage for the prusa 2 that I have and it looks like I should be able to shorten the belt clamp blocks just up to the first hole, then drill a new hole for the M3 bolt and use the original bolt hole for the outside. Of course, moving the blocks to the underneath side with the carriage still on top. With the belts I have there still should be sufficient room for the belby cobrageek - General
Re: Plate to support the Heated PCB? - 13 years ago
I was thinking of some kind of fibre glass insulation, but it's typically not thin enough. But basic fiberglass mat is a good idea. I was also considering finding some insulation that they use under the carpets in cars. It should be pretty thin and I assume flame resistant. Any other ides?by cobrageek - General
Re: Extruder fan controller on a Sanguinololu? - 13 years ago
That's a good idea. So when the print head is home or on the very first layer the fan will be off. Otherwise it will run. Nice. I may have to copy your nice idea. Thanks for sharing, Bretby cobrageek - General
Re: Mendel - X-ends upside down? - 13 years ago
I think I found a post about this on Thingiverse: In this case he had a different setup which had a symetric extruder carriage so I think he just flipped it over to get the mount points for the belt. My carriage (I believe the standard Prusa2) isn't symetric so I need to rework the belt clamp setup to be on the bottom without conflicting with the X-rods. I'll play with it when I get to thatby cobrageek - General
Re: Mendel - X-ends upside down? - 13 years ago
Dale, can you provide a link to the example of someone doing this from a few weeks ago? I'd really like to do it on my system but I'm not sur what to do with the main carriage piece. Thanks, Bretby cobrageek - General
Re: Plate to support the Heated PCB? - 13 years ago
Thanks for the links brnrd. I like the looks of the plate that holds directly to the linear bearings. I may have to make such a modification on mine. If you don't have springs, do you just use a nut to hold the bottom of the PCB and then lock them at the right hight to do the leveling? So it's positioned just the same but doesn't have the springy-ness? Maybe the springs just needed to be sby cobrageek - General
Re: Plate to support the Heated PCB? - 13 years ago
Having an insulation layer does make sense. Cardboard seems really combustable. Is it really OK? I saw one recommendation for wool and that sounds good. Maybe I'll use some other fire resistant cloth and washer/nuts for spacers. It's interesting the several instruction pages show putting the MDF right next to the PCB (like ). brnrd, the kit is indeed a Prusa2 came with the frame mostly puby cobrageek - General
Re: Plate to support the Heated PCB? - 13 years ago
Thanks Waitaki. I like the MDF idea. I think I'll cut a piece of MDF (1/4") and attach the PCB to the MDF with the corner holes and then put glass on top similar to your setup. I think I'll suspend the MDFabove the Y base plate with the standard bolt/spring setup. Thanks, Bretby cobrageek - General
Re: ATX power supply and Sanguinololu controller - 13 years ago
Thanks. I am getting some conflicting information. If you look at the Heated bed PCB page it says the following ( ): Sanguinolou The MK2 PCB heatbed heats up to 110C when powered through the heated bed connection on Sanguinolou, your power supply should be 300W and ensure your wires from your power supply to the Sanguinololu should be capable of handling the total draw of 20A+. Using a 300W Aby cobrageek - General
Re: Extruder fan controller on a Sanguinololu? - 13 years ago
Thanks Possenier. I don't have the original product it was just in a pile of scrap. I like the idea of starting with 9V and seeing how it operates. Thanks for the idea. -Bretby cobrageek - General
Re: Plate to support the Heated PCB? - 13 years ago
Any advice on this? What do all of you run to support your print surface? Thanks, Bretby cobrageek - General
Re: Mendel - X-ends upside down? - 13 years ago
I just played around with turning the X ends upside down and it would work but it will take some modification of the extruder carriage settup. The belt attachment needs to go down a little farther and and then those conflict with some of the structure of the carriage. It's certainly doable but it'll take more fiddling than I want to do right now. So for the initial build I'm going to stick witby cobrageek - General
Re: Extruder fan controller on a Sanguinololu? - 13 years ago
Thanks for all the ideas. The fan hack looks interesting, but sounds pretty complicated with all the firmware issues and such. The fan controller looks promising but I'll probably start by just directly wiring it. I have a fan that I swiped from a small heat sink but I don't know if it's 5V or 12V and I can't find anything on it that indicates. Any ideas on how I can tell short of just pluggiby cobrageek - General
Re: ATX power supply and Sanguinololu controller - 13 years ago
Ah, that makes some sense. Bummer. I really don't want to have to use 2 power supplies for this. Seems a little silly and I'd have to find a second ATX power supply. What power supply would you recommend? Would something like this work: Thanks for helping me avoid a mistake. -Bretby cobrageek - General
Re: Ceramic heater for extruder nozzle? - 13 years ago
Thanks Atom01. That would seem to lend an advantage to the ceramic heater. I take it then that you can use the ceramic heater or the resistor with the same electircals and configuration setup? -Bretby cobrageek - General
Re: Mendel - X-ends upside down? - 13 years ago
Ah, I get it now. Line up the motor shaft and the threaded rod, but don't pin down the lower part of the rod. That makes sense as the X-axis linear bearings should keep it aligned at the point of the print, but the bottom of the rods might wiggle around. If you pin them down then any warping in the threaded rods will be forced to shift the print bed around. Thanks for the great newbie adviceby cobrageek - General
Re: Mendel - X-ends upside down? - 13 years ago
Thanks Dale. I'll turn them over to get more Z-height :-). This is my first printer. Thanks for the tip on the Z axis screws. The kit came with the plastic couplers but I've seen others that have metal ones with spring sections and the reprappro kit uses flexible tubing and clamps. Why do you need this flexibility on the Z-axis drives? (Please just post the link if there is a big discussionby cobrageek - General
Ceramic heater for extruder nozzle? - 13 years ago
I just acquired a mendel kit and it included a 20W ceramic heater insted of a heating resistor to heat up the extruder nozzle. It's about the same size as the heating resistor so it fits in the same hole, but both wires come out of the same end and it has a metal cylender around it. Has anyone tried such a ceramic heater? Will it work exactly the same as the heating resistor? Would I need tby cobrageek - General