Quotedc42Whereas on the Smart Effector the signal from the strain gauge is measured in microvolts, so we do need the op amp. I never realised a length of PCB track could become a usable strain gauge as you've done with your touch sensor. Nice idea and application ! I guess as the PCB is ever so slightly deformed when the nozzle touches the bed, the lower layer PCB tracks expand ever so slightlyby Pippy - General
QuoteDust Unfortunately you get what you pay for you pay bottom dollar, you get shoddy not checked gear.. the Chinese are just catering to the demand. Yes I know Dust. I just having a rant is all, and hopefully adding a little awareness to the community of what can be the cause of your malfunctioning boards. The problems were easily fixed, just that most people wouldn't know where to start etby Pippy - Controllers
QuoteMKSA Anyway, why not to use the ADC of the controller and do all level, filtering in firmware ? Just one OP Amp and protection in the front. Look how DC42 did it in his smart effector. I too thought this ! Using a little CPU should have made most of that analogue op-amp circuitry obsolete. You don't even need an op-amp before the ADC, just a little RC filtering and diode protection. The sby Pippy - General
Test the thermistor on it's own with a multimeter set to resistance, What's it's resistance at room temp and also when you place it between your fingers ?by Pippy - RAMPS Electronics
I wonder what it is you're trying to do with the outputs of U3C and U3D (see attached image) ? Looks like you're trying to combine the outputs but very unsuccessfully. The output of U3D will have no effect (depending on the value of R4).by Pippy - General
Just a little rant about the total lack of Q.C with goods from AliExpress.China. Here's a couple of photos of the MKS Gen v1.4 board. The X stepper motor driver DIR, EN and STEP pins were all shorted together due to the SMT resistor pack being soldered halfway across all of it's PCB pads, not suprisingly resulting in the X stepper motor doing strange things (mostly not moving though). Also, theby Pippy - Controllers
QuoteShreks donkeySo is the TMC2208_STANDALONE mode even doing anything when the chips haven't been programmed ? Changing the stepper motor from "A4988" to "TMC2208_STANDALONE" constant does nothing but set the "MINIMUM_STEPPER_DIR_DELAY" constant to "20" elsewhere in the firmware. So .. #if HAS_TRINAMIC #define HOLD_MULTIPLIER 0.5 // Scales down the holding current from run currentby Pippy - Controllers
I have a similar setup - Marlin 2, 4 * TMC2208 and 1 * LV8729 running on 8-bit ATmega2560. I've set the 4 TMC stepper drivers to TMC2208_STANDALONE and the jumpers on the PCB to 16 micro stepping. The drivers need no programming at all and operate in StealthChop2 mode in standalone mode - unless you have previously (and irreversibly) programmed them in SpreadCycle mode. What PSU voltage are youby Pippy - Controllers
QuoteMKSA Too bad it is closed source because the hardware has some potential. Very true !by Pippy - Controllers
Quotedc42 What are you printing that needs a bed temperature of 170C? Silicone heaters are reliable at the more common bed temperatures of 50C to 120C. I've no idea how reliable they are at 170C. The rated temperature is typically 250C to 300C. We don't need 170C, it was just a first switch on test to see how it heated up is all. At least we know we have spare capacity to easily maintain a moreby Pippy - Mechanics
Hello We don't have a thermal imager or IR heat sensor but we could run a thermister over the top of it (with some thermal compound) to gets a mesh like temperature profile. Will post the result afterwards. If we were to start again, we'd glue the resistors onto the under side of the aluminium plate using thermal silicon glue, then place a blank fiberglass PCB under the resistors to sandwitch tby Pippy - Mechanics
Hello I've noticed a cheap (£148) all aluminium printer on sale. I wondering if anyone has used one, and if so what do you think of it ? It sounds like it could do with a couple of upgrades/mods but apart from them it seems very good for the price ? ebay YouTube review Seems like a decent enough starter printer for the price, do you think ?by Pippy - Prusa i3 and variants
Yes go with what Dust says, they're more familiar with the code than I. So remove those 3 button pin lines you added in the pins file and change your line in Configuration.h to .. #define LCD_SAINSMART_I2C_2004 #define NEWPANEL Then your 3 encoder pins will be .. 37 (enc 1), 35 (enc 2) and 31 (enc push).by Pippy - Firmware - Marlin
Yes very likely, I'm not yet familiar enough with the marlin code to know all the in's and out's. Their is a thread here that might help .. https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?415,833120,833120by Pippy - Firmware - Marlin
Nothing in that section .. // // LCD Display input pins // #if ENABLED(NEWPANEL) ... #endif is compiled for your display settings. Try moving your 3 added lines to be like this .. BEFORE the #if ENABLED(NEWPANEL) line .. #define BTN_EN1 37 #define BTN_EN2 35 #define BTN_ENC 31 // // LCD Display input pins // #if ENABLED(NEWPANEL) #if ENABLED(REPRAP_DISCOUNT_SMARTby Pippy - Firmware - Marlin
Try adding these 3 lines into your pin_RAMPS.h file .. #define BTN_EN1 37 #define BTN_EN2 35 #define BTN_ENC 31 Though you'll need to set the pins to whatever pins you have available and want to use.by Pippy - Firmware - Marlin
The LCD rotary encoder pins are different depending on which display you have set Marlin to use. Which LCD display have you set in your config file ? .. which ever that is that works for your LCD. Maybe post your Configuration.h file here for us to see ?by Pippy - Firmware - Marlin
What's the exact rotary encoder you have I wonder ?by Pippy - Firmware - Marlin
Hi We're building our first 3D printer and thought someone out there might like to see a test setup we've just done with the bed. The PSU is a russian (I think) KRV300, it alone will power the bed via a 210A external fet (3 milli-ohm). We set the PSU to 16V output, with a bed resistance of 0.6 ohm we had around 27A running through it, so around 430W. The PSU is beefy and fan-less and was very hby Pippy - Mechanics
I thought I was sure, but no, you're right Dust I've yet to flash the STM32F4 with the compiled code but it does at least compile now without error. I'm wondering if the Arduino IDE etc has any memory leaks, because after building Marlin say 5 or 6 times it starts giving out compiling errors (lack of memory) left right and center without me ever changing any Marlin config/code at all. My laptoby Pippy - Controllers
A nice little STM32F4 board. I've compiled Marlin 2 for my STM32F4DISCOVERY board OK (wasn't entirely easy), but Marlin is somewhat limited for the STM32F4's at the moment. A major problem I have is the serial comms port that is used in Marlin - you can ONLY currently set the config to use serial port 1 (USART 1) and nothing else, which means the STM32F4DIS board cannot be used without physicalby Pippy - Controllers
Very nearly ! I don't know what the material is Weller use for their soldering iron handles, but that would work too. It's some sort of heat proof molded plasticy stuff (the blue handles) it would seem.by Pippy - General
With a heat break, there is no need to cool the top part of the assembly as the heat won't creep up the stem, or at least most of the heat shouldn't creep up the stem. This means no more fans or heat sinking vanes etc above the nozzle and it's heating block. The heat stays concentrated in the bottom aluminium/copper block with the nozzle - where it's needed/wanted. It also means you need less pby Pippy - General
Can even get ready made ceramic tubes with 1.8mm I.D .. and porcelain tubes ..by Pippy - General
The idea is never going to go away, just needs someone with that light bulb moment to find that cheap and simple way of making a ceramic like heat break. Maybe mold one using high temperature JB weld. The 1300C stuff (https://www.jbweld.com/products/j-b-extremeheat) would withstand any hot end .. this could be done by any non-doubting thomas I'm sure. Maybe use the cheap ceramic fuse idea, putby Pippy - General
Hello, I notice that the Arduino IDE compiles Marlin (and any AVR code really) with 'size' optimization (-Os) set. Has anyone ever tried compiling Marlin for execution speed (-O2) instead ? If so, did you notice any undue side effects ? I've not tried running it on the board as yet as I'm still waiting for the controller board to arrive, but it strikes me that it's a much wanted change to makeby Pippy - Firmware - Marlin
Wonderful idea and addition to any 3D printer ! Will definately be adding it as soon as we've built our printer. I think it's a much better and simpler solution than most any movable/retractable armed touch sensor or capacitive/inductive sensor etc, especially as surface type makes no difference. Just a suggestion, but you could simplify the circuit whilst retaining current functionality if youby Pippy - General