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Java - everyone loves it and it works well everywhere. Maybe.
Re: Getting extruder to extrude - 13 years ago
What is the max temperature rating of the resistor? If it is a 3 Watt resistor, I would expect it isn't very high. With a 12V supply you will get over Watts on each resistor if they are in parallel. They will get hot much faster than they can heat up the thermistor and they might burn out. The way we use these resistors, the power limit doesn't matter, but the maximum temperature is critical.by mccoyn - General
Re: ATMega328 firmware - 13 years ago
I still use this firmware on a regular basis with my ATMega328 board. I believe it is still possible to use an ATMega328 with the latest software and features, but may take some development effort. I haven't been keeping track with the latest for the last 6 months. There are a few issues that have to do with the evolution of the standard RepRap firmware and software. The parameters.h file wasby mccoyn - RepRap Host
Re: WHY THE HELL... - 14 years ago
The majority of the cost is in operator time, not the actual plastic itself.by mccoyn - General
Re: mendel w/ 3/8- 16tpi threaded rod? - 14 years ago
The only issue I can think of is the bearings for the z-axis. You can't fit a 608 bearing on the 9 mm rod. You will either have to order the correct size bearings, or use 8 mm or 5/16" threaded rod for those two rods. Another issue is the steps/mm for the z-axis will be different, but you can calculate that and change it in the firmware.by mccoyn - General
Re: A call for help/ideas to develop the Heated Bed - 14 years ago
Conductivity will affect the amount of heat lost through the bottom of the bed, or the amount of insulation required to prevent heat lost through the bottom. If you have aluminum on top and plywood on the bottom, then most the heat will exit through the top. If you have glass on top and open air underneath, then most the heat will exit through the bottom. This means more power is required andby mccoyn - General
Re: What is the most common failue mode while printing - 14 years ago
I can run reliably with a .5 mm nozzle, but I have a .25 mm nozzle that gives me lots of trouble. I still have a shaft driven pinchwheel extruder. I suspect that the Wade extruder will be able to work with the smaller nozzle. A glass nozzle will reduce my failure rate if the friction in the small hole is less than the stainless steel nozzle I have now. I have also been observing a strange issby mccoyn - General
Re: What is the most common failue mode while printing - 14 years ago
Extruder jamming is by far my biggest failure mode. The other problems I commonly have are Darwin issues and have already been fixed. I don't depend on PTFE for anything structural so I've never had the tip fall out. I can run reliably without the extruder jamming, but I'd like to be able to run faster or with a smaller nozzle. Whenever I try to push my machine in one of these ways the extrudby mccoyn - General
Re: The Future... - 14 years ago
I wish the Mini-Mendel and the Mendel shared more of their BOM. The scenario I see happening is someone with a RepRap prints the parts required for a mini-machine and gives them to someone who wants a RepRap. That person buys all the stuff required for the build and builds it up. Then, the builder prints all the parts required for the Mendel and disassembles the mini-machine to get the non-priby mccoyn - Huxley
Re: Stepper extruder using Makerbot extruder firmware 2.3 - 14 years ago
I'm just going from memory here, but the way I fixed that was to search the firmware folders for that and then copy it to the folder most of the source code was at. I believe you have to copy both the .h and .cpp or .pde files with the same name. I think there is another file that you will get a similar error for that you need to do the same thing.by mccoyn - General
Re: Stepper extruder using Makerbot extruder firmware 2.3 - 14 years ago
Have you tried running that stepper motor on another stepper driver? From the last video you posted it looks like there might be an alignment issue inside the motor.by mccoyn - General
Re: Stepper extruder using Makerbot extruder firmware 2.3 - 14 years ago
You have to modify the firmware source code to change the pin mode and then recompile it. You can read more about pinMode Of all the possible wiring combinations there is only three possible results: the motor moves correctly, the motor moves correctly except it is backwards, the motor twitches back and forth, changing direction with each step. There are 4 ways that will be correct, 4 ways tby mccoyn - General
Re: Stepper extruder using Makerbot extruder firmware 2.3 - 14 years ago
This is how the wires are inside the stepper motor: 1a is connected to 1b with some resistance and 2a is connected to 2b with some resistance. The 4 wires on the board are typically wired 1a,1b,2a,2b. So always make sure each wire is right next to the wire that it is connected to through the motor and it will work. It might be backwards, but that just reverses the direction of the motor.by mccoyn - General
Re: Stepper extruder using Makerbot extruder firmware 2.3 - 14 years ago
Did you modify "ArudinoSlaveExtruder/Configuration.h" and recompile the firmware? You need to comment out the line that says "#define MOTOR_STYLE 0" and comment in the line that says "#define MOTOR_STYLE 2" Edit: It looks like you are using a pre-built firmware that is supposed to work. I imagine this has already been done for you then.by mccoyn - General
Re: Stepper extruder using Makerbot extruder firmware 2.3 - 14 years ago
Adjusting the motor PWM in ReplicatorG will change the duty cycle and provide more or less torque. 255 is 100% duty cycle.by mccoyn - General
Re: Prototype Stepper Motor Shield Fabricated - 14 years ago
I don't like the screw terminals that much. It seems like they become disconnected a lot more than any of my other connectors. The extruder board can drive two DC motors or one stepper motor. Having the option of a fourth stepper motor is useful because the Mendel design calls for 4 steppers.by mccoyn - Controllers
Re: Water-bath printing - 14 years ago
I've use aluminum tape on my hot end. It might make an easy to apply reflector, though it is a bit expensive if you are only using it once.by mccoyn - General
Re: X & Y Axis - Use belts or use threaded rod??? - 14 years ago
The Darwin design used sleeves instead of ball bearings. They recommend using printed sleeves, but I found that nylon bushings work best. They are plenty low friction and they don't wear down. PTFE would be better, but cost more. The Darwin has larger motors than the Mendel and the Makerbot pushes around less weight than the Mendel. So, I'm not sure if you will be able to handle the extra frby mccoyn - General
Re: Water-bath printing - 14 years ago
I don't think the cooling has to be so fast. It only has to be fast enough that when you start the next layer, the previous layers are mostly solid. A fan working as a global cooler might be enough. I believe developing a local heater will also be useful if you want to extruder threads smaller than 0.2 mm. The problem with thin threads is they don't carry much heat to melt the previous layerby mccoyn - General
Re: skeinforge/replicatorg screw up - 14 years ago
You could try using the hop option, or disable tower. For long running rare errors like this, I find it is helpful to set up a video camera to record the print so I can review it later and fast forward past the boring stuff.by mccoyn - General
Re: NYC RUG at Maker Faire - 14 years ago
I did a Mini-Maker Faire the last couple of years and one thing I regretted was not having business cards to hand out when people ask where they can find out more information. For the Detroit Maker Faire, I printed out 150 cards and handed them out in about half the time I was there. So, I would guess that I should have had 300 cards. 500 might be a good safe number. I've attached the image Iby mccoyn - New York City RepRap User Group
Re: Machines.xml changes not taking affect - 14 years ago
What specific path are you editing? What operating system are you using. I believe there are two Machine.xml files. The first one comes with the install and isn't modified. The first time you run ReplicatorG, it copies this file to ~/.ReplicatorG. After that it uses whatever is in ~/.ReplicatorG so you need to make changes to that.by mccoyn - General
Re: Raft/heated bed questions - 14 years ago
There are two issues that can occur trying to get the part to stick to the bed. The first problem is that the part does not stick well enough and the lateral forces of the extruder pushes it around before the part finishes. A raft is a large flat area printed under the part to increase the amount of area that is stuck to the bed, making it less likely to come loose. Another problem is that theby mccoyn - General
Re: Team Surface: Easy load/unload printing surface - 14 years ago
I used cloth (cotton) on a heated build platform for a while. I clamped it down from two sides using angle steel clamps and foam board as a gasket. The gasket is important since the steel or bed won't be perfectly flat and can't grip evenly without it. Ultimately, the parts warped. The problem was that I was trying to constrain movement in the z direction but I didn't have anything nearby holby mccoyn - Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize
Re: Self replication - 14 years ago
At the current rate of progress it will be a long time, but a lot of people came onboard this past year so I expect the rate of progress will improve by quite a lot next year.by mccoyn - General
Re: RepRap Logo files - 14 years ago
Has anyone come up with a high resolution logo file yet? I'm trying to do the same thing that spacexula was doing a few months ago. If not, does anyone know what font is used? rhmorrison Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 1. In any RepRap wiki page enter "logo" into the > search field and click the search button. > 2. Scan the list of results for "RepRby mccoyn - General
Re: Yet another extruder problem... - 14 years ago
Auto-reset requires two things. The USB-Serial converter needs to bring the reset signal out to the connector. An over-the-counter USB-Serial cable probably doesn't do that. The board also has to connect this line to the reset line of the through a capacitor. I have no idea if the techzone hardware does that. The USB-Serial converter I use can be found here: QuoteThe major difference withby mccoyn - General
Re: ??!!!?? ARGH Crooked prints 
- 14 years ago
Heh, I just did the whole remeasure and adjust every length on my Darwin a few weeks ago because my z-axis was binding up. The nice thing about the Darwin on this front is that everything is a square and you just have to make sure the sides and diagonals that are supposed to be the same length are the same length. The bad thing is there is about 4 times as much stuff to adjust. I ran through tby mccoyn - General
Re: Yet another extruder problem... - 14 years ago
> there are comments which explain what values to change if not using a stepper I just double checked and those comments are still in the FiveD firmware, even though it will only work with a stepper. The comment was left in when the old GCode_Interpreter evolved into the FiveD_GCode_Interpreter. It looks like that is what you are trying to use. It does sound like you have something else goby mccoyn - General
Re: Yet another extruder problem... - 14 years ago
Exactly which firmware do you have? Can you provide the link you downloaded it from? The FiveD firmware does not support a DC motor extruder and it would be no small task to add support for it. You might have better luck with the MakerBot firmware (of which I am not very familiar.)by mccoyn - General
Re: ??!!!?? ARGH Crooked prints - 14 years ago
Try moving the part so there is no chance that it hits the endstop while printing. What firmware are you using? Can you modify the cupcake firmware so that you are using the same firmware on both? From your image, it looks like when you increase x, y decreases in a pretty consistent manner. Do you see any similar problems in the z direction?by mccoyn - General