See this wiki page. As that page mentions, you can contact the manufacturer, get the spec sheet, and sometimes get an answer. But sometimes the manufacturers change the colors and don't mention it, even among motors of the same batch! So it's easier to use the methods outlined above. You don't even need a multi-meter, just your hands and maybe a piece of paper and pencil to keep track of your pby jgilmore - Reprappers
The die has internal blocks, attached further "upstream". The aluminum flows around it, meets on the other side, and flows back together. You don't see the seam on the final product because it passed through a die (forming it together) and/or because it was still somewhat molten, or at least above the welding temperature. The same trick is also used when extruding metal/plastic pipe, all sorts oby jgilmore - Extruded Aluminum Frames
I like the graph it's shiny! How difficult would it be to add the "real" values of the thermistor to give a point of comparison? It also looks like you need even more values in the high range. Though they actually seem to follow fairly closely in the 150 to 250 range (it IS celcius, isn't it?). The new one has a LOT more values, you could usefully chop out a lot of those in the low end, where itby jgilmore - Firmware - mainstream and related support
You don't specify which Xylotex package or driver models you have. According to this page, it's designed to run of STEP and DIR signals from a computers parallel port. If that's also the case with your setup, it'll be relatively easy to use with a reprap. Well, as long as the motors mount to the frame OK. You will need to add the following: An MCU, or microprocessor board, usually an arduino meby jgilmore - General
Excellent point aka47, let me see if I can summerize: There are basically two approaches: Conditionally compile sections, based on mcu/board/whatever, but keep related stuff together (pin definitions, for instance) Conditionally include files, based on mcu/board/whatever, and keep things that are included together together. (everything for a particular board in the same general location) Or,by jgilmore - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
Or using the latest arduino environment - sometimes the sanguino extensions haven't been updated for the latest yet.by jgilmore - Reprappers
And here I was assuming it would look like: #define BOARD_CONFIG config##BOARD.h #include or #include or some such. I know that GCC has facilities for doing that sort of thing, but I probably have the syntax wrong. We're tied to GCC anyway (both ARM & ATMEL, perhaps not PIC?) so there's little (or no?) reason not to use GCC extensions. I do like the idea of chopping configs up smallerby jgilmore - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
One approach is indicated by the fact (verify this fact, if it's wrong this approach will burn plastic) that one resistor alone isn't enough to get your nozzle up to temp. So, wire one resistor permanently on. Attach it directly to your power source, so if the reprap is on, that resistor is on full. It won't get hot enough to extrude, but it will get somewhat hot. Then use JUST the other resisby jgilmore - Reprappers
Used to be that the makerbot was cheaper, but there was a recent blog post about how that's no longer the case. Self-source prusa mendel is the cheapest, and by far the best value as well. If you don't want to screw around with it (great learning experience, highly recommended) then you buy the UP! printer.by jgilmore - General
Frequency can be set by the board definition. Fuses and bootload position by the mcu definition. Probably what we'll end up with is that the board definition files will define pins and the features that board needs, and does some sanity checks (is the mcu right for that board?) There would be a seperate file that looks more like our current config.h.dist with each feature and pin defined with aby jgilmore - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
plasmator Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Just a heads-up, I submitted a bunch of patches > tonight: > > - Fixed a bug where the intercom functions aren't > present if GEN3 isn't defined. I thought that was the point - GEN3 is the only electronics set that has a seperate extruder controller with RS485 coms to it. I think. You don't need those funcby jgilmore - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
PTFE will creep and expand, doesn't hold it's shape well at high temperatures, and is so slippery that things (the extruder barrel) have a tendancy to come unscrewed. It's OK for a thermal barrier, but not good for mechanical support. Metal conducts heat too well - If the top of the barrel gets hot, the filament will start to melt before it goes into the barrel. It's under compression, so when iby jgilmore - Mechanics
You can also, of course, heat the extruder with a wire-woung ceramic resistor in an aluminum block w/ embedded thermistor.by jgilmore - General
Gen3 has the extruder stepper driven from the dual h-bridges on the extruder board, as opposed to a proper stepper driver with a current-limiting chopper drive and half-stepping (or even micro-stepping). My preffered solution would be to buy an extra stepper driver and use it instead. Thus the extruder controller would do temperature sensing and heat control only, with the four stepper drivers drby jgilmore - General Mendel Topics
I haven't heard of anybody successfully printing with wax, but I have heard of somebody who did "lost plastic casting" instead of "lost wax casting" and it worked.by jgilmore - General
I think the first truly successful raft-less automated build platform will be a replacable one. I.E. you have a stack of ten plates with a Kapton sheet stuck to one side. It ejects it's old print bed and grabs a new one. Every two or three days you have to knock off the finished parts and return the plates to the "clean" stack. (return them to the bottom of the stack to keep wear even. "Always roby jgilmore - Developers
There is a message here That has a link to a picture. Look at the black wire on the diagram. Basically, there is a six pin right angle header with two grounds, vcc, rx, tx, & reset. run an extra wire from the outermost gnd on that connector to the GND on the 12V connector on the extruder controller. here is a link to the picture linked to from the referenced post.by jgilmore - Firmware - mainstream and related support
I was under the impression that skeinforge took slices from the middle of the layer - i.e. the first slice is actually taken from 1/2 the layer height above the bottom of the object. If so, it would always be within 1/2 the layer height of correct, but seldom exactly correct. I was unable to verify that with a quick code dive though.by jgilmore - Skeinforge
Actually, I was just looking at the code for that (in the 5D firmware) this morning. That is the norm for the "official 5D reprap firmware" when it receives a G28 code. You can specify which axes to home, and they are test for (and homed) in X Y Z order. If you just say "G28" then it does all axes, one at a time, in X Y Z order. I do not believe that this behavior is correct, but nor is it incoby jgilmore - General
Architect Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hmmm, > Do we have some sort of consensus on the expected > behavior of G92 and G28? at work I generally would > say "what does the F'ing BRD say cuz that's what > I'll code!" G92 is currently used (by some) to zero the extruder position after each layer. More traditionally, it's used to re-use g-code. Yoby jgilmore - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
The grounds of the mainboard and the extruder board need to be the same. Try connecting them together with a third wire.by jgilmore - Firmware - mainstream and related support
I found an expired ebay auction with some data. They are four wire - which means bipolar type, so good. They are nema-17 - also good. They are 1.8° step (200 steps/rev) which is fine. They are reportedly 25-30 oz/inch. from the wiki that's fine, if it's true. They're nema-17's so they almost certainly do have enough torque, but it might be nice to find a more reliable reference for the torque fby jgilmore - General
Driving a stepper with two h-bridges (and no current sensing/control) is a nasty hack, and has never worked well. All sorts of people have had problems getting it working. You'll notice that the stepper is actually "controlled" via two extra wires running from the motherboard to the extruder controller. Have you connected these two wires? Have you connected a ground wire as well? rs-485 being aby jgilmore - Firmware - mainstream and related support
Architect Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > that all sounds a bit complicated. I was keeping > it as simple as possible. basically I want the end > stops to be there for 2 reasons. homing Zero and > not letting the axis crash into anything. so I put > in a check (for min) right before the step call to > each axis pin but do all the other house keepby jgilmore - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
Architect Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So, I tried the drill thing. Signal worked > clean every time, even wrapped my optical sensor > cables 5 times around my drill and ran it. that > was fun and a little mad hatterish. so I think I > have a very simple solution in place now for the > stops. Don't step if the axis.direction = whats > readby jgilmore - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
Not sure, but the €400 price point may be more of a "if you already have a machine, and can thus print your own plastic parts, and you get all the cheapest prices possible on hardware/electronics" Which is of course not actually possible, as some suppliers will have higher shipping to where you are. And then you have to buy filament to print with as well. It's not uncommon to spent $1000 on a mby jgilmore - General
No, I regret to say they've all gone to the dump at this point. I'm still thinking that I'll be getting five or six more, but the ones elsewhere are officially gone.by jgilmore - For Sale
And here I was under that the important benefit of smaller filament is: There is less volume of molten plastic to pressurize and depressurize when starting/stopping printing, leading to more precise starts and stops. Obviously there's much more disagreement on the subject than I had imagined. Obviously more data is required.by jgilmore - General
dazed.dnc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 1) 12V at probably no more than 1.5A. The driver > chips are rated for 2A max. The coils on my > makerbot motors are 35ohm, but I'm not sure that > ohms law applies with this type of load. You > adjust the current with the trim pot on the > stepper driver too, so amp draw on the motors can > change accby jgilmore - General
Assuming that the belt isn't connected, it should be closer to A. Once the belt is connected the resistance of the motor will make is closer to C.by jgilmore - General Mendel Topics