Show all posts by user

Re: rep rap user-group - 16 years ago

yes, it's up and running; I've printed 75 parts so far. The next batch of 11 is printing right now! Stop by and check it out if you like; I'm near Spadina and Dupont. Email me at wbortz at gmail dot com. Wade

by Wade - Canada, Toronto RepRap User Group

good suggestions for hosting a Reprap webcam? - 16 years ago

Much to my surprise, I don't seem to have any web space available at the moment. Here's what I want to do - put my Reprap webcam on the web. Looks like I can run the utility "webcam" to ftp updated images every, say minute or so to a webserver. Great. I can build a super simple webpage. But, I need some space somewhere - I'm on a shared internet connection, and the other folks won't like me

by Wade - RepRap Host

Re: Progress Update - 16 years ago

Sweet!

by Wade - Reprappers

Re: Laser Cut Parts (Bits from Bytes) - 16 years ago

I carved the pressure bearing window out a bit on my laser cut extruder too to get more travel against the filament, in addition to moving the lower axle support plate above the axle. Haven't tested it yet though; still using my V1.0 extruder. As for those infrared thermometers, they're slick, but mine isn't much use for measuring the nozzle temperature. I have a Sinometer MTC300C which works

by Wade - Mechanics

Re: reprap wireless link - 16 years ago

Nice, it even has a SD slot, although the site says it's unsupported right now. But, it takes also takes three extra IO pins away; I've only got one to spare right now.... and I've just come up with another use for that last pin... Wade

by Wade - Controllers

Re: Stepper motor driver overheating, always driving motor, how do I stop it? - 16 years ago

I did the same thing about 10 times when I first started firing up my Darwin - ask a question on the forum, only to find the answer 4 minutes later. Wade

by Wade - RepRap Host

Re: How to minimize warping with ABS? - 16 years ago

Thanks Nophead! I'm already at 230 C, so I dropped the layer height a bit, from 0.4 mm to 0.35 - that did the trick. The parts are harder to remove, but not impossible, and lots less warping, although still a small amount. I had a look at that STL, but I prefer the old one. With Enrique's bridge code, I don't need the teardrop holes at all on simple holes. I get a few stringers on the intern

by Wade - Plastic Extruder Working Group

Re: Skeinview - 16 years ago

Any error messages? I've found it only works for me when I run Skeinforge; after that I delete all the comments to keep comm speeds up, and Skeinview doesn't seem so happy when I try to view existing Gcode files. Wade

by Wade - RepRap Host

Re: Motor control issues - 16 years ago

Well, 2^15 is 32,768; so if you're using 16 bit signed integers, 32,767 + 1 = -32,768 I hit that one with the Arduino dwell code - if you give it 33 s or more, it crashes, as it should. Your comp sci guys should know what to do; for now you can either not go so far, or try a different software version. I've been having good luck with the Gcode firmware. Wade

by Wade - Controllers

How to minimize warping with ABS? - 16 years ago

Apologies to those of you with small screens; I wanted to make sure you guys got the whole picture here. As you can hopefully see, I'm having a small issue with warping on my larger ABS parts. It's not killer; I think these parts will work fine with a bit of sanding, but I think it could be better... Strangely enough, the warping seems to sort itself out 5 or 10 layers into the build, but

by Wade - Plastic Extruder Working Group

Re: Laser Cut Parts (Bits from Bytes) - 16 years ago

Another thought just occured to me - where is your thermocouple located? My old extruder uses JBweld, but I hear that the fire cement on the new laser cut version is a fairly good insulator. That will make the placement of the thermocouple pretty critical. I have my thermocouple JBwelded into the nook between the nozzle and the heater barrel, separate and downstream (plastic flow wise) from th

by Wade - Mechanics

Re: Progress Update - 16 years ago

Awesome! It's good to see a man of action on the forums! How long did it take for the Objet to print out a Darwin? And how strong are the parts? They look very accurate. As for hole sizes, I had access to a machinist's drill set - drill bits sized every 0.001" or 0.002" - that made the assmebly work a lot easier when I put my Darwin together. How

by Wade - Reprappers

Re: Laser Cut Parts (Bits from Bytes) - 16 years ago

Erik, I'm still running my original cast extruder pretty successfully. I bought a lasercut extruder too to be on the safe side, but the old one is still kicking so I'm still using it. One thing about heat conduction - if you want to keep the tip of the nozzle hot, there's two ways. You can reduce the thermal resistance leading up to the tip, as with the thermal paste. Or, you can also increas

by Wade - Mechanics

Re: Software instructions - 16 years ago

Awesome! I really could have used this a few months ago; just yesterday I broke down and bought an external USB CDROM simply so I could boot various linux distros on my cheap laptop. I want my good laptop back from my Darwin; it's won't let me near it without messing up my prints. Where are you planning to put it? Didn't see it up on the builder's wiki yet, but it's quite possible I missed

by Wade - General

Re: Binary Format G_Code Files - 16 years ago

As an end user with just enough programming knowledge to be dangerous as well as annoying, I'm not too concerned about whose format I use, I just want nice looking prints. Good on you Forrest for watching out for us; everything you're saying makes sense. And Tony, I think your work speaks for itself - both approaches are looking pretty good. For me, I actually started with a Pic development ki

by Wade - RepRap Host

Skeinforge preferences and Arduino code - 16 years ago

This is for x2800m specifically, but some of you might find it useful. I've attached the skeinforge preferences I've been using, and my Arduino code. The flow rates are a bit odd; I'm running the head at 16 mm/s and about 3 mm^3/s of plastic. I've been tweaking the width/diameter ratios to get an acceptable build quality, but I think the reason my density is so low is that I'm not actually mov

by Wade - RepRap Host

Re: viewing Gcode files before printing - 16 years ago

Yes, but it would be a trivial thing to compute a tool head size based on the feedrate and plastic flowrate. You could even get crazy and try and work out the densities and height and width ratios, if you had a lot of spare time. All I really intended was to check my overall placement of the parts. It's surprisingly easy to mix up the coordinate systems when entering them by hand. It would be

by Wade - RepRap Host

viewing Gcode files before printing - 16 years ago

So, after hand editing my G-code files to do multiple prints, I realized I needed some way to check the G-codes before printing. Turns out the process is called G-code Backplotting, and there's lots of relatively expensive CAM software out there to do it. However, I did find an open source view which worked first try - EMC2. Popped in the CD I'd made a while ago, ran EMC2, and loaded the Gcode

by Wade - RepRap Host

Re: How to print Gcode from Host - 16 years ago

Here's another small bug report regarding the latest Skeinforge - this one smacked my Y axis into the side of my machine. No damage, but I guess I better get that Sanguino up and running and build some max opto endstops. I have a small end.txt file to lift the head and shut down the heater; otherwise the head melts a hole into the just built object. This wasn't happening a few days ago, but

by Wade - RepRap Host

Re: Software Errors (With Debugger set to true) - 16 years ago

Jajo, yes, sloppy electronics can cause no end of problems. Intermittent shorts or open circuits are one of the hardest things to debug, and the best way to avoid them is to make sure all your connections are good and clean and tight. I always yank on a wire after I attach it, to ensure it's properly connected. Don't break it though! I'm using the Arduino Breakout Shield ver 1.2, and it's g

by Wade - RepRap Host

Re: STL for toothed gear - 16 years ago

Hey, if you haven't already built it, put a lip on only one side, then alternate the pulleys up down and space them up down a bit. That way it's really easy to get the belt off to adjust things. And you'll need to be doing that a lot, at least in the beginning. Someone in here posted pics of using bike gears and chain. I really like that idea for the Z drive - I had a lot of trouble getting m

by Wade - Mechanics

Re: Arduino, Sanguino, and newbies, oh my! - 16 years ago

Sitting next to my Arduino powered Darwin busily churning out replacement parts (hey, I'm super stoked, I think I can brag a little!), I'd say go for the Arduino. Yes, we'll likely move on to the Sanguino, or even something else bigger, better, badder and faster, but right now the Arduino works. Right this second, the Sanguino code isn't done yet, so if you build one of those, you might end up

by Wade - Controllers

Re: All motors running together - 16 years ago

Almost certainly a grounding problem, or a crosstalk problem. Had that myself when I first fired things up. Make sure your power supply has a good ground setup. I found at one point I was getting a 48 V ac sine wave on my grounds, due to a difference between the laptop's USB ground and the ground on the Reprap power supply. Grounding the chassis on my laptop fixed it for me. Set your multime

by Wade - Controllers

Re: crazy idea - 16 years ago

This sounds like a lot of fun, and a great idea to boot! I'd be interested in helping out as well. I have a small amount of teaching experience in adventure sports, but not much for actual in the classroom teaching. I am a good generalist though, and can debug just about anything, especially electronics. I'm currently in eastern Canada, but plan to be in Australia this winter. As for the OS

by Wade - General

Re: Possible cheep laser cutting service? - 16 years ago

Actually, print speed is not the limiting factor right now, at least for me. I printed my first decent part months ago! At even 1 Darwin a week my lab should be positively overgrown with the infernal devices by now. I'm finding that personally, I'm having a lot of trouble keeping everything alive long enough to build anything. I thought last week I was on the verge of trying some multiple pa

by Wade - Reprappers

Re: Problems with gcode firmware scale factors - 16 years ago

hey x2800m, I don't think ReplicatorG changes the scaling on the gcodes before sending them; I believe the scaling is just used for the simulator window, so you can see what's where at the proper scale. I have almost the exact scaling factors in my Arduino code, and I'm running a BfB cast Darwin, so those are probably correct. I rounded my x and y scaling factors to 8.0, because I figured I w

by Wade - RepRap Host

Re: Glue-Gun as Thermoplastic Extruder - 16 years ago

heh, yeah, I was just going to say something about turkey. Yum!

by Wade - General

Re: Glue-Gun as Thermoplastic Extruder - 16 years ago

pretty sure Sid meant a lathe. I had acceptable results using the "no lathe" technique that was posted a while back; my first attempt was useable, and I suspect my next one will be even better. All you need is a hand drill, some small bits, safety glasses and patience. Wade

by Wade - General

Re: Some results! - 16 years ago

Thanks! Yeah, it's funny, I didn't want to waste time calibrating my extruder, so I spent weeks tweaking encoder software. But now that I've got it working, it's done for good. Zach's magnetic encoder works like a charm! You can't even tell I've got an off center extruder drive screw. Sharpening the extruder screw helped a lot as well. One thing I'd been meaning to ask you Nophead - have you

by Wade - RepRap Host

Some results! - 16 years ago

Well, I've been struggling with the software here for quite a while, but I'm starting to get some decent results. I've finally hit the point where I'm adding parts to my spare parts bin faster than I'm breaking things and taking parts out. Many thanks to the entire Reprap team! Lately I've been pestering Enrique and Zach more than most, but it's really a big time team effort here. Good stuff!

by Wade - RepRap Host