Show all posts by user

Re: Prints fail halfway through, but hotend isn't clogged. - 7 years ago

Glad you figured it out. You could use an enclosure like this that I created for my smoothie. Cools both sides of the board.

by Paul Wanamaker - General

Re: Ghosting or layer shift issue. - 7 years ago

Excellent. Glad to help.

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: Multi colour printing without wipe or prime towers - 7 years ago

Quotedeckingman It seems that very few people are interested in this Over 1200 views - I wouldn't be discouraged. Quotedeckingman Final update. I've fixed all the issues with the script and the technique is working very well. That's really excellent, you've advanced the art. If I had a multi-color hot-end I'd be digging into the code.

by Paul Wanamaker - Developers

Junction Deviation Explained and Visualized - 7 years ago

The following will illustrate how Junction Deviation and Acceleration work together for smooth cornering. Intro: Printer controllers use a motion control program to plan the timing of every step. Motion controllers based on GRBL use a cornering algorithm called Cornering Junction Deviation, which I'll focus on here. (Other firmware use a different algorithm called Jerk which may be implemented

by Paul Wanamaker - General

Re: Ghosting or layer shift issue. - 7 years ago

QuoteMarkM I did as Paul suggested and printed the cube 45 degrees. The issue still showed up. I'm seeing a difference when manually adjusting layer thickness instead of letting slic3r calculate it. Hmm, the two prints were identical? I actually didn't expect them to be exactly the same. Tricky. Perhaps the problem is with variations in extrusion rate. QuoteMarkM I'm seeing a difference when

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: Multi colour printing without wipe or prime towers - 7 years ago

Quotedeckingman As it stands, the script gets the job done but it ain't pretty and any professional programmer would probably laugh at it (or cry). Don't worry about it! As a software developer for 30+ years I can tell you that with the differences between languages - the code will need to be translated anyway. The most important thing is to have clear comments indicating what you are doing wit

by Paul Wanamaker - Developers

Re: Ghosting or layer shift issue. - 7 years ago

Mark, I looked closely at the photos. One way to test this is to rotate the part 45 degrees, print and observe. If it was only an extrusion issue, then the two prints would be identical. I suggest that this is caused by backlash, because it appears there is a slight shift when changing direction. The direction it is shifting will give you a clue about which axis to work on. This appears

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: ABS fumes and best cases to handle them? - 7 years ago

There is an extensive thread on this topic with working solutions. I'm surprised no one has pointed you to it. Enjoy

by Paul Wanamaker - Reprappers

Re: perimeter problem - 7 years ago

I'm not sure about the first issue, it could be a few things: - Temperature - look closely at the hot-end temp and see if it is stable throughout the print. - Temperature - perhaps that particular filament likes a different temperature. - Speed - you may need to slow it down. - Layer height is a bit high - OK if you are going slow, but you may be exceeding the hot-end's max extrude rate at that t

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: weird wiskers - 7 years ago

There is no question that these are from ooze. This is a very classic example. Here's how it does that: - When the nozzle moves to one side or another the little bit of ooze on the tip gets deposited on the first thing it hits. - At the start the ooze just deposits on the edge of the model close in, and makes a blob there. - On the next layer it hits the bit of ooze from the previous layer fi

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: Can anyone help me to diagnose my problems with my print quality - 7 years ago

Hi Ontheedgeandy We don't know what kind of printer you have yet, so we likely need more info to help you troubleshoot this. FA-MAS has hit the likely points. It could be either extrusion or mechanical, it looks like a very common backlash problem. Look closely to see if it is shifting in the direction of the heavy axis. You may want to eliminate the possible issues on the Shifted Layers pa

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: weird wiskers - 7 years ago

Quotemakerparts i heard the retraction speed shouldnt be crazy fast.. so i will turn it down to 30mm/sec I wouldn't put too much stock in that as an absolute, everything depends on your particular setup. My advice is to try it faster. The faster your retraction the less time your nozzle is stationary and oozing. As long as the filament isn't shredding. The same goes for travel velocity - if

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: 2000mm Closed belt - 7 years ago

Here's a link for 9mm GT2 I found at Folgertech. I think SPD-SI's belt is over $10.50, and this is $4.99 per meter.

by Paul Wanamaker - Mechanics

Re: Pockmarks on surface - 7 years ago

OK, I took a close look at the gcode. What I calculate for the actual extrusion width is 0.623mm, based on 0.20 layer height and amount of extrusion. Your speeds are 30mms everywhere, and Cubic MM/S = 3.480, which is fairly consistent from the graphs I make. This is not a high extrusion rate. So I don't see a problem with the gcode. One odd thing I did notice was this at the top: M203 Z0.5

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: Pockmarks on surface - 7 years ago

I will take a look at the gcode. In the mean time, do you have a fan cooling the print but not blowing on the hot end? That's a must have for PLA. The best type of fan for this is a "blower" type fan. Can you post a picture of your setup?

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: How I continued 3D Printing after a power cut? - 7 years ago

cagtag, I really like your idea of having the printer remember it's position, and resume. I've also had to resume a big print manually, using similar methods described in the links you provided. It is very difficult to do well, with many manual steps - so it's a disaster recovery mode more than anything. To my knowledge there is no facility to do this with Smoothie. (Or any other open source

by Paul Wanamaker - Developers

Re: Pockmarks on surface - 7 years ago

As to the pock marks, as I mentioned - try to get a very high resolution photo of one, and look just before and after. If it is very sudden cut off/cut on then I think it has to be steam or some other impurity. A closeup is the only way to really see that. QuoteFA-MAS Edit: Now begs the question They say outer perimeters should be printed thinner and slower to allow for higher details. But wh

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: A Proposal for a Compact Gcode format: .COMPG - 7 years ago

Thanks for bearing with me as I think through this, and for your thoughts. I do agree with you on all your first points. This is proven by the care taken with the Duet, and the integration with the display, and WIFI are excellent from what I have heard (and faster upload speeds, and I'm sure many other features). Also the support and continued development are critical. None of those things wo

by Paul Wanamaker - Developers

Re: New experimental firmware: all kinematics in host - 7 years ago

Just FYI: I did a bit of checking on jitter when using a Raspberry pi. The experiment I read about was using an RTOS called Ubito - an RTOS specifically for R. PI. I can't find the exact discussion again, but the relevant detail is that they were testing jitter when pulsing a GPIO as rapidly as possible. They got over 1 mhz pulse rate, and at that rate there was occasional Jitter of about .

by Paul Wanamaker - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future

Re: Pockmarks on surface - 7 years ago

Sorry for my slow response to your pm, and I apologize in advance for the long response. Not been feeling well. Looking closely at the first photo, I recognize that those pock marks are from steam bubbles. The way to know this is how sudden they appear - the extrusion immediately to the left and right of the pock marks is not thinned out. In my opinion this eliminates the possibility that t

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: Custom CoreXY - -Linear Rail Vibration - 7 years ago

Quotemakerparts So who makes an integrated Nema 17 Servo ideally 24v that can just plug into a standard 4 pin motor connector No one does. The "standard 4 pin motor connector" is not standard - that connector is a reprap feature for energizing the two coils of a particular kind of stepper motor. The output from that connector is an analog higher voltage signal that also has rough waveform the dr

by Paul Wanamaker - General

Re: Custom CoreXY - -Linear Rail Vibration - 7 years ago

Yes, with a hybrid servo you need a driver and matched motor, or buy one that is integrated. NEMA 23 sizes and above. The reason I suggested the hybrid servos is because both the OP and the_digital_dentist are using Nema 23 - which can be noisy with ball screws. About half the price of regular servos. Mechaduino is a replacement for the stepper driver, not in addition to one. It runs the mot

by Paul Wanamaker - General

Re: Custom CoreXY - -Linear Rail Vibration - 7 years ago

Quotethe_digital_dentist However, it still makes more noise than my wife would find acceptable, so the printer will be at the makerspace for the foreseeable future. You may want to consider a hybrid servo drive. They are much quieter. These are a combination of a special servo driver and a special stepper with encoder - driving the stepper as a multi-pole brushless servo. This has advantages

by Paul Wanamaker - General

Re: Custom CoreXY - -Linear Rail Vibration - 7 years ago

Ah, that's right. You also used a DSP driver to make it somewhat quieter before that too?

by Paul Wanamaker - General

Re: Custom CoreXY - -Linear Rail Vibration - 7 years ago

Quotemakerparts any other thoughts on other ways to reduce rail resonance /vibration? The vibration is from the motors. Unless your rails/bearings are also loose and resonating. I think the good DR (the_digital_dentist) had some cars with undersized bearings, he replaced the bearings. Just try the Duet with higher microstepping. If necessary you can get external DSP based drivers, but those ar

by Paul Wanamaker - General

Re: Custom CoreXY - -Linear Rail Vibration - 7 years ago

Um, wow, I think it was a real mistake to call it disingenuous - that is not the tone we should use here. Quotemakerparts I cant set travel speeds higher then 100mm/s it seems to bind or run into a cpu limit or something else. I recognize the symptoms. I started out with a similar setup for my delta - using a Rumba. I had 8825 drivers in it. I did not use a graphics display. Over a certain

by Paul Wanamaker - General

Re: Inconsistent Z ribbing/banding - 7 years ago

Tinchus Thank you for doing the test that I proposed. So in this case the problem appears to be purely in the extrusion system, there is no shift. It does tell us your extruder can supply the filament very evenly when printing continuously, very good to know! I think that possibly rules out several possibilities: - It looks like your extruder's driver is fine. - It looks like the hobbed gear

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: New adventures in 3d printing (aka so I designed a 3d printer) - 7 years ago

Plasticwrap: Thank you very much for taking the time to post the details that you provided! I appreciate your observation that all the different filament brands you used could be made to print well (or at lest acceptably) given the right settings, with some minor exceptions due to defects. I agree that experimentation and close observation are the only way to really improve. I fully appreciate

by Paul Wanamaker - General

Re: Printing at 2.5 x nozzle size - 7 years ago

Fascinating. Excellent photos, that really helps. I think that closeups like that, along with extreme closeups of the extrusion is the best way to determine what is really happening. The one Stratasys nozzle I've seen was this one from a mostly bad support nozzle from the Milwaukee Maker Space The geometry was the opposite of what I mocked up above. Theirs is very pointy with almost no m

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing

Re: Printing at 2.5 x nozzle size - 7 years ago

That's a nice test James. Can you do me a favor and measure the approximate diameter of the flat area at the tip of the nozzle? Not easy I know... I've been guessing that this 1.7x factor was determined using one particular nozzle geometry, and a pointier nozzle with less flat area may fare worse (start curling sooner) than a broader nozzle tip when printing wide.

by Paul Wanamaker - Printing