This is a really neat project, and certainly has a high 'coolness' factor. But I don't know that it's really worth the effort, unless you just really like hacking. Since I designed and installed my Z coupler supports, I haven't had to re-adjust my bed for a month now. Nothing changes over time.by loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Take off the couplers and turn the rods by hand once. They should turn very smoothly with no drag. I had a bad hold through one of my X-ends and the rod was touching the plastic in the hole, causing a fair degree of drag that would cause that motor to skip steps. Also, make sure your motors are mounted such that your threaded rods are parallel to the smooth rods. If not, they can cause bindby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
You probably have an intermittent connection on one of the ends of that cable. If the connectors use crimped on pins, they may need to be redone. I solder all the pins on my cable ends to make sure they're reliable.by loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Hello, You should most definitely open source the software. It should be coded in something portable. Now, protect the firmware in your micro controller and keep the hardware closed and under your control. The broader the software support, the more units you will sell. Even if it can be easily built, people will prefer to buy the hardware from you and simply plug it in. That is,by loughkb - 3D Scanners, Book Scanners, and Optics
Do you have heat sinks on the stepper driver chips? I bet you don't. This sounds like the chips are going into thermal shutdown when they get too hot. They shut off, cool, and turn back on, all within a very short time, but long enough for steps to be missed.by loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Another thing to check is the current setting to the X axis motor. Too much current and the stepper won't step properly. To little current, and it will miss steps and shift. If you're not sure, rotate the little variable resister for the proper driver, all the way down or to the left. Use Pronterface to move the axis. If it doesn't move, or just whines, turn the adjustment up only a bitby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Very nice build! Is that a hall effect transistor based end stop for Z?by loughkb - General Mendel Topics
I am puzzled by you're having to level your bed so often. Once leveled, mine is fine for weeks. I used to have a problem with gravity slowly pulling the couplers downward on the stepper motors smooth shaft, but I solved that with this: I also use lock nuts and springs on my bed screws, so that vibration doesn't loosen them. I'm a little surprised you can print so hot for PLA. I found thatby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Ok, just went and looked at the Melzi board. Kinda neat that it's an all in one design like that. Assuming that it came with heatsinks for the stepper drivers. Yeah, try reloading your firmware. Maybe the code on the micro-controller got corrupted.by loughkb - General Mendel Topics
I watched your video. I don't think the driver electronics are fried on your controller, but there's probably something wrong with the micro controller. Either CPU, or the interface between the CPU and the analogue electronics. I'm not familiar with the board you mention, I run a RAMPS1.4 which has all of the analogue electronics on a separate board that plugs into the top of the arduino bby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
I'd pick up a new one so the fan is good. 400 watts or more, if you're using a heated bed. (Heated glass is THE best surface for PLA printing.) For the 11A connection for the bed heater, take the CPU output from the power supply, it's usually on a separate connector with four black and four yellow wires. Join two or more of the yellow for the positive, and join two or more of the black foby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Those of you with I3 designs, or I2 with the motors mounted below.. I have a question. Doesn't the coupler creep down the motors shaft over time, eventually touching the motor body? Or if the rod touching the motors shaft stops this, does that direct steel to steel contact grind slightly, or transmit the motors sound to the rod and make the machine noisy? I think my part could work to soby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
I had an early problem with wobble really transmitting into the carriage assembly. i found that the through hole in my x-ends where the threaded rod goes, was deformed inside. The rod was physically touching the wall of the hole, directly transmitting wobble to it. After I'd cleaned out the hole, there was enough clearance that the rod didn't touch. There was also enough slop in the holes foby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
My first though would be Z wobble. A bent threaded rod will cause the nozzle to wobble back and forth as the rod lifts the carriage up. However, Z wobble usually is visible front to back, not along the X.. Reason being the smooth rods at either end of the x carriage would prevent wobble in that direction. Run your carriage up and down and pay close attention to the nozzle tip, see if it's woby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
I've updated the bracket part, up on thingiverse. Increased the bend angle to better align with the stepper motor screws and increased the length by 1mm to accommodate a washer between the coupler and the bearing.by loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Which firmware are you running? Do you have a cooling fan that's pointing at the nozzle? I recall settings in the marlin firmware that have to do with the hot ends heater type, could be set wrong.by loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Sounds like your motor current adjustment is too high. On my kit, the polu drivers all came with the adjustment pot at the half way point. My motors behaved like that the first time I tried to move them. What I did, was rotate all of the drivers pots to minimum, all the way to the left. Then I rotated them up about 1/8th a turn as a starting point. Most of the motors moved well at that settby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Thanks for the positive vibe Ohmarinus, I thought about putting motors at the bottom, but I don't like the idea of putting that load on the steppers bearings. When those wear, you'll start dropping half steps and binding, and you'd have to replace the entire motor. Now, when I build an I3 this winter, the motors will be at the bottom, but I'll just adapt my bearings to that orientation. Jby loughkb - Look what I made!
Ok, so there was just enough constraint to cause noticable Z wobble. I've completely re-designed this now. New design works at the top, supporting the coupler and frees the bottom end of the rods.by loughkb - Look what I made!
Hello all, I've redesigned my system for eliminating Z downward creep in the Prusa I2. Much cleaner design, uses less plastic to make, not too difficult to install. Rather long and slightly rambling video here: ThingiVerse page for the parts here: I hope someone can use this. Kevinby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Absolutely a top notch artistic project! impressive.by loughkb - Look what I made!
I was just looking at that ubis printerbot hotend.. What's the diameter of the top of it? I have an aluminum plate that my J-head mounts on. It's got a 16mm diameter at the top and slots into the aluminum plate sandwiched between my X-carriage and Wades extruder.by loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Looking at the basic I3 design, it seems to me that you only need 60% of the kit parts. You can make the frame as wide as you want, for whichever heated bed you decide on. You can make the frame as tall as you want, and just order smooth and threaded rods to match your height. The thing can easily be scaled up and down, then it's just firmware calibration and entering limits into your slicinby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
I can't be of much help, since I have not had the occasion to disassemble my hot end. And I really can't see enough from the one picture to tell what type of hotend you have or how it was built. I suspect, from your description, that it got too hot at some point, damaging the assembly and cooking the plastic too far up in the tube. PLA? I know that beyond a certain temperature, 230C I thinby loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Ha! Sliced the large herringbone gear set for wades. This time it only ran the extruder slow during the skirt. Even though I'd just manually primed the extruder and was sure it was full and ready to go, the skirt consisted of a series of dots due to the slow speed. Then it was normal for the remainder of the print. It's just weird.by loughkb - Slic3r
Still no others seeing this? I'm waiting patiently for the next release and hoping. I paid for Kisslicer in the interim. It's working well, but has a hard time on non-perfect stl files. Minor buggers like a couple of shared edges will trip it up and create extra perimeters. Since nobody has uploaded a clean model of the herringbone gears, I'm giving it another go in slic3r tonight. It's beby loughkb - Slic3r
I've found that Nylon trimmer line works really well for this too. It doesn't melt at the low temp PLA melts at, yet molten PLA will stick to it like glue. You can 'fish' nearly all of the PLA and crap out of the nozzle with nylon at only 160C.by loughkb - General Mendel Topics
Hello Ohmarinus. Actually, since the bottom of my design is not mechanically solidly coupled to the rods, it can and does move slightly. You don't see it very much in the video since my rods are very close to straight. When the carriage is higher up, then a bit more wobble is noticable at the end of the left rod, and the support simply waggles along with it. It's hard to explain,by loughkb - Look what I made!
I've solved the problem of the couplers. Link to the part in video description.by loughkb - Look what I made!
I've seen people drawing with markers on their repraps.. I thought, why not just use plastic? I haven't seen anyone else doing this yet.by loughkb - Look what I made!