Thanks for the replies - I have experienced loads of jamming issues and have just completely replaced my extruder in the hope of addressing. The new extruder is fan cooled. Thanks for sharing the best practice. James.by jsluke - Printing
I have a home assembled Prusa Mendel i2. After printing, is it okay to just shut everything down or should I remove the filament and clean the head in any way? Thanks. James.by jsluke - Printing
I bought a J-Head with fan mount from Etang => only to discover that the fan mount means it won't fit on my printer. There is not enough room between the tracks / rods that the Wades Extruder is mounted on. Two questions: 1. am I just unlucky in that my tracks are more narrow than normal (they are 42mm apart)? 2. has anyone else encountered this problem and if so do you know of a solutiby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
I haven't yet tried Cura but I did switch from Skeinforge to Slicr and I get exactly the same behaviour. I've marked my filament and when printing there is very little movement - the filament hardly moves through the extruder (although the extruder wheel is continually rotating). That made me thing that the J-Head was somehow blocking up after a certain amount of time .... that could explain whby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
I'm struggling with my print settings and have read a number of articles on configuring skeinforge including => However, my skeinforge does not seem to have the critical parameted ... in particular "Infill Width Over Thickness" My version of skeinforge is dated 12.03.14 whilst the article is 2010. Does anyone know of an up to date guide on configuring Skeinforge settings? My printer is aby jsluke - Printing
I'm printing with a Mendel i2 using Pronterface and Skeinforge. Printing the test objects (e.g. 20mm box, 50mm tower, etc) is fine. However when I print other objects, I get strange behaviour in the first few layers. I've attached a photo showing the early stages of a print. It's as if the filament is coming out in bursts or the print is being scuffed in some way. Any suggestions would be grby jsluke - Printing
I have Mendel i2 and I'm using Pronterface and Skeinforge (from within Pronterface) for printing. I have printed the calibration objects (e.g. the 20mm box, 50mm tower, etc) and everything works fine. I'm now trying to print my first objects and am experiencing problems. For example I am trying to print this (a fan mount) => however, the extruder does not seem to be pushing out any filameby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
Very many thanks for this post ... it's confirming what others are telling me in that it is unlikely to be caused by heat creep. Interestingly, I printed a whole load of test prints with the JHead before the problem started. At that time I was using pronterface to generate the GCode but in a bid to improve the quality I switched to SLICR. It was at that point that I started having trouble. Iby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
I'm in the UK on the Isle of Wight. This is the mount I was considering => I'd also be interested to know if my thinking is correct - is this a common problem. The original parts kit I purchased didn't mention an extruder fan and I don't remember seeing anything about it in the assembly instructions. However, I have found that my extruders clog very easily and this is the only reason I caby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
I have been really struggling to commission my Prusa Mendel i2. The problem is that the hot ends keep clogging - I've tried both the JHead and an all metal hot end. After a lot of research, I believe the problem is that my printer does not have a fan to cool the extruder. The filament passing through the extruder is getting hot and clogging. My original parts kit did not include a mount. I'vby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
Many thanks - fitting a fan to the RAMPS board solved the problem and it doesn't look like any of the components are damaged. Thanks again. James.by jsluke - RAMPS Electronics
Many thanks - fitting a fan to the RAMPS board solved the problem and it doesn't look like any of the components are damaged. Thanks again. James.by jsluke - General Mendel Topics
I have Prusa Mendel i2 with a heated bed, RAMPS board and Marlin firmware. I've been printing successfully for several weeks without any issues. Suddenly, a problem has developed with the heated bed. When I set the bed temperature to 110 degrees, the temperature rises to approximately 45 degrees and then starts falling again all the way back to ambient temperature. Once the temperature starts fby jsluke - RAMPS Electronics
I have Prusa Mendel i2 with a heated bed, RAMPS board and Marlin firmware. I've been printing successfully for several weeks without any issues. Suddenly, a problem has developed with the heated bed. When I set the bed temperature to 110 degrees, the temperature rises to approximately 45 degrees and then starts falling again all the way back to ambient temperature. Once the temperature startsby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
Thanks KingRahl - I had previously calibrated the Z-axis and printed the 50mm tower with the correct height. What is confusing me is how changing the layer size from 0.4 to 0.2 could throw all these other parameters out. Why should changing layer size impact other settings? Thanks. James.by jsluke - Printing
I'm calibrating my Prusa Mendel (RAMPS hardware, Marlin firmware and Pronterface). I printed the 20mm box to get the X & Y settings correct, however the print quality wasn't too good. I therefore reduced the layer size from 0.4 to 0.2 and printed again. This time the box was approximately 30% taller and seemed to be "bulging" ... as if there was too much filament being used. If I change tby jsluke - Printing
I believe I understand now. Full explanation on this thread => Thanks. James.by jsluke - RAMPS Electronics
Many thanks - there were actually 3 sets of pins (I lifted the photo from the web) and I had connected the + to gnd. Thanks for the explanation. James.by jsluke - General Mendel Topics
Many thanks. I have simply connected the endstops to the pins on the RAMPS board => How do these pins relate to Vcc and ground? Could I have connected the end stops to these pins in the wrong way? Thanks. James.by jsluke - General Mendel Topics
Can you please clarify what you mean by "inserted into RAMPS reversed"? I have exactly this problem and am really struggling to find a solution. The connectors plug onto clearly labelled pins on the RAMPS board so I'm not sure how I could have connected up incorrectly? Many thanks. James.by jsluke - RAMPS Electronics
Whilst commissioning my Prusa Mendel i2 (with Ramps 1.4 and Marvin v1 firmware) I seem to have an issue with the end stops. When I upload the firmware and use pronterface I can control the stepper motors .... until I hit one of the end stops. After that any control instructions (e.g. pressing the +X / -X buttons) generate the following message => Can't write to printer (disconnected?). Anyby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
... and the answer was .... I had the wrong mother board setting in the configuration file!!! When I corrected the mother board setting TEMP_SENSOR_0 51 worked fine. Many thanks. James.by jsluke - General Mendel Topics
Thanks for the suggestion - I'm afraid setting TEMP_SENSOR_0 to 51 didn't work (MAXTEMP) .... I've also tried 55 and 6. I've put an ohmmeter on the thermistor and it is measuring a resistance so I don't believe it's shorted out in anyway. James.by jsluke - General Mendel Topics
I've now tried changing the configuration.h values and instead of MINTEMP triggered I now get MAXTEMP triggered. I am using a EPCOS 100K Thermistor (B57560G104F) from this kit => The Marlin firmware gives me the following options => //=========================================================================== //=============================Thermal Settings ============================by jsluke - General Mendel Topics
I understand that this is almost certainly due to a thermistor problem, so I have checked my configuration.h file and found the following entries => #define TEMP_SENSOR_0 -1 #define TEMP_SENSOR_1 -1 #define TEMP_SENSOR_2 0 #define TEMP_SENSOR_BED 0 There is a whole list of values in the comments section and -1 refers to a "thermocouple with AD595". I am using a 100K thermistor so I must havby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
I'm making my first attempt at getting my Mendel I2 up and running. The electronics are all wired up and the firmware has been uploaded. I can connect to the printer and I can hear a humming noise from the stepper motors. When trying to move any of the axis using the +x / -x / +y / -y / +z / -z buttons in pronterface nothing happens. I get the following output when connecting to the printer aby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
That's fixed the problem - the baud rate in config.h was set to a different value to my port configuration - now working. Many thanks. James.by jsluke - General Mendel Topics
I'm commissioning my Prusa Mendel i2. I am using Ramps 1.4 with an Arduino Mega 2560 and Marlin v1 firmware. The firmware builds in the Arduino dev environment and I can upload to the Mega board without a problem. When I press connect in Pronterface I get a load of strange text => Any ideas? Thanks. James.by jsluke - General Mendel Topics
That would fit ..... I originally connected the Arduino (with the fully wired up RAMPS) to the PC there were no LEDs on the Arduino. With the RAMPS board disconnected the Arduino was detected by the PC. When I re-connected the Arduino and the RAMPS all the lights were out again. I then started unplugging the wires and when I disconnected one of the end stops both the Arduino and the RAMPS suddby jsluke - General Mendel Topics
Thanks - I have unplugged the motors, heaters and end stops (I don't yet have any fans connected up) but I still have the RAMPS plugged into the Arduino and the PC is now able to detect that the Arduino is connected. Many thanks. James.by jsluke - General Mendel Topics