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Building an electronic art project? Or a software radio? Think blue LEDs are cool? Are you a circuit bender? Discuss it here.
Re: PETg woes - 2 years ago
I'm surprised that your nozzle temp is so high - my PETG spool says 195C to 220C nozzle, and 35C - 60C bed. I'm using PETG as I type this, with a nozzle temp of 200C and the bed at 60C. In other words, much like PLA, but I've found that I need to reduce the print speed a bit. UPDATE: Here's what I was printing while I typed: Black HobbyKing PETG so not the finest material, and I chose too sby David J - Printing
Well, that was an easy fix! 
- 2 years ago
I've been having a bit of trouble with my 2 printers lately. I have an issue with my Prusa clone (being discussed in another thread) and prints on my CoreXY lift off the glass in the first few layers. So I had a really good check of the CoreXY - print height, bed levelling, glass surface treatment and so on - and everything seemed to be spot on. As my Prusa wasn't behaving I thought I'd give thby David J - General
Re: Genuine E3D V6 can't reach 240C? - 2 years ago
Quoteaflactheastronaut Oh my god I feel so dumb right now. It was set to 220V and I switched it to 110V (I live in the US) and it worked perfectly. 11.7V supplied to the heater and bed, and they both heated up 10x faster than I've ever seen. Thanks a ton for the help jinx! I think I finally have a fully functioning printer! Well done! You won't be the first nor the last to make that mistake. Iby David J - General
Re: Did something dumb. Ever happen to you? - 2 years ago
Many years ago - 1998 - I got this little article published in Model Engineer (a UK magazine). I even got paid for it! -----------------------------------------------------------%<------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think we've got a demon in our house. He is not your usual "horns, tail, teeth, wreaking horrible damage" type deby David J - General
Re: Why have I started to get "endstops hit: Z" after G29? - 2 years ago
QuoteTrakyan Also, can you describe in some more detail how it is failing? Is it pausing in the middle of the bed leveling sequence when it hits a troublesome spot? Is it crashing into the bed then throwing an error? Or is the bed leveling completing seemingly "as normal" just with an error being thrown up instead of it working. I didn't quite get the "failure mode" from your OP. The third one -by David J - General
Re: Genuine E3D V6 can't reach 240C? - 2 years ago
Power supply, I reckon. Have you tried disconnecting the power supply and measuring its output? What sort of power supply are you using?by David J - General
Re: Why have I started to get "endstops hit: Z" after G29? - 2 years ago
QuoteTrakyan So the first pass always fails but subsequent passes work? Could it be the default state of the z end stop is wrong and it's being reset to what it should be after it fails or something of that nature? This sounds a bit too specific and consistent to me for a hardware bug (if that makes sense?). That makes sense, and matches what I was thinking. QuoteHave you tried changing the suby David J - General
Re: Why have I started to get "endstops hit: Z" after G29? - 2 years ago
Time to bring this back up once more... I've tried everything - the bed is level, it's a flat glass plate (I've checked it, and swapped it 'just in case'), the bed glass has been cleaned, and the zero height has been checked and adjusted. I'm confused, because the IR probe IS the Z end-stop - the bed levelling action takes the head and its probe down to the bed in 9 places, each probe seems finby David J - General
Re: Why have I started to get "endstops hit: Z" after G29? - 2 years ago
Thanks Robin, I'll give that try next time I wheel the printer out.by David J - General
Why have I started to get "endstops hit: Z" after G29? - 2 years ago
My setup: Prusa i3 look-alike RAMPS controller E3Dv6 hot-end DC42's IR height sensor Up until a few weeks ago this printer was working perfectly - for every print, G28 homed everything nicely, G29 did it's thing, and then the print went on as normal. Now, at the end of G29's business, it reports "endstops hit: Z" and then repeats G28 & G29 once more. After the second G28/G29 sequence the rby David J - General
Re: Cable management to the X-Y carriage - how did you do it? - 3 years ago
That's roughly the setup I'm running - 24v, etc. I did some research on ribbon cable and it looks like it's generally rated at 1A per lead, so doubling up pairs for the nozzle heater would be sufficient.by David J - CoreXY Machines
Re: Cable management to the X-Y carriage - how did you do it? - 3 years ago
What's the power rating of ribbon cable like that? I would have to feed the hot-end, extruder motor, a few fans, etc.by David J - CoreXY Machines
Re: Cable management to the X-Y carriage - how did you do it? - 3 years ago
Interesting... I've just had a quick look at ebay - I hadn't realised how available drag chain is, nor how cheap. I wish I'd known before I printed that lot! I still think I will need to have a high loop in some form, but I haven't worked out how yet.by David J - CoreXY Machines
Re: Sluggish forum. - 3 years ago
Well, the admins have done their stuff and everything's zipping along very rapidly now - many thanks to all of them!by David J - General
Cable management to the X-Y carriage - how did you do it? - 3 years ago
My CoreXY printer has the X-Y carriage and extruder cables kept under control via this cable chain (filament goes separately): This has worked really well up to now, but the link connections are wearing and the whole thing's getting very droopy, despite supports to help it out as it moves around. It's getting so bad now that the links' connections will just pop out at the slightest touch. Clby David J - CoreXY Machines
Re: Which methodology for building complex models? - 3 years ago
This query about design philosophy came about when I thought I'd completed my design, then realised that I needed to put 4 pillars into the left-hand chamber to support a circuit board! I know how I'm going to do it, but it made me think that there must be a better way to start something like this. It's a bit like asking for directions in the countryside... "well, I wouldn't start from here".by David J - OpenSCAD
Which methodology for building complex models? - 3 years ago
This is just a question that occurred to me this evening: when you are designing a complex model in OpenSCAD, do you start with a lump (like a cube) and use difference() to take chunks out of it, or do you use union() to combine components until you get the result you want? Up to now I've taken the first approach - using difference() - but I was wondering if I'd be better off combining parts usby David J - OpenSCAD
Re: Sluggish forum. - 3 years ago
It's been bad for a couple of weeks, maybe more. This has always been a slow forum, but lately it's been almost unusable. I click on a link, then open another browser window and go look at some other websites for a while. After that I notice that the tab text has changes, and I go back to read it. Rinse and repeat...by David J - General
Re: AC Heated bed? - 3 years ago
The Keenovo heat pads are very good, and the company gives good customer service - I've had emailed queries answered in 30 minutes or so. Not bad for communications from UK to China! I used this SSR from Rapid: Kudom SSR. It's tiny at 38.5mm x 28.5mm x 20mm, but will handle 10A - my 200W heater takes less than 1A. I also got a transparent plastic cover for safety's sake (NB: don't fit the coveby David J - General
Re: AC Heated bed? - 3 years ago
Quotesarf2k4 How fast those keenovo AC heaters perform let's say from 30c to 100c? Then with the AC heaters, we typically could go slightly thinner wires probably 18 or 20awg right? My main problem with the pcb dc heated bed was that of course, underpowered and often beaten by a fan blowing onto it thus cooling the whole bed down even further. I'm waiting for a cotton insulation sheet to insulby David J - General
Re: Complicated model causing an error message - 3 years ago
Thanks very much! I thought it might be a simple answer, even though I didn't spot it for myself... Increasing the max allowed number of elements did the trick - I'll keep the cache sizes as they are, unless I get problems in the future.by David J - OpenSCAD
Complicated model causing an error message - 3 years ago
I'm trying to design an object, and it's getting quite complicated. Now, when I add an extra detail and press F5 for preview, I get the following message: WARNING: Normalized tree is growing past 4000 elements. Aborting normalization. WARNING: Normalized tree is growing past 4000 elements. Aborting normalization. Normalized CSG tree has 101 elements I guess that I've gone over some OpenSCAD lby David J - OpenSCAD
Re: Trouble with swelling part corners - 3 years ago
I found it easier to measure 150mm up the filament, call for 100mm to be sent through the extruder, then measure the distance to the mark. 150 - remaining length = amount used. It's easier to find the mark, especially if you're over-extruding.by David J - Delta Machines
Re: Filament stuck in hotend after first print - unable to cleanly start more prints - 3 years ago
First of all, do you have the E3D fan running continuously while the printer is on? It needs to run constantly to keep the heatsink cool - the only bit that should be hot is everything below the heat break. This keeps the plastic below the heat break molten, and unmelted above it. Apart from that - I take the filament out when I've finished printing, then let the fan cool the hotend down to roby David J - Delta Machines
Re: Best Chemical to Clean Hairspray off Glass Bed? - 3 years ago
I use acetone when the build-up of hairspray gets too messy - leaves a squeaky-clean finish. Wear gloves though! It's a bit harsh as it will remove all the natural oils from your skin.by David J - Reprappers
Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? - 3 years ago
Quotethe_digital_dentist A resistor or a few diodes will drop the voltage and slow it down a little, reducing the noise level. Or for about $1 you can get a small buck converter to drop the voltage an adjustable amount and tweak it until you're happy with the noise level. As I'd said earlier - it would take quite a few diodes to drop the 24v enough to make a difference! I gave up after 5 diodeby David J - Reprappers
Re: How to fit a thermal fuse? - 3 years ago
And to close this topic - I now have my 230v heatbed working nicely! It's good not to have the PSU fan noise all the time (the new PSU doesn't have a fan as it's a lot smaller than the old one - it just powers the Duet control board, motors and hot end). I've taken the heatbed up to 120C and the thermal fuse hasn't popped, which is nice...by David J - General
Re: How to fit a thermal fuse? - 3 years ago
Quotedc42 The thermal cutouts I bought were these . They have insulated bodies (the listing says plastic, but the ones I received are ceramic) and a convenient screw hole for attaching them to an aluminium bed plate. They are self-resetting, which means you can test them without writing them off. Please note, the 15A rating is almost certainly for AC use, and will be much lower when used with DCby David J - General
Re: How to fit a thermal fuse? - 3 years ago
Quotethe_digital_dentist QuoteDavid J In the end I found some very small thermal fuses that are plastic-encapsulated, small and can carry 2A (I need less than 1A). Hopefully one of them will do the job nicely if I use high-temp silicone to fix it in place. There will be cork insulation & a backing plate to keep everything safe & secure. What kind of heater uses less than 1A? I've gotby David J - General
Re: How to fit a thermal fuse? - 3 years ago
I managed to find some woven (fibreglass?) heat-proof sleeving on ebay - smaller than I expected when I saw it, but it was big enough for the thermal fuse leads. I think it cost me about £0.90 - about $1.50?by David J - General