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Discuss here what makes your printer moving.
Why have I started to get "endstops hit: Z" after G29? - 6 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? - 6 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? - 6 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? - 6 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. - 6 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? - 6 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? - 6 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? - 6 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. - 6 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? - 6 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? - 6 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 - 6 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 - 6 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 - 6 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 - 7 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? - 7 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? - 7 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? - 7 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? - 7 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? - 7 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? - 7 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
Re: Heat bed Mk3 - 7 years ago
I have a 12v Mk3 heatbed on my Prusa i3 - it will make 100C if I wait long enough (20+ minutes). It struggles to maintain it if the room is cold though. To achieve this I had to put insulation on the bottom of the heater - 2 layers of 2mm cork, with a 1.2mm aluminium plate to hold the cork on. I used the screw holes in the heatbed to hold everything together, using nuts and washers to get tby David J - General
Re: gcode file not saved after printing - 7 years ago
I had this issue once - but shortly afterwards found that my power supply was giving low voltage. Reset it to the correct voltage and never saw the issue again. My (uneducated) guess is that the processor(s) was/were working at the threshold and misbehaved. Never seen it since (fingers crossed).by David J - Duet
Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? - 7 years ago
In my case, the replacement fan was a ball-bearing type - the noise from the airflow was awful as the fan ran a lot faster than the old one!by David J - Reprappers
Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? - 7 years ago
Quotethe_digital_dentist A resistor or a few diodes in series will drop the fan's voltage and reduce the speed and noise level. It would take quite a few diodes to drop the voltage enough to reduce the speed on a 24v fan! I took the alternative approach - I peeled the label off the old fan that screeched on start-up and put a tiny drop of thin oil on the sleeve bearing. Seems to have cured theby David J - Reprappers
Re: Bumpy surface when using Slic3r? - 7 years ago
Ahh - I understand now! In the meantime I've got Cura to behave properly with this printer so I'll mostly be using that, but I will shortly revisit this problem for possible slic3r use in the future. Thanks to everyone for the guidance.by David J - Printing
Re: Bumpy surface when using Slic3r? - 7 years ago
You're probably right on a few counts... I always measure my filament in a few places, but maybe not 20 - 30 places. Perhaps 5 or 10. I'll try the 'wipe while retracting' setting, although I'm not sure what it really means! I assumed that it was something to do with multiple hot ends and cleaning the nozzle that's about to be brought into service. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'll also try theby David J - Printing
Bumpy surface when using Slic3r? - 7 years ago
I've been trying to sort out a few minor problems on my CoreXY printer - I've recalculated the Z steps-per-mm value and that's good, and also the extrusion is now calibrated. The only real issue I'd like to address is the lumpy surface I get on vertical faces. However, I am quite sure that this is a Slic3r settings issue rather than a printer problem. The left cube shows the lumps, the rightby David J - Printing
Re: [SALE] Duet 0.6 boards - 7 years ago
Send them an email - contact@replikeo.com - they will organise a PayPal payment request. I ordered one a little while ago, and it arrived today. Looks fine, although not tested yet (printer not ready).by David J - For Sale
Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? - 7 years ago
I've suddenly taken an interest in this subject - my 40mm hot-end cooling fan had started to screech on start-up, probably due to an unlubricated sleeve bearing, so I replaced it with a ball-bearing one from E3D's on-line store. It certainly spins very fast and shifts a huge amount of air, but it is SO NOISY! It's not the fan's motor, it's just the air rushing through its blades & frame. Iby David J - Reprappers