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Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Quotedougal1957 Also consider getting a fan to blow over it it will help keep the Mosfet's cool as well as the drivers. Doug That's another good reason for turning the board over - it will be easier to get cool air from the bottom of the printer, rather than from just under the heatbed.

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

QuoteAndyCart Hi David. I would be amazed if your belts were actually skipping teeth on your pulleys. I agree with DC42, it's much more likely that your stepper currents are too low. In terms of the position of the RAMPS, why not just turn it over? That way just tilting the machine over would allow any adjustments to be made and still leave the bed secured Hmm - I did set the drivers with a mult

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Quotedc42 If you do go for the Duet (or Smoothie), be aware that it may not fit under the bed, because it is larger than Arduino/RAMPS. Also you will want to get at the Ethernet port and the SD card slot at the edge of the board. I mounted my Duet on the Z tower, see . I'm already moving towards moving the board outside of the frame - it's just too inconvenient where it is. Moving it would also

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Quotemikes3ds Note you will have to put your drivers on it. I'd like to get away from those drivers - I wasn't impressed with the ones I got with my RAMPS board and, for the price of a set of the decent ones I've got on my Prusa*, I'd be half-way to the cost of a Duet. * These are my Prusa drivers - mine are well made and have been faultless to date. Can't speak for the current build quality o

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Best Printer to Build from Scratch 2015 - 9 years ago

Quotedc42 Delta printers have other advantages besides speed - for example, a smaller footprint for the same build area compared to Cartesian (but greater height). Also, the fixed bed of a delta makes it easier to use FSRs for Z probing, and makes it safer to use a mains-powered bed heater. The biggest difference I've seen already is that there is very little mass moving around in a delta, which

by David J - General

Re: Best Printer to Build from Scratch 2015 - 9 years ago

Delta printers are fascinating to watch... they can also be a challenge to set up as they are harder to understand that the traditional Cartesian printer, with every motor moving when the effector moves. This can also be a challenge for the controller board, and they work best with a modern 32-bit board. They can be very quick. If you're wondering, I've just finished making one, and trying to

by David J - General

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Quotedc42 Unless the belt tension is way too low, I think it should be impossible for the belt to skip a tooth (I'm sure others will correct me if I am wrong). So it is more likely that the motors are missing steps. Some possible causes of this: - Motor current is too low. If both the motors and the drivers are running cool, try increasing it. - Inaccurate delta motion is causing the head to tr

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Hot Ends - down to 3 to pick from - 9 years ago

I'm also an E3D supporter - but I totally agree about the cooling fan and its screws. I keep meaning to send an email to E3D about it, but never have got round to it...

by David J - General

Re: Who sells the best quality ramps 1.4 board? - 9 years ago

This Spanish company claim to produce a quality product - looks good, and not expensive. Spanish RAMPS Match that with an original Arduino Mega board from a reputable supplier and you will have as good a RAMPS experience as it is possible to get... but a Duet is probably better!

by David J - General

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

QuoteMatt,Wheatley Could the X,Y,Z Carriages be to tight, are all the v-wheels moving nice and smooth? I've adjusted the carriages so they don't rattle around, and no more... just snug. They move easily enough.

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Belts slipping - I checked the pulleys! (I've been caught like that with my Prusa)

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

I'm getting really annoyed with this belt problem - everything goes well until I hear a belt skip a tooth, then everything goes to pot. This is supposed to be a cube with a circular hole part-way through it. I've tensioned the belts as much as I am able, I've even fitted some belt tensioners to make adjustment easier, but each of the belts will still skip a tooth now and again. Following on

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Mk3 Heated Bed - 9 years ago

I made a cork sandwich for my Prusa's bed - the bed itself, then 2 layers of 2mm cork underneath (with cut-outs on the top piece for the wiring) and a sheet of 1.5mm ali at the bottom. It still gets warm underneath! But at least it now takes half the time to get up to ABS temperatures, especially when I put a sheet of corrugated cardboard on top during the warm-up. This is all hard-mounted to

by David J - General

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Quotedougal1957 David Can strongly recommend the DUET dead easy to configure and DC42's Firmware is the Dogs Bollxxxx as they say (I Know I haven't got mine fully dialled in yet but will have soon convinced my Diag Rods are wrong and my frame isn't stable enough Bracing about to go on it as we speak) Doug I was waiting for DC42 to come up with that one - he's a keen evangelist - but you beat h

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Well, I'm making some progress - or, to be exact, 5 steps forward and 1 or 2 steps back. I've got X, Y, Z, R and H just about right, and I've started to do some test prints. Unfortunately I'm having trouble with slipping belts, every layer or so a belt will skip a tooth and screw up the print. I've identified one or two issues already: Motor fixing - if I tighten up the motor fastening screws

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Mk3 Heated Bed - 9 years ago

I use one of those on my Prusa i3 - works very well with just kapton tape on it, as I use an inductive sensor for auto-levelling and therefore can't use a sheet of glass. Initially I had a problem as I couldn't find a suitable thermistor table to match the one that came with my heatbed - in the end I chose type 7 as that seemed to match the thermistor that the seller provided. Your mileage may

by David J - General

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

QuoteAndrewBCN Thanks for that link - it's been a while since I dealt with maths like that, but at least it will give me a basic understanding of the variables used in Marlin.

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Is there a decent website that describes the principles of delta motion? Fiddling around with this thing has made it clear that I really don't know what setting does what - and I don't like not knowing!

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Thanks Andy, now I understand! I'll give that a try when I've got a spare moment.

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

I'm struggling a bit with calibration - I've run scripts 1, 2 and 3 and set the heights nicely; a piece of paper just slips in with a little resistance. However, when I run script 4 the nozzle is 1 or 2 mm from the bed. Nothing much happens when I send M666 R apart from when the number gets too high and script 4 no longer works - also, when I try to run scripts 1-3, the effector moves much too f

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

I'll give that a try - thanks! Update: That worked nicely - it's nice to start from a point where the machinery isn't trying to self-destruct...

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Help needed for the slightly confused... my printer is now up and running, I have a print of the calibration guide in front of me, and I'm trying to run script 1. All that happens is that the effector zooms down and collides with the bed. How can I tell it to stop say 10mm higher, so that I have a chance to adjust it down?

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Should I oil stepper motors? - 9 years ago

Thanks - I like simple answers!

by David J - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors

Should I oil stepper motors? - 9 years ago

Just wondering - I have the usual set of NEMA17 stepper motors on my Prusa i3, and 4 others on a delta I'm currently building. Should I lubricate them now and again? And, if so, where, and how much?

by David J - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors

Re: Can you drill borosilicate glass - 9 years ago

I think you're supposed to build a circular wall around the hole using plasticine (or similar) to contain some coolant - white spirit rings a bell. I think that's for ordinary float glass though - I don't know if borosilicate glass is stress-free. I'd be very nervous if I had to do it.

by David J - Reprappers

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Andy, thanks for those bed clips. You've been busy! (I'm now torn between these and a backing board... ) David

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Quotedougal1957 Anything to insulate the bottom of the heatbed is a good thing in My opinion (Some have used radiator reflector pads but be careful with them that you don't run the bed to hot else they can melt the polystyrene). My PiXL is getting very close now just need to wire up my Z Probe from DC42 kapton my glass plates do an auto calibrate and test print with it (getting time to do all t

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Doug, I have an EPCOS thermistor - I might use that instead of the Chinese one, as at least I'll be certain about which identity to use in Marlin. As for the heatbed - I think I've got some heat-proof board in the garage, so I might make a platform under the bed. This will make mounting straightforward and provide good insulation underneath. It's also dimensionally quite good, so shouldn't put

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

A question for Andy: I've just received a heated ali bed that is the same as the one you recommended a while ago. Surprisingly it came with a thermistor on a length of cable - did yours come with one as well, and have you worked out what sort it is? I'm guessing that it's the usual generic EPCOS-style 100Kohm job, but there's no way to tell unless I measure its resistance at various temperatures

by David J - Delta Machines

Re: Cherry Pi III Is Available - 9 years ago

Doug, I was wondering about designing something like that... they would also provide a bit of an air gap to help with the excess under-bed heat. I'll have to have a think!

by David J - Delta Machines