QuoteMichaelBrock The Chinese products (not just on these hot-ends but on all of the parts I have bought for my printer) appear to have absolutely no quality control. I suspect that there is in fact quality control... there is a range of prices, and I think that *probably* the more expensive Chinese items are QCed. They then sell the stuff that fails their QC to people who may fix it, or just seby frankvdh - General
How are you screwing the nozzle and heat break into the heater block? It's important that the heat break be screwed up hard against the nozzle inside the heater block. If there's a gap, the filament can expand there and jam. The proper way to do this is 1. Heat the block up to normal temperature 2. Screw the nozzle all the way in, then back it out a quarter turn or so. 3. Screw the heat break iby frankvdh - Printing
Being tight-fisted, I have several knock-off "E3DV6"s. They're all different, so it's difficult to say how much trouble you'll have (if any). I can say that the one without the PTFE liner was hopeless for PLA... I haven't graduated to ABS yet. The ones with the liner both work OK. If you go this route, I suggest you get some spare liners (10ft of PTFE tube is as cheap as 4 * 1" liners). Probablyby frankvdh - General
Rather than a microcontroller, you could just have 2 switches... wire the power for the outer panels in parallel to the inner panel, with one switch in series with each outer panel. Before printing, you switch on the appropriate switch(es) depending on the size of the object. This does assume that the outer panels heat at about the same rate as the inner panel, since the inner panel's thermistorby frankvdh - Developers
101-colour auto-changing multi-filament.by frankvdh - Developers
Check that your extruder driver board is plugged in (bit obvious, but...) and the right way round. Try switching the extruder and X axis connectors at the RAMPS. Now, when you tell it to move in the X-axis, does the extruder motor turn? Does the X axis move when you give extrude/retract commands (beware, end-stop won't function!)? If the X-axis doesn't move, then there is a problem with the circby frankvdh - Reprappers
Slic3r allows you to cut objects at a Z value that you specify.by frankvdh - 3D Design tools
I've bought some half a dozen spools of PLA off one supplier on TradeMe, and don't have a problem with it. I also bought some spools from AliExpress... quite a bit cheaper (US$105 for 5 reels = NZ$35/kg, incl courier) and again no problems. Lot's more colour choice than TM, but you might not get exactly the colour you expect. I suspect most TM filament comes from here anyway. DON'T buy loose fiby frankvdh - New Zealand RepRap User Group
Only available in Europe + USA, so that cuts me out immediately But even if it was available, I don't think I'd back this project: 1. I'd hoped that, as mentioned several times in the campaign statement, the simplicity of the bipolar design would result in a significantly cheaper price than a Cartesian or Delta printer. But at 300 Eur + shipping, this is a lot more expensive than (say) a Prusaby frankvdh - Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)
Whilst I agree with most of what dc42 says, I wonder about "you would need independent temperature control for each heated zone in order to get an even temperature". It seems to me that having a single thermistor and assuming that the whole surface is evenly heated is exactly what most heat beds do. I don't see that having (say) 4 small pads instead of 1 large one will be significantly different.by frankvdh - Experimental and Hobby
Quotedanieljack I remember I tried moving the motor by hand slowly while it's powered on, and I believe I was able to move it. I didn't measured the voltage on the motors, just the ohms. When powered on, it should be very difficult to turn a stepper motor. When I suggested checking voltage, I meant the outputs from the stepper driver. When powered on and not moving, you should see +12V acrossby frankvdh - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
Only scrape the PLA off the solder pads, so it protects the traces from shorts.by frankvdh - Experimental and Hobby
I only see one stepper driver plugged in. I guess that's because you're just testing with one motor to start with? How do you know that your motor is connected correctly to the RAMPS? When it's powered on but not moving, can you turn it by hand? What are the voltages on each of the wires to the motor?by frankvdh - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
Hi Mitch, I've been doing some 3D printer design work in OnShape too... search Public projects at OnShape.com for Trirod. Can you share how to find your project? Frankby frankvdh - Look what I made!
Include an inkjet to colour the filament as its being laid down. *Printed* scissor lift Z axis.by frankvdh - Developers
If the gear is spinning and the filament not moving, increase the pressure of the filament against the gear. If it grinds away the filament you have clogging. Try turning down/off retraction. Retracting hot, soft filament into a cool part of the hotend can cause clogs. Try turning temperature down to 210... too hot causes heat to creep back up into the cool part of the hotend. If your nozzle iby frankvdh - Reprappers
When it 'stops extruding', what exactly happens? Does the extruder motor stop turning? If it keeps turning, try increasing pressure of the filament against the extruder gear. What kind of hot end do you have? All metal? Or with a PTFE liner? I found that all-metal ones tend to clog... PTFE-lined ones seem to be OK (so long as the PTFE is OK). Do you have a fan on the heatsink, continuously on?by frankvdh - Reprappers
I'd suggest keeping the controller separate from the power electronics, so 32bit vs 8bit controllers isn't an issue. Connecting between the controller and electronics boards could be done via I2C.by frankvdh - General
My understanding is that the normal axial fans aren't well suited to blowing air into a duct... they're more suitable for sucking. I gather that radial fans are better for cooling the extruded filament.by frankvdh - New Zealand RepRap User Group
I agree with both cristian and TDD. My guess is that the easiest answer will be to get a rigid, flat glass sheet and put it on top of your fairly rigid, nearly flat, bed (e.g. aluminium plate). If you don't want to add a glass sheet, maybe you could put a thin permanent layer of automotive body filler (or something like that) on top of your surface. A cunning person might figure out a way to uby frankvdh - General
Looks like it would be good as a user interface. I wouldn't want to use it to control stepper motors though. You would have to add a hardware layer, in which case you might as well use RAMPS+Arduino, in which case any cheap laptop will be just as good. But don't be panicked into grabbing this particular offer. There's dozens of sellers on AliExpress offering the same thing at similar prices. (Thby frankvdh - General
There's a KickStarter project called Replicape for a 3D printer controller based around a BeagleBone Black, which apparently has some extra hardware which allows it to do hard real-time stuff. Unfortunately it only has support for 5 steppers :{by frankvdh - General
Quotethe_digital_dentist A lot of people say "I'll get this cheapo kit and as I learn about its problems I'll fix the things that are wrong with it". The problem with that idea is that the cheapo kit can't be converted to a good machine by replacing parts one by one any more than a Yugo can be turned into a Ferrari by replacing parts one by one. It is so fundamentally flawed that there is almosby frankvdh - Reprappers
KickStarter 7 filaments into 1 hot end, non-mixing. Just to be clear, I have no connection with this project. I don't know any more about it that what's on KS. I've just posted here to share the information that it exists. If its a good idea, I hope lots of people back it. If it's not a good idea, I hope that gets explained so that people don't back it.by frankvdh - Crowdfunding Projects Announcements
Well, I like to live dangerously (and get cheap stuff), so I did order one of these. I too got the $15 refund offer, and politely declined the offer (thanks for posting about that). Today I got an email from AliExpress saying QuoteWe have suspended this seller’s account because we detected unsafe trading activities. All of your pending orders with this seller have been frozen for your securityby frankvdh - General
Check for anything that might be catching... a fan shroud or wire or something touching the bed or the X or Y axis mechanism? Try a cube test print to see if you can isolate the problem to either the X or Y axis. Check for play in the X and/or Y axes. Check the screws holding the printer together, motor attachment screws, etc... they loosen too. If you're using auto-leveling, also check the Zby frankvdh - Printing
I was assuming that your MkV J-head was similar to what Chinese sell as J-head extruders (e.g. AliExpress). Sorry for adding to the confusion. Looks like yours has the nozzle and heater block as one part. In your photo, the heat break is still screwed in, I think. It looks like there's a reddish-brown insulator between it and the heater block? Yes, the white tube is the PTFE liner. On my head, iby frankvdh - Reprappers
Just to clarify nomenclature... The brass nozzle screws into the heater block. The heat break screws into the heater block from the top. The heat sink screws onto the heat break. The heater cartridge goes into a hole in the side of the heater block, held in place by a grub screw. Generally speaking, you should screw/unscrew the nozzle whilst the heater block is hot, because there will be plasticby frankvdh - Reprappers
I use OnShape.com rather than Inventor Fusion or 123D, but this is a fairly typical operation for CAD, so I'd expect any decent CAD system to support it. Try a Boolean operation to difference one object from another. In OnShape, there's also an operation to take one object and split it into two, along some arbitrary surface.by frankvdh - 3D Design tools
Quotemaheau0 Hello there, it always comes back the error message. Greeting Manfred Hi Manfred, What error message do you get?by frankvdh - 3D Scanners, Book Scanners, and Optics