I just upgraded to 24v, and while it takes a bit more effort, it leaves you with a better-behaved machine. I removed the RAMPS fuses and shorted the connections, then put inline fuses from my 24v power supply to the board. I'm using a lm2596 to step down to 5V, which I put into the RAMPS pin that sends it to the Arduino. My steppers and Pololu A4988 driver boards are unchanged, though I needed tby Karmavore - General
I can't tell from the picture... is your print issue occurring in just the X or Y directions, or does seem to be occurring in both? If you allow those cylinders to go higher, does a regular pattern appear, does it shift continuously in one direction, or does it move about willy nilly? Sliding glass is one idea. Another might be a stepper shaft that is slipping inside its pulley. Too-low and too-by Karmavore - General
Hmmm. I have to say I'm a little surprised by the outpouring of support for the automatic bed leveling feature. Instinctively, this feels like a very clever and impressive solution whose drawbacks (additional complexity and carriage weight) allow it to lose out to the boring, obvious solution (build a stable and level bed.) I would feel differently if I was still working with my dual-plate i2, buby Karmavore - General
Thanks for the reply, you are indeed interpreting my question correctly. I did see robust activity on github, which I interpreted as a risky thing to port over to my machine. And because the version number in the code hadn't been incremented, I took this as a clue that the Marlin Poobahs didn't necessarily recommend grabbing the current version just yet. And given that merging configuration.h seby Karmavore - General
Hello. I'm running a pretty-much-vanilla i3 with RAMPS 1.4 and the June 1.0.0 Marlin release. I saw some posts recently suggesting that I could improve the performance of my printer by changing the firmware code. This got me to thinking that perhaps a reasonably tested set of such updates can be found in an updated version of Marlin. I took a look at the github, and there's a lot of activity onby Karmavore - General
Good luck with your thesis. Rightly or wrongly, I get the sense from your questions that you presuppose that a 3D printer will, in the near- to medium-term, be an indispensable appliance in every modern first-world home. All those printers with all that downtime seems mighty economically inefficient to me. I see business adoption of the printers as a more likely outcome. Think websites offeringby Karmavore - General
I think what you're *really* looking for is for someone to confirm what you already suspect: if you want something that is somewhat customized, you're going to have to work a bit with a printer to get that right. I just built an i3, printing parts on a now-defunct i2, and it took a fair amount of customization. First things first, most of the 10mm variants use 10mm threaded rod only. The smoothby Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
On my two RAMPS boards, the S is on the signal side.by Karmavore - RAMPS Electronics
I had a self-sourced Prusa i2 for about a year before I used it to make parts for an i3, which I also upgraded from 12 to 24 volts. The experience of the i2 made construction of the i3 easy and obvious, but not as easy as it could have been. I paid $79 for an untapped 6mm aluminum sheet cut to form. I did the tapping myself, and I can't recommend that anyone pay more than $10 for tapping given hby Karmavore - General
QuoteBobHewson Am I the only one to have this problem? Maybe. But on the plus side, at least your problem is really interesting. Any chance you can get a photo up on here? To troubleshoot, I'd start with a couple of sample prints. * A 25mm cube (hollow) * A 75mm x 25mm x 25mm (35% infill or so) I ask for these because I'd like to see if... * ...the problem is directly related to z-height or thby Karmavore - General
I've bought from reprapdiscount; on the whole it was a very pleasant transaction. At no point did they raise any issues related to my race, nationality, or government's policies, which as a customer I really appreciated.by Karmavore - General
Doubtless, a gcode file would do the job, and easily, but in the interest of completeness... You can modify Marlin to add new menus and commands. I've done this to put my most frequently called commands into a "Common" menu that lives above "Control" and "Motion".by Karmavore - General
This looks to me like your esteps/mm is much too high. Once you get that worked out, see about using your slicer to adjust your print speed down on the layers that go by too fast, and make sure you have a fan to cool the print. You're putting down plastic on a layer that hasn't solidified yet.by Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
IMHO, this issue isn't worth a principled stand, and your mountain/molehill concerns seem particularly relevant. An $8 refund is exceedingly generous. Take it. Use it get a board shipped to you from a different seller, if you like, though I see no reason to do so.by Karmavore - General
I'm using Slic3r 0.9.10b, with .24 first layer height and .20 layer height subsequent. (M5 threaded rods with a 0.8mm pitch are used for z. I've got 4000 steps per unit, which seems right.) Inspecting the g-code, I see what I'd expect to, namely "G1 ZXXXX" comands for 0.24, 0.44, 0.64, etc., etc. However, while the print is executing (RAMPS 1.4, Marlin) on the occasional layer my reprapdiscountby Karmavore - General
QuotetadejvSo in my case i do bottom 2 layers each 0.1mm high, and on top I do 3 layers each 0.1mm I think this is your issue. With just 3 layers at 100 microns, I don't think you're going to get the coverage you want. What happens if you go with 7 or ten layers at this layer height?by Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
Nice. I suppose you can't temperature control your enclosure for fear of patent litigation. A shame, because such an enhancement seems rather obvious. With this design, I suppose I might be concerned about the electronics overheating inside this box should anything go wrong with with the ventilation. I'd like to see a dedicated mount for electronics outside the space where the printer exists.by Karmavore - General
Quotecassetti The Prusa i3 looks interesting, but it seems the design is fragmented. Yup. And figuring out which parts I wanted was a pain (but a fun hobby-type thing to do.) But I think your conclusions (no online support, more difficult troubleshooting) might not necessarily follow. And all your steppers and electronics, and gears/pulleys get recycled from your i2. I'm in the process of buildby Karmavore - General
I'm in the process of building an i3 myself, and I can't say I've experienced anything that I would refer to as a "standard version." In fact, I've dug all the way into OpenScad files to create some parts that included beneficial features from multiple places. You're almost certainly going to want to create the STLs yourself for the settings of your choosing (e.g., bearing size, threaded rod sizeby Karmavore - General
I'm not a mechanical engineer by trade, but I'm experiencing a multitude of reactions to your plan. 1) This sounds really, really cool. 2) This guy/gal is going to have to go with something beefier than 8mm smooth rods to ensure that axis travel isn't bowed under the weight of those rods, particularly on X. 3) Regardless, that is going to be one heavy bed. I wonder if nema 17s can handle it. 4)by Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
QuoteEdvardas Seriuosly? Slic3r does not have this option? fwiw, you could translate pieces in x and y, and you can rotate around z. But that's it.by Karmavore - General
Thanks for the replies. It sounds to me like the mains-powered bed improves the speed of the bed, but has limited-to-no impact on the quality of the printed parts. Since none of these decisions are irreversible, I think I'll stick with the MK2b plan. And my 18.8 amp 24V power supply is already purchased, so reducing the wattage of my power supply has limited benefit at this point. I also need toby Karmavore - General
Hey Charles, Has this printer worked, and then stopped working as above, or is this a new setup in need of some calibration? (Calibration is critically important, and people tend to overlook the esteps/mm setting that could be influencing what I see here.) And for what it's worth, the support material doesn't always look like a smooth line from layer to layer. See this photo, for instance.by Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
Quotevetteguy112233 The only reason it bothers me is because I'm worried either I've hooked something up incorrectly or my power supply isn't doing it's job. Yup, I went through this phase, and I was right to be worried. Not everything was right with my ramps board, and it was (afaik) delivered to me not right. The LCD, for instance, would not work because a non-zero but insufficient voltage wasby Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
Hello again. I'm self-sourcing an i3 (to replace an i2) with an eye toward higher quality prints, even if it costs me a little more to make. I mostly print in ABS. This post is about the heated bed. I've already decided to go with a 24V setup, so it seems I have a couple options when it comes to the bed. Here are some things I'm considering. 1) MK2B PCB with 24V support. Kapton on glass bulldby Karmavore - General
What vetteguy is describing is *exactly* like what I experience in my everyday operation of my printer, with the exception that it doesn't really bother me. That said, if I remember to check the voltages, I'll let you know what I learn. FWIW, I think the stepper noise is a symptom unrelated to the cause.by Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
Quoteuncle_bob I'd dump the PC power supply on most of these printers. An industrial 12V 30A supply is pretty cheap ($44 or less). Yup, and I'm gonna. In fact, I'm going to give 24V a whirl, but that's a discussion for numerous other threads. I made the choice to go with the power supply when my objective was to minimize cost. In retrospect, that decision cost me a lot more in time than it savedby Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
Thanks, Uncle. I can't confirm or deny what you're saying, but it sounds like a good explanation. Back when I still had my D1, I could only get my LCD to work if I also had the Arduino powered via USB (which defeats the purpose.) I was getting too low voltage out that way otherwise. Given what I learned checking pins, I suspect that I have a short somewhere. It seems like it might be in the PCB,by Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
Uncle Bob, I can't disagree with any of that. Let's open this can of worms for a moment, which you're welcome to close again by ignoring it or polite request. I'm running off a 420W Antec Earthwatts power supply, and a line from its 5V rail is definitely what is powering the LCD. (ATX 5V --> ramps aux pin --> mega board) I've completely removed the RAMPS D1 diode that would have otherwiseby Karmavore - General Mendel Topics
Iceman086: I'm headed in the same direction you are. I'd like to know how your combination of bushings and rods panned out for you. If anyone else wants to point me towards part numbers, I'd be happy to hear it. I'm thinking the same rod as above, but 10mm, and the Teflon-filled acetal press-fit bearing here: .by Karmavore - General