I can't make the exhibition but would be happy to join in a meeting later in the year. - Brianby Nealeb - West of England RUG
Couple of vaguely-related questions before we go any further - whereabouts in the country are you? There may be someone local who could help as hands-on is much better than at-a-distance! Secondly, do you have a simple meter to check voltages and so on? A cheap digital multimeter from Maplin or similar is pretty much a necessity for any sensible fault-finding (Maplin are listing a "domestic multiby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
Chris, Yes, lathe in full working order! What were you thinking about? - Brianby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
I'm glad to hear that someone else makes their own hotend - seems to be a minority interest! And as you say, building a working hotend from scratch is a satisfying business. I'm still trying to understand some of the subtleties of the design - shape of the outside of the nozzle for optimum print quality, for example - but I still get a kick out of using a home-built hotend. Mine is a developmentby Nealeb - General
Unfortunately I'm one of the many(!) who can't make it to Exeter tomorrow - sorry it didn't work this time, Stewart. However, Jan, I am only in Harbertonford, a few miles south of you, and I have a Prusa in the garage. I'm currently investigating why it isn't printing properly (extruder problem), but I would be happy to talk over the build process with you. I also have a moderately well-equippeby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
Chris, Might be able to help. I live just south of Totnes and have a usually-working Prusa. It's doing a reasonable job with PLA at the moment - although it did try to burst into flames last night when the heated nozzle thermistor disconnected itself... Should be back "on air" shortly. Give us a shout via PM if you're interested. I also do a good line in heated nozzles and blocks, and extruderby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
Glad I'm not the only one, then! In my innocence, I thought that this was such a standard and well-used design, and OpenSCAD and Slic3r such well-tried and highly recommended applications, that someone else must have noticed and fixed it. But maybe not... Unfortunately, I've never tried STL editing but given that the STL seemed OK and Netfabb claimed to have repaired any errors it found anyway,by Nealeb - General
I've been trying to print myself a spare extruder body using Greg's Mk3 design (Thing 8252). The SCAD files compile fine, and looking at the STL output from OpenSCAD in Netfabb Basic that looks fine as well. However, the Gcode that Slic3R produces (using Pronterface to review it, and having actually printed one!) seems to have some errors. The idler nut trap nearest the gear side of the body is bby Nealeb - General
Charlie - can you PM me with contact details - email address or some such? I can't find your username in the PM recipient list in the forum. - Brianby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
I'm kicking this off to be able to answer Charlie.S's questions outside the "Welcome" thread. Sanguinololu power - it is fed, in effect, in two different ways. The actual processor can be fed via the USB connection to your PC. This provides 5V which goes to the board. This is quite useful as it means that you can connect to the board, test it, and download new firmware without needing any otherby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
Charlie, I'll start a new thread rather than clutter up the "Welcome" thread, although this one has roamed around a bit anyway! - Brianby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
Carlie, I live just south of Totnes and have now built, connected and configured a couple of Sanguinololus. Not saying that I have all the answers but I have been through all the pain of getting the Arduino software installed, downloading new images, etc. My own printer is a home-built Prusa with home-made hotend, etc, so I like to do things the hard way but you do learn a certain amount by goinby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
Just as a point of comparison, my home-cut drive bolt was cut using an end-mill on a milling machine, and for simplicity I made eight teeth which are very sharp, and with a "driving" face at 90deg to the filament so there is less chance of it sliding back. As a result, there is a lot of space at the back of the teeth and although you might think that eight teeth is not enough to give a steady andby Nealeb - West of England RUG
Stewart - in my case, it looked as if there had been some creep in the plastic tubes into the gaps between coupler halves. I just trimmed these "ears" back, and I was then able to fit the original couplers and get even spacing between halves for their whole length, implying that the centres of the two ends should have been coaxial. Seemed to work OK for me. I didn't want to print new couplers asby Nealeb - West of England RUG
Some progress... When I took off the couplers, I found that the clear PVC tube that I was using must have been a little oversized and it had squeezed out a couple of "ears" that were sandwiched between the two halves of the coupler and that were preventing the coupler tightening symmetrically. I took it all apart, shaved off the ears, and reassembled, carefully tightening so that the gaps betweeby Nealeb - West of England RUG
I've probably gone and put my big foot in it, but I'd better 'fess up.... I think I do have Nophead-style Z-couplers - two-part, identical apart from nut retainers, and different size holes at each end. Fitted over a short length of plastic tube on the stepper shaft. So the fact that the threaded rods wobble as they rotate at the stepper end is probably down to either poor printing, or a completby Nealeb - West of England RUG
Hamish - thanks for the comments. I know Maplin well, but don't like mail order until I reach their "post free" threshold - although with things like the little PC connectors, that soon happens... Wouldn't mind finding a better online source but it hasn't been a priority to date. As for Z couplers - I bought a kit of printed parts and am using the clamp-on couplers that came with that, combinedby Nealeb - West of England RUG
Many thanks for hosting yesterday's meeting, Stewart. Good to meet some other builders and aspiring builders! I had another play with my machine last night, and have decided that temp control is not good enough (I think that I am printing at slightly too high a temp, but the hot end temp varies +-5C which I think is too much) and the heater block is much too close to the object being printed whiby Nealeb - West of England RUG
Thanks for the info and invitation, Stewart! I actually found the thread that mentioned the meeting last weekend on the evening that it happened, so that one was just a little bit too late. However, I shall put the next one in my diary. - Brianby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
I'm not sure about power but they appear to be high voltage/low current motors, where I think that most people use low voltage/high current (where high and low are relative!). Like a lot of people, I bought mine from Zapp (I think that they were these) and apart from the voltage/current ratings, the other thing that leaps out is that the eBay ones have less than half the holding torque, and I wouby Nealeb - General
I'm very new to this whole Reprap business, so only have personal experience of the bits I have made/used. I wanted to make as much of my Prusa myself as I could, as for me the build and associated design decisions (even when based on near-zero knowledge...) is at least as important as having a working machine. I bought a kit of printed parts from eMakershop and than had a hunt around for a hotenby Nealeb - General
I've recently moved to Devon (near Totnes) and only just found this thread. I have seen the Devon UG forum but there doesn't seem to be a lot of activity there - am I looking in the right place? Just finished a Prusa and managed a few initial prints although it's currently dismantled as I have lent my extruder to my son who needed something for an exhibition. Keen to meet up to discuss ideas, etby Nealeb - West of England RUG
OK - I shall try turning on the PID controller option in Sprinter and see if that stabilises the temp a bit better. I am using a fairly chunky wirewound resistor as the heating element and I suspect that there is a bit too much thermal inertia in the system - PID control might help, I think. Without any other temp measuring kit, I shall have to suck it and see as far as absolute temp is concerneby Nealeb - General
Following on from the original question - how stable would you expect the extruder temperature to be? I have just finished my Prusa and although I cannot try printing yet (one stepper driver was dead on arrival and I'm waiting for a replacement) I have tried heating the tip and extruding some PLA. Using Pronterface and setting the tip temperature to be 175C, the actual temperature seems to vary bby Nealeb - General
Mike, I've just moved into the area (just outside Totnes) and have a nearly-finished Prusa waiting to be unpacked. Also a model engineer, but with a background in electronics and IT as well. Don't know anything about ReplicatorG - my testing has been with Pronterface and using Sprinter on a Sanguinololu board - but always willing to have a play! Or just to compare notes... - Brianby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
I have just moved to South Devon,.and still getting the garage unpacked and organised into a usable state. Somewhere in the back is a nearly-complete Prusa (all axes working before I packed for the move) but I need to build the extruder hotend and get the heated bed installed. Electronic engineer by training, IT by occupation, and mechanical engineer by leisure interest - model engineer with laby Nealeb - Devon RepRap User Group
Red herring - I did have another look through the code but didn't see anything. I then tried swapping motors and Polulu driver modules around and found that the fault followed the driver module - using a different module the extruder motor worked. Resoldered all the joints I made on the module and it seems to work OK now. Coming back to my original question, though - it looks as if the Sprinter cby Nealeb - Reprappers
Is there a similar parameter in the Sprinter firmware? I've just reached the point on my Prusa where I can test the electronics and motors and they all work fine except for the extruder motor. I did wonder if the firmware disables it if it is not up to temp. Had a quick look through the code but couldn't see anything obvious.by Nealeb - Reprappers
I have a Sanguinololu board with the 0.1" pitch connectors and have soldered all the motor plugs and so on. I generally give a light squeeze with a pair of pliers so that the back end of the connector grips on to the insulation of the wire. I agree with the comment that it can stiffen the wire and make it more likely to break but I plan to tie in the cables so that any movement of the cable is noby Nealeb - Reprappers