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Printing issues ...
QuoteBSBMX
.... which leads me to believe it's a slicing issue. Can anyone help me out with this one?
Have you looked, in software, at the GCode toolpath which Skeinforge has produced? I use Repetier host to "virtually" print and view how the hotend will move throughout the print job. You can select to look at individual layers, one by one or groups of layers as they build up in order to confirm
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
My £0.02 .... This topic has been discussed many times on the forum and the general consensus seems to be to avoid where possible, printing directly over USB. This has two main benefits, firstly it avoids the disconnect errors as all the important data traffic is onboard - the computer, if connected can be used to send the odd GCode command to speed things up / slow them down if needs be (M220) o
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
The time taken for the heated bed to get up to temperature can be significantly reduced by placing an insulator, such as a folded cloth, on top of it. Just make sure you remove it before hitting the 'print' button.
I use this technique when printing ABS rather than PLA.
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
@BrianC
Are you referring to this: ?
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
OK - more to report (but still not solved the problem )
I disconnected the Panelolu2 and flashed my pre-Panelolu2 firmware. Result - pretty much the same as before in that all fine and dandy until I switched on the hot end and the heated bed which is when the printer disconnected from my laptop and temperatures set to 0C - that is, as if everything had been reset. This happened on a couple of o
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
Quoteneildarlow
...I appreciate nophead's liking for Skeinforge and its capabilities but if quirks are going to prevent successful prints then it must be time to evaluate alternatives like slic3r and kisslicer....
Absolutely and it's all down to an individual's preference and requirements. I have recently been using the 'vase' capability of Slic3r which NumberSix pointed out to me in his blog. T
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
Printing at 0.1 layer height has been discussed before:
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
Quotenophead
Usually power supplies shut down until the power is cycled... .
Thank you but I am not too sure that I understand exactly what you mean. Are you saying that ATX power supplies only go off and come back on again if the mains power has been removed and then reinstated? If so, I think that I have eliminated that scenario by swapping out the mains cable.
Further development ..... last
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
I've been doing a lot of printing lately - none of that 24/7 stuff but several hours per day for a few days.
Other than a Panelolu2, my M90 is pretty standard stuff. I have an RPi powered from the power supply so that I can use the Webcam feature of Octopi but not plugged into the MELZI which carries a USB cable connected to my laptop. All prints are from the SD card.
A week or so ago, when I w
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
Quotemuelli
thanks, that is a nuce idea!
nobidy knows about the other pins? used or unused? free for controlling other stuff?
I did a search on the RepRap.org Wiki using the term "MELZI" and was directed here:
The schematic is there for you to download.
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
If it helps, I have a Panelolu2 working on my Nophead Dibond kit.
I have uploaded the firmware which I am using to GITHUB here:
Nophead assisted with getting the Arduino IDE set up correctly and once you have added these lines to hardware\Melzi\cores\arduino\pins_arduino.h
#define NUM_DIGITAL_PINS 32
#define NUM_ANALOG_INPUTS 8
#define analogInputToDigitalPin(p) ((p <
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
Isn't this answered elsewhere on this forum ( ) referring to the latest changes referred to in Nophead's latest blogpost here:
"Because holes can't be printed in mid air there are one layer thick support membranes at the bottom and the top of the nut trap. This creates a completely enclosed void which revealed a bug in OpenScad. It generates an STL with the internal faces facing the wrong wa
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
@waitaki
I bought "pure" acetone ONCE - a couple of years ago from a high street pharmacy and that was VERY expensive and probably nearer the £30 mark when scaled up to the quantity of cheap nail varnish remover which I purchased for £1.
@Nophead
Thank you for the note about buying on EBay - I must admit that this had never crossed my mind for some reason which is odd given that EBay is usually
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Alzibiff
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Printing
Quotemerty
Wow, it really becomes smooth and glossy after an acetone bath!
Certainly does!
Quote
Do you vapour the acetone? Doesn,t it stink a lot?
Yes and No. The ABS print is placed in a glass container with a lid. (I use a PYREX casserole dish or glass beaker which I cover over with a glass sheet. This is then heated on my heated bed. As I keep everything enclosed, there is very little 's
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Alzibiff
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Printing
My suggestion is that you do two things...
1. Re-check that your bed is level
2. Check that your Z height is accurate.
If all is fine and dandy, the outline - skirt - should be equal to your layer height which is 0.35mm in this case. I suspect that your bed is NOT level as it appears that the nozzle is too close to the print bed in some places.
One thing which I make use of in order to fine tun
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Alzibiff
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Huxley
I heat the filament to 85-90C, wait a short time if going from a cold start in order to let the heat do its softening job and then wind out the filament by hand by turning the large gear. That gives me more control compared to using Pronterface (...or Repetier ... or Octopi).
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
If we start counting layers at 1 rather than 0, it appears that the "Fan ON" code, M106, first appears at the end ('end' being an assumption as the attached file does not go beyond M106) of layer 5. That is once the nozzle finishes the layer at a height of 1mm. (You are working with a layer height of 0.2mm).
What happens if you change the number in the "Do not use fan before layer" box to '1' fr
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
Does the fan turn on at all?
First troubleshooting stage would be to open your GCode using a text editor and do a search for M106.
The M106 code switches the fan ON and M107 switches it off.
If M106 DOES appear in the GCode then the fan will come on at some point. If it doesn't might be worth coming back and attaching your GCode file.
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
I think that this thread might benefit from a link back to where the cool plugin is discussed.
DeuxVis writes here:
The following is an extract ...
"Trying to explain priorities :
1) if "Turn Fan On at Beginning", well then fan is always on.
2) if "Force Fan on Bridge Layers" and layer is detected as a bridge, fan is activated.
3) after that only, "No Fan use before Layer" is checked. Yup it
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
Frustration over - I scoured my Win7 laptop and removed all the previous version of Skeinforge which I had installed. All fine and dandy and as expected with the cool plugin now.
Very curious experience though, not a clue what generated the extra M107s - and extra M106's come to that as they were not there before - it is as if previous versions were watching what was going on with 50Plus and ch
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
nophead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Have you got anything in cool_start.gcode and
> cool_end.gcode?
No, although during the hours I spent trying to resolve this problem, I tried slicing with and without these files in place (carrying an M106 in the cool_start.gcode and M107 in the cool_end.gcode).
The cool plugin is clearly in place as I get code that
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
I am using Nophead's release of Skeinforge - the 50Plus version yet I don't seem to be able to get the cool plugin to work.
My Skeinforge settings on the COOL tab are as follows with my comments ..
Activate Cool : Ticked ; Needed to make Skeinforge take notice of the cool plugin
Full Fan Speed: 255 ; None of that PWM stuff!
Turn Fan on at the beginning: UNticked ; Even if this is ticked, I get
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
Ho humm!
The bit which made smile was "Greater Manchester Police (GMP) now say they "cannot categorically say" whether they had recovered the component parts for a gun."
There's no telling what they would make of my plastic bag which holds all the failed design and print bits which I have collected over the years
Oh dear - I've just read the rest of the article: "So police will be seeking in
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Alzibiff
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General
George,
Not to labour the point but regarding the PCB and D connector, I assume that you have read this: (second post)
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
George,
Have you read this: ?
To get details of the ribbon cable connections you will have to read the manual which lists all of these in a lot of detail. As for ribbon cable specification - it is pretty standard stuff - grey IDC ribbon cable.
As for increasing the size of the print area - watch out - you will need more than a bigger PCB. There are lots of discussions on this forum about that.
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
But isn't is easier just to remove the extruder, place it down to the left of the M90 and then plug it back into the existing D connector?
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
@Chargenut - Thank you. When trying to design something, it is always easier if you have something to start with, other than a blank piece of paper
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
I attached my RPi on top of the PSU using this thing which I modified from an original design by Halley:
This arrangement keeps all of the electronics in one place. I am not using a USB hub but have the network connection over ethernet via a powerline adapter which frees up the two USB sockets on the Model B Pi for use with the webcam and the MELZI connection cable.
Chargenut - Love the stand y
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
I assume that you have trawled this forum and Thingiverse but just in case, NumberSix has published this you can read more on his blog
You are always going to have to power a DC fan using two wires, whether they are untidy or not is down to the individual
One of the (so far) unused 'P' connectors on Nopheads circuit board can be used for such a fan along with a permanent +12V supply taken fro
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90
BrianC,
Take a look here :
Alan
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Alzibiff
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Mendel90