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Printing issues ...
15 seconds on Google answers questions.
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
A genuine Arduino (What I have) will tolerate up to 20VDC, though 12VDC max is recommended. A knock-off, all bets are off. It SHOULD NOT feed back power to the USB if fed from another source, but it bears testing that does not happen. I recommend that you do test this by checking the +V and GND pins on a USB cable plugged into the arduino before plugging the cable into the PC.
Feeding power to a
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
1: no.
2. Power to the Arduino Mega 2560 can be wired to the DC input jack, recommended voltage is 7-12VDC. Input voltage limits to this jack are 6-20VDC. Your 12V power supply that you are using for your RAMPS can be connected to the DC input jack on your Arduino.
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
The diodes are there (As I remember) to prevent inappropriate voltage power from being fed back to the arduino. Leave them be. There is no voltage regulation on the 5V arduino rails, so this should be fed from a regulated supply. The barrel jack has voltage regulation on it, so it can be fed from your 12V supply, so long as you have an appropriate adapter. Much easier to just use this.
You COULD
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
The Marlin firmware also has a setting for max accelleration. If you bump that down, it could help.
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
The RAMPS board takes the 12V power, but the arduino (The "computer" controlling the RAMPS board, and the SD card reader) is powered via the USB socket, or else the power socket on the Arduino.
It's like expecting to power on the RAMPS board and expecting that to turn on your PC. give the Arduino its own power, and it'll be fine.
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
I don't have the Folger kit, but I can't see it as that different.
I have mine set up for min endstops, with the "invert" logic set to false. My switches are in locations similar to yours.
Most of these switches have 3 pins, a common, a normally open and a normally closed. Use the normally closed pins, since this will make it so that if the switch comes unplugged, the printer will stop before i
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
LOL yeah.
Well, in my case, I don't have ANY spare M3 screws... But I have a bunch of LM8UU bearings, stepper motors, a hot end, most of an extruder, Arduinos, RAMPS boards, stepper drivers, etc. My main idea for building a new one though would be increased rigidity and improved resolution, making higher precision parts possible. A larger print bed area would also be nice, but I'd like to try fo
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
The hotend came with a fan that pointed in the general direction of the nozzle. I've added a shroud to it to keep airflow away from the heat block, as it seemed counterproductive to use a fan to cool the heat block, while applying power to heat it up.
Anyway, the acetone cleaning was a great success, and when reassembling my hotend, I managed to tighten up a couple of problem areas that was allo
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Yeah, I've searched, and I found other instances.
I now officially hate my extruder design. Just for the record.
So, I left my printer printing up a new case for my RAMPS box, and came back to find that at about the 4.5mm mark, it just stopped extruding, and the extruder was jammed solid. It's happened before, and I took the lazy way of clearing it -- that is I cranked up the heat and turned of
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Ah. I answered based on a different premise, still using 2 threaded rods, but with a belt turning the second rod instead of an additional motor, which is still more expensive than a second motor, but does not have the layer resolution issue.
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
I redesigned a few pieces, I have the paper from my measurements of the feet here.
The feet are 15.7mm by 15.7mm by 58mm.
The hole for the smooth rod centre is 2.5mm from the top (Makig the edge of the 8mm smooth rod 1.5mm above the top of the foot) and the centre of the long rod is 33mm below that. note that my kit came with an 8mm long rod, instead of the 10mm called for in the original desig
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
There's also a section in slicer for the bed size, which was way too large when I first set things up. I set it to the actual bed size, and it finds the centre very well, now.
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Well, in theory, there should be no reason why a belt wouldn't do the job, but it makes the build more complicated
In order to use a belt, you have to have pulleys attached to the threaded rods. While that in itself is reasonably minor, the problem comes in when you have to align the second rod. It needs something to anchor it, but with a little bit of flex, so that alignment to the X carriage i
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Thanks, Opus. That's pretty much the design that I had in mind for the X axis tensioner and cap arrangement, which I was also going to integrate with the X endstop holder, in order to make it more easily adjustable.
I've also ordered a set of opto endstops, I had intended to set up a plunger to push the switch at the travel limit with the length of the plunger determined by a screw. I figure tho
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
I move the Z axis up 1 or 2mm, then use the home button to see where it ends up. It's time consuming, and annoying, but I hope to make it less so when I can stop guessing as to exactly how far I've moved the switch.
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
@Mindrealm: Definitely not the problem, as I measured all of the rods and installed them as per instructions, it is that the rods aren't held in strongly enough, and they're slipping out. Issues with the linear bearings are making things worse, for sure, but it's not a good design.
@Badkitty: Yeah, I just popped through your thread. It's different if the nut spins in the holder, but if not, I do
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
If your motor drivers are working correctly, this should not happen. If it is happening, then you can't count on the Z axis being correct anyway.
Make certain that you are getting good connections to the pins on the motor from your control board. A bad connection can have the motor doing some pretty weird random shit, like running backwards, or just in random directions. (Happens to me on my X a
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Have lately had a spate of bad luck with my i3.
I did my initial calibration/setup printing in PLA, and got acceptable results with it, but pretty much maxing out layer height at 0.33mm (For a 0.34mm nozzle) Naturally this doesn't produce the smoothest sides or curves, but it was good enough for the pieces that I made that way, including new legs and bearing/endstop holder for the Y axis. At the
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Or... You can adjust the maximum Y acceleration. Set that down, and maybe you won't get the same missed steps, though it will slow down print head speed at the same time some, because it won't try to accelerate the bed as much.
It's also important ot note that the print bed gets heavier as the printed part gets built.
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
I really only have direct experience with an i3, as that's what I've built.
I think that the "boxy" type is probably easier to understand, and likely better for a beginner, though conceptually, they are similar enough.
Most kits that I've seen heavily use 3D printed parts for their frames, though most of the frames structure is made of threaded rod or other sturdy material. I'd say that the pri
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Many kits come with 3D printed parts, which would be difficult to produce if this is your first printer. Some of those kits come with really crappy 3d printed parts, too. mine was rather awful, such that most of what I've done with it so far is make imrpoved parts to make the printer better.
That said, you should be able to do an i3 with basic carpentry skills, particularly a box frame one (Whic
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Yeah, I know... However from a practical standpoint if all 4 are measuring similar temperatures due to similar circumstances (each is at the center of a powered heatbed running the same duty cycle) then it works out okay. I'm familiar with the rating curves. Due to tolerances, you'll probably have variations, where each heat bed is at its own temperature, some hotter, some cooler, but the overall
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
If you do this, you should probably use a sheet of aluminum or something with good thermal conductivity as a bed. The reason being that the gaps between the actual heated spots on the heatbeds is large enough to cause discrepancies in how the bed reacts.
For the thermistors, I would use 4, which can be connected using a series/parallel configuration which will average out the results into someth
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
This.
If you have a wade extruder, count the teeth on the gears, and use the appropriate ratio in order to set your steps per mm.
Regardless of the calculated value, because it won't come out exactly right (Though if you use correct values that match your hardware, it should be close) you will want to do a final adjustment. Triffid Hunter's calibration guide (http://reprap.org/wiki/Triffid_Hunt
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
I've done a lot of contact patch size calculations in the past as well, which are different from available TRACTION calculations, in which contact patch size is only one factor.
Something far more relevant though is what compound the tires are made from, as it affects how well it can grip the pavement.
Apply this to your filament, and what you get is that how well the hobbed portion of the belt
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
What firmware are you using? Marlin has a setting in the config.h where you can set the LCD type, which is disabled by default.
Edit: ah, I see that you had it working, the it stopped. in which case, double check connectors. If there was any kind of ESD, it may have damaged the LCD, LCD controller or the RAMPS board or arduino.
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Z axis:
(Steps per rev * microstepping) / thread pitch
If you have a 5mm threaded rod, that will be a 0.8mm thread pitch. 6mm rod is 1mm thread pitch, 8mm is 1.25mm.
So, for a 5mm rod (What I have) it's (200 * 16) / 0.8 = 4000
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
Reading up on things, and coming to the conclusion that accurate dimensions are tricky.
First of all, there's the fact that extruding melted plastic is somewhat inexact. I'm now kind of wiching that I'd gone with a 3mm filament instead of the 1.75, as tiny errors in filament diameter make larger errors. this will end up making some errors in the end result, since the slicer has to assume that th
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers
You might have the hotend temperature too high, making your plastic resin too thin. If you do that, it will sometimes drip. It's a fine balance and changes with the filament.
I have 2 spools of PLA, one black, one white. the white gets thin and drippy when heated to 165C, where the black comes up with excellent results at that temp. If I drop the temperature to 160, the results with the white lo
by
SupraGuy
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Reprappers