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Printing issues ...
Install and run the Arduino software. Point it at the com port your machine is running on, and start the serial monitor. Depending on your version of windows, you may need to install an FTDI driver to create a Virtual Com Port before this will work.
When you have the serial monitor running, adjust the baud rate until you see the word 'start' appear in the box. Then apply this baud rate to repsna
by
Andrew Smith
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Huxley
its an issue with Gen3, not with RAMPS. The problem is that the Gen3 extruder driver was build to run a DC motor rather than a stepper. It can drive a stepper, essentially emulating a stepper driver in firmware, but its not an ideal solution. A better idea would be to run the step/dir connections to a real stepper driver and just use the extruder controller to run the heater on the extruder nozzl
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Andrew Smith
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General
You only need to worry about that for the layers which are close to the construction, once it's hit the conveyor it can be allowed to cool.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
Gen3 works, but there is more to go wrong. Two processors to program, and they try to run a stepper extruder from a circuit designed to run a DC motor which works, but is louder than it should be. If you haven't bought anything yet, then have a look at RAMPS and Gen6 before you spend your money on Gen3.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
1) It takes 5 NEMA 17 motors.
2) Yes, but you would have many nuts, bolts and bearings left over. There are Prusa kits on emakershop.
3) PLA gives lower friction. I don't know if ABS would work. If it does, it will take more torque to move the axis and possibly lead to early failure and lower print quality.
by
Andrew Smith
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General Mendel Topics
You can't use steppers that way, these things are driven by pulses of energy in sequence to drive them between steps, when rotated by hand they generate similar pulses. If you want to use a motor as a dynamo, you need a DC motor.
by
Andrew Smith
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Controllers
Gen6 or RAMPS. Gen6 is currently unavailable as Mendel Parts is closed to clear their current orders and move to a new location. They say they'll be back in a week or two. RAMPS comes in kit or complete form, from ultimachine. There may be other sellers of both electronics if you look for them.
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Andrew Smith
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Reprappers
Try here:
Unfortunately, theres nothing there thats easily importable into Inventor. There is a .stl import plugin, but its not cheap.
by
Andrew Smith
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Reprappers
ParkerĀ Wrote:
> out of curiousity, what does changing the layer
> thickness modify in repsnapper? I mean the
> distance between your layers is defined largely by
> the size of your Z step isn't it, so the software
> can't have much control over that?
>
> does it control the g-code generation, so that it
> makes the correct number of layers? if so my
> having the thick
by
Andrew Smith
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General
With the stepper pins at the top of the board, the sequence from left to right is Blue, Red, Black, Green.
by
Andrew Smith
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RAMPS Electronics
Look at the PWM Driver section. There are three mosfets there intended to drive up to three loads, though most people only use one to drive the extruder heater.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
The parts lister was abandoned some time back. The mendel bill of materials:
Does have a page on the electronics including part numbers and suppliers.
However, the Gen3 electronics are obsolete. You may want to look at RAMPS and Gen6 instead, both of which have less to go wrong.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
Not on the Gen3 motherboard, but the extruder controller uses transistors to control the heaters, heated bed and so on. The schematic for that is here:
by
Andrew Smith
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General
If you google the IM483, you should be able to find the quick reference which includes a minimal circuit to get it running. Step clock and step switch will come from the processor, build the rest as shown.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
Voltage must be met or exceeded. Capacitance must be as specified. Capacitor type must be matched. You need electrolytics for most of them, with one ceramic. Case style is matter of convenience, if you can attach it to the board then it will work. Getting radial caps will make it easier to assemble but it should be possible to coerce an axial component into place.
by
Andrew Smith
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RAMPS Electronics
You can cut it down as much as you want, all that matters is that the right metals are in contact.
by
Andrew Smith
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Controllers
Datasheet is here, the second link is still live:
Unfortunately, while it gives you the wiring sequence, the torque is left blank. Unless its possible to calculate the torque from the information given, you'd have to experiment to see if one of these can drive a reprap.
by
Andrew Smith
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Controllers
It helps if you post the errors, plus the code you edited.
The most common errors are caused by not installing the Sanguino extensions, or not selecting the right board in the Arduino environment.
by
Andrew Smith
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Reprappers
Yes, metric mendel uses M8 threaded rod.
There is an imperial version which might be worth looking into if you can get imperial studding more cheaply, but the metric version is the more common.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
The extruder heater should be about 6 ohms. If it reads 0.5, then its likely shorted.
by
Andrew Smith
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General Mendel Topics
The thermistor is a temperature sensor. You will need one for the extruder, and another for the heated bed if you go for one of those.
Gen6 includes all the support components for it, so you just need to plug it into the board.
Nichrome is used for making the heating elements on the extruder and the bed. If you are buying from Mendel Parts, then you may as well get an aluminium heater block an
by
Andrew Smith
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General
Yes. It doesn't work well on X or Y, but Z doesn't need to move quickly, it just needs to move up a layer height at a time. A leadscrew would still be better, but threaded rod works well enough and leadscrews are more expensive and harder to come by.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
Better to have the machine be able to detect the length of the tool in use, otherwise someone will forget to tell it what Z offset to use and the print will fail or the head will crash.
Nopheads tool sensor:
Should do the job.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
Plug in the machine. On your PC, go into the control panel, system, device manager, and check which ports are available. It won't be Com1 or Com2 - those are reserved for physical com ports, reprap uses a USB connection which is only pretending to be a com port. If there is more than one option, then unplug the machine and it should disappear. If you dont have an FTDI driver installed you will be
by
Andrew Smith
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General
No, you can run any software which can talk to 5D firmware. Check the CAM toolchains article on the wiki to see which software is compatible.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
No. ReplicatorG runs on the computer and communicates with the firmware over the A to B. Its a replacement for the standard software. If you want to run the other available software then you will need to upload new firmware onto the electronics.
by
Andrew Smith
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General
They're taking orders again, but they've gone silent since. I have no idea whats going on, and I cant honestly recommend buying from mendel parts until they start talking again. Also, it's probably best to buy the plastics elsewhere, to avoid having to wait for mendel parts to work through their print queue. Buying through emakershop may be the way to go here but check ebay as well.
As for the
by
Andrew Smith
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General
Isn't it a USB-B socket?
by
Andrew Smith
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General
These aren't a critical part, the imperial equivalent will do fine so long as it accepts an M4 bolt. In a real pinch, you could use a bit of spare thin sheet, just drill it for the bolt and take care that the sharp edges don't damage the belt it is guiding.
by
Andrew Smith
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General Mendel Topics
Check this:
Replace the XLR connector with a jack compatible with the power supply, or simply cut off the jack plug and wire it directly to the chocolate block. Or any variation on this theme you can get the parts for, chocolate block connectors are not the only solution. Just be sure to get the polarity correct.
by
Andrew Smith
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General