Thanks Reg! Although I read it too late... Yesterday I printed a new X end for my Smartrap to mount your hotend and at the same time to remove all the moving parts of the head. Now everything is fixed with screws, even the rods. I think that printing quality improved remarkably, tomorrow I'll post some pictures. With your hotend and PLA I managed to print at 0.05 layer height (and even 0.03, botby cristian - Smart_Rap
This is (was?) currently an issue in the standard Smartrap, also because with the Huxley hotend it needs 2 independent fans, and this is (was?) not managed by the Marlin firmware provided with the printer. Serge will be more precise about this. There have been several brilliant solutions proposed. It is a pity that they are spread in three different forums (either here or in the French thread whby cristian - Smart_Rap
Silly me! If I only had read this tutorial before, I would have spent much less time cleaning the hotend from burned woodFill. But there are a lot of people that did my same mistake with that filament... So it is confirmed that the clogs come from the degradation of the filament, and this depends only on temperature and time. At some point I also suspected that the nozzle was too small (0.5 inby cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteBackEMF I will have to try that trick that you did with the first layer, wouldn't a first layer raft work better then? I mean fist print a raft at high temp and high speed, and then the object. This way the object should then print OK (without a squeesed first layer) The problem that I found was that the filament never attached to the bed (not even for a fraction of a second) without squeeby cristian - Smart_Rap
Hi smartrappers, after some weeks playing with our wonderful toy I decided to share my experience about printing some of the exotic filaments that are available nowadays (and more are being invented every day: has anybody tried this or this yet?) with a Smartrap. I previously wrote about the problems that I encountered with the standard hotend supplied with the Smartrap, although some of themby cristian - Smart_Rap
The lazy way: a 2mm aluminum wire to hold the fan. It can be attached anywhere on the X arm and it allows re-adjusting the fan in all the positions and directions.by cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteRobert_Paulson We collectively decided, "I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me." And then religions, pollution, global warming, global financial crises and preventive wars rose...by cristian - Smart_Rap
With a little lubrication the only noise I hear is the singing of the stepper motors (here is an example of singing smartrap)by cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteRobert_Paulson I like regpye and his design, but it's a little unsafe to just tape a thermistor to the side of a heater block like he does. Especially with a 40w heater cartridge. Who is going to burn the house? The one who thinks that the printer is safe and can be left printing on its own, or the one who thinks that the printer is unsafe and needs to be constantly monitored?by cristian - Smart_Rap
...is a magic wand that gently melts any kind of plastic! No matter what temperature or printing speed or filament type, never had a clog. And thanks to it I can finally print even Colorfabb XT and Ninjaflex with my Smartrap without heated bed! Many thanks Reg!by cristian - Smart_Rap
Quoteregpye I use and supply PTFE sleeve that is only 0.5mm ID to the thermistor leads. The leads are joined to longer wires and the joint is covered with heatshrink tube, it doesn't get hot enough to affect it in any bad way. I have done hundreds like this without any failures. Thanks Reg, I was indeed looking for this info on your website but I missed it. QuoteRobert_Paulson Still, not worthby cristian - Smart_Rap
Hi smartrappers, here comes a newbie question. I have noticed that it is quite common to use heat-shrink tubes to insulate wires close to the hotend (or even inside, as for the thermistor). Is it okay for long term use? Most of those (cheap) tubes are rated for 125°C, not more. Wouldn't it be better to use kapton tape? Cristianby cristian - Smart_Rap
Quoteldanut The problem I see with resistors is that if you try to go faster they can't melt the filament fast enought. A 30W heater cartrige works better in this case. Also they heat up faster. Dan. What are the disadvantages of the cartrige, if any?by cristian - Smart_Rap
Hi smartrappers, this is probably old news, but in any case let me share my enthusiasm after discovering that it is possible to print with flexible filaments on a smartrap. So far I tested soft PLA and PVA, and it works great (although I disabled retraction for now). However the cold end of the standard extruder needed a little hack to work properly, because the hobbed bolt is too far from theby cristian - Smart_Rap
Hi Basher, maybe I am missing something, but I don't think there is a "mini" version. The existing smartrap version is "mini" enough, believe me!by cristian - Smart_Rap
Quoteregpye Differences with the new model. Hi Reg, in your opinion, what is the difference in terms of printing? Besides of course the fact that the hotend is lighter (which is good for the smartrap, given its design). The "cold zone" seems shorter, maybe also the "melt zone"? What would this imply when printing?by cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteBackEMF I also expected people to reprap during the holidays If only low cost airlines allowed 3 more kilograms of baggage weight, I'd have my smartrap with me!by cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteGersen I'm not here to propose this as the perfect bed material, I want only propose it as an other possibility. Thanks a lot for posting your experience, I have been wondering for a while about this solution and now I know that it may work.by cristian - General
QuoteBackEMF It's not a dream, carb cleaner does the trick already. I'd like to know what is the effect of carbon cleaner on the polymer, to get that kind of flexibility. If you can extrude your own filaments and you like doing new experiences, you may also borrow this idea. However I bet that materials like ninjaflex are more durable and far less toxic than PLA treated with some unknown mixtuby cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteBackEMF Cool, I hope I actually can find this stuff in .NL / .EU One question does this actually KEEP the PLA soft and flexible? Or does it get hard after the smoothing again? (Maybe that's the point that you seemed to have missed?) Uhm... The point is: to have just one roll of PLA in the printer and one on stock, and then still be able to print hard soft and colored items. Color is not thby cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteBackEMF I'm still trying to get my hands on carburetor cleaner that someone used to soften PLA Main reason is that i dont want to have a stock of 100 different plastics eating away shelflife. Not sure I got the point, but in the case I did: why not finding a way of coloring flexible PLA instead of softening and coloring stiff PLA? For example the way this guy did with ABS and acetone, buby cristian - Smart_Rap
Quotenicobuzz Bonjour, j'ai besoin d'une pièce pour pouvoir réparer ma machine (foldarap 2) car je l'ai abimée au montage... (la pièce de l'axe X que j'ai trop limée du coup j'ai pas mal de jeu... ^^) Si l'un d'entre vous est pas très loin de Lille je peux me déplacer pour lui donner le PLA nécessaire et imprimer la pièce avec lui. Merci d'avance, nico. J'habite à Lille mais je ne serai là juby cristian - RepRap Groupe d'Utilisateurs Francophone
QuoteBackEMF It's becoming a bit frustrating to see others build and print seemingly without issues. Same here. I don't know about the others, but I have been struggling a lot to make this little jewel work reasonably. And I am still very far from what I want, always dealing with clogging and printing quality issues. But at least now I see that it can give amazing results, it just needs a greatby cristian - Smart_Rap
Quoteregpye I don't wish this to appear as an advertisement, but I have given away a few hotends to have them tested other than by myself. Actually, even if it were an advertisement, that would have been the right place to write about it since I was totally unaware. First of all, by reading the description of your hotend it really seems designed for a printer like the smartrap, even if this camby cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteBackEMF I swapped the steppers and the issue is still on the X. I don't know how complicate it may be, but you may think about changing the firmware so that the blamed slots of the RAMPS are assigned to other two steppers (for example Z and the extruder), and then check that you still have cross-talk on the same slots. This would be to exclude any interference by the software. Of course iby cristian - Smart_Rap
Hi all, I have been playing for some days with my smartrap and we are getting to know each other. We both have some faults, mine being mostly ignorance, its being - well, many, but in particular the hotend. I am having really a lot of troubles with hotend obstruction (it is the original hotend, the same of the ormerod model), in particular with some filaments. So far I managed to get rid of thby cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteBackEMF When the Y axis makes long moves then the X axis seems to be moving on its own. Slowly but i can see the motor axis move. I noticed this during auto bed levelling. when the x axis supposed to be steady and the Y moves to the center then the x moves veeeery slowly too. During auto bed leveling or just after it?by cristian - Smart_Rap
QuoteBackEMF I do understand why some people would bounce it on 'bad hardware design' The "bad hardware design" (I would rather say that Smartrap is young and on its way to evolve) is true, still I do not see how it justifies that "hardware problems shouldn't be recovered by software". Actually I would like to have both a better hardware design where skewness (and other minor problems) can beby cristian - Smart_Rap
Quotesmartfriendz I can't tell why it's not in marlin, I've asked there on github but people just laughed at me ?!?! . I've been said that " A hardware problem shouldn't be recovered by software .. you must do a better design ! period. Your smartrap is not that smart " Then i asked why all the reprap developers where running after auto level, which IS a software recover from bad hardware desiby cristian - Smart_Rap