I asked this, too, before I started. The general opinion was that NEMA 17s will be fine for the McWire, but not strong enough (torque too low, or borderline) for the Darwin. The Mendel uses NEMA 14s. Hazel.by MotorAssist - General
I am building a McWire - with NEMA 17s. BUT I haven't tried them out yet, as I haven't got to the connecting them up point. Nearly there, but then I thought that a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I have had to put it all away, probably until after Christmas now. You can see my blog of progress (see below), which may hold a few useful tips on the McWire. Check out others' blogs, too. I fby MotorAssist - General
Hi Gerard, not being a computer bod (or bodess), I don't know this type of file, or how to open it to be anything meaningful.....by MotorAssist - Reprappers
You're very welcome. Next one coming right up, same rules as before. Transcription for (the salient parts from) Mendel's improvements over Darwin: "the biggest change is the orientation of the axes, and there are a couple of reasons for doing this. The big change is that y is now at the bottom forming a rolling bed and one of the big advantages of that is that we don't have the x and the y sby MotorAssist - Reprappers
Hi Gerard, here is the first transcription from the video about the ball bearings. The speech is a little difficult to distinguish on a video, partly because the chap has a lisp. But, this is the second time of watching, so I've now "got my ear in", ie I have learnt to understand the speech well. But not perfectly, as you'll find. (I'll skip to the important bits, and to allow best use of traby MotorAssist - Reprappers
Hi Gerard, if you want me to write out English text for a couple of the videos in which you are particularly interested, just let me know which ones. Happy to do that. Can probably do so today, or perhaps Sunday. I would offer ecrire in French, but you'd have plus de chance understanding the oral English! 'azel.by MotorAssist - Reprappers
I have to ask, what is IRC?by MotorAssist - General
I thought you wanted the stepper motor driver chip for the stepper motor driver v2.3 board? That is the part I have on my stepper motor driver boards 2.3...... After re-reading, I think I understand - it was, perhaps, a little ambiguous! Sorry. Anyway, glad it helped you out!! Farnell, here at least, are excellent. Hazel.by MotorAssist - General
Hi, I don't know what country you're in, but I got my driver for board v2.3, in the UK, from Farnell, who have operations in many places across the world. Hazel.by MotorAssist - General
Brass nuts are available, in the UK, from nuts and bolts and things website. Hazelby MotorAssist - Reprappers
I tried to reply earlier, but the system decided my entry was spam and refused to post it and deleted it all in one fell swoop! Anyhow, the info I had was that the GM3 motor does 24 RPM - this was taken from the Solarbotics site. BUT EVERY other site says 38 RPM, and actually the Solarbotics maths doesn't add up, so it looks as if you are right. Boo-hoo. So, wormdrive? Or am I better swappinby MotorAssist - Reprappers
I bought a Solarbotics 224:1 GM3 to go with my extruder controller board 2.2. I thought it only suited DC motors, but either way, that is what I have. I can use gears to reduce the travel of the plastic rod? I am not confined to a set framework, so I can put a pinchwheel on a gear offset from the motor spindle. Sorry I was confused about your stainless steel thermal barrier - when you'd writteby MotorAssist - Reprappers
Thanks Nophead. That's answered a lot of questions in one go! I have a thermistor, and a DC motor and its noise-suppressor circuit and a DC controller board, so those are what I shall be using. I'll put the thermistor on the heater barrel as I had thought. I'm probably restricted to using a heating element wire. Are you using a stainless steel barrel/nozzle because it is a poorer heat-conductby MotorAssist - Reprappers
Hi, I see on the Extruder Nozzles page, about half way down, it says, "Get your temperature sensor as close to the barrel as you can without touching it, and get it as near the nozzle as possible while still retaining it strongly in the fire cement." Why should the temperature sensor not touch the heated barrel? Surely it is the barrel temperature that is of interest? Also, what is the advantby MotorAssist - Reprappers
I'm afraid I'm not the right person to answer this, but try the electronics forum, and/or the search facility. Hazelby MotorAssist - Reprappers
Hi Adam, I am part-way through building the mechanial part and part-way through assembling the electronics for my McWire-alike repstrap. I have been impressed by the level of and amount of and free-giving of help along the way by everyone on these boards. And much heartened when things are going wrong, too. I have had nothing but encouragement and constructive help. So not only is the conceptby MotorAssist - Reprappers
Did it go for melting straight after drying, or was there transfer time/exposure to fresh moisture/condensation on cooling etc? Hazel.by MotorAssist - General
Oh, wow, you lucky thing! AND amenable employers, too. Sounds like fun. Mine is being built extremely slowly - even more slowly than I expected. I started back in April, and despite hard work, there's still nothing to show! (I had been hoping to get it finished by the end of this month, now I'm thinking perhaps by the end of next summer!) I hope you enjoy your little project. I am stillby MotorAssist - Reprappers
I presume you don't just mean reconnect the power supply to its Molex connector on the board to test the V regulator? Looking up how to do it - now done. I'll blog it. Yep, one blown regulator. Hoorah, it's the first difference I've found between the two boards! As ever, thank you. Hazel.by MotorAssist - Controllers
Hi, I placed the first driver chip the wrong way around on the board. It blew straight away. I got a new chip, cut out and desoldered the remaining legs of the old one, and put the new one in the right way round this time. I've put my blog address below. Have a laugh!by MotorAssist - Controllers
Hi, I have one working stepper motor driver 2.3 (for the Generation 3 electronics), but I can't get one working. As some of you who have read my blog will know, I killed the driver chip on the first board. For those of you who didn't know, I connected it back to front! OK, I know, I know. Now you've stopped laughing, I need some help! I checked the rest of the board, which looked OK, and reby MotorAssist - Controllers
Do you mean the filament's twisting before it gets to the extruder because of the way it unwinds from the supply of filament? What have you got supporting your filament? Is it in a reel or a wound circle? Nophead's solution to the twisting was to sit the circle of filament in a hanging basket hung on a pivoting support above the extruder head, so that as the filament feeds out the basket rotatby MotorAssist - Mechanics
Excellent! Thank you. I can hog the stove for some board-baking when my partner is away caving later this week! Hazel.by MotorAssist - Controllers
Oh no, they don't do they? I wish I'd waited now! I had no idea that was in the offing. Still, my (hand) soldering is getting pretty good! Hazelby MotorAssist - Controllers
Thank you very much. How come you have so many? (You don't happen to have a stack of 2mm green 1206 LEDs as well,do you?! I need just one more of those, as well.) Hazel.by MotorAssist - Controllers
Does anyone in the UK have a spare 100 nF surface-mounting 1206 ceramic capacitor they'd be willing to put in an envelope to me? Only I've just destroyed one (don't ask), and I don't have spares . Hazel.by MotorAssist - Controllers
Ah, yes, that's where I was yesterday, but I got stopped with a log-in... you do not have permission to upload files..... So thank you! I'll "play" with putting them alongside their respective text. Hazelby MotorAssist - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Thanks for starting me off. Now, how can I embed the photographs directly? I don't believe I have file uploading privileges, and I can't seem to get embedding code to embed. Any suggestions? (And I see you've added an SMT page, too - are you hoping I'll write another tutorial by any chance? Or can it link to the hotplate reflow page already out there?) Surface Mount... what does the T mean?by MotorAssist - Administration, Announcements, Policy
I second Sam's idea of the hopper. I would love to be able to reuse our plastic milk bottles, as we produce (waste) piles of this plastic. They take up so much space, too. We get through 3 to 4 large bottles a week, and there are only 2 of us. We don't currently have kerbside collection of these for recycling, and we have no car, so we have to take them in rucksacks on the bus up to the supermby MotorAssist - General
It isn't quite a question about the forum, but it has been suggested to me that I put my recent tutorial article on soldering, for the utter novice, on the Builder's wiki. Where would be best, (possibly in the Electronics hints section?) and how do I go about doing this? Can you help? Hazelby MotorAssist - Administration, Announcements, Policy