So I've had a lot of success with Hatchbox PLA. Particularly the gray. At half the price, it prints nearly as well as UltiMachine's $40 stuff. However, some of the spools will have a short section of filament in them that makes all kinds of blobs, zits, and other artifacts I associate with over extrusion. Once that section has ran out, the stuff goes back to printing fine again. On my most recentby appdev007 - Printing
Lancedrg, printing quality prints were the layers are stacked exactly on top of each other (no difference in XY direction from layer to layer) and where each layer is exactly the same height is a really hard thing to do with these printers. To achieve the highest level of accuracy you have to do a lot of tweaking on your machine. Don't expect to just throw one of these machines together and get pby appdev007 - Reprappers
You got some wire strippers? Use them to check what gauge that burnt wire is. Check a dripped piece to see which hole it fits in. I'm guessing it's too small for the current. If you draw too much current from the supply it should trip off, so I'm guessing it's the wire. Keep in mind that when the supply is connected directly to the bed the current isn't being controlled, so it could catch on fireby appdev007 - Reprappers
Considering that you can get a new off brand microcontroller ramps and drivers for about 34 bucks off ebay I would just go replace the whole shooting match.by appdev007 - Reprappers
Sorry bud. You may need to unhook everything and check it for shorts. Are the leads of you thermistors and hot end heater insulated? You can't have any exposed wire anywhere. Did one of the insulated wires get pinched somewhere? Wire ties are your friend. You should probably go ahead and order another mega, ramps, and drivers. If you don't need them you can keep around as spare.by appdev007 - Reprappers
Glad to help. Don't be afraid to ask no matter what some a hole on this forum might say. So if you haven't done VREF and Estep configuration I'm going to guess those will be the source of your issue. The motor probably isn't getting enough to push the filament and isn't being told the correct number of steps. I think by what you said that you have a Bowden extruder where the extruder motor is nby appdev007 - Reprappers
"the stepper motor drivers overheat when used" This is because... "without me messing with voltages and screws" Who knows what level the are set at from factory. First thing you do with new drivers is check their vref. ========== "when I try to extrude some filament nothing will come from the nozzle" and "it extruded 430 instead" contradict each other. Is there filament coming out the tipby appdev007 - Reprappers
I'll be looking for that link. ; ) I don't know, running a heater to heat the outside air might cost more than just letting it take a little of the air you already paid to heat up in bulk from the inside your house. You only need enough airflow to keep things going to the outside. You shouldn't need a super fan or anything. Theres another idea, put in an air flow sensor to that triggers an alarby appdev007 - Reprappers
Yes, youtube is probably a good place to look and search the form for enclosure. I wouldn't imagine you would have to have something larger than a few cm larger than the printer its self if you were going to do a single enclosure. I like the "automatic temperature controller air flow thingy". Be sure to name it that when you publish the object files and the source code. ; ) I'm thinking the ABSby appdev007 - Reprappers
An old laptop is a good source for a squirrel cage style blower fan. That's a stroke of luck, I'd have to pay to have a vent hole put in my room! Like I said, just watch how much air you get moving around the printed part. You don't want very much with ABS. I haven't done this yet to speak from experience, but you might want to think about putting a double shell around the printer. One around tby appdev007 - Reprappers
I was referring to the tools menu in the Arduino IDE. Try to get it working first. Quote32bitbrad I just use the printer settings tab under printer. There is no option to select a board under tools I've updated repeiter and now i get an error message (See image) Here is the detials: Still, i cant connect Any ideas? Thanks!! Image 1:by appdev007 - Prusa i3 and variants
It can indeed help with bridging however you are supposed to have one blowing on the top of the hot end at all times when printing PLA. If you don't it can cause your nozzle to jam. Now I'm speaking about the use of a jhead hot end, but i think it holds true for almost all models. You should have one blowing on the work almost the whole time you're printing PLA to help avoid curling. If you don'by appdev007 - Reprappers
I've had a hard time with power supplies and my printers. On my first one a pc supply not able to meet its labeled specs troubled me for a long time with brownouts causing several issues. But hey it made me upgrade my Xaxis and do some other improvements before i figured it out. I would have needed those upgrades anyway, but the printer never did print right until I added that 2nd power supply. Mby appdev007 - Reprappers
Are you picking a board from (i think it's ) the tools menu?by appdev007 - Prusa i3 and variants
Yes, I have heard you don't want to breath it either. You can put your printer in a box and vent it outside, but when printing ABS I have found that you have to be careful about how much air you have moving. I have my fan set to only come on when printing in the smallest of area. I would recommend holding off on the ABS. It has complications of it's own. Get PLA working well first. If you can affby appdev007 - Reprappers
What type of board is this? If it's Ardunio based you won't be able to get your host software working until you can get the Arduino IDE to connect to it. As said above, Linux makes this pretty darn easy if you can grock Linux. I would recommend Ubuntu. Lots of documentation out there on it; however, if it would be too foreign to you it might just make things worse and solving your windows issue wby appdev007 - Prusa i3 and variants
You'll want to be sure what the source of the temperature issue was. You'll have a hard time getting good prints if you don't have your temperature lined out. I've had PLA that prints from 180 to 195. All of my ABS has been above 200. I don't know what filament you have, but I have found that each brand has it's own properties, including how well it flows at different temperatures. I got one rollby appdev007 - Reprappers
I'm going to agree with the overheating and add... Have you tuned your motors, set vref? (Note: Your motors should not run burning hot. If they are that hot, your vref is too high. Turn it down until you start missing steps and then turn it back up a bit. If you ever have missed steps again, nudge it up just a little more, but be weary about passing the values stated in the link above. Also nby appdev007 - Reprappers
Well, I can't tell you do x, y and z then your issue will be fixed; however, I can tell you where I would start. I think the most important thing to note is that the defect has a pattern to it. That means that every occurrence of x or every time period of y minutes the same thing happens. You can use this as clues to help you figure out the issue. I've never used a direct drive bowden (that's whby appdev007 - Reprappers
Why does this form now have separate areas based on what model of printer you have? I just saw a post about an Arduino connectivity issue get moved to the i3 form. It looks to me like it must have just been because the guy mention that he was using it with an i3. Are i3s the only printers that use Arduinos now? Whatever solution is given to this guy would be useful to anybody using any kind of prby appdev007 - Reprappers
Yes even between different versions of the same firmware the configuration file can change because they added or removed values or change defaults. Probably unless the author specifically intended their configuration files to be the same as a different brand you'll never be able to copy configuration files between different brands.by appdev007 - Reprappers
Power supplies have been a major issue for me as well. Most not providing the current they say the can or having issues maintaining voltage at their rated current. I am powering my Prusa i2 with two PC power supplies and the new i3 I just built is powered by two of the higher wattage XBOX 360 power supplies. You can get these used at Game Stop for less than 30 a piece. Try to get them to give youby appdev007 - Prusa i3 and variants
I'm assuming your running a RAMPS board here. The config.h will be specific for your model of printer, even then you will have to tweak it for your parts. What is the error message when you try to upload the firmware? The console part of the arduino program should contain more detail. Also try uploading one of the arduino examples like blink to make sure it uploads OK. If you can't get that simby appdev007 - Reprappers
So you are saying that when you start your printer up the X axis moves toward + when you tell it to go -. However, moving(?) your Y asix causes your X axis to start going the right direction? There is a setting in the firmware for which direction the axis shold go, but it should always go the same way. The reversal of your axis suggests to me a firmware issue. I would do somemore testing to valiby appdev007 - Reprappers
A 1K resistor is way to high to test with for a heated bed. They have resitances in single digit ohms. Figure out the resistance for your bed (might not be able to measure it if your bed is defective) and try a resistor closer to that size. I have replaced the MOSFET on one of my RAMPS.by appdev007 - Reprappers
If the E motor turns when plugged into the Y port then also do the test in reverse. Make sure the Y motor turns when plugged into the E port. I'm assuming it won't. After that you could physically swap the Y and E drivers in their sockets to make sure the hardware isn't bad (if you have a board with removable drivers). (WARNING! if there is something wrong with the circuit for the E port that bleby appdev007 - Reprappers
Sorry, I can't be sure, but I think you are showing us views of one of the 45 degree rotated cylinders on . If you haven't already done so, I would open the STL up in a STL viewer and rotate it around to verify that the output of the slicer is really at fault. The slicer might be doing exactly what the source STL is telling it to. If that isn't the issue then I'm going to guess it has somethingby appdev007 - Reprappers
Good luck. I suggest lots of reading while your waiting on that board. Don't forget to triple check that wiring before applying power or hooking up USB. ; )by appdev007 - Reprappers
First I recommend that you go onto eBay and buy a ramps, Arduino Mega, stepper driver combo kit for about $35 and replace your bad board with that. Once you have that read the ramps page, link below, and triple check your wiring for applying power or connecting to your computer. Apply power first and make sure the thing doesn't smokebefore hooking it up to your computer. I suggest this board mereby appdev007 - Reprappers
If you have your printer communicating with your computer I would use the m119 command on the console of your host software to check your z end stop. You should be able to run the command and see what state it's in then keep it pressed and see if the state changes. I would then make sure if it is in the right position to stop the Z axis before the printhead makes it to the bed. If one of thoseby appdev007 - Reprappers