I've been designing a couple of extra parts for my Tricolour Mendel. I'll be using self tapping screws and a bolt which will fix into a threaded hole in the plastic part. My question is, Why are self tapping screws completely absent from RepRap design. Fixing plastic parts together is after all exactly what they're designed for! Also using a thread cutting tap instead of captive nuts would seemby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi There, Are you just planning on using this paste as a soluble support material or as a food stuff? I ask because people have had reasonable success using PVA plastic as a support material. It can be extruded with a normal heated extruder and dissolves in water. See :by PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi Kramma, I don't know about the code settings for Hall effect end stops. But there is another way if you're worried about damaging your machine by crashing into the end stops. Remove the magnets from one of the axis, zero just that axis and move the magnet to the end stop by hand. If it doesn't stop then you should still have time to reset the machine before the actual carriage hits the end stby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi Steel Plague, No I haven't cracked this problem yet. I'm about to try Repetier and see how that works, I'm also going to the latest version of slic3r 0.9.9b. The community seems unusually quiet about this one! I'll post back when I find some answers.by PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
There was an issue with the bolts coming loose on the Mendel. The new kits all ship with spring washers, and it's no longer a problem. This is one of these very basic bits of engineering which we're a bit slow to catch up on!by PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi There, I've being using my RRP mendel for a few months now. You're right the bottom x carridge bearing is held in just by pressure from the top bearings. If your main X carridge block is a bit loose it can slide out (as you are painfully aware!) A simple fix would be to take both extruder mounting plates off and drill two small holes into the x carrige block just above the grooves in the linby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi, I've be printing with ABS and PLA on my Reprap Pro Mendel tricolour for a few months now. So far to my dismay I haven't found a slicer that builds sensible gcode for bridges and overhangs. I've seen overhanging perimeters started in mid air when they could have been started at a non-overhanging point. Bridges built perfectly on the perimeter then in-filled normally leading to sagging. So farby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi There, I'm currently testing a simple syringe extruder loaded with Gallium Indium alloy. It should be perfect albeit slightly expensive for printing 3d circuitry. I've run into a problem with slic3r, I'm trying to set a crazy extrusion multiplier of 0.041 for my syringe extruder, it's on a multi-material mendel so I can't set this in firmware! Slic3r is completely ignoring that setting. I'veby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Paste Extrusion Working Group
Hi There, I've just started (trying) to print with ABS. However I've found that the heated bed on my tri-colour mendel is unable to reach the temperatures I need. I've been struggling with this one for a couple of days now, I'm running out of ideas (ones that aren't drastic anyway.) The voltage measured at the pads of the PCB heater is 11.6V while it's trying to heat up so there doesn't seem toby PeteBlackerThe3rd - General
The Slicer seems to be doing it's job fine. The STL model is 160x160x4mm that's all fine. I've looked through the Gcode file and all the positions in it are what you would expect. i.e. x and y values between 0 and 180mm. The object is centred on a 200mm square bed. This seems to be a problem with Pronterface, the + and - 1 million values may be some sort or error values. The model is very compby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi There I've just tried to print a photgraphic lithograph from Amanda Ghassaei's Instructable. The STL file that comes out is rather large (about 37M I sliced this using Sli3er. It took a fair old while and generated a 1.6MB gcode file. This was all done with the Reprap Pro Pronterface and Sli3er setup. When I come to print the gcode file Pronterface seems to think the print goes from -1Km toby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Got it going again! I'm not sure why but for some reason I had to manually hold down the reset butting while uploading the firmware. Even though the slave's reset jumper was linked. I also found out that if your turn on verbose output for uploads in the arduino preferences dialog. You get some useful information about the upload, this is how I found the problem. For some reason it wasn't uploaby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi Rhys, That's some really useful info. I disconnected the thermistor inputs at the Melzi end and they were reading 115-120K Ohms. I had a loose connection on one of these when I built the machine, so I've got that bit of testing well practised! I'll have a look at the slave comms now and see what it's saying. Have the Master and Slave firmwares been updated in the last two weeks? Could myby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi, The slave controller on my Tricolour mendel is not having a good time. When it started it didn't have the right firmware on it. So I had to download the source, setup the arduino environment and upload the slave firmware to the board. Then it was working fine, for a while. For multicolour prints they all failed after 5-10 mm. The target temperature for one of the slave extruders would be seby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi There, I've just built and comissioned my tri-colour mendel. Have printed a couple of multicolour parts so far OK. This morning I was printing the compainion cube sample part. It got to 5.6mm, then when changing to extruder 1 the T1 gcode never seemed to terminate. It echoed the temperature as the head warmed up, but when it reached 200 degrees it just carried on echoing the temperature. I lby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Strange about the buttons. . . The heat bed LED is wired in series with a resistor across the power connections for the bed. You should have the resistor for that in the kit somewhere. I've just finished calibrating the position of the heads on mine, and the first three colour test print is appearing as I'm writing this. It's been a bit of a painfull process at times to get here, but worth it.by PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Hi There, I'm in the process of commissioning a Tricolour mendel too. Did you download the software from the reprapro github? https://github.com/reprappro/Software I got it from here and it had everything ready to go. Hope this helps, Peteby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Right, I'm making good headway! Droftarts, you are correct. The thermistor for extruder 2 was not connected properly, I'd forgotten to crush the second part of the crimp so it was connected sometimes but not at others! The firmware's all happy now. After start up both master and slave have flashing LEDs. I've tested all 3 extruders now and it's all looking good. Now I just need to get the reprby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Great that it's working. Can you let us know what was going on. It could help someone else in the same situation Peteby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Right I've just found something that may explain a bit more about what's going on. I connected to the printer, then reset both boards at the same time. It's failing to connect to the slave board, saying "FAIL head 2". This is also the head which is reporting a temperature of -273 degrees. Here's what the printer says on start up: start Printer is now online. echo:Marlin 1.0.2 RRP echo: Last Upby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Oh no, apparently I spoke too soon! I can connect to the printer and it's aware it's got 3 extruders now. For some reason it's not heating up extruders 2 & 3. I've set the working temp to 200 and standby temp to 150 for extruders 2 & 3. Using the Tn code the machine moves to the correct place, but regardless which extruder I'm selecting it only heats up extruder 1. The temperature reporby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
It's Going! Cheers, Droftarts. Such simple bits of information can be worth so much! Now to calibrate the 2 new heads and get printing. Thanks, Peteby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Ok, This is what I've managed to do today so far. I've got the arduino V0.23 IDE working, and I can now compile both the master and slave firmwares. I've updated the master and slave boards with the latest firmware I downloaded from git yesterday. But now it doesn't do anything :-( I can't connect to the printer. I've tried powering the melzi's off USB power and the main power supply, this doeby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Oh and when it comes to colour mixing. I'm hoping to have a go at making my reprap dither the three colours it has at a fine later height and seeing how well that comes out. I'm building the STL's for this from scratch for now, but if it works it would be a great feature to build into the slicers! Peteby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
Cheers Droftarts, I had a feeling that may be the case. Even though the whole thing has just been supplied by reprapro as a tri-colour kit! I downloaded the source from git yesterday, but it's not compiling on arduino V1.0 which I use at the moment. I'm downloading Ardunio V0.23 at the moment but it's going to have to wait until Sunday before I can have another proper go at compiling and uploadby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers
I've just finished building my Reprapro Tricolour mendel. A couple of days ago I got the machine working with just the master control board and a single extruder. This all worked like a dream, apart from a clogged nozzle after 20 minutes! I'm sure I'll have to clean out plenty more over the next few years. Today, I build the final 2 extruders and wired up the slave control board. Now I have a bby PeteBlackerThe3rd - Reprappers