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Re: Diagnosing Delta Printer Problem (lil help ? :] ) - 10 years ago

Turns out, as was being speculated, that one of the rods was off. A defect in one of the rod mounts (all were actually slightly off dimensions, but one is really bad) caused the whole thing to tilt. The "wobble" in the print turned out to be the result of the motor mounts doubling as feet. The weight of the printer was causing the mounts to bend (they are rather triangular in shape). I added sepa

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: PrintrBot Simple power draw - 10 years ago

SOLVED! Thanks everyone. So, it turns out it was the power supply. The Printrbot Simple comes with a very low-wattage (230 I think?) power cable, because it doesn't have a heated bed stock. I installed a 600w power supply from Fry's yesterday, and now all parts are running simultaneously. I was also able to hook up the non-controlled fan direct to the power supply so that isn't even running thr

by beamsaber - Reprappers

PrintrBot Simple power draw - 10 years ago

So I have been tinkering with my simple quite a bit. I bought it originally as the DIY assembly kit back a while, long before the metal model. So far I have: Upgraded to the metal bed and extruder Switched to braided fishing line directly on the shaft Added a heater to the metal bed Added a secondary fan to the extruder to keep it from overheating and melting the filament Rebuilt the Y axis with

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Diagnosing Delta Printer Problem (lil help ? :] ) - 10 years ago

No solution yet, no. The "wobble" may be due to my motor mounts being used as the feet of the printer currently. I think it is causing them to tilt (or at least one of them to) which causes the timing belt to "wobble" as the gear turns on the angled shaft. I am still at a loss as to why it is "sliding" though.

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Diagnosing Delta Printer Problem (lil help ? :] ) - 10 years ago

Here are some images of the problem: Where would you begin to diagnose this? I don't think the belts are slipping, though they are looser than they could be I suppose, and I don't see any evidence that they are sticking on the rods. My best guesses are maybe the gears are slipping on the motor shafts or the stepper drivers are missing steps? The printer is a reprap/repstrapped Delta-Pi I

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Delta Pi - Directional Z skewing? - 10 years ago

HA, ok, I feel sheepish now.. one of the screws on the arms assemblies had shaken loose allowing the arm to swing slightly away from the carriage while still appearing attached. Re-calibrating now to see if all is well.

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Delta Pi - Directional Z skewing? - 10 years ago

My first attempt to print a large object is showing this really strange effect. It would seem that depending which direction the print-head is travelling the Z axis will move up or down. Any ideas how to fix this or what is the cause? Is it more likely to be a defect in the carriages or would it more likely be that the arms are not moving smoothly enough? (They seem like butter) Or maybe the be

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

Spoke too soon. My hot end just exploded... well.. disassembled itself really. The PFT tubing pushed it's way out of the hot-end, and then the PLA built up in the inside of the hot-end and formed a ball of plastic clogging the thing.. can't print until I take it apart and find a way to get the PLA out and the PFT tubing back down where it's supposed to be and secure. Still not sure about that dow

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

Could it be.. just curious if anyone has encountered this and it is a potential problem.. could it be that my timing belts are stretching during homing / moving to 000, and as the print goes on, they relax resulting in the Z drop? Would seem to me that it would be stretched in the other direction though, as the last move was downward... hmm... Thoughts?

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

OK, so, the problem is becoming more clear. I used a multimeter to confirm the winding set I was using and found that my 6 to 4 wire mapping was wrong. I was following the assumption that the 6 wire pins were in sets of three EG: AAABBB The truth of the matter however is that the pins mapped more like this: BAAABB With those wires mapped properly it greatly reduced the vibrations I was getting

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Delta-Pi "Flexing" hub - 11 years ago

I tried turning up the trim pots until the motors were very hot to the touch when running for a couple of minutes. Same problem, so not a low voltage issue. I have a new hypothesis. The motors I am using are VEXTA 2 phase 5V stepper motors (got them cheap). I did my best to find the wiring for the steppers that best worked as I am stepping down from a 6 wire to a 4 wire configuration. I did not

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Re: Delta-Pi "Flexing" hub - 11 years ago

So, it isn't heat. The stepper driver chips are cool to the touch immediately after powering down, as are the stepper motors. The problem is not that the hot-end moves up and down as it crosses the bed, that would clearly be firmware / settings causing problems. The problem I am seeing is that if I jog the hot end, say, 50mm on the Y axis four times, the fourth time it returns to the center of th

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Re: Delta-Pi "Flexing" hub - 11 years ago

I am using a Printrboard for the drivers, so they are integrated. I do not currently have a fan / heatsink attached to them. I suppose that would make sense.. it does seem to be happening fairly quickly after starting the printer though, would think it would take a bit longer for the steppers to overheat... hmmm My multimeter has a thermister attachment, I could see what the heat is on the stepp

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Re: Have you seen the Delta-Pi? - 11 years ago

I just looked back up the thread and saw the "Roller invader" Kossel mod, which seems to be following the same idea as Delta Pi with the square tubes... I'm curious as to whether the rollers from "Roller Invader" would work for the Delta-Pi with some modifications. The primary issue I am trying to alleviate is that the Delta-Pi carriages cannot be removed without dissassembling the entire primary

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

OK, just about everything is working now, and the hub is pretty centered, but for some reason the Z axis is slipping down as X and Y move. I don't think the belts are slipping, more likely the steppers are not able to hold up the weight of the assembly. I am going to try to dial in the voltage such that this no longer happens, but first I need to be very sure I know how to do that with my multime

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Delta-Pi "Flexing" hub - 11 years ago

OK, I have a new problem. After I have repaired the arms, the hub is a LOT more level. I am however having a problem still. The Z floats downward as I issue movement commands. So if I send a +50X, then -50X repeatedly, by about the third back and forth, the hotend has lowered 2mm. Is this most likely an issue with motor voltage?

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

Made a lot more progress, but could not level the hub. Turns out I messed up the tension level of the joints. Also one arm had an issue where the epoxy did not take and had to be re-glued. Some warping in the parts also apparent but can't do anything about that until my Simple is again working. Pics when I can.

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Delta-Pi "Flexing" hub - 11 years ago

Thanks Mike. I did a lot of work on these today and found several over-tightened joints as well as one rod where the epoxy did not take. I managed to rework two of three assemblies and will be reassembling the final one tomorrow. Fingers crossed I may be able to run my first test print or at least a solid dry run.

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Delta-Pi "Flexing" hub - 11 years ago

I have my printer fully assembled but am seeing some odd behaviors I wanted to run by the other reprapers. Firstly, my hub-tri in the center does not lay flat, pretty much ever. It is always tilted to one or another angle and will angle upward as it approaches any of the towers on the side of that tower. I am thinking this is somehow due to the clevis/arm assembly, but unsure exactly what I shoul

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Re: Possibly bricked board? - 11 years ago

Thanks for the advice. The Printrbot Simple only comes with a single 4 pin power-in. On my Delta I am building I have multiple other power connectors to pull power for fans from, but on the Simple there aren't any of those available. I suppose I could have spliced in a splitter to pull power from the 4-pin. Using the unused board pins for power just seemed "simpler" ha I have sent in my board t

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Possibly bricked board? - 11 years ago

So, being a novice at electronics I may have done something very stupid here. I was trying to wire a new set of fans to my printrboard on my PrintrBot Simple. Looking online I found someone had powered their second fan off of the heated bed pins, using one of the extension grounds. I wired the fan up this way, and it worked. I had a second fan though, and wanted to route them both together. So a

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

Got the hot-end working, had to swap it to the heated bed pins, but I do not have a heated bed currently, so I will worry later about why the mosfet on the heater went bad or how I might fix that. Now I just need to get this whole thing leveled out.

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

Getting a lot closer. Got the hot-end wired up, and now it will heat up.. and the thermistor works great.. but it won't -STOP- heating up :/ will post if I figure that one out. Something wrong with the MOSFET maybe? Hopefully not a hardware issue.

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

I was able to start a dry run print for the first time today. Still a lot of calibration to do, and I am noticing that the motors are having a bit of trouble providing sufficient force. I think if I can oil some of the hinges and the aluminum pipe that will help a lot. The endstops had me mystified for a bit. Apparently the right settings are to have the pullup active, the min endstops deactivat

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Have you seen the Delta-Pi? - 11 years ago

My printer made it's first movements two days ago, and I'm starting on configuring it now. I am starting to wonder if I should invest in a multimeter because I have no clear way to confirm all the lines running to the motors, thermistor, etc are solid, as I've had to crimp-splice each one at least twice.

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

I did not order the JHead from the official site. I am regretting that now, hopefully it is well built. I bought it with the first (broken) board from reprap.me and am now really hoping that it is in fully working condition. I have not wired up the hot-end yet, just the thermistor, but the thermistor is working fine, so fingers crossed.

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

See pics attached Sorry for the bad quality, only had my camera phone handy. Will take better pics soon. Currently trying to get the aluminum square pipe smoothed out, as the company I ordered it from thought it would be a great idea to plaster a very sticky bar-code sticker on each rod, which is using some kind of glue which refuses to be removed.

by beamsaber - Reprappers

Re: Have you seen the Delta-Pi? - 11 years ago

Looks like I will be investing in steel rods in a month or so then.

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Re: Have you seen the Delta-Pi? - 11 years ago

Is the problem with steel bearings on aluminum that the steel will eat it's way through the aluminum eventually?

by beamsaber - Delta Machines

Building my Delta-Pi - Journal/Q&A/lessons learned - 11 years ago

Just a running journal of my progress, hopefully some of you can learn from my mistakes. I bought a Printrbot Simple ($300) with the explicit intention of using it to build a more advanced reprap 3D printer. I was at first completely enamored of Nicholas Seward's geared Simpson reprap (still am to be honest, it just looks so steam-punkishly awesome!) but the designs had not yet been released whe

by beamsaber - Reprappers