After many months of not touching the reprap, I still have not purchased any replacement electronics for the machine. I'm thinking it needs a new extruder board, but I have so many other things in need of my time and attention. At school I have free access to the $20,000 Uprint plus 3D printer. Yesterday I printed the final parts needed to complete my filament spool attachment for my Mendel, tby jkelso - Reprappers
Well I haven't actually touched anything for a few weeks now. Since last time I tried to get it running again I suffered 2 crashes on both of my machines and it's taken quite a while just to get everything back up and running and all my normal programs reinstalled. Now I'm back to square 1 trying to get my win xp machine to start communicating with the reprap again. So far I've been trying toby jkelso - Reprappers
Thanks David very much. I'm going to try doing all that, although it seems much simpler to me to just wait for the new optical drive I ordered to arrive so that I can go back to using the Win XP machine that worked before. Your answer sounds like it's leading me in the right direction, however I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you say to look at the reprap script(where, how?) and see howby jkelso - Reprappers
It sounds like you know what you're talking about. So, how would I go about fixing the problem?by jkelso - Reprappers
I'm not sure what that is...ftdi driver... I am getting this message when the reprap software boots up...by jkelso - Reprappers
I suppose it bears mentioning that my win XP machine died a few days ago, I'm waiting for a new optical drive in the mail. In the meantime I've had to reinstall the reprap host software to my 64 bit Win 7 machine. I've had very little success in even getting the axis to move through the reprap host software control panel. Even during those times that it works I'm still not seeing any evidenceby jkelso - Reprappers
Yes I was able to upload the firmware I think. It compiled and when it said "binary sketch size" I pushed the reset button. However, I did not see the usual flashing LED that I see when the firmware uploaded on my other extruder board. The arduino software finally indicated that it worked and it said "done uploading". I rechecked my configuration h file to make sure it was set up for a thermiby jkelso - Reprappers
Tonight I finally got the new electronics wired together again and I've been able to control the steppers all just fine but I'm not getting anything out of the extruder board. In the temp value I'm reading 000 and a white bar. I've tried playing around with reversing the wires that transmit the temp signal back to the motherboard and also I've tried reloading the extruder firmware and I've rechby jkelso - Reprappers
I did get the extruder board I've been waiting for back in the mail today and I'm getting ready to hook it all back up again. Initial quality looks good, I don't see any visible problems on the board. I don't think I'll have the heated bed up and running until next month but this will work for now. I'm going to continue now with printing the parts I engineered for the spool I'm building. Thiby jkelso - Reprappers
The parts Iooked at did have a smoother finish than what I've seen from my reprap. If money were no object I'd love to have something like that, but for me now I could not see spending that kind of money on a machine that's $20K. I'm still waiting for the extruder board exchange, I think I'm going to just order another one soon I'm getting anxious to begin where I left off.by jkelso - Reprappers
I went down to the CAD lab at CCD where I'm pursuing an Engineering Graphics degree today and got a look at the new Uprint plus 3D printer. There were no teachers there today, the lab was open for painters and maintenance workers. I did get a look at a sample of parts the printer made and was very impressed with the build quality. The build size is still 8"X8"X6"H and there were parts there wiby jkelso - Reprappers
No I turned off power before I tried reconnecting the wires to the extruder board. I got an email back from Lambert Andrus at Techzone and he says he will exchange the extruder board for me again. I was very pleased to hear this, he's come through for me on this one, I was prepared to buy another extruder board if the answer was no. He also told me that my motor running through my extruder musby jkelso - Reprappers
I put in an email to techzone about the extruder board. Hopefully I get a quick reply so that I'm not waiting on his answer for days. I guess extra electronics are a good thing to have around anyway if you're going to be into this. I made the revised spool model available on thingiverse: user: sketchyj I reposted this message because the first one got a message that I was posting spam and itby jkelso - Reprappers
I put in an email to techzone about the extruder board. Hopefully I get a quick reply so that I'm not waiting on his answer for days. I guess extra electronics are a good thing to have around anyway if you're going to be into this. I made the revised spool model available on thingiverse:by jkelso - Reprappers
After switching the stepper wires to the extruder board, I was getting movement but it was going the wrong way. Then I reversed the motor wires to try it again but now I'm not getting any temp reading, it's just showing a 0. The usb seems to be connected, I can move the X and Y motors, and when I push extrude nothing happens. This sucks, I've tried everything, I think I may have another extrudby jkelso - Reprappers
I've been using 9mm for that small center hole and the rod goes through just fine. The spool was spinning freely on the bearing using 9mm for that inner hole, the rod is 8mm. Now my extra driver board that was running the extruder seems to have failed. The board feels very hot. I am going to try running the extruder from the extruder board terminals now, if it doesn't work out I'll need anothby jkelso - Reprappers
Now I have a newly designed part with symmetrical lines and this time I've taken away a lot of the unnecessary material and this should help it to print up much faster this time.by jkelso - Reprappers
After going to bed I awoke to find that the filament roll had once again caught up because it wasn't rolling and caused the X carriage to stop moving during the last 5 layers or so. This only messed up the top of the part and I was able to clean it up and assemble it. Then, I realized that I had made an error in the geometry of this part when I designed it and all the arms aren't symmetrical.by jkelso - Reprappers
Cool, off to a good start. I'm interested to see someone build the electronics using these items, I'll be watching.by jkelso - Reprappers
Thank you. I've been creating 3D models for graphics for years but it hasn't been until more recently that I've focused my interest to engineering graphics. I've spent the last year or so learning AutoCad and Inventor in and out and I have a lot of plans to use this printer for my own personal projects and to make a few more printers too. Finally seeing something I modeled myself come to lifeby jkelso - Reprappers
This print has been going for 16 hours now and it's coming out nicely. It's on 40 of 58 layers. I've come to realize that I like the printer noises, it sounds like a high tech robot factory in here. I looked online and found that PLA does not have harmful vapors and I no longer notice the slight odor. It's made from corn oil.by jkelso - Reprappers
It's looking good, feel free to ask me any specific questions you have along the way. Looks like you're about ready to jump into the electronics of it, things are about to get more complex.by jkelso - Reprappers
Some nozzles use the mounting block but I don't have one on my extruder. I'm not sure how the PEEK mounting block works/helps. There's also an alternative to using nichrome wire by using a metal heater block too. My nozzle just glues/screws into the mounting hole in the bottom of my Wade's extruder body without a mounting block.by jkelso - General
I actually have copper tube that fits right over the part the where PVC tube is supposed to go. It shouldn't be all that necessary except to prevent over tightening the sides together.by jkelso - Reprappers
I got a nice hybrid PTFE/PEEK extruder nozzle from reifsnyderb.by jkelso - General
Do you have a motherboard or just the extruder board?by jkelso - Reprappers
I think you should be fine with 3 of the 5 ft rods that sell for around $5.69 each. My glue solution turned out to be just what I've been looking for. I was almost considering throwing the print away and starting over but the glue saved the day and everything leveled right out within a few more layers. I'm wondering if a thin layer of this glue or spray adhesive laid down on the tape beforehanby jkelso - Reprappers
This is the largest part I've attempted so far and you can see from the photo that there are problems with areas on the first few layers. This could possibly be solved with a bed height adjustment but it's also likely that the bed wasn't heated enough with the space heater before starting the print. So far I found a good solution by putting white school glue in the holes to even out the surfaceby jkelso - Reprappers
I've got the new part designed and this should be a lot sturdier than the other one and should fit perfectly within the larger tube and go deeper into it.by jkelso - Reprappers