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People building or using RepRaps.
Re: Random sinks into model, Hot end squashes model - 10 years ago
Check the Z motor wiring and current. Check the screws on the coupler that connects the Z motor(s) to the drive screw(s).by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Re: Heated bed won't heat - 10 years ago
It sounds like there's a short circuit around the MOSFET switch and when the switch turns on the the short is pulling the power supply voltage down. Monitor the power supply voltage to the RAMPS board and see what it does when the switch turns on and off. Look for solder blobs on the RAMPS board, check the wires to make sure they aren't frayed and shorting or touching anything they shouldn't.by the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Blown fuse in Power Supply - 10 years ago
You can try a new fuse, but obviously, your machine is taking too much power for the supply to handle. I'd get a separate supply to run the bed heater. Are you using one of the cheap "LED supplies" from Ebay? Did the fan in the supply turn on before the fuse blew? My experience with those supplies is that if the fan is turning on, the supply isn't going to last much longer.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Undiagnosed z-artifacts - 10 years ago
Bed temperature variation can cause Z-artifacts. Are you using bang-bang or PID control? Does the bed temperature remain reasonably constant during printing?by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Re: Varied gaps in ABS prints - 10 years ago
Filament diameter is never exactly 3mm. Try measuring the filament with a caliper at about 20 places and use the avergae value for the filament diameter Slic3r. Then you leave your flow control set to 100%. Make sure when you measure the filament that you rotate the orientation of the caliper on the filament- it is usually slightly oval and if you keep measuring in the same orientation you wonby the_digital_dentist - Printing
Re: Printing issues with ABS and advices to solve it - 10 years ago
The ghosting of the hole in the center and the corners is related to the current in the motor. If you increase the current that effect will decrease. If you can increase the voltage to the motors it will also help. The pinched appearance of the corners is due to low acceleration. Try increasing it if your machine can handle it. After you've increased the motor current you should be able to pby the_digital_dentist - Printing
Re: Where to begin? - 10 years ago
Delta vs cartesian: Deltas are typically capable of faster printing, though some newer cartesian designs are getting pretty fast. I've seen a lot of youtube videos of both types of machines printing super fast, but I've yet to see any close up photos of the result. In general, the faster you print the worse the result, regardless of the type of machine. It seems like print speed has become thby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Undiagnosed z-artifacts - 10 years ago
QuoteTheReprapExperience Maybe I should be more clear... This is why I don't think it is wobble becuase i purchased high quality anti backlash nuts which are far superior to those diy nut traps, and yes, by uncouple, it guides along the smooth rod like that and pushes up the x carriage. The x carriage is in no way attached to the z nuts, meaning I can pull it up and it moves down with gravity Thby the_digital_dentist - Printing
Re: 24"x24" Prusa I3 Bed Power - 10 years ago
Just as a point of reference, I have a bed that is 12.5" x 12" x 1/4" aluminum plate and it takes about 6 minutes to heat up to 105C.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Massive failure - 10 years ago
You already stated the problem and solution. You bumped the speed up too high. Dial it back a little. It is shifting in the Y axis. The Y axis moves the relatively heavy print bed back and forth- it can't keep up with the X axis which only has to move the extruder carriage. Newton's laws apply! Sometimes when testing speed we do something like test it by printing a square, where all the axeby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Heatbed's printing surface - 10 years ago
Cast aluminum tooling plate makes a great print bed because it spreads the heat out. You put a layer of kapton tape (I like 5 mil thick stuff because it is tough) on it and you'll have no trouble getting ABS to stick to it (you may have trouble getting it to let go!). The kapton tape will last a long time if you are careful not to gouge it while removing prints. A thin piece of metal might warby the_digital_dentist - Printing
Re: Best material to reduce those pesky vibrations - 10 years ago
OK, testing done and video uploading to vimeo. Result: the Y axis screw drive seems as noisy with the harmonic damper as without. The harmonic damper rattles and adds to the awful noise the printer makes so it is actually worse with it than without it. Video here: and here: Design here: The harmonic damper demos by the CNC machine people that show miraculous results are for fast movesby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Best material to reduce those pesky vibrations - 10 years ago
Quotejtoombs Dentist, from your other posts I have seen around the forums you have leadscrews on all of axes, right? I hope this harmonic damper produces good results for your printer. It seems like it has good potential due to the similarities between your printer and CNC machines which this device is used on. Let me know what happens when you complete your tests. Unfortunately, my motors are noby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Best material to reduce those pesky vibrations - 10 years ago
Those are essentially the same as the astrosyn dampers that don't help much at all.by the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Pronterface, Repetier, MatterControl... What to try next ? - 10 years ago
I like the options available via Slic3r but find it a little buggy and occasionally it crashes when exporting gcode files. Next in line is Cura, not as configurable as slic3r, but faster and generally does support material better. Regarding reliability- the arduino is a computer, it's true, but it is not separate from the printer. It is a necessary part of the printer that makes its operationby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Auto Bed Level Related Issue - 10 years ago
Are you sure the SD card is good? My recent smoothieboard had no end of bizarre problems until I replaced the uSD card that came with the board. My computer could read and write to the card just fine via the USB port on the smoothieboard, but the CPU on the smoothiebaird couldn't read the card properly, it turned out.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Best material to reduce those pesky vibrations - 10 years ago
I have tried the Astrosyn dampers on the NEMA-23 motors in my printer and they made no discernible difference in the vibration and noise. They will help prevent vibrations coupled from the body of the motor to the machine frame, but in my case, and probably yours, the noise from the frame is minimal. The vibration in the rotor will still couple to whatever the rotor connects to. I also use Dby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Heated Bed Stopped Working, Help! - 10 years ago
Since the bed resistance is 1.1 Ohms, and it's drawing 0.25A when the FET turns on, the voltage across the bed must be about 0.25V, which means the FET isn't actually turning on like it should. Does the FET get warm? The FET is dropping about 11.75V at 0.25A = about 3 watts. That FET should be getting nice and toasty. Why did you replace all those parts?by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Slic3r takes way to long to export - 10 years ago
I used to have the same problem with Windows and Linux installs of Slic3r, then they changed it so it did slicing in the background as soon as you loaded the stl file and restarted slicing every time you change one of the settings. The other thing they did was improve the speed of the export, but it is sometimes still pretty slow in Windows. I compiled the source code in my linux machine (insteby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Adjusting print settings on the fly - 10 years ago
I'm relatively new to pronterface, but there are controls for speed and temperature in the main pronterface window. You can set them before you've started printing, but while a print is running they won't work unless you pause the print before making the speed/temperature change. You can't change layer heights from pronterface- that has to be done in the slicing software. Slic3r will let you sby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: New build what controller to use? - 10 years ago
The relatively small difference in price between a smoothieboard and an Arduino/RAMPS is returned a hundred times over by not wasting your time at unporoductive activities like debugging, adjusting, and repairing your printer. Buy cheap, buy twice! To each his own...by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Pronterface, Repetier, MatterControl... What to try next ? - 10 years ago
When I first built my printer I had computer issues demonstrate to me that computers are a lousy way to control a 3D printer. 3D printing is an unreliable process and adding a computer to control it makes it even more unreliable. I put an LCD/SD/encoder module on my printer and printed from SD cards and got consistent, reliable results. I recently upgraded my controller to a smoothieboard andby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: New build what controller to use? - 10 years ago
I don't know what the guides and bearings have to do with the controller board, but OK... The smoothieboard has an on-line forum, google group, and the developers are frequently on IRC. Getting support is very easy and fast. It is also very well documented. A couple of the other points in favor of smoothie are that the firmware is read from a uSD card on the board, as are the configuration vby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Stepper Motors not moving in negative direction - 10 years ago
When it moves is it smooth or noisy and rough? If it's noisy and rough you've got the motor connections to the driver board wrong or the driver is bad.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Z-axis isn't to scale even after calibration - 10 years ago
Open the gcode and see if there is a G28 command at the beginning of the file or near it. When you sliced the object, was it sitting at z=0 in the slicer? Double check the Z-zero limit switch and mount and wiring to the controller board. Make sure nothing has moved. What error was pronterface reporting? Was it related to the Z-zero limit switch?by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: New build what controller to use? - 10 years ago
Take a look at SmoothieBoard. The AtMega2560/RAMPS combo is getting a bit old, and the CPU is pretty well maxxed out. Smoothieboard uses a much faster processor with more memory and is generally easier to use.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Z-axis isn't to scale even after calibration - 10 years ago
Check the motor current driving the Z axis. Also check the alignment of the mechanism- it may be binding near the bottom and causing the stepper(s) to slip. Also check connection between the drive screw(s) and the stepper(s) in the Z axis. What error did pronterface throw?by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: "Correct" wiring order for Stepper motors - 10 years ago
If it won't turn at all try reversing connections to one pair of the wires.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: First printer build - 10 years ago
QuoteZavashier The digital dentist your printer represents one vision of what a good printer must be. In many ways you're right, and your philosophy about machines argues. It's easy to estimate the cost of your printer, it's realy not the same budget compare to $300 repraps. Compared to yours, some printers will print perfectly for a small part of your overall budget. Heavy structures needs powerby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: First printer build - 10 years ago
mrn26, I was where you are now about 2 1/2 years ago. I built a machine of my own design using a lot of surplus and scrapped machine parts. I went with off-the-shelf electronics (ATMega2560/RAMPS) because of all the support available in terms of software and other people's experience. You can do it. It is just going to take some time and focused effort. I made a LOT of mistakes along the waby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers