Show all posts by user

4988 Black Edition - 10 years ago

Hi, I had bought a Pololu 4988 black edition and its headers were not soldered. I don't have a lot of experience on soldering (and my soldering iron isn't very effective) so I was waiting to gain some experience on other projects before soldering the headers but yesterday I had a stepper problem so I had to go ahead and solder them. Of course, it was difficult for me. Sometimes 2 adjacent pins g

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: Duet development news - 10 years ago

Quotedc42 Quotedrmaestro I'd like to use the new duet however there are two problems. The first one is about PayPal. Unfortunately they had to stop their activities in my country due to licensing problems since the beginning of june. Are you going to offer another option for paying (credit card). The second problem is about customs. If the declared value is over 75 euros, the board is going to be

by drmaestro - Duet

Re: Duet development news - 10 years ago

I'd like to use the new duet however there are two problems. The first one is about PayPal. Unfortunately they had to stop their activities in my country due to licensing problems since the beginning of june. Are you going to offer another option for paying (credit card). The second problem is about customs. If the declared value is over 75 euros, the board is going to be examined by customs. Whi

by drmaestro - Duet

Questions about PSU and wiring. - 10 years ago

Hi, My knowledge on electronics is limited but building a RepRap printer exposes you to some basic electroics and as we are using 220 volts AC, this could be potentially dangerous if something went wrong. So I wanted to ask a few basic questions. The brand of the PSU I got bundled with my kit is SZXYU x 360 12. This is a 12 volts 30 amps PSU. The back side has a positive and negative input for

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: Maxtemp triggered without a reason - 10 years ago

I tried another thermistor and it worked. I have probably only shorted the thermistor so replacing it solved the problem (I hope).

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Maxtemp triggered without a reason - 10 years ago

Hi, Today I had changed my hotend and did a test print. I saw that the temperature was swinging (+/- 10 degrees) while printing so after it finished I saw that the grubscrew holding the thermistor in place was loose. So I started tightening it and probably the grubscrew hit the thermistor (normally there is a PTFE tube around the thermistor and it doesn't contact the grubscrew directly). The hot

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: New MKS SBASE Smoothieware-compatible board from China - 10 years ago

Quotezylantha Quoteanimoose Hi, can anyone tell me if the motor and endstop connectors on the SBASE are physically and electrically the same as those on a RAMPS 1.4? That is, can i just unplug the cables from my RAMPS, plug them into the MKS SBASE and have it work? Or will I need to put different connectors or reorder the pins on the existing cables? While they are electrically equivalent, physi

by drmaestro - Controllers

Re: Changing Electronics? - 10 years ago

Smoothie seems to be a nice board. I just have a few concerns with it: I'll probably need to do some major cable work as it has different connectors (that's a minor concern); I also need to find out if it Works with BLTouch (as I use it as an endstop in addition to auto bed leveling but I assume it does work somehow), I'll also probably need to change my LCD (ok, maybe a "fancy" LCD isn't a bad t

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: Changing Electronics? - 10 years ago

Is there a difference between Smoothieboard and RADDS? I assume it would be easier to upgrade to Arduino based solution, as my actual system is built on RAMPS.

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Changing Electronics? - 10 years ago

Hi, My current setup uses Arduino+RAMPS electronics. I was wondering if there is a reason to upgrade it to another board. I don't need to use LAN/wifi. I don't need to print fast. I don't need a fancy display. All I care about is print quality. Would I see a change in print quality if I change the board? Thanks

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: How to prevent vibration X axis vibration - 10 years ago

Hello again, I solved the problem. I thought it was due to the silent stepstick driver clone I was using so I replaced it with a new one and got the same result. That implied another problem so I checked the wires and connectors and saw that the plastic encasing of the connector for the X motor had partially melted! I have no idea how that thing can melt. Is it possible to melt it with the curre

by drmaestro - Reprappers

How to prevent vibration X axis vibration - 10 years ago

Hi, I have a problem with the X axis of my printer. When the GT2 belt is not attached to the X carriage, the carriage moves very easily. However when I attach it, there is some resistence. Of course, this is to be expected and it is also present at the Y axis but the Y axis can move smoother when the belt is attached. On the X axis, if I move the carriage fast, I don't feel a lot of vibration, h

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: Z-Offset in Dual Extruder - 10 years ago

It seems that the different Z offset is to compensate for the height difference between various hotends (if you have 2 different brands with various heights and want to use them both in the setup).

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: Linear bearing upgrade - 10 years ago

I have tried the FM8 bearings from pcblinear on my X carriage. It is silent but it had a lot of resistance to movement. It is less forgiving to misalignement compared to LMu8's so I replaced them in the end. However I should also mention that I only had chrome plated rods so this could be the problem (they require stainless steel rods).

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Rotary encoder problem - 10 years ago

Hi, My LCD controller is 2 years old and I started to have problems with the rotary encoder. It dosen't always register the turns or it can turn in the reverse direction. This is annoying generally but especially annyoing when setting the Z height because it might go downwards instead of upwards and crash into the part or bed. Is there a way to clean it? Should I change it (if it is easy to chan

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: Wade's extruder self-tightening. - 10 years ago

I think the problem was with the nut I used. It is difficult to find an M8 washer with a small diameter. I was applying a lot of force to the bolt so the nut was restricting the movement of the bolt and also tightening itself. I changed to a smaller diameter nut (still M8 but it is a nut used to lock other nuts, so it is thinner) and things are ok now. A nyloc nut would be ideal as it won't come

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: My Prusa MGN - 10 years ago

It seems that you already had nicely aligned layers. I can't see a huge improvement on the recent pictures compared to the old ones. This could of course be related to the quality and resolution of the pictures, so in reality the situation might be different. (I support what you are doing by the way, it is very good practice to change to linear guides for a rigid structure and consistent print qu

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: E3D Titan Extruder model - 10 years ago

After watching Tom's review about Titan I've had an idea on how to mount Titan on my current setup: I've modified the adaptor seen on the video by Tom so that it has a hole on its base for my hotend and it supports the stepper motor. I haven't mounted it yet but will do so in a few days. I think that should work.

by drmaestro - Look what I made!

Re: Cleaning out PETG from Nozzles. - 10 years ago

I find that too much heat can make things worse sometimes. The filament becomes carbonized and it is impossible to remove then. I use a Dremel tool to remove most of the plastic parts and with some luck, the remaining parts melt when I reheat the nozzle.

by drmaestro - General

Wade's extruder self-tightening. - 10 years ago

I started to have an interesting problem in the last few days. My Wade's extruder's hobbed bolt is held in place by a nut at the end. Generally that bolt became loose so I had to tighten it again. But in the last few days, it started to tighten itself instead, to the point that the gear cannot rotate after a few minutes of operation. I do occasionally dismantle the extruder so this should be due

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: PTFE decomposing? - 10 years ago

I'd like to know if there is a recommended PTFE seller but I am not sure there will be a lot of difference. I mainly print with PLA, so I have to use a PTFE lined hotend. I am actually trying other materials, including nGen and ColorfabbXT but I haven't tried printing them without the liner. My hotend is locally manufactured and the design is similar to E3D's except the heatbreak which is 13 mm

by drmaestro - Reprappers

PTFE decomposing? - 10 years ago

Hi, My hotend has a PTFE lining inside the heater block so I can't go over 240 degrees C. However when I print with ColorfabbXT or nGen, I need temperatures close to 230-235 degrees and I do print at these temperatures. There is no problem when I start with a fresh PTFE tube and as long as the hotend doesn't cool-down, I can easily print with these materials. However, after a complete cooldown (

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: BullDog XL and E3D v6 jam! - 10 years ago

Have you been able to determine what the foreign object is?

by drmaestro - Printing

Re: Which rail size and car size for 2020 extrusions? - 10 years ago

Hi, I'd like to give a little bit of feed-back on my project. I have found a local manufacturer for linear guides (I think they are Chinese rails which are re-branded). I wasn't sure about the size so I've bought 9 mm and 12 mm rails. It seems that 12 mm rails are better for 20x20 extrusions, because 9 mm rails tend to fall inside the opening on top of the extrusions, as they also measure 9 mm a

by drmaestro - Extruded Aluminum Frames

Re: The sounds of silence - 10 years ago

I've got second-hand Nema 17 steppers from Minebea. I am not very good with electronics but on the Internet, I've seen a case where they used a short wire to attach config 1 to the ground pin on the other side. I've read that RAMPS clones might not have that pulldown resistor, so the configuration can be different for the clones (I assume I have a cheap clone).By the way, my silent Stepsticks a

by drmaestro - General

Re: The sounds of silence - 10 years ago

Quotevpt5566 Quotedrmaestro Switching to silent stepstick is the best thing to do, as it practically silences the steppers. I can only hear the power supply fan when my printer is working. However they are more difficult to install due to their configurable nature and also need good cooling (I had to revert back on the Z axis to 4988 as it was getting too hot but I've ordered 2 80 mm fans, so I'l

by drmaestro - General

Re: The sounds of silence - 10 years ago

Switching to silent stepstick is the best thing to do, as it practically silences the steppers. I can only hear the power supply fan when my printer is working. However they are more difficult to install due to their configurable nature and also need good cooling (I had to revert back on the Z axis to 4988 as it was getting too hot but I've ordered 2 80 mm fans, so I'll have better cooling and re

by drmaestro - General

Advantages of Titan extruder over Wade's - 10 years ago

Hi, Has anybody tried E3D's Titan extruder yet? Is it very different from another direct drive extruder? Would it have any advantage over a Wade's extruder? Thanks. Note: The question is for 1.75 mm filament.

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: My Prusa MGN - 10 years ago

That is a very important question. Do we need to grease them? I've bought rails from a local manufacturer (they probably manufacture it in China tough). There is no play whatsoever and the movement is quite smooth but it feels like I am moving a bearing on a rod, you can feel the same amount of friction, which isn't really surprising as there are small balls in both of them and they are against s

by drmaestro - Reprappers

Re: Changing E steps - 10 years ago

Right now I am printing with Colorfabb nGen. The problem is that the idler is already at maximum pressure and normally I'd expect it to shred the filament however it doesn't. I am waiting for better hobbed bolts to arrive by post.

by drmaestro - Printing