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Re: Full RepRap parts required Blackpool UK Cash waiting - 15 years ago

Hi Booey. Many people have asked for parts. Unfortunately, at the moment, it takes considerable effort and time to print off a complete set of parts for a reprap. Most of those with a working reprap are also working hard on their own projects and maintaining their own repraps, so have limited time and effort. This means that it often takes a personal connection to get the process started. How

Re: RepRap Parts in Virginia - 15 years ago

Hi Joe. Many people have asked for parts. Unfortunately, at the moment, it takes considerable effort and time to print off a complete set of parts for a reprap. Most of those with a working reprap are also working hard on their own projects and maintaining their own repraps, so have limited time and effort. This means that it often takes a personal connection to get the process started. Howev

Re: "Perfect" heater design? - 15 years ago

If you have kapton tape, you can use that to insulate the nichrome. Wind kapton round the barrel, then carefully wind the nichrome, then more kapton, then more nichrome (if you need to wind more). Make sure that none of the nichrome coils are touching. I've build a couple of 'heating blocks' using wirewound resistors - and they work well. They're a bit harder to make, but they work. You need so

Re: skeinforge tweaks for build quality - help request - 15 years ago

Nice work! Congrats on getting it all working! I don't think your nozzle is particularly large - most I've heard about are 0.4-0.6. I'm assuming that distortion is caused by the layer start/end. If so,\ there might be some benefit in examining the start/stop timing. Also, you could try a filled object - especially if you can use the new host software, which starts in the middle of the internal

Re: Anyone planning a Makerbot order? - 15 years ago

I know what you mean. It's a lot of postage. I've been thinking about possibly getting some UK PCBs made up too. However, it's difficult to justify - I have a working set of gen 2 electronics - getting a gen3 set 'because I want to'. :-) Does anyone else have experience getting boards made up?

Re: Windows software developer instructions? - 15 years ago

There are some notes on You will need the java3d and rxtx libraries. Good luck :-)

Re: sanguino not connecting to computer - 15 years ago

This sounds similar to a problem I had with the arduino.... - here's my notes from the builders wiki: Arduino Firmware using Ubuntu Linux After downloading the linux firmware from the arduino site, If you cannot select the ttyUSB0 port from the arduino software menu - the entire tools/serial port menu is greyed out - the it could be a permission problem for /dev/ttyUSB0 If you run as root sud

Re: Chosing resistors for heating - 15 years ago

I've been using two 12ohm resistors (http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=1109309) in parallel to make a single 6ohm heater. Both resistors are embedded into a single block of mild steel, wrapped in foil and forced into 7.5mm holes. This takes a few minutes to warm up to 220C, but once there is much easier to maintain at that temp because of the thermal inertia of a big bloc

Re: How to get RepRap parts? - 15 years ago

Hi Bruce. RepRap Guru NopHead has just finished a set of parts for a good cause: totalling over 75 hours build time, not including mistakes. It's a lot of effort to print out, so it's usually limited to close friends or someone with a vested interest, so I'm not too surprised. If I were you, I'd get my hands on one of your CNC platforms, and build a simple extruder to go on it - like a mcwire

Re: Help with Opto sensors - 15 years ago

Standard remote controls use IR, so if you point a TV remote at a camera you can see whether IR is picked up or not on the preview. Video cameras with a low light facility often use IR lighting and IR sensitivity.

Re: Objects library sharing - 15 years ago

Re: We've been spammed - 15 years ago

Common factor: all end with xx from yy. Could be a quick way to find/delete all msgs

Re: fire cement problem - 15 years ago

Thanks for the tip. I was wondering where to get the Kapton tape

Re: Host Software Issue - 15 years ago

The host won't run if there are libs missing. I know there's a min temp for the heater, but you can normally still move the steppers. My guess might be a power issue? try disconnecting the heater and steppers - do the driver lights still flash? You could also load up ReplicatorG - if you've got gcode firmware - you can see whether it's the software or firmware side.

Re: Stupid PS question - 15 years ago

Yep, you need to connect the green wire of the motherboard sensor to ground (black). See the RepRap instructions:

Re: Reprap printing in multicolor... - 15 years ago

I don't mind ideas! It's just the implied expectation that somehow someone else is going to magically find time to do all the difficult research and development for you. Edison claimed "Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.". It's developing a concept into a working prototype that's the difficult bit. :-) I think what you're suggesting is adding another x-y axis to a reprap with a prin

Re: Objects library sharing - 15 years ago

starting with ? :-) Nice idea

Re: host software temp problem - 15 years ago

values of random 255 or 0 is normally indicating an unconnected input. Since you can read the temp in some tests OK, check your pin numbers in pins.h in the firmware against the wires. It sounds like you've done that, though. Restart the host, watching for connect errors in the terminal window.... Are you using the gcode or SNAP firmware: sometimes the settings are in different places?

Re: Ordering components in the UK for PCBs - 15 years ago

Green LED looks OK to me. I'd bet that most generic LEDs would work OK in the circuit - they're only for indication. Electronics can sometimes be very forgiving in values of components, and as long as the LED lights up, you're good. I've got a maplin mixed bag of LEDs (about 30 different types) for playing with, and they all seem to be very similar. Good luck! I hope you manage to find every

Re: Ordering components in the UK for PCBs - 15 years ago

OK, this might take a while, but: Go to the parts list : note down which part and how many: click through to the mouser page: the manufacturer part number from the mouser page can help you search through farnell: e.g. If you don't find an exact match : Most of the components are SMD size 1206. select this size first. Then, e.g. the resistor or capacator value : 10k get the list, and searc

Re: Ordering components in the UK for PCBs - 15 years ago

I've used Farnell who seem to supply much more than maplin, in fact, they supply so much it's hard to find what you want! If you've got a parts list with numbers, they can probably help you - I even got the 'official' RRRF 100k thermistors from there, they seem to have/import a lot of parts from the US. You will need to buy minimum quantities of some parts though - paticularly SMD components -

Re: Vitamin Reduction - Polar Stage Combined with Z axis - 15 years ago

Nice idea. one motor drives the rotation axis and also the z-axis at a massive rate of reduction. So, when printing a minimug, you will have 1 platform rotation height difference between the start and finish of the outer wall. To make this height difference minimal, you will have to gear the z-axis down by a lot - say 100 - which will give you a 1% difference in layer height between start and

Re: a NEW type of Filament Feeder?? possibly. - 15 years ago

:-) I'm afraid you'll get a lot more support if you have a go, than posting ideas. Most of us have our own ideas we're busy with, testing out, and trying to get working - there's very little time left for real life, let alone anything else. Posting any idea, you'll get positive and negative comments. Truth is, no-one really knows - we can have a guess, maybe point out some obvious problem area

Re: Metric dimensions of McWire threaded rod - 15 years ago

The only thing that would need to change for metric/imperial is the constant for Z_STEPS_PER_MM in the firmware. it's an easy change and metric will work fine.

Re: Stepper motor drivers LEDs light up only briefly - 15 years ago

Plug the HD in with everything else. Does it work? If so, leave plugged in for now. :-)

Re: Warping - 15 years ago

I was wondering whether the proximity of the nozzle raises the temp of the previous layers. If a heater bag of 70C is enough to help reduce warping, localised heating (through conduction or radiation) might be enough to raise the temp enough to reduce warping. This might also explain why printing slower (more contact/radiation time) reduces warping, and would also explain the shape of the commer

Re: Warping - 15 years ago

Doh! I never realised there was a BfB forum...! Signing up now! Vaguely remember some of this from a long time ago... You're suggesting that the filament freezes with internal stresses (like safety glass?) Since the melting point of ABS is 105C, it's got over 100C to go from nozzle temp to freezing point. I don't think that it will cool quick enough to fix the stresses. One of my extruders th

Re: Stepper Board kit always out of stock - 15 years ago

On this tutorial: I noticed a comment about adding a high-temperature liquid to help heat transfer (i.e. adding a dribble of vegetable oil). I'd previously wondered if this would help, given that so much of cooking relies on heat transfer at various speeds and temperatures - see Heston Blumenthal's stuff or here : Checking out the smoke temperatures for various oils it seems that Canola/r

Re: Stepper Board kit always out of stock - 15 years ago

It was me who suggested a frying pan. I haven't tried it. a solid sheet of copper should work as well. In fact, anything that will spread the heat out *should* work - a solid metal sheet (baking tray) might spread heat enough to work? I also saw another comment about doing SMT soldering in a standard oven - although the temperature control is not that accurate, you can use a kitchen thermometer

Re: Reprap host software and order from bitsfrom bytes - 15 years ago

Java software is held in a subversion repository. more details on wiki page