From what I can tell hot end design have not progressed much, especially on hobby printers. I think inductive heater would increase precision, control and maybe speed of melting filament, especially for multicolor printing, but I don't see any development in this area. Here's an interesting induction heater used for FDM: https://youtu.be/im-OYObxMdMby newbob - General
QuoteDaveOB Quotenewbob I read that failed MOSFETs often short-circuit therefore two modules in series are needed to protect from runaway heater. I'm not sure however how well two in series would work in PWM mode. This is a very interesting point, and I imagine this could be as much as problem for the Ramps on-board Mosfet, just as much as an external Mosfet. So the simplest solution that I seby newbob - General
I read that failed MOSFETs often short-circuit therefore two modules in series are needed to protect from runaway heater. I'm not sure however how well two in series would work in PWM mode.by newbob - General
Quotecwaa I have only been printing for about 1 1/2 years, but still haven't used a cooling fan. Why do you use them? Are you able to print a 3DBenchy w/o cooling fans? Maybe at lower speed I could but printing at 40mm or higher, with PLA, I need a fan or bow gets uneven. I also get less oozing with cooling fans.by newbob - General
I think using 3 fans is an overkill given the amount of energy that is put into the system (I only have experience printing with PLA). From what you describe it sounds like slicer software should vary speed of the fan depending what layer is being deposited. Cool less for longer strokes, cool more when printing smaller areas and bridges. I decided against printing in ABS for now due to it's fby newbob - General
According to this doc 88CFM is needed to dissipate 500W/h at 10deltaT? I think we need better air management rather than adding more (powerful) fans. Also, from what I read PLA should not be (rapidly) cooled to less than 90degC for stronger prints.by newbob - General
QuoteHugoW Well, did I mention this would be a slow build? It is... I did some dumpster diving last week at the factory I work at and retrieved some rather large but usefull alloy. So, I can now start assembling the lot. See you again in a month or two! Cheers, Hugo Nice frame. I would expect for carriage riding on single, normal length, bearing will be wobbly as it's pulled left and righby newbob - General
To achieve better quality, slicers I tried (Craftware and Mattercontrol) do have an option to slow down when printing outside wall (perimeter speed). I wonder if there's a slicer that can do outside walls at higher resolution, say 0.1, and 0.2 for inside? I suppose the software would have to do outside first twice at 0.1 then do the inside at 0.2mm...by newbob - General
QuoteDjDemonD But then this relates to the thread on ringing and frames, build a solid, heavy frame and populate it with lightweight but stiff moving parts and the limiting factor to how fast you can go is how fast you can melt plastic not how much your frame bends or vibrates. Agreed to a certain point (I still think you can print overall faster when accounting for acceleration/deceleration forby newbob - General
Quote691175002 The cost/benefit tradeoff just doesn't make sense. There is no point in adding a bunch of wiring, sensors, and software when you could just spend $20 building a more rigid frame to begin with. Trying to fix low-quality physical systems in software sounds smart, but is nearly impossible in practice. Cheap mechanical systems do not fail in predictable or linear ways. Sensor databy newbob - General
Hi DjDemonD I have a pretty lightweight printer so I see plenty of shake when printing at higher speeds. Every moving part has inertia. Every time hot-end accelerates/decelerates it's motion will be counteracted by the frame at different angles and frequency. Cartesian printers Y axis usually have higher innertia than X axis. So even the same print oriented differently will generate differenby newbob - General
If touching controller boards helped while everything else remained the same - check for loose connections - re-seat all the plugs and tighten all the screws. Also, make sure that there's enough cooling provided to the board and the drivers. How hot do your stepper motors get?by newbob - Reprappers
I'm new to 3D printing. I was hoping that I could print fast but that's far from reality. I wonder if there's a slicer/controller that models optimal tool path, acceleration/deceleration and speed based on weight/stiffness of the gantry while limiting max seed/acceleration based plastic/nozzle/temperature used? Right now everything seems so manual and I am beginning to understand why peopby newbob - General
Do you really need to use 64 micro steps? I would try to change micro stepping to 16.by newbob - Reprappers
You have to determine if flex happens at the joints (most likely) or profile (unlikely given short length). I use corner plates, as @Evan suggested, together with T slot L type 90 degree brackets.by newbob - Reprappers
Quotethe_digital_dentist Ringing isn't caused by the frame, it's caused by the moving mass interacting with the acceleration, belt stretch and motor springiness. Motor steps are defined by magnetic fields. They aren't hard mechanical stops, they behave like springs. When the motor is accelerating, the inertia of the moving mass causes it to respond late to what the motor is doing. If it's speby newbob - General
@ElmoC - yes, powering from mains is more efficient @tgmorris99 - I used 704 Silicone Rubber (from ebay) over the solder and looking for better strain relief myself. 704 adhesive supposed to be good till 300degC with good dialectic properties.by newbob - General
400W/40A PSU gives only 10V which is too low for your control board . When you say it turns off - do you mean it resets? What do you do to turn it back on?by newbob - General
MPCNC design will make a pretty slow 3d printer. Based on my little experience and a lot of research I'd recommend corexy or delta (using rails) based designs.by newbob - General
QuoteElmoC I'm curious where that 20% waste came from? Quotenewbob 450W 24V bed will be performing same as 450W 'mains' bed (except that you are wasting about 20% of electricity). I'm assuming 80% SMPS efficacy.by newbob - General
450W 24V bed will be performing same as 450W 'mains' bed (except that you are wasting about 20% of electricity). I would discourage mains powered bed for safety reasons especially if you have a moving bed (delta printers maybe ok but I would still attach leads mechanically not just by soldering). First thing to do is to measure voltage at PSU and hotbed (when powered) and make sure that voltaby newbob - General
In theory step skipping could be an issue but so far I have no evidence of it therefore any effort to 'fix' it would be a waste of time and money. Automated bed calibration on the other hand would save me time and increase quality of the prints. @42 I like the heat map visualization a lot. @cozmicray - I use a precision dial right now but I feel it could be almost fully automated...well ifby newbob - General
@42 that's really neat. I don't expect an 8 bit board to do that...maybe through oktaprint (I have to look into that one) @Juggelli, thanks for the suggestion. I have not tried ABL yet but perhaps I should before switching to repetier (which I read it's no longer open source) and maybe try tweaking ABL code to output results to LCD.by newbob - General
My printer is Cartesian and I only want Z to move from layer to layer. What I want is a way to (automatically) verify that bed is level before each print and preferably tell me which corner is offset and by how much. Per @Origamib recommendation I'll try switching firmware to Repetier and see how it goes.by newbob - General
I put together my first 3d printer and find bed leveling time consuming and, because of dual motor Z axis, frequent. I do not want auto-leveling that builds a mesh as I do not want Z axis to move within each layer as it would slow it down and introduce inaccuracy. What I'm looking for is for the printer to measure distance to the bed (using some distance sensor, switch etc) at all four cornersby newbob - General