I think we need to settle this by holding a little competition. Give some ABS as the prize. The object should have the range of features that we know are trouble, as well as those features that regularly print fine. Of course, we'll need to have Up! entrants as well as a variety of RepRap and variants. Sound like fun???by jcabrer - General
Ultimachine is begining to get ABS and PLA back in stock. They have Black ABS only at the moment, and Green, Blue, Black and White PLA.by jcabrer - General
My Wildseyed Simple Hot End requires only simple tools, and the mechanical components can be sourced from the hardware store. It fits the Wade's Extruder nicely, and you have a lot of control over how small to make the nozzle hole. Pictures are at Thingiverseby jcabrer - General
Turn the current all the way down on the extruded driver. With the tip cold, send an extrude forward command and adjust the current until the motor just barely stops vibrating/clicking rapidly. It should turn just enough to put tension on the nozzle, but the current should be low enough to allow the motor to stall and spring backward to release the tension. At higher print speeds it is not uncomby jcabrer - General
I agree. Skeinforge give a level of control over extrusion that you simply cannot acheive with RepSnapper's built-in slicing. Having said that, this whole post got me thinking, and I put in some effort last night into getting the Windows beta version of RepSnapper functional so I could test out my heated bed and print some ABS. I have to say that I'm very pleased with the results as of this moby jcabrer - General
I think the warning regarding power to the board is to warn that you should not disconnect cables while the board is powered on. This is especially important with the stepper motors, as you can damage the drive circuitry by disconnecting a motor while it is being powered.by jcabrer - Reprappers
Are we talking about printing in PLA, or ABS? My recent experience is that ABS is much harder to get good results on. I've never seen Up results up close, but I have to say that I've gotten pretty darn smooth results on my prusa at 0.12 pitch @2X speed on RepSnapper. These were large parts in PLA. Small things and gears usually suck, but can be cleaned up for use. I did ditch the printed geaby jcabrer - General
I use only PTFE held onto the extruder body using four set screws. It works well on my machines because I don't put too much current through the extruder stepper driver. This allows the filament to spring back the gearing when the extrude rate exceeds the nozzle output. I've printed six (6) machines with this design on a single extruder, with no problems. I did have an issue when I bought sby jcabrer - Developers
The fact that you have to tell us your setup explains part of the problem. Every Up is identical and that allows it to produce consistent results.by jcabrer - General
I think I'm going to become "that nut" that preaches about drivers not overheating. If your stepper motors are strong enough, and you bushings are smooth, you should not have to turn up the current very high on your Pololu driver modules. The end result is that they run perfectly fine without heat sinks. If your X,Y, and Z motors are getting hot at all, you need to turn down the current. If tby jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
If you are using PLA, then try wiping down the bed surface with 70% Rubbing Alcohol just prior to printing. I suggest you try it first with a cold bed on Kapton.by jcabrer - General
I don't know how far you will get with RepSnapper. It looks like Gen3 like ReplicatorG best. Try the follwing:by jcabrer - Reprappers
Just looked on the link where you downloaded the firmware: Firmware Files You will need to install firware from this zip file for this A-D to work. This firmware is for the RepRap Host software and probably won't work with Makerbot's Replicatorg software (you are welcome to try and let me know). Kurt (the programmer for TechZoneCommunications) has created this great page, which explains all tby jcabrer - Reprappers
Hmm. It looks like your firmware supports some kind of checksum given the *numbers at the end of each line. If this is the case, try looking in the firmware configuration files for a setting that disables checksums. I don't think RepSnapper can parse those.by jcabrer - Reprappers
Which Arduino is it? Both Chips? Is this RAMPS, or something else? Which Firmware?by jcabrer - Reprappers
If you are not married to Fedora, I recommend switching over to Ubuntu. Not that there is anything wrong with Fedora, but I just don't have it, so it's tough to say which package you need. I do suspect that the package you want is not called gh-Glut. It should be something like OpenGL, or libglut, or something like that.by jcabrer - Reprappers
To reverse direction of the axis, you can do one of the following: 1. The simplest way is to reverse the connector on the controller end. Ex. +A-A-B+B becomes +B-B-A+A 2. You can make the change in the firmware. Your PC is probably the bottom end of what is useable. It is similar to my setup. It creates enough problems for me that I am considering getting something more powerful.by jcabrer - General
Can anyone shed light on which setting might cause the extruder to move in and out during printing? I'm getting acquainted with RepG and Skeinforge 39 with my RAMPS/Sprinter/Prusa, and I've almost got it, but when the print starts, the extruder seems to go back and forth in mostly equal distances, so the net effect is that there is nothing extruded. I'm sure this is part of what normally controby jcabrer - Skeinforge
polylib has to be built and installed first. I think it is included in the top of the source tree with RepSnapper. I'll try and lend a hand this evening if yopu haven;t solved it by then.by jcabrer - Reprappers
There is a layer thickness param. Bump it up in small increments.by jcabrer - General
I received an order of aluminum encased resistors from DigiKey to try out in my extruder design, and I am happy to report that P/N RH0055R000FE02 Power Resistors work beautifully. They are smaller than the 10 Watt versions I was using, so I don't know what the durability will be, but so far all indicators are good. I had seen Emergency Tape mentioned in another post, and just happened to seeby jcabrer - Plastic Extruder Working Group
It's probably safe to say that most of your problems are in misconfigured firmware. Do you have hardware end-stops? If you do, that should be enabled in configuration.h The z axis not moving after a while... This could be too much current shutting down the driver. Are the z axis motors cold, warm, or hot? They should be cold. If an axis moves in only one direction, then the hardware end-stoby jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
Take a deep breath and relax. Most of those settings are exactly where they should be. You should only make changes if something is 0. Not connecting 1. Not moving 2. Moving, but too slow/fast 3. Moving in wrong direction, or only moving in one direction 4. Not heating, or heating too much 5. Not printing well Pick the first item from the list and maybe we can helpby jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
The gerber files are produced from the board files. I believe Eagle is the format. I'm just saying that it's a bit of work to get boards run. There is no need to post gerber files because they would need to be regenerated every time a change was made. Sometimes, the board house will ask you to change a feature dimension...by jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
The problem with using screw terminals for this is that it defeats the purpose, which is to have a quick disconnect for everything on the extruder. As I mentioned in the top of the post, I've already tried using Euro-Style connectors for this purpose. The connector fit on a ten contact block is just too tight, and creates a risk of damage to the extruder and stage during removals. Again, I'm nby jcabrer - Plastic Extruder Working Group
You can find the BOM on the Ultimachine website. Look at the RAMPS DIY Kit and you will see the components listed. They sell the components there on their page also, and it's cheaper than Digikey and Mouser. So I encourage you to buy them there. As for the PCB, the files are available on the RepRap wiki for anyone who wants to run boards. www.4pcb.com seems to be a reputable service. Grantedby jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
I kind of anticipated that to be the case with the thermistor. As for the motor connection, I'm only referring to the extruder end of things. I just preffer a nice clean terminated bundle of cables on that end. The RAMPS end is a total rats nest, but that's fine. DB-9 is probably not the best choice out there, but I'm considering what is easy for most people to source with little effort. 2Aby jcabrer - Plastic Extruder Working Group
I would like to propose a quasi standard for an extruder interface. The idea being that the entire extruder can be switched out by simply disconnecting a single connector. On the extruder, I'm proposing a DB-9 Female connector with the following pinout: 1 - GND 2 - Resistor/NiChrome/Etc... Return (+) 3 - Thermistor/Thermocouple Return (+) 4 - Fan (+) 5 - Accesory (+) (Could be a light, anotherby jcabrer - Plastic Extruder Working Group