I have a friend with the same question, I recommended the kit from RobotDigg (all metal) for him. However this probably won't help you as it's more expensive than your budget allows.by nebbian - Delta Machines
The executive summary is: * It's a reasonably complete kit, but needs some work done before it can be used to print * The rod ends provided are useless, and need replacing with Traxxas rod ends * Needs a more powerful power supply if you want to use the supplied heatbed * You will need a dremel, and a bit of patience to put the kit together I've been using mine to print for the last month or soby nebbian - Delta Machines
I doubt it's mechanical binding, as if it was, the print surface would not remain flat (ask me how I know). I suspect something in the gcode, or as you say, the STL file.by nebbian - Delta Machines
I say again, can you post your STL and gcode files please? That will at least allow us to figure out if the problem is in your slicer settings.by nebbian - Delta Machines
I tried printing in ABS last night. It didn't work very well at first: I tried all sorts of combinations of extrusion rate and hotend temperature, without much success. I then added a short length of aluminium tube, which seemed to sort out the issues.by nebbian - Delta Machines
Can you post your STL and gcode files? I can run them through my printer to see how it handles it.by nebbian - Delta Machines
@GrandAG: My hotend has 4.5mm of heatbreak showing, measured between the heat block and the heatsink. Not sure if this helps. I just installed a PEI build plate, and HOOOLY DOOLY it's FANTASTIC!! No problem with adhesion, the PLA just sticks to it straight out of the nozzle, and the parts just peel/pop off once you cool the bed down a bit. No glue, no mess, no fuss. Perfect prints every timby nebbian - Delta Machines
1 - Yes, no problem. I've been printing for weeks without the probe. 2 - Yes, just remove the G29 command from your slicer settings.by nebbian - Delta Machines
Joey, check your steps per unit value. This relates to the distance between teeth on the belt, number of teeth on your pulley, number of degrees per step of your motor, and number of microsteps per step which is set in jumpers on your ramps board.by nebbian - Delta Machines
Andy, I lost count of the number of those 3-spiked wheels I've printed. I even changed the model to only print one layer of spoke, and measured the towers "in situ" to make printing it and calibration quicker! One thing that helped a bit was to measure the inside (50 mm) instead of the outside (60mm), as well as calibrating the extrusion rate to get the same width of plastic as the slicer expeby nebbian - Delta Machines
Are you using a RAMPS/Arduino board with an LCD? Are straight walls just fine, but curves are problematic? If so then you're experiencing blobbing due to micro-pauses because the controller can't keep up. I'm having the same problem. I think the only solution is to go 32-bit...by nebbian - Printing
Sure thing, Here it is. The holes are 8mm diameter to give you a bit of wiggle room with a 6mm bolt. Use whatever you have lying around the shed to build the sides. I used plastic gutter mesh for two sides, and a piece of steel L-angle for the last side (with a cable gland for the 240 volt cable).by nebbian - Delta Machines
Quotedavidf01 Ok so I have my towers and center adjusted so that when they pass the paper test and I use the m114 g code I get: X tower z position is at 1.0 Y tower z position is at .3 Z tower position is at .3 and center on the build plate is at z .9 This is where I get a little lost. What do I do next? Do I keep adjusting the endstops or do I move ahead and adjust the smooth rod offset? I canby nebbian - Delta Machines
Thanks King, I think you're on the right track with going to the 32 bit controllers. I certainly noticed a difference when going from 8 bit to 32 bit flight controllers for my radio controlled quadcopters. The base is bolted to the printer, by tapping the hole part of the extrusion with an M6 tap. Bolts go from the plywood, through the spacer, and screw into the vertical extrusions. Somehowby nebbian - Delta Machines
Squall, that's really annoying. Have you tried the other stepper driver position on the board? There are two spots that you can attach a stepper driver to. Perhaps you got the driver 'off by one' when putting the pins in? Kingoddball, I'm using 0.3mm layers, PLA. The blobs only happen on curves, not straight lines. I'm pretty sure it's the firmware pausing the head briefly (I heard it hapby nebbian - Delta Machines
Quotesquall I had an old PC power supply (18 Amps) which I hooked up to test out just the motors and movement. Are we supposed to connect the power supply to both the 5A and 11A markings on the RAMP board? The pdf instructions only show the 5A. Yep I just connected the two power supply inputs together in parallel. Seems to work fine. The 11 amp supply is for the heatbed only, I think. The 5by nebbian - Delta Machines
One thing that people often overlook is that axial type fans aren't very good at pushing air into ductwork. Squirrel-cage fans (often called "Blower" fans) are better at doing this. I'm quite taken with this design, I'll be printing this out soon: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:705864by nebbian - Delta Machines
Kingoddball, It's fantastic that yours is together, the hard part is done now. Just throw some wiring at it and get printing! I guess you're ahead of the curve if you've already got some experience printing. Also, that carriage looks great! Do your carriages trigger the end stops properly? I seriously envy your 3D drawing skills. Are you using Autodesk 123? I've been trying to design a sby nebbian - Delta Machines
@Olaf, my hotend gets to temperature pretty smartly, and seems well under control. I haven't measured it, but it would be under a minute. Temps are within 2 degrees each way when printing. Maybe you have a lower power heating element? @squall, tbh I don't use the auto calibration thing at all, even though it works. I was having problems with it due to having the wrong steps per mm set, soby nebbian - Delta Machines
Heya squall, To retract the probe you install a bolt near the heat bed on the Z-side of the X-Z extrusion, which allows the effector to run over there and press the probe into the bolt. You can see it in the photo below. This retracts the probe. I didn't have to loosen the spring at all, but it was a bit fiddly to move the screw that holds the spring until I got the right tension. Been gettiby nebbian - Delta Machines
Kingoddball, It's worthless to try imo. The rod ends bump into each other in the default position, so you'd have to move their positions in a bit to stop that happening... which would then stop your rods being parallel, so you'd have to move the carriage ends in by the same amount. Not to mention that the holes in the ends are 4mm, and only 3mm screws are provided. If you did get it to fit thby nebbian - Delta Machines
Quoteo_lampe How does a 8bitter work on a delta with a 12864 dot matrix display? I thought, that would be impossible? Yeah it doesn't. I don't know anywhere in this thread that people are claiming to use that display, either. I think that dc42 is mistaken. I also think he might also have missed the part where I replaced the 5V regulator with a higher powered one.by nebbian - Delta Machines
Quoteo_lampe @nebbian Definitely time to measure the power supply output voltage. In the end, they sent you a 15V PSU with the kit That would also explain the arduino problems. The 5V regulator is overheating... -Olaf Errr no I'm using a 20 amp power supply instead of the 10 amp supply they provided. Mine measures 13.8 volts, 13.5 when under heavy load with all heaters on full. 13.8V vs 12Vby nebbian - Delta Machines
I had similar issues. My thermistor legs were being shorted at the hotend due to an overenthusiastic technician at the place where they put kits together. Check the resistance of the thermistor leads when not connected to your RAMPS board. If they are around 1-2 ohms then you've got a short. If they are higher than 50 ohms then the thermistor is OK.by nebbian - General
Quotedc42 Sadly, most kits (including yours) use cheap Arduino/RAMPS electronics. Blown drivers, blown 5V regulators and overheating mosfets are common on that electronics. You can replace the mosfets with better ones. However, the problems you get when the heated bed has been on for a while might be due to the 12V power supply not handling the load, or a poor connection between the power supplyby nebbian - Delta Machines
It sounds like it might be similar to the one sold by Sintron (apart from the carbon rods). We've got a good thread going here: which might give you some ideas on how to get your machine up and running. The best idea is to spend some time getting all your mechanics totally perfect, as best you can, when you're building. It's a lot easier to sort it out at this stage than by spending days enby nebbian - Delta Machines
QuoteTha_Reaper I still asked for the traxxas ends. Mostly because they are a lot lighter than the stock ends. As I understood from earlier conversations that reduced weight will have a positive effect on speed and quality... right? I'm really looking forward to start tinkering... my old printer is making new horrible sounds every day. I don't know how much longer until something breaks again. Gby nebbian - Delta Machines
Quoteo_lampe Can you tell us the height of your endstops? Otherwise the blind use of the file could end in a headcrash. -Olaf Thanks Olaf, my nozzle is exactly 204.8 mm above the bed when the carriages trigger the endstops. I'm glad they give you 5 stepper drivers in the kit, as I broke one today. The little plus-shaped piece of metal that lives on the top of the pot just flipped off, and sby nebbian - Delta Machines
Sure thing Roger, this should get you into the right ballpark.by nebbian - Delta Machines
I got sick of endlessly printing calibration prints, so printed something actually useful. This is a bath plug that had broken. It took about half an hour to model up, and something like 5 minutes to print. I'm quite pleased with the result I also got the LCD panel working, it seems fine. Now I just need to wait the 4.5 hours it will take to print out the case! I think that there's nby nebbian - Delta Machines