The Official 3d Printing thread

[RobbyMaQ]

Maybe there isn't a firmware update for this one. Just config settings. In the fb group they're only talking about updating firmware for the delta printer. But I'll ask.

Unless it's marlin 1.1.0-rc7? Does that sound right? Unsure which files to send, there are quite a few (and subfolders) and I haven't gotten that far yet.

they also supply repetier 1.0.6? with Arduino 1.6.1
and Slic3r

 

[1911ly]

The directory called Marlin XXXX is the firmware. Each maker/use tweaks a version to suit there machine. Luckily it as all open source and very configurable. That version of Arduino is the one to use. It is for editing the firmware. and compiling it. In the Marlin directory there is a file called configuration.h Open that file with a text editor and look it over and learn a lot. 90% of the hardware configuration is in that file. Don;t safe the changes if you accidentally change something. Changes should be make withing Arduino and then it will need to be recompiled and flashed to the machine. It's not that hard really. But you have to be carefull of what you change. But don;t be afraid to tinker. There is a ton of info on the internet.

This website is awesome for info: 3D Printing Forum - 3D Print Board

 

[1911ly]

To get started you can use Slic3r without Repeiter. You can print Repeiter but using the SD card and Slic3r is really simple.You can drag and drop the STL file in to the program for simplicity, If you want to call me before you print your first part I can give you a 5 minute talk threw on the basic settings. NP.

 

[1911ly]

Things turned to crap in short order. My 8825 stepper driver modules came in. I started swapping them in one at a time and adjusting them. I got the first in and the current set, np. And installed the second and up in smoke she rolls. The second board has a direct short on the driver board. I don't trust the rest of the POS's. back they are going to go. I am probably screwed on the damaged board.

The seller of the Bowden tube owned up to the oops and promptly refunded the money without issue. First class seller in my book! He admitted that they have gotten some complaints, I am not the first. They made it right.

Then the most fun thing of all, I broke the screen on the brand new laptop. I picked it up at the wrong angle and it cracked. I luckily have a laptop that is nearly the same one with a bad hard drive. Now it needs a screen and a hard drive, Oh well. I got it going in short order. The display was a few minute job literally. So I was right back up.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

so close, and yet so far...

1) Missing a turbo fan for the backside of the printhead/hotend. I do have a small fan on the front of the heat block.
2) I have a gazillion nuts and bolts left over... kinda good. But swear there are a bunch of 2.5mm which I don't think they even ever called for?
3) yet I am short two m4 nuts for the psu mount.
4) The lcd mount really needed some stand offs from the acrylic face. Nothing aquarium tubing couldn't fix.
E) The last 10 pages, it's like they lost their damn minds... the mounts for the board and psu are 5-10 cm too short, and call for only 2 mounting holes to be used. This cantilevers the board at the bottom edge against the acrylic mounts? Why? Photo of the backside of the board (and nuts & bolts) below

 

[1911ly]

so close, and yet so far...

1) Missing a turbo fan for the backside of the printhead/hotend. I do have a small fan on the front of the heat block.
2) I have a gazillion nuts and bolts left over... kinda good. But swear there are a bunch of 2.5mm which I don't think they even ever called for?
3) yet I am short two m4 nuts for the psu mount.
4) The lcd mount really needed some stand offs from the acrylic face. Nothing aquarium tubing couldn't fix.
E) The last 10 pages, it's like they lost their damn minds... the mounts for the board and psu are 5-10 cm too short, and call for only 2 mounting holes to be used. This cantilevers the board at the bottom edge against the acrylic mounts? Why? Photo of the backside of the board (and nuts & bolts) below

The fan on the heat sink is probably all there is unless your kit came with a print cooler?? Then there should be more then just a fan that blows in the head, it should have a duct to direct the air towards the print nozzle only. Actually is should direct it so it blows under the nozzle and on the print.

Your kit came with the E3Dv6 hotend?? Usually the cooler on those are a blue housing. But you have a different base so I can't really say.

I looked but could not find a manual on there site for your printer.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

It's an odd instruction page. Just shows the fan mounted on the backside of the carriage (which is sloped at an angle) and a photo of the turbo fan with a call out for it. But no mention of the size bolts to use.
I don't believe it is a E3dv6. But I am no expert
3dprintersonline shows it in the product photo (below). this is the exact page I ordered from.
Note I have the standard fan on the front of the unit. Just not the turbo for the backside.

Ordinarily I'm happy to have a few extra nuts and bolts. Sure sucks if you lose one and don't have extras... but this amount of extras has me scratching my head wondering what the hell I missed lol... or worse, what wasn't spec'd in the instructions!?

 

[1911ly]

I put a spare Mega board in the printer to get it back going. I tinkered with the X and Y settings for the extruder positions in software and got it really really close. But he two media's have different temperature characteristics. The two have different melting points and seem to shrink differently. I have a roll of black that seems to be close to the same as the red. I am going to give it a try.

I need to up the extruder Esteps a little. There seems to not be a way to make each extruder step different amounts. They seem to share the same value. but I am not done digging threw the firmware code.

I have the oozing better under control. I had to up the retraction speed and the length of it a lot. It prints better the faster it prints. I know I could make a regular direct drive work great, The Bowden setup seems fine for a single extruder setup. I haven;t given up tinkering, It is looking like I am getting there. Here is a pic of one of the early prints. You can see the ooze on the sides where the red hits the white and the white hits the red. It's better now. I will get a better picture soon.



I am still learning a lot and having fun!

 

[1911ly]

It's an odd instruction page. Just shows the fan mounted on the backside of the carriage (which is sloped at an angle) and a photo of the turbo fan with a call out for it. But no mention of the size bolts to use.
I don't believe it is a E3dv6. But I am no expert
3dprintersonline shows it in the product photo (below). this is the exact page I ordered from.
Note I have the standard fan on the front of the unit. Just not the turbo for the backside.

Ordinarily I'm happy to have a few extra nuts and bolts. Sure sucks if you lose one and don't have extras... but this amount of extras has me scratching my head wondering what the hell I missed lol... or worse, what wasn't spec'd in the instructions!?

The radial fan on the back side is a crude print cooler. It won;t slow you down at this point. Carry on at this point. You can come back to it. if the heat sink is round? That hot end might just be a E3D in a Bowden style.

Tip for you, run a piece of media threw the tubing a few dozen times to make sure it does not have any strands of PTFE in it.

Sounds like you are close to being done. The controller is different from mine. The info says it is a remix of the Mega and the ramps board. So it is a all in one board/ controller. I kinda like that. I wonder if it has more input/outputs? I'llhave to do some looking.

You should be printing soon enough!

 

[1911ly]

Robby, does this look like your board??

 

[RobbyMaQ]

No pic visible. I know it handles dual extruders. The extruder motor is mounted on the frame and not the hot end. I think that's bowden style?
I kinda figured it wasn't a big deal on the turbo fan, since it has no ductwork, and I'll start out with abs (though I have some pla on hand for later)

I will run some filament through the extruder tubing.. curious on your earlier comment about 'seasoning' the printhead. Seems to make sense, and I will be there soon.

Can't get in the room now as Ian is sleeping in there, but the board is listed as an MKS Gen_L V1.0 in the instruction manual. I gather if that's old, it'd just be a newer version. It has a splitter cable for the dual z motors. Also a hookup for another motor (dual extrusion) shown in the far right (n/c on mine at the moment) in the photo below. Also read something about extra voltage for another fan, where you can kick it on only when it's printing, etc...

 

[1911ly]

That is a twist on the Ramps/ Mega Combo in a all in one board. The programming and firmware is the same. It should be a fine setup.

FWIW, I'd start with the PLA, It is much easier to work with. ABS can be a PIA open framed printers. I have had much better luck with PLA right off the bat. If the prints aren't very big the ABS is great. But larger prints will be a PIA. I think you might need to make a case for it to fit in. It doesn't have to be pretty, just work! Styrofoam panels work great.

I am going to play with ABS agakn when I get side panels.on the bigger machine.

I would love to look at what is in the configuration.h file if you don't mine doing it. I'd owe ya one! I could even send you a radial cooling fan for your time!

 

[RobbyMaQ]

That is a twist on the Ramps/ Mega Combo in a all in one board. The programming and firmware is the same. It should be a fine setup.

FWIW, I'd start with the PLA, It is much easier to work with. ABS can be a PIA open framed printers. I have had much better luck with PLA right off the bat. If the prints aren't very big the ABS is great. But larger prints will be a PIA. I think you might need to make a case for it to fit in. It doesn't have to be pretty, just work! Styrofoam panels work great.

I am going to play with ABS agakn when I get side panels.on the bigger machine.

I would love to look at what is in the configuration.h file if you don't mine doing it. I'd owe ya one! I could even send you a radial cooling fan for your time!

I'll email it tonight. You hadn't mentioned it again, so I figured you weren't interested. I need to check the manual to make sure it's pre-configured. My luck there are instructions telling me to change values instead of just providing the proper config file to begin with.
I think I'll get marlin installed and look at the config file through it, because with notepad it's a bunch of run-on gobbledeegook

 

[1911ly]

Thanks Robby. The software should be dialed in pretty close.

You might want to play with the maximum travel limits later on. The printers I have see so far have had way more bed travel then what is usable. Then the Esteps for the extruder and the axis might stand improving. My boys and Harry's were close but not anywhere near accurate. But it should be pretty usable like it is. I would print with it like it is and get comfortable with it. Then dial in anything that is off

I learned a lot on this forum and in this thread in particular:
Makerfarm Calibration Thread of Grand Proportions

If you haven't joined that forum you should think about it. I haven't posted much over there. I need to. I have a few questions about some things I haven't figured out yet

 

[1911ly]

I made lots of progress with the dual print head settings. It's pretty cloase to dead nuts on.



Things I have learned, I do not know that I would recommend Bowden style extruders for a dual print head setup. It is getting better with each adjustment though. I had to speed up the media retraction rate by 4 times. That made a drastic difference. Also played with the length of retraction. And I set it to do a .02 lift between layer changes. I started long and have been whittling that down a bit at a time. I think I can cut that down a bit more yet. I am now seeing less media sticking to the opposite color printing. Using a wipe command would be the bomb put it would slow printing down a lot and I have know ideal as of get on how to do that. I'd like to not do that if I can avoid doing it.

Things that are a PIA, I am using Repeteir for control. But it uses Cura or Slic3r for slicing so I am limited on control. Slic3r uses the same settings both hotends. For both Esteps and temps. I can not figure out how to do them separately. I haven't figured Cura out enough to know if it will do it either.

I really want to try Simplifi3d but at $150 a pop and with more then one printer and PC used for slicing and control I am having a hard time ponying up the cost per printer. And there is no trial version. I am looking at Mattercontrol. It is suppose to be a poor mans Simpifi3d? I haven't figured out Cura yet. Too complicated. I haven't even figured out how to change the layer thickness yet. I could use a 5 minute lesson on it with someone that knows it well.

I am drawing up a different carriage for the hot ends. This one I designed works fine. My ideal for making the height adjustable on the heat brakes is excellent but not very easy for slight and quick tweaks. I have an ideal for another one that I am going to work on tonight. I am pretty sure it will work well. Figuring out the best way to make the prints easier to print is a little challenging. I would like to do it without using supports so the clean up of the print is almost nil.

Still having fun and the printer is printing nicer every time I make a change. And boy can you print fast without the weight of the extruder on the carriage. I printed that print at 200% and I think I could do it faster. I do need to play with the jerk settings. I need a lot less slowing down with this setup.

I will post more later when I have more progress done. But so far, so good. My prints look better then some of the 2 color prints I see on line.

 

[actaeon277]

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...s=aps&field-keywords=assorted+screws+and+nuts


Assorted screws and nuts

 

[RobbyMaQ]

Lookin good Larry.
I know nothing of this, but I'd be tempted to think that while one color was printing, the other would be just dribbling... at least if the printed colors were separated by a bit of time allowing it to dribble.

I emailed you the config.h file

 

[1911ly]

Lookin good Larry.
I know nothing of this, but I'd be tempted to think that while one color was printing, the other would be just dribbling... at least if the printed colors were separated by a bit of time allowing it to dribble.

I emailed you the config.h file

The dribbling is an issue, even more so with the Bowden setup because there is pressure on the filament that is bunched between the drive and the hot end. Single color prints for have any down time between the colors. I am having ok luck so far. I haven't given up on the ideal because i keep making it better.

2 color printing isn't really the thing I wanted to do anyway. I am more interested in being able to switch between two nozzle sizes without having to take the hot end apart and swap nozzles or by a second printer. This does that flawlessly. So I am happy with it at this point. I would just like to to print with 2 colors well. And I am about there now.

ACT, that is a great find. Especially this link on that page: https://www.amazon.com/Comdox-440Pc...spons&keywords=assorted+screws+and+nuts&psc=1

Thanks!!

 

[RobbyMaQ]

So a dual extruder on the hot end is even more weight

No square nuts in that deal... I'll wait for my tnuts from china. should be here next week I am hoping.

 

[1911ly]

Robby, I just picked threw that config file and wow, the setting for acceleration and jerk are from 3 to 10 times faster! I think you just answered a lot of questions and solved a few issues! Thanks buddy. And that firmware is pretty well set to just run on your machine. the X and Y limits look a bit generous. But they are easy to change later once you get it running.

I have rewritten the firmware with those settings. I will flash it and test soon.

I am in the middle of the new carriage design. I hope to print it tonight.