slatronic's 3D printer

[slatronic]

With a bunch of people building a 3d printer I figured I should finally finish mine. I bought a mendel kit over a year ago and just never got around to finishing it. This is the O.G. mendel that has quite a few more parts than most printers out there today. My plan is to make another more modern style printer with my mendel I have once its finally running.

All I can say to this point is that it's been quite an adventure. Initially had trouble getting the parts in for the machine. Still haven't received all of them from manufacturer. It has also been hard getting use to the inaccuracy of the printed parts and having to sand and drill to make everything fit. Now that I have it assembled everything seems fine.

This is where I ran into the next issue. Trying to find a firmware and controller software to work right. I have a Gen6 board and using my macbook. Marlin doesnt want to verify in the Arduino IDE. I'm using version 23 of arduino software. Finally I got sprinter to verify and compile. Then I tried replicatorG and that was a no go. Then I tried pronterface and I was able to see my board in the software.

I haven't printed anything yet but it moves around well and homes like it should. So now I'm gonna try to get the extruder fired up and working. Tried a few times and the hot end would not heat up. Gonna try to take it apart and resolder my joints and see what happens. Hoss makes everything look way to easy.

I'm using an older model hot end connected to a greg's accessible extruder. The extruder was some of the parts I never received. So I picked one up from makerfarm. I needed to make a new mount to connect to hot end but that was pretty easy. The hot end does use a 6.8 ohm power resistor for heat not nichrome wire. I do have some nichrome around my workshop so if all else fails I might do that. I just hope its not the Gen6 board thats causing issues. Definitely going with RAMPS for next build.

If anyone has any clues on the hot end I would love some help. Been asking over on the reprap forums and no luck yet. I have measured the resistance on the power resistor and I measure 7 ohms. I also measured the voltage and it measures 0v across it after I hit set temp in pronterface. But when I remove the resistor I measure 12.6 volts. So I'm not sure if it's the firmware, gen6 board, or a bad part. The guess on the reprap forums is firmware.

[Fastest1]

Slatronic,
Dont be discouraged about procrastination. A few of us have that problem (not Hoss). I too had started with the idea of retrofitting a mill and was merrily but slowly going about my way in doing so.
Then 2 or 3 things happened rapidly, Xnaron showed a piece he had made for his G0704 that had a nice finish. Hoss took notice (I had teased Hoss a month or so before after going to a hackerspace meeting in Houston and seeing printers in action) and the H1 became available at such a reasonable price, using Mach and all of the knowledge would transfer when and if I did convert my mill.
Share everything you can and a few of us will be watching it all. Congrats

[hoss2006]

So if you just connect the resistor to 12v does it warm up?
Is the type of thermistor your using listed in the firmware?
The firmware won't power up the hotend if there's no thermistor set up.
Hoss

[slatronic]

So if you just connect the resistor to 12v does it warm up?
Is the type of thermistor your using listed in the firmware?
The firmware won't power up the hotend if there's no thermistor set up.
Hoss

Hoss

I connected the resistor to my 12v power supply and it got hot in 15sec. So I guess that eliminates that.

I have a 100k thermistor which is number 1 in the config file.

When I push the check temp button inside of pronterface the temperature fluctuates from 20-30*.

So does this mean it's the board or some setting in the firmware I'm missing? Could it be the MOSFET on the board? I've read that a few places. I can get a new one from digikey for $1.50. That's a whole lot cheaper than $200 for a new board.

thanks
jeff

[hoss2006]

What temp are you telling pronterface to go to? i.e. 220 then click "set"
Is is fluctuating from 20-30 or 200-230 for example.
Using the RAMPS the temp holds very steady varying in fractions of a degree.
Hoss

[slatronic]

What temp are you telling pronterface to go to? i.e. 220 then click "set"
Is is fluctuating from 20-30 or 200-230 for example.
Using the RAMPS the temp holds very steady varying in fractions of a degree.
Hoss

I've been having it at 185*. I push the set button then wait a minute or two then push the check temp button and I get back a number between 20* to sometimes up to 34*. Usually I will push the check temp button 3 or 4 times in a row to see temperature. It's definitely not getting hot when hooked up to board. I can grab the heater core and it feels cool.

I have checked the resistance of the thermistor and its about 92k.

[hoss2006]

Ok, doesn't sound like the problem is pronterface or the resistor/thermistor.
Don't know what the pins the gen6 board is using or if it has an led on board when the heater is on like the ramps,
it has a steady red when heating and flashing red when at temp.
I'd double check the firmware that the heater pin for the gen6 is correctly set.
See If the board has an indicator led for the heater that comes on when you tell it then
measure the output voltage when it's supposed to be on.
Hoss

[slatronic]

So I think I got it!!! I went looking through the config file and commented out the heated bed thermistor. I guess it wouldn't work without that either. There is no heated bed port on the Gen6 unfortunately. I do have a bed but need a separate circuit for it.

I guess I need to put it all back together and print something. Any suggestions on what to start with?

I'll post some pics of the blobs I'll be making with my first few prints.

[hoss2006]

Good to hear.
Calibration parts are a good start.
Skeinforge Bridge Calibration Cube by MatthewLaBerge - Thingiverse
Search Thingiverse - Thingiverse
Have fun, Hoss

[slatronic]

This is pretty cool. Haven't made anything nice or useful yet but this thing is neat. Gonna take some time getting it all calibrated and printing good. But for a first try I'm happy.

It started slow but the prints got better as I tweaked stuff. Definitely takes awhile having to change firmware or slic3r settings and try again. Still fun though experimenting trying to make it better.

I'm trying to print the .5mm thin wall calibration block. They got better as I adjusted settings. The last pic is of a few early failures.

[Fastest1]

I can't wait to make some failures!

[slatronic]

Got to mess around with the printer again. Fine tuned it a bit more today. Still not quite right. I'm having a heck of a time leveling the bed. Way worse than tramming my mill. Any hints?

Here a couple prints. First one is just a 20mm test cube. Came out ok. Need to fine tune my stepper steps per a little more. Then I tried to make a penny bottle opener. But that was a major fail. The x timing pulley came loose and ruined the print. Oh well. tightened it up and printing another right now. Not sure if the gcode came out ok through slic3r. Dont think the slot for the penny was put in there. There was an error message in slic3r. Said it wasn't manifold. Not sure what that means. Also said there was overlapping. I figured I would run the print and see what happened and fix from there.

Fastest1 don't get to excited about making mistakes cause it seems like its pretty easy to make them. I've made a lot so far. And pretty sure I'll be making many more.