General 3D Printing Thread


 
JNeillIII said:
I do, but would have to get a relay right? It was working fine with it wired direct to ramps before.
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I just meant as a test to see if something happening on the heated bed RAMPS circuit was messing with the supply to the rest of the board. Can you list exactly what changes you made to the board before and after the auto bed leveling?
 
I had a similar issue. For me it was the brown fuses (they aren't capacitors) by the power connection on the RAMPS board. They would get extremely hot when the board was heating and the board would turn off. I ended up getting a 12V auto relay from the autoparts store and use it instead. I just have the RAMPS switch the relay and have not had any issues since.

dave
 
I also replaced those goofy polyfuses by just jumpering the heatbed one under the board and adding an inline 15A fastblow fuse on the wire going in.
 
Tom Kole said:
I just meant as a test to see if something happening on the heated bed RAMPS circuit was messing with the supply to the rest of the board. Can you list exactly what changes you made to the board before and after the auto bed leveling?
Click to expand...

I jumpered the 5v pin with the vcc pin next to the reset button. Then connected the servo to the first set of pins closest to the reset button. Updated the firmware with the changes in configuration.h to support the servo and auto bed leveling. After all these changes and it was flaking out I reverted back. I've got some automotive relays laying around somewhere and the extra power supply that I'll test out. Looking around it appears that several people seem to have run into the heat bed cutting out issue but the LCD panel doesn't seem to ever be one of the symptoms. It seems one of the other options is to upgrade the polyfuses to higher capacity ones, but I like Bryan's idea better, using an inline 15A fuse on the power lead directly and bypassing the polyfuses completely. Once I get some time I'll try the relay.

If I did burn out my board what are your guys thoughts on available boards now a days? Would you go with a RAMBO, RAMPS, SMOOTHIE....there's so many options...
 
I would try the things that Dave and Bryan suggested first. But as someone who has a RAMPS, Rambo, and smoothie, I would go with Rambo every day of the week. Smoothie is way too early in development and has a ways to go in terms of its firmware. I think it will definitely pan out eventually, but right now it needs work. I have the azteeg x5 mini which is a very sleek, powerful, and economical smoothie package, but at this point I'll take my Rambo over it any day. The other thing to check out is the pibox which was designed for repetier. It's a bit overkill for a 3d printer, but I'm going to try it out for my CNC because it uses the tb6600 driver that can go up to 4.5 amps.
 
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I actually got the polyfuse idea from looking at the RAMBO schematic. My bed was taking a little long to heat up and turns out the polyfuses on the RAMPS start limiting current well below their rated cutout (as polyfuses do).

The RAMBO was really a giant step forward in controllers thanks to its beefier power section, digital potentiometers, extra pins brought out, etc. I think the next big evolution will be a board that integrates an ARM chip, USB or SD storage, and wifi.
 
I doubt you have irreparably harmed RAMPS - it's pretty hard to do as it's simply an interface (unless you've done something terrible).

How did you jumper the VCC and 5V holes? soldered in a wire? you haven't bridged anything else by accident, have you? That'd be the first thing I check. Also, check the servo pins - make sure there are no bridges there.

Is D1 (under the X and Y stepper drivers) installed? I'm wondering where the power for the MEGA is coming from. Maybe your 5V regulator on the MEGA is damaged if it can't provide enough current for the 5V rail. By removing D1 the MEGA will pull 5V from the USB. Just heat one of D1's leads from underneath and add some solder to it, then (with the iron still on the leg and pad) use a pair of tweezers to gently pull the leg from the component side. Desoldering can suck. Just remember that excess solder is your friend here - you can always wick the excess out.

Oh, and get rid of those polyfuses. I'm not entirely sure why there are fuses on this board at all. I know, SAFETY. But seriously, I jumpered them out long ago. I simply live with the risk, which in my mind is minimal. I am much more concerned with a slipped thermistor on a hotend or heated bed. D:

And if you did blow your stack, I would not seriously consider any ARM based solutions unless you like living on the bleeding edge. Smoothie is great, but is nowhere near as complete as Marlin/Repetier. Either RAMBo or the X3 Pro, although the RAMBo is hard to beat for an all-in-one solution at that price point. And buy direct from Ultimachine - Johnny Russell @ Ultimachine designed it. :D Then again...if you blow a driver you're kinda screwed. The X3 Pro solves that and then some - personally I like swapping pololus out when I blow one up for just $10.
 
Thanks for the info. I jumped the pins using an old hard drive jumper for selecting master/slave. I don't think I jumped any additional connections, but not sure. I'm pretty sure the d1 is there because I was running without a pc for a long time. If the external power works for the bed and it doesn't cut out I'll give your poly fuse removal suggestion a try. Is there a way to test the 5v rail anywhere specifically on the mega?
 
I pulled the polyfuse off the board and soldered in an inline automotive fuse socket instead and I use regular auto fuse instead of the polyfuse...
 
I have a ramps I updated with an auto fuse and that really helped heatup time. My new printer has an X3 pro wiith Tom's heat bed setup. Its really really really nice. If you have to upgrade go with a ssr and 120v bead heater. You will be happy every time you print something.
 
I can't say enough good things about moving to a 120VAC heated bed. From power on to print is about 90 seconds. Totally worth it
 
Has anyone tried the new 123D Design v1.4? Supports saving to STL without even logging in! Probably does not support loading 123D Beta9 files. I still use OpenSCAD for everything so these interactive applications confuse me immediately so I can't give you a competent review.
 
Haven't tried that release, still using 123D beta cause I am used to it, but that log-in requirement is a PITA, specially since it likes to crash if run along side Repetier. I've got Inventor Fusion installed and have used it to work with other DWG files, but most of my designs are done in 123D 'cause I.F. menus are a bit different, I guess I am just avoiding that learning curve as long as possible. I'm gonna download 123D Design 1.4 and give it a try now that you mention it, will report back on the experience....
 
I didn't have much success with the 123D products. I have the most experience with CATIA at work... and that isn't much, I might add.

A co-worker that has used CATIA extensively and wanted a good CAD package at home found Alibre Design. It has since been purchased by 3D Systems and re-branded Geomagic Design and Cubify Design. I purchased Cubify Design after a 30 day trial. It is 200 bucks but it has a similar workflow part / operations tree to CATIA. If you really like the design side of things, it is worth checking out. If you opt for Geomagic Design, it will actually import a mesh file and convert it to a usable solid. Very handy for manipulating stl files off the web to suite you needs. I might have to upgrade this year for that feature alone.

What other CAD packages have you all tried?
 
Hmm, that sounds really nice Guy, I have on several occasions wanted to import and edit mesh objects, which has proven to be a bit frustrating with the 123D apps. Specifically when trying to upgrade/modify my printer, or design a new printer, I found some parts that were pretty close to what I want but just need a little tweaking.
I installed the 123D Design, it kept crashing, after about 10 tries it finally loaded. It seems to log into my AutoDesk account automatically and perhaps that is what was causing the crash, cause it kept crashing on a screen that said it was going to send usage info back to the mothership. I don't think I will be using it, as Bryan said, can't import 123D beta files, or DWG files either. I have a love/hate going on with AutoCad, gotta love all those free apps, but the way they make the file formats incompatible with each other is pretty frustrating, and they seem kinda buggy and prone to crashing. So far my favorite is still 123d Beta, if I were to move to something else it would probably be Inventor Fusion.
 
I got an E3D hotend for the printer over the weekend, really nice, the first prints have been awesome! I like the idea of all metal design (after a few run-ins with PTFE liners on J-heads), and really like the removable nozzle. It came with a .4mm nozzle and I ordered a .6mm nozzle for faster printing, been using the .6mm nozzle and pumping out solid prints quick! Really glad I made the move, well worth the money...
 
Ralph,

I'm moving along on my first 3D printer build project (currently in the packages-on-my-doorstep phase) and am planning to get the E3D, so that's great to hear. As a 3D newbie, do you see any reason I'd be better off with a J-Head? I got some clear advice in another forum to start with the J-Head, but the E3D gets great reviews and seems more future-proof.
 
There's no reason to start with a j-head. The e3d doesn't really add any complexity and actually makes things very easy because it simply always works.
 
I don't know why you would need to start with a J-head instead of an E3D... The only major difference is you need to run a fan (provided with the E3D kit) on the hotend, but it's an easy connect to +12v deal, it doesn't need to be controlled by the RAMPS board or anything. The direct feed model mounts to the same plate as a J-head too, it is a bit larger with the fan shroud, barely fit in my MakerFarm Prusa i3, but it fit...
The other thing you need to do is go into the Marlin Firmware and change the thermistor type for the hotend, I think from type 6 to type 5 if I recall, and you should do a PID autotune for the hotend also. (the E3D instructions will tell you what to do)

Other than that I see nothing more complicated about the E3D hotend. The J-head has a body, a nozzle and a PTFE liner jammed in there (which can actually be kinda difficult to get together and is prone to failure), the E3D has heater block with removable nozzle, a body and a threaded metal coupler that holds it all together. Pretty simple really. The only thing I didnt like about the E3D kit is they didnt provide high temp insulator tubing for the thermistor, they instead tell you to use kapton tape, which actually worked out pretty well for me... so I can't complain... If you can build a 3D printer you can certainly assemble an E3D hotend...
 
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