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How easily can I remove/replace the nozzle of the prusa i3? | Assuming you have a typical setup: nozzle threaded into heater block, use a socket wrench on the nozzle and any wrench or vise-grip on the block, and unscrew the nozzle. Now, if your system is fully clogged, you may want to heat the head to melt all the residual gunk (which otherwise will strongly resist your unscrewing force). Obviously take care not to burn yourself if removing the nozzle while hot.
Alternatively, don't bother removing the nozzle. Raise the extruder as high (Z-axis) as you can, heat, and use a properly-sized stiff wire to ream out the nozzle. You can use the back end of a microdrill bit. Hot or cold, you can use the drill itself to ream, but be very cautious as you may widen the nozzle itself doing this.
I should add that you may well have gunk in the feeder tube, and that's considerably wider diameter. Remove the nozzle and gently drill out the feeder with a matching drill. |
Constrain by surface area in Fusion 360 | After some testing, Fusion does have a category to put in an Area parameter [edit -> Parameters ->] for Area that takes measurements in acres and circular mil but no useful measurements such as square centimeters or square inch. One circular mil is defined as a circle with a radius of 1/1000 inch, or 0.0254 mm, for an area of $5.067×10^{−4}\text{ mm}^2$.
However, defining the area of an item isn't (currently) straightforwardly possible: areas are not defineable, and with the obvious lack of possible parameters (square metrics and anything but super tiny or super huge) it doesn't seem to be planned. The best you can do is for bodies that you know the formula for the area in the following fashion:
Here, the left measurement (d2) is 1 mm. The parameter area is 10000 circular mil. Since we know A=d1*d2, we can go A/d2=d1 for a rectangle. |
Basic Spinning Top Prints Fail in Same Location | To me, it looks like your G-code induces an incomplete layer of support on the still standing piece, which later down leads to the print failing.
Re-slice the whole thing.
As a matter of fact, I would cut the model in its widest place and print both with the large face flat on the surface and glue the two pieces together after printing. That way I can achieve:
no need for support material
maximum adhesion
no surface problems on the transition from the support to the print |
Getting 5V directly from the Anet A8 mainboard | The 5V is derived from the 12V supply by a linear regulator (L7805CD, DPAK package with 100 C/W thermal resistance). The maximum you can draw from it (without overheating the regulator) is around 200mA. Considering the electronics on the board are already using some power, the maximum would be around a 150mA fan but this would have the regulator running near its maximum limits. |
How to access BIGTREETECH firmware | The previous answer is good, but here's one specific for Bigtreetech.
Install platform.io. I use the command-line interface (CLI)
Modify your marlin files. You can clone existiing firmware for your board from the BigtreeTech Github for your board.
Remove microUSB card from your Bigtree tech board
Plug microUSB card into microUSB reader, and the microusb reader into the computer. You should be able to read your microUSB card
Enter the command in the root directory of your Marlin files: platformio run -e STM32F103RC_bigtree_USB. At least, this is the one for my board. You should have to run this in one folder before the Marlin folder.
It creates a file called firmware.bin in the directory .pio/build/STM32F103RC_bigtree_USB/firmware.bin. Copy it to your microUSB card, replacing and deleting any existing .bin. You can use the name firmware.bin.
Remove microSD card from computer and plug into board.
In your Marlin Configuration.h file, there should be a variable called something like MACHINE_NAME. If you make that name custom, then it will appear in the Octoprint terminal when connecting to your board, letting you know that you have updated the firmware. |
Why does the painters tape have to be blue? | read first
When you use painters tape, you need to level your printer with the tape applied. You need to relevel if you change the tape type.
Basics
It's not any blue tape that printers love. There are basically two factors that make a tape useful:
It has to stick during printing.
Its surface has to allow the filament to stick to it.
Let's look at some different tapes and their suitability - from my own experience.
ScotchBlue
The original blue tape is actually ScotchBlue for delicate surfaces by 3M. It has a good surface to stick to and at the same time an adhesive that does not degrade to unsuitability by heating. The delicate surface one is just as good as the all surfaces type. But don't use the outdoor type, it is sealed too much.
FrogTape
FrogTape has an adhesive that has no problems with heating, the surface is sometimes a little smoother. Its green variant is about as useful as ScotchBlue, while the yellow variant is easier to remove - which can be an issue when the printhead is not calibrated correctly.
Generic painters tape
Generic painters tape is a can of worms - there are so many different ones it is hard to describe. I have had very good off-yellow rolls from the dollar store of the 'fine surface' type - as in the tape had a fine surface - and their adhesive was good and didn't degrade too much under heat. The followup roll was a little thinner of material and released under heat so it can be a hit and miss - it's ok for starting out though.
I also tried a roll of UHU painters tape of the easy remove type and it was horrible, as it didn't want to stick after the nozzle went over it once even on an unheated bed.
Generic blue colored tape
I even tried two blue colored tapes from different dollar/hobby stores. One was ok-ish and had a similar result as the good dollar store tape in look, but left a blue shadow on the base of the print after two or three prints. The other was showing similar behavior to other mild-adhesive/easy peel tapes.
Conclusion
It's not color that matters, it is the formulation. If you must use blue tape, spend the extra bucks for quality. Some bloggers compared other tapes, tested ScotchBlue vs Kapton, discussed the benefits of either, discussed the ScotchBlue tape in depth.
While in general, I prefer to print on the surface of my (blue) BuildTak (clone), I occasionally whip out painters tape on an unheated surface for very delicate prints: I remove the print together with the tape from the surface, which allows better handling. Sacrificing a layer of tape only costs some cents after all while breaking a print is hours and filament for much more money wasted. |
What are the "magic numbers" on a Monoprice Select Mini? | The "magic numbers" are optimal values that work particularly well for the layer height. Michael O'Brien derived these numbers by reverse engineering the mechanics of the Z-axis stepper motor.
Using these values as your layer height will generally improve your print quality over using round layer heights such as 0.15, 0.2, or 0.25 by eliminating quantization errors.
To see an example of this, print a copy of 3DBenchy at 0.15 and 0.175. On the 0.15, you will see some wavy patterns on the curved bow portion compared to the 0.175. This is the result of inexact rounding.
Layer Height (mm)
0.04375 (results may vary)*
0.0875
0.13125
0.175
0.21875
0.2625
0.30625 |
Cura slicer, enforce Z move before layer change | To lift the head to prevent the nozzle to tip over your print you could use an option called Z hop in Cura. Just enter `hop' in the search box on the right side to make those options magically appear (in a recent version of Cura, e.g. version 3.x.x).
Other than Z hop there is no default action, or series of commands, per layer to be specified before the start of the layer. There are 2 other ways to circumvent this:
The first is saving you G-code to file and open the file in an advanced text editor (e.g. Notepad++). With a (recorded) macro you can find the words ;LAYER:, which are inserted by Cura before each layer starts, and insert a pre-copied list of commands that set the movement in relative mode, move Z up 2 mm, set into absolute mode again. When the next layer starts the extruder goes to the layer start from a 2 mm rise.
Write a plugin for Cura to post-process (C:\Program Files\Ultimaker Cura x.x\plugins\PostProcessingPlugin\scripts) the G-code file to inject the code to Z hop before the start of every layer, or a plugin that adds a new option and/or category to the slicer settings sidebar of the GUI. |
Laser scanning to 3D printer | Same menu, different location in the sub-menu (at the bottom):
As T.M. states in their comment, see Poisson mesh reconstruction on StackOverflow:
MeshLab 2016 now uses the new version of the Poisson merging, and the
filter is called:
Screened Poisson Surface Reconstruction
it is in the same submenu, on the bottom. The relevant parameter
(octree depth) is called Reconstruction Depth. It is now possible to
merge multiple layers at once, without flattening them beforehand (as
before). If source layer(s) have color, the result will be colored
too. If you want to have the same result of the old version, put 0 in
the "interpolation weight" parameter |
How to get superglue off PLA filament? | In agreement with what Akriss said, pretty much all "super" glue is CA (cyanoacrylate) glue, which is soluble in acetone. PLA itself is does not dissolve in or react with acetone, but the pigments, additives, etc. likely do, so you should wipe with a paper towel or cloth (the latter might be better to avoid getting fibers stuck on the glue) soaked in acetone rather than pouring it over the piece or submerging it, to limit the effects. Also, test first on a scrap piece printed with the same filament to ensure the results aren't unacceptably bad. |
Ender-3 Pro - PLA mid-layer warping (layer separation) - salvageable? | One hundred percent infill is not necessarily stronger than lower values. By having such a high infill figure, the forces on the model as it cools are magnified and not in a particularly good manner.
Consider that you could use twenty to thirty percent infill to get the strength you require for this application, saving filament and time for the print. You've not noted how many wall layers used, but for increased strength, four to five would make for a very strong model. |
Anet A8 (Prusa i3) Power Supply Fuse | The fuse rating is same as described on the board - so that shall be no issue with it.
My main concern is why the fuse is down?
Was there a short-circuit? As this is mains fuse - that suggest a big-bang, so, please check carefully hot-end and bed heater connections before restarting the device, to avoid replacing another fuse. |
How are things like a USB casing designed for 3D printing? | 3D printing provides a faster method for prototyping and have always been labeled as prototyping machines. Until recently, it has been rare to see 3D printers used for "mass manufacturing".
Yes, most mass-produced products start the manufacturing process with a 3D model. 3D models can be created in many different applications such as Solidworks, AutoCAD, Unigraphics, Blender, even Sketchup just to name a few.
In product development, the 3D model will then go through prototyping. Rapid prototyping can be done using a 3D printer by utilizing cheap materials and almost no labor cost.
Here are a few costs that can be associated with the different prototyping methods.
Traditional Prototyping
(Typically involving "traditional", subtractive manufacturing methods such as CNC mills, lathes, routers, etc.)
CAM programming
Fixturing
CNC Machine Setup
CNC Operating/Labor
Rapid Prototyping
(Typically involving a 3D printer or other additive manufacturing methods)
Model preparation (for slicing)
Printing Operation
Object post-processing
Removal of supports
Curing/Cleaning of part (for non-FDM/FFF printing methods)
Once a prototype is produced, the designer will adjust the 3D model accordingly based on results of the prototype. This process will be repeated until the prototype is adequate for the purpose of the end product.
When the product design is ready for mass production, it will go through traditional manufacturing methods such as:
CNC Machining (subtractive)
Mill
Lathe
Router
Laser
etc.
Injection Molding
etc. |
Can general purpose polystryene (not HIPS) be used for 3D printing? | In principle, it should work fine as a filament, since it's used extensively in the plastic extrusion industry, but I don't think you'd get great material properties out of it. ABS and HIPS incorporate polybutadiene into a graft polymer structure for a very good reason: the butadiene sections in the long molecular chains kind of "stick together" as a distinct solid phase to produce what amounts to micro-bubbles of rubber inside a matrix of hard styrene or acrylonitrile-styrene plastic. This compound microstructure is what gives HIPS and ABS favorable impact toughness and some minor flexibility.
The flexibility is important -- the stiffer a filament is, the more it will tend to warp while printing. Based on chemistry alone, I would expect styrene to be somewhat more prone to warping than ABS. And it would certainly be more brittle. So there doesn't seem to be much reason to use it as filament.
Interesting sidenote: PLA/PHA has very favorable mechanical properties because the PHA forms a very similar flexible microstructure inside the hard PLA matrix. PLA/PHA is good stuff because it mimics ABS and HIPS! |
Is there any 3D-printing software that supports Raspberry Pi? | The answer is "yes", but it depends on what hardware you have, what operating system you are using, and what software you want (or need) to use.
I have a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of memory, and I am running a 32-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS. I have been able to install the following software from the Raspberry Pi OS repositories, but not everything is working "out of the box":
Blender 2.79 (starts, but not tested)
Cura 3.3.1 (crashes on startup)
FreeCAD 0.18 (crashes when opening a new document)
PrintRun (PronterFace) 1.6.0 (working)
PrusaSlicer (Slic3r PE) 1.39.2 (working)
Repetier-Host 0.85 (crashes on startup)
Slic3r 1.3.0 (working)
I have been able to download the 3DBenchy from Thingiverse, slice it using Slic3r, and PrintRun (PronterFace) is currently printing it on my Tronxy X1.
I will update this answer if I can get the other stuff working, since I would quite like to use a Raspberry Pi for 3D design and printing. If I can get FreeCAD working, I shall be happy, and OpenSCAD would be a welcome bonus, but I don't think that it has been ported. |
How to offset my probe so it's not hanging off the bed at 0, 0 position when printing | It is not a problem that the sensor is not above the build plate during printing as long as it is above the build plate during the auto bed levelling sequence.
Homing does not necessarily need to be the (0,0) coordinate. Usually, a printer homes on the endstop switches, from that coordinate an offset is defined in the firmware to move to the origin. This implies that (depending on the position of the sensor), the sensor may be outside the bed area when the nozzle is at the origin (0, 0)). Therefore, similarly, you need to tell the printer the location of the Z sensor with respect to the nozzle position in order for the printer to keep the sensor on the bed when levelling by setting boundaries for the sensor to reach.
E.g. for Marlin firmware the offset from homing to the bed origin is defined for an Anet A8 by:
#define X_MIN_POS -33
#define Y_MIN_POS -10
The values you should use need to correspond to the actual offset from the homing point to the origin of the bed (0,0).
When using an auto bed leveling sensor like you are using you should consider this remark:
If using a Probe for Z Homing, enable Z_SAFE_HOMING also!
Un-comment the proper line in the configuration file to read:
#define Z_SAFE_HOMING
This will make the printer aware of the sensor, and home Z in the middle of the bed (default behavior, but can be changed), so that your sensor is never off the bed when probing the bed for Z homing.
Furthermore, you need to set the offset values of the center of your sensor to the nozzle center:
* Z Probe to nozzle (X,Y) offset, relative to (0, 0).
* X and Y offsets must be integers.
*
* In the following example the X and Y offsets are both positive:
* #define X_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER 10
* #define Y_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER 10
*
* +-- BACK ---+
* | |
* L | (+) P | R <-- probe (20,20)
* E | | I
* F | (-) N (+) | G <-- nozzle (10,10)
* T | | H
* | (-) | T
* | |
* O-- FRONT --+
* (0,0)
*/
#define X_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER XXX // X offset: -left +right [of the nozzle]
#define Y_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER YYY // Y offset: -front +behind [the nozzle]
#define Z_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER 0 // Z offset: -below +above [the nozzle]
Where XXX and YYY are your actual values.
And set the boundary of the probing section:
// Set the boundaries for probing (where the probe can reach).
#define LEFT_PROBE_BED_POSITION 15
#define RIGHT_PROBE_BED_POSITION 190
#define FRONT_PROBE_BED_POSITION 15
#define BACK_PROBE_BED_POSITION 170
Note that the values should match your bed size!
And:
// The Z probe minimum outer margin (to validate G29 parameters).
#define MIN_PROBE_EDGE 10
Details on setting the boundaries of the bed to keep the sensor on the bed is described in question "How to set Z-probe boundary limits in firmware when using automatic bed leveling?". |
Printer doesn't lift Z between each probe | In my Pins.h folder turns out I needed to put a x-max pin. I hadn't defined that so it was randomly reading it as high. my printer thinking it can't go higher was freaking out basically :) this explains the other strange behavior i was experiencing! |
Stone-look surface via painting? | It's totally possible to achieve but the result vastly depends on your painting skills and your spray paint quality.
Your can look at this page for a concrete example.
How it compares to stone filament is fairly subjective though. Painting a 3D print usually breaks down in 3 steps :
Smoothing out the lines.
Achieved by either sanding the print or using acetone
Apply coating.
Ensures a better adhesion for the paint
Apply spray paint
If any of these steps are neglected, the final result won't look as good as using stone filament. However, if the quality of you stone filament is really bad, painting will offer a better result. |
How does acetone "rejuvenate" PEI? | Rejuvenate is probably a bit of an exaggerated term. The number one adhesion suppressor is grease. The stuff that comes off of the fingers used to handle the sheet. Even if you are careful and only handle the sides, the grease will be carried to the center of the plate next time its cleaned with less aggressive solvents.
Isopropyl alchohol does break down grease but not to the extent that acetone does. Acetone also attacks plastic particles that accumulate on the print surface over time.
PEI is resistant to a wide array of chemicals[1] including acetone but it can become brittle if exposed to it too much especially when hot so acetone is not recommended for daily cleaning.
[1] Ultem Product Broshure table 4-3 |
Printer cover for noise abatement, cleanliness, temperature control | If you want to have an enclosure without actually building one, you can try a server cabinet. Just take out the server racks and use it as an enclosure. And, as there are many server cabinets available, you could probably find one that suits your needs. Currently, I have my FlyingBear P902 3d printer enclosed in a server cabinet. And, although the doors and removable sides might have air gaps, you can always just tape that off (or use an insulation strip). Hope this works.
You could also look at this website: Perfect 3D printer enclosure for Prusa i3 MK3 |
Curing a resin print | Yes
You need to do a two-step post-processing:
Washing
This is basically as easy as taking the print and dropping it into a vat of Isopropyl alcohol and vigorously shaking it to get all the liquid resin off. Careful, the resulting contaminated IPA is to be treated as toxic waste.
The reason why you wash the print is to make sure no resin stays on it and cures, distorting the print or altering the measurements.
Post-Print-curing
The next step is just having the item sit in UV light to cure thoroughly, which means either having it sit outside in sunlight or under a UV lamp. Under sunlight, it might take a few hours, under a UV lamp, it depends on how thick the object is and you might need to turn and rotate the printed part. Note that some resins, especially transparent ones, can change their coloration when exposed to sunlight, both during or after curing.
Curing is done to ensure all the resin is fully cured and get the full stiffness out of the print - sometimes prints are still somewhat malleable before giving them time to cure. |
How do I wire an AC SSR with RAMPs 1.4? | If you take a kettle lead with a wall plug and cut off the other end, it will expose 3 wires: earth, live and neutral. These are color coded depending on your country, usually earth is green (possibly with yellow stripes), neutral is blue, black, grey or white and live is brown, red or black.
The SSR should have 4 terminals: 2 terminals for the switched load (which are interchangeable) and 2 terminals that connect to your electronics, which should be marked negative and positive. These terminals should connect to the negative/positive heated bed output of your electronics. The terminals of the SSR should be clearly marked, and you can verify which terminal is what from the SSR's datasheet.
Typically, your heated bed will have two wires for power (which are interchangeable). One of the wires should be connected to neutral. The other wire should go to one of the load terminals of the SSR, while the other load terminal of the SSR should connect to the live wire. It is also acceptable to do it the other way around (neutral to the SSR and live directly to the bed) but this is slightly less neat.
Finally, and this step is extremely important, the earth wire of the plug has a protective function: should something fail, metal parts of your printer may become electrified, and shock you when you touch them. To prevent it, you should electrically connect exposed metal parts of your printer (such as the frame, heated bed plate, power supply case, etc...) to earth. This provides a path for the current to flow (and trip the protective RCD breaker) should something go wrong.
I would further recommend that you protect your heated bed (particularly if it is a high power model) with a bimetallic thermal switch. These are available in a variety of ratings, and will switch the power to your heated bed off when it goes over a certain temperature. This switch should be wired between the relay and the heated bed, and be mounted on the heated bed so it makes good thermal contact. If you plan to print with the heated bed at 110C, you might get a 120C or 130C thermal switch.
As mains voltage can be deadly, you should take appropriate precautions: never work on the printer while it is plugged in, cover any connections (in particular, make sure you buy or print a cover for the SSR's terminals and wrap solder joints in heat shrink or electrical tape) and always treat wires coming out of the SSR as live (even if it is switched off, some current can still flow). |
Cura: How to prevent my 3D printer from auto cooling after prints | In CuraEngine's FffGcodeWriter::finalize method, G-code to zero the bed and enclosure temperature is only written if the machine profile defines a heated bed/enclosure, so you could in theory avoid the cooldown by telling Cura your machine doesn't and putting the heatup commands in your custom start gcode instead of letting Cura emit them itself. However it unconditionally zeros all of the hotend temperatures, and does this after emitting your custom end G-code, so you can't even turn the hotend back on from there. The only way to undo Cura's insistence on turning it off is with some sort of postprocessing. |
Failure near the start point | I have recently looked into "print outer walls first" in an attempt to make the seam vanish. But turning that setting on creates a webby structure on the following area for my printer.
Turning the setting off again (and reducing the outer wall speed to 30 mm/s) completely eliminated the ringing again. |
What kind of filter do I need for the enclosure of a 3d printer? | For the most part, a consumer 3D Printer will only need proper ventilation when using potentially harmful materials such as ABS. (See duplicate question). If you're printing with primarily PLA, then you don't need to worry. I print mostly with ABS and keep my machine close to a window and I haven't experienced any issues. |
Rule of thumb for small type | I've had better luck with fonts that are heavier, usually sans-serif, and usually bold-face. All-caps can help, too, if it makes sense at all for the text. Impact is one widely-available example, though it's far from perfect and rarely has the look I want. I also usually need to turn on the "Print Thin Walls" setting in Cura when handling smaller text.
When looking at how small you can get, we'll start with font sizes. It would be easy to get lost here in a discussion of points and measurements. The thing is, font sizes describe the vertical height of the characters. For 3D printing, I believe you'll do better paying more attention to the horizontal width of your text. Most characters are taller than they are wide, so if you can produce legible horizontal features, you can probably handle the vertical features, too.
I'll use the letter "H" as an example here, because it shows the full size of the box for a typical character. Specifically, since I'm talking about horizontal features if you look at the bottom of the H, it has a three sections: leg, then gap, then leg. Also notice the gap is about 3 times the size of the legs (you can see this better if you zoom in close). This varies by font, but 3:1 is good average ratio. That gives us 5 units of width for the character itself. Additionally, you want to allow some spacing between individual characters; not every character needs it next to every other character, but I find it useful to allocate a 6th unit here.
Now consider those 6 units in the context of your nozzle size. With a typical .4 mm nozzle, that means the smallest size character you can legibly produce is about 2.4 mm across. Of course, most fonts are not monospace, where a character might be larger or smaller, but I believe this makes a useful average. Count the number of letters in a line of text you want to print, multiply by 2.4 mm, and that's the minimum amount of horizontal space you need.
If you really want to push things, a font specifically designed for 3D printing should theoretically be able to work in terms of 3 nozzle units wide + an extra gap between certain letters. But this is all theory, and for the minimum of what's possible. When you also start to think about what actually looks good, especially if you want to show features like serifs, the real world can really mess this up. In practice, I've found I need to go significantly larger even than the 6 unit / 2.4 mm option... but maybe I've just used the wrong font. You can always try a test print of your text in a small rectangle, to make sure it will be legible before using in a larger object. |
Glue for attaching PLA pieces to titanium | I've been a fan of epoxies for unusual adhesion problems. I found on Amazon a product with titanium in the name, but there's a caution regarding polypropylene plastics.
PLA is not of that family of plastic, which gives it a good chance of success. Epoxy is typically more viscous than cyanoacrylates, giving you a bit more control of the application, but also creating the need for care with "ooze-out."
The big glue company, Gorilla, also makes an epoxy that includes plastic and metal in the adhesion listing.
As PLA is somewhat sensitive to heat, one would consider that fast-cure epoxies generate more heat than slow-cure epoxy, but the amounts you'll be using are not likely to create enough for concern. |
How to choose printer with dual extruder? | As you suggest yourself, ordering test prints of some model is one way to do it.
3D Hubs and MakeXYZ allows you to get your model printed by hobbyists and small businesses for a fair price. Both sites also allow you to order prints based on printer type, which I believe is what you may be looking for.
On 3D Hubs, visit on of the trend reports, and select the printer you want a sample from. Similarly, on MakeXYZ, search local makers for your desired printer. |
Is PLA safe for masks? | PLA itself should be safe, at least chemically, but there's no guarantee that additives in a particular filament manufacturer's material are safe. From this standpoint it would be best to use an uncolored "natural" (comes out translucent but cloudy when printed) PLA from a manufacturer who documents that it has no added ingredients. It's also plausible (not saying this is necessarily the case) that there's fine particulate matter produced by heating or in the extruder gear that ends up on the surfaces.
However, in the bigger picture/XY-question, it's unlikely that printed masks provide safety against viral transmission. Especially with a rigid material like PLA, they're not going to make an air-tight fit with your face, and they're likely not air-tight themselves even if they do (due to imperfect extrusion, slight gaps between layers at least intermittently). This could perhaps be mitigated by using a separate edge material to make a tight fit with face, and sealing the print like you suggested. However, once you make it air-tight, it's unsafe for another reason: it's a suffocation hazard! Just because you insert a filter to breathe through doesn't mean that you're actually going to be able to breathe through it properly.
Naomi Wu a.k.a. Sexy Cyborg (well known for working with Creality, open source/OSHW compliance in China, and popularizing the Ender 3) has done a number of twitter threads on what the dangers are and why it's unsafe and irresponsible to be creating air-tight 3D-printed masks if you're not qualified for designing this type of device. Here is one. A highlight:
This results in CO2 buildup. After about 30 minutes your plastic mask, if actually airtight and strapped securely to your face will, before you can take it off, kill you- very peacefully. You'll just slump over and go to sleep, but you'll still be dead. |
Monoprice select mini V2 displaying '999' degrees for build plate temp | You get this temperature reading when there is broken wire. Not owning this printer type, can't you switch out the bed thermistor for a new one? Or alternatively check if a connection is loose. |
What are various types of supports required in slicing the CAD model? | Support structure generation depends on the type of slicer you use to convert your model (STL model file) into printable code (G-code) for the 3D printer. Different options and solutions exist to add support depending on the slicer software applications. Alternatively, you could add your own supports to your models in 3D CAD programs.
Without giving an opinion on the slicer applications, the most commonly used slicers are Cura and Slic3r (both free) and Simplifi3d (paid license). Please choose your software and do some more investigations on setting up these applications for slicing and address your question with a more specific question. |
Marlin 1.1.x on Ender 3 changing PREHEAT_1_FAN_SPEED has no effect? | Apparently, I forgot a critical step:
While I have completely reconfigured the LCD menus, setup custom 25-point mesh leveling, changed a bunch of other numerical values, and flashed the firmware dozens of times, certain values will never be updated unless you remember to initialize the EEPROM after the flash!
Honestly I kinda wish they would make it all or nothing but I guess there is limited space so particular things take priority. |
When I attempt to calibrate extruder steps the increased values don't correspond to physical increases | Mechanical?
You basically answer your own question that there could be a mechanical issue.
If 93 steps gives you 38 mm, to get to 100 mm, you need to divide 100 by 38 = 2.63 times. This implies that you need 2.63 x 93 = 244.7 steps/mm (not 149.73).
You even tried close to 400 steps per mm to see you are not extruding 100 mm of filament. This implies that you are either missing a lot of steps (increasing the stepper current or increasing the temperature of the hotend would help out) or the extruder gear slips on the filament (increasing the pressure on the extruder gear and filament could solve this).
Or not mechanical?
Furthermore, it could be another issue than mechanical. If your extrusion rate is too fast, the stepper might not be able to cope the high speed and miss steps. I have had this before with a too high of a retraction speed. |
What is causing these artifacts when the extruder moves in one direction? | In case of such difference in printing in different directions you can check if;
for x and partially z axis
filament is blocked and cannot be pulled as it should
spool is blocked
for x and y axis
rods on which caret/HB is sliding are parallel
timing belt idlers are parallel and they are in a line
Shape of the nozzle or its perpendicularity should not be the case as it's hot and it wipes layer itself.
You can also check if it's not an issue of cooling fan. It can vibrate as such.
Eventually it could be an issue of cooling itself. Let's assume you have cooling fan at the back and it pushes air to the front then when caret moves from the front to the back then cooling time is longer than when the fan goes in opposite direction. |
Distortion calibration on XY plane in Repetier | Skew distortion in deltas means there is something physically wrong with your printer build, such as the towers not being evenly spaced or being tilted. The first thing you should do is confirm the mechanical build -- measure the distance between towers, angles between towers, parallelism of all three towers, and perpendicularity of all three towers to the bed. If you post photos of your build, we might be able to provide more specific advice.
If you can't get the mechanical issue sorted, it's possible to calibrate out some specific build errors (like skew due to uneven tower angle), but that's nearly impossible to do "by hand." You really need to use a Z probe and auto-calibration sequence such as in Rich Cattell's Marlin fork or dc42 RepRapFirmware. |
Using multiple infill types within one model | To achieve additional localised stiffness, you can also insert small voids (gaps) inside the model. These become double thickness walls once sliced and can be used to support things like screw holes.
See the 'negative' parts used with a cube, and the sliced result here: |
What pins do I use for UART control on a RUMBA board for tmc2208? | The RUMBA schematic is available on the RUMBA wiki.
From the schematic, I see that UART3 (with +5V logic levels, not RS232) is presented on the EXP3 connector. I don't know if Marlin firmware can be controlled through a UART other than UART0, which is converted to USB through an FDDI chip. The Arduino bootloader is not expecting another UART, so you may still need to program it through the USB port (and UART0). |
Can I repurpose most of the components of this Prusa clone for a Delta? | Stepper motors
For equivalence, 4.8 kg⋅cm is 0.471 N⋅m or 47 N⋅cm.
Looking at the RepRapWiki - Nema17, the most common steppers are:
Kysan 1124090/42BYGH4803 (54.0 N⋅cm),
Rattm 17HS8401 (52 N⋅cm), and
Wantai 42BYGHW609 (39.2 N⋅cm).
The Kossel that you refer to is of a similar size to the Kossel XL. Again looking at the RepRapWiki - Kossel, the recommended stepper is the Kysan 1124090 Nema 17 Stepper Motor which has a Holding Torque of 5.5 kg⋅cm.
So, without knowing the exact make and model of your stepper motors and assuming that the specifications for your stepper motors given in the Prusa clone are correct, your steppers are not as strong as those recommended (apart from the Wantai). However, the recommended steppers may be over-engineered and provide [much?] more torque than is strictly necessary. After all, the holding torque of your steppers isn't that much below the recommended values.
If I were you I'd build the Kossel using your steppers and it might, in all likely hood, work out fine. FWIW, I have used the Rattm 17HS8401 in my Kossel Mini and Kossel XL. I got them on eBay and were quite reasonably priced.
You should probably read this article, RepRapWiki - Choosing stepper for a delta. Whilst no concrete values for holding torque are given, this is interesting:
A good practical setup
The Fisher, a small delta printer was designed by late RRP company. As for all their printers, they were using small and compact steppers with a torque of 2.2 kg.cm. This is lower than most repraps but is sufficient if there is no mechanical problem (friction).
These small motors have a low nominal static torque, but they also have a low inductance (2.5 mH), while due to their small size, the nominal current remains reasonable (1.2A).
as is
High inductance motors
You find on the market steppers sold for 3D printers, with a torque ranging from 2.6 to 4.4 kg.cm and a current of 0.4 A. This low current appeal builders as it make the electronic driver heating much less.
However, it came at a cost, which is a very high inductance which varies from 30 to 35 mH. That means these motors are totally incapable of any speed. They are unusable for a delta and a bad choice for another printer. As an example, a 4.4 kg.cm motor wired for this low current, while having a static torque twice the Fisher motors, simply cannot reach the maximum speed used by the Fisher, effectively having a near zero torque over a given speed. Same motors with a winding giving a nominal current of 1.5 to 2 A will be more usable.
Controller
Also, yes, RAMPS is fine for the Kossel, although the firmware calibration is obviously different, as it is a delta and not cartesian printer. For calibration, refer to How do you calibrate a delta robot 3D printer?.
Although, as Scott Lahteine states early on in this video, How it's Made: The Marlin Firmware!, using an 8-bit controller for delta printers is pushing their capabilities somewhat.
Extruder
I'm not familiar with the Flex3Drive, but it certainly looks interesting. I have used the 3325_0, this NEMA-17 motor has an integrated Planetary gearbox with a 52/11:1 ratio. It generates 16.2 kg⋅cm of torque at 1.68 A. I wrote a short blog about it here, The extraordinary extruder.
Building Tips
Also, if you are planning on building a Delta/Kossel, then I'd seriously recommend watching the series of videos on YouTube from BuildA3DPrinter.eu as they are extremely informative and helped me a lot, Build manual Kossel XL & Kossel Mini. I just checked their website to try to see which make and model of steppers they use, in order to get an idea of the holding torque, but they seem to have stopped trading. However, their stepper motor page states the following:
The standard motor for most 3D printers including ours, the 42byghw811
from Wantai Motors.
Holding torque is 4.8 kg⋅cm or 47.1 N⋅cm. Shaft diameter is 5 mm and
stepping angle is 1.8 degrees.
So, to sum up, your steppers should be fine. |
Expansion in bottom skin after first layer | OK, let's start with your pictures. Putting aside the expansion in the XY plane, layer 1 looks seriously underextruded (gaps between the lines, even) while layers 2 and 3 look severely overextruded. It would be possible to achieve this with a reduced first-layer flow setting, but you haven't indicated that, and moreover, in addition to looking underextruded, the first layer's lines don't look very flat - they look a lot thicker than 0.12 mm. I suspect if you can take a caliper with resolution greater than 0.1 mm and measure the thickness of the first layer, you'll find it's at least 0.2 mm thick, maybe more.
So, what's happening? You're overextruding by a lot, but have lowered your bed enough to (more than) compensate, giving the excess material in the first layer a whole 0.2 mm or more of vertical space to expand into, preventing it from being pressed against the bed and taking up the horizontal space it should. Now, as soon as you start the next layer, the big problems start. Since the nozzle has only moved up by 0.12 mm, you only have 0.12 mm of vertical space, and the overextruded material gets squeezed out horizontally. Some of it goes down into the gaps between the lines of the first layer. But by the time you get to layer 3, there are no gaps and things go really bad.
What's the source of the overextrusion? Your "esteps calibration". This is not a number you need to calibrate. It's a function of the extruder gear, and for the Ender 3's (including the Pro's) factory gear it's 93.0 (*).
After you fix the overextrusion by putting esteps back to the right value, you're going to need to re-level your bed. If you use the paper method, make sure there is significant tension on the paper and it does not slide freely under the nozzle at Z=0. If prefer using real metal feeler gauges and moving the nozzle to Z=0.1 to level. (You mentioned that you have BLtouch, which I'm not familiar with, but as I understand it you still need to calibrate it due to possible difference in sensor height and nozzle tip height.)
(*) Note that for compressible filaments like TPU and to a lesser extent PETG, compression of the filament in the gear will alter the effective steps per mm of (uncompressed) filament moved. However, rather than modifying your firmware esteps setting for this, it makes a lot more sense to model that as either a flow adjustment percentage or a narrower filament diameter (since essentially that's what it is -- the filament becomes narrower at the point of measurement), since slicing software supports adjustment of these per-material. So, don't touch esteps unless you replaced extruder hardware. |
Is it possible to convert a Las /Laz file into an STL or OBJ file? | Given that LAS/LAZ is LiDAR point cloud data, there is a GIS tool called las2tin to convert these files to a triangle based mesh called Triangular irregular networks or TIN by the GIS community. Other GIS tools should be able to do the same, for example ArcGIS.
Once you have the mesh, Google should be able to help you find a way to convert the TIN to an STL. You will need to scale down the STL after creation, as the TIN will probably be at 100% scale.
One example workflow for converting LAS data into an STL is:
Using ArcScene: open DEM > convert to TIN > export to VRML
Using MeshLab: open VRML > export to STL
Using Meshmixer: extrude base > scale to fit standard printing parameters > save as finished STL
More details for the process that I got from Google are available here |
Is it possible with current 3D printers to print a sound trace? | Sound Encoding basics
Sound is a compression wave, and any depiction of it has to be an encoding of it. You can encode it so you can recreate the sound using a contraption that oscillates in the right way to compress air again in the right pattern, but you can't just "print it out" like you can scale up a lightwave from the nanometer scale to a visible one as a representation.
Let's take a simple example: a 440 Hz tune is generally considered to be the A4, aka concert pitch a or A440.
It could be encoded in a various ways. The probably oldest is to encode it as a note in violin notation, which then could be reproduced by anyone using a properly tuned instrument. The actual result depends on the instrument used as much as on the skill of the player. Each instrument thus might decode this encoded note differently, based on the physical setup of the instrument. Each instrument automatically creates the appropriate overtones.
In Midi, it is encoded as Note 69 and any machine that can decode a midi file could use this instruction, paired with an instrument to use, to create the A4 that is set for it. In Midi, the mere instruction of Note 69 does cut out skill, but how it sounds and feels comes from the instrument setup - which contains information about what overtones are to be created when playing this note.
For a physicist, the pure sound is encoded as just the notion of 440 Hz and some amplitude to balance how loud it is. With those instructions, he'd be able to set up a device that has these creates a 440 Hz tune. To generate the sound and feel of an instrument, the encoding for a physicist would need to contain all the overtones that are to swing with this one sound.
History of sound recording
Let's look at the very first way of recording sound: The Phonautograph of 1857 used a piece of paper or a sheet of glass blackened and then a membrane move a needle. When the plate would be moved, the needle left a written path. The encoding was done via 2 factors: the setup of the stylus (mainly how long is the arm) and the speed of the movement of the plate. Changing either changed the encoding. A longer arm would record a larger amplitude (making fainter sounds recordable) while faster movement would alter the timescale recorded, allowing to look at short instances and better compare them.
These vibration-pattern records could be used to measure and compare sounds but not be used to recreate the sound, as lines on paper nor scratches in soot are a good way to keep a reading needle in boundaries. it took till 2000 and the use of scanners as well as digital processing to recreate these recorded sounds.
The solution to recreate sounds was found by the Edison Laps in 1877 with the phonograph, which used a piece of thick tinfoil to record the motion pattern of the membrane. Again, then encoding was done via the arm setup and the speed at which the tinfoil clad cylinder moved (or rather rotated). It would till the 1880s develop to a wax cylinder, which was easier to inscribe and reproduce from. One such machine was used by Carl Orff.
The first Gramophone came in 1889, mainly altering the shape of the recording medium from cylinders to the well-known shape of vinyl records but made from hard plastics and shellac. Around 1901, a 12-inch gramophone disk held only a 4 minutes track, speaking volumes about the problems of encoding the complex patterns of sound onto a disk. At the same time, an Edison Amberol Cylinder held 4 minutes 30 seconds but would spin at 160 rpm. Soon after, celluloid would become the recording medium of its time, and the disk the de-facto "standard" as it was much better storable.
In 1925 finally, a real standard was developed to record at around $78^{+0.26}_{-0.08}$ rpm, which lead to only a 0.34 rpm difference between areas of 60 or 50 Hz mains voltage (though they needed different encoder rings), making records interchangeable between both machine types. All these recordings were encoded naturally: the vibrations of the membrane in the recording tool would be 1:1 transmitted to the vibrating stylus that would then do the encoding in such a way that a machine would reproduce what the recording one "heard" quite accurately.
When Vinyl came to the playing field as a recording medium at the end of world war II, so came a swap in the reading needle type: instead of a needle that would agitate a membrane directily, sapphire needles that would agitate an electrical pickup which in turn would activate a speaker. But while the recording technology advanced, the track length of a 12-inch disk was still limited to about 4 minutes at 78 rpm. It would only reach more than this in the last years of its use by applying LP technologies to pack the track tighter in the 1950s, achieving 17 minutes.
1948 came the LP, what we know as a classic vinyl record. At its introduction it could cram 23 minutes onto one side, making this possible by only using 33.5 rpm as the recording speed and thinner, much tighter coiled groves, increasing the information density by a factor of 5.75 for a 12-inch disk. 7-inch 45 rpm "singles" came out 4 years later. Within 10 years, the 33.5 and 45 rpm encoded variants had almost completely replaced the 78 rpm market.
Vinyl
As the history of analogous recordings shows, encoding a sound signal is rather easy in theory, hard in practice. A typical 12-inch LP Vinyl record of 20 minutes is a grove that is 427 meters long and coiled up 667 times. That means a single groove is between 0.04 and 0.08 mm wide - with an equally thin wall between. That means, that to achieve a printed phonograph record, you'd have to print accurately down to 40 microns to get an empty track. However, we also need to add the signal atop. And here comes the real problem:
An empty track has some 22 µm deviations, which the needle will usually not pick up at all. Dust, which creates the crackling at times, is in the same area (1-100 µm). The actual sound signal is encoded to have features as small as 75 nanometers. That is 3 magnitudes lower than the mere geometry of the grove, and equally much lower than any printer - including SLS - can achieve today, as 50 µm is often considered a lower limit in 2019.
To show how much tiny defects would ruin the sound quality, look at this rapid cast of a vinyl record. The resolution of the negative and the subsequently cast record is good enough to recognize the music, but the resin cast did contain so many gas bubbles that the noise level of the copy is very high.
Bonus: Unlike on cylinders the encoding of the signal on disks changes from the start to the end! The vinyl spins at a constant rate, but the radius from the center changes, leading in the speed on any part of the grove to be different as $|v|=|\omega \vec r \sin(\theta)|$, where omega is the speed in rad per second, theta is the angle of the reeding, so in this case, the sinus term becomes 1 and vanishes. This factor has to be taken into account for encoding so the pitch of the record doesn't change if the record is not created naturally by inscribing the signal onto a spinning disk.
Other encoding
Rumble Strips
However, it is quite easy to create a structure that creates sounds based on interaction with another body. Highway Sound Strips create sounds as the car tire bumps up and down, turning the car and tires into resonance bodies while the street "beats" upon it. In the case of a large percussion instrument like a car, we are talking centimeter scale.
Peg-Cylinder
A very simple method would be to go back to encoding and check out the note notation but limiting the length of notes to one unit. Encoding music this way results in pegs or ridges on a cylinder, which then can be used to actuate a mechanism to decode the music and create sounds like in a music box. In a music box of this kind, the demand for accuracy is about 3 to 5 magnitudes lower than in vinyl records: we speak about a tenth of a millimeter to centimeter scale.
Such a Musical box or noisemaker can be easily printed and is pretty much a rumble strip coiled around a cylinder. The length of the sample is determined by the resolution, playback speed and diameter of the cylinder while the complexity is determined by the rows of pegs of it: a noisemaker is pretty much a 1-note, high speed, music box. Typically, one rotation stores about 25 to 30 seconds. Typical examples would be the first part of Für Elise, or the Marble Machine (Between second 30 and 35 the encoding wheel rotates 1 fifth). Some barrel organs also use the peg method, like one can see here. With some trickery, one cylinder could be used to encode multiple parts that play one after another once a rotation is done by and silencing some parts of the machine depending on an extra encoder, like this 3-part Für Elise music box.
Hole-Plate(-strip)
A different method would be to encode the music as holes in a continuous strip and use air as a decoding method. If the air then gets directed into pipes, we have a street organ. Typically, one would use a paper strip as the encoded message, but it could be printed just as well, especially if one uses a setup that uses plates hinged to one another instead of a rolled-up paper as in this example. With such a way to stash away the extra length, the upper limit for music length rises from a couple of seconds to several minutes easily even with such a "bad" encoding. |
Practical concerns smoothing PLA print with chloroform vapours | This Reddit post seems to have some good trial and error dialog.
This Thingiverse post, along with many other references online, suggest that the results are very similar to that of an Acetone treatment with ABS. I'm not familiar with the inner workings of how it works, but the general advice is to be conscious of what you're working with. A heat-induced vapor treatment seems to yield the best surface finish, but can be tricky to track down proper exposure times. It seems that the time required to achieve a desirable surface finish depends on the size and openness of the features on the object. By openness, I mean how evenly the vapor is able attach itself to the surface of the object as compared to other features. Some this variability may be reduced by streamlining the process. Perhaps if you found a way to rotate either the part or the vapor container during the process. This could ensure contact is made in small corners/features. Other variables to consider may be:
If a gradual reduction of exposure is necessary (as is with most heat treatment operations);
How much temperature effects time. Most pages I've read mention 100C as the temp to vaporize the chemical;
Size of the "vaporization chamber" in accordance with how much of the chemical is available. I've used a gallon paint can lined with lightly dabbed paper towel with Acetone for part between 1"^3 to about 4"^3.
That's all I can think of, currently, that could potentially have the most impact on the process. Just as with 3D printing, there's not an easy way to definitively know how your parts will turn out. The sheer difference in the shape of your parts could throw out any "proven process" you come up with. Hopefully this gives you an idea of what things to look out for in starting out.
Here's information about safety, before OP added disclaimer
As with any chemical, always refer to the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet)! Whichever supplier you acquire the chloroform from, should ship an MSDS with the product. If one is not shipped, you should be able to request one. If they don't have one, don't use the product and don't purchase from them.
In most cases, you can get away with finding any MSDS online, but I'd recommend trying to get one directly from your supplier as they might theoretically have a different "strand" of the chemical. Therefore, reactions and safety precautions may be different than what you will find online.
A quick search yields this MSDS which states that chloroform does have "carcinogenic effects" along with some other long-term, undesirable effects. As with any other MSDS it continues to go over best-practices and extremity limits. |
Always keep printer hot and ready to print | Just set values in your end code for your slicer. Set the bed to the temp you use, set the nozzle to roughly the Tg temp of the filament you use. Typically the bed heatup time is the worst offender here. I wouldn't keep the nozzle at extruding temps, though. |
PTFE pulled into extruder gears | You are probably right, I have a Tarantula as well, and this happened many times to me. The reason is mostly because the hotend fan gets too hot, stops working, then, the filament in the aluminium heat sink melts and sticks the filament inside the PTFE tube. Then, on the retraction, the PTFE is pulled into the gears just like on your picture. Also, the filament stops getting extruded a few moments later.
One solution for that was to buy a new PTFE tube with a pneumatic connector that doesn't allow it to slide into the gears. However, the diameter of the screw thread (of the one that I bought) was too large, so I had to design a new static block for the extruder to fit it.
I chose this type of 1mm PTFE teflon tubing from aliexpress for my replacement.
Maybe you can find a pneumatic connector with the proper diameter.
However the real solution is to check why the heat sink is getting too hot. I bought a few other fans and printed an additional support for them on the hotend and I am making sure the fan stays on all the time.
I hope it helps! |
Problems with feeding the filament into the bowden tube | What you are after is a small common mod called... filament guide (as your question title!).
The first one to pop up in my google search was this one: https://www.thingiverse.com/make:346736 which in turn is a make of this model: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2242903
Also, a couple of tricks that help on my printers (YMMV):
manually straighten the first few cm filament before inserting it into the extruder (e.g.: remove the natural bend that is there because the filament came off a round spool by bending it in the opposite direction)
when the filament is past the gears/cogs, while still keeping the cogs "open" (i.e.: not yet clamping the filament), twist/roll the filament between your finger.
sharpen the tip of your filament with a pencil sharpener. This make so that the tip of it is at the very centre of the hole, rather than at its edge. |
How can I remove my print from the bed safely | One method that works at our makerspace and also has worked for a user on another 3d printing forum is to use a 50:50 mix of water and denatured alcohol. While the print bed is warm, apply some to the perimeter of the print at the bed surface. Allow it to cool, try to remove the print. If it does not work, reheat the bed and repeat until you are able to release it. |
How to smooth the surface of parts printed with Co-polyester (PET) filament | I've found a chart which covers several plastics and solvents and only two of them (Chloromethane and Chloroform) are rated "D" which includes dissolving the material and both seem to be quite nasty and I doubt you will be able to purchase them without being placed on several lists.
Is it possible that something like XTC-3D from Smooth-On would work for you?
Also some more information on dissolving PET here, several sources also mention PET is affected by Hydrogen Peroxide but they do not mention to what degree the plastic is affected. |
Wiring Z-stop directly to hot end and aluminum bed / spacers | Aluminium is conductive, but aluminium oxide is not, which is just so what there (unavoidably, since aluminium rapidly oxidises in air) happens to be a thin layer of on top of your bed. The coating is very thin, but it might foul your plans. It would work better with a sharp probe (that can puncture the layer) than with a 3D printer nozzle. You should be careful, because your probing method might be unreliable (which could cause the nozzle to crash into the bed).
Wiring the endstop 5V directly to ground will create a short circuit which will damage your printer. You should use the third (signal) pin and ground instead. |
Which connector should I use between the power supply and the Einsy board? | The YL connectors are rated for wires as small as AWG 26 (and as big as AWG 16). If the power panic wires are smaller than this (or the power supply wires larger) you will need to use a different connector for them. Otherwise, I do not see a problem with mixing different wire gauges in the same connector. |
Printer going wild mid print | For anyone having the same issue I found out it was due to a Z axis motor lock up because the pulley attached to it would get stuck under the bed. I found out because I tried to print again and it locked up completely and I had to pull it out with pliers. Just finished an 18 hour print to confirm |
Why is my filament pressed together at the nozzle | As per attached picture I can see that the issue source could be:
the ptf tube is not inserted to the end of heat-break, or it is not straight-cut at the end - see this video for help
the cooler on the hotend is not working properly/not installed and heat goes up to the throttle and melts the material
an object in the nozzle that blocks the flow (usually a ptf tube particle that probably melted) - clean/replace the nozzle |
Is the Prometheus system compatible with Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus? | The Prometheus system is pretty much a Y-coupler and two extruders. So, you need your Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus to have the connection points for two extruders and the axis, which means you need one free, 4 wire connection slot from a stepper driver. So, let's look what kind of board is in there...
This Melzi Hypbrid is the mainboard the Duplicator uses, similar to a lot of other Melzi derivates (itself as it seems a Sanguino Derivate). The green 4-pin terminal is the extruder. There is only one of these. So it is not useable with Prometheus. You would need to get a mainboard that is able to run dual extruders. |
Adhesion problem (heat bed or extruder issue) | If the first layer is not sticking well to the bed it can be caused by several issues. Usually the height of the first layer plays a significant role as does the flatness of the bed. Temperature can definitely also play a role; you want the temperature to be close or at the glass transition temperature of the plastic filament when it is in a sort of fluid state.
Personally I hated the original tape that came with the bed or blue tape I bought separately. Also the surface finish is nowhere close to printing directly onto the Aluminium bed or on a glass plate. For adhesion, a PVA based spray (e.g. hairspray, or more expensive special print spray like 3DLAC or even a glue stick), should be used as it becomes very sticky at elevated temperatures.
The tape can be removed, but should be replaced with something that grips onto the filament, see previous paragraph. I removed the tape after day one I got build my kit and started printing directly onto the Aluminium bed using the sticky spray.
To answer your questions, the following checklist determines the order in which you should solve your issue:
First check the nozzle position relative to the bed; this should ideally be the thickness of a single plain A4 paper.
Make sure the bed is level; what is meant that the bed is relatively level with respect to the nozzle, not water bubble level with respect to the Earth (you'd be amazed to find how many people do that).
Use the correct bed temperature; it is usually found on the tag of the spool of filament. Alternatively, look it up on the internet, or increase it at first with about 5 degrees Celsius at a time.
You could over-extrude a little for the first layer by increasing the extrusion multiplier for the first layer, or add some extra temperature to the extruder (increase with 5 degrees Celsius).
Printing brims or adding mouse ears or discs integrated in your design may also work to create more grip.
And yes you should remove the masking tape before you put the glass on as it would only act as an insulator. |
Z-axis endstop not functioning after Marlin Firmware installation | After gaining more of an understanding of how Marlin works, I decided to look through the the pins file for the motherboard I am using "pins_ULTIMAIN_2.h". Sure enough, It had a the wrong pin number for the z stop specified. After changing that number, I gained full functionality.
This is what they should be:
#define X_STOP_PIN 22
#define Y_STOP_PIN 26
#define Z_STOP_PIN 29 |
Looking for this stl design for a cellphone clamp | This file simply is not on Thingiverse. Not all files are on Thingiverse.
A Google reverse-image-search for that picture in all size told me that the image stems from an all3dp article, and they have a reference link to Pinshape as it is presented here:
The file name of the linked picture is universal-phone-tripod-mount-3d-printing-155113.jpg
Taking that as a search term lead me to pinshape model 37196: 3d printed universal phone-tripod mount by jakejake |
What is the correct process to make a correct resin casting for jewelry? | Factually, the correct process is to heat up the mold hot enough to evaporate the positive.
In investment casting the process to remove the wax or plastic positive is called the "Dewax" and "Burnout preheating".
The answer to your question depends on the material you use to generate a negative mold of the positive product. E.g. many silicate based materials require up to about 1100 °C to fully burnout all residue before pouring in the liquid metal. |
Z Steppers just hum, vibrate and don't move at all | Try connecting Y-motor to your Z ports. If Y-motor will behave like Z-motors, then there's problem with your Z ports, be it hardware or software. I'm not a RAMPS user, but have heard that there is voltage regulator for every motor port. Sounds like your motors may be underpowered. |
How can I have a large 3D printed object? | As Trish states, a print service would appear to be your best bet. Building a printer large enough may work out costing more than the print service, especially if it is only for one print of a proof of concept.
Anecdotally, I visited a 3D Printing shop in Bangkok, JWH High tech Garden, that had a huge Delta printer that had, reputably, cost a million baht (~£20000) if my memory serves me correctly, and was capable of producing prints up to 1000 mm x 600 mm (39.37" x 23.62"):
However, the print service was not cheap at all. In May 2017, I was quoted 68000-100000 baht (~£1360-2000) for some printed parts (the proteins) for a Wilson II 3D printer, which are about only £70 on eBay!
However, it is worth taking into consideration that, at the moment, Thailand is very expensive for 3D printing in general, as it is relatively new there, and so prices for both printers and print services are high. |
Getting bumps/warts on surface, Cura doesn't want to comb? | Following on from Toon's answer, here is a run down of Thomas Sanladerer's excellent
video: 3D printing guides: Calibration and why you might be doing it wrong.
However, this may not be a definitive answer to the actual question about warts and bumps...
0:08 - A step back
Back in time - when the RepRap project (and the hobby grade 3D printing market) was new territory - it was seen to be a doable technology, with no restrictions imposed by patents. The new printers created and developed included Darwin, Sells Mendel and Prusa Mendel. These often produced unusable parts.
However, impromptu solutions, or kludges led to poor quality fixes giving poor quality prints, by today's standards. However, people (today) believe that because they worked back then,. that they must still be valid solutions today. However this is not necessarily the case.
The common misconception is that it is necessary to calibrate the esteps per mm for all axes other than extruder - adjusting the x, y and z esteps per mm until the 10 mm cube measures exactly 10x10x10 mm, even if that means squeezing the callipers.
1:25 - Car analogy
You find that your car pulls to the left, when going in a straight
line, so you adjust the steering. However, then in hard corners and
the rain the car handles poorly.
Upon closer inspection, it then turns out that the car had a flat
tyre. You wouldn't compensate for having a flat tyre by adjusting the
steering, now would you?
In order to get that 10 mm cube precise, it is usual to calibrate for the filament diameter, and extrusion multiplier (most straightforward option), but some printers aren't even that precise in the first place.
Mechanical, ripple, slaw, blacklash, can throw you off by 0.1 mm. Compensation for this 0.1 mm is certainly possible and achievable. However, then for a larger print, say 100 mm, then these overcompensation will become more evident, and you will be one entire milimeter off the desired dimensions.
So, use the ideal calculated esteps per mm. Timing belts and threaded rods are made to tight tolerances. therefore the worst case of ideal step per mm setting is an inaccuracy of 0.5%.
So, to find the ideal calculated steps use Prusa's calculator which is very good indeed.
If you are not using belts, or very large printer, then it is worth recalibrating the steps per mm for x and y, as 0.5% will make a noticeable difference in larger parts.
Use the files and instructions for these Calibration sticks on Youmagine, for proper recalibrating without results slewed by the extrusion multiplier being off by a bit.
3:45 - So what do I need to do?
What do you need to empirically calibrate your printer? In actual fact, not all that much:
extruder steps per mm setting
extrusion multiplier (see video link - Extruder calibration)
print speed, jerk and acceleration settings - These depend upon how much quality you want to sacrifice for increased speed.
Pro-tip: slow your printing down. For example, try printing at half speed. Quality may be improved, and even if it isn't you will be able to observe more clearly what is happening, and going wrong.
(see video link - Super Fast Guide:Tuning Speeds)
4:30 - Other than that?
There is not much else needs calibrating, per se.
With regards to slicer software, there are only a certain range of settings make sense, but this isn't printer calibration. You simply learn the slicer software and, with familiarity, see how far you can go.
These days any well maintained and well built and solid printer will produce good prints.
Most slicers give you decent prints without tweaking or calibrating, other than the basic settings about your printer and deciding how the part should be printed.
What about print temp and retract settings? Well, just use the default settings, or settings which depend upon the type of filament. So, no calibration is required there, as it is a property of the filament.
5:24 - Summing up
Don't try to calibrate everything
The technology, in particular the software, i.e. slicers, is still developing and improving. Slic3r's prototpye beta (in Nov 2014) has added compensation for fitting errors(?) without messing other things up, which is essentially what the cube calibration tries to do, but in the correct way. |
Printrboard Rev. D. 3.3 V source | On the schematic, the 3.3v is marked as "U7" and pointed out here:
The 3.3v is marked as pin #2. You can find the three pints from U7 here on the board (blue circle):
I'm not exactly sure if the pins are accessed from the other side of the board, or even if they are marked at all on there. You can always check them with a multimeter to see what their output is. More than likely the bottom single pin is the ground and the top two are one or the other (5v & 3.3v).
As far as amperage draw, I'm thinking 45mA is not a lot of draw, but I'm not an expert. I'd think it should be able to handle it, but again, I really don't know. |
Printing Object in multiple parts | From what I understand, you're trying to partition your object into smaller pieces with the hopes of putting them back together in a manner similar to a Jigsaw puzzle.
There are two options that I know of to do this, which requires using OpenSCAD:
The PuzzleCut library - This allows you to disassemble your object into a multiple pieces that can be assembled together in a jigsaw puzzle type manner
The PinCut library - This allows you to disassemble your objects into multiple pieces that than be reassembled using the pins and corresponding holes on the pieces. |
Isn't using the Extrusion Multiplier like cheating? | No, the Flow rate or Extrusion multiplier is to compensate for different materials and temperature ranges.
Where does the factor come from?
Let's say we calibrated our nozzle for work at 200°C with PLA, so 100 mm extrusion are correct and want to print ABS. ABS behaves differently and we get bad prints. What is wrong? Well, they do behave differently in the heat, and print at different temperatures. One easily noticeable difference between the two is the heat expansion coefficient.
Now, I had to scrounge through research papers and Material/Technical Data Sheets for PLA, so take that one with a grain of salt. But we can clearly compare the various plastics heat expansion coefficients:
PLA: $41 \frac{\text{µm}}{\text{m K}}$ a TDS
ABS: $72 \to 108 \frac{\text{µm}}{\text{m K}}$
Polycarbonate: $65 \to 70 \frac{\text{µm}}{\text{m K}}$
Polyamides (Nylons): $80 \to 110 \frac{\text{µm}}{\text{m K}}$
Those are just three randomly picked plastics that clearly are printable. If we heat one meter of them by one Kelvin, they'd expand by that length (a couple micrometer). We heat the later three printing materials to about 200-240 K over the room temperature (~220-260 °C), so we'd expect these the materials to expand by the following ranges:
PLA: 6.97 to 7.79 mm (1)
ABS: 14.4 to 25.92 mm (2)
Polycarbonate: 13 to 16.8 mm (2)
Polyamides (Nylons): 16 to 26.4 mm (2)
1 - using 170 K and 190 K temperature difference for its normal print temperature range of ca 190 to 200 °C2 - first: low expansion at 200 K increase, then high expansion at 240 K
You have calibrated your printer for one of these values somewhere in there. And now you get a different filament that has a different color and a different blend or even you swap from PLA to ABS or switch from one brand to another - the result is: you get a different heat expansion coefficient somewhere in that range and you have almost no chance to know it. The heat expansion coefficient, in the end, has an effect on the pressure in the nozzle and this the speed the material leaves the nozzle, which impacts die swell and so the overall printing behavior.
Remember that heat expansion is not the only thing that is happening in the nozzle. Other big factors are for example the viscosity of the polymer at its printing temperature, its compressibility (which depends for example on chain length or embedded fillers), the geometry of the nozzle, the length of the melt zone... they all play a role in how exactly the print gets to come out.
We can sum all those up under a general "behavior in the nozzle" tag, and as a result one gets vastly different flow/extrusion multipliers, like the 0.9 for PLA/1 for ABS in Simplify3D.
Other Factors?
There are also other factors that play a role.
The distance between the extruder and the melt zone and how the filament behaves there are somewhat obvious: A ductile filament can bunch up some in a Bowden tube while in a direct drive there is much less space for that.
The extruder can have an influence depending on the geometry of the drive gear and how much it bites into the filament. The depth of the deformation is again dependant on the hardness of the filament and the geometry of the teeth. Tollo has a great explanation how this has an effect on the need to alter the extrusion multiplier.
gaining the factors
Most of these are determined by trial and error using a factor of 1 and dialing up manually until proper printing is achieved on the machine, then putting that factor back into the software.
As a side note: Ultimaker Cura has (in its filament database) the ability to save flow rates into each different filament, but does initialize all with 100 % default.
TL;DR
It is a way to adjust to the relative difference between the behavior of filaments (using one of your filaments as the calibration) and not cheating. |
Trying to control temperature of hotend using PWM signal and MOSFET | connected the 12 V, 3 A supply to the drain of the MOSFET. And connected the Resistance heater of the 3D printer to the source and ground.
The MOSFET is damaged. If the gate is at $0V$, no current should be able to flow.
You're trying to use an N-channel MOSFET as a high-side switch. This is a bad idea, because it would require more than $12V$ at the gate to turn the MOSFET on properly. It would be better to set this up as a low-side switch so that the microcontroller can drive the gate directly. The MOSFET should go between the load and ground, not between the load and $+12V$.
The fact that you connected it like this is the very reason the MOSFET has been damaged. When the MOSFET is OFF, there is $0V$ across the heater. When the microcontroller starts to turn the MOSFET ON (by applying $5V$ to the gate, thus increasing $V_{GS}$ to above $V_{th}$), current starts to flow through the load and the voltage across the load increases. This in turn decreases $V_{GS}$, causing the MOSFET to turn off. You will end up with approximately $3V$ across the load and $V_{GS}=2V$. You've got $9V$ being dropped across your MOSFET and with a current of approximately $800mA$, the $7W$ of heat produced will quickly kill the MOSFET. |
Hollow wing for rc plane | I am sorry to inform you, that the answer to "How do I fix the thickness" is "Remodel them" - especially in this case as the whole design is... awkward.
But you don't necessarily need to resign them from scratch, if you can fix it... But beware, fixing does only work sometimes...
First of all, Blender is NOT a good modeling software for designing parts that shall be printed, Blender is a 3D Artist program, not a CAD program. It can serve its course, but it can and will ruin your day. I suggest grabbing Autodesk Fusion 360, since it is mighty and free for small makers.
Step 1: Transfer into CAD software
For our first step, we want to take the surface of the Wing and export it as an STL. To do this, remove all interior vertices. ALL. Save as a work-project. Look for "BAD" areas - try to have as little vertices as possible. If several are in the same flat area feel free to remove some. The simpler, the better - compare these two pictures - left the bad side, right the good.
Export via File > Export > .stl.
Open Fusion 360 and import via the process outlined here: Insert > Mesh.
Now we need to turn our Mesh into a BRep like described here:
Deactivate the pickup of model history by right-clicking the project in the left, then "Don't capture design history"
Modify > Mesh > Mesh tp BRep
choose your object and OK
reactivate the model history by right-clicking the project in the left, then "Don't capture design history"
Step 2: assigning Thickness
We got a surface now... or rather several that are stitched together. We want to give them thickness...
create > thicken
click on one area, choose the thickness as a negative value. For example -1 mm
click on the body's lightbulb to make it visible again
rinse and repeat for each area not yet thickened
Hint: rightclick opens a context menu that offers repeat ..., where ... is the last used operation, in this case: thicken. This considerably can speed it up.
Step 3: Combining thickened parts
Now, we have several thickened parts, all of them intersecting or touching. like, what usually looks like this...
actually is these different parts (which I colored for showing only - it is totally unnecessary!)
It's easy to see these all intersect. And luckily, intersecting parts can be easily merged!
Modify > Combine
click one, then another. OK.
rinse and repeat as much as you can - some pieces will throw an "inconsistent edge-face-relationship" error. If these crop up, you need to start over, fixing the Mesh.
To state it clear after wasting 2 hours on this:
Your files needs to be done again from scratch.
In a proper CAD modeling software. Because what you have there is not fixable easily. |
Is Creality Ender 3 V2 Supposed To Come With Board V 4.2.2? | Yes, they are shipping the v2 with the 4.2.2 board. My understanding is that the 4.2.7 board has a change in the stepper driver pinout but is otherwise the same as 4.2.2. The change in the pinout allowed them to change the stepper driver package as the stepper driver vendor appears to be changing that spec. I've used both boards in my V2 with no discernable difference. |
Arduino Mega 2560 + RAMPS voltage on GPIO pin | Connecting a 100 Ohm resistor is definitely not safe. This load is far too high for an AtMega2560 output pin. 100 Ohms at 5 V (when the pin is high) is 50 mA, whereas the recommended maximum for an AtMega2560 pin is 20 mA (and it would be better to stay well below this maximum). You should use a higher value pull-down resistor (at least 250 Ohms, more would be better) or find out where the stray voltage is coming from (it could be an internal pull up on the AtMega, since pin 20 is also the SDA pin which Marlin might enable). |
Alignment of dual Z-axis steppers | All the Prusa-based designs I've seen have only one end stop. While you are correct that it's theoretically possible for the two Z-drives to get out of sync, it's very unlikely in practice (barring serious friction, binding, etc.).
But even if it happens, remember that the endstop microswitch is only used to keep the extruder assembly from crashing into the print bed. The stepper motors do not have shaft encoders, or any other position sensing mech, so if they were to get out of sync, there'd be no way to know this.
The reason there's provision for a stop mount, on both sides, is simply to make the physical parts of the frame the same.
That said, it is important to check the extruder support assembly to verify it's level as you build the printer - "level" meaning both supports are the same distance from the screw-drive shaft couplers. |
MKS 12864OLED Display setup | First of all let me state that I do not own the module! The analysis below is based on old patches that worked in a version of Marlin in 2015, and translated to the latest version of Marlin of the 1.1.x branch. This is 1.1.9; this is the last version of the 1.1.x branch, all new development takes place in branch bugfix-2.0.x (dated May 2019).
The reported patches are compatible with an earlier version of Marlin Firmware (a version from 2015). Clearly this doesn't work anymore, but that should not be a problem, if it worked then it should work now provided we configure it correctly. The display you have requires U8GLIB_SSD1306, so the U8GLIB library need to be installed in your Arduino IDE!
Let's follow this installation guide for the older version as an example.
First, from patch 1 it becomes clear that you'll need to define that you are using a display that is identified by its name/type, you should uncomment the following line in your configuration.h in the section:
//=============================================================================
//======================== LCD / Controller Selection =========================
//======================== (Character-based LCDs) =========================
//=============================================================================
//#define MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306 // Uses the SSD1306 controller
to:
#define MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306 // Uses the SSD1306 controller
as you are using the SSD1306 controller according to this reference.
That is about the only thing you add in the configuration.h file! You only activate the name of the controller type (as in defining a constant) so that it is caught in other source or header files to do/trigger something.
With this change, you automatically activated the rest of patch as that is implemented in Conditionals_LCD.h!
Next, we need to address patch 2. This is addressed in ultralcd_impl_DOGM.h; here you will find:
#elif ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306)
// MKS 128x64 (SSD1306) OLED I2C LCD
U8GLIB_SSD1306_128X64 u8g(DOGLCD_SCK, DOGLCD_MOSI, DOGLCD_CS, DOGLCD_A0); // 8 stripes
//U8GLIB_SSD1306_128X64_2X u8g(DOGLCD_SCK, DOGLCD_MOSI, DOGLCD_CS, DOGLCD_A0); // 4 stripes
which clearly differs from the patch:
U8GLIB_SSD1306_128X64 u8g(23, 17, 16, 25); // SW SPI Com: SCK = 23, MOSI = 17, CS = 16, A0 = 25
as such that it uses numbers instead of constants. So we need to define these constants first. These constants are defined by the board you are using, more specifically the pin layout.
Looking at the pin layout of your RAMPS board:
#if ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED) || ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306)
#define LCD_PINS_DC 25 // Set as output on init
#define LCD_PINS_RS 27 // Pull low for 1s to init
// DOGM SPI LCD Support
#define DOGLCD_CS 16
#define DOGLCD_MOSI 17
#define DOGLCD_SCK 23
#define DOGLCD_A0 LCD_PINS_DC
you'll find that the pins are correctly configured with the fore mentioned:
U8GLIB_SSD1306_128X64 u8g(DOGLCD_SCK, DOGLCD_MOSI, DOGLCD_CS, DOGLCD_A0); // 8 stripes
We move on to patch 3. This patch deals with the reset/initialization of the OLED display. This is also already taken care of in ultralcd_impl_DOGM.h:
#if PIN_EXISTS(LCD_RESET)
OUT_WRITE(LCD_RESET_PIN, LOW); // perform a clean hardware reset
_delay_ms(5);
OUT_WRITE(LCD_RESET_PIN, HIGH);
_delay_ms(5); // delay to allow the display to initalize
#endif
Next to patch 4, in pins_RAMPS.h you see that pin 25 and 27 are correctly defined (apart from the name LCD_PINS_RST, now without T, but that is fine!):
#if ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED) || ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306)
#define LCD_PINS_DC 25 // Set as output on init
#define LCD_PINS_RS 27 // Pull low for 1s to init
The only difference is that pins
#define LCD_PINS_D5
#define LCD_PINS_D6
are not set to -1, so to be consistent, you should change pins_RAMPS.h to:
#if ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED) || ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306)
#define LCD_PINS_DC 25 // Set as output on init
#define LCD_PINS_RS 27 // Pull low for 1s to init
// DOGM SPI LCD Support
#define DOGLCD_CS 16
#define DOGLCD_MOSI 17
#define DOGLCD_SCK 23
#define DOGLCD_A0 LCD_PINS_DC
#define LCD_PINS_D5 -1
#define LCD_PINS_D6 -1
#else
#define LCD_PINS_RS 16
#define LCD_PINS_ENABLE 17
#define LCD_PINS_D4 23
#define LCD_PINS_D5 25
#define LCD_PINS_D6 27
#endif
A conclusion from the analysis above is that you enable the display in your configuration file and add the 2 values of -1 for D5 and D6, but I don't think they cause problems if they're not initialized to -1. Be sure that the cables are connected correctly. Some modules have reported upside down connectors. |
Does the material a bed is made out of affect the cooling time of a part? | What bed material cools faster?
I found an extensive list which relates various materials to their thermal conductivity, k [W/mK]; the lower thermal conductivity, the better the material insulates, and the slower the print bed will resist changes in temperature - both heating up, and cooling down.
Here are the thermal conductivity for some common materials for 3d printer beds:
Aluminum 205
Glass 1.05
Acrylic 0.2
Air 0.024 (for reference)
There is also the matter of thermal capacity, but I will not go into that right now (need to do some research myself first!).
Will bed material affect cooling time?
Bed material, I believe, is not necessarily related to print cooldown time: it depends on the situation, such as whether we are discussing cooldown during or after printing, and if the bed is heated or not.
If you are not using a heated bed, I believe the bed material doesn't matter at all.
With a heated bed while printing, only the first dozen layers or so are probably affected by the rising heat sufficiently that it affects the printing process.
With a heated bed after printing, the thermal characteristics of the bed will determine how quickly the print cools (and thus can be removed).
Also remember that other physical properties, such as flatness (both cold and during heating) of the bed material is vital for successful prints, and that not all materials can tolerate heating equally well! |
Convert ball-stick model to STL from the command line | I would suggest using OpenSCAD for this. OpenSCAD does not natively support reading data files that aren't 3D/2D models or images, but you can write a simple program to generate OpenSCAD code.
I would suggest first writing an OpenSCAD file that implements your chosen type of "ball" and "stick", perhaps like:
module ball(x, y, z) {
translate([x, y, z])
sphere(d=10, $fn=60);
}
module stick(x, y, z, length, rx, ry, rz) {
translate([x, y, z])
rotate([rx, ry, rz])
cylinder(d=5, length=length, $fn=60, center=true);
}
Then, take your data file — let's suppose it's a CSV —
ball,0,0,0
ball,100,0,0
stick,50,0,0,100,0,90,0
and convert it into OpenSCAD by adding the appropriate syntax (this could even be done using a basic find-and-replace tool):
import <ball-and-stick-definitions.scad>
ball(0,0,0);
ball(100,0,0);
stick(50,0,0,100,0,90,0);
Then, producing the STL is just a matter of running the openscad command on your generated OpenSCAD source code.
If your stick parameters are not Euler angles but "start point" and "end point" you'll have to add the "rotate to point at…" math yourself, but that is within OpenSCAD's capabilities as it has vector math operations and multmatrix, or trigonometry if you prefer to generate Euler angles; you don't need to do that math at the file-conversion stage. |
How many grams will be used in a print | You can not tell this by looking at the STL file alone, because how much material will be used depends on the print settings (obviously, printing at 100% infill will consume much more material than 10%).
The best way to check the material usage is to load the model into a slicer and slice it using your preferred settings. Most slicers will report the projected material usage, often in grams but sometimes in meters of filament (but the two figures are easily converted between each other if you know the density and diameter of your material).
Here is an example in the Cura slicer:
Simplify3D (after you click "prepare to print!") also shows you the projected print time and material usage and even the cost of the material (if you have previously entered the material cost per kilogram): |
Considerations when pausing a print job | If you keep the head hot during the pause, and over the print, you will melt the material already deposited.
If you move to X0 Y0 (like on a layer change) and pause there, you can cool off the head (or not), but will want to prime (advance) some material before resuming your print - or risk an initial void, as the heated material will expand and drip to some extent.
If you move to X0 Y0, retract, and cool off for your pause, you should be able to heat up, advance, and resume with few issues. You will probably still need to some manual cleaning where the resume was, as there is likely to be some buildup.
Also, if you let the bed cool during your pause, your print may become unstuck from the bed. |
Best way to fix ABS corner curling on enclosed Prusa style printer with PEI heatbed? | Adding 20mm mouse ears was sufficient to resolve the problem using the original extrusion / heatbed settings. I did not expect mouse ears to be required on the Benchy model, but given the lack of better advice it seems this may be a poorly documented "feature" of ABS.
Results on the original worst-case test model:
Note that the brims will not help if the bed is insufficiently leveled -- the brim has to actually merge with / melt into the base part layer, so the extruder height has to be perfect at the brim to part interface.
Example of extruder too far away from bed: |
Good sources of filament "sampler" pack? | Amazon, of course. I found a pack of 20 colors, maybe 50g each or so, 1.75 PLA. (that link is direct to this product).
edit:
Well, dang, I blinked at that particular item is off the list. Here are two other multicolor packages currently available (2PM EDT 20 Oct 2016)
one , and ... two |
Updating Marlin Firmware - Step by Step Guide | Step 0: extracting old settings & setting up
The first step is to get yourself a printing software that has a Console or Terminal like present in Repetier Host, Pronterface (as part of the Printrun software suite), OctoPrint or any other tool (e.g. serial connection with PuTTY also works) that allows to communicate with the printer to extract the settings we already have. Once we have the software installed and the printer connected, send M503 and copy the old settings into a file for later use.
Next, we need our development surroundings. Usually, you want to use Arduino IDE (but the PlatformIO plugin as part of Visual Studio Code can be used for both Arduino based microprocessors as 32-bit processors), but you need to know what kind of board the control board of your printer is derived from because some boards have native IDEs that work better for them.
Step 1: Choice of Firmware
By some metrics of early 2020, about 80 % of all shipped machines run Marlin in some fashionneed citation. The most prolific versions of Marlin at that point are often cited to be 1.1.9 and 2.x. Since anything before 1.1.9 is very much obsolete and needs an update anyway, we will look into 1.1.9 and 2.x only. Version 2.x was developed to include 32-bit microprocessors, but is compatible with 8-bit microprocessor printer boards. As the version jump indicates though, 2.x is pretty much an entire rewrite, so do your choice and jump to the correct next step.
Marlin 1.1.x
Typically, you start by grabbing a blank Marlin 1.1.9. The next step is to alter the static settings of the printer to match yours in Configuration.h - best use the settings from what we pulled earlier via M503 as a start. Alternatively, you can search for a configuration of your printer between known configuration files. You should at least need to adjust these:
For communications and filament diameter:
#define BAUDRATE 250000
// Generally expected filament diameter (1.75, 2.85, 3.0, ...). Used for Volumetric, Filament Width Sensor, etc.
#define DEFAULT_NOMINAL_FILAMENT_DIA 3.0
Choose your correct temperature tables, and make sure to turn on the one for the bed if you have one!
#define TEMP_SENSOR_0 1
[...]
#define TEMP_SENSOR_BED 0
Next come two blocks that set the 'this is ok' temperature area, for the hotends and bed respectively (only hotend shown here).
// Extruder temperature must be close to target for this long before M109 returns success
#define TEMP_RESIDENCY_TIME 10 // (seconds)
#define TEMP_HYSTERESIS 3 // (degC) range of +/- temperatures considered "close" to the target one
#define TEMP_WINDOW 1 // (degC) Window around target to start the residency timer x degC early.
The next slot is an important safety feature: Mintemp and Maxtemp. Unless you seriously, positively know your hotend can do more than 275 °C (which means you have an all-metal hotend), DON'T touch the Maxtemp, but you might set Mintemp to 0 °C if you like.
Next come PID-Tuning settings, you only need to work with those if you know what you are doing.
The next step is important also: make positively sure that these two lines are exactly as follows, no stray // in front to comment them out. This is TRP.
#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS // Enable thermal protection for all extruders
#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_BED // Enable thermal protection for the heated bed
If your printer is a CoreXY or similarily uses 2 belts for moving along 2 axis, you look at the Mechanical Settings tab and alter it there, otherwise we skip further to the Endstop Settings. Enable (remove the leading //) the max-endstops if you have them, the rest is usually not necessary on most consumer-grade machines, then go further to the Movement Settings. From our M503 we grab the settings to fill out the following:
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT { 80, 80, 4000, 500 }
#define DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE { 300, 300, 5, 25 }
If you have a probe, you look into Z-Probe Options and follow 0scar's guide here, skip it otherwise until you find the next snippet. Fix that one up to fit your bed and movement area. You might need to set values for the endstop to bed origin distance. These offsets, X_MIN_POS and Y_MIN_POS, need to contain the correct values to center the bed; see "How to center my prints on the build platform? (Re-calibrate homing offset)
".
// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 200
#define Y_BED_SIZE 200
// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS 0 // Value of zero means that the origin of the bed is at the endstop
#define Y_MIN_POS 0 // Value of zero means that the origin of the bed is at the endstop
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS X_BED_SIZE
#define Y_MAX_POS Y_BED_SIZE
#define Z_MAX_POS 200
Next, uncomment (remove the leading //) the following line:
//#define EEPROM_SETTINGS // Enable for M500 and M501 commands
If you want to have a special pause position, uncomment and define it in
//#define NOZZLE_PARK_FEATURE
#if ENABLED(NOZZLE_PARK_FEATURE)
// Specify a park position as { X, Y, Z }
#define NOZZLE_PARK_POINT { (X_MIN_POS + 10), (Y_MAX_POS - 10), 20 }
#define NOZZLE_PARK_XY_FEEDRATE 100 // X and Y axes feedrate in mm/s (also used for delta printers Z axis)
#define NOZZLE_PARK_Z_FEEDRATE 5 // Z axis feedrate in mm/s (not used for delta printers)
#endif
We are on the finishing stretch, just a few things in this file remaining! Select your language with the line:
#define LCD_LANGUAGE en
Turn on the SD-Card slot by uncommenting
//#define SDSUPPORT
The last step we need to alter in the Configuration.h is choosing the correct LCD controller. Uncomment the line corresponding to your printer - you might need to use a generic option.
Marlin 2.x
Again, grab the 2.x marlin, either the blank base or a preconfigured version. For some printer styles (like Delta), you have to take a specialized set. Then we look at our M503output and set our communications Baudrate and our motherboard (or the board it is derived from), then the number of extruders and the filament diameter:
#define BAUDRATE 250000
#ifndef MOTHERBOARD
#define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_RAMPS_14_EFB
#endif
#define EXTRUDERS 1
#define DEFAULT_NOMINAL_FILAMENT_DIA 3.0
Next we go to thermal settings! We need the correct temperature sensor table for hotend and bed, possibly we could lower MINTEMP to 0. Don't touch MAXTEMP unless you know what you're doing and have a full-metal setup and you know your machine can take more.
#define TEMP_SENSOR_0 1
[...]
#define TEMP_SENSOR_BED 0
Our next step is making positively sure that TRP is on. Make sure these lines have no leading //
#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS // Enable thermal protection for all extruders
#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_BED // Enable thermal protection for the heated bed
#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_CHAMBER // Enable thermal protection for the heated chamber
If the printer is a CoreXY or similar, enable the style in the mechanical settings area.
Enable (remove the leading //) the max-endstops if you have them, the rest is usually not necessary on most consumer-grade machines, then go further to the Movement Settings. From our M503 we grab the settings to fill out the following:
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT { 80, 80, 4000, 500 }
#define DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE { 300, 300, 5, 25 }
If you have a probe, you need to set it up - 0scar has a partial guide - and it is all in the Z Probe Options area! Otherwise, go on. We need to go down, and in the middle of the Probe setup, we find the bed settings. Set them up to fit your printer and possibly the offset from the home-switches to the build volume corner.
// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 200
#define Y_BED_SIZE 200
// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS 0
#define Y_MIN_POS 0
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS X_BED_SIZE
#define Y_MAX_POS Y_BED_SIZE
#define Z_MAX_POS 200
Down to Additional Features we go! Let's turn on the EEPROM by uncommenting (removing the //)...
//#define EEPROM_SETTINGS // Persistent storage with M500 and M501
...and think about how you want to set up your preheats or where to have your special park position. But then comes the last part, which we really need to do: Set up the interface. Start by changing the language and turn on the SD-Slot by uncommenting the lower of these lines:
#define LCD_LANGUAGE en
//#define SDSUPPORT
Our last stop on setting up the basics is LCD / Controller Selection. We need to uncomment the right one here. If you don't find yours, use a generic one.
Step 2: Preparing the Board
There are 2 variants here: either you use a bootloader, or you prepare a .hex file for overwriting the whole firmware. In either case, we need to know what board we have, so we can compile with the correct encoding and setup. You might need to install a proper extension!
2.1 - Bootloader
A lot of boards come with a pre-flashed bootloader, which makes installing and revising software very fast. But not all boards have one flashed.
Flashing a bootloader needs you to have an Arduino and some cables or a different ISP or AVR programming tool. Complete instructions can be found here by Greenonline and here by Robert Lo Giacco and jpa.
Or you take your control board to your local maker space and ask someone there to help you flash the bootloader - most maker spaces have at least someone that has an Arduino and can help you!
2.2 - .hex file
In this case, we don't need to do anything in this step. We'll have a different installation process though.
Step 3: Compiling & Installing Firmware
Depending on your choice in the previous Step, you have to follow the corresponding branch here:
3.1 - Bootloader
If you have set your bootloader, now installing firmware is as simple as connecting your computer with the printer using a direct connection and doing a compile & Upload command.
3.2 - .hex file
After preparing your .hex file, you can upload it with one of the variants shown here by Greenonline, Trish or Thomas Weller
Step 4: Finishing touches
Seeding
Directly after installing up our new firmware on the printer, we need to seed our settings. Connect to the printer via any Console or Terminal (see Step 0) and use these commands
M502
M500
PID Tune
Then we run a PID-Tune. For the first extruder we send:
M303 E0 S200 C3
It will run the machine some and return values named Kp, Ki & Kd. These directly correspond with P I & D. Store them into the EEPROM and save with the following:
M301 P##.## I#.## D##.##
M500 |
My heated glass print bed keeps chipping and cracking. How can I prevent this? | I use the glue stick method. I like to take my build plate out and put it in the freezer. The different coefficients of thermal expansion between the glass and plastic usually means that the part just pops off in the freezer. |
3D printing problem: waved walls | I had the same problem with ABS, but printing different test objects I found out that the distance between the wavy structures depends on the cross sectional area of the object. Printing the testcube in 70.1% (1/sqrt(2) times of the original size) takes half the time per layer and the distance between two grooves doubles. I was printing ABS with 0.1 mm layer height and the simple bang-bang heat bed controller. The temperature is clearly wandering for 4° with a period of aproximately 2.5 minutes, which corresponds to the groove distances. After changing to a PID controller for the heated bed the temperature stayed within 0.1°C and the problem was gone. Several hundredths of a millimeter thermal expansion of the heated bed can have substantial impact at 0.1 mm layer height!
You can enable the PID controller for the heated bed in Marlin or Skynet firmware by enabling (removing the //) here:
//#define PIDTEMPBED
and disabling (putting // at the beginning of the line) here:
#define BED_LIMIT_SWITCHING
in Configuration.h. Calibration of the PID controller can then be done with the GCODE Command:
M303 E-1 S90 C8
for 90°C. I had to preheat the heated bed before, otherwise the calibration would run into a timeout. The command will return parameters for the PID algorithm. The values can then be applied by the
M304 P579.01 I100.87 D586.0
GCODE command (here for example values). Everything can then be saved to the EEPROM with
M500
Bang-Bang controller:
PID controller: |
Displayed temperature jumping while printing for a long time | Your temperature is not just bumping up 10 °C. Your hotend is fluctuating in temperature, it drops under and increases over the "set" temperature. The hotend temperature is a result of the amount heat you put into it and how much heat you pull from it (e.g. filament heats up and draws energy from the heater block), apart from a too large printing speed for the heater to follow the energy off-take, this can be the result of one of the following (or combined) issues:
Your print cooling fan position is too high/not low enough, it cools the heater block/nozzle
Your PID settings are not correct
Many hotend designs come with silicone "socks" insulating the heater block and to shield airflow from cooling the heater block. |
Creality v1.1.5 board replacement UP1 Chip | It's an MP1584 chip.
Guys on Reddit helped me out.
link |
Does the Elegoo Mars printer support additional file formats? | It also works with the .photon format of the Photon slicer.
It is only marginally better than ChituBox though. |
Problems with Z-axis: Z-axis raised not enough at the beginning | Here are my problem and my solution. Hope this will help others.
As @R.. suggested, I checked my carriages and as well as z-axis guide wheels(I think it is called guide wheel). And I found that the guide wheels were too tight. I can't rotate them will my fingers. So I used a spanner to adjust the eccentric nuts until the guide wheels can be rotated by two fingers. Do not make the guide wheels too loose, it may cause shaking or other problem.
Since I don't know the exact name of each part. I marked them in the pics. If you know the correct name of the parts, welcome to correct me, I will edit it in my post.
Special thanks to R.. :P
Here are the pics: |
What is wrong with this angle? | Hex infill patterns are normally chosen for strength, as the honeycomb resists force in many directions. However, hex infill patterns are slow to print and the older, simpler fill patterns print faster and provide sufficient support for solid architectural models.
Models with shallow roof angles of less than 45 degrees are challenging to print and often result in "air prints" where unsupported filament cascades into a sorry tangle of sadness. Shallow roofs are challenging because each horizontal filament overlaps very little with the preceding adjacent filament. This is where infill proves critical, since the infill supports these filament bridges as they cross each infill line segment.
Slicing software has only recently introduced the hex fill pattern because the code to print a hex infill is VERY complicated. You can see this in the picture as all those fine lines of retracted filament scattered throughout the hex infill. Earlier, simpler fills such as diagonal lines provide simpler longer paths for the slicer to implement. Bridging works best at speed over many supporting points. Excessive retraction causes the extruder to "stutter", and makes bridging difficult.
It may therefore help to choose a simpler fill pattern for printing this model and reserve hex infill for simpler models requiring utmost strength. |
Printer randomly moves to home during printing, then resumes as normal | The issue was due to a corrupt SD-card, which was occasionally having some garbage read from it. It turns out that Marlin will try interpret a corrupt move command like G0 X1q3.54 and still read as many numbers as it can. In this example, it would be interpreted as G0 X1 rather than (as might have been intended) G0 X103.54.
This explains my symptoms perfectly:
X and Y always moved to (approximately) their home positions, but it was always only one of them (it's quite unlikely that both moves are corrupted).
Z was not affected because Z moves are much rarer in the G-code (only on layer change) and thus it was very unlikely that a Z move would be affected.
E was not affected since a request to move E to near 0 would be prevented by Marlin's long extrusion prevention. |
How do you heat a large glass print bed? | It will be very difficult to heat such a large bed, simply because of the enormous power required. Thomas Sanladerer recommends at least 0.6 W/cm² but notes 0.4 W/cm² also works (but takes "forever" to reach the target temperature).
For a 30"x30" bed, 0.6 W/cm² would come out to 3.5 kW. At 110 V that would require 32 A and at 220 V, 16 A. These are extremely large currents, perhaps more than you can draw from a single circuit: both in the EU and US sockets tend to be fused at around 15-20 A (the standard EU Schuko plug itself is only rated for 16 A).
You will be forced to go with a lower amperage, for 0.5 W/cm² you "only" need 27 A@110 V or 14 A@220 V. 0.4 W/cm² is 21 A and 11 A respectively
As such, if you are in the US, then it will be impossible to heat such a bed from a standard wall outlet. In the EU it might just about be possible, but make sure that the wiring in your house is in good state and capable to carry the current required (and note that running electrical equipment at its maximum rating for an extended period of time is never a good idea).
If you are in the US, you should definitely look into getting 3-phase power installed. If you are in the EU, you might also consider this as an option. It is able to deliver more power, but you'd need a special type of heater.
There are some suppliers that make custom silicone heater mats. If you can get one in this size that would be a good option, though it would be considerably more expensive than your \$5 piece of glass.
In any case you should not attempt a DIY solution because this is extremely dangerous. The currents you are dealing with should not be underestimated. People have already set their printers on fire due to using high currents at 12/24 V; you do not want to make a similar mistake using even higher currents at 110 V. |
Methylated spirits or turpentine to clean resin printer? | I would personally stick to isopropanol. Be aware that 3D printing is a very expensive hobby, but health wise this is a better option. Methylated spirits can quickly become dangerous, and often can burn with a close to invisible flame, meaning that you may not even see if it is burning. Also, the fumes can quickly become dangerous, whereas after years of dealing with isopropanol I have noticed no ill effects. Cost should not be your primary concern, health of you and your printer should be. |
How to create supports for the parts hanging above 45 degrees? | PrusaSlicer has support enforcers you can place on areas that need support.
See this video: Prusa Slicer Support Enforcers.
Automatic supports
There are automatic supports, in the Supports dropdown menu, select Everywhere:
Click Yes in the resulting dialog:
Click on the Slice icon in the bottom left:
You will end up with a lot of supports:
However, this method generally results in too much support...
Custom Suport Enforcers
So turn off Supports in the drop down menu, select None:
Now, in the Print Settings tab, under Support Material, disable Auto Generated Supports and enable Generate Support Material:
Then right click on the model and select Box from the Add Support Enforcer menu item:
You can move by clicking the Move button in the left hand palette,
resize by clicking the Resize button
and re-shape the Box as necessary, to support the difficult overhanging parts parts only. Here we can see three boxes have been added - pale blue for the previously added boxes and green for the current box:
And a fourth final Box for the tail:
Now, when you hit the Slice button, there will be much less support structure than when using Automatic supports:
Parts of the model that the slicer thinks still needs support will be highlighted in dark blue (such as the elbow and back of the head):
Add a cylinder support enforcer:
Resize and re-shape as before and move into position below the elbow:
Adding a second cylinder as a support enforcer
Upon hitting Slice:
Now in Print Settings - Support Material - Pattern change it from Rectilinear to Rectilinear Grid:
For prints with curves and details Rectilinear Grid works better, than Rectilinear (which is fine for supporting a plain cube in the air). It is easier to break the support off the print.
Now save your hard work as an AMF file:
This file maintains all of the support enforcers so that they can be modified if the actual print needs some adjustments - without having to re-add all of the support enforcers all over again. |
BiLinear bed leveling | Proper leveling using plain "A4" or "Letter" paper is recommended. Level the bed by first homing all axes, then level each corner and at mid-span. In between leveling (by dragging the nozzle head from one to another position, beware of the hot nozzle!) redirect the nozzle to "Z=0" or home Z and instruct the printer to go to "Z=0".
Note that capacitive probe sensors are inaccurate, they tend to be influenced by the humidity of air.
Running Marlin Firmware and instructing a G29 trough a terminal gives me something in the region of the unity matrix:
Recv: Bed Level Correction Matrix:
Recv: +0.999994 +0.000000 -0.003585
Recv: +0.000003 +1.000000 +0.000823
Recv: +0.003585 -0.000823 +0.999993
Running the command G29 P3 V4 gives:
NOTE:
P Set the size of the grid that will be probed (P x P points)
V Set the verbose level (0-4)
Recv: G29 Auto Bed Leveling
Recv: Bed X: 25.000 Y: 22.000 Z: 0.138
Recv: Bed X: 109.000 Y: 22.000 Z: 0.071
Recv: Bed X: 193.000 Y: 22.000 Z: -0.842
Recv: Bed X: 193.000 Y: 97.000 Z: -0.427
Recv: Bed X: 109.000 Y: 97.000 Z: 0.083
Recv: Bed X: 25.000 Y: 97.000 Z: 0.086
Recv: Bed X: 25.000 Y: 172.000 Z: 0.004
Recv: Bed X: 109.000 Y: 172.000 Z: 0.019
Recv: Bed X: 193.000 Y: 172.000 Z: -0.297
Recv: Eqn coefficients: a: -0.00356075 b: 0.00080090 d: 2.38097906
Recv: Mean of sampled points: 2.07054519
Recv:
Recv: Bed Height Topography:
Recv: +--- BACK --+
Recv: | |
Recv: L | (+) | R
Recv: E | | I
Recv: F | (-) N (+) | G
Recv: T | | H
Recv: | (-) | T
Recv: | |
Recv: O-- FRONT --+
Recv: (0,0)
Recv: 0.13385 0.14866 -0.16731
Recv: 0.21531 0.21284 -0.29814
Recv: 0.26715 0.20050 -0.71286
Recv:
Recv: Corrected Bed Height vs. Bed Topology:
Recv: 0.12837 0.44228 0.42541
Recv: 0.26990 0.56653 0.35465
Recv: 0.38180 0.61425 0.00000
Recv:
Recv: Bed Level Correction Matrix:
Recv: +0.999994 +0.000000 -0.003561
Recv: +0.000003 +1.000000 +0.000801
Recv: +0.003561 -0.000801 +0.999993
Running the command G29 P3 V4 again, but now with my vernier on the bed (opposite to the side of the origin, on the right side of the bed; vernier under probing points 3 and 4), gives:
Recv: G29 Auto Bed Leveling
Recv: Bed X: 25.000 Y: 22.000 Z: -0.003
Recv: Bed X: 109.000 Y: 22.000 Z: -0.050
Recv: Bed X: 193.000 Y: 22.000 Z: **5.709**
Recv: Bed X: 193.000 Y: 97.000 Z: **5.892**
Recv: Bed X: 109.000 Y: 97.000 Z: 0.007
Recv: Bed X: 25.000 Y: 97.000 Z: 0.039
Recv: Bed X: 25.000 Y: 172.000 Z: -0.023
Recv: Bed X: 109.000 Y: 172.000 Z: 0.017
Recv: Bed X: 193.000 Y: 172.000 Z: -0.329
Recv: Eqn coefficients: a: 0.02233918 b: -0.01331358 d: 2.30744504
Recv: Mean of sampled points: 3.45099973
Recv:
Recv: Bed Height Topography:
Recv: +--- BACK --+
Recv: | |
Recv: L | (+) | R
Recv: E | | I
Recv: F | (-) N (+) | G
Recv: T | | H
Recv: | (-) | T
Recv: | |
Recv: O-- FRONT --+
Recv: (0,0)
Recv: -1.27376 -1.23426 -1.57986
Recv: -1.21205 -1.24414 4.64083
Recv: -1.25401 -1.30091 4.45816
Recv:
Recv: Corrected Bed Height vs. Bed Topology:
Recv: 4.05814 2.22162 0.00000
Recv: 3.12192 1.21381 5.22275
Recv: 2.08203 0.15910 4.04215
Recv:
Recv: Bed Level Correction Matrix:
Recv: +0.999750 +0.000000 +0.022334
Recv: +0.000297 +0.999911 -0.013306
Recv: -0.022332 +0.013309 +0.999662
From the snippets you can see that the topology is printed in the output. You also see the vernier of about 4.5 mm comming back in the matrices. But the 4.5 mm thickness of the vernier is not easily found in the correction matrix!
The answer to your question is that the origin is in the lower left of the matrix, so you need to loosen the origin screw in the first example (this matrix shows you that the bed is highest at the right-back and lowest at the origin at the left-front). Your second example shows that the whole bed is tilted downwards to the front. |
Help to reconcile nozzle diameter, deposited line width, and wall thickness in Cura | So, I think I may have found a satisfactory answer. Cura 3.6 includes separate parameters for line width and shell count:
This seems to decouple the line width from the specified nozzle size and target what I believe is a more optimal width (~110% the nozzle diameter). It was the other version of Cura that was driving a lot of confusion with the line width being defined by the nozzle size. This also removes the weirdness of not being able slice lines equal to the line width.
Thanks to all who responded. |
Using heat-set inserts with SLA printed part | The plastic used in SLA printing is what is known as a thermoset plastic, as opposed to the thermoplastic plastics used in FDM printing. What this means, is that it can not be melted. The reaction that hardens SLA materials is irreversible. If you heat up the plastic it won't melt, it will just burn (if it gets hot enough). What you're planning is a bad idea, and it won't work. |
How to decrease sensitivity to heat-bed temperature? | I had a similar issue when printing with ABS, because my print cooling fan only activated once it got to a certain height above the bed. I'd say you need to do a PID tuning session, insulate the bottom of the bed better, and see if you can make sure your cooling fan doesn't blow air over the bed itself. |
How Do Tool Path Algorithms Decide Which Direction to Print a Closed-Loop Polygon | While this answer makes a valid attempt at answering the question, it is based on personal experience.
I went to the literature and directly to the source code in Cura to find the answer. In the academic article "Identifying the Directions of a Set of 2D Contours for Additive Manufacturing Process Planning", Volpato et al. describe several methods for identifying the arbitrary directions of each contour in each layer, and additionally identifying which contours were "internal" and which were "external". I quote from the paper:
The information regarding contour
direction, which is either clockwise (CW — internal) or
counterclockwise (CCW — external), is needed for path
planning for material processing.
They go on to explain the importance of identifying which contours are external, and which are internal, such that the path planning algorithm can later determine where infill should be placed. Infill is placed internal to any external contours, and external to any internal contours.
When the normal vectors in STL models
are assumed to be correct, a simple way to identify whether
a 2D contour is CW or CCW is to analyze the vector (cross)
product between a normal vector and a vector obtained from
two vertices of the facet.
This assumes the slicer has already determined intersection points between slicing planes and the STL file, and has sorted those intersection points into closed-contours. This initial intersection point gathering and contour construction leads to an arbitrary directionality:
As any line segment of a contour can be the first in the
sequence when the segments are connected, its orientation
will dictate the direction of the contour. Hence, the 2D contours
formed are classified randomly, and an external contour, for
example, might be assigned a CW or CCW direction. Therefore, this step is unable to correctly identify the directions of the contours generated.
The ray-tracing method, which is actually based on the
point-in-polygon test, determines which contours are
contained by others, and the orientation of each contour is
then alternated between CCW and CW, the outermost contours being oriented CCW.
So, the default directionality of a closed contour generated by a slicing program for FDM additive manufacturing turns out to be CCW based on cross products described above (and based on additional methods outlined in the paper). Of course the standard directionality of a PRINTED contour does not HAVE to be this way, it appears to be a standard adopted by the AM community. However, when a model produces contours inside of contours, the arbitrary directionality of those contours is determined, and then alternated from outside to inside, starting with CCW.
As confirmation, according to a simple comment in the CURA source code:
/*!
* Outer polygons should be counter-clockwise,
* inner hole polygons should be clockwise.
* (When negative X is to the left and negative Y is downward.)
*/ |
Anet E10 - Print above 270 °C or "maxtemp" error | Your firmware has set a limit of 270 °C, normally, (default Marlin configured value) this is 275 °C. It appears that the Anet E10 developers have edited the value if you cannot exceed the 270 °C setpoint.
The configuration file for Marlin firmware has the following maximum temperature limit set for the first hotend:
#define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 275
You can change this yourself, but, you need to flash new firmware, making sure that you're using all the correct settings for this printer model.
As a general remark (for others reading this), you shouldn't simply increase the temperature without changing the hotend (unless it is capable of high temperature printing), if the default hotend is lined with a PTFE tube, the PTFE can form dangerous/toxic gasses at elevated temperatures above 270 °C. But, in your case, an all-metal Micro Swiss hotend is installed that doesn't have the PTFE liner.
Note that the Anet E10 configuration can be found in the Marlin configurations zip file. For the 2.0.7.2 version, the E10 already has the hotend temperature limit increased to 305 °C. |
Is it possible to get higher resolutions by using high resolution encoders and custom firmware? | The mistake in your reasoning is assuming no microstepping. Most 3D printers use 16 microsteps, and in my experience with both cheap A4988 drivers and nice TMC2209 drivers, microstepping is quite accurate. As part of an answer to a question I asked, you can see a test print showing single-microstep features. My motors have 1.8° step angle, yielding 3200 steps per rotation at 16 microsteps, or 12.5 microns of linear movement per microstep. With 0.9° step angle you could get it down to half that, and you could probably halve it again going to 32 microsteps.
Even if you can't get it as good as your 4 microns with stepper motors though, at 12.5 micron positioning resolution you're already to the point where extrusion error is going to play a much bigger role in dimensional accuracy than toolhead positioning error does. Going past that with FDM requires high resolution extruder axis movement, closed-loop control with a precise filament diameter sensor, direct drive with minimal distance between the extruder gear and nozzle, etc. |
Does acid dissolve PETG 3D prints? | According to kmac-plastics, PETG is stable at temperatures below 50°C specifically for citric acid (also acetic acid) and others on the linked list. It is also safe with diesel oil and many alcohols. The list is illuminating with respect to the variation of tested compounds. |
Error "TMC2208 or TMC2209 on Z2 requires Z2_HARDWARE_SERIAL or Z2_SERIAL_(RX|TX)_PIN | Your question is missing important information, but I can try to figure out something. You didn't say what kind of firmware it is. I assume it is Marlin.
Your problem is that there are no Tx Rx pins specified for Z2 (because there is X, Y, Z, E0, E1 by default on the MKS Gen L board)
I assume you want to use the E1 driver for the Z2 instead of a second extruder. In that case, you have to tell the firmware that you want to use that driver for Z2.
Search the source code for file "pins_MKS_GEN_L_V21.h"
There should be E1_SERIAL_TX_PIN and E1_SERIAL_RX_PIN defined.
Rename them to Z2_SERIAL_TX_PIN and Z2_SERIAL_RX_PIN.
In "pins_RAMPS.h" file, find a block of a few lines that starts "E1_STEP_PIN", and rename E1 to Z2 for all those lines.
It may (or may not) work now. If it doesn't, please somehow post those configuration files. |
Easiest way to build a horizontal hotend mount at home, without printing | You could cut a v-notch groove in a piece of plywood to hold one side of the groovemount neck, and then use a bolt through another piece of wood to push the neck into the V-notch.
There are lots of options when building RepStraps and JunkStraps. Really depends on what sort of hardware and fabrication capabilities you have on hand. |
What is cause of blob when layer area reduces by 50%? | Try lowering your extruder flow rate and maybe temperature as well.
I had this problem once and I thought it was just a bit of gunk that had been hanging onto the outside of the extruder. That is usually not the case and instead it is probably build-up from over-pressure inside the nozzle.
Also note that 250 °C will start degrading your PTFE tube unless you have an all-metal extruder. Lowering temperature can also reduce the stringing visible in the picture, however to fully, get rid of stringing, you may have to adjust your retraction and acceleration. |
Probe instead of nozzle centres on the bed | TL;DR You don't need to fix it, it is by design.
When using a probe, defined the correct probe X (xxx) and Y (yyy) offsets (#define NOZZLE_TO_PROBE_OFFSET { xxx, yyy, 0 }) and having enabled #define Z_SAFE_HOMING will cause the probe to home in the middle. That is how it is supposed to work!
If the nozzle would be in the center, then you wouldn't probe the middle of the bed, but the offset from the nozzle. |
Arduino 3D printer sketch | [For now] most of the open source 3d printer firmware written for Arduino-based hardware. This means you can just download the source and look through the relevant pieces of code.
Marlin is the most obvious example. |
What special considerations must be taken when designing parts for 3D printing? | Designing a part for 3D printing often doesn't seem to have many special considerations, but I have learned the hard way, that there are some things to do differently. This is just a list of things to that one should keep in mind in addition to basic principles of design1 when designing parts, keeping the subsequently slicing the parts in mind too:
Print orientation
There are many ways how you could orient your print, but usually, there is one orientation, that has the least need for support. Look at your part critically and keep this orientation in mind when designing. Especially look at overhangs and bridging, and if you can get away without.
Overhangs
There are 3 sorts of overhangs:
Small overhangs ones that are neglectable.
Long overhangs which can get support.
Overhangs that can't be supported.
When designing parts, you want to make sure you only have type 1 and 2 Overhangs, as type 3 overhangs will sag and fail. Think carefully if you can rotate the piece to get a print orientation that does not need an overhang that can't be supported by an automatically generated support structure. If that is impossible, try to implement a sacrificial piece that can turn the overhang into a bridge.
Smaller overhangs can be made neglectable by adding a phase to the underside. This phase's angle is depending on the printer. In my experience, 70° is something many printers can manage, but I prefer 45° due to the ease of making them. A fuller can work to give a small overhang the needed support, but often has problems for larger overhangs!
Bridges
Overhangs turn into bridges if they are connected on both sides. These either have a limited length, depending on the printer you use or need a support in the center. Check if you really need a bridge or if you can rotate the piece to get away without.
Avoid vertical holes in bridges
It might be something that might surprise but a vertical hole or slot in a bridging part is something that often fails as the bridging strings just sag as they are terminated mid-air without a support structure and finally fall, ruining the bridge. Yet such a support structure sometimes could not be removed in all cases, so something needs to be done differently.
One such a solution is to add a 1-layer sacrificial layer on the bottom of the hole: printing a solid layer by bridging is possible, and the subsequent hole/slot can still be free. It has to be cut free after printing in post-processing though.
round holes in Walls
Round holes in standing walls can become problematic to print once the diameter gets too large. A trick to keep the upper parts of the hole to sag into the cavity, making it undersized or needing to drill it to size later. To prevent this, the upper side of the hole can be adjusted: instead of a round upper rim, turn the hole into a teardrop. This reduces the overhanging area. Keeping a 60° top angle on the hole should be fine.
If the hole is used to key an item to an axle, put the keyway to the top of the print orientation, so it takes the place of the teardrop-tip.
Some more about holes one can learn from Makers Muse (Angus Daveson)
Reduce internal structure
I have seen prints fail for strange reasons. One of them was a piece taken from a straight up industrial design plan, then scaled down. This one resulted in too much tiny internal geometry, resulting in a lot of material and time wasted on printing these internal pieces that nobody could reach, that were fused together for the original gaps were already 0.2mm and less and besides that, there was the occasional print failure.
Removing any non-essential internal geometry lessens not only the printer's load, but speeds up the print, lessens the material waste and can prevent failures due to clogs or other unexpected behavior. If you can't fix it in design, there are workarounds, but try to need to avoid them!
Avoid Intersecting Shells
As we are at it, often game and graphic designers are lazy and use intersecting shells. These can become quite messy in the slicing step. If possible, try to avoid intersecting shells, even as modern slicers have learned to fix this by themselves by now. The results of that are not always pretty if you forget to flag the "Union intersecting shells" option in your slicer.
Sizing
We might not always be aware of it, but prints do shrink in the XY axis and to a different degree in the Z axis as they cool, during and after the print is done. This is what causes warping in the first place and lead to many lost prints (especially on non-heated beds). This behavior has to be taken into consideration especially when designing bores. My suggestion for this is twofold:
Intentionally design the hole to be too small and add extra wall material in slicing, then drill it up to the right diameter. Drill slowly to not melt the plastic.
Learn your shrinking parameter for the material and design with that shrinkage in mind, possibly iterating the print a few times. Note that different spools/colors of the same material might have different shrinking!
Minimum Wall Thickness
A 3D-printer can not reliably print walls that are thinner than the extrusion width of a printer. The choice of the correct nozzle for an extrusion width is a question upon itself..
Tapping/Screwing/Inserts
For tapping prints directly, you need wall thickness - according to the norms - you'll need usually about 0.2mm diameter that can be tapped into for the standard sizes. Using 3 perimeters with a 0.45 mm extrusion width will give walls of 1.2 mm, which I consider a rather strong wall, and provides quite some tolerance to drill up to size and then tapping screws into. You will get away with 2 perimeters for smaller thread sizes (M3 and lower), but for large ones (M10+), you will want a fourth or even fifth perimeter.
Remember though, that the printed PLA is not good for very strong threading: Tapping prints directly is pretty much only for low- and non-load-bearing connections. If you combine several pieces with screws, try to design the parts to make some sort of compression fit using a bolt and nut, or use several, small diameter screws with a fine thread. Avoid coarse thread if you can, stay on the small side.
If you need a load bearing connection with screws, the best strength comes from using a metal insert or provide a space for a nut to fit into. Metal inserts are usually placed by heat-setting them: put the heat-set insert onto a soldering iron tip and push it into the slightly under-sized hole, melting and molding the print to fit the insert, providing strong threads that are held really good in the shell of remolded plastic.
As a compromise, modern slicers allow to use modifier meshes, that could be used to increase the strength of modeled threads or holes that need to be tapped.
Do you want to know more? CNC Kitchen (Stefan) had made some tests on the strength of these connection type.
Print strength
Keep these general rules in mind when designing load-bearing parts:
Generally speaking, FDM prints are strongest in carrying along their Z-axis when withstanding compressive forces, as then the print layers of the shell are forced against each other. It also excels at fighting bending forces this way. But this orientation is also giving us the lowest tensile strength, as each layer boundary is a possible breaking point.
The XY-plane usually excels in tensile strength but sacrifices some of its ability to withstand compression (it is not proportional though).
Printing a part at a 45° angle will give often a great compromise of strengths, but might need an additional surface to get a good first layer - this surface can be sacrificial with the use of support.
For deeper information on the strength of parts and materials in comparison and how to manipulate it, there are large playlists of tests made by CNC Kitchen (Stefan) and Thomas Sanladerer (Tom)
Post processing
Post processing can be your best friend when printing, just as it can be your worst nightmare. I won't detail all methods of postprocessing, but some that are quite applicable.
Assembly/Gluing
Remember to design your parts with gaps for the glue when designing parts for assembly, and you might want to include guidance notches/noses to make sure the assembly aligns. This is especially needed as the parts shrink a little and have a rough surface.
If you need to assemble your part due to the available print volume, be sure to include ways to key the parts together. Pegs or outcroppings/indents (often called keys) that match up to one another make alignment on assembly much easier. It can be a good idea to design yourself a "cookie cutter" file that is applied after designing the part that automatically includes the glue gaps and keys.
There are a lot of glues and other methods to merge the parts. A more in-depth look at some of them is What glues for PLA? but you will have to keep in mind how you want to combine your pieces in the design step - and account for it.
Print in Place/PIP
In this vein, learn the tolerances your printer can manage to allow print-in-place(PIP), allowing functional parts that require no assembly. PIP is something that isn't possible with subtractive manufacturing usually, but remember that in 3D printing you might need to break the parts free after printing from bridges or sagging. Usually, a single strong turn suffices. To be able to do this, you might want to include a position for an Allen-key to manually turn the parts.
To learn how fine your tolerances are, there are many tolerance gauges/tests around. A rule of thumb for many printers is, that 1 nozzle width is often easily achievable with a good setup, 0.5 nozzles are achievable with some effort and 0.25 is somewhere close to the 'holy grail' - you might want to change the nozzle to a smaller one in case you want to have very thin gaps.
Composite construction
There are ways to turn your (mostly) hollow prints into much stiffer versions of themselves by turning them into composites, for example by using a resin or a different hardening fluid (like foam or plaster) as a filler or coating material.
When planning to do so, remember to include inlets/outlets for it and the air. It can be a good idea to design the part in such a way that it just contains the walls and a pre-planned support structure. In doing so, remember to disable infill in the slicer to enforce the flow you want in your structure. Look at how the ribs inside of an airframe are designed for general rules on hollow parts: include holes. This allows the flow of your fluid into each and every corner instead of blocking the flow. This can also reduce the needed number of inlets and outlets from one per chamber to one per part.
Plastic Properties
Remember we work with thermoplastics. Learn what kind of postprocessing your thermoplastic allows and its mechanical properties. Some examples:
APS can be vapor smoothed with acetone.
Many plastics can be annealed by baking at or little above their glass transition temperature, increasing strength and layer-to-layer bonding.
When using power tools on plastic, use ample cooling and time, as otherwise, one quickly melts the prints!
Surface Finish
The surface of FDM prints is somewhat rough. To smooth it out there are 2 general ways: fill it up or smooth it down. If you want to fill it up, design the part undersized, if you smooth it down, add sacrificial thickness. It is common to combine both, adding body filler first, then sanding down till the print material shows through again. If doing this, make sure to check your sizing.
If there comes a lacquer layer atop, remember to account for that thickness: undersize surfaces, oversize holes!
1 - this means, that thoughts about postprocessing that are not unique to 3D printing are not elaborated on here. Examples are painting, coating or smoothing the surface mechanically.
Further reading/viewing
Further information can be gotten from these playlists, though they aim at times for newbies:
CNC Kitchen (Stefan): 3D Printing for Engineers Playlist
CNC Kitchen (Stefan): 3D Printing Tips
Maker's Muse (Angus): 3D Printint 101
Maker's Muse (Angus): Advanced 3D Printing Tips
Maker's Muse (Angus): CAD for Newbies
Maker's Muse (Angus): CAD for 3D Printing |
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