Author Topic: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!  (Read 9083 times)

fritshgl

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 14
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #15 on: December 24, 2014, 04:57:43 am »
Hello Dan,
I made a first test run. (See YouTube link below).
What you see:
Grid for the inlet of the Extruder and cooling fans removed (less noise)
Switches for the cooling fans.
Power supplies 19 volt (electronics) and 12 volt for the cooling fans.
Big holes in the housing for cooling air outlet and adjusting the stepper motors current.
With this low printing speed the printer is very quiet. The temperature of the steppers is quite low so think I don’t need cooling fans for the steppers.
What I would like to know is the nozzle diameter of the hot end, do you know that?
YouTube Link:


Frits

Dan

  • Administrator
  • Jr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #16 on: December 29, 2014, 06:11:20 am »
***giggling like a school girl****  So sweet.  Nicely done.  Yours looks a lot more original than mine.    Any chance you could post more detail on the electronics and the power supply issue - perhaps how exactly you resolved it?

Dan

  • Administrator
  • Jr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #17 on: December 29, 2014, 06:12:54 am »
SOOOOO Quiet!!! Sweeeet!

Dan

  • Administrator
  • Jr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #18 on: December 29, 2014, 06:20:39 am »
BTW.. Id be interested to see how big prints go on that baby.  With mine, small prints were perfect, but when I started doing bigger ones, after about 3 hrs, the steppers began to skip so I had to increase the amps and therefore noise (although still heaps better than the out-of-the-box cube). I also ended up replacing the extruder stepper all together with a stronger one as no matter how much amps I fed the tiny one it came with, it would get too hot after an hour or so (I am using a bowden extruder though).  Having seen the Microtronics hardware though, I notice from the chips they've got the newer drivers on board, delivering more amps to the steppers than the 4988's im using could deliver. 

dan

Dan

  • Administrator
  • Jr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #19 on: December 29, 2014, 06:23:39 am »
Hello Dan,

Switching 24 volt to the extruder with a relay was not a good idea. A lot of noise from de relay.
So I followed your suggestion end discovered that the minitronics can also run with up to 24 volt.
Now I am running the electronics with 19 volt, and a separate 12 volt supply for the cooling fans.
The heating up of the extruder is now really fast. So a very good suggestion from you. Thanks again.

Frits

Did you keep those voltage regs on the existing fans in place?  I'd have thought they'd have worked with 19v input no probs????  Did you try it?

fritshgl

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 14
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #20 on: December 30, 2014, 02:00:00 pm »
Hello Dan,

With regard to your questions.
The electronics I used is minitronics (for info see reprapworld.com)
The mintronics is supplied with a 12 volt cooling fan for cooling the print. So I made a hole in the bottom and mounted the fan below the print. For a better air supply to the bottom i made higher/longer  legs for the cube.
The power supply of the minitonics can be up to 24 volt (if the correct jumper is removed.). If the power supply of the mintornics is 19 volt ( I my case, I had a 19 volt power supply from an old printer) than the power to the hotend is also 19 volt. This is sufficient to heat up the hot end.
The power output of the minitronics for the cooling fans is also 19 volt.  So I use a second 12 volt power supply  for the existing fans and the one that came with the minitronics. I did not test the exiting fans with 19 volt (fear of burning them).
I did put 2 thermocouples on the extruder stepper motor during a 2 hour print. After one hour the surface temperature of this stepper is  stable at +/- 40 C. The other stepper motors are lower than 40 C (estimated by touching with my fingers).
During my first runs the steppers became quite hot so I reduced  the Vref with the 4 pots on the print.
A the  moment I am running with Cura 14.09.  Layer height 0.2 mm. I did not test any other heights. The prints look very good (better than my home made Alu mendel http://www.thingiverse.com/make:72807)
With Cura I start with gcode  M84 S0, to prevent the bed falling down. Than home all axis, especially the z axis 3 times. Then I start the print.  In the end gcode I removed M84, also to prevent the bed falling down.
I you have any other questions please let me know.

Kind regards,
Frits




Dan

  • Administrator
  • Jr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #21 on: January 03, 2015, 01:53:18 am »
Great tips there. - THanks for sharing.  For me I just hacked open the area which used to hold the digital display and strapped a fan going right over the electronics.  I also drilled a few more holes in the case to allow for access to the trim pots for adjusting stepper power.  All steppers have a salvaged fan from the cube cable tied to them.  Just a large one around the girth of each motor as an anchor, then some small ones connecting the fan to the girth anchor ties.  All steppers feel luke warm when running.  Without them, they got too hot, even running at low amps.  Again im running a 12v system. 

So you didnt end up re-using the 24v power supply form the Cube?

Your prints are looking so sweet.  Congrats on a great build.   

fritshgl

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 14
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #22 on: January 06, 2015, 02:02:54 pm »
Hello Dan,

Yes it is true that I do not use the original cube power supply.  Because with 24 volt the hot end did heat up very quickly.  With 19 volt this goes more smooth.  So a matter of (may be stupid) feeling.
Below a video of printing with 0.25 mm layer and print speed 35 mm/s.  If I print much faster the extruder is skipping steps.
With regard to printing with non cube filament I have read in this forum that the diameter of the cube filament is about 1.6 mm. I measure 1.7.  I did  not try yet but I am surprised that with filament of 1.75 people get problems with the extruder.  What is your opinion about that.

Frits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB7T0G71Jms&feature=youtu.be

Dan

  • Administrator
  • Jr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #23 on: January 09, 2015, 06:39:35 am »
Yeah extruder stepper is tiny on the Cube 2.  Very easy to retro fit a larger one.  May have to remove that nice cover from your hotend to fit it though.   One thing I that got mentioned by a friend of mine was the potential for filament temperature to be reduced with printing speed.  May be worth trying to increase the temperature of hotend as print speed increases.  Working on a high speed delta printer right now. Trouble is bottom layer needs low speed, which will overheat the PLA making it crackle and pop.  Anyone know of a slicer which can slice at varying temperatures?
Im only aware of a manual way of doing this by splitting 2 of the same files, sliced with different temperature settings. 

fritshgl

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 14
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #24 on: January 09, 2015, 09:08:24 am »
Hello Dan,
Printing at different temperatures can be done very good with cura (plugin  Tweak).
An other advantage of cura is that you can use settings of different machines.
It can also be done with Simplify3D (100 euro's).

Frits

Dan

  • Administrator
  • Jr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #25 on: January 22, 2015, 08:02:17 am »
Hmm never used cura, but will give it a go on my new "Elevator" - a 2m tall, twin struder delta giant.  Something tells me im going to need to figure out how to make my own filament if im to print life size models of my children.  ;D

ssstraub

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 31
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #26 on: March 18, 2015, 10:19:40 am »
Dan,
I'm curious if you are still using your modified 2nd gen Cube? Do you have any time to post your latest thoughts and recommended parts/software for those that might want to attempt this same thing?

Dan

  • Administrator
  • Jr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #27 on: March 23, 2015, 06:01:07 am »
Yes, still using it.  I use it for smaller parts now and have used it primarily to create the parts necessary for my "Elevator" (own design) 2 meter Delta Printer.  In terms of the hardware, nothing has changed since my original post.  Its reliable, lightning fast, uses whatever nozzle I screw into it and makes far less noise than the Cube.  Im here to help if you have any specific questions about the setup. 

Dan

ssstraub

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 31
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #28 on: March 23, 2015, 08:24:50 am »
Ok good to know.

I'm thinking about this but keep coming back to how even after all that effort and expense I'd still be missing a heated print plate. Might eventually just build a new printer instead.  ??? We shall see...

Dan

  • Administrator
  • Jr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« Reply #29 on: March 24, 2015, 03:52:11 am »
Heated plate is easily possible with the marlin firmware and arduino. Just plug the heated plate in.  Firmware is already setup to use it.  If printing with pla only, I'm not sure you'll ever need it.