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Messages - Dan

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31
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« 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

32
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« on: December 29, 2014, 06:12:54 am »
SOOOOO Quiet!!! Sweeeet!

33
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« 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?

34
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: Trouble completting prints with my Cube 2
« on: December 29, 2014, 06:09:21 am »
Firstly Lbeach, welcome and congrats on buying your husband possibly the coolest thing he'll ever get for Christmas. 

In response to your question, you'll need to be more specific.  By "Messed up" exactly what do you mean?  Is the extruder not pushing enough filament through? Or is it offsetting the "messed up" layers so they're not inline with the rest of the print?

My feeling is that it's likely "skipping steps" on the extruder side of things.  ie, not enough filament is coming through on certain layers.  There's a number of things which could cause this, but I suspect its temperature related as it seems to be with many others here.  THere is no fix for this (if that's the case) other than to try different brands of PLA.  Some melt at around 210 C, others much lowe at 180. Another possibility is to use a chip from an ABS cartridge with after market PLA being fed instead of ABS.  THe chip definitely controls the temperature so changing chip types may help.  Other possible issues could be to do with the alignment of the filament at the point it moves between the extruder toothed gear and the opposing pulley; if it's not going through straight, that can also cause issues. 

I hate to say it, but im somewhat cynical about the stock firmware these units have loaded and the complete lack of ability to control calibration settings like temperature and speed.  That's why I "frankencubed" my unit.  I found that stock firmware was great for some things, and terrible for other things.  Often the solution was merely being able to control temperature or print speed.  Unfortunately, unless you want to screw with your unit further or modify the files you are printing with (just check out some other posts here for detail on both), you're out of luck. 

Best of.
Dan

35
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« on: December 22, 2014, 03:53:41 am »
the chip should fall out of the filament spool case when the case is unclipped.  You should find clips all along the perimeter of the casing, just stick a screw driver in there.   I really hope you're not dissecting the chip itself.

36
Just an idea.  I did notice the cube software writes multiple files then deletes them just after it creates the .cube file.  Not tried but perhaps if you could change the permissions of the folder cube software writes to, you could prevent it from deleting its "working" files.  Perhaps they could be modified???  Open the folder containing the to-be-saved .cube file and watch the files cube software uses then deletes as it does it's thing.   

37
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« on: December 21, 2014, 07:26:57 am »
Hmmm.  way too cold.  170 is the quoted extrusion temp of most PLAs I have used.  Perhaps my current 100K epcos thermister is out, but If I try to extrude at 170 degrees with the new setup, the extruder skips steps and also slips on the filament, eventually the extruder becomes blocked.  If your extruder is hot enough AND the extuder is ROUGHLY aligned right (it doesnt need to be perfect), it should have no problem pushing through filament.  To measure, I just taped (using kapton) my thermocouple to the brass part of the hotendand ran it through a filament load process.  Mine got to roughly 210 degrees before it started pulling through filament. 

I wish I took some pictures of this before I tore apart the existing setup.  Sorry about that.  Regardless my factory setup worked fine with ANY **** filament I would use.  But the temp of mine measured 210 with PLA.  Knowing 3D printers and their components, I wouldnt be suprised if your printer runs cooler than mine.  If I take 3 thermisters and 3 heater cartridges - all of the same type, there is definitely considerable variation between them if used in the same setup.   These electronics are not accurate unless they have been calibrated.  Perhaps yours wasn't before it left the factory.

Saying all this, PLA melts and extrudes OK at 170 - just not as nearly as well as PLA at 210. In my experience.

I believe temperature settings are stored in the .cube file anyway.  Looking at some of the recent posts, it appears you may be able to compensate for your particular setup by increasing the temp in your sliced files.   

38
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« on: December 21, 2014, 06:59:27 am »
You are the man Dan!!! Got this thing working after only a couple hours of adjusting and cleaning out the head. I am using matterhacker black PLA and it seems to be very much compared to the cube filament. I would like to add a switch like yours but can you give a little more detail on how to do it?

Here is a picture of my setup. Thanks Dan!!!!

A really crap picture of how it's done. nothing special here, just a basic switch.  (Note I used a momentary push button on mine- it doesnt matter what you use as long as you remember to release the switch after the firmware has checked the cartridge.  With a momentary switch, the button is released when your hand is - therefore no forgetting - remove your hand and the switch is open, push it in and the switch is closed, completing the connection).

39
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« on: December 18, 2014, 05:45:57 am »
I can see V1.1 runs on 12v max.  according to specs I read on ebay listing for the board.  Would it not be easier to change the hotend?  - then you have the benefit of reducing weight on the X axis, allowing greater speeds with less backlash due to lower inertia.
   

40
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« on: December 18, 2014, 03:39:58 am »
Correct and Correct again.  100K is for the new hotend, the old thermister went with the old hotend.  Does minitronics accept 24v? I know my Mega 2560 /RAMPS is max 12.  From memory I also used the 200K setting while testing the old hotend.

41
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« on: December 18, 2014, 03:37:47 am »
What am I going to have to do to get this thing to even extrude bulk filament.  I have tried adjusting the nuts but it feeds it then almost like it is to big for the hot end.  If I do manage to get it to go and then it cools its almost impossible to remove.  Do I need to make the hole in the head bigger?  How is everyone else getting this to work?

Get a thermocouple type K thermometer and report back the temperature of the hotend.  THey cost about $10 on ebay. Sounds to me like it's too cold.  Mine runs (ran) at 210 deg C

42
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« on: December 16, 2014, 03:20:32 am »
Now That! is a good hack.  Makes me wish my Cube Motherboard wasn't sitting in the bottom of my parts box.  Awesome work.  Thanks for sharing. 

43
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« on: December 11, 2014, 03:37:20 am »
Cant answer the question, but can say this; doesnt the cube 1 have a heated bed?  The Cube2 doesnt so im fairly sure you'd lose that functionality if you tried.    If it helps, the cube 2 uses the following chip : PIC32MX440F256H.  This is used on a number of *dunio boards.  Perhaps trying to to load firmware and following the load process from some of those boards will work?  That way you could add functionality to the board without having to build a frankencube???

dan

44
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« on: December 07, 2014, 04:12:51 am »
You dont *have* to change the electronics to OS to make the motors quieter, but you DO need to strap a fan on the back of each of the stepper drivers and reduce the current by turning the 3 pots on the main board about 1/4 turn anticlockwise.  Still there are a billion other reasons to do so - print quality would be the biggest for me. 

I figured out the reason the steppers are so noisy is because they are WAY overdriven.  The current I ended up with was about half of the original.  A rough way to measure this is to use a Multimeter - place one pole on a common earth (Black wire from power supply) and the other in the center of the pot you are testing.  A typical value should be between .1 - 2.5v (if the stepper allows).   With the A4988 drivers im currently using, I have mine set to about .2v for each Axis and .95 for the extruder.  THese figures would not be achievable without cooling on each of the Stepper Motors AND the electronics themselves.  I have a fan (cable tied of course) right over the stepper drivers. This printer is now one of the quietest i've heard.


45
Cube 3D printer discussion / Re: FrankenCube v0.1 Its ALIVE!!!
« on: December 05, 2014, 05:23:28 am »
Did I mention how quiet this unit is with the new electronics.  Basically, from what i can tell, the Cube 2 as is had drivers that were way overdriven (too much amps to motors).  THis created vibrations along the Y axis particularly in my unit and made it incredibly noisy.  With the Frankencube, I was able to quieten the whole setup by dialing down the current to XYZ motors and adding a fan to each of the motors as well as the electronics.  I now have whisper quiet, reliable operation.  The Extruder however has full current applied, but as it moves generally so much slower than the other motors, the noise is minimal, even with high current.


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