Does anybody fancy a weekend meet up for 3d printing and more?

[Gordon Endersby]

Does anybody fancy a weekend meet up for 3d printing and more?

Ive got access to a scout hall down here in Croydon for the cost of a donation.
I know its further from the river than most of you like to go.
But if we did it either on a Saturday or Sunday you can miss the worst of the weekday rush.

The pub is all well and good but its not the best for spreading out and geeking out over 3d printers or projects.
I know there are at least 5 3d printer owners now and thought it would be fun to get together and swap knowledge.
The hall has tea/coffee making facilities(bring your own) tables and power but no wifi.

Does it sound like a good idea?

Gordon

[Tom Lynch]

Hey,

Sounds good... I think a lot of people are away / not listening because we only had 4 at this evenings weekly meetup, pretty disappointing as the conversation was great and more input would have been nice.

I think the issue is the location, that said Fiona organised a space in Brixton for us once. I am sure we could find a better space for actual making, the pub isn't really intended to be a space for making, its for socialising...

I hope more people come next week, and we'll see what others think about your idea of meeting up in a hall somewhere?

Tom

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[Tom Newsom]

There's a church hall just up the hill towards camberwell which might be useful. I'll check it out.

[keith matheson-mclaughlin]

Hi Keith here.

I'm interested (date dependent of course).My 3D update. Eventually had a few hours trying to get my printer going and it was (as it always is with these things) a case of one step forwards two steps back. The intermittent communication seems to have been solved by dropping the 'received cache size'  size from 127 to 63. The guidance on earlier sites said the higher figure then I found a later site which mentioned the arduino prefers (?)  63.(Melzi is arduino based). Now whizzing  where I send it.

Figured out how to place it at home (zero zero zero) as well as setting the maximums to the correct size.

I did suspect the hot head was not as hot as the software was telling me but it was hot enough to put into a plastic state and it reluctantly extruded plastic (jumping in with both feet knowing there may be tears!). I suspect I was getting carried away with sending a command to extrude as there seemed to be more filament going in than coming out! ( I believe I need to set the correct value in the code). As I was processing this anomaly in my head I spotted the painful fact the plastic  x carriage /wade assembly had developed a great big crack across it!!  Doh!  obviously there was more going in than coming out and something had to give under all that pressure. SO my next tasks are;

Clean out hot head  Any tips?

Measure actual temp ( I have device a work) and then alter code to get something closer to the real temp on the software (repetier)

Get/print new carriage and reassemble

THEN I can do a real test piece

Hope to see you all soon

Best regards

Keith MM

Hopefully see you all soon

Keith MM

[Gordon Endersby]

I was making great progress and slowly getting better prints until they suddenly started getting much worse.
I had previously done a 5 hour print and it came out quite well.

But a controller problem that has slowly appeared over the last 48 hours and has been driving me up the wall.

My prints have been getting shorter in the z-axis by the hour. Even though everything is set up correctly.
Double checked all the steps again on the x,y and z axis and extruder.
Double checkdd the atx power supply. Still getting plenty of power.
Tried swapping out the a988 stepper driver with a known good one.
Still getting shorter till the z motor started sticking.
Them the extruder motor started stalling.

I thing ive got a failing arduino mega.

Waiting for a spare to arrive.
Also ordered bettet quality a988 controllers at the same time.
Typically ive got every other type of arduino board laying around except the mega.

I can see why some people buy complete proven kits.
It wouldnt be as much of a challenge.
But i think ive now blown my budget.

Gordon

[Dermot Jones]

Just check there's no way the stepper driver is overheating, and thus missing progressively more steps as print continues

[Gordon Endersby]

Heatsinks on the stepper drivers were all between 40c and 43c when working hard or have been running for an hour or more. So i dont think they are shutting down for protection. Tried again after a couple of hours and immediately the z motors were stopping and jerking. The heat sinks wernt much more above ambient. Thats also when i found the extruder motor not running properly as well.
Its annoying as i cant get anything delivered till at least next Thursday.
No where round here but maplins and there prices are sky high for arduino boards. So i have to wait.

The stepper drivers wernt easy to set as the pot was continuous rotation, no stops for bottom and top of the range. But i got them to maximum then backed off 1/4 turn as per the instructions.
Thats why i ordered some better quality ones as well as the mega.

Gordon

On 22 Aug 2014 23:50, "Dermot Jones" <dermot...@gmail.com> wrote:

Just check there's no way the stepper driver is overheating, and thus missing progressively more steps as print continues

[keith matheson-mclaughlin]

Ref Gordon's comment " I can see why some people buy complete proven kits".
I feel that that many times with this project but then I remind myself it's a learning experience - that's the whole point of it.
However, it reminds me of the day a few years ago after I threw my old pc across the room after fiddling with it for the millionth time saying ' where's the mac store.'
Keith ducking for cover!

[Gordon Endersby]

I think ive worked out what ive broken on mine.
I had a rattling loose nut that was winding me up on a print so i tightened it up.
It was on the top left of the mega board as mine is mounted with the usb socket on the left.
As i finger tightened it there was a small spark.
I think i damaged the regulator on the mega and the regulator slowly died over the next couple of prints.
Stupid mistake poking my fingers where they shouldnt be.

Thats supposed to be a mounting hole on the mega board there shouldnt be any bare traces on components a nut or bold could come in contact with.

Ill pull it apart when the new mega arrives and check it.
If it is then apparently it is repairable with a new regulator.

Gordon