MaL

[Is it just me, or does this render the whole 'signed-for' concept pretty much useless from the recipient's point of view?] No it isn't just you....'signed for' are a complete waste of space and money, as described in your post. IF an actual delivery address AND a FULL name was supplied with the signature then I might be a little less derogatory about the useless service. It is especially galling when Ebay insist on 'signed for' deliveries, especially with international deliveries (which rarely get a delivery signature anyway).

Exactly Martyn....you cannot look up at close objects... try reading the price of an item that is on the bottom shelf at the supermarket without crawling on your hands and knees. Edited By MaL on 26/09/2017 12:01:11

Sorry, not got the article but someone is asking serious cash for the kit of parts on ebay....considerable more than the 100amp wattmeter offerings from Banggood or HobbyKing Maybe the RCM&E offering has some super facility that the commercial ones don't have? Anyhow...looks like a dozen of so components so should be very straightforward to build. **LINK** **LINK** **LINK**

Posted by Martin Harris on 05/09/2017 15:17:41: Why are people trying to defend the indefensible? The fact that an English language listing has the words "for", "generic" and "not applicable" in German doesn't make for a very accurate description in my opinion. These seem to be obvious attempts to pass off goods as genuine where their provenance is hazy to say the least. Even if you bang a bit of insulating tape over the maker's name, there are many other trademarks and identifiers shown that could be seen as misleading and designed to make people think they are buying a genuine article. Leaving aside any unsubstantiated claims that some other manufacturers have reverse engineered Spektrum protocols, at least these do not pretend to be genuine or even look anything like the genuine products. I have no vested interest in either Spektrum or HH as I use Jeti - one advantage of using a system with a relatively small user base is that the market isn't yet big enough to encourage fakers - although at least one bit of equipment has been closely copied by a large budget system manufacturer!   There is nothing to defend. This is normal business policy for the Chinese. If you find it not to your liking then you can always stick with a regular importer/distributer and pay the premium. Edited By MaL on 06/09/2017 18:22:37

More than 10 available bestdeals_us 118 sold More than 10 available fashion_virus 82 sold 9 available cskwin2015 19 sold More than 10 available bestdeal_uk 46 sold 10 available honestdeal_au 11 sold 10 available mega_electronics_show .......and so on........still think these are HH rejects? The examples Paul showed in the OP have the trademarked symbols obscured, if these were 'fakes' why bother obscuring the trademarks? Looking a bit deeper into one of the listings...this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AR6210-DSMX-Receiver-6CH-2-4GHz-RX-Support-DSM2-Fur-Spektrum-transmitter-TX-RC-/142365123285?hash=item21259f62d5:gcIAAOSwbiFZQ655 it declares the Make as 'generic' and describes it as a 'receiver for a Spektrum transmitter. It also claims "This DuaLink receiver simultaneously gathers information from two receivers that is processed by patent pending Spektrum software that combines it to form the most vivid picture of an RF signal." patent pending is not the same as patent granted is it! Providing the trademarks are obscured before they hit the UK customs what exactly has the seller done wrong? Perhaps Paul could post the link to the actual items he bought....

I bet it came from the same sweatshop as the expensive ones you can buy from horizon. Just the excess production from the order from the distributer.....normal Chinese production protocols......Spektrum logo obscured to circumvent importation trademark violations....

Glad you have sorted it Tony.. It is a common 'problem' with the generic RAMPS board too, although usually down to poor connections at the screw terminals with people using tinned wires or not tightening the screw enough (or not checking it regularly). The 'problem' is that there is a lot of current flowing through the board when the extruder and the bed heater are on together - hence the desire to fit a 3rd party MOSFET driver board for the heated bed and reduce the current flowing through the mainboard......lots of solder on the pcb tracks will help also. (sorry if this is teaching Granny)

Posted by Gary Manuel on 11/08/2017 18:41:58: THIS company sell fire extinguishers for Lithium batteries. Edit - Bargain at £226 Edited By Gary Manuel on 11/08/2017 18:55:34 Plus the recommended training before being let loose with one......

I don't have one of these printers but the generic method for ensuring the extruder is supplying the correct amount of plastic is to mark the filament 120mm from where it enters the extruder, then set your control software (whatever you are using) to extrude 100mm of filament. You can then measure how much is actually extruded. If you read **LINK** it tells you how you can calculate and enter a new value for your E steps per mm to adjust the amount extruded, alternatively you may be able to enter the value directly via firmware upload.....as I said I don't have an A8 .......   sorry your printer has packed up Tony..what is wrong?  controller board gone south? Edited By MaL on 12/08/2017 11:04:47

under extruding. or possibly extruder temp too low Have you calibrated your extruder?

Yep.. that works David Thanks.

ummm..not showing yet.. perhaps they need vetting before being released......

It's not DHL's bill, it's the customs duty that they have already paid H.M.Gov on your behalf that they want to recover..... (assuming the item was assessed for VAT)

Looking really nice again.....now you just need to fix the pilot or the tree!!

Two Batteries and two switches here. The simple addition of a diode or a bridge rectifier in each battery line between the battery and the switch removes any possibility of a duff cell pulling the other good battery down. Common the two sides of the slide switches to reduce the possibility of a switch failure. Using Li-Fe batteries allows for the forward voltage drop across the diodes and supplies the Rx with just under 6v. Use diode/bridge rectifiers commensurate with the expected loads. If you don't need to drop so much just substitute single diodes for the bridge rectifiers Test each battery supply individually at switch on and switch off..its pretty obvious if you have a duff cell in a pack. follow this regime and there is not much that can cause a catastrophic power failure.

The extruder cooling fan must remain on, blowing air over the extruder heatsink while the hotend is hot. Most , if not all, controller boards automatically switch it on and off according to the thermistor temperature. Failure to keep  the 'cold end' cool will cause the filament to melt too high up in the nozzle and cause a jam - usually referred to as heat creep. The filament cooling fan is controllable via the software and is usually switched on after the first layer has been deposited to assist maintaining the print integrity when printing overhangs and bridges, it 'sets' the plastic before it can droop. It is only needed if you have overhangs. Edited By MaL on 06/06/2017 10:36:39

For getting the bed levelled I suggest you go get one of these - **LINK** and print yourself a holder that attaches to your x carriage. You can adjust any discrepancy in the X carriage to bed parallelism by moving the Z axis leadscrews against each other. Adjusting the Y axis will require some form of adjustment screw... I assume the A8 has one. It really is quite simple to get the bed level once you can see the dial gauge indicating which way it is sloping. Once the bed is as level as it can be (neither glass nor machine plate is perfectly flat) your probe can set the print height.

Trying to understand exactly what the probe is doing.. Is it making a map of 9 sample bed heights during a probe and amending Z=0 as it is printing (so the head moves up and down during each layer as well as the head moving up at the end of each layer, as per a delta machine or the probe just decides the average head height (allowing for x,y and z offsets) from taking 9 readings from different places on the bed during the probe and calls that Z=0 I guess it is most probably the latter. If so the probe is not helping you at all in levelling the bed, just in setting the first layer height. This is a task I usually do on the fly, if it is needed, while it is laying down a perimeter skirt to get an even 'squish' before it starts the actual print.

I'm curious Geoff, how does the proximity sensor make such a difference? I would understand it on a delta printer as all three stepper motors have to turn as the head traverses the plate so the electronics can compensate for height variances 'on the fly', but on a cartesian printer the z axis only moves at layer change. also because the electronics have to calculate each and every head movement any inaccuracies in the mechanical build will create errors - which don't occur with 3 discrete axes. I assume the printer now does a mesh levelling probe before each print now? Does your z height now move between layer changes with the sensor? Once you have levelled the plate against the x and y axis height adjustment is quite simple to achieve the required first layer height within the flatness of the plate. If your plate is more than10 microns or so out of true flat then you are going to have problems with or without a proximity sensor I do have a delta printer, along with a couple of cartesians, the delta needs some form of height sensor (in my case it is a piezo sensor), but in my experience the cartesians, once set up (I use a dial gauge in a printed holder), are no bother getting the first layer right

Only got an older version of Cura here (2.3.1) but when importing a file to process it comes up with a raft that can be removed by unticking" Helper Parts: Print Build Plate Adhesion" (as Og says). It is half way down the display on the right hand side. It is usually helpful to set the adhesion parameter to a skirt to prime the extruder before printing the piece unless you think you will need more material on the build plate to keep the item in place during printing, in which case you might try brim or raft. Having said all that it doesn't look like a raft to me.....the support structures normally follow the contour of the item being printed

It will certainly be heavier and less versatile than balsa for production of a flying model at this scale. I printed the 5 cylinder radial on thingverse a while ago (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:52769) and I fancied having a go at printing something else that I thought would be a nice display piece. If you are thinking of producing an actual flying 3d printed model I would suggest the guys at 3dlabprint.com would be a good place to start....I'm contemplating buying their Stearman, just printing out the test piece as I type The cost of the pla would be insignificant..less than 50p.

Hi Colin, I wanted the exercise in using the design software with the intention of printing the formers and using balsa for the stringers, covering with tissue and dope but I now think it would be better to print the stringers too and leave it as just the framework without a covering - perhaps other designs later as well.... formers printed.. Wings..... An early trial... Aerofred is a great resource for plans isn't it!!

Latest project to keep me busy.... Designed by taking measurements from a free plan on Aerofred.com **LINK**

There is a thread on singlechannellersreunited about a 2.4Ghz handheld band scanner. It uses an arduino nano, an nRF24L01 board and an oled display. All the construction details are in this thread.... **LINK** Total cost about $15 and it works very well indeed, but it can only show you signal strength where it is....not 200 ft up!!   Edited By MaL on 29/05/2017 12:26:45

  main spar for a quarter scale Antonov An-225 Mriya perhaps...... Edited By MaL on 22/05/2017 16:45:35