MaL
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Posts posted by MaL
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Now your printer is working and zoned in perhaps you might like to print something a bit more interesting than a frog…. http://www.thingiverse.com/search/page:1?q=radial+engine&sa=
Edited By MaL on 03/03/2017 13:14:10
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It is quite surprising how far the low frequency noises carry in the dead of night! sometimes the rhythmical tunes coming off the steppers aid the quest for sleep......sometimes not, I find myself listening for the z carriage lifting at the end of the job
I think the accumulated wisdom is that you buy a smoke alarm and place it over the printer if you are going to leave it running unattended.
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Thats very nice Tony..what sort of size is that? and how was it orientated on the build plate? (I take it the glove boxes are glued on)
The advantage of buying a kit over buying just a frame is that all the calibration will have been done for you so it should produce results straight 'out of the box'. The other side of the coin is that once you have the correct steps per mm, zerk, max acceleration, temperature calibration et al. it doesn't change and it is helpful playing with these figures while setting a printer up to understand how to fix printing artifacts if and when they occur.
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The Prusa i3 mk2 does look nice and it is receiving good reviews...but at a price (list is 739euro) The controller, for example, is a mini rambo that is generally considered to be an improvement over the arduino2560/RAMPS controller but in my view it is not worth the premium..£140 versus £25 ..it's not even a 32 bit processor....
3mm aluminium frames are good but I'm not sure how flat the PCB will be after cranking the temperature up a few times to print ABS or some of the more exotic plastics..only time and experience will tell.
I would recommend anyone thinking they want to buy into this hobby think very seriously before shelling out this kind of cash, my advice would be buy a cheap clone and get to understand how to fix problems and then if you think you have the requirement go and buy/build an accurate printer..
Edited By MaL on 25/02/2017 20:35:52
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I bought the Prusa P3Steel v4 as per the link I gave.. The STL files are freely available on the RepRapWiki site I linked if you have access to a suitable laser or waterjet cutter, or, if not, it is still available on ebay from a slovakian seller that I also linked in my earlier post.
It is essentially the same as the i3 that you find available in either acrylic or plywood, there are some differences between all the iterations but nothing dramatic, (The V4 has the larger print bed though..) for example, the trend is now to use 10mm smooth rods for the Y axis and 10mm threaded rods or leadscrews for the z axis, some of the acrylic and plywood versions are still using 8mm Y rods and 5mm Z.. My P3steel has 10mm smooth rods for the Y and 5mm threaded for the Z. Its just the sort of thing you decide to change after living with your printer for a while and decide to improve it.....
The advantage of buying just the frame is you can fit whatever other bits you like . better electronics, different stepper drivers, different sensors and so on....
Since I bought mine I see there is now another development.. a PROBOT.... nothing stands still for long!!
Edited By MaL on 25/02/2017 20:08:58
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I was just a little concerned with the longevity of an acrylic frame..
got mine from this guy
it has the capacity for a larger than normal print bed at 200x300mm, although at the moment I just have a 200x200 heatbed fitted
For cable management I used this stuff
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/wire-mesh-guard-neon-green-8mm-1m.html
Edited By MaL on 25/02/2017 17:34:27
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Most of the 3D printer controllers don't take the whole file in one go.. the PC sends it serially down the USB cable, awaiting 'OK' acknowledgements as it goes, so if you pull the cable the print will stop.
It is only if you transfer the file to the SD card attached to the controller that you can remove the USB once the controller has it, the print then progresses from the SD card
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A Prusa i3 here too, although I opted to go for the steel version as I wasn't sure the acrylic frame would stand up to daily wear and tear. Also have a mini kossel which is a delta 3d printer which is even more fun to watch when you think what must be going on in the background to make it work.
I started off using pronterface to control the printer and slic3r to generate the gcode files, both are free from http://www.pronterface.com, but have since moved on to a commercial package. I tried Cura but found it to be too quirky for me. Another free package you can try is MatterControl from matterhackers.com, it also combines the slicer software and the printer control in one package but I found it to be a bit cumbersome also.
Cad package I use is 123D Design from Autodesk, it's the big brother to tinkercad and is also free for non-commercial use
Such an interesting hobby that you tend to forget about going out flying!!
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Horses for courses.. This is why I was able to retire at 53 and you are still sitting in your BMW's in a 8 mile jam on the M25.
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Laser 180 swings a 20x6 @ 9000rpm costs ~£369
NGH 35 swings a 20x8 @ 9000 rpm costs ~$224 if you get away without the taxes, which you usually do, and even if you didn't an extra 20% adds $44 to bring it up to ~$268
Glow fuel costs ~£7 a litre
2 stroke petrol costs ~£1.25 a litre
Just saying----- these are the facts.
On top of that you usually (if you have any brains at all) have a fail safe switch which WILL cut the petrol engine if you have a radio failure...not so easy on a glow motor....
<tin hat mode>
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The Rxcel ignition units draw between 0.2 to 0.85 amps dependant upon RPM so a 3000mAh li-po should last 3+ hours which makes Rich2's figures in the right ball park and John Smith's battery just fit for the bin (or recycling in this part of the world)!!
What are you trying to save by using just one battery for both Rx and ignition? I always use three batteries, two on the Rx, usually smaller capacity than normal, with two switches and duplicated wiring, and one battery on the ignition with a kill switch. It is not interference that is the problem, it is noise that could cause brown outs on your uP in the Rx
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Perhaps the most telling comment in the pdf was -
4. Fleetlights technology has been made available as an open source project to allow the entire dev community to introduce the new advancements needed to make the service a reality.
-----don't hold your breath--------
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I can't see what the servo quality, or lack thereof, have upon the idling of a motor. There is a mechanical stop on all walbro cards (AFAIK) if you adjust it to give a very low tick over when the engine is at operating temperature and use a 'spongy' linkage so the servo, on minimum trim, jambs the throttle arm up against the mechanical stop you will have a motor that will keep going whilst on the landing approach but not provide thrust to prolong the approach. Fit a kill switch to guarantee you can stop the motor at will and use the throttle trim to a high tickover while flying normally. No resolution issues, no throttle linkage disturbance issues, no need for an expensive servo, just a rock steady solution. I can't remember the last time I had a petrol deadstick.
I must confess I disable the throttle return spring on all my petrol engines, but am at a loss to explain why, as far as I can see it makes no difference, the chances of the throttle linkage breaking is negligible and the motor can always be stopped by the kill switch and the current taken by the servo fighting the spring would be less than a gnats private tackle.
PrintRite DIY modular Printer from Hobby King
in 3D Printing
Posted
Link not working Ian.. try **LINK**
Aus warehouse only at the moment. Looks ok though..just a little concerned at the z axis rigidity, especially as the leadscrews are not supported at the top. does it wobble as the x-axis ascends Nigel?
Edited By MaL on 10/03/2017 11:33:00