Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Live Streaming Prints

John has finally got me in working condition and is streaming the prints live on the interwebs.

http://ustre.am/wujd

Please come visit me, this guy is highly annoying...

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Calibration Print

2202:04 Test .stl print start
2204:45 Sensors indicate extrusion inadequate. Recommend tightening extruder idler.
2205:02 Idler tightened. Extrusion increased to acceptable levels.
2206:18 Test .stl print complete.
2206:33 Recommend, tighten x belt. Loosen y belt. Re-calibrate all axes.
2211:15 Host software closed, power lost to board....

Goodnight, John. We've made some progress today.
2145:33 Power on.
2145:41 PC connected at com9, speed 38400.
2145:55 new extruder detected. Ver6, PEEK Heater barrel and PTFE inner tube with modular brass 0.50 mm nozzle.
2146:01 Initiating calibration sequence for  new extruder.
2147:45 Test complete.
2147:59 Increased e steps per mm to 537.90500157
2148:19 Re-testing extruder.
2150:22 Test successful!

Welcome back, John....I see you've been upgrading my systems.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Rebuilt, but still broken

John stripped me down to the frame and rebuilt me with all of the tricks he learned from the first build. I do say, I feel slimmer and tighter. I think this rebuild was good for me. A day at the spa if you will.

The poor old fool spend hours working on me to get me running by bed time. Only to break an Opto switch wire on the last possible step before starting a print! He's either going to have to learn to solder or order a new set of opto's ($50 after shipping) what a coot!

So now I'm all nice and pretty he just can't run me yet. I'm enjoying messing with his head. Let's see how long before he cracks...

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Long Weekend, Got to Meet Another Reprap

While I've been waiting for the part John ordered for my extruder, he's been busy inviting other builders to my bench and building new Repraps! Right in front of me.

Nick Lucking drove down from LA on Saturday to collect on his $250 pledge reward from kickstarter.com. John had everything set aside and ready that was needed to build a new Prusa-Mendel from scratch.

They spent about 7 hours working on it and by the end they had a 80% done bot. The frame was all there, motor mounted, belts tight, bushings moving smoothly. All that was left was for Nick to install his RAMPS electronics and he could start the calibration process.

After Nick left John took a look at my overall build and I think he's planning on taking me apart and starting from the frame again. I do admit, some, problems with alignment on the Z axis. I hope he can smooth it all out.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

NumberSix's RepStrap: Connecting up the heater to Generation 6 electroni...

At least someone knows what they are doing. John spent three days figuring this out. I'm still not sure he got it right...

NumberSix's RepStrap: Connecting up the heater to Generation 6 electroni...: "When connecting up the heater and thermistor to the Gen6 board be aware of the following... the pin-outs printed for your convenient referen..."