Author Topic: Homebrew engraver to 3D printer Mod (Read 51075 times)

BillTodd · « **Reply #50 on:** November 11, 2018, 04:19:25 PM »

Well ths is getting very frustrating!!!

Auto tuned the pid of the bed and extruder without any problems , added the values into the config , and up popped an update , libraies updated some error with U8glib , now it will not compile .

Apparently u8glib has bee superceded by u8g2 but i have no idea how to add this to marlin - any arduino experts handy???

Managed to add the pid values to the installed version using m304 p i d and run bed and extruder preheat perfectly

more frustrating is that the thing is still randomly stopping while printing - it just seems to swith the power off for no obvious reason - it is not loose connection as first thought but i have no idea atm whhatnis causing it :

AdeV · « **Reply #51 on:** November 11, 2018, 05:09:53 PM »

Just thinking out loud - does it always stop after around the same length of time running? Like an auto-power-off function, or some electronickery overheating?

BillTodd · « **Reply #52 on:** November 11, 2018, 05:27:47 PM »

No the stopping / power off appears random i.e it could be 3hours , 2 hours or as just now within a minute of starting to print . I don't think it's the psu as it powers back immediately as the board is reset and it comfortably drives motors, heater and extruder without dropping below 11.8v (measured on the board.)

I'll try running it woth bed heater as a test ...

chipenter · « **Reply #53 on:** November 12, 2018, 03:00:03 AM »

The stepper drivers have thermal cut outs I fitted a computer fan , that stopped the dropped steps the board my have temperature cut outs .

BillTodd · « **Reply #54 on:** November 12, 2018, 05:35:33 AM »

Thanks Jeff , but all axes stop and the 12v rail disappears

I ran it last night without the hot bed and got a near perfect print (nozzle still leaking a bit). I switched to the blue painters tape as recommended by Don and it really seems to hold the print flat even without heat.

I think it must be spikes on the earth/ negative side of things . The board I have does not seem to have a separate 5v ground wire so will be reliant on the two 12v grounds which could be drawing 20+ amps peak , that's enough to cause some serious spiking/dipping of the 5v rail .

Bill

BillTodd · « **Reply #55 on:** November 13, 2018, 03:33:53 AM »

It's just completed 18 hours of printing with the bed heater disconnected ,so at least iknow the problem is caused by the heater.

AdeV · « **Reply #56 on:** November 13, 2018, 03:22:10 PM »

Almost ready for a run on compressed air then!

Although that yellow is a touch bright to pass off as brass

Regarding the heater - the earth thing sounds like a good call; I guess the heater is thermostatically controlled on/off? Maybe when it clicks on, the current draw is occasionally enough to crash the computer... in which case, a honking great capacitor (maybe a few hundred micro Farads) across the controller's power rails would be enough to fix it.

If the heater isn't thermostatic.... back to the ole' drawing board?

BillTodd · « **Reply #57 on:** November 13, 2018, 06:03:09 PM »

heaters are software pid using mosfet switches . It seems to handle full load during initial warm up so it's not as simple as voltage drop .

I'll see if i can find time tomorrow (got my head stuck in a book this evening and now , suddenly, it's bedtime!)

One thing I discovered this morning : it is possible to refom the plastic without melting it (sort of like ironing a shirt ) using a temp controlled soldering iron at 190°C or so. Enables nice smooth holes and curves.

BillTodd · « **Reply #58 on:** November 16, 2018, 06:44:24 PM »

Well cross fingers the extra ground wire seems to have worked.

I ran a new wire from the psu 0v to the outside of a coax power plug that connects to the arduino board .

While perusing youtube last night I found a chap talking about cooling fans for the work piece and how it improves the print. I played around with this today (while waiting, fruitlessly for E.on to fit new smart meters) , and boy! does it make a difference. just waving a small fan at the test cube straightened up the sides .

Bouyed on by this I designed and printed a fan adapter , and now I have a cube that is 20.33 x 20.42 x 20.02 with beautiful straight sides .

Im not sure if I can just adjust the X&Y steps per unit or whether there is a better/correct way to tweak it to size ??????

Bill

Pete49 · « **Reply #59 on:** November 16, 2018, 09:55:49 PM »

Nice work Bill. I'm doing a conversion too (as if I don't have enough already) 3D printer to laser engraver as I have a spare no name one to play with. I've ordered a 500 mililwatt laser so in the meantime I looking at YouTube for inspiration.
Pete

efrench · « **Reply #60 on:** November 17, 2018, 03:32:49 AM »

The size is probably within normal tolerances for an FDM printer. You need to test whether the extra material is a hardware issue or an extrusion issue. If it's hardware related, you can use regular machining techniques to measure it. If it's an extrusion issue, you can experiment with different settings in the slicer software or possibly in the firmware configuration file. Have you mentioned which slicer software you're using?

My workflow is:
Design in Fusion 360.
Slice in Slic3r.
Print (Smoothieware clone).

BillTodd · « **Reply #61 on:** November 17, 2018, 05:13:00 AM »

I am using Cura atm (still running xp so choices are few)

Thinking about the size error. It is small but it would be handy to reduce it. I feel there could be a small amount of mechanical error : the timing pulleys are plastic and belts could stretch a little . But I suspect it might be 'tracking' or the spread of the extruded filament , and thus a fixed error rather than accumulated . I'll have to print a bigger cube (or square) to find out

Pete, your laser project sound interesting ( I've watched a couple of Marco Reps videos on youtube , where he has used a 3dprinter fitted with uv laser to make PCBs). We have a couple of laser engravers at work (and a 3kW cutter) for metal marking that use 20w scanning beams - It'll be interesting to see what your machine can do :-)

BillTodd · « **Reply #62 on:** November 21, 2018, 05:08:20 PM »

well, 4 hrs into a 12hr print of the engine base (now wishing I'd have spent more time tidying up the internal faces as every little nook and cranny needs a million movements to print!

BillTodd · « **Reply #63 on:** November 22, 2018, 04:03:34 AM »

Ha it worked

BillTodd · « **Reply #64 on:** November 25, 2018, 12:40:58 PM »

Well the engine works

Needs a few mods tonthe clearances still but it works!

S. Heslop · « **Reply #65 on:** November 25, 2018, 04:43:21 PM »

That's pretty awesome!

BillTodd · « **Reply #66 on:** August 16, 2019, 01:23:59 PM »

Help!

I've just add a 3dtouch probe to the 3d printer . Probe works OK I've managed to configure it and calibrate offsets etc. BUT...

It is NOT probing the mesh correctly: (AUTO_BED_LEVELING_BILINEAR)

ATM - I hit bed level , it homes (to X-60, Y+120 , Z189 - Zero is centre of bed) , Zs down to probe but instead of moving to the expected Mesh I0J0 (which is X-59, Y125) it drops to the XY home ,probes 3 time across (X) but then moves the Y further forward into the stops.

If I move using a G42 I0 J0 (move to mesh 0,0) it moves to all the mesh points correctly as expected

It seems to be screwing up the initial mesh move ????

Ideas welcome..

Bill

BillTodd · « **Reply #67 on:** August 16, 2019, 02:43:14 PM »

arrrgggh... thought id fixed it, but...

Sticking a G42 i0j0 before the G29 gets it to probe the mesh correctly but now it thinks the first layer is 5mm in the air !!!

tom osselton · « **Reply #68 on:** August 16, 2019, 04:55:26 PM »

Isn’t there a offset parameter to take care of that?

BillTodd · « **Reply #69 on:** August 16, 2019, 06:01:52 PM »

vety likely, but where?

BillTodd · « **Reply #70 on:** August 17, 2019, 11:55:54 AM »

played around with this today...got no where!

I tried changing the 0,0 point to the corner , incase the mesh level could not handle four quadrant maths , still the same

problem seems to be the g29 routine does not give the motion systen time to move , so the display shows the correct coordinates but the motors don't move!.

experimented with UBL but that's no better , hammering the x zxis to one side.

at a loss ATM so any suggestions welcome.

ddmckee54 · « **Reply #71 on:** August 21, 2019, 02:32:45 PM »

Don't have auto bed leveling so this is just a shot in the dark.

The info that I found on auto bed leveling, found it here http://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G029-abl.html, has the following in the notes:

"Any arguments left out of G29 will use the default values set in Configuration.h.

G28 disables bed leveling. Follow with M420 S to turn leveling on, or use RESTORE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28 to automatically keep leveling on after G28."

You've probably already read the notes, but like I said it's a shot in the dark. The Configuration.h file is probably where you need to modify the Z offset to suit your probe.

Several posts back you asked about tweaking your steps/mm values, I do it in g-code with my start-up script. If you still need/want to do that let me know and I'll tell you how I do it.

Don

BillTodd · « **Reply #72 on:** August 21, 2019, 05:37:56 PM »

cheers Don,

I have a look at that , it certainly makes sense.

BillTodd · « **Reply #73 on:** August 26, 2019, 07:33:25 AM »

After several hours fiddling.

I've come to the conclusion my Z axis is drifting (not enough to cause the Z offset but something that needs fixing) .It is losing 0.3mm after a just a few moves. In use without bed levelling this probably didn't matter much (it was only moving up).

I want a faster Z screw anyway so I might take a break and have another look at this when that's fixed.

Bill

BillTodd · « **Reply #74 on:** December 04, 2020, 03:08:36 PM »

Hi All, Continuing the 3D printer saga...

A while ago (at least one pandemic and a kidney stone ago) I added a BL touch clone to do auto bed levelling.

I was using Marlin 1.1.19 (?) but was never able to get levelling to work . The saga continues having upgraded to Marlin 2

ATM having now rearranged thing to give a 0,0 at the lower left corner , I can get it to start the 9 point BiLinear level .

The printer homes to X & Y switches , then jumps to the middle of the bad and zeros the Z using the BL touch . This all works fine and sets the nozzle height nicely.

If I try to level (the bed is pretty good having manually levelled it) it rapids to front/left 1 of 9 points , lowers the probe and ... fails to touch down!

Any ideas where to start looking in marlin for the probe settings??

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Author Topic: Homebrew engraver to 3D printer Mod (Read 51075 times)