MDMD's Rostock Max Build

[MDMD]

Hi everyone. I received my Rostock Max kit about a week ago and have been steadily assembling it as time permits.

First, thank you geneb for the v2 assembly manual. Everything has been clear and straight forward.

Here are some progress pictures to get you up to date.
The kit:
[img]https://photos-6.dropbox.com/t/0/AAB90P ... e=1024x768[/img]

Base Assembled:
[img]https://photos-4.dropbox.com/t/0/AABpk7 ... e=1024x768[/img]

Cheapskates Mounted:
[img]https://photos-2.dropbox.com/t/0/AAAF_g ... e=1024x768[/img]

[MDMD]

My first question is in regard to wire connectors. I ordered some XT60 connectors last week via Amazon thinking they would arrive in a matter of days. They won't be here for another couple of weeks minimum because they are shipping from China. Are there any XT60 alternatives available at Radioshack or other local stores?... or via Amazon Prime (need the 2 day shipping) or McMaster Carr (who also ships amazingly quickly)?

[Polygonhell]

Pololu will ship you XT60 connectors very quickly, though shipping might be an issue.
The other real option is Deans connectors, if you have a local hobby store that specialized in RC components, they probably stock both.

[Eaglezsoar]

Here is a link at Amazon for the Deans Connectors and most are prime shipping.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_ ... Caps%2C238

[MDMD]

Thanks eaglezsoar and polygonhell. I ended up running over to the local hobby shop (not sure why I didn't think of going there in the first place) to get some connectors. They had a hefty mark-up compared to online sources but at least I have them and don't have to wait on shipping.

[MDMD]

Things seem to be going along pretty well. I am on to the wiring now... I ended up changing the wires I originally soldered to the heated bed for some 12ga silicone wire which is very flexible. I was worried about desoldering the wire I put on the heated bed first but ordered a solder sucker which made it very easy to manage.

My new question is how to connect the 12ga wire to the rambo. The rambo connectors/slots are just too small to accept 12ga wire (how annoying).

Eaglezsoar - I saw in another thread that you used 10ga wire for your heated bed. How did you make the transition from thick wire to rambo?

Progress Pics:

Trick Laser arms and heated bed installed -
[img]https://photos-3.dropbox.com/t/0/AAAFqp ... ze=800x600[/img]

Here's the 12ga heated bed wiring in question connected to XT60 connectors -
[img]https://photos-4.dropbox.com/t/0/AADYkO ... ze=800x600[/img]

[geneb]

In my installation, I used a very short pigtail of 14ga and the XT60 connector to connect the heated bed to the RAMBo. I really wish Ultimachine hadn't changed out the connector design. The new ones they use aren't nearly as useful as the originals...

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

Things seem to be going along pretty well. I am on to the wiring now... I ended up changing the wires I originally soldered to the heated bed for some 12ga silicone wire which is very flexible. I was worried about desoldering the wire I put on the heated bed first but ordered a solder sucker which made it very easy to manage.

My new question is how to connect the 12ga wire to the rambo. The rambo connectors/slots are just too small to accept 12ga wire (how annoying).

Eaglezsoar - I saw in another thread that you used 10ga wire for your heated bed. How did you make the transition from thick wire to rambo?

Mine goes to a SSR that connects to 24vdc.
The Rambo connects to the SSR input with 18 gauge wire because the current draw is very small.

[MDMD]

Thanks guys. Will there be a performance loss if I do the pigtail connection out of 16ga wire? I have the same style silicone wire on hand in 16ga... but not in 14ga.

[geneb]

You could really use any 14ga wire you've got handy (except solid!), it doesn't have to be the silicone insulated type.

g.

[MDMD]

I ask because I don't have any 14ga wire on hand. If the 16ga is problematic I will pick up some 14ga wire.

[lordbinky]

You can just use two 16ga and not worry.

[geneb]

Am I the only one that wants to refer to him as "doc-doc"?

g.

[lordbinky]

Better than having to correct yourself that it isn't a drug reference.

[Broose]

My new question is how to connect the 12ga wire to the rambo. The rambo connectors/slots are just too small to accept 12ga wire (how annoying).

I crimped and soldered spade lug connectors to 14 gage wire, clipped one of the two prongs, and it makes an excellent connection with the Rambo board. You could probably do the same thing with 12 gage.

spade lug connector.jpg (6.21 KiB) Viewed 14830 times

Now I understand the bed connectors have changed on the Rambo and I haven't seen the new version and if it will work with this setup.

[MDMD]

Thanks for the ideas guys.

I have everything wired and was able to turn it on this morning. Exciting.

Now I'm doing the tests through repetier, specifically the 'G28' test. When I ran it the arms moved down rather than up. I am going to switch the stepper motor wiring but want to ensure I am switching the correct wires. In the image below I need to switch the locations of the green and red wires, correct?

[img]https://photos-2.dropbox.com/t/0/AACVHB ... e=1024x768[/img]

I'm really looking forward to getting my first print going!

[MDMD]

I went ahead and did it... and it's working fine. Now to test the heated bed and hot end.

[MDMD]

Whew - attempted to do my first print this morning.

For some reason the hollow cube in the manual wan't displaying properly in repetier. The geometry would load, I would slice it but the sliced tool path would not display at all. The gcode looked fine... but I decided to get a different model for my first print.

I downloaded the hollow pyramid from thingiverse (getting ambitious huh?) which sliced and displayed just fine. I hit print and things went into action. The first layer went on, second layer, third layer... then I noticed nothing was being added. The print head had jammed!!

I am using dark blue 1.75 ABS filament from seemeCNC.
Extruder Temp: 230
Bed Temp: 80

Here are pictures of the result-

Top:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/TExweqx.jpg[/img]

Bottom:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/YeCpBxn.jpg[/img]

Now it's time to read about unjamming the print head. If there's anything obvious that needs to be addressed from the images or what I described let me know!

[MDMD]

I was able to get a couple of decent prints today of a single walled cube. The 'calibration cube' and hollow pyramid are hopeless at this point though. The problem I'm having is not with the hot end clogging as I originally stated, but rather with the extruder.

From the 6 or so test prints I did today it seems like all of them failed the moment any sort of retraction took place. The extruder would retract then stop pushing filament forward. The single walled cubes only worked because there was no retraction necessary to print them.

Below is a picture of my ezstruder in the wake of a series of retracts for an attempt at printing a hollow pyramid.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/3kLE9OJ.jpg[/img]

Anyone know why this is happening? How do I diagnose the problem?

I printed my second successful single walled cube then came across polygonhell's "Extruder Calibration" thread. I spent some time looking for a single wall cube with a base (unsuccessfully) then decide to change a setting and hit print again. Now the extruder motor makes noise like it is trying to spin but cannot manage to. I does a slight gyration back and forth but cannot manage to push filament either forward or backward. I'm not excited about that at all. What do I do now?

[Polygonhell]

Since you have two consecutive posts with the same issue, I thought I sold point out that at least I can't see the images associated with your posts.

[MDMD]

I switched the latest images to a different host to ensure they are visible. I will post an image of my failed prints to date later this morning.

[Polygonhell]

Ok from those images you look to be extruding WAY to much plastic, which is causing increased back pressure , which is causing the easy struder to eat your filament.
Have yo verified when you command 10mm of filament it pulls 10mm of filament into the extruder.
What steps per have you got the extruder set to in the EEPROM? And what version of the RAMBO board do you have?

[MDMD]

Now that you mention it, yes it was definitely extruding more than 10mm of plastic on the manual extrudes. The filament got chewed up on retractions. The image below is all of my prints to date:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/diLQkkq.jpg[/img]

Here are my EEPROM settings. I'm running Rambo rev1.1.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/gfbH5Cn.jpg[/img]

As mentioned in the last post the extruder now looks like it is stuttering when told to extrude. I will try to get a video uploaded to show exactly what is going on.

[Polygonhell]

Your running an easy struder, the Extr1steps per mm should be closer to 92 , the 583 you have is for Steve's extruder.
So currently you are pushing over 5x as much filament as you should be.

[MDMD]

Well that makes sense. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

Here is a link to a video of the stuttering extruder motor. It began doing this after the last successful single wall cube print in my photo above. I drew a little black line on there so you can see the movement. Also notice what the filament at the bottom of the extruder is doing.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/534 ... .13.14.mp4

(Let me know if the dropbox link to the video is problematic and I will upload it to youtube.)

Any tips on resolving this?