Waiting for delivery

[RocketMagnet]

Generally holds pretty steady but does spike.. not sure how frequent the full on/offs are as it depends on the polling time and if it lines up. Still not too bad really IMO s it's not all over the place or just cycling full on/off... it's certainly smoothing it out reasonably well...

Would be interested in seeing your bed heating profile from repetier host to compare?

[jdurand]

I had about 2.43 mS of spare time today so I checked the power draw of my Max with the industrial power supply. This is the AC line draw, so the DC side would be about 80% of this:

Idle: 8 Watts
Bed & hot end 100%: 280 Watts

So figuring the 80% efficiency says with the bed and hot end running it's drawing about 19 Amps from the 12V. Right around where it should be. As the power supply is rated for 33 Amps, I should, in theory, have sufficient headroom for the Chimera.

I have a DC current clamp but it's not rated for that much current. Could put a shunt in there but if I had that much time I'd finish calibrating the thing and get some prints running!

[JFettig]

Good to know! I found that the heated bed really pulls down on the stock power supply, full load its around 11.2v and while its holding temp the PWM makes it bounce and oscillate - my LED lighting flickers - and its plugged into the power supply!

[jdurand]

My supply is rock solid at 12.03V measured at the Rambo connector screws (input power).

[JFettig]

I'm tempted to upgrade - I can't heat my bed to 90C without it timing out.

[jdurand]

Well, finally got time to finish this up. It's currently printing the PEEK fan shroud.

I have the bed set to 90 and the nozzle to 228. I notice the nozzle is running consistently high, about 232 up to 234. The bed is holding pretty close to 90. Of course the funky PID is jumping all over the place.

I was going to check my extruder steps but with the nozzle at temperature telling it to extrude 100mm would result in a fairly short piece that would ooze to about 50mm. But, the print looks fine so far so maybe it has to get worked in? ???

[jdurand]

First print done. While not perfect it looks decent, I was getting worried with people's first print problems.

The nozzle temperature ran high the whole time, while waiting for the print to finish I poked around the extruder.cpp file some. At first glance their calculations seem simple which leads me to believe the PID routine is either getting noisy data or more likely isn't being polled at EXACTLY 100mS intervals. If the interval changes from poll to poll, the calculations will be crap. I have no idea how the OS on Arduios works, for something like temperature control I'd expect no more that microseconds to no more than 1 mS jitter from poll to poll.

I'll probably do my own routine and if it works a lot better (couldn't be worse) I'll post it here.

Pictures of first print attached. At least I can make some prototype parts with this until I get it tuned in.

[Mac The Knife]

I'm tempted to upgrade - I can't heat my bed to 90C without it timing out.

for 30 bucks from Amazon, it has the most bang for the buck. I maxed out the voltage then reduced it a touch and have had no problems. The fan is noisy though.

[Mac The Knife]

Rev 2 bed @ 110 C, no problem.

[jdurand]

I'm tempted to upgrade - I can't heat my bed to 90C without it timing out.

for 30 bucks from Amazon, it has the most bang for the buck. I maxed out the voltage then reduced it a touch and have had no problems. The fan is noisy though.

The upside is it makes the steppers sound quieter.

[jdurand]

Second print. Bit stringy, but otherwise seems ok.

[jdurand]

Got all three layer fans installed after dinner. Preparing to extract the ABS and do a couple of test PLA prints. One a small one then a 7 hour over-nighter. Assuming they work at least as well as the ABS above, then I'm in like flint and have MORE stuff to sell.

Just have to double-verify that my STL is scaled properly, since my CAD system also talks to my milling machine in g-code, it's all in INCH and that makes for very large 3D prints.

[jdurand]

I just printed a 20mm hollow box calibration target in MakerGeek PLA. I am well pleased, I might even say it came out EXCELLENT!

I also noticed the fan shrouds looked like Easter Island.

Pictures below.

After cooling the box is 19.94mm x 19.89mm. That's 99.7% x 99.45% accuracy. I can live with that but bet it can be dialed out.

Now to load the big job that earns us the $.

[jdurand]

And now my PEEK fan is dying. First it started making noise, now I have to give it a push to get it started.

And another fan (not from the MAX) started making noise.

And a Windows system gave an error on starting but on reboot is working.

I'm going back to bed.

[geneb]

Sounds like you never should have gotten out of it.

g.

[jdurand]

Well, the chickens and ducks won't let me stay in bed. I have to get up at least long enough to let them out and start another print on the Afinia. Catching up on orders so I should be able to start skipping the early morning 3D print change soon.

To round off the 24 hour cycle I got up today to see how S3D did printing the complex model. Quite well until the filament jammed. I could feel a step pushing filament into the extruder so I took it apart and am cleaning up the hole through the two metal bits so there's no more hanging up.

Maybe I should go back to bed, I only got 5-1/2 hours sleep before the buk of dawn (who needs an alarm when you have fowl?).

[geneb]

I have this picture in my head of a duck standing on your chest, banging you in the forehead with it's beak going, "Hey ass*ole, that food bowl ain't gonna fill itself!"



g.

[BenTheRighteous]

Way to protect those kids, Gene! Blanking out one whole letter while still leaving the root bad word intact... effectively drawing attention to it! Bravo, sir. LOL

[jdurand]

I think he was referring to a Norwegian donkey named Ole.

[geneb]

*bows*

g.

[jdurand]

PEEK fan replaced, entry to the aluminum adapter and brass Bowden fitting have been chamfered so the filament doesn't hang up now. Tweaked some settings in S3D, and we have:

Not quite up to the Afinia's finish yet, but it's using a filament that Afinia won't print (at least for me), Maker Geeks Food Grade PLA. It's this >< close to being dialed in, just a tiny bit stringy and some small bumps on the surface.

Since I will be adding an enclosure I temporally hooked up the cooling for the extruder. Amazing, went from "quite warm" to "is it on?" temperature. I wouldn't have thought just cooling the end cap on the motor would pull that much heat out.

So, now to try it with some of that Jet food grade PLA, that stuff is cheap. Well, not as cheap as advertised, their "1.3kg" spools only weigh 1.156kg still in the bag with the desiccant, some settling must have occurred during shipping (like 30%).

[BenTheRighteous]

Yeah I don't weigh my spools, I've always wondered if you're getting what you pay for. Apparently not always.

[jdurand]

Here's the Jet Royal Blue PLA. Not a great print, needs tweaking. I had to turn up the temperature when it started curving in for the base, it was leaving gaps. I tried a previous one at 190 and aborted since the gaps were big enough to bowl through.

The MakerGeek food grade PLA prints a bit better but is 2X the cost. If I can dial in the Jet, this could be a good for some of our products.

[Mac The Knife]

I'm tempted to upgrade - I can't heat my bed to 90C without it timing out.

for 30 bucks from Amazon, it has the most bang for the buck. I maxed out the voltage then reduced it a touch and have had no problems. The fan is noisy though.

The upside is it makes the steppers sound quieter.

Mine died today,,,,, Ordered two more from Amazon. The fan WILL be replaced before I install it.

[jdurand]

Just in case anyone noticed my absence, I gut buried in work AND the 3D printed thing we're selling was touted on another interview show and apparently most people like it and are telling their friends. At this rate the Max v3 may be out before I can get back to tweaking this one in so I can sell the other products that people are asking about.

It may be a while before I'm back here.