Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

I've been wanting to get a 3d printer for a while now, was impressed by the seemecnc guys after seeing them at the maker fair in NYC 2 years ago. Finally saved up some pennies and bought one at Maker Faire this year. Total build time ~15 hours. (Some of that was looking for my tools because we moved recently)

So far only a few hiccups... the first was very quickly resolved, the instructions said to look for the clips to go into the rambo in one package but they were in another, support was quick to help.

Second was an improperly molded clip for the belts... seemecnc sent me out a new package of clips (now I have some spares too though I can't imagine they'd break)

Started to do my first print, stopped it because I didn't load the filament fully and so the print didn't start in the right spot. Went to start it again and the nozzle wouldn't heat up. Did some troubleshooting and it seems like the fan on the hotend doesn't work and the thermal fuse seems to not have continuity across itself so I'm guessing that the fan not working caused the heat sink to get too hot which caused the fuse to blow. Also in troubleshooting, I tried re-flashing the board (just in case) and now I can't talk to it anymore (though everything seems to work from the lcd) Sigh, hopefully I can get these last few issues resolved and start printing!

I can still run the calibration script which is fun to watch. I can also run it in a no-heat test run mode if I want to pretend I'm printing.

In the mean time, I've setup a RPi3 with octoprint and the 7" touchscreen LCD. I thought I would take a stab at building a filament runout sensor using one of these: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9322 I had laying around. I got it to work (and by work I mean I can query the octopi plugin api endpoint which returns the correct values) when I use something other than filament but I think the gap is too big to use with filament. So I've ordered a smaller one so we'll see how that goes.

I've also been trying to teach myself how to use Autodesk Fusion 360... ugh can this software be frustrating at times. I've been following along with the instructabled 3d printing class (http://www.instructables.com/class/3D-Printing-Class/) which is currently free! I don't know if it's worth the $30 list price but it's a pretty good introduction to Fusion 360. My current project (after the demo ones from the class) is a case for the RPi + touchscreen. A bit ambitious but why not.

My goals are to use the 3d printer to make custom enclosures for my electronics projects (just a hobby, not an expert by any means) and to be able to repair/enhance things. Of course, I'm sure I'll make a few fun things as well. (My son wants a Poe Dameron pilot helmet I thought I might try and 3d print - https://www.myminifactory.com/object/x- ... akens-9074)

Sorry for the long winded intro... I'm very excited to get started 3d printing. It's been on my list for a while.

Welcome aboard. Where are you in NH, I'm just south of the Nashua border in Groton, MA.

Hi neighbor, I'm in Dublin, NH... right next to Peterborough

Know it well. Cheers!

Were you able to sort out all your issues? I'm having similar problems as yours. The fan seems to have died which then most likely blew the thermal fuse! Before that, I was having problems with filament getting stuck in the hotend or the extruder slipping on the filament and not pushing them enough! I guess I'm learning!
Is yours printing ok now?

-athapa

Yes, I was able to get it working. It was the thermal fuse so after replacing the fan and the fuse, it started working again.

As for your filament issues, I would just double check that your bowden tube is pushed down enough and not melted. Because of my thermal issues, the end was a bit melted so I had to trim a bit off. Then I didn't push it all the way down which also caused issues.

If you haven't already, put a whip clip on your HE280 to ensure the plug doesn't work loose during printing or probing. If you get 25mm trimmed off your PTFE tube, then it's time to replace the 850mm tube or it might pull loose near the Y tower during probing.

This link will begin the STL download of a clip part I made. Support is designed into the part, so no support should be turned on during .2mm layer slice.
http://repables.com/items/download/1284/5632/

The details here: http://repables.com/r/808/

I was finally able to replace the fan and the fuse today. I tried to print but found that the tube was molten, similar to flynnguy. So I trimmed the tube too. However, just before the printing was about to start, I get DEF in the temperatures. Both fan and fuse are gone again! The fan I replaced is identical to the fan that came with the kit. Any ideas?

@athapa, submit a support ticket and ask for me 'PartDaddy'