Lantys Rostock Max v2 Build

[Lanty]

I got my Rostock Max v2 kit today and thought I would start a build thread.

I spent 1 hour unpacking, peeling the tape off the wood and organizing all the parts. The real fun will start tomorrow!

[Glacian22]

Exciting, isn't it?

[EdMann]

How far have you gotten? I'm up to page 121 and hit a road block. After attaching the hot end there are no instructions on what to do with the 26ga wires. There's a reference to using them for the PEEK and part fans, but nothing on where to mount them.

[JD79]

How far have you gotten? I'm up to page 121 and hit a road block. After attaching the hot end there are no instructions on what to do with the 26ga wires. There's a reference to using them for the PEEK and part fans, but nothing on where to mount them.

Try downloading this manual again it has been updated several times over the past few weeks as a work in progress. The last time I looked the manual was 230+pages.

[Lanty]

I'm up to page 134 ish and it's really starting to look like something. I've been plugging away for about 12 hours today.
I'll post some pics and give this thread a proper update soon!

[Tinyhead]

Pictures Lanty. Put up some pictures! You're one of the first with a V2 build and I think there are more than a few who want to see this thing build up as you go!

[Lanty]

Pictures Lanty. Put up some pictures! You're one of the first with a V2 build and I think there are more than a few who want to see this thing build up as you go!

I'll try to do a proper write up with a few pics for sure! I'm in "BUILD" mode at the moment.

* Update: My Max v2 is fully assembles! Got a late start 11am and got the last few things bolted in place at around 5pm. So I'm on page 179.

Next section will be installing software and pushing the firmware over to the RAMBo.
Then the dreaded calibration.

[dgriff]

Then the dreaded calibration.

Just finished the initial calibration of my V2 today - it's really not that bad. Time consuming, but not difficult. Just small adjustments to keep dialing it in.

I would have been printing today if I had any ABS

Dave

[Lanty]

Then the dreaded calibration.

Just finished the initial calibration of my V2 today - it's really not that bad. Time consuming, but not difficult. Just small adjustments to keep dialing it in.

I would have been printing today if I had any ABS

Dave

Nice!

I installed the software and updated the firmware in like 15 min, It was very easy.
I also did the Hot end and Heat bed calibration and set the Z height. Stopped at the end stop calibration section pg 205.

I have no doubt I could be printing by midnight, but I promised my "helper" that I wouldn't print anything with out her. It's also probably not a good idea to calibrate when it's late and you're tired and more likely to hurry through it.

[Lanty]

Be sure to order/buy the following items before you start your build...

Copper gasket sealer
Kapton tape
Shrink tubing (optional, but recommended).
Small zip ties (I had a ton of large one, but no small ones!).
Solder and soldering iron
Some extra 18 gauge wire (Red/Black - not sure if you’re wires will come up short, but mine did).
Lock tight
ABS/PLA

[Lanty]

I got home on Friday and found two boxes sitting at my spot at the dinner table!

Open them up and you will find lots of green packing peanuts.

The contents have been removed and has caught the attention of my soon to be “helper”.

I broke apart each sheet of Melamine and my “helper” and I proceeded to peel the tape and masking material off all the various parts.

[Lanty]

There was a lot of tape!

Once that was completed I got my work area organized. In hindsight I would have set up my work area in the basement where it’s quiet and free of distractions!

I grabbed a couple of empty Plano “stowaway utility boxes” that I use for fishing tackle and threw all the hardware and miscellaneous pieces into them. It did a great job keeping all the little screws organized and really helped the build go nice and smooth.
All in all I spent about 45 min peeling the tape and getting my area all set up.

I went ahead and installed the resistors and thermistor in the hot end and taped it on a couple of scraps of Melamine to dry overnight.
This took about 15 min so I’m 1 hour into my build at the end of Friday.

[Lanty]

Sat morning 9 am, time to get assembling. I gathered up all the tools I figures I would need and brought them to my work area and started building. My “helper” is back and possibly more into this build that me!

In a couple hours we had the base all assembled and things were going nice a smooth.

I used my label maker and stuck an X,Y, Z sticker to each motor and on top next to each tower (this made keeping the orientation a lot easier when I was building.

I also labeled every wire as I installed them. Wiring up the RAMBo board was a breeze when I got to that point thanks to all the labels!
One of the only issues I have encountered up to this point is the power supply wiring. The instructions have you isolate the longest and connect them to the RAMBo connector and then you connect a pair of shorter wires. This causes the wires to sort of twist and are awkward to bundle up nice and cleanly (this really bugs me).

The Solution: The shorter wires I’m using had a little extra bit of wires and a connector that I had cut off so I clipped off 2 black and 2 yellow wires and soldered them onto the shorter wires to extend them. Now all the wires are the same and you can zip tie them and keep everything neat and tidy.

Power Wire Extension.jpg (48.65 KiB) Viewed 16622 times

[Lanty]

Threading the wires through the towers was one of the more difficult parts of the job. The wires are pretty snug and bind up about 2/3 of the way through the tower (all 3 sets got stuck). I tried twisting them as I pushed, but that didn’t seem to help any. I ran out to the garage and got a 3’ piece of wire (a long coat hanger might work) and used it to fish the wires through. Just push the fisher wire through and tape the printer wires to the end then using a combination of pushing the printer wire in and pulling the fisher wire out you can get the wires pulled through.

Here are the 3 towers installed on the base.

Then you install the Cheapskates…Please note the cheap skate brackets have different screw hole spacing form side to side! I did not notice this and 2 out of the 3 were flipped and the screws would not line up! Not a big deal, but you pound in the T-Nuts and when you remove them to flip the plate over your left with some scratches around the hole : ( You can’t really see it when your all done, but I hate it want I make stupid mistakes like that.

[Lanty]

The next bump in the road I encountered was when I went to assemble the top section.
The bracket shape was different in the assembly guide and I thought I was missing them. I found something close, but was expecting there to be a hole where the screw went and not a slot.

Here is the top section in place. You can’t tell from the picture, but I accidentally sat it in place rotated 120 degrees off (this will come back to bite me later!).

I installed the belts and using 2 clams to hold things in place is definitely the way to go!

Next we installed the extruder and this is when you will discover whether you orientated your top plate correctly. I did not do I had to remove the belts I just installed and rotate it 120 degreed CC and re install. Probably 15min of unnecessary work that could have been avoided if I had of been paying attention. And yes its 8 pm now and my “helper” is still helping PJs and all!

With my “helper” in bed I started setting up the hot end, but ran into a snag! My kit was missing the uninsulated barrel crimp connectors. I also had failed to order the quick release connectors in time so I got a bit tripped up at this point.

The 2 metal connectors (in red boxes) were missing : (

I skipped that part and assembled the effector and delta arms before calling it a night at 9 pm.

[Lanty]

Sunday morning I got off to a late start and resumed the build at 10 am.
I grabbed 2 16-14 AWG Butt Connectors and stripped the plastic off them to use in place of the missing barrel crimp connectors on the hot end. They worked like a charm!

Part of why I got a late start was I had to ruin to auto zone and grab some 18 gauge wire to splice into and extend my hot end power wires. Mine were way too short to make it to the RAMBo Board. I went ahead and extended the red and black wire and had an extra set of white cable in my RABMo board box that I used to extend the green and white wires (used for the thermistor). The extra white cable even had the correct connector on the end, so that was a nice bonus!

I hooked up the hot end, the RAMBo board, LCD and installed all the remaining parts that I could.
My kit was missing the #10-32 ¾” Black Nylon Thumb Screws unfortunately, so I couldn’t install the base side covers or the base acrylic panels (this is why there sitting on the hot bed in the final photo) and used the provided “tap” screw to semi secure the top plate.

And here it is accompanied by my “helper” who had to sit out most of Sunday’s assembly. Its around 6 pm so my build is at around 19 hours now.

I turned it on and saw no smoke so I had a beverage as suggested!

[Lanty]

Software and Firmware installation time.
I installed the RAMBo driver, Arduino IDE, pushed the Repetier-Firmware and installed the Repetier-Host software in about 15 mins! It all went very smooth and I had no problems.

[Lanty]

Calibration time!
I plugged in the needed parameters and connected to the printer fine. I tested the end stops and homed the head fine.

The last test involves checking the basic function of both the hot end heating resistors and the
heated bed. The heat bed said it was ok, but the hot end registered an error and said it was putting the software into “Dry Run” mode. Nothing got warm like it should and upon closer inspection I found that the hot end thermistor wire had pulled out of the temp wire connector I was using, so I stuck it back in and close and re-opened the Repetier-Host software re ran the test and everything worked as it should.

PID Auto tune routine
The next step is to do 2 temp calibrations aka "PID Auto tune” routine, one for the Hot end and one for the heat bed.
I entered the g code command and watched the hot end as it heated up. I heard a couple of popping noises and there was more smoke that I would have expected (like a smoking cigarette) so I cut the power! I checked the Temp output graph tab and I could see that the temp had hit 200 right when I killed it. I checked to see if any wires were touching the head to explain the smoke and discovered the thermistor wire had come loose a second time (clearly my temp wire connector solution will have to go asap!). I re attached the wire "again" and re ran the "PID Auto tune” routine without any issues. I did it for the heat bed as well and had no issues.

I set the Z height with the old sheet of paper method and called it a night when I got to the "adjusting the end stops” section. I was getting a bit tired and didn't want to rush the final calibration steps. I stopped on page 205.

[EdMann]

Well I got mine built and calibrated today (minus the fans). Don't know how to actually print anything as I built it for my wife. Can anyone recommend a first test print/walk-through?

[Eaglezsoar]

Calibration time!
I plugged in the needed parameters and connected to the printer fine. I tested the end stops and homed the head fine.

The last test involves checking the basic function of both the hot end heating resistors and the
heated bed. The heat bed said it was ok, but the hot end registered an error and said it was putting the software into “Dry Run” mode. Nothing got warm like it should and upon closer inspection I found that the hot end thermistor wire had pulled out of the temp wire connector I was using, so I stuck it back in and close and re-opened the Repetier-Host software re ran the test and everything worked as it should.

PID Auto tune routine
The next step is to do 2 temp calibrations aka "PID Auto tune” routine, one for the Hot end and one for the heat bed.
I entered the g code command and watched the hot end as it heated up. I heard a couple of popping noises and there was more smoke that I would have expected (like a smoking cigarette) so I cut the power! I checked the Temp output graph tab and I could see that the temp had hit 200 right when I killed it. I checked to see if any wires were touching the head to explain the smoke and discovered the thermistor wire had come loose a second time (clearly my temp wire connector solution will have to go asap!). I re attached the wire "again" and re ran the "PID Auto tune” routine without any issues. I did it for the heat bed as well and had no issues.

I set the Z height with the old sheet of paper method and called it a night when I got to the "adjusting the end stops” section. I was getting a bit tired and didn't want to rush the final calibration steps. I stopped on page 205.

Very good build! I love it when children get involved, their young minds need exposure to Science and Mechanics so that they may develop an interest.
A job well done!

[Eaglezsoar]

Well I got mine built and calibrated today (minus the fans). Don't know how to actually print anything as I built it for my wife. Can anyone recommend a first test print/walk-through?

A good first print is the calibration cube : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5011

[Lanty]

I spent about 30 min calibrating and started my first print!

It's about 30 min into the 1:30 min fan bracket.
I'll post the results when it's done.

Ok it's been an hour and here is what I have:

Not too bad for my first print!

[Lanty]

How far have you gotten? I'm up to page 121 and hit a road block. After attaching the hot end there are no instructions on what to do with the 26ga wires. There's a reference to using them for the PEEK and part fans, but nothing on where to mount them.

Ya, It addresses the peak fan on page 217 after you printed the fan shroud/bracket. Mine just finished printing.

[Lanty]

I went ahead and mounted my peek fan shroud yesterday. It snapped right into place and feels pretty secure. I still haven’t ordered the quick connectors for the hot end wiring, so the fan is there for looks at the moment.

I went ahead and fired up my printer and started my third print…Part way in it just stopped dead in its tracks. LCD screen went black and no blinking lights on the RAMBo board : (

I did a little investigating and posted my findings…It seems to be the general consensus that my RAMBo board has simply failed. I emailed SeeMe CNC support last night and am waiting to hear back from them (hopefully they will exchange the board without any fuss and in a timely manner).
More info on that for anyone interested: http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=4622

I figured I would include this in my build thread since it’s not 100% buttoned up and all just part of the process.

[Eaglezsoar]

You should give your hotend - thermistor a good inspection. Shorts in the wiring no matter how momentary are the common cause of card failure.
The card may just have decided to die but that is not very common, that's why I would give the wiring a good inspection.