3D Printer

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AllHandsActive has two Makerbot Industries Cupcake series 3D Printers. The printers are both heavily modified from their original state so aside from the chasis saying Cupcake, refer to documentation shown below.

3D Printer workstation

About

A small netbook (host name: FLICKY) sits with the 3D printers. Use the 'AHA' login with the usual back room password. ReplicatorG is installed (on desktop) and setup for use with Creamcheese. It has an SD card slot so you can also use it to build to card and print from that. Feel free to use the netbook and take it along when you transport printers. Unplug and shut down when not using it. No need to burn out the power supply/battery.

Known issues

Replicatorg loads full screen, right click on program in XFCE top bar and say always on top, this will then put the window in the right place and allow you to resize. Alternatively attach a larger monitor.

Maintenance and upgrades

Machine is maintained by: Tyler W.

  • This machine does not have the latest Config files for the bots (7/2/12)

Creamcheese Cupcake

This bots history

This machine started as a Cupcake with Gen3 electronics and Gen3 Extruder. The extruder never worked right and became a hacked version of the DC extruder and a makergear hot end. The X and Y axis were changed to be quieter and more accurate. The DC extruder died during a 3D printing talk at Penguicon 2012. We discovered that we cannot easily source many of the parts we originally used and decided to build something that we could repair in the future. We decided on a Stepper extruder with 3MM filament feed as we had many pounds of it sitting around.

We use Jetty's acceleration firmware (Use slic3r not Skeinforge!) with Rob G's 5D cable hack (similar to just using the 5D shield). Recently we added 3 pololu stepper drivers on the A, X and Y axis allowing us to push the machine a bit faster.

Things this bot has:

How Do I run Creamcheese? (UPDATED 8/7!)

Once you have the bot configured, but before printing.... move the nozzle up and run the extruder manually from ReplicatorG to ensure it is feeding properly. This only needs to be done for the first print or after changing colors.

  • Get ReplicatorG 0029 R2 (MUST BE THIS VERSION, NOT NEWER!) - Jetty custom version or from Google Code Listing. If you get the non-jetty version you cannot enable and disable acceleration. This is fine if you just plan to use the basic settings.
  • Get Slic3r
  • Get the Creamcheese config files from here: Tyler's repository of cool stuff! - UPDATED 8/* (THESE ARE NOT YET PUBLISHED AS OF 8/7!)
  • Put the *.xml files in your replicatorg machines directory
  • Put the config.ini in your Slic3r directory.

Printing with Slic3r (supported!)

  • Start Slic3r
  • Press load config (pick the config.ini)
  • Under Print Settings, Fill Density insert a fractional value for infill (.35 works well)
  • Under platter drag your STL files in or use the Add button. Move things so they will fit.
  • Press export GCode.
  • Open ReplicatorG and connect to CreamCheese with machine type CreamCheese - Slic3r (supported)
  • File->Open and pick your newly generated GCode file
  • Pick build to file
  • Save the resulting .s3g to an SD card with a filename no longer than 7 character.
  • Put the SD card in the bot
  • In ReplicatorG pick build from file and pick the file in the list.
  • Remove print when finished.

Printing with Skeinforge (Experimental)

We no longer support using Skeinforge with Creamcheese. If you want to use it you can, but be aware you are on your own

  • Follow the standard Creamcheese instructions
  • Put the folders (ex. SF40-Cupcake-3mm-.35SD) folders in your sf_40_profiles folder. On linux this is in a hidden home folder directory (ex: /home/worman/.replicatorg/sf_40_profiles
  • Connect to Creamcheese using machine type "CreamCheese - Skeinforge (Experimental)
  • Use Replicatorg to disable acceleration by sending "M209 S0" twice (make sure you do it twice!)
  • In Machine->Motherboard On Board settings turn off Inverse A Axis.
  • Reset the motherboard
  • In Replicatorg, GCode->GCode Generator pick Skeinforge 40 (Experimental)
  • Use the following settings when you generate GCode...
    • Base Profile: SF40-Cupcake-3mm-.35SD (if you put the config in the right place this will show up). The SD version is setup to print from an SD card.
    • Raft: Your choice, on or off.
    • Support Material: Your choice, on or off
    • Use Print-O-Matic: YES!
    • POM-Settings-Object Infill: 30% (Less and you get a hollower object, more and it is more solid.)
    • POM-Settings-Layer Height (mm): 0.25 (Smaller and bot moves faster stretching the plastic, larger and it will tell you can it can't print thick layers because of nozzle size)
    • POM-Settings-Number of shells: 2 (How many solid outer layers you get)
    • POM-Settings-Feedrate (mm/s): Variable. 35 is a good slow number, 45 is decently quick.. in theory if belts don't slip and the bot doesn't shake too much we can run around 70-80mm/s.
    • POM-Plastic-Material type: ABS
    • POM-Plastic-Filament Diameter (mm): 2.94 (This should be an average thickness of the filament you feed in. It does vary by color and over lengths of filament. You might want to play with this when changing colors. Measure every 6 inches to a foot and average..)
    • POM-Extruder-Nozzle Diameter(mm) - .35
    • POM-Extruder-Drive Gear Diameter(mm) - 10.58
  • Print, maybe successfully.
  • When finished re-invert the A Axis and send M209 S3 twice to turn the acceleration back on for the next person.

FAQ

  • What happened to Skeinforge/Why do I need Slic3r? It was much easier to get good prints from Slic3r and generating Gcode is faster. ReplicatorG doesn't have great documentation but we provide files you can use to set it up for non-accelerated prints. In theory all you need to do is change the feed rates to something higher with acceleration but it didn't produce good prints.
  • Why can I no longer print over the USB cable? We added the 1/16th step drivers and it creates a lot of traffic that the USB cable link can't handle for parts with lots of little tight corners. We provide the non SD profile just in case you are printing a really big 100% infill box with no tiny motions that you really want to print over the USB cable but really just use the SD card.
  • But a USB cable is super fast! What gives? The USB cable looks like a USB cable, but it is really a USB to Serial cable. The makerbot talks to the computer over serial and that is significantly slower than the USB maximum.
  • My print didn't work. It said it printed but it did nothing. What did I do wrong? Make sure you used a short file name when making the S3G file. Long file names cause the bot to do this.

Making your own configuration files

[[3D_Printer:Creamcheese:Config] How we configured it]

Contact

Questions? Can you borrow it? Break something? Contact one of the following people!

  • Tyler W.
  • Nate Y.
  • Josh W.


BlackBottom Cupcake

This bots history

This machine started as a Cupcake with Gen3 electronics and Gen5 Extruder. The DC extruder was upgraded by Ox to a Gen5/6+ stepstruder. The bot originally was given a 3G5D board but it never worked well. As a result we did the ugly cable hack.

At some point Ox decided to donate this bot to AHA!

It was renamed from Ox's bot to BlackBottom Cupcake (alternate name for a creamcheese cupcake) on 7/1/12

Things this bot has:

  • Gen3 Electronics + Gen4 stepper for extruder
  • Mk6 Stepstruder
  • Acrylic Platform
  • .40MM Nozzle
  • RobG's 3G5D firmware.

How Do I run BlackBottom Cupcake?

Printer currently broken: build platform is not flat, heater relay is misbehaving, and firmware is corrupted. We have a new relay on order. Once that comes in, we'll reinstall the firmware, replace the relay board, put on a heated build platform (which we have in the back), and it will work again. If you need to 3D print something in the meanwhile, you should use Creamcheese.

Once you have the bot configured, but before printing.... move the nozzle up and run the extruder manually from ReplicatorG to ensure it is feeding properly. This only needs to be done for the first print or after changing colors.

  • Get ReplicatorG 0029 R2 (MUST BE THIS VERSION NOT NEWER!) - Google Code Listing
  • Get the Creamcheese config files from here: Tyler's repository of cool stuff! - UPDATED 7/2
  • Put the *.xml files in your replicatorg machines directory
  • Put the folders (ex. SF40-BlackBottom-Cupcake-3mm-.35SD) folders in your sf_40_profiles folder.
    • On linux this is in a hidden home folder directory (ex: /home/worman/.replicatorg/sf_40_profiles
    • On Windows this is approximately: "\replicatorg-0029_r2\skein_engines\skeinforge-40\skeinforge_application\prefs\"
  • Start up replicatorg and pick machine type of BlackBottom Cupcake 3G5D (RPM)
  • In Replicatorg: GCode->GCode Generator pick Skeinforge 40 (Experimental)
  • Use the following settings when you generate GCode...
    • Base Profile: SF40-BlackBottom-Cupcake-3mm-.40SD (if you put the config in the right place this will show up). The SD version is setup to print from an SD card.
    • Raft: Your choice, on or off.
    • Support Material: Your choice, on or off
    • Use Print-O-Matic: YES!
    • POM-Settings-Object Infill: 15% (Less and you get a hollower object, more and it is more solid.)
    • POM-Settings-Layer Height (mm): 0.30 (Smaller and bot moves faster stretching the plastic, larger and it will tell you can it can't print thick layers because of nozzle size)
    • POM-Settings-Number of shells: 2 (How many solid outer layers you get)
    • POM-Settings-Feedrate (mm/s): Variable. 35 is a good slow number.
    • POM-Plastic-Material type: ABS
    • POM-Plastic-Filament Diameter (mm): 2.94 (This should be an average thickness of the filament you feed in. It does vary by color and over lengths of filament. You might want to play with this when changing colors. Measure every 6 inches to a foot and average..)
    • POM-Extruder-Nozzle Diameter(mm) - .40 (DIFFERENT FROM CREAMCHEESE)
    • POM-Extruder-Drive Gear Diameter(mm) - 10.58
  • Click build to file
  • Save .s3g file to an SD card (or usb stick and then transfer to SD on the mini computer.) Be sure to use 16 CHARACTERS OR LESS in the file name!!!!
  • Put SD card in bot (while it's off or on, doesn't seem to matter).
  • In replicatorG tell it to build from file and pick the file from the list.
  • Watch it go...

Contact

Questions? Can you borrow it? Break something? Contact one of the following people!

  • Tyler W.
  • Josh W.
  • Michael Sh.

Comments

  • 08/04/2012 ~1230 - ALIVE: Something (not a motor) is making a buzzing noise, usually for <1 second, seems to do it more when the extruder is close to ~220 temp. Maybe the relay? The noise happens both when you are printing, and when you are waiting for printer to come to temp.
  • 08/04/2012 ~1530 - DEAD: Angry Black Bottom! One successful 10mm cube print on Black Bottom prior to class.
    • Created a 20mmCubePrint, generated GCode, loaded onto SD Card
    • Went to print, plastic didn't seem to be adhering to platform
    • Lowered head down a bit, it looked to be a bit too high
    • Extruder head caught on platform as a result of it being too low.
    • Attempted to stop in ReplicatorG, hitting stop button did not change anything
    • Turned BlackBottom off via the Motherboard Switch, this stopped it.
    • Waited a few minutes, repositioned head, turned Motherboard switch back on, and we get:
      • Three Red Flashes, Pause, Red Flash, Long Pause, Power LED on Motherboard, and green LEDs on other boards light up for a brief second, then all lights are off EXCEPT for a very dim green light on the stepper controller for the extruder.
    • Power down, disconnect, reconnect, reset, etc. do not appear to help at all.
  • 08/04/2012 ~1640 - ALIVE: After multiple resets, power downs, complete disconnects from power. I turned it on while pulling on the modified wire mashup connected to the RepRap Motherboard (that go down to the Extruder Stepper Controller)
    • Wires possibly coming loose from the connection to the pins / shorting out?
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