Below is what we’ve done and where we are. Please feel free to ask questions and/or suggest better ways to do it. I'll add some pictures when I get home.
Barnett
prep before weekend 1
- Inventory items: Labeled almost everything with masking tape and part numbers, resulting in many labeled baby food jars. I didn’t inventory items in the extruder kit & wrapped up melamine wood.
- There were some missing screws, but Julie rushed them to me and I had them before the weekend.
- Ordered the silicone adhesive online from Harbor Freight. I wish I had gone to their local store because the shipment took 10 days.
- My kids broke out all the melamine parts, popped out the little circles & sorted it.
- Downloaded Repetier, but didn’t even open it.
weekend one
- Jake and I built the kit following the UStream videos. As I noted on the Indiegogo comments area:
- I think the Reprap wiki page is correct that it’s easier to install the motors, timing pulleys, idler bearings & power supply before putting on the table.
- Beware: we got obsessive sanding/filing all plastic holding the u-joints & probably went too far. Ours have almost no friction and possibly the slightest amount of side to side motion in one or two cases.
- Also I suggest leaving the barbs up on the 4-40 “blind” t-slot nuts that go on the back of the Cheapskate arm plate. Hammer them (gently) if you have to. We regretted flattening the barbs because later when we added the belts, the nuts spun around and wouldn’t grab. It’s hard to reach behind the belt clamps to prevent the spinning.
- If your Cheapskate arm plates have countersink rings, I would not pop them off in the beginning like all the others because it’s not needed and it defaces the melamine.
- Those videos were great. Having Steve show us what to do every step of the way was so much easier than trying to use the PDFs.
- After the videos, things went more slowly.
- Thought we were missing part 71574 extruder barrel assembly but we had what we needed all along. This remained unresolved until today.
prep before weekend two
- John posted additional info on Reprap’s Rostock Max wiki page just in time for us. Used that and the Rambo wiki to determine how to connect to the board. Posted questions on the Seemecnc forum and got answers.
- Also posted a question because the endstop actuator screw hole was too close to the belt clamp. Answer: drill another hole.
- start building cable extensions for motors (crimping and attaching the connectors)
- some of these connections failed because I was using leftover solid core wire. Ordered more connectors from Ultimachine and bought stranded wire. Redid motor wire extensions.
- I also bought some Molex connectors to go between the Rambo and the extruder motor and also the Rambo and the hot end (heat and thermistor). This way I can easily unplug & detach the extruder and hot end.
- solder end stops & power switch to their wires
weekend two
- finish wiring of endstops, motors, hot end wires to Rambo; I used sewing thread, a paperclip and gravity to thread through the inside of the t-slot columns. Then I could pull the endstop wires through there.
- drill new holes for endstop actuator screws
- replace one non-functioning endstop from a local supplier
- tighten belts
- post question to forum on heated bed wiring
- download Arduino firmware editor util per John’s YouTube video
- assemble & wire hot end (missing hot end spacer so drilled a hole in one of the popped out melamine circles)
- assembled hot end and glued in the resistors & thermistor with silicone; no wiring yet
- At this point, it was Saturday night and I had a party to go to. But we wanted to power up first. Sent a G28 command from Repetier and watched motors home to endstops… a high five moment.
Sunday (yesterday):
- soldered the hot end connections
- power up, start calibration per wiki page; but something was slipping. Tightening setscrews on timing pulleys revealed one bad timing pulley where neither setscrew would hold. Retapped setscrew holes for 6-32 and they held.
- Endstop calibration took several (maybe 8) iterations but worked perfectly. We used a small flat piece of wood to compare distances between nozzle and stickralon plate at center vs at edge near t-slot columns. Then X and Y (no firmware adjustments needed).
- Test hot end heat & thermistor to 200C. Worked fine.
- ran filament through extruder; firmware had extruder motor reversed, so fixed with Arduino util and reloaded firmware.
- We were still confused about extruder barrel assembly and jury rigged something planning to eventually print the part we thought we needed.
- Still no answer on forum post about heated bed wiring, and we were impatient (Paol’s response [thank you!] came afterward). So we guessed: soldered one + and one – from Rambo heat to Phebe I heat terminals, leaving the extra two heat terminals open. Used silicone to glue thermistor head to the little square marked “sensor” on the heated bed, but did not solder leads to those tiny terminals next to the sensor square; soldered leads to wires running to Rambo. Bed heats but thermistor shows room temp. As Paol suggests, those thermistor leads do need to be soldered to the tiny heated bed terminals next to the “sensor” square. Which I’ll do this week.
- Went through various settings in Repetier & Slic3R
prep for weekend three (to be done this week)
- order replacement timing pulley and Onyx heated bed.
- John Oly set me straight on my extruder barrel assembly confusion so I’ll fix that.
- Correct the connection between thermistor and Phebe I.
- fine tune dimensions in Repetier by manually jogging hot end nozzle over heated bed and noting positions
- assuming that all works, then I’ll try a dry run print of the calibration pyramid; then try an actual run?
weekend three
- install onyx bed
