Printing properly dimensioned parts?

[Eaglezsoar]

Depending on where they come from they are known to have a high failure rate.

[RTLdan]

Time for another update!
Replaced the heater cartridge with another that I had and this one seems to be working just fine, so it appears that the one that came with the E3D was probably a lemon.

I went to autotune and ran into a small problem.
I was encountering a "PID Autotune Failed - Temperature too high!" message.

After searching the googles, I came up with someone who had a similar problem after switching to the E3D.

The solution for me was to set my PID Drive Max down from 205 to 175.
I then entered the following values:
P: 40
I: 0.55
D: 35

These settings allowed me to PID autotune successfully.
For reference, my averaged results were:
P: 7.21
I: 0.486
D: 26.72

Now I just need to re-level and give it a test print!
Results to follow soon...
Thanks!
-Daniel

[RTLdan]

Actually ran into one last issue I could use a little help with.
I'm trying to follow the instructions for the E3D installation...and it says I need to heat the hotend up to 300 degrees and tighten the nozzle. Repetier seems to be unwilling to let me set extruder temperature any higher than 247. I searched the firmware but I was not able to find any kind of "Max Extruder Temperature" value.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

[Eaglezsoar]

You should be able to find a statement like this in configuration.h: #define GENERIC_THERM1_MAX_TEMP 300

The therm number will be which ever thermistor table you are using.

[RTLdan]

@Eaglezoar - Thanks for the tip! Found it in the firmware, though it was a named slightly differently -- maybe a difference in the 0.91 firmware? In any case, I was able to change it successfully and finish the installation of the E3D Hotend.

I'll have more info and pictures to come...but my first test cube practically brought tears of joy to my eyes. Layers look SO much better. I had been getting discouraged with my prints after having done what felt like a billion test cubes with very little improvement. This is a huge relief.

I think there was something funny about my original hotend after all. Extruding into the air with the E3D's .4mm nozzle produces a string that looks much smaller in diameter than the original hotend's .5mm nozzle extrusions...and now extrusion just looks more uniform too.

I was, of course, having extreme difficulty getting the original hotend to print with anything near a walll thickness of .55. I guess what I'm trying to say is, my initial guess is that the original hotend's nozzle was much bigger than it was supposed to be (on top of my finding some potential problems with the inner tubing being a little deformed at the end, and the appearance of plastic having...leaked maybe?).

So my first print with this E3D made me very happy. Great layers that look very precise and uniform. No "skips", "gaps", or "voids" like before.
What a wonderful piece of engineering! I'll have a go at the thin wall tests tomorrow.

Again, more tests and results to come. Pictures too. Just wanted to get the first impression out there.

Thanks!
-Daniel

[Eaglezsoar]

I'm glad that you got it working!

[RTLdan]

So I was out in the shop printing a couple more parts today, and I'm experiencing one thing that I'm not quite sure
how to fix when slicing.

Prints are coming out looking pretty nice, but this nozzle is producing much smaller and more accurate lines.
The single wall test printed perfectly at an average of just about .44 thickness (for a .44 wall -- .4 nozzle).

When trying to print anything not hollow or single wall, the lines inside the perimeter are uniform, but they don't seem to touch/have any overlap (25% infill). When I hold the print up to the light, I can see light through the tiny holes.

What setting should I be using to alter this? Extrusion width? The results I just described were using MHackney's KISS settings. .55 extrusion width. I would have thought .55 would have been a fairly thick extrusion width for the .4 nozzle?

All help is immensely appreciated!
Thanks again for guiding me through this 3D printing journey!
-Daniel

[Eaglezsoar]

See this topic, it sounds an awful lot like what you are experiencing.
The second and third pages talk about problems similar to yours. http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=1036

[RTLdan]

Hi Eaglezoar!
I read through the thread you linked to and there are a couple of ideas on there that I will look in to.
Here are a couple pictures of the print I did that I was referring to in my last post.
It's fairly clean, but the crosshatching is sparse. Hence, when held up to the light I can see light through the infill pattern.

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222 ... b4f53d.jpg[/img]
Bed side of print

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222 ... 6d72e1.jpg[/img]
Top of print

By the way, just wanted to say thanks again for all your help through my build, Eaglezoar. You've been so patient helping me and others get our machines up and running!

Thanks!
-Daniel

[Eaglezsoar]

Thank you. I have two goals for the users of this Forum. Get the printer running and keeping it running. Then I get to wish each user Happy Printing!

[mhackney]

You should be able to find a statement like this in configuration.h: #define GENERIC_THERM1_MAX_TEMP 300

The therm number will be which ever thermistor table you are using.

Just FYI for folks - I have not had to change nozzles since upgrading to .91 until this morning. I removed the old nozzle and kicked up the temp to 300°C to install the new. I had changed GENERIC_THERM1_MAX_TEMP to 300 in my firmware and uploaded it. But, I was still pegged at 250° and could't go higher. Turns out that there is another parameter:

#define MAXTEMP 247

that you need to change to 300 to support the E3D and Kraken nozzle change temperatures.

[Eaglezsoar]

You should be able to find a statement like this in configuration.h: #define GENERIC_THERM1_MAX_TEMP 300

The therm number will be which ever thermistor table you are using.

Just FYI for folks - I have not had to change nozzles since upgrading to .91 until this morning. I removed the old nozzle and kicked up the temp to 300°C to install the new. I had changed GENERIC_THERM1_MAX_TEMP to 300 in my firmware and uploaded it. But, I was still pegged at 250° and could't go higher. Turns out that there is another parameter:

#define MAXTEMP 247

that you need to change to 300 to support the E3D and Kraken nozzle change temperatures.

Good tip! This one goes into my important tips folder.
I wonder if both statements need to be changed or just the #define MAXTEMP 247