Since I wasn't making any progress on Wednesday nights I knuckled down and worked on my RepRap all weekend and finished it... mostly. The only thing left is to get some Kapton tape, which I'm getting from a friend tonight, to wrap the thermistor and the print head. I also need to get all my firmware and slicer program loaded. I should be able to test and calibrate in the next couple days.

I wouldn't mind a bit of help in the calibration department, I know there are several folkls that have built these if you wouldn't mind giving me a hand. I pay in beer.

I asked for 9" of Kapton tape and I got 9 ROLLS! I think I'll have a little left over. I'll be returning all but one roll to my friend, but I should have plenty left if anyone needs some.

If I can figure out this software and firmware I'll be firing it up tonight. I'll bring it to the HF tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to print something.

I fired it up last night... Good news, no smoke, no fire, no popped breakers.

Bad news, all but one motor was set to Inverted in the Config file, so everything was backwwards, even the extruder. Found that bit of code this morning.

Now I just need to either figure out how to set HOME without endstops or hook up my endstops. I'll have it at the HF tonight if anyone wants to help calibrate and test it.

A couple of setbacks last night:

1. We found out last night that the Repetier Host software doesn't have a Set to Home button and G92 didn't seem to be working.
2. So we wired up a few micro-switches for endstops that I had from Axman. Unfortunately, 2 of them only worked once or twice before giving up the ghost.

However, much math was accomplished. All of the stepper calibrations were worked out and the firmware adjusted.

I decided to look into the Repetier software this morning and I found that the Mac version has a Set to Home button. WTF? So, I sent an email off to Repetier to ask how I can run sans endstops and set my Home, and would he add the Set to Home button to the standard version. I was shocked when I got a response within minutes. He said to move the extruder to where you want 0,0,0 and use the Host command "@isathome" and then "G92 X0 Y0 Z0" and that I could add it to a script and have it run whenever I power up. Awesome!

He did recommend still using a Z endstop to prevent the nozzle from driving past the printbed as a precaution. I don't think I'll ever have code that goes into the negatives, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to be err on the side of caution. Good thing one of my switches still works, but who knows for how long.

I'll be playing with this tonight.

I bought all new micro-switches and installed them, I was tired of trying to get the software and firmware to go to 0,0,0 when and where I tell it to. Sunday I printed my first thing. I thought I had set the filament settings correctly but apparently I missed the save button. So, instead of the proper settings for 0.35mm nozzle I got the default settings for 0.5mm. It still worked but the nozzle was printing well above the bed by the time it finished. I think I have it figured out now.

Needs a little more bed leveling for me to be really happy but I'm fairly content with the progress so far.

I DID IT!

For the past week or so I've been struggling with really crappy prints, the layers looked good but the lines in each layer wouldn't touch. I went back and worked my way through every setting, putting them all back to the recommended defaults. I found that my extruder was set for 373 steps instead of 700. I tweaked it and voila, it works.

I also hooked up the thermocouple from my MM and found my temps were reading 15 deg higher than they actually were, assuming my MM was calibrated properly. I added 15 degrees to my heat, for now. I'll go back and adjust my thermocouple tables sometime.

My prints are solid and relatively smooth and I'm now printing out useful things. I just wish it hadn't taken me nearly 2 weeks to find that setting.


Charles, I'll be printing out a set of peices for you shortly so we can start getting yours built.

Congratulations! Can't wait to see what you'll be doing with this!

Me too!