Friday Work Session

On Friday I worked on my Guass Rifle model so that i could calibrate Midas and print it. I spent about 2 hours just trying to figure out how to get replicator G to work, which the problem was a python problem, and was one of those problems that makes you bang your head against the wall. It turns out that you cannot move where Python is installed otherwise replicator G cannot find the Python executable file. I had also just spent about an hour finishing my model, so after a good amount of time I was able to export an .stl file, put it into Replicator G, and was able to print! The relief! The print went well, no real problems other than that it seemed to being pushing the plastic around on one layer and the top layer was not as smooth as i would have wanted but for a first print it was pretty good. I am going to fiddle with the model and then try to print it again.

Today is about Calibration

I tried to do some prints today but our calibration is off. The prints I have done thus far are pretty hollow. So we went through David Durant's calibration tutorial. Here are the results from our test calibrations.

Text 1

Extrusion Width over thickness: 1.7

Feedrate (mm/s): 34.1

Test 2

Extrusion Width over thickness: 1.7

Feedrate (mm/s): 33

Test 2

Extrusion Width over thickness: 1.7

Feedrate (mm/s): 33.25

Carve: .4

We decided to stick with a feedrate of 33.25 because that gave us the best results on the test prints.

Here is an email correspondance between Nick from Metrix and myself.

Hi Nick,

My name is Nathan, one the researchers on this project. Some of the issues we are having are that some of the stepper motors are really hot.

This is normal for steppers. Even if they are slightly above "too hot to touch" they are still happy. They should not got hot enough to boil water though. The stepper drivers should not get this hot though, if they do, they will need heatsink on the driver chip or you need to turn the current down until you can fit them with heatsinks.

When the z-stage is travelling up it does something to make a lot of noise.

This could be the stage stalling out, it really depends on the noise. A Z axis crank is a good way to tell if the Z axis is stalling since its motion would not be fluid during a Z move if it was stalling

Another issue we are having that is probably related is that when printing the makerbot will re-adjust its zero settings and start printing at a different location.

This is a problem with all systems that are open loop, though there are things you can do to reduce the chances of this happening (Most errors occur when pausing/stopping a build or if your skienforge settings are incorrect)

We just filed down the side of the z-stage that is closest to the chips. It was catching on the bolt heads located on the inside.

If you have any insite into these issues that would be wonderful.

Thanks,

Nathan

We just got a noise complaint from our neighboring office mate. We learned the hard way that there is little sound privacy between our two officies.

On the path to solving problems

We are currently trying to figure out why our prints have been coming out skewed and misformed. We realized that our y-stage belt tension was changing because the bolt to hold the pulley in place had become loose. We are new taking apart the stage to get the bolt tightened; hopefully this will fix our problem.
Nathan also gets the grubby paws award today.

Metrix Thoughts

Metrix is one heck of a place to work on Midas. There is definitely a wealth of knowledge there and we might be spending a large amount of time there if our MakerBot keeps acting the way it is. Going into the building I was a little apprehensive that we wouldn't have been able to use the facilities because of the need for a membership. I was pleasantly surprised when we could use the building no problem and also get help from the people there! We had to pay if we wanted to use the tools and other machines there but wifi was free and their help was extremely helpful and also FREE! We might actually get a membership so we can use the tools like the laser cutter, rep rap 3d printer and other small tools. All in all Metrix is a great place to work, especially if you are not in the realm of working through a school. Normal people would definitely find Metrix extremely helpful.

Metrix!

Fun times at Metrix! We learned lots, helpful insight from some very well educated individuals. Apart from solving the overheating problem we got a few helpful tips.
On the way to Metrix I didn't really know what to expect. When we walked in we were greeted by one of the workers, and we set our MakerBot down on one of the work tables. Another patron arrived just as we did and he was interested in our machine. It was nice to see that he was interested in the MakerBot, most people that I have talked to so far have had no idea what a 3D printer is much less a MakerBot specifically. Once we were set up one of the workers came over and we introduced ourselves and began talking with him. He introduced himself as Matt and gave us a tour of Metrix. He was very helpful and easy going. The whole environment at Metrix was very inviting, it felt more like a hangout spot for people than a business. Matt gave us a few pointers but had to leave to go pick up his kid from school.
One of the frustrations that I had been running into was leveling our z-stage. Matt showed us a new way to level the z-stage that required much less work.
Feeling motivated Wednesday between classes I tried to print out a Porsche Carrera that I downloaded from thingiverse. After Midas had been printing for about 20 minutes the x dimension of the print shifted about one half centimeter so the model was no longer printing correctly. I had to abort the print and go to class without solving the problem. Today, I'll try and get the Carrera printed again using skienforge built into ReplicatorG instead. Wish us luck!

Calibration and the first extrusion

When we went to Metrix, we went to figure out our problems with the z-stage and why our stepper motors were so hot. Matt at Metrix was on his way out so he wasnt able to help us a whole lot but he was able to give us some valuable information about printing, painting, and where to look for information.

We fixed our problems with the z-stage using our iPhones as a measuring device for leveling the z-stage. We then had to figure out why the motors were over heating. We searched on the makerbot wiki to find more information about it. There was not a lot of helpful information about making the correct calibrations to reduce the current to the motors. We found out that we need to adjust the potentiometers on each of the stepper motor boards. Matt told us that adjustments to the potentiometers will only take place after a power cycle. So we made our first adjustment to the x board by turning the potentiometer off with a 3/4 counter-clockwise turn. After we powercycled, we were not able to control our x-stage anymore, which is exactly what we wanted. We made a 1/4 clockwise turn to power back on. It was just a guess. Now the z-stage motor is complete cool when its running. The y-stepper is warm but the x-stepper is still really hot. The z-stage still makes some noise when going up and down.

Our first print was a bust of a woman's torso. I was kept my eye on the model the entire time to make sure nothing was going on. I was so excited to see it build up. The instant I looked away the nozzle hit the model knocking it over. I had to stop the build. I tried another model the next morning and for some reason it printed most of the model and then changed where the zero location was and started the print at a different location.

Metrix Trip

After the long break we are back in action. We traveled to Capitol Hill today to go to Metrix Play Space to ask some experts about the MakerBot. When we last worked on the MakerBot we had some tough times getting the Z stage to move properly. So we thought it would be a good idea to come to Metrix and ask how we should go about fixing the stage. Well when we arrived the MakerBot decided to fix itself and the actual stage works perfectly. Thankfully this is now working but we have run into another problem. We believe our engines and boards are overheating so we are trying to figure out how to change, and fix, our current settings so that we can run the machine at an efficient temperature. No need to burn out the engines!

Heated Build platform, Blender modeling, and Remapping with Replicator G

With the MakerBot complete it now comes to us testing and maker sure the printer can work! So we decided to split up our tasks to be more efficient. Nathan is going to build the heated build platform, I will be working with Blender to make a first object to print, and Steven is going to be working on remapping the heater controller to a different port. Hopefully we can get something printing today but we will see! So far we are all very excited to be working on this and can't wait to start printing!

We've got heat!

Our time together on Tuesday ended with the Makerbot all put together and communicating with ReplicatorG. We were excited to see everything coming together but our Plastruder wasn't heating up so we weren't able to do a test extrusion. We planned to tackle this problem the following Thursday; Alex was going to see if his TA would be able to give us some advise. I was feeling particularly motivated on Wednesday between classes so I began scouring the Makebot forums. I found a person who was having similar problems. It turned out that the port our heater controller was plugged into wasn't working. I quickly switched the connection and it did the trick. The instructions now require us to remap the ports in ReplicatorG, this should be a challenging task.
We were also having trouble updating the firmware of the motherboard and extruder controller. While searching on the forums I was also able to find out how to update the motherboard.
In other news, we have decided on a name for our Makerbot: Midas!

Electronic's, Soldering, and Plugging in Wires

After Thursday of last week we have most of the parts constructed and now we are just trying to test each part using a multimeter. We are running into some trouble as we are not getting acceptable values for the thermistor or the heating resistors. At this point we are having to test the wires again because on Thursday we could not get the right values. We believe it may be caused by our multimeter which isn't the most high tech. After a little disassembly we tested each resistor individually and found each to be about 5 ohm's and with a 1% tolerance we found them to be 3 ohm's in parallel so about 2.5 with the 1% tolerance. After some deliberation we figured to move forward with our work and are now going to try and put everything together so that we can try to calibrate and begin printing on Thursday.

It's Soldering Time

We stopped on Sunday when we realized that we didn't have any solder to use on the plasturder parts. We got quite a bit finished though so we called it a night. Nathan was able to procure some solder so we are able to continue working on the plasturder. So far producing the plastruder hasn't been extremely difficult. Some of the parts are hard to assemble which is poorly portrayed in the instructions but with a little brute force and elbow grease we were able to get them together and in the plastruder. We will definitely make a note of how difficult the pieces were to put together, which was mainly the thumbscrew. At this point we are working on soldering and we will hopefully get the plastruder finished today.

Sunday Night Session

We met up this Sunday night to get started on building the Plastruder. The 59 pages of instructions seemed like a daunting task until we figured out that we printed out the wrong version. Starting in on the 35 pages of instructions for the Plastruder MK5 seems like an easy task now.
Nathan has made some attempts to use Google SketchUp to create 3D models of chess pieces but quickly become frusterated with the software. We will try to use Solid Works, Blender, and Rhino in the future do the 3D modeling. It will be exciting to see the Plastruder come together so we can finally begin printing things out!

Interview for Thingiverse

Allan Ecker has decided to interview us for thingiverse's website. We answered the questions today and the interview should be up by tomorrow!

Body is ready to build

After taking Tuesday off for test studying and Portland traveling we are back at the MakerBot. We had to wait for a couple meetings before assembling the body because we needed to make this MakerBot stand out a bit, so Nathan spray painted the outside of the body, twice, with gold and then finished it off with a clear coat. All in all the body looks really snazzy and today we are going to start actually putting it together. So far in the construction there hasn't been anything extremely difficult in our path. I think the real troubles will come when we need to start building the pieces like the extruder which has many intricate parts. I believe we will get the body completed today and then begin looking at the extruder.

October 28th, 2010

Today we will be finishing the x stage assembly. We should be done within the hour and then we will move onto the actual body. Things are moving quite fast and the three of us are really working well together. I personally am excited to not only finish this MakerBot but I am also excited to rework the instructions to make sure future students and MakerBot enthusiasts will have a smoother ride. Although the wiki instructions are not terrible they definitely could be improved and as a group I believe that we could not only make them clearer and more precise, but we could also make them more professional. I personally would like to add that to our list of goals to finish by quarter, or research group's, end.

End of October 16th

Working on the second section went well although we still did find some problems in the instructions. We haven't finished this section yet but will on Thursday. We are making notes as we go along on what should and could be improved. So far everyone is really excited. I know I especially am! Even just the few parts we have constructed look really cool. So far things are going very well and the only real trouble we have had is problems with the actual instructions. nothing major though.

Y Stage Assembly

The first section was completed. The Y stage assembly was completed today and did not really take much time at all. The information given on the MakerBot's website wiki was pretty good but we definitely found some instructions that could be improved for those who might not have as much build experience or knowledge about the product. We might go about putting a revised instruction manual on the wiki just so it is a little more clear. From now on we will be taking pictures and making revisions and edits to the instructions just to clear some it up. We are now starting the X Stage Assembly which says should take about 1 hour and a half. We will have to complete as much as possible today and finish whatever is left on Thursday. Things are moving well.

Procedure for October 26, 2010

-ran through parts and checked to make sure all pieces were there and accounted for
-checked makerBot homepage for any and all past mistakes posted by other makerBotters
-began construction on y assembly stage

MakerBot is here!

It's here! There is a general feeling of Christmas as we open up our makerbot! As we pull out the pieces we begin to realize how daunting of a task this will be, yet excitement is high. We placed a sticker on the wall if that is any indication of how excited we are. Next step is print the instructions and begin construction!

Project OMG! First Blog

We are Project Open-Source MakerBot Group (OMG)! The goal of this group is to document and learn from our experiences while building our MakerBot.

Today was our second meeting and will be our first blog post. We had a very productive day that started with Beth Kolko answering all of the questions we had about this project.