Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

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Icky
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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

Post by Icky »

PaulJ_2.0 wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 9:08 am
Icky wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 6:52 am It's built into the X,Y carriage system and is a PL-08-N2 - http://www.cheemi-tech.com/pdf/Cheemi%2 ... -PL-08.pdf
Whilst they are not at all bad, their performance is influenced by heat and so is your build plate. If you find inconsistencies it's a good idea to swap it for a BLTouch probe. They are an expensive swap out, but really are worth it for your sanity, especially if you use different filaments that run at different temps. I was tearing my hair out on my printer that is used for PLA and ABS, the bed would warp differing amounts because of the temps and the probe would also be affected by the increased heat of the bed by up to .5mm when printing ABS, meaning getting the two filaments to print one after the other was a pain. The BL touch has tolerances of less than 0.005mm which made it all 'fire and forget'.

You may find that inductive probe is fine though and I do use them successfully on other printers, it's just a thing to look out for if you are having issues.
Thanks PaulJ 2.0. The sensor is inherent to the design of the printer as its very integrated into the carriage, although, as we do, we can modify etc these things for optimisation. I'll see how it goes for now as I want to get the thing running which I am expecting to be a big Yak shaving exercise with calibrating and configuration.
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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

Post by Atarian Computing »

PaulJ_2.0 wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 9:08 am
Icky wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 6:52 am It's built into the X,Y carriage system and is a PL-08-N2 - http://www.cheemi-tech.com/pdf/Cheemi%2 ... -PL-08.pdf
Whilst they are not at all bad, their performance is influenced by heat and so is your build plate. If you find inconsistencies it's a good idea to swap it for a BLTouch probe. They are an expensive swap out, but really are worth it for your sanity, especially if you use different filaments that run at different temps. I was tearing my hair out on my printer that is used for PLA and ABS, the bed would warp differing amounts because of the temps and the probe would also be affected by the increased heat of the bed by up to .5mm when printing ABS, meaning getting the two filaments to print one after the other was a pain. The BL touch has tolerances of less than 0.005mm which made it all 'fire and forget'.

You may find that inductive probe is fine though and I do use them successfully on other printers, it's just a thing to look out for if you are having issues.
For a cheaper alternative to BLTouch, I've had nothing but positive experiences with 3DTouch from Banggood.
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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

Post by PaulJ_2.0 »

Atarian Computing wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 11:35 am For a cheaper alternative to BLTouch, I've had nothing but positive experiences with 3DTouch from Banggood.
Yes I've heard good things about those too, but there have been some issues with the cheaper ones being hit and miss with the tolerances.
I might buy one as a back-up as the BL touch is just on the wrong side of affordable to have a spare gathering dust.
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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

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Another video showing progress. This one is interesting as the front right Z-Drive belt was a little slack and this caused the belt to jump slightly. Not so nice grating noise when it jumps. I decided to keep the video as it showed the gantry moving out of level and when the leveling phase gets round to the front right you can see it correct the gantry.

I think I am about two weeks away from doing the first print, pending a few more parts.

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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

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So will the first print be the giant panda printing a giant panda :lol: :stars:
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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

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exxos wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 12:46 am So will the first print be the giant panda printing a giant panda :lol: :stars:
:)

Actually In a way yes. I have to re-print a few parts as I have modified them to be a bit stronger on the X axis.
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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

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Icky wrote: Fri Oct 25, 2019 5:38 pm
Atarian Computing wrote: Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:49 pm Good choice with the Duet and Duex. I hear they are worth the higher price.
Yes, I agree. Unfortunately upgrading my small printer I went with the Lerdge board which is a PITA, so much so am ditching it for a Duet. Both printers will then have the same boards. Already thinking of calling the small one Red Panda as its black with red accents. Any excuse to put a different start up banner on the screen :)
Oh no. I seem to have replaced the pile of rubbish thats called a Lerdge board for another Duet on my original small black and red accented printer, well almost its in the process of being wired in but I could not resist putting the boot logo in the firmware.

I now have an embarrassment of panda printers.

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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

Post by PhilC »

Looks good to me.

What's the advantage of that new board and was it expensive?
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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

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PhilC wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 9:29 pm Looks good to me.

What's the advantage of that new board and was it expensive?
So here are a few features I see so far:
  • The Duet is so easy to config as the firmware configuration is done in a text file (config.g) on the SD card that is read at startup. To change the configuration, you don't edit the firmware source, recompile it and upload it, you just edit the text file
  • Homing and bed probing is also controlled by gcode files on the SD card. You can create macros to do particular moves or actions. For example each orchestration in a macro, like home or bed level, is controlled by these files
  • Motor currents are set in firmware which coupled with macros is great as you can have different currents with differing moves
  • There is also a web interface. The usual way of controlling the printer is over WiFi, not USB. After slicing your file, upload it to the SD card through the web interface then print it from SD card. It can also use a webcam so its sort of like an OctoPi built in
  • firmware configurable microstepping
  • There are many extensions for the Duet and the Z probe has many options to use different types of probes
  • It uses RepRapFirmware
Price, well thats an interesting one as the developer has open sourced his design and there are many clones out there that are cheaper than the OEM. Being a board developer myself I went with the OEM for the Giant Panda to support his efforts but for the Red Panda I have gone for a clone.
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Re: Building a DIY large bed 3D printer

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Finally got the printer to print and not popcorn @PhilC. Still need some tweaks and am waiting on the PEI sheet to go on the bed.

Its currently printing V2.2 Voron parts to upgrade itself.

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