Working 3D printer?

mon · October 13, 2015, 10:53am

Hello Make Hack Void people.

Does anyone know which 3d printers are currently working? I have been having a look at the wiki pages and it seems there may be several to choose from.

Thanks!

devdsp · October 19, 2015, 3:28am

The solidoodle has been the most reliable, but recently it has stopped talking to the cura software and my investigations point to a baudrate problem. I’m still looking in to it.

mon · October 19, 2015, 7:01am

Thanks for letting me know. I am going to come and check them out tomorrow. I am hoping to get some cookie cutters made for an upcoming GIS bake-off

batau · October 20, 2015, 10:16am

I Tried a number of different serial speeds, each time unplugging and replugging in the usb connection.
Wasn’t sure if communications were meant to be in ASCII or some binary format because the output from the terminal just seemed to be garbage (indicating i picked the wrong baudrate).

I am wondering if the controller on the solidoodle is sick.

Another thought i had was to try it on another PC.

But having never seen it in a working state, it is a bit tricky

clixx_io · October 20, 2015, 10:45am

afaik, it’s G-CCODE that get’s sent along the link.

So you would be looking for something like this:

G17 G20 G90 G94 G54
G0 Z0.25
X-0.5 Y0.
Z0.1
G01 Z0. F5.
G02 X0. Y0.5 I0.5 J0. F2.5
X0.5 Y0. I0. J-0.5
X0. Y-0.5 I-0.5 J0.
X-0.5 Y0. I0. J0.5
G01 Z0.1 F5.
G00 X0. Y0. Z0.25

batau · October 20, 2015, 10:52am

Defiantly didn’t see anything like that.

devdsp · October 20, 2015, 11:41pm

I did similar tests to no avail. I think it might be time to try reflashing the sanguinololu board. Finding the right firmware and configuring it correctly is the next yak to shave down that path.

mbainrot · October 22, 2015, 8:41pm

Dumb question, I am assuming we checked baud rates?

Iirc 250kbits isn’t unheard of, mine runs at either 115k or 250k, I had stability issues so I changed it, cant remember if I sped it up or slowed it down.

I am not available this weekend but might be next weekend so happy to lend a hand

batau · October 23, 2015, 8:23am

Yeah I tried at least 8 different baud rates including 250kbits

mbainrot · October 23, 2015, 9:16am

Okies cool

I just wanted to ask because its a pain to reflash

Best of luck, hopefully the reflash fixes the problem

mon · October 23, 2015, 11:56pm

Thanks to everyone for helping me out! If we do manage to get a printer working again, I’ll make some cookies for the space with the cutters I create (if everything works out ok!)

devdsp · November 1, 2015, 6:09am

The solidoodle is working again after I did another package update on the computer. I did have to reset the solidoodle’s motherboard (there’s a hole in the acrylic cover which you can access the reset button through) which is on the back of the printer before cura would connect at least one of the times so keep that in mind. Otherwise it should just work if you select “Solidoodle” from the ‘Machine’ menu.

mon · November 1, 2015, 6:35am

YAY! This is awesome news. Thanks for making it work again!

mon · November 18, 2015, 8:52am

Just wanted to share the 3d prints that I made for GIS Day today.

The digital elevation models (DEM) turned out well. There was even a request for a 3D printed map brooch!

For coolness factor, I have also shared a small 3D printed Antarctic DEM, sourced from the Antarctic Division. It’s a cool idea, with the icecaps fitting perfectly to the land, but able to be removed too.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to getting the printer working again. I it!

ian · March 31, 2016, 1:47am

Solidoodle has folded

http://www.solidoodle.com/blog.html

Though I don’t imagine it will have any impact on us or the printer we already have.