Author: kris

Friday needs a quote

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“The strategy for the discoverers and entrepreneurs is to rely less on top-down planning and focus on maximum tinkering and recognizing opportunities when they present themselves. So I disagree with the followers of Marx and those of Adam Smith: the reason free markets work is because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trial and error, not by giving rewards or “incentives” for skill. The strategy is, then, to tinker as much as possible and try to collect as many Black Swan opportunities as you can.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

HP DesignJet 500 Restoration

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We have had laying around the office a rather old (2003) 24″ HP DesignJet 500 with a shredded belt. I took it home and brought it back to life. I did not use the ‘real’ belt that is available from LPS (though it looks perfectly correct) I just used this cheap Amazon belt. If it goes wrong later on, and if I actually use this thing here at home, I’ll replace it with the LPS one.

After an unsuccessful attempt at rehabilitating the printheads that have been in the machine for years. These printheads work perfect.

Anet A8 – Cost rundown

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If one were to build an Anet AM8 upgraded to my current configuration, this is the pieces, and costs for those pieces.

Essentially $400 for the whole thing.

Titan Extruder and E3D-V6 hotend upgrade

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The Titan extruder is a geared 3:1 box.

  • I used this mount printed in ABS on the Prusa
    • screw the new mount to the existing linear bearing blocks in a pattern like you were screwing down head bolts on an engine
    • The nozzle in the thingiverse link is incorrectly sized for my blower fan that came with my Anet, I will design a new one in the near future. As it is, I get great quality with no nozzle at all, and well, it’s less important than you would expect for PLA, which is all I’m printing on this machine at the moment.
  • recompile marlin to set the extruder to operate inverse of stock
    • I use a pre-customized version of Marlin 1.1.8 from Here
      1.1.8 for use with my Hallon Auto-bed-leveling sensor, though certeinly moving to 1.1.9 in the near future is a thing that will happen.
    • Download and install Arduino IDE from whereever
    • Follow this guide to configure the titan extruder within Marlin
  • M501 – Reads EEPROM data
  • Install EEPROM editor within octoprint
  • Calibrate steps per mm 418.50 is the magic number for the E3D-V6 on the 1.8degree Anet steppers
  • PID bed calibration, enable PIDTEMPBED in marlin, disable BED_LIMIT_Switching
  • Disable Thermal Runaway for the bed only for PID autotune to work
  • m303 e-1 s60 c8 1 Autotune PID for the bed 8 count at 60 degrees
  • resulting values for my bed (mk52 removable spring steel, using the prusa sheet) Kp: 99.41 Ki: 5.08 Kd: 486.61
    • #define DEFAULT_bedKp 99.41
    • #define DEFAULT_bedKi 5.08
    • #define DEFAULT_bedKd 486.61
  • THERMAL_PROTECTION_BED can be reenabled after PID autotune
  • M303 E0 S210 C8 1 PID autotune extruder
  • Resulting values for the E3d-v6 extruder
    Kp: 20.73 Ki: 1.63 Kd: 65.81
    • #define DEFAULT_Kp 20.73
    • #define DEFAULT_Ki 1.63
    • #define DEFAULT_Kd 65.81
  • X-axis offset is wack compared to original, I think -50mm should get it closer to printing in the middle of the bed, will try this tonight
PID autotune Results
1st print on Titan extruder, 2nd print on Titan extruder, after PID tuning

Anet AM8 – Hallon Auto-bed-leveling – Octoprint – Marlin 1.1.8

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This project took way longer than it really should have.   It starts with the Hallon ABL upgrade.   I have been putting off upgrading the infamous Anet H-plate far too long, and finally committed to that upgrade. 

  • H- Plate Upgrade – I ordered this one.  The plate itself is well made, and fits the standard hardware.  I tapped the holes for the y-axis belt holder to m4.  This seems to be working, though if my belt gets loose with some printing I will drill them out, and remount the bed with M5 screws and M5 lock nuts. 
  • Solid mount heatbed – Printed this spacer in ABS plastic.  Printed all close together with a joined brim.  ABS tends to shrink in a not perfect manner, so I then used calipers and a file to bring them all down to within .03mm of each other.  
  • Leveling of the X-carriage – I used a set of 3x2x1 blocks I had laying around to level the left and right sides of the x-carriage to the bed, which i think is more accurate than leveling to the top of the frame.  
  • Octoprint with ABL expert – Link to plugin repository It is easiest to find in the plugin manager.  I set it to bilinear correction.  
  • AM8 modifications:  ABL trigger mod (found this in the comments, haven’t tried it, made my own thing in freecad, though this looks much better than mine, so I am linking it)
  • Frame extension: I made a simple spacer, though I saw a full height one somewhere, and will link it when I find it again.  
Printing a class project for Claire

To find roughly your offset, use this procedure:

  • G28 – home position (which should show Z-10, safe nozzle position)
  • G1 Z0 – this puts it at 0 to the bed, this should be right where paper grabs
  • Once you have your offset determined, M851 Z-16.06
    • The -16.06 above is specific to my setup, and yours will be different
  • M500 to save eeprom

Initial Auto bed level controls added to machine settings in cura

G28 ;Home
G29 ; ABL hallon

Printing with Octoprint, I use the ABL expert plugin.  I found the Z correction I found via the procedure to need some tweaking.  Always Preheat at least the bed before ABL, not going to have a useful result any other way. Running .1 lower Z compared to paper to get good 1st layer.  Expect to have some trial and error here, printing some first layer tests.  I think it is a part of letting octoprint do the level correction.  

Carpenter Bee wins a 5k

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15th overrall, 1st female

Link direct to results.

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