RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Maybe OT, reprap build started

Our extruder is described at http://reprap.org/wiki/Wade%27s_Geared_Extruder which is actually one of the better-documented parts of the printer.
The electronics are described at http://reprap.org/wiki/Generation_3_Electronics/Tech_Zone_Remix
The individual boards are described in pages linked to from http://reprap.org/wiki/Generation_3_Electronics, for instance our extruder controller 2.2 is described at http://reprap.org/wiki/Extruder_Controller_2.2
The firmware is described at http://reprap.org/wiki/Generation3Firmware.

That being said, all the stuff we have is at least a year old, and verifying that the above documents (which may refer to more up-to-date stuff) are still relevant to us is difficult. For example I thought we has the )optional) Thermocouple Sensor 1.0 (http://reprap.org/wiki/Thermocouple_Sensor_1.0) but it turns out that our thermocouple sensor uses a different chip, one designed for monitoring NiMH battery charging. The board circuit is different but the board interconnect is the same. A firmware change accounts for the difference in the data generated by the two thermocouple controllers.

Calibration (or lack thereof) is one of my major complaints about the whole field. There are calibration/tuning parameters wired into the source code, so to adjust them you have to load new firmware. Which requires building new firmware. Which requires being absolutely sure you start with the correct source code for the firmware you already have.

Has anyone make up some tables for ...? Probably yes. Can you find their results? Maybe. Can you be sure their results are applicable to your own setup? Thanks to the versioning mess, probably not.

-Kevin Martin
the Papertrail Handmade Paper & Book Arts
New Dundee, Ontario
518-884-7123
www.papertrail.ca

-----Original Message-----
From: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Phil@Yahoo

Glad to hear that. So can you share some URLs? I'm not talking about
drawings for bits of plastic, but about PCB schematics and microprocessor
source code for things like temperature controllers. Also I'm wondering how
to calibrate the extrusion speed to the head motion speed. Has anyone made
up some tables correlating filament size with temperature and extrusion
speed and nozzle size and head travel speed? That's where the important
knowledge is if you don't want to re-invent the wheel. Moving things in
X-Y-Z is the easy part.