Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Maybe OT, reprap build started

On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 11:10 PM, Phil@Yahoo <yahoo@...> wrote:

>
> 1. How tempreature and feed rate is regulated in RepRap.

Temperature depends on the material being printed. I typically print
1.75mm PLA filament at 170c, and ABS at 200c. 3mm filament requires
higher temperatures, and different plastics or formulas of those
plastics (or even different colors) can require higher or lower
temperatures. Feed rate depends on the printer. Speeds from 20mm/sec
to 300mm/sec are possible.

> 2. What sort of protocol is used to control temperature & feed (simple
> on/off?)

Depends on the firmware. Most use simple on/off, but some use PID.

> 3. Minimum requirements for a 3-axis machine to be used for 3D printing with
> available CAM software & Mach3 or EMC2.

It is possible to use EMC, and presumably Mach3 as well, but it is
generally not recommended. Most people will be happier driving the
printer with one of the dedicated boards that have been mentioned
earlier in the thread. Those boards get far more development and
support. If you try to use EMC you are pretty much on your own (there
is a small community of users, but probably under 5% of total reprap
users).

Among the advantages of using the dedicated electronics is that you
can run the printer off any PC, you don't need a parallel port, and
you can use your printer for other things while you are printing, you
don't need to worry about screwing up your print (I am printing now
and have about 20 programs running and a ton of browser windows).

> 4. How to minimize the odds of being bitten on the butt if I start building
> support hardware.

The answer to this is basically the same as above-- your best bet is
to stick to the standard hardware. Things change rapidly, but we do
try to maintain compatibility with older hardware for as long as
possible. There are some changes that cannot maintain compatibility--
for example the next gen electronics will run on a whole new processor
architecture (ARM Cortex-M3 instead of AVR), but the old electronics
are going to remain usable for quite a while still (we are in a very
different position now, then when we changed from Gen3 with DC
extruders to the new stepper extruder electronics. Future improvements
will be directed primarily at usability, but the general functionality
is not likely to change with the new electronics).

These probably aren't the answers you were looking for, but they truly
are the best advice. I wish I could give you more advice on using EMC,
but I have not really paid attention to it. Googling for "EMC RepRap"
provides a bunch of information, so I will leave it up to you to dig
deeper.