Metallic Blue Build Thread

[dustmann]

Thanks! I like the metallic blue color scheme, looking forward to seeing the completed build!

[AbuMaia]

I have a power supply like that. I have it mounted on the left side of the printer.

[hernejj]

Extruder & Hot End
Had a **** of a time getting the nut/trap to work out right for the small gear. Somehow the nut was free spinning. I was able to finally get the set screw by having a buddy tighten the screw while I firmly held the flat side of wrench against the set screw to prevent it from turning with the screw.





The thermistor was a pain. Even with the kapton tape it kept falling out with just a little pressure on the wiring. I ended up having to loop the wire and mount the wiring to the extruder motor to provide some stress relief.


[PIC - will upload later]


This little heater block shroud also caused me some grief. I could not get the thermistor into the tiny hole provided. If I could have I bet it would have held the thermistor in place nicely. After three attempts that bent the thermistor leads I became worried about snapping the leads so I gave up. I used an Xacto and widened the hole. I would not recommend this, even though it solved the problem. The reason is because I found a better method. Later on, while attempting to adjust the nozzle while it was connected to the machine and up to temp the shroud was in the way and I could not discern shroud slop vs heater block movement. So I ended up slicing the shroud from the top of the holes provided for the thermistor/heater wires to the top of the shroud. This allows you to install/remove the shroud without removing the thermistor and heater wire. Just be very careful if the hot end is... hot. Use heat resistant gloves.





There is a very small set screw in the heat sink of the hot end. From what I have been able to gather this holds the thing together and should not require any adjustment by the end user.


The metal bracket that comes with the hot end can be installed two ways. I found that if I install mine with the hollowed out cavities facing up (into the extruder) the hot end was sloppy and rotated in the bracket even when tightened considerably. With the hollowed out cavities facing down (toward the heat bed) the hot end was nicely snugged into place. I, obviously, went with cavities down, as show in the picture.





Power Supply
I got this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D7CWSCG/


Not liking the thought of ruining a good pc style power cord I, instead, ripped apart a junk ATX psu and stole the cord connector from it. It is not mounted anywhere yet but I intend to fix that.




I bought a $3 12-foot extension cord from Walmart. I cut it up, stripped the ends and used the sections to wire the power supply (on left side of machine) to the ramps board and relay on the right side of the machine.


The ramps board and heat bed relay mounted without any issues. I was quite confused by the section of the build guide talking about wiring the relay, but I found a better description on Makerfarm's website.
http://www.makerfarm.com/index.php/heat-bed-relay.html



Hex Hotend Cooling Fan
You are supposed to wire this directly into the power supply so it is always on. This wasn't going to work for me since my power supply is on the left and all the rest of the x-carriage wiring moves off to the right. I could snake the wire to the left side and around the back but the wire was not long enough. Instead of soldering an extension I stripped the connector off and wrapped the fan wires around the wires connecting from the power supply into the ramps power terminals. So one + terminal on the ramps board is being shared by the + wire coming from the power supply and the + wire from the hot end cooling fan. Same for -.


Firmware
My ramps board came with firmware pre-installed. If you are running Linux (Ubuntu, Mint, etc.), like me, you won't be able to communicate with your printer!! I kept getting error messages and gibberish with both Pronterface and Repetier Host. Thanks to some of our forum members I learned that the issue is with the serial interface baud rate. By default the Makerfarm expects a rate of 250000bps and Linux does not like that speed for some reason. So we modify the firmware to use 125200.


Get an up to date version of Marlin from Github, I ended up using the Beckdac version because someone recommended it to me. But you can also use the stock version, I've heard it works just fine.


https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/
https://github.com/beckdac/Marlin


Just download the zip file containing the code (or use git), download and install the Arduino IDE, import the project by copying the Marlin folder into your "Sketchbook" folder. You might need to start the Arduino IDE to get it to create this folder for you. Then modify the Configuration.h file, specifically you want to ensure the following line is set to 11520 and not 250000 or some other value:


#define BAUDRATE 115200

If you are not using auto bed leveling then you want to start with this config file: Configuration.h.without_ABL. Just rename it to Configuration.h overwriting the original.


Then connect your ramps board to your computer via USB. Choose the correct serial port under the menu "Tools -> Serial Port". Mine was /dev/ttyACM0. You probably only have one choice here anyway. Then under the menu "Tools -> Board" choose "Arduino Mega 2560 or Arduino ADK". Then click the "Verify" button (has a checkmark on it). This will compile the Marlin code. If there are no errors then you can click the "Upload" button (has an arrow on it). It will take a few 10's of seconds, but the code will be deployed to the ramps board.


Before you do this you might want to review & edit your config file. There are a few tidbits worth looking at. For one thing you can customize the name of your printer. Word of advice, if you don't understand something you should probably not mess with it. Here is what I changed:


1. Renamed my printer.
#define CUSTOM_MENDEL_NAME "MakerFarm i3v"


2. Disable max end stops. The Markerfarm does not use these, and they can cause problems if left enabled.
#define DISABLE_MAX_ENDSTOPS


3. Enable saving settings to EEPROM. This gives you a menu entry to write your e-steps and other calibration values to EEPROM so you don't have to reload them every time you power on the machine. Pretty much a "must have".
#define EEPROM_SETTINGS


You can verify that the ramps board has been flashed by looking at the lcd for your new printer model name. You can also check the menu and look for the "Save Settings" entry which would imply that EEPROM has been enabled.

[hernejj]

First Prints
Here is my first print. A Calibration cube.





Here is my second print, a spool holder, the Makerfarm one doesn't seem like it would work all that well. And I don't like the idea of having the weight of a spool on top of the printer potentially causing the frame to wobble more than needed.




Model for spool holder can be found here:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:703881