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  1. #1

    New to 3d printing

    Hello all. I just recently got into 3d printing, 3d printing has been of interest to me for a couple years now but since having a family wasn't something I was willing to put much money into. A guy at work offered me a printrbot simple metal for $100 so I figured I'd bite. He did issue me a disclaimer though that he had bought the printer from Ebay, in which the description stated it needed repaired but the board had recently been replaced. He told me had several printers already and didn't really wanna mess with this one after all, so like I said I told him what the hell and bit. For the past week I've been researching all I can and playing with the printer. The first hurdle I discovered was printrbot is no more, no big surprise to the printer community. After moving past that I discovered the printer has a REV E board, which nearest I can tell is/was not produced by printrbot nor did they want anything to do with. Upon first powering the printer up it seemed to function ok, but it was quickly clear things were far from perfect. I have some experience with programming arduino and reflashing firmware's on drones and stuff, but not much. Best I could tell the printer seems to function backwards sort of, kinda hard to explain exactly what I mean. For example the printer had home stops installed that were NO, well after testing and seeing that didn't work I swapped them all around to NC and actually got it to home correctly and print, leading me to think the boards firmware is setup for NC. Also almost all my files I print on thingaverse that have any sort of writing are almost always backwards unless I mirror it, don't know if that's normal or not?

    Moving on after reading some more I learned that most printers utilize NO stops vs NC for motor safety, so I began looking into possibly reflashing the firmware on this board and changing the configuration. From what I've discovered it would appear flashing the firmware on the REV E is a pita and so far I have been unsuccessful. I read the REV E has a different chip, although I can't find really anything about this board. Next thing I tried was adjusting some stuff via M commands in Cura, no dice in that any input I send yields no response including M500 save. when I use the M501 command to check current settings I get the default hard settings loaded which from what I read usually means an eeprom mismatch which usually requires reflashing which I cannot do currently. I said to hell with it and ordered a Ramps 1.4 kit off of amazon and was gonna try and convert the simple metal over to that, just to sort of keep playing around with it.

    I actually have it somewhat printing with this REV E board considering It won't let me fine tune much. The main thing I see sometimes is default scaling seems to be a little off and it prints lettering backwards. While I was waiting for the Ramps board to come in I was also considering maybe just buying another printer, one that has the heated bed and all the modern stuff this one doesn't since I have learned this printer is far outdated. What would be a good recommendation on a decent printer? I'm not looking to spend a lot since I'm just starting out, but I want something kinda mid range that can do a little bit of everything so to speak, building from a kit is not a problem. Anyway I'd appreciate any info and just wanted to sort of introduce myself. Thanks

  2. #2
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    for the new machine - give us an actual budget number.


    printrbot actually made extremely good machines, and to be honest the industry WAS shocked when they went under. Well I certainly was.
    I don't recall a single negative review for any of their products.

    The mirror print is something to do with the x-axis settings in the slicer. I have a similiar issue with certain profiles on my delta.

    In the slicer settings there is usually a setting to reverse/mirror each of the axis. try turning the 'x' one on.
    If that doesn't work - then just get into the habit of a quick mirror on non-symmitrical models.

  3. #3
    As for budget for the new machine probably around $500, could go a little more. I would mainly be interested in a machine that has a little bigger print platform than the simple metal and the ability to print abs, petg and various other filaments. I’ve seen the upgrades that have been done to the simple metal like heated bed, axis upgrades. But I’m really wondering if it is worth putting any money into a machine that old to get it to print what a newer one can now. Plus I have no clue how many miles are on the belts, motors, etc. I’m looking into using the starting gcode to tweek some things since nothing else seems to work. I’m not holding my breath though since I noticed a g29 auto level command is in there, however I’ve yet to see this printer check the z axis more than once.

  4. #4
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    don't bother with abs - which means you don't need an enclosed machine :-)
    And $500 gives you scope for some decent i3's (ie: not enders lol)

    this is a decent looking machine:https://www.amazon.com/ADIMLab-Assem...463181&sr=8-21

    Has the three key elements of a GOOD I3:
    direct drive extruder, print bed side supports and dual z motors.

    Also worth looking at the prusa mini.
    Probably the most advanced electronics on an i3. Not as large a print volume but a rock solid plug and play printer.
    https://www.prusa3d.com/original-prusa-mini/

    After about 20 minutes of leafing through amazon I can't find anything better value than the adimlabs.

  5. #5
    Hey Thanks. But why not Enders? I did some googling and some Enders seem to be in the same price range as the i3's. Are they just not good machines or is there something I don't know? A couple of other machine's I was looking at was
    https://folgertech.com/products/folg...-kit-ramps-gt2
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BR3F9N6...ogi&th=1&psc=1
    and also the one you posted.

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