I dont think that you would get positional accuracy with a spring drive.

As far as dual extrusion, palatte , will change things for that. Joining the filamant before the extruder in realtime is going to be the way to go. I got in on the KS campaign and am excited about it.

 

i was really excited about palette, but im so skeptical, and (being a college student) didnt have money to put down on something so....untested. but holy cow if it works 'as expected' i completely agree it will make multi color prints so much easier, if i remember right it even says different materials can be joined but idk how thats even possible with such a wide range of melting temps and flowrates and even getting some plastics to stick to eachother at all

 

I don't think the accuracy of the flex3drive should be any less than a bowden setup-- In fact, it should be better, just not quite as good as direct drive.

The problem I have with the palette is that you need filament which all operates in the same temperature window. It's a brilliant idea, but I think a better idea would be to use natural PLA (or whatever) and dye sections of it with an ink-jet style color mixer for the dye.

 

Just an update: Got the 40w (really, 35w based on my measurements) heater cartridge installed on my volcano, and now it 'just works': Can print 'fast' with 'full fan' and it maintains temp just fine. More details on my blog:
C-Bot 3D Printer: Supercharging the Volcano
Anyone getting a volcano should make sure they get the 40w (red wire) not 25w (blue wire) heater cartridge.

 

Good tip... I just checked, and the volcano eruption pack (from Filastruder) I have in my "parts to assemble" box has red wires.

Aha! Looks like somehow you wound up with the heater cartridge from the E3D Lite6-- Which is actually somewhat reassuring that the Lite6 comes with only 25W heater... It'll take twice as long to melt the heater block.

But wait-- You have to recompile Marlin to change PID values? Uggh. I like Repetier even more.

 

The combination of Repetier Host + Firmware is verra nice. The firmware by itself tends to be much cleaner, and (at least on deltas) a bit more zippy than Marlin. The web configuration tool is also a plus. Adding the ability to edit/backup/load EEPROM values makes the host software worth it, in my opinion.

It also integrates with Slic3r and Cura, but I don't know if it will play nice with Simplify 3D (Although obviously, you can export gcode from S3D and print that gcode directly from Repetier host if you want).

 

I think the caveat to different materials is "within reason". And one of the benefits to the palatte is being able to spool up its output. I can send you pre spliced filament to your printing enjoyment.

Looks like a new nursery! Im sure more then the shelf will come out great.

 

What are y'all thoughts on the next gen of controllers. I have a replicape/bbb on the horizon for my Triple-C, and I know that the sailfish folks are in cahoots with David Crocker with DC42 reprapfirmware for the due. Pretty much we are all on 8bit? or running 8bit firmware on 32 bit boards.

 

i personally am jumping ship to the Azteeg/Smoothie yacht. 32bit processors, running REAL firmware. smoothieware is built specifically (and only) for these ARM processors and that is the future. the Azteeg x5 V2 uses new THB6128 stepper drivers, which (apparently, since ive never used one) can report to the firmware when the stepper motors skip a step!

i repeat! ...CAN REPORT WHEN THE STEPPER MOTOR SKIPS A STEP!!!

thats the future.

 

I migrated my Kossel Clear to Due/RADDS running Repetier, and it's been smooth sailing. No more melted connectors or fried mosfets. I like the size and design of the RADDS board, and the fact that I can swap drivers is nice.

I have a smoothie 4X which I'll probably use initially once I've got the c-bot built, because I have the GLCD and 5v regulator working, but I suspect the future will involve either a Duet or a Due/RADDS setup running the ported reprapfirmware. Also going 24V, and probably the new THB6128 steppers when I buy the RADDS board for the corexy machine.

 

@Carl Feniak ..everyday I can't wait to catch up on what you guys are doing here. I want to contribute and will be able to more when I get my CBot up and running. I was just wondering if any of the newly designed parts have been uploaded and ready to print? I had acquired a used RigidBot and have been slowly tweaking it so that I can get a decent print out of it.
Getting close and itching to start printing the parts for my coreXY. Not sure but I think I might be leaning toward three screws on the bed..
I have most of the parts just need to print the plastic, grin and rock and roll....

 

I have a smoothie, and if I ever get\build a subtractive machine I believe that is what I will use. I have some hesitations on using it's heater controls in a3d printer application.

I am super excited about those Sanyo drivers.

 

Thanks,, I will check them out tomorrow..

 

Why do you mention the heater controls out of curiosity?

 

There is an ongoing debate about whether the smoothie firmware behaves correctly in some conditions, specifically when Simplify3D throws ridiculous numbers of very small moves at it. S3D shouldn't be doing this (it's a common problem with S3D), but it's perfectly valid G-Code, so smoothieware should be able to handle it properly. The S3D folks blame smoothieware, the smoothieware guys blame S3D (personally, I think they're both wrong). From most reports I've read, smoothieware will hold temperature while trying to move nowhere very slowly, but the board going into a locked condition from which the only escape is a power cycle is a concern.

There have been some efforts by the smoothie team to fix this, but it's masked by two groups of people who communicate poorly-- the smoothieware devs on one side, and a number of respected names on the other (ie, many of the coreXY pioneers that Carl based his bot on). The smoothie team gets very defensive, very quickly, and their idea of a good defense is a strong offense. The respectable guys (who I like, and respect) tend to forget that something that was true a year ago, is not necessarily true today.

 

I have a SmoothieX5 on my C-Bot and if I were to do it again, I would have just gone with a RAMPS and Marlin. Smoothie is just overkill for a Cartesian and I do like the config.txt, but in practice it is just as much effort to change the config file there as it is to do it in Marlin. I have to SSH in, mount the SD card from the connected Pi, edit the file with vi, unmount, reboot the Smoothie. For my i3/Marlin, I launch Visual Studio, change the configuration.h, hit F5 and it builds and uploads to the i3 over SCP+SSH shell script to flash with avrdude.

I feel like RAMPS is more expandable because once the LCD is connected on the Smoothie, you're almost out of pins. The connectors on the smoothie are much nicer though, I like having the snap in Phoenix connectors rather than shoving wires into screw terminals which are not always in an convenient location. Digital current control is by far my favorite feature though because #%^# whoever decided that the stepper current potentiometers should go from 0A to like 15A, making it so that getting 0.75A is like 0.8 degrees of a turn from being 1.5A. You can get a RAMPS with LCD for $30 though and that's over $200 for a Smoothie. I've been using OctoPrint's TouchUI though for a week and I have need to plug that hardcore. It blows away any LCD + Rotary Encoder implementation. I've been using an Nexus 7 2012 which works but every time you turn it on it is sluggish for 20 seconds. I might get a dedicated touchscreen for my C-Bot.

Note that you don't have to edit and rebuild for marlin I don't think. You can store the config changes in EEPROM, however I never do that because I like having a physical file that has all the values in it so I don't have to look up what M203 represents.

 

I like Due/RADDS. RAMPS hardware, typically, has so many corners cut I'm surprised it isn't shipped in a circular box. Polyfuses might reset, but I understand it's a diminishing return each time they go "open". The fact that few manufacturers put a heatsink on the Q3 MOSFET is inexcusable, and the tendency to use 10A connectors on an 11A terminal is equally stupid.

RADDS on the other hand, feels very solid. It has all the advantages of RAMPS, and few downsides-- the main one being don't forget to set your microstep jumpers *BEFORE* you attach it to the Due board.

As for configuration, I hit Alt-E, scroll down to the EEPROM config value I want to change, change it, hit save (and usually re-home the printer). I can export/import those settings to a file for safekeeping, if I desire.

Is Due/RADDS overkill? Maybe, maybe not-- I'm going with 0.9 degree steppers, so I need twice the interrupts. Repetier firmware can probably handle it on 8-bit hardware... the 32-bit Due certainly has the overhead to handle it.

 

Running the heated bed via SSR and just using Q3 to control the SSR gives me much more confidence in using a plain cheap Ramps board. I wouldn't trust that board to handle ~10A for the bed.

 

Haha my 12x12 pulls ~700W! I run it over AC power through an SSR though. Trying to turn 120VAC into 12VDC to run a heater at 20+ amps is just insane.

It is true I have heavily modded my RAMPS board to cut out the polyfuses for the heaterbed and replaced it with an inline automotive fuse on the input. The back of the board I have soldered a 12 AWG wire from the input to the MOSFET, which I have replaced with a higher power, lower Rds(on) value component. I also run the whole thing off it's own 5V 1.5A power supply from the 12V rail that also powers the Raspberry Pi. The Pi is connected to the Mega's UART directly with a level shifter and the SPI busses are linked so I can flash directly over SPI from the Pi as well. I also have a handful of MOSFETS hanging off pins to switch lights and enclosure fans and stuff. Wow now that I think about it, RAMPS does kinda suck, although the fact that I can so heavily mod it does say something about it!

 

Thanks.. Will start printing!

 

Splitting up the XY Assembly in Cura leaves these 2 small vertical rectangles : http://i.imgur.com/HCEhyWw.jpg

 

What are you running for software on the bbb to run the replicape? I have one and poked around with the redeem code last spring, gave up on it until I started building the C-Bot. Got the cape up and running with MachineKit about 6 weeks back, which I am looking to use once I get this thing built finally.