I don't think it's that complicated. I'm pretty sure it's just measuring the reflected brightness of the LED. I've torn down the extruder pod and it doesn't even have a proper ambient light sensor in there... I could swear they are just using another LED as a detector. (I should actually measure that...) I think they only detect the glue because it's reflective, so it scatters the light from the LED. The pattern is just a standard 9-point mesh. I built a printer out of pieces I had left over from upgrades to my Printrbot, and I did the same pattern with Marlin. But I used an inductive sensor, which they probably couldn't use on the Cube because of the magnets. (Also decent inductive sensors aren't very cheap.)
Hey @Mythandar I did find a post on someone who made this: {REPLACE "TOTALTIMEMIN" "[total_print_time_min]"} {REPLACE "MATERIAL1CODE" "259"} {REPLACE "MATERIAL2CODE" "259"} {REPLACE "; retract" "M227 P250 S250 G300 F700\nM228 P0 S250"} {REPLACE "; prime" "M227 P1 S1 G1000 F1000\nM228 P0 S1"} {TOOL2REPLACE "M561" "M562"} {STRIP ";"} {STRIP "G90"} {STRIP "M82"} {STRIP "M102"} {STRIP "T0"} {STRIP "T1"} {STRIP "T2"} on this thread. Mind commenting on which seems more "complete" or with less errors? or perhaps compile an even better postprocessing technique? Note the .py file in that thread as well. Code: #!/usr/bin/env python """ Massage gcode generated by Simplify3D for Cubex s3d2cubex.py <FILE> v0.1 by Michael Hauser """ import os import re import sys import string "FeedFlowRatio = 0.006" FeedFlowRatio = 0.021 if __name__ == '__main__': if len(sys.argv) < 2: sys.exit('usage: s3d2cubex.py <filename>') infilename = sys.argv[1] outfilename = '{}.flowfix{}'.format(os.path.splitext(infilename)[0],os.path.splitext(infilename)[1]) readFeedRate = False previousFeedRate = 0.0 with open(infilename) as infile: with open(outfilename,"w") as outfile: for line in infile: code = string.split(line) if code: if readFeedRate and code[0]=='G1' and code[-1][0] == 'F': feedRate = float(code[-1][1:]) if feedRate != previousFeedRate: previousFeedRate = feedRate flowRate = feedRate * FeedFlowRatio outfile.write('M108 S{:.1f}\r\n'.format(flowRate)) readFeedRate = False if code[0]=='M101': readFeedRate = True outfile.write(line) Note the author later comments this:
Ironically my Cube plate started peeling in one of the corners and it looks like somewhat flexible... if it would have been ceramic, it would have broken right?
I don't think the script is useful for us, I'm not having any issues with feed rates. However, {REPLACE "; retract" "M227 P250 S250 G300 F700\nM228 P0 S250"} {REPLACE "; prime" "M227 P1 S1 G1000 F1000\nM228 P0 S1"} is useful. I had to modify it slightly to match what the cube print software does, but it should help a lot. At the time I'm typing this there's a test print with it.
Guys, what's your experience with heated bed for Cube 3? I was trying to print ABS yesterday, did not succeed. Will continue experiments today. Meanwhile I am thinking about retrofitting the heated bed. Found this: 6" X 6" Heatbed PCB, Heated Bed for 3D Printing. | eBay Would it work? Can I connect it directly to the printer's 12/24V power supply?
Nice find, Kiza. The magnets is the problem. If you epoxy your magnets (or similar magnets) to the silkscreen side of the pad where the original magnets are, it should work like normal. You may need to rough up the magnets to hold still on the mating holder. The board requires a lot of power. I doubt you can get that from within the machine. I see 144 watts on one 200 diameter unit. That is 12 amps at 12 volts or 6 amps at 24 volts.
I was thinking about removing the magnet holder completely and machining something new, to hold the plate, but with same manual adjustment capability. Will think about it. But regarding the power you are right, Power supply is 24V/5A only It's not going to be enough. May be finding another brick power supply? Using 2 power supplies looks not so good to me.
I was just doing the napkin math for heatbed power this weekend. I'm working on a CubeRap conversion, and I had a MK2B pcb heater lying around. I cut it down to fit, and now the R is 7 ohm. At 24V that's about 3.5A. I'm sure there's no way it can run off the same 5A ps, so I have to hook up another supply, as well. What a pity!
Do you have some junk computers around? You might look at the 12V spec for the internal power supplies. Many have a lot of 5V current and often quite a bit of 12V current also. Otherwise, a simple 10 amp car battery charger power supply will work. These deliver just over 12V (14-ish). It doesn't have to be clean power in any sense. Or a 150W (~15vac output) transformer with a full wave bridge rectifier on heatsink. More than enough. The impedance is fixed, so the temperature adjustment is made with the supplied voltage. If you have the opportunity to make the input supply variable, you can control the actual temperature also.
So, that's gonna be the next upgrade! This Power Supply Heated bed Replacement of the hot-ends: E3D V3 This printer will rock
Find yourself some nice flexible 16-awg wire (high strand count silicon test leads) for the heater pad.
Yeah But, there's more to worry about. e3d-V6. What do I do with thermistors? Obviously I cannot re-calibrate the cube, so probably will have to use the existing ones. And still it may not give me the correct temperature readings, since the hotend is different (volume, material, etc.)
The cube uses normal size thermistors. I think they are 200k. You can re-use them if you can find an old-style heater block for the E3Dv6. (The new models use a cartridge thermistor.) I'm sure there's a reseller out there that still has some of the old blocks for sale. I'll look around. Edit: that was easy. Filastruder still sells them. E3D Heater Block (Old Style, v6/Volcano)
Thinking of getting this PSU: Mean Well GST280A24-C6P 280.08W 24V 11.67A AC-DC High Reliability Industrial Tab | eBay Plus, are our hotends 12V or 24V?
If you are looking for overkill... I mean multiple heaters... Mean Well SDR-480-24 24V 20A Single Output Power Supply 480W | eBay These are fairly reliable industrial grade units.
That's interesting! So, 1.6A for both heaters? I wonder, how much is needed for motors. I could get my hands on Mean Well GST220A24-R7B, but it is only 220W, 9.2A. Not going to be enough for 2 heaters and heated bed. 2x40W E3D V6 will need 6.66A on 12V Dunno how much for the heated bed, as I don't actually have any. Was thinking about this one: 6" X 6" Heatbed PCB, Heated Bed for 3D Printing. | eBay I still don't understand why Cube 3 uses 24V power supply and 12V heaters. P.S. Would be good to know how power is actually supplied to the hotends and if it is possible to swith to 24V, this way 9.2A could be enough for everything. Do you guys have any ideas?
I've been giving the bed quite a bit of thought recently as I had the surface fail over the magnets. The stack is likely 7075 aluminum with what appears to be white polycarbonate bonded with a very aggressive acrylic adhesive. More recent beds have a different plastic, and I see a circle pattern under the material. No such pattern on the one I tore apart. I removed the center of the bed plastic and left a 154mm x 154mm surround. Once I cleaned out the gooey glue (YUCK!) I was able to lay the alumina plate inside the pocket. This got me a great flat surface that is thermally stable, but it is cold to the touch so no amount of glue will let the 1st layer stick. So now a heated bed is looking more interesting. And if you look, there are "double decker" heated bed solutions on eBay. These can have silicon rubber heater pads by putting it between the bottom and top plates. You could do the same with the PCB heater but you need to have access to the lead wires. I haven't come up with a solution yet, but this is one thought. You would loose some of the available print height. You can set your calibration to accommodate the taller build plate. Another concern that came to me yesterday is stability. This plate is already pretty bouncy. All the weight is added to the current load on the bearings. This will reduce machine life. And pick higher voltage heaters as there is less heat loss in the lead wires.
Did Tubing mod & Replaced the OEM with normal 3d printer tubing. Works great. Toke about 45 minutes to modify everything.
Doing some math... 24V 25W hotend - 1.04A 24V 100W heatbed - 4.16A 6.24A total If I could convert hotend power to 24V, 9.2-10A PSU would be enough! EDIT: Extruder: Minebea NEMA 17PM-K374BN01CN, 12V - 0.33A x 2 = 0.66A 3-Axis: Minebea NEMA 17PM-K077BP01CN, 12V - 0.3A x 3 = 0.9A HotEnd: E3D V6 24V Universal (Direct), 25W - 1.04A x 2 = 2.08A Heated Bed TBD, 24V, 100W - 4.16A ----------------------------------------------------------- Total: 7.8A Wooohooo! ^_^
