Love the printer and blender 3d software, but lots of challenges:
1) Dead micro-sim (Wait until my son finds out his phone micro-sim is missing!). I didn't even know what a FAT32 format was but luckily I had bought a Raspberry pi at the same time and the website had a link for it :
[www.sdcard.org]
2) Communication issues with Duet due to absence of firmware, with no firmware loaded the arduino communication is simply dead!! No error message or anything!
3) No understanding that the glass plate had to be free from finger grease, building the printer around the food and drink excess of Xmas wasn't probably the best thing in hindsight. (Window glass cleaner helped here!)
4) IR sensor great idea but doesn't yet work for me. Remove IR from standard config and manual setting is good. Need to be able to adjust height of sensor if you do use it (see 6) and shield from ambient light!
5) Cooling from fan caused adhesion problems with first prints due to a lack of uniform heat on the bed. Turning the bed overly hot to 65'c until I printed the fan louvre printed helped!
6) My component with the extruder happily tore my first prints off due to the height of the nozzle versus the plastic on the IR sensor. the interface desperately needs a kill button!!
So from my first week build my suggestions for a complete beginner would be:
1) Command prompts loading of firmware instructions are not accurate and I just missed out the "true" statement and did one command at a time until it worked. I did not envy those who did not remember the days of "ms-dos" before windows!
2) Micro-sim doesn't work!
3) A guided first print from drawing in "designspark" or "Blender", maybe on you tube would be great. e.g. build a fan louvre and print it and include a checklist such as clean glass, heat the bed and extruder for 5 mins before you print. If the mouldings are too stringy reduce heat e.t.c (see 4 below)
4) Printer build instructions were generally great and detailed but just stopped when it came to the "printing dos and don'ts". I think the instructions need to go on for a little more to first print
5) Mod pack prints would also be great to improve printer once open source components improved
6) I love the printer and would be happy for local people to come and see it for themselves to decide if it is for them before buying or help them with their set up (if possible!), so a contact list of individuals willing to help by area would be great
Early days but still glad I spent the money!
1) Dead micro-sim (Wait until my son finds out his phone micro-sim is missing!). I didn't even know what a FAT32 format was but luckily I had bought a Raspberry pi at the same time and the website had a link for it :
[www.sdcard.org]
2) Communication issues with Duet due to absence of firmware, with no firmware loaded the arduino communication is simply dead!! No error message or anything!
3) No understanding that the glass plate had to be free from finger grease, building the printer around the food and drink excess of Xmas wasn't probably the best thing in hindsight. (Window glass cleaner helped here!)
4) IR sensor great idea but doesn't yet work for me. Remove IR from standard config and manual setting is good. Need to be able to adjust height of sensor if you do use it (see 6) and shield from ambient light!
5) Cooling from fan caused adhesion problems with first prints due to a lack of uniform heat on the bed. Turning the bed overly hot to 65'c until I printed the fan louvre printed helped!
6) My component with the extruder happily tore my first prints off due to the height of the nozzle versus the plastic on the IR sensor. the interface desperately needs a kill button!!
So from my first week build my suggestions for a complete beginner would be:
1) Command prompts loading of firmware instructions are not accurate and I just missed out the "true" statement and did one command at a time until it worked. I did not envy those who did not remember the days of "ms-dos" before windows!
2) Micro-sim doesn't work!
3) A guided first print from drawing in "designspark" or "Blender", maybe on you tube would be great. e.g. build a fan louvre and print it and include a checklist such as clean glass, heat the bed and extruder for 5 mins before you print. If the mouldings are too stringy reduce heat e.t.c (see 4 below)
4) Printer build instructions were generally great and detailed but just stopped when it came to the "printing dos and don'ts". I think the instructions need to go on for a little more to first print
5) Mod pack prints would also be great to improve printer once open source components improved
6) I love the printer and would be happy for local people to come and see it for themselves to decide if it is for them before buying or help them with their set up (if possible!), so a contact list of individuals willing to help by area would be great
Early days but still glad I spent the money!