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Rebuilding a Beta

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by mark tomlinson, Sep 17, 2015.

  1. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    So I have had my original beta since Kickstarter. It has been migrated over the years (bed upgrade, many firmware tweaks, E3D, volcano, ...). When @Printed Solid offered up an old kickstarter PLA only version for sale (Thanks!) I had to grab it.

    I already had the leadscrew upgrade kit sitting here (hey! I had been busy printing, it was on the list) so as a part of getting the new printer ready I opted to install this on the new(er) beta. My reasoning is simple -- I have never had the ribbing issues on the other one and it is currently configured for larger prints (the volcano has a larger nozzle) so detail is not a problem on that one. I figured I would set this one up for detail prints (0.25 nozzle) and leave the other one for faster, bigger stuff.

    So this made the work:
    1) replace the PLA only bed with my original heated bed.
    2) replace the leadscrews/steppers
    3) add the RepRap full graphic controller
    4) add the autoleveling switches (I bought a set from Robo and the leadscrew kit had the new mounts)
    5) metal stud thermistor (never going back to the old style)
    6a) update the firmware
    6b) find someplace to put this thing....getting crowded out of printer space :)

    So this would give me an autoleveling beta with the original heated bed.

    Spent yesterday doing all of the mechanical bits. Spent this morning wrapping up the electrical bits. figuring out how and where to mount the Z switches was a bit of hunt and poke... I think I have them correct :) They should unseat/toggle when the X axis tries to lift at least. That old bed with the rails... yuck. It was the pits. At least it is well lubed and working. I had to do a minor mod to the center plate to allow me to run the heated bed cables down through there (a drill, 2 minutes, no problem).

    Tweaked and played with firmware, just loaded the Autoleveling R1 with leadscrew mods version and only tweaked configuration.h for some minor things (max temps mostly). Then, fired it up. Basic controls are all good with one exception... Z is backwards. Bed heats on command, so does the extruder and the temps look sane. I guess the motors are reversed on the wire color codes (they went on the same way the others were). I need to swap those. The good news is that the Z switches worked -- it threw the nuts a couple of times, a bit, but it did stop.

    I have to reverse the Z steppers and then mess around with the paper calibration and start testing to see if the auto-leveling does in fact work. Will do that later today. I'll probably also add the cooling fan like I did on my original one that pulls air across the RAMPS and out the front.
     
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  2. jbigler1986

    jbigler1986 Active Member

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    6b Sounds like such a horrible problem to have mark
     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Well, knocking out a wall is probably not going to pass muster with my wife...
    ;)
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The Z axis motors did need to be reversed. Wired in the wire colors were matched correctly before... but there ya go.

    Just got it all hooked up, homed X/X/Z and fired it a G29...
    Then watched the autoleveling magic occur.

    Sweet.
     
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  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    So, I am going to rat on myself -- for the greater good :)

    I have been fussing with this trying to get test prints looking right and failing.
    I was sitting there this morning staring at the two machines and thinking WTH?

    Then ... I saw 'it'... the difference. My original robo versus this newer one. It is lacking something... a parts cooling fan.

    Well, DUH.

    Off to steal a fan from some old electronics and print a mount...
     
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  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    OF COURSE I do NOT have a properly sized fan, but someone already provided a 50mm fan mount :)
    For the Robo.
    Thanks Thingiverse (and savan12986)
     
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  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    First test print after finishing the updates and mods. BEST LOOKING TEST TCHOTCHKE EVER. OK, with a 0.2 nozzle it took like 90 minutes to print, BUT... awesome.

    20150922_172850[1].jpg
     
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  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I don't know if this Robo was victim to the Z ribbing when @Printed Solid had it, but after the Z axis upgrade I can safely say 'it ain't got it now'.
     
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  9. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Lookin good man. Any further upgrade plans?
     
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I am pondering your Y Axis upgrade printed version.
    It does print fine with the old style bed, but the new bed is sweet :)

    Did you have a source for the actual build plate?
     
  11. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    I used my original build plate and glued the magnets on with epoxy. The hardest part is cutting the 8mm stock
     
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    :) Yea, that steel stock will be sturdy.

    In my case it doesn't have that style bed at all.
    Oh well, I'll sere if I can scare one up that is close.
     
  13. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    The biggest issue with taking the kickstarter glass and making it work on the new smooth rod design is that the heater pad has the wires oriented the wrong direction.

    Besides that just glue the magnets on after putting the rods and axis in place
     
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I can't locate a bed (forget the heater part) that is the correct size.
    Frankly, I haven't found one even close.
    I could, I suppose, just get a borosilicate pate cut to the size and glue on magnets, tape on a heater, etc.
    If I can't find one that is likely what I will do.

    On my KS Robo the bed was largely assembled out of wood, with a heater plate and the glass plate on top of that. I am loathe to use wood :)
     
  15. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Oh duh, I forgot about the time before the glass bed.

    For the borosilicate I recommend cincinatti gasket and industrial glass. They sell at $50 minimum order. The plates I bought from them were around $30 when you buy more than 1. Then it's just a matter of sourcing the heater (I like the makerfarms 10x10) and magnets.
     
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  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    So then today I am fighting with issues (prints now starting to look like poo even though the first layer is golden) and again I am asking myself 'why this one' when I notice ANOTHER part missing...

    The oiler

    </sigh>

    Printed, installed, testing...
     
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  17. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Last thing is finally cleared up. The differences between the two printers are the lead screws (new integrated leadscrew mod with metric rods vs. old 5/16 rods) and the bed (one has upgraded R1 style bed and the other the original wood bed/rails stuff) and the LCD displays are different (one has reprap discount and the other the full graphic one). Both are working with heated beds and printing fine.

    So everything worked on both... except the RepRap discount LCD on the one unit. It was working, but somewhere along the way stopped. Dropped in a replacement (no joy) in case it was hardware, but...it was firmware. In my haste to get them both on the 'same' firmware (the latest R1 version) I must have mucked up the discount LCD display config.

    So I break out WinDiff and the current configuration.h for that machine (that is the only file different so I keep a copy for each one) and the old copy from June of last year... Finally... found the mucked up config entry and reloaded (two whole lines incorrect). All good at last.

    So at this point both machines are auto-leveling and on the latest rev of the Robo firmware. Printing fine as well.

    I seriously suggest the $5 investment to convert the non-autoleveling machines to the auto-leveling. Sure you are still best served by manually leveling first (good skill to have) but then any bed inconsistencies are largely eliminated.

    I am going to consider this a done project :)
     

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