Professional Documents
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An introduction
Steven Devijver
Copyright 2011 Steven Devijver Legal Notice
Introduction How the printer works Parts of the printer 1. Frame 2. Y-axis and bushings 3. Z-axis and Y-axis 4. Extruder 5. X-carriage 6. Print plate 7. Electronics 8. Stepper motors 9. Stepper motor controllers 10. End stops Plastics Tools and skills 1. Mechanical build 1.1. Wrenches and keys 1.2. Digital caliper 1.3. Spirit level 1.4. Plumb line 1.5. Installation of Z-axis bushings
1.6. Flat on motor shafts 2. Electronics build 2.1. Soldering 2.2. Cable stripper 2.3. DIY Sanguinololu build RepRap software 1. Arduino software for RAMPS 2. Arduino software for Sanguinololu 3. Firmware 3.1. Downloading the Sprinter firmware 3.2. Configuring the Sprinter firmware to your electronics board 3.3. Uploading the Sprinter firmware to your electronics board 4. Skein software 5. Host software 5.1. Prerequisites for Windows 5.2. Prerequisites for other operating systems 5.3. Downloading Pronterface 5.4. Running Pronterface 6. Slic3r: alternative skein application Buyer's guide 1. Printed parts 2. Vitamins 2.1. Electronics 2.2. Power supply 2.3. Stepper motors 2.4. Hardware kits 2.5. Extruder 2.6. Hotends 2.7. Kapton tape Build instructions 1. X Y and Z axes calibration video 2. Printing spare parts 3. Selecting voltage for endstops on the Sanguinololu board
About this book 1. How to contribute 1.1. Overview 1.2. Create your free GitHub account 1.3. Fork the repository 1.4. Clone your copy of the repository 1.5. Making changes 1.6. Commit your changes 1.7. Push your changes 1.8. Create a pull request 2. Similar efforts 3. Contributors
Introduction
Home-built 3D printers are booming. In 2006 there were no such printers and 5 years later there are tens of thousands. There are currently hundreds of thousands of people wanting to start their own build waiting for the right moment to get started. The project that single-handily propelled home-built 3D printers out of nowhere is RepRap. Its an open-source project meaning that all the information and design plans youll need are available free for all. Building a 3D printer yourself is a huge undertaking. You can build it for less than $500 or 500 but months might go by between getting started and printing your first part. Building a 3D printer is very hands-on and will require all your technical skills. There isnt really any void that needs to be filled since there are enough people and good information online to answer your questions and help you
out. Still there hasnt yet appeared one book that guides you through building your own 3D printer. These are the sections of this book:
How a RepRap 3D printer works Parts of the printer A word on the most commonly used plastics Tools and skills required Software required to run a RepRap 3D printer Buyers guide Links to build instructions This book is not a replacement for build instructions. There are excellent and unambiguous build instructions available in written form, as visual instructions and videos. Instead this book has been designed to prepare you before you start building.
Image 1 shows a fully assembled working home-built 3D printer. It is called RepRap Prusa Mendel and it is the printer this book will help you to build yourself. It costs about $500 or 500 in parts. You can buy this printer as a kit but then you will pay at least double this price. Many people source the individual parts themselves and once they receive them get started on their build.
This 3D printer builds objects by adding plastic material layer by layer until the object (also called printed part) is finished. The printer has a frame and three axes: X-axis (moves left-to-right), Y-axis (moves front-to-back) and Zaxis (moves up-and-down.) The extruder sits on the X-axis and feeds and melts plastic filament. The lowest part of the extruder is the extruder head, here the plastic is melted and extruded through a tiny hole with a diameter of less than 1mm. To print objects the electronics of the printer steer the three axes so that the extruder head is at the right spot to add plastic to the printed part. The three axes together with the extruder is called the Cartesian robot. The printer is usually controlled by a PC with special software installed. In this software a solid model is loaded (these are called STL files) that gets converted to Gcode[1].This G-code is sent to the electronics over USB and tells the robot what movements to make. At the end of all of these movements the modelled part should have been printed. Alternatively the same software can convert the model to G-code and save these codes on a SD-card. If the electronics of your printer is equipped with a SD-card reader you can print parts without the need to have a PC connected during the entire print job.
Introduction video
This is a good time to watch the excellent 15 minute introduction video on the RepRap Prusa Mendel 3D printer.
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1. Frame
Image 2: empty RepRap Prusa Mendel frame. Notice the various printed parts that keep the frame together. (source)
The frame gives the printer its stiffness. The three axes of the robot will be added to this frame. The frame consists of threaded rods connected together with printed parts (these are called the vertices.)
Image 3: RepRap Prusa Mendel frame with smooth rods for Y-axis and Z-axis mounted (source)
On image 3 you can see the frame with the smooth rods added for the Y-axis (the horizontal rods) and the Z-axis (the vertical rods.)
On image 4 you see the print bottom plate assembled on the Y-axis smooth rods. The Y-axis has one degree of freedom: it can move between the front and the back of the frame. The Y-axis is controlled by a belt attached to a stepper motor with pulley that you can also see on the image. The print bottom plate has four bushings attached that have been glued to the print bottom plate. The RepRap axes - like many CNC machines - move over smooth rods with bushings or more recently with linear bearings. Bushings are actually plain bearings. They slide over smooth rods and provide almost no friction when moving up and down the rods. Usually plain bearings are used to turn around a cylinder (or to have the cylinder turn inside.) On the RepRap the bushings dont turn, instead they linearly move up and down the smooth rods following an imaginary line on the rods. Linear bearings have little balls inside and provide free motion in one direction. Both bushings and linear bearings can be either printed or sourced as metal parts. Metal bushings are made from brass as it's the only metal that has low friction and is self-lubricating. RepRap designs that use linear bearings typically use LM8UU metal bearings. The standard RepRap Prusa Mendel design uses bushings that are more than good enough for the purpose. Some people believe a RepRap printer looks more cool when fitted with LM8UU linear bearings (but this drives up the price.)
Image 8: RepRap Prusa Mendel frame with X-axis, Y-axis and Zaxis installed (source)
On image 8 you can see a RepRap Prusa Mendel frame with Y-axis, Z-axis and X-axis assembled. The Z-axis and Y-axis are actually part of one construction. The Z-axis moves the X-axis up and down the frame. The X-axis moves the extruder left and right within the frame.
Image 9: X-end idler part on the left-hand side, X-end motor part on the right-hand side (source unknown)
The Z-and-X axis construction consists of two printed parts called the X-end idler (left image 9) and X-end motor (right image 9). The X-end idler has two vertical sections: a square open box and a hexagon structure. In the square open box two bushings are glued. This box serves as a guide for the vertical smooth rod. In the hexagon structure two M8 bolts and a spring are mounted. A threaded rod is turned into these bolts. This threaded rod is also connected to the stepper motor on the top of the frame. The stepper motor will turn the threaded rod around its axis that in turn will make the X-end idler move up and down. You can see the assembled X-end idler on image 10:
The X-end motor has the same two sections and is assembled in a similar way. As youve noticed on the images the Z-axis is controlled by two stepper motors. It turns out its both cheaper and improves accuracy to have two stepper motors on the Z-axis instead of one motor and a belt (mainly because the later requires a much more complicated construction and an expensive belt.) The Yaxis and X-axis are controlled by one motor and a belt, here two motors dont make sense.
4. Extruder
The RepRap Prusa Mendel is typically equiped with a Wades geared extruder[3]. This extruder consists of two parts: a cold top part that feeds the platic filament and a hot bottom part that melts and extrudes the plastic. These two parts are commonly called the Wade extruder (the cold part) and the hot-end (the hot part).
The Wade extruder consists of a large gear that is driven by a stepper motor. This large gear drives a bolt that pulls the plastic filament and pushes it into the hot-end where the plastic melts. The hot-end is usually a brass bolt with a hole drilled down its vertical axis. This screw is called a heater barrel. There are two sizes of filament available: 3mm wide and 1.75mm wide. The hole drilled in your heater barrel will have to match the size of your filament! At the tip of the heat barrel the exit hole narrows down to less than 1mm (typically 0.5mm.) Two methods exist for heating the hot-end: using a resistor or using a NiChrome wire. A NiChrome wire is the easiest to get started since you will only need a heater barrel with a nozzle. A resistor requires a heater block that is screwed onto the heater barrel. Image 12 shows a heater block with a resistor installed. The heater block is screwed into a heater barrel:
Image 13: heater barrel wrapped with NiChrome wire (the assembly shown in this image is not finished) (source)
A hot-end has three more crucial components: a thermistor to measure the temperature, a heat barrier to separate the hot-end from the cold-end (without this the cold-end would melt) and the nozzle where the melted plastic flows out of the heater barrel. The thermistor is connected to the electronics board just like the resistor or NiChrome wire - and allows the electronics to measure and regulate the temperature of the heater barrel. The heater barrel operates at a configurable temperature, without the thermistor that temperature could not be reached and held. The heat barrier prevents the heat from the heater barrel to rise to the cold part. The cold part consists of printed parts and these would melt if they became too hot.
Typically PEEK is used as a heat barrier. PEEK can resist high temperature and transfers very little heat. PEEK however has a number of disadvantages: its not easy to find in the format suitable for use on an extruder, its pretty expensive as well and it requires a PFTE tube inside to help the flow of filament. PFTE tube can be difficult to find as well. At least one person has assembled an extruder where PEEK and PFTE was replaced with a piece of bamboo[4]. Bamboo has the same properties as PEEK: resists high temperature and transfers very little heat. It is however much cheaper and much easier to find. The nozzle is the most important part of the hot-end. The nozzle is the end of the heater barrel where the melted plastic is extruded. The nozzle needs to have a sharp enough tip and a central hole that is less than 1mm (typically 0.5mm.) Image 14 shows a heater barrel with nozzle:
Image 14: a heater barrel. Suitable for either NiChrome wire or heater block (source)
5. X-carriage
The assembled extruder - including cold-end, heat barrier and hot-end - is mounted on the X-axis carriage. Image
15 below shows an assembled X-axis with two smooth rods, the X-end idler and X-end motor printed parts and the printed X-carriage:
Image 15: assembled X-axis with two smooth rods, the X-end idler and X-end motor printed parts and the printed X-carriage (source)
The X-carriage can use bushings or linear bearings. The Xcarriage is controlled by one stepper motor and a belt. Image 16 shows an assembled Wades geared extruder mounted on the X-carriage. Notice the belt in the background.
Image 16: assembled Wade's geared extruder mounted on the Xcarriage. Notice the belt in the background (source)
6. Print plate
Printed parts are printed on the print plate. The three axes move together so that the nozzle can move above the print plate in an area of 200mm wide by 200mm deep by 100mm high. The print plate actually consists of two plates: the print bottom plate that is mounted on the X-axis smooth rods with bushings or linear bearings and the print top plate that is mounted on the bottom plate and that forms the print surface. The top print plate must be level! The top print plate is mounted with fours springs slid over four screws so that it can be easily adjusted. Image 17 shows both print plates one stacked on top of the other. The springs are clearly visible. The bottom print plate is mounted on the X-axis smooth rods with printed bushings.
Image 17: top print plate stack on bottom print plate. The springs are clearly visible. The bottom print plate is mounted on the X-axis smooth rods with printed bushings (source)
A popular add-on for your printer is the heated bed. These significantly reduce the amount ofwarping on printed parts, especially on the lower layers. Warping is caused by the uneven cooling of outer and inner sections of a printed part. The material at the outside of a part will cool and thus shrink faster than the material inside. This will cause the cooler material to warp or bend while the hot material wont[5]. This uneven shrinking will cause straight edges to bend and might cause structural failure in parts. Warping is especially a problem for the lower layers of a part since the print plate will cool those layers much faster than higher layers. The bottom section of the left-hand part on image 18 below clearly shows warping while the identical righthand part doesnt:
Image 18: left-hand part clearly shows warping in bottom section (source)
The solution is to print on a heated bed so that the entire lower section of a part is kept at the same temperature. A heatbed can heat the top print plate up to 100C. Image 19 shows a heatbed installed on a RepRap Prusa Mendel printer.
Image 19: heatbed mounted on RepRap Prusa Mendel top print plate (source)
The heatbed remains on for the entire duration of the print. Usually a glass plate is installed on top of the heatbed. If the heat would be turned of after a few layers the printed part would eventually come loose due to the temperature drop and the print would fail. A heatbed can either be bought or home-made. Buying is of course easier but building it yourself is feasible and cheaper[6]. When you install a heatbed be sure to check the temperature of the transistor on your electronics board. If it gets very hot you might have to install a little heat sink (you can find those very cheap on ebay or in your local electronics shop.)
7. Electronics
The electronics board controls the printing process. Several electronics options exist for RepRap printers (they are all open-source.) Currently the most popular are:
RAMPS, a DIY shield board for Arduino MEGA Sanguinololu, an all-in-one DIY board with microprocessor on board The RepRap electronics board has several functions:
Control the four stepper motor controllers (there are five stepper motors on a RepRap Prusa Mendel but both Zaxis motors are connected to the same stepper motor controller.)
Control the temperature of the hot-end and monitor the hot-end thermistor. Monitor the end-stops (end-stops are used for homing the three axes, see later section.) Control the temperature of the heated bed and monitor the heated bed thermistor (the heated bed is optional.) The electronics board is connected to the PC using a USBto-serial converter. The Arduino used with the RAMPS board has such a converter built-in, so does the Sanguinololu board. The RAMPS electronics board has been around longer than the Sanguinololu and has seen regular updates. RAMPS is a shield board that needs to be connected to an Arduino MEGA 1280 or 2560 board (or a clone board.) The RAMPS has these additional features:
One extra heater / thermistor channel (three in total) Optional SD card reader Image 20 shows a RAMPS board mounted on a Arduino MEGA board with four Pololu stepper motor controller boards installed:
Image 20: an assmebled RAMPS board mounted on a Arduino MEGA board with four Pololu stepper motor controller boards installed (source)
The Sanguinololu board is a more recent addition. It doesnt offer the extra thermal channel of the RAMPS and connecting an SD reader is more difficult. However, all electronics are contained on one board and hence doesnt require an Arduino MEGA board. This makes the Sanguinololu cheaper than the RAMPS. A complete RAMPS DIY kit including Arduino MEGA clone and four Pololu stepper controllers will typically cost about $100 or 100. A complete Sanguinololu DIY kit will typically only cost about $80 or 80. A few things have to be taken into account though. When building your own Sanguinololu you will have to solder a very small chip[7] (the USB-to-serial bridge). Also, you should make sure the ATMega microprocessor comes with the Sanguinololu boot loader installed. If this is not the case you will have to install this boot loader yourself and that is pretty complicated[8]. Ask your vendor in case you are not sure whether or not the bootloader is pre-loaded.
Although both the RAMPS and Sanguinololu boards have been designed to be assembled by hand the PCBs cannot be etched at home. Actually, the Sanguinololu board cant be etched at home at all, RAMPS boards versions 1.25 or earlier can be etched at home with some tweaks[9]. If you want to follow the path of least resistance you should go for a RAMPS board. But maybe you like the Sanguinololus small size and lower price. Image 21 shows an assembled Sanguinololu board with four Pololu stepper controller boards installed:
Image 21: assembled Sanguinololu board with four Pololy stepper controller boards installed (source)
8. Stepper motors
There are five stepper motors on the RepRap Prusa Mendel:
One to control the Y-axis One to control the X-axis Two to control the Z-axis
One to control the extruder Normally all five motors on a printer are the same but this is not required except for the two motors that control the Zaxis: these must be identical. The RepRap Prusa Mendel has been designed to use bipolar NEMA17 motors. NEMA17 determines some of the dimensions of a stepper motor.
through micro-stepping. In this mode the percentage of current is gradually changed per phase to make the shaft rotate in small steps[10].
When stepper motors are in operation and stand still they still use current. For this reason each stepper motor controller has a potentiometer to control how much current is sent to the stepper. If you send too much current you might use more current than is required (and hence increase your electricity bill.) For this reason is it advised to close the potentiometer on each stepper motor controller by turning counterclockwise all the way and then open the potentiometer about th of the way. When you discover one of your steppers does not provide enough torque you can open the potentiometer of that stepper motor controller at little bit further.
For the X-axis this should be the position where the nozzle reaches the left-hand side of the print plate. For the Y-axis this should be on the back-side of the axis so that the print plate is moved to the back far enough that the nozzle ends up on the forward of the print plate.
For the Z-axis this should be the position where the nozzle barely touches the print plate. When printing the software will make sure the Z-axis is lifted a little before printing the first layer.
You can choose between two kinds of end stops: optical or mechanical switch. The mechanical switches are preferred since they are much cheaper, easier to install and work just as well as optical end stops.
Image 24 shows a mechanical end stop mounted on the Zaxis. Notice the nozzle in the background is hovering a few centimeter above the print plate meaning the X-end idler part is positioned just a little bit to high to be in this picture. From the nozzle and print plate positions one can also deduce the X-axis and Y-axis must be in (or near) position zero. The front of the printer frame is to the right in this image.
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2 You can find the X-axis parts with linear bearings for a 3 You can find the designs for the Wade's geared 4 Instructions for bamboo as heat barrier here. 5 See this excellent guide for more details on warping 6 See these instructions for building your own heatbed 7 Instructions on how to solder the small chip on the 8 See these instructions for loading the Sanguinololu boot 9 See here for details on how to etch a RAMPS board
extruder here
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Sanguinololu board
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loader
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yourself
inside a stepper motor (note: the stepper motor shown in this applet is unipolar while RepRap uses bipolar motors. The principles however remain the same.)
[
11] Source
Plastics
A RepRap 3D printer is most often used to print either of two thermoplastics: ABS or PLA. The plastic material is arranged in filament.
ABS and PLA are very different plastics and they each require specific printer configurations. ABS is made from petroleum and is more flexible than PLA. PLA is biodegradable, is more rigid than ABS and will dissolve in
water. ABS is more prone to warping than PLA. Good printing results will require a heatbed for ABS. For PLA you can probably get printed parts without warping without a heatbed. There are many different kinds of ABS and PLA. If your printer is perfectly tuned for the plastic of one vendor you might need to redo your configuration after youve switched vendors. PLA has a lower melting temperature than ABS. Take into account however that the thermistor on a NiChrome wire hotend typically reports lower than actual temperatures. A thermistor on a heatblock typically reports higher than actual temperatures. Your hotend temperature, extruder speed and axes speeds all need to be in harmony for good printing results. First try to get good printing results at a lower extruder speed (100mm per second). Afterwards you can try to increase the speed. As a rule of thumb printing quality at higher speeds will be worse than at lower speeds although the degradation is usually acceptable.
2.2. Cable stripper 2.3. DIY Sanguinololu build You dont need to be an electronics buff or mechanical engineer in order to build your own 3D printer. If you can screw a nut on a bolt you can build this printer. You also dont need to invest large amounts of money in either parts or tools. The RepRap has been designed around commonly available parts and using commonly available tools.
1. Mechanical build
For the mechanical build you will need these tools and the associated skills.
Open end wrenches: M8, M4 and M3 Hex keys if youve bought those kinds of screws
When storing away your digital caliper always remove the battery. These devices never really shut down. Whenever you make a measurement always first reset your caliper to zero, even when it already says 00,0. If you make measurements without resetting the caliper to zero you might get inaccurate readings. Despite these two small annoyances digital calipers outperform regular calipers in such a way that you can't build a RepRap printer without them.
A spirit level is used during frame building, axes building and general calibration of your printer. A smaller spirit level is better than a bigger:
Seperate bushings like PLA bushings or printed bushing holders for brass bushings Bushing holders integrated into the printed parts. This is generally referred to as the Prusa felt branch. This is actually a counter-intuitive name. The designer of the RepRap Prusa Mendel printer - Josef Prusa - created a branch[12] with bushing holders integrated in the
printed parts. The original purpose was to glue small pieces of felt into these holders (felt was then used as a bushing.) It is also possible to mount brass bushings in these holder. Later on the parts for LM8UU bearings were also added to this branch. The use of felt as a bushing never really caught on and is now outdated. The bushing holders integrated into the parts are still popular for use with brass bushings and LM8UU linear bearings. Image 29 shows the X-end idler part with integrated bushing holders.
Image 29: X-end idler with integrated bushing holders, taken from Prusa felt branch.
Glue for attaching your PLA bushings or bushing holders the X-carriage on the X-axis, the bottom print plate on the Y-axis and the X-end parts on the Z-axis.
Table clamp when gluing the PLA bushings or bushing holders to the X-end parts on the Z-axis.
You will need these tools to add a flat to your motor shafts:
Iron file Play-Doh or Silly Putty or alternative A vise is really handy for this job. You need a way to stop the shaft from turning while filing a flat. It might be possible with pliers (this might also require more than two hands.) Follow these excellent instructions on how to add a flat to your motor shafts (thank you spacexula.)
2. Electronics build
Tools for the electronics build are required to solder the components on the PCB (if you've bought a DIY kit) and for endstops and motors.
2.1. Soldering
You need these basic soldering tools for building your own electronics board. If you've bought a pre-assembled board you probably still have to solder cables:
Soldering iron with sharp tip. If you have a broad tip you should consider changing it for a finer one. Solder wire. Third hand
Image 32: a very useful tool for any soldering task (source)
See this video for details on how to solder the FTDI chip on a Sanguinololu board.
repository. In a branch things can be worked on in parallel without affecting things in other branches.
RepRap software
1. Arduino software for RAMPS 2. Arduino software for Sanguinololu 3. Firmware 3.1. Downloading the Sprinter firmware 3.2. Configuring the Sprinter firmware to your electronics board 3.3. Uploading the Sprinter firmware to your electronics board 4. Skein software 5. Host software 5.1. Prerequisites for Windows 5.2. Prerequisites for other operating systems 5.3. Downloading Pronterface 5.4. Running Pronterface 6. Slic3r: alternative skein application A RepRap printer is judged by the quality of the objects it has printed and secondarily the speed with which these objects can be printed. The quality of the prints is determined in part by the quality of your mechanical build. Another important contributor to print quality or lack thereof is the software you use with your RepRap and how
it has been configured. The fundamental pieces of software required to run a RepRap printer are discussed here. You will need at least four applications installed on your computer to run a RepRap Prusa Mendel 3D printer. They are:
Arduino software: this application allows you to install the printer firmware onto the ATMega microprocessor. This installation is required each time you want to update the firmware.
Firmware: there are several firmwares available for RepRap printers. The firmware is installed on the ATMega microprocessor and handles the G-code instructions received from the PC. Part of the configuration of the printer has to be done in the firmware.
Skein software: the most popular application to slice STL files into G-code is called Skeinforge. You need this piece of software each time you want to print a part.
Host software: there are also several host application available for RepRap printers. This application is responsible for communicating with the electronics of the printer before and during print jobs. It prepares the printer before starting a print job and then also starts the actual print jobs. These applications are discussed in turn below.
3. Firmware
There are a few popular firmwares available for RepRap 3D printers[13]. They are:
Sprinter: modern firmware with support for SD cards and easy configuration Teacup: claimed to be faster than Sprinter, more elaborate configuration options Teacup is a decent alternative for Sprinter. However, because of its easier configuration we advise you to get started with Sprinter.
Through the website. By cloning the repository using Git. If you're not familiar with Git you should download the latest version of the Sprinter firmware from the website.
The type of electronics board you're using (RAMPS, Sanguinolo, ...) The steps per mm: these are the steps your stepper motor needs to make for one axis to travel one mm. This value has to be configured for the three axes plus the extruder. For now you only need to configure the type of electronics board you're using. The Sprinter firmware needs to know which electronics board and which version of the board you're using. To
configure the Sprinter firmware open the Sprinter.pde file in Arduino IDE. This file is located in the Sprinter archive you've downloaded. Edit the Configuration.h file. For now change only one setting that is at the top of the file:MOTHERBOARD. Change the line that says #define
MOTHERBOARD 3to
electronics of choice:
RAMPS version 1.2 or older: #define MOTHERBOARD 3 RAMPS version 1.3 and better: #define MOTHERBOARD
4
Make sure to save the Configuration.h file (CTRL+S.) Also make sure youve selected the correct Arduino board in Tools / Board menu:
For RAMPS this should Arduino Mega (ATMega1280) or Arduino Mega 2560. The value depends on the Arduino board you're using.
For the Sanguinololu board this should be Sanguino (this option is only available if youve followed the Arduino software for Sanguinololu instructions above.)
your specific configuration to your electronics board. If everthing goes well you should see a message similar to this:
Binary sketch size: 29530 bytes (of a 63488 byte maximum)
When the compilation has completed you can upload the firmware to your board. Make sure the USB cable is connected and LED is on. Hold the reset button on your board and press CTRL-U. When text appears in the black window of the Arduino IDE release the reset button (an Arduino chip can only be programmed for 10 seconds after a reset.) After the upload has completed reset your electronics board by pushing the reset button.
4. Skein software
Skeinforge is the most popular skein application in the RepRap community but its also notoriously complicated. Recently software developers in the RepRap community have release Pronterface. This application hides much of the complexity of Skeinforge and is also host software for a RepRap printer. When you install Pronterface there is no need to install Skeinforge separately.
5. Host software
Pronterface is the easiest to use host software for a RepRap 3D printer. It combines Skeinforge into a much easier to use package. With Pronterface you can load a STL file, have it converted to G-code and control your RepRap Prusa Mendel 3D printer.
Python 2.7. Python is the language that Pronterface is written in. pyserial, a library that allows Python to talk to serial ports. wxPython, a library to build graphical user applications in Python.
git clone https://github.com/kliment/Printrun.git Afterward change directory to the Printrun directory and run this command: git clone https://github.com/ahmetcemturan/SFACT.g it skeinforge This command will clone SFact that is required by pronterface (you can also use another skeinforge version.)
Select the correct COM port. Also make sure your electronics board is connected to the USB port and has power. Then click the Connect button. Pronterface should now have been able to connect to your electronics board. You can now try move your three axes. Start with small movements - e.g. X+1 - and make sure you dont run into anything.
much easier to use. You can convert STL files to G-code and import these G-code files into pronterface. You can download Slic3r here. Below is a screenshot of Slic3r:
Press the "Slice..." button to open an STL file. This will be immediately converted to a G-code file with the same name (different extension) in the same directory as the STL file. You can then open this G-code file in Pronterface (be sure to open the G-code file and not the STL file.)
Work in progress
Slic3r is a work in progress. It's not as complete or stable as Skeinforge yet. It is much easier to use though.
13] See also the list of all available firmwares for RepRap
printers.
Buyer's guide
1. Printed parts 2. Vitamins 2.1. Electronics 2.2. Power supply 2.3. Stepper motors 2.4. Hardware kits 2.5. Extruder 2.6. Hotends 2.7. Kapton tape Once youve decided to commit yourself youll have to shop for parts. A RepRap printer consists of two kinds of parts:
Printed parts for a RepRap Prusa Mendel Vitamins or non-printed parts like nuts and bolts and electronics. Check out the RepRap Prusa Mendel bill of materials (BOM) to get a feel of all the parts that are required.
Don't order anything before checking your planned purchases on the #reprap IRC channel. Only place your orders after the RepRap community members on the IRC channel have approved.
1. Printed parts
In Europe printed parts can be sourced from nophead or arthx. Nophead sells his parts on ebay. Arthx can be contacted on the #reprap IRC channel (his handle is arthx.) Nophead is based in the UK, Arthx in Poland. For the US also check out LulzBot.com (based in Loveland, Colorado, USA). For both US and Europe also check eMAKERshop.com, a website where RepRap community members buy and sell RepRap parts. You might also want to check out the casted parts offerd by 2printbeta.de. These are reportedly the only decent casted parts available.
2. Vitamins
2.1. Electronics
2.1.1. RAMPS
These vendors sell RAMPS DIY and pre-assembled kits:
RepRapSource.com (based in Germany) xyzprinters.com (based in the Netherlands) LulzBot.com (based in Loveland, Colorado, USA) UltiMachine.com (based in South Pittsburg, USA) You can buy an Arduino MEGA 1280 or Arduino MEGA 2560 board from these vendors or on ebay. Also check
ruben-ikmaak (info [at] ikmaak [dot] nl, based in the Netherlands) for Arduino MEGA boards.
2.1.2. Sanguinololu
These vendors sell Sanguinololu DIY or pre-assembled kits. For a small extra fee they will solder the SMD part for you, something which you should certainly not consider doing yourself. Ask the vendor directly in case no such quotation is made on their website.
Voltage regulator
Make sure you get the voltage regulator on you Sanguinololu. A ATX power supply usually doesn't give a clean 5V, better to get 5V for you electronics from the 12V source with a voltage regulator. If you're not sure ask your vendors.
xyzprinters.com (based in the Netherlands) ruben-ikmaak (info [at] ikmaak [dot] nl, based in the Netherlands) LulzBot.com (based in Loveland, Colorado, USA)
2.1.3. StepStick
Most of the vendors above carry the StepStick or Pololu boards. Be careful to actually buy the A4988 stepper drivers. The A4983 is an older chip and doesn't have overcurrent protection, the A4988 does. You will still find A4983 boards available, better avoid them.
20A but it shouldn't be 15A either. 20A on 12V is enough to run a RepRap Prusa Mendel 3D printer with a heated bed.
2printbeta.de (based in Germany): nuts & bolts kit and rods kit xyzprinters.com (based in the Netherlands): nuts & bolts kit and rods kit You can also check eMAKERshop or ebay for vendors. Beware however of kits that contain nuts & bolts, belts and printer parts; on many occassions these turn out more expensive than the sum of the parts.
Ask the vendors In case you are not certain whether or not their hardware kits include all the items on the RepRap Prusa Mendel BOM.
2.5. Extruder
The printed parts for the Wades geared extruder are usually part of the printed parts kit but be sure to double-check. You will probably has to buy a separate Wade's geared extruder hardware kit. These vendors sell them:
2.6. Hotends
TODO
14] See the RepRap wiki page on stepper motors for more
details.
Build instructions
1. X Y and Z axes calibration video 2. Printing spare parts 3. Selecting voltage for endstops on the Sanguinololu board
Work in progress
This section will be expanded and improved over time. For now it's made up of bits and pieces of useful information. Once most or all of your parts have arrived you're ready to start building your RepRap Prusa Mendel 3D printer. This printer come with very good build instructions:
The RepRap Prusa Mendel assembly instructions with video segments. The RepRap Prusa Mendel visual instructions. For the Wades geared extruder: The overview page. Visual instructions.
In case of doubt
In case you are in any kind of difficult or are uncertain take picture or record video and ask your questions on the #reprap IRC channel.
You have to watch this excellent video by spacexula on how to calibrate the X Y and Z axis:
Set of two Y-axis and X-axis pulleys Entire extruder set (only in case your printer parts are made from PLA) X-carriage (only in case your printer part is made from PLA) PLA has a lower melting temperature than ABS. The extruder set and X-carriage made from PLA have been known to get damaged due to the heat of the hotend. If these parts of your printer are made from PLA you should add a fan to blow air to the top of the hotend and the heat barrier[15]. This will make damage to your PLA X-carriage and extruder parts less likely.
This book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Sharing of this work is encouraged.
1. How to contribute
In case you want to fix typos - there's bound to be plenty, edit this book or if you just want to add content to this book you can do so on GitHub. You need to have a GitHub account. Creating one is easy. You will also need to install Git on your computer. There are Git installation packages available for many platforms. Once you have taken care of all that you should log in to GitHub and fork the repository of this book. Afterwards you can commit and push your changes to GitHub. When that is done you can send me a pull request. The next sections will discuss these steps in more details. There's also a page on GitHub dedicated to pull requests (the page however might be too elaborate.)
1.1. Overview
The idea is simple enough: you want to make a small or bigger change to the content of this book. Problem: you don't have write access to the repository that holds this book's source code. You could send me an e-mail saying you would like to add this and that to such and such section. That's tedious. Actually you do have write access to this book's source code, in a way. This book's source code is hosted on GitHub, a site for collaborative sofware development. On GitHub - once you have an account - it is very easy to fork a
repository. Once you've done that you can make any changes you like. Forking is software development jargon for making a copy of a repository. Once the copy is made this copy starts to live a life on its own but it still holds a reference to where is came from: the original repository. You can make changes on your copy of the repository - making these changes is called a commit - and you can then bring these changes to my attention. Alerting me of your changes is called a pull request. I wil have a look at your changes. I might copy them entirely in the book. I might also make a few changes first. Or I might feel lazy and ask you to make some more changes before accepting your work into the book. In any case, when your changes make it to the book you will be listed as a contributor. The following sections explain in more detail each step of this process.
copy of the repository will have been created under your user name (check the URL.)
book. If you want to fix typos you can edit these files with a regular text editor. You should use a DocBook editor if you want to make bigger changes to this document. I use the personal edition of XML Mind. XML Mind is written in
Java and runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. You can download the personal edition of XML Mind here. No registration or license is required. To view your changes in HTML you can run this command:
For Mac OS X and Linux: ./gradlew publish This command will take a few minutes to complete. Once completed you can open theappengine/index.html file to check your changes.
visible on your own computer. By running the command below your changes will become visible on GitHub as well. git push Make sure this command completes without errors. When you do get errors first run this command: git pull Then run the git push command again.
2. Similar efforts
There is a comparable effort to this one. It's called The Incomplete RepRap Beginner's Guide and it is maintained by COS.
3. Contributors
These people have kindly contributed to this book: Kliment, spacexula, Mikko Kosonen, Nudel.