A site dedicated to Twichels, and things they (ok mostly me) are interested in.

Yet Another 3D printer from Scrap

1-5-15 Post

For a lot of hours spent on this project, I sure don't have a lot of progress to report. Here is what I have done and learned:

I have downloaded the Merlin software. I got it from the Author's dropbox per the instructable.

I have downloaded and installed the Repetier software.

Checked the voltages on my salvaged ATX power supply and connected it up to the RAMPS, Ohmed out the coils on 3 DVD ROM steppers, and one scanner NEMA17 spepper then soldered connectors and plugged them into the RAMPS.

I uploaded the firmware and tried moving some motors, Eventually I found I had to add the 1/16 step jumpers to the RAMPS board. Then I could make the motor spin one direction. At least I can by clickiing the HOME button in the manual controll of the Repetier software. Half way there!!

Next I broke down and replace the firmware with RAMPSTestCode and spun 3 of my 4 motors both directions. I swapped out the stepper driver (after powering down) of the motor that did not spin and it worked great with the new driver. Good think the RAMPS1.4 came with 5 drivers and I only need 4.

I promptly went back to Ebay and found 5 more drivers for $11.98 shipped from China. I may want spares. (I'm now up to $124.57 for my $60 printer) Good thing I allready had most of the parts.

Next up is to reload the Merlin Firmware and work on spinning the motors from there. I see you can disable endstops and 'prevent cold extrusion" in software and that may be the source of the trouble. I also need to build the structure. This may prove frusterating as I need warm tempatures to run my lasersaw and it is January. At any rate, I sure am burning through pages of my notebook. I think that must be good.

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last updated 1-5-15