A month since upgrading Printrbot to 1405 version.

Its over a month since I received my printrbot 1405 upgrade kit and unboxed it, dissembled the older printrbot simple and reassembled the the newer version. Many things went wrong with the upgrade, like missing and broken parts (yet again). The hot end shorted out due to melted wires. And the upgrade tock time getting replacement parts.

I been now printing with the newer 1405 printrbot version for almost 3 weeks and I got to say this is a well worth upgrade to the fishing line version I had before. The belts do not need adjusting as often as the fishing line did and keep tension and print at tight tolerances, better than before.

The auto leveling sensor work awesome once it was calibrated. (and that tock a few days to get just right) The 1405 Printrbot simple is now just as good as any other printer I used for doing PLA prints. I would recommend it. However be sure to know the maintenance of these printers can cost extra money than the list price, so keep that in mind. I already spend double the cost of this printer maintaining and upgrading it. However its still cheaper than most printers on the market even with the added cost. Also I learned way more owning this printer than any other on how to fix it and how it works.

I also made the table top for this new printer version to sit on. (acrylic) It has a opening and a hole that  help vent the printer board during printing (located under the machine). Also It doubles as a nice shelf for printer tools and tape when its not in use. (as seen in photo above)

Journey with Printrbot Simple takes turn for worst

Well I was hoping to avoid this, and writing about such issues. However I going to be true with the journey using this Micro 3D printer (The Printrbot Simple). No other 3D printer I have used or owned has given me so many problems as the Printrbot Simple. Actual I not even sure why its called simple, because so far its not been. The original cost of $350.00 seemed affordable at the time, however after 2 months (and less than 20 total prints with this printer) I spent to date $650.02 total on this printer just trying to get it to run and keep it working.

Things break super easy, unlike any printer I ever used. I not sure if I got a lemon or its cheaply made. I have learned more with this printer than an other in how to maintain them, fix them and maybe even design something better. However I only wanted to make stuff with them. I made a video of the latest issues I ran into, such as a dead hot end (the wires melted after only 19 prints at temps of 196-200/c)

The fan cord is also broken and finding a replacement seems impossible. Printrbot does not sell any single cords in there store. I search the web for fan cords with the same length and plugs jacks but can not locate any with this jack type. I sent in a support ticket to Printrbot but got a message that it would take 305 days. 305 days! that almost a year, are they insane?

 I was so excited about this Printrbot and it actual made some (19) top quality prints in tolerance. However If I had to do it again today, I would never got this product after all these problems and added/ hidden cost. I would spent my money on a better printer. Less than 2 months I already spent almost double the cost of this printer. Its just frustration, and wondering how much more money will I need to spend to get it working again, and how long will It be till something else breaks.

It sure been a learning lesson. The kind of lesson in you get what you pay for. Not that other more expensive 3D printers do not have issues either, they all do. However the Solidoodle 2 almost a year old has had far less problems and cost far less total to maintain over this printer.

Here my video on where I at with my Micro 3D printer just after 2 months and less than 20 prints made.




Edit: Updated I did end up finally fixing this, and did get help from printrbot. I found someone at that company that was able to help us fix this. Now its working 100 times better than the last printrbot simple I had. I have not had time to edit and upload new video because this is a busy time of the year to code software. I try to find some time after the July 4th holiday, to post new videos of some awesome makes with this new printer upgrade.

Printrbot 1405 upgrade tips

Since upgrading my Printrbot simple makers to the new design 1405 (belt version) I notice some odd things that first seem bad, but are fixable.

#1 The print size for the X and Y where smaller, but after close inspection of my printer, I notice the zip ties holding the belts tight are actual causing the travel of the bed to stop short. The zip ties need to be placed in a way that they do not cause the bed to hit the frame, which was happening on the X axis. The Y axis had some similar issues, however it was way more than just a zip tie causing the Y not to hit the Y axis N-stop. The screws holding the Y axis belt in place where actually causing the Y axis to stop short. The build instructions said to use 16mm screws however that was causing the issue of getting 95mm and not 100mm so I had replaced the 16mm screws with 10mm and the problem was fixed.

#2 Another issue I ran into was having to re-flash the firmware. I did not have any jumpers. And actually had no idea what they even where. I since found out you can use anything from paper clips to actual hard drive pin jumpers. I bought some at CDW and now have more than enough. However if I knew I would made sure I had this before I started upgrading the build. 

#3 There no firmware specially for the Makers simple 1405 printer, However its suggested to use the Metal simple firmware, which I did and it seems to work.

#4 If your on a mac and you need to add this firmware to the mac installer. Just drag and drop the firmware file onto the app icon for the firmware installer. Once it launches follow the on screen instructions. That will do it. This is something that not documented and I got the tip from Printrbot on twitter.

#5 after installing the firmware update on the mac the USB-serial address does change while keeping the old one listed as well, You have to reset the usb serial connection to reconnect to the printer. Its confusion because it still lists the old usb serial address.

I documenting this because many of these things are not explained well in one place. And are some what confusing when you have to go all over the internet looking for answers to why something is not working right.

Also finding the fan hood for this model was not very easy; I bought the upgrade kit so I would never found this if I did not ask Printrbot where it was. Its located here on this page of there web site. Fan hood file

Edit:

The firmware I ended up using was suggested by printrbot support Its for the metal simple found here: https://github.com/Printrbot/Marlin/releases/tag/metal-simple_bedlevel_v1 Just make sure to reset the M92 calibration values and to also set the M211 print dimensions mine are set at: M211 X100.00 Y100.00 Z112.00 and to save them using M500. I know there many people confused which one to use. Ian at Printrbot support was the one to tell me to use this firmware and it worked great since setting the new M211 and M92 values.

(I now heard there maybe a newer firmware for this printer, but when I tried it , it was missing the M212 data. I reverted back to the linked version above. I not sure why Printrbot is confusing there users of this printer version, It would seem to me they need a landing page for this printer with all the info to get it to work. Even by the goofy build instruction they have. It seems like this printer was not fully tested and documented before going out the door. If you plan to update you may want to wait tell everything sorted out.)

Printrbot simple upgrade; Print size smaller than before.

One of the reasons why I upgraded my printrbot simple to the newer version upgrade kit was for the bigger advertised print volume. Now that I built and started configuring the upgraded version I notice some very annoying new measurements, what ends up in smaller print sizes than I had on the past (fishing line) version. The new design printrbot on twitter claimed at 100mm x100mmx 112mm.

After measuring it myself its Z-(111mm) X(100mm) Y(90mm) I original got this printing to print objects at 95mm cubed. but since I upgraded that not possible because the Y axis lost 10mm of space. Printrbot really needs to list the actual dimensions when selling these products. If I knew this I would have never upgraded. Now I most likely end up having to buy the all metal printer even thought its bigger than I need because of false dimensions.

If your reading this because your interested in upgrading keep this in mind you lose build space in the Y axis by 10 mm.

Edit: I found a fix to this and posted it in this blog post http://3dprintkit.blogspot.com/2014/06/printrbot-1405-upgrade-tips.html

Printrbot 2014 upgrade kit build headaches

I had so much fun building my Printrbot Jr. and the Printrbot simple 2014 (fishing line version) that I thought this was going to be fun too, upgrading the 2014 (fishing line version) to the 2014(belt driven version). It was not fun at all.

Printrbot made it harder than it had to be. The build instructions where a absolute mess. Almost every step is in the wrong order. I found myself taken the printer apart several times because the instructions put most of the steps in the wrong order. That made it a major headache.
Also the new wooden frame had holes smaller than the M3 nuts, had holes in places you could not reach at all. Had missing parts between the upgrade kit and the previous model. After several trips to my local hardware store where required to finish the upgrade.

I did a video overview of several areas to watch out for. Also the last step of feeding wires into the printer board area, the tape thing did not work because the hole to small for that many wires. I bought some picture frame wire at my local hardware store and feed one wire in at a time using the picture frame wire. It worked perfectly.

Also it should be noted that there are more tools needed to do this built over the past version, you need 3mm, 2.5mm, 2mm and 1.5mm metric hex/ allen wrenches. The 2 new sizes 3mm is for the belt bushing screws and the 2mm is for the GT2 gears and the Z coupler screws.

Here a video:

Printrbot Maker Kit Upgrade 2014 Unboxing.

I order the June 2014 upgrade kit for the Printrbot Simple 3D printer over 10 days ago. UPS sat on the package for 5 days claiming bad weather, while the package was only 2 miles south of my location. Over that 5 days there was never bad weather here. Good Job UPS! not.

This is the kit that upgrades from the fishing line version of the printrbot simple to the belt driven version with auto bed leveling to boot for a extra $45.

I did a unboxing of this kit, cause I can see why some may be on the fence for upgrading, specially if there printer already works awesome, like mine was with the fishing line version.

Here the video, Enjoy.

Last week with printrbot; Extruder jams

The last week I ran into a on going issue with this printer. Jammed filament from a over heating extruder motor. I already dialed down the POT adjustment on the printer-board a  month ago to as low as it can go. Added heat sinks to the motor and still am have a issue with this printer overheating on the extruder motor.

The thing with the Printrbot over my Solidoodle or any other 3D printer I used is it does not have a heat sink / fan combo cooling on the extruder motor. I not sure why printrbot does not do this because it is a issue when printing bigger things with these printers.

I added 2 heat sinks to the top and side of the motor, and purchased a small cooling fan. However there is only one fan jack in the printer board and that for nozzle cooling, witch is needed with PLA to hit the tight tolerances I need.

I looked into many ways of how to wire a fan to this printer to cool down this motor and so far I stuck using a small household fan pointed at the extruder feeder. (It works better, but not prefect) I seen some small usb powered fans witch may work since the printer board missing a second fan port.

This was the highlight of the week with my micro 3D printrbot printer. Not one print was successful because of the extruder jamming cause by motor overheating. I since moved the printer into a cold air controlled room to see if that would help. I starting to wonder if I have a bad motor?

Its sure a challenge to get this working right. Never had this issue on the Solidoodle but then that also uses ABS and the printrbot uses PLA which maybe the resson why or not. Once I get the thing working right I will highlight what was needed to make it work right.

Hopefully next week I be able to post more good things about using this micro printer.