Messages

1

General Discussion / Zortrax transitioning to a print farm?

« on: January 22, 2020, 08:14:24 PM »

Not much activity here lately so maybe no one will see this.  Has anyone else noticed that Zortrax seems to be pushing a print farm business model recently?  Makes me wonder if they will stop selling printers to consumers all together.

My old M200 is starting to have issues and I've been thinking about I should looking at for a replacement.  Any thoughts?  I'm partial to the Prusa lineup at present, especially if they release the XL model soon.

Mike

2

General Discussion / Re: motor "crunches."

« on: October 30, 2018, 08:30:17 PM »

If I understand the problem correctly, when that happens to me it is usually because there is a bit of filament debris caught between the gear and the hotend or the roller.  That can be fixed by disconnecting the feed stepper and cleaning the gear and the inlet to the hot end.  In really bad cases I've had to remove the nozzle and stepper, heat up the hot end and push the filament slug up from the bottom of the hot end toward the gear.

3

General Discussion / Re: Z-Temp products compatible with new Zortrax M200 V2 Hotend and heater PCB?

« on: May 10, 2018, 07:23:24 PM »

Thanks for the additional info.  I've been using the ZT-HE with ABS for quite a while with no serious issues, but probably don't print anywhere near as much as you do.  I have replaced the Teflon tubing once and do use separate ZT-HE's, one for Z-ABS and another for pretty much everything else.

I'm a little slower on hot end change outs, maybe 5-10 minutes, but the time isn't a problem for me.

4

General Discussion / Re: Z-Temp products compatible with new Zortrax M200 V2 Hotend and heater PCB?

« on: May 08, 2018, 07:03:57 PM »

The V2 worked better with Z-Glass but still won't print most PLA, flexible, etc., which is why ZT-HE was developed. Its construction is significantly different from the Zortrax V2, but it is certainly compatible with all M200 heaters, thermocouples, and thermocouple amplifier PCBs.

Thanks for the reply.  Would it be correct to say that ZT-HE would work well with any filaments that the Zortrax V2 HE supports, as well as many that it doesn't?

I'm not married to the Zortrax V2 HE; Zortrax recommended it in addition to the Zortrax PCB that I needed and I ordered both just to avoid issues.

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General Discussion / Z-Temp products compatible with new Zortrax M200 V2 Hotend and heater PCB?

« on: May 04, 2018, 08:24:46 PM »

And specifically is the Zortrax V2 hotend functionally the same as the Z-Temp hot end?

I'm about to replace my heater & T/C as well as the PCB and want to make sure there will be no issues.  The Zortrax V2 hotend looks like functionally equivalent to the Z-Temp hot end so I'm guessing there will be no problems there.

6

RaftAway / Re: Printing to ... aluminium

« on: May 18, 2017, 07:52:07 PM »

Z-Sense works a treat for me.  I switch frequently between ABS and PLA+PHA prints and Z-Sense makes it easy to accommodate either.

7

RaftAway / Re: v1.1.4 released

« on: March 24, 2017, 06:58:12 PM »

Z-LCD has been a big help to me in getting prints dialed in just right.

8

General Discussion / Re: Error Code 032 in Z-Suite?

« on: January 27, 2017, 07:55:13 PM »

I'll give that a shot.  It's not a big deal so long as I wait for printing to start before leaving the room.

9

General Discussion / Re: Error Code 032 in Z-Suite?

« on: January 26, 2017, 07:14:25 PM »

Sorry - the "when" was in the reply that didn't get sent.  It happens right after the bed and extruder heat and just before it starts to do it's level sensing routine.  I've been paying more attention lately and it seems that the Z-Temp color "thermometer" is a bit on the high side when the error occurs so I've been waiting a minute or two after the error to try again and that seems to be working.  I can deal with that sort of over-temp solution and just wanted to be sure I didn't have some sort of cable or wiring problem.

10

General Discussion / Re: Error Code 032 in Z-Suite?

« on: January 25, 2017, 08:46:25 PM »

Crap - must have forgotten to "Post" after writing out a long reply.

Anyway, the message is on the LCD, not ZSuite as you surmised.  Literally "Error #032 Check the main extruder and restart the printer", which apparently means to cycle power.

I'm running ZSuite 1.7.1 and firmware 1.0.5.  The parts are sliced for Z-ABS and I'm using -70 °C on Z-Temp and position #1 on the heater.

I half suspect that the heater PID parameters are not very good for these settings and that the heater is ramping fast enough that it overshoots the setpoint, as adjusted by Z-Temp and the firmware sees an overtemp condition.

I should also mention that I had a few occasions where the heater overheated enough so that a lot of smoke was generated from the hot end somewhere.  That was apparently due to the Z-Temp multi-connector working itself partly off the top of the extruder and unrelated to this Error #032 business.  The overheats seemed to mostly trash the PTFE tubing, I think, but maybe it affected something else as well.  I've replaced the block, SS tube and PTFE tubing so that shouldn't be an issue.

11

General Discussion / Error Code 032 in Z-Suite?

« on: January 24, 2017, 07:46:40 PM »

I've been these at the start of about 1 out of 3 prints lately working with MeltInk PLA+PHA using Z-ABS in the slicer a -70° in Z-Temp.  Is there anything that can be done to prevent it? 

In case it matters, I was having dual fan problems on the hot end/extruder a while back and repaired the old-style ribbon cable by cutting off the last 1/2-in or so of the cable and installing a new cable connector.

12

News and Announcements / Re: Raft Removal and Retraction Adjustment Software Utility!

« on: January 08, 2017, 06:41:04 PM »

Thanks - printing raftless is starting to sound pretty good to me and Amazon just delivered the fans I need to get my M200 back up and running.

13

News and Announcements / Re: Raft Removal and Retraction Adjustment Software Utility!

« on: January 06, 2017, 07:48:10 PM »

What filaments can be printed raftless with Raft-away and Z-Sense?

I'm excited to try it out but one of my fans failed and the new one won't be delivered until Sunday.

14

Materials Compatibility / Re: PLA raft removal

« on: October 23, 2016, 06:22:16 PM »

I had to dial up the temp a bit here on the v2 nozzle to avoid extruder clicking.

Have you checked to see how easily your spool of filament rolls on the holder and slides through the tube?

I was having major problems with clicking and poor raft prints with MeltInk PLA+PHA filaments and noticed that the filament was being pulled taught.  Upon a bit more research I noticed that the inside of the MeltInk spools have little bosses (protrusions) that seem to interfere with the rotation of the spool on the holder, causing it to hang up a bit.  I made up a bushing out of Delrin, which has slippery properties, and that seems to have solved my clicking and filament feed problems with those filament spools.

15

Materials Compatibility / Re: PolyMax raft removal

« on: October 20, 2016, 06:47:02 PM »

Thanks Paolo, I'll try that next time I use PolyMax.