DICE tiny printer
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Recently I had the opportunity to get an almost functional DICE for cheap, and could not resist getting it. As I had a Maestro board lying around which I had originally acquired for a delayed crowdfunding project (due to the creator being sick), I decided to stick it into the DICE to replace the smoothie clone which was ... temperamental.
Today I was able to do the first prints. I am using PrusaSlicer and using Prusa's AutoSpeed. Here are some test prints:
The calibration circle printed nicely (scaled down to 45% on X and Y of course), so I tried a Calibration Cat which printed around 70mm/sec for most of the segments:
I am happy with the result except the corners are bulging a bit and there is some weird pattern on parts of the Calibration Cat. Any ideas how to get rid of them?
Here is my config.g for posterity (-:
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I would look at mechanical issues. Belt play, belt tensions unequal, etc. Rotate the test print 45 degrees, and if it significantly reduces, one of these is the issue.
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The pattern on the cat looks like under extrusion from filament tension. Or perhaps insufficient cooling/over temperature. Does it persist if you print the cat at 200% scale?
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@tenaja @Phaedrux many thanks for your input. It looks like rotating the model does not have an effect on the artifacts, and it persists when I scale the model to 200%. They do get more pronounced when I increase the print speed though.
My bet is on the extruder ... I might replace the one on the DICE with a Bondtech (sacrilege, I know, to deviate from the original design) and see if that improves results.
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I found
theone reason for the underextrusion: I had replaced the tubing that came with the printer with capricorn tubing ... and at the curvature on this particular design the inner diameter of the capricorn tube reduced so much that it stopped the filament from moving. I measured the filament and it was pretty consistent at 1.75mm (to the exactness of my caliper). I moved back to the original tubing and am now printing without underextrusion like artifacts.There is still more going on, investigating further.
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@oliof undersized cap tube has been a problem for others.
https://www.sublimelayers.com/2019/01/capricorn-tubing-not-greatest-thing.html?m=1
Im jealous, would love to have a DICE. Guess I’ll just have to settle for a Creality CR-100
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The DICE ist a hairy beast to tackle and some important information is in years old forum and Facebook posts... I learned a lot, now need to figure out some details (like how to fix the alignment of the y blocks and how to shorten the belts that are glued in ... They're a tad too long to really tighten and are at the low end of acceptable tightness).
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The DICE is a piece of art when it comes to packaging. It's a beautiful machine. I'm sure they made many tradeoffs when it comes to serviceability when they designed it. That's your problem now
I'm waiting for the same crowdfunding, and also reused the Maestro for other projects.
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Here is the same printer 3 months later. I had to replace the heater due to broken cables, updated to the DICE specific hotend in the process, switched the belt carriage to one that clamps the belts with screws instead of gluing them in, fixed some screws, did remove all the various voltage fans with 5V ones, and added a small 12864 controller to the Maestro.
It's still due a few upgrades (I will need to find someone milling me the front plate with the air intake hole and an integrated holder for the 12864 rather than having one put on a 3d printed front plate with double sided tape, and I recently learned the hotend fan is not the right version (too little airflow, which explains my heat creep issues).
As for sample printed parts, the following picture has the motor bracket and flexshaft coupler for a remote direct extruder, as well as the under-effector fan assembly printed on the DICE with reasonable success. Maximum print speed was a conservative 100mm/sec
