I'm in the process of upgrading my printer and realised that I'd need a Duex expansion board as I'd run out of stepper motor connections. Adding the Duex also meant that the case I'm currently using for the Duet2 WiFi wouldn't be big enough.

So I turned to Thingiverse to see how others had thought about housing the two board combo. I found a design by Havoc340 which I rather liked. It mounts the boards back to back as intended and provides easy access to both boards. It uses a 60mm fan at the bottom of the case to cool the back of both boards. That design is here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2825560

There were a few things which I thought the design needed, so I made a remix. I moved the mounting holes so I could mount it at the rear right of my frame. I removed the cable entry from the rear of the case and added two on each side. I also felt that the case didn't provide good enough ventilation for the front of the boards, so I added convection air intake and exit slots at the lower front and top of each half of the case.

Most importantly the case needed a Duet3D logo! I found the logo already modelled as an STL here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2815313 so I used that to add the logo as a relief to the front case. I also had filament which was just the right colour to match with the official logo's colour.

In the photos that follow, I ended up painting the white parts of the logo as the plastic parts I'd designed to slot in didn't fit well enough due to me printing the case with no support for the rings in the logo.

I've uploaded the design to Thingiverse as a remix, but I cannot publish it until 24 hours from now as I used a new account. Once I can publish it, I'll add the link!

This is now published at: Thingiverse

@droftarts said in Help to setup BMG clone extruder:

I have been wanting to try out the Bondtech extruder, but the price for something I planned to 'experiment' with meant that I've recently fitted a BMG clones to my Delta...

While I'm happy to hear that you now think the idea is good enough that you'll actually buy the genuine item from the small Swedish company that invented it, I really don't understand people buying clones of specialised products like this to evaluate them.

If the clone extruder had turned out to be rubbish, maybe you would have dismissed the Bondtech extruder based on the poor execution of the Chinese cloner. It's hardly a good way to see if a product is any good.

Then there's the simple fact that if people like Bondtech get sick of seeing their innovation stolen and people's cash going into the pockets of Chinese cloners instead of theirs, they are likely to stop making things for 3D printers and the market loses another innovator.

Of course, your money is your money and you are entitled to spend it as you wish. I'm just pointing out the effects of buying the cloner's products. The 3D printing world is not the first young market I've seen where the genuine innovators left to do something else which would actually put food on their table to the detriment of everyone in that market when they withdrew their innovation from it.

And before anyone says "I buy the clones because the original is too expensive", we're talking about hobby 3D printing here, not things which are essential to living. If people can't afford the hobby without encouraging the cloners, maybe they should find a cheaper hobby.

@mihaitintea said in ferruled connectors:

The out-of-the-box ferrule connector is a hollow tube. One end of this tube is factory-crimped to the wire, and the other end of this tube is free and goes into Duet's terminal blocks.

Do I tighten this free end of the tube in the Duet board's terminal block until the tube gets mechanically deformed ? Or do I do the flattening myself (e.g., using pliers) until the connector gets shaped as a flat rectangle, and put that flattened end of the connector in Duet's terminal blocks and then tighten those screws ?

Here's the kind of ferrule that you should be using:

One end is insulated to prevent any chance of a short. The wire is then stripped so that the wire is the same length as the exposed metal part of the ferrule. The wire is inserted into the ferrule and crimped.

If the manufacturer didn't strip the wire long enough, so that metal tube is not filled all the way to the end with wire, simply cut the end of the ferrule off with some side cutters so that you can see the crimped wire at the end of the metal tube.

Then insert the ferrule into the connector and tighten down the retaining screw while supporting the connector against the force of tightening the screw down.

@chrishamm Is it possible to change the colour of the cursor when using the dark theme?

I honestly have large amounts of trouble seeing where the cursor is sometimes as it a) flashes on and off very slowly, b) even when it is visible, a dark purple cursor on a dark background is far from obvious.

@pauledd In your homez.g you have:

M584 Z2:3 U3 P4
G1 Z-205 U-205 F100 H1
M584 Z2:3 U3 P3

That should be:

M584 Z2 U3 P4
G1 Z-205 U-205 F100 H1
M584 Z2:3 P3

@PeterA said in Precision piezo auto bed compensation issues. Please help.:

@PeterA said in Precision piezo auto bed compensation issues. Please help.:

Error: Z probe was not triggered during probing move

Still problems.
My piezo wors as it it triggers great. Red led on, touches bed blue flashes and when homing it works.
When using home all or home z it works beautifully with the homez.g settings bellow. however my config.g has to have this line
M574 X1 Y1 Z1 S0 ; Set active low endstops

If I put M574 Z1 S2
Then when homing it pushes down into the bed.

The problem is trying to set it on auto mesh, the z triggers (blue light as touches the bed) but it pushed down at least 5mm. The error is as before Error: Z probe was not triggered during probing move But I can see it was and when normal homing it triggers and works correctly.
The auto mesh starts and homes, triggers great and sets itself, then it moves on to the first point and moves down onto the bed, blue light triggers as before, but it goes down a further 5mm.
I’ve tried @grizewald settings but it drills down into the bed on homing unless I change the m574 to z1 s0. Then back to the original problem. Homing then works but everything else drills down into the bed.

My homez.g
; generated by RepRapFirmware Configuration Tool on Mon Dec 24 2018 18:36:17 GMT+0200 (South Africa Standard Time)
;G31 Z0 P1000 ; peters attempt and the piezo
G91 ; relative positioning
G1 Z3 F800 S2 ; lift Z relative to current position
G1 S1 Z-275 F400 ; move Z DOWN until the endstop is triggered
G1 Z2 F300 S2 ;LIFT Z FOR SECOND PROBE
G1 S1 Z-5 F80 ; move Z DOWN until the endstop is triggered
G92 Z-0.2 ; set Z position to axis minimum (you may want to adjust this)

Your homez.g is using the probe as an end stop and not as a probe. If you look again at my homez.g you will see that I use the command G30 to home the Z axis. G30 means "probe the bed". You are telling the printer that you are using a Z end stop and not a Z probe.

You must configure the probe as a probe and use it as a probe. It is not an end stop!

@felt342 That's a very impressive tune for such a long Bowden tube. I gave up trying to get such a long tube to work on my CoreXY and converted it to direct drive instead.

It wasn't that I couldn't get the machine to print nice cubes (and without the warping you have on the bottom of yours), but what worked for one print wouldn't work for the next one.

Direct drive fixed all that and made the printer much more consistent.

Ringing is fixed in two ways: slow down or stiffen up!

If there is a resonance problem, DAA can fix that. If there are other problems with the mechanics or simply exceeding the acceleration that the frame can tolerate, then DAA will not help you.

If slowing down doesn't cure the problem, then you need to look hard at the motion system.

If it helps, these are my settings for the motion system from my V-Core CoreXY. It can print close to 300x300x300mm and runs on 24V with beefy 2A 4.8Kg/cm NEMA17 stepper motors which drive 9mm wide belts.

The theoretical maximums were calculated using wilriker's Maximun Accelleration calculator and other calculators available at reprapfirmware.org and reprap.org

; Motion settings
;
; The V-Core is theoretically capable of the following settings:
; M566 X1200.00 Y1200.00 Z100.00 E3600.00     ; Maximum instantaneous speed changes (mm/min)
; M203 X18000.00 Y18000.00 Z600.00 E3600.00   ; Maximum speeds (mm/min)
; M201 X5800.00 Y5800.00 Z180.00 E3600.00     ; Maximum accelerations (mm/s^2) for X and Y. Z and E are best guesses

M566 X600.00 Y600.00 Z100.00 E3600.00       ; Set maximum instantaneous speed changes (mm/min)
M203 X18000.00 Y18000.00 Z600.00 E3600.00   ; Set maximum speeds (mm/min)
M201 X600.00 Y600.00 Z180.00 E3600.00       ; Set accelerations (mm/s^2)
M906 X1600.00 Y1600.00 Z1800.00 E595.00 I30 ; Set motor currents (mA) and motor idle factor as percentage of normal current

My print speeds are dynamic and depend on things like if the printer is printing infill, outer perimeters or bridges. Print speeds range from 30 - 100mm/s with travel moves at 200mm/s. I use Prusa Slicer and take advantage of the volumetric speed limit to restrict the maximum volumetric speed when slicing to what I know the particular filament is capable of. I find this gives me much more consistent dimensions and interlayer adhesion.

I'm still only using one extruder, but what I can say is this: if you already know Slic3r, then the Prusa Slicer is far from "only geared towards the Prusa printers".

I've been using Cura exclusively for several years, but recently got bored with the fact that the materials settings and print profiles don't really work in any useful way if you have a custom printer. I'm sure they work fine if you have an Ultimaker.

So, having previously found Slic3r to be unpredictable, to say the least, it was with some trepidation that I downloaded Prusa Slicer...

It turned out that my fears were misplaced. The latest 2.1.0 version is very good indeed! The Print, Filament and Printer settings mesh together logically and efficiently. You absolutely don't need a Prusa printer to take advantage of the settings system. My printer is a big CoreXY with a Mosquito hot end and BMG extruder. It's working very nicely with my printer and producing some great prints.

I particularly like the volumetric speed limit; it's great for ensuring that you don't accidentally break the speed limit on touchy filaments like Colorfabb's PA-CF.

In contrast to Cura, Prusa Slicer doesn't roll over and die every time my machine gets an update for the MESA OpenGL libraries. If it carries on pleasing me like it has done over the last month or so, I may be removing Cura from my computer and switching to it permanently.

@T3P3Tony Nice one.

I'll post in this thread if I see it again.

@noskillzengineer said in New RepRapFirmware 3.0 early beta:

Too bad the duet forum can't be merged with like a Discord server, that would be pretty cool and pretty convenient with how you can like tag or pin people or everyone in that particular thread, I'd be way more active on a Discord server, just saying, phone mobile notifications for the discord app are kinda nice, I have it notify my only when someone specifically tags me.

I for one would object to this very much, for several reasons:

1. The T&C for using Discord are "all your comments belong to us".
2. Mobile devices with their ultra slow on-screen keyboards are an incredibly frustrating experience for reading and creating textual and graphic content. Give me a computer with a proper keyboard every time.
3. Things like Discord servers and F***book are awful for storing information in a form where you can search for it and organise it in a structured way. They might be good for people with an attention span of minutes, but not for structured discussions.
4. Discord and other such platforms are not indexed by web search engines, making any information that they hold even more inaccessible.

@GeorgeM said in Is the PanelDue display my only option?:

Thanks @jay_s_uk . That was it. I had just plugged in the cable as it was without tracing the lines. Working now.

While I'm glad to hear that you found the problem, you're lucky it wasn't the power wires which were not hooked up as expected. That would have been a much more painful way to learn the lesson.

When it comes to cables, even directly from the manufacturer, always double check them with a multimeter and against the documentation as to what should go where or Murphy will hunt you down and make you pay!

Case in point; I unwrapped a brand new receiver to put in an RC model I was building the other day. I was about to use the programming cable which was included but I reminded myself of the "Check the cable" rule. Wouldn't you know it? Power and ground were reversed. On a cable from the manufacturer which was in a sealed anti-static bag together with the receiver.

Mistakes will happen and if you don't work on the basis that all cables are incorrectly wired until the opposite is proven, then sooner or later, you'll be letting the magic smoke out of something. Inevitably, this will happen when you're in a hurry and replacement electronics are only available from the other side of the planet.

I had big problems with printing PLA with my Mosquito and experienced multiple jams.

In the end, I printed an adapter that let me mount a 30mm fan and the extra cooling cured all my problems. In retrospect, this could have been caused by the fact that my mount fits fairly closely behind the hot end and was probably reducing the air flow. Now, with the larger fan, the fact that the mount is just behind the hot end leads to the cooling air being reflected down onto the print, which is far from ideal for some filaments. So, my next change will be rotating the hot end by 90 degrees so that the exhaust air is not impeded by the mount. This may let me go back to the original 25mm fan, but to be honest, the 30mm fan is quieter and the adapter lets me point the intake of the 30mm fan slightly upwards to avoid the intake turbulence from also cooling the print and print bed.

@jens55 said in mellow nf crazy hotend:

The Mosquito costs more than some complete printers. Why would a sane person pay this much ? What do you get that you don't get with an E3D V6 for example ?
This is not a poke but a serious question because I always wondered why anybody would buy a hot end THAT expensive (unless it's for bragging rights)

The ability to change nozzles without a complex procedure involving needing three hands and working with a fully heated hot end at over 200°C.

Yes, it's expensive, but making the process of changing nozzles ridiculously simple and making it possible to do so while the hot end is at room temperature is worth every penny.

Forgot one thing,

With direct drive, I use a PA setting of 0.06 with a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.03 for a 0.5mm nozzle.

@felt342 That's a very impressive tune for such a long Bowden tube. I gave up trying to get such a long tube to work on my CoreXY and converted it to direct drive instead.

It wasn't that I couldn't get the machine to print nice cubes (and without the warping you have on the bottom of yours), but what worked for one print wouldn't work for the next one.

Direct drive fixed all that and made the printer much more consistent.

Ringing is fixed in two ways: slow down or stiffen up!

If there is a resonance problem, DAA can fix that. If there are other problems with the mechanics or simply exceeding the acceleration that the frame can tolerate, then DAA will not help you.

If slowing down doesn't cure the problem, then you need to look hard at the motion system.

If it helps, these are my settings for the motion system from my V-Core CoreXY. It can print close to 300x300x300mm and runs on 24V with beefy 2A 4.8Kg/cm NEMA17 stepper motors which drive 9mm wide belts.

The theoretical maximums were calculated using wilriker's Maximun Accelleration calculator and other calculators available at reprapfirmware.org and reprap.org

; Motion settings
;
; The V-Core is theoretically capable of the following settings:
; M566 X1200.00 Y1200.00 Z100.00 E3600.00     ; Maximum instantaneous speed changes (mm/min)
; M203 X18000.00 Y18000.00 Z600.00 E3600.00   ; Maximum speeds (mm/min)
; M201 X5800.00 Y5800.00 Z180.00 E3600.00     ; Maximum accelerations (mm/s^2) for X and Y. Z and E are best guesses

M566 X600.00 Y600.00 Z100.00 E3600.00       ; Set maximum instantaneous speed changes (mm/min)
M203 X18000.00 Y18000.00 Z600.00 E3600.00   ; Set maximum speeds (mm/min)
M201 X600.00 Y600.00 Z180.00 E3600.00       ; Set accelerations (mm/s^2)
M906 X1600.00 Y1600.00 Z1800.00 E595.00 I30 ; Set motor currents (mA) and motor idle factor as percentage of normal current

My print speeds are dynamic and depend on things like if the printer is printing infill, outer perimeters or bridges. Print speeds range from 30 - 100mm/s with travel moves at 200mm/s. I use Prusa Slicer and take advantage of the volumetric speed limit to restrict the maximum volumetric speed when slicing to what I know the particular filament is capable of. I find this gives me much more consistent dimensions and interlayer adhesion.

@dc42 said in Conditional GCode and object model variables:

60 years of program language development have taught us GOTO is bad, so I won't be implementing it.

I'm guessing you mean that GOTO is bad for those who don't know how to program. They should certainly be used very sparingly and can be misused to create spaghetti worse than any 3D printer, but they are not bad per-se.

In deeply nested decision blocks, a goto can be a life saver for code clarity. Even in those languages which don't provide a goto but give you a try, catch pattern instead, it still boils down to an absolute jump once it gets compiled.

@Nightreaver said in Faster Z Homing with dual endstop (switch + probe):

Well, my regular travel speed is at 1000mm/min, and probing speed is 100mm/min, so its noticably different.
And I'm kind of afraight to raise the probing speed that much as idk how the probe will react to faster movements... i dont wanna crush my glass bed
So I kind of wanted to use full speed homing to that second endstop.

I don't see any reason why you cannot initially home with the BL-Touch at 1000mm/min. Antclabs, in their own documentation, have suggested using a feed rate of 1500mm/min for the fast homing phase and 375mm/min for the slower probe.

See: https://www.reprap.me/media/support/BLTouch-Classic1122.pdf

How fast will your CoreXY's Z axis actually move at full speed?

Is the tiny amount of time (relative to how long any significant model takes to print) that it takes to home your Z axis really worth trying to shorten?

@chilli The analogue output would indeed work like a switch and the Duet could read that. (You may need to scale the voltage down to 3.3V for the Duet, depending on which input it is connected to and the version of your Duet.)

It's interesting to see how they've used a triangulation technique to get around the problem that David raised regarding simple reflection measurements and the difficulty of measuring femtosecond time differences. That the sensor you have has a repeatability of 4 microns is very impressive and certainly makes it a candidate for a good bed probe. (The printing surface may be important though.)

@chilli Have a look at the following two pages:

https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/Choosing_a_Z_probe
https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/Connecting_a_Z_probe

You'd need to find some way to make the sensor support one of the interfaces which already exist.

Most interfaces are very simple and emulate a switch, so all they tell the Duet firmware is that the sensor has been triggered (i.e. has sensed the surface of the bed.)

It may be possible to do something with a Pi, but if you are emulating a probe and need to convert the data from the sensor into a simple switch, the time taken to do that conversion could introduce delay and inaccuracy.

It's hard to speculate without knowing how the laser sensor talks to things.