Posts made by Rory166

@dc42 looks like a solenoid to me. The idea of putting 240v ac anywhere near the duet scares me so plan to use the bed heater circuit to switch the existing 24v contactor. I appreciate that daughter boards for thermocouples are available but it seems much cheaper to use thermistors .

@droftarts I will study the thread because I also have one of the uprint se plus which has the side to side type dual head. What I really want is to Hack the eeprom system which ties it to proprietary filament. The uprint extruders were a much later version than the fdm8000 and haveblue replaced them so I think the FDM is clearly for the chop. I am considering a 2 into 1 head, don't know if anyone has experience of these.

Just to update on progress so far. The wiring has been pulled back to the new control position behind where the original control panel. The existing contactor seems suitable to control the environment heating. Most other functions seem to be 24v. The main 24v psu seems adequate for the whole chebang. Even the lights which will now be led. I am planning to replace the existing extruder assembly completely, it has mains heaters, thermocouples and dc brushless motors. None of which is compatible with the standard Duet 3. Also I have no idea how to control the head retraction function although this may be possible. The support head is lower than the other and retracts when not in use.

@droftarts Haveblue on the reprap forum implores people to try the original machine before converting. The one I am coverting has no controller the other was working but failed. I will have a lot of spare parts to try and repair the failed one.

Yes these are the same machines that the OP on reprap had. The ramps board and steppers were inside still in box. The steppers were not man enough for the z motor and dont know about the xy yet. The things are massively heavy, each cover plate is heavy steel. The thermal insulation has degraded and will need replacing. I am thinking if i do a good job with 2" solid insulation I may leave the covers off. The extruder motors are rumored to be 3ph brushless. I am thinking to build a new extruder assembly with modern components.

@bearer I apologise the transformer is not in circuit as such. I took a photo and can now see the mains runs right through. I may as well remove it. Would make a nice battery charger perhaps. They cost $450 so sbout the price of a 3d printer these days.

@bearer Thank you very much. I will look up the link you posted. Yes I agree the voltage should be nowhere near 32v as the resistance of the windings on the motor I can see is less than 1 ohm and i will set the current at 3A, should be less than 3V steady state but dynamic may be another matter. The X Y motors I cannot see the full label but what I can see says 65 volts weirdly. I am thinking to start with 24v and increase to 30 later if needed.

No I dont think the 12- 24 is correct. Just a bog standard isolating transformer.

So far I am the only one posting, except bearer who seems to have changed their mind.
I may as well continue as a sort of blog and see if anyone decides to comment.
Today I am dismantling the power supplies. Seems confusing in that there is a 500w transformer in a huge box on the input but then the power supply box also has 2 transformers and a 240-115 switch. I can only assume that the power box is used in another product without the input transformer.
The label on the input transformer is misleading in that it claims to be 12-24v output even though it is clearly 230v output.

Regarding temperature sensors I am not sure whether to use the existing thermocouples or replace with new thermistors?

The Duet 3 boards have arrived and I am starting to figure out how to connect them. I see that the max input voltage is 32 volts so I assume that is the maximum that can be used on the stepper motors?

I have 2 of these old white elephants. A previous owner bought a ramps board but that is clearly inadequate. One stepper I can see is a 4 Amp. The Duet 3 seems capable.

Does any forum member have any advice or information? I would be much obliged.
Rory

@JadonM said in Stratasys uPrint - Retrofit finally Complete!:

That looks amazing! I'm currently in the finishing stages of converting an old 3D Systems Cubex. I'm optimizing it for printing with ABS, with a heated chamber and everything!

Are you printing PLA? What print speeds are you getting?

It looks great, and a full write-up would be absolutely awesome!

Is the cubex at all similar to the FDM 8000 which I have?