Monday, February 15, 2010

Raft split into raft and temperature

I'd like to thank Bogdan Kecman:
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Bogdan.kecman
http://picasaweb.google.com/bogdan.kecman/RapMan
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bogdan

and in serbian:
http://www.mysql.rs/
http://elco.crsndoo.com/

for creating and maintaining the skeinforge website, where all the cached versions are, for testing skeinforge, and in general for helping many people.

I'd also like to thank Cliff Biffle, Nick Ames & Rick Pollack for writing up calibration information:
http://makerblock.com/2010/02/makerbot-skeinforge-tuning-and-calibration/

Triffid Hunter, whose blog is at:
http://wooden-mendel.blogspot.com/

has improved send.py:
http://dev.forums.reprap.org/file.php?154,file=1972,filename=send.py

and RepRapArduinoSerialSender.py:
http://dev.forums.reprap.org/file.php?154,file=1973,filename=RepRapArduinoSerialSender.py

These files are also in the miscellaneous/fabricate folder in skeinforge. The scripts can be send commands to the firmware. Please test these out and either send the results to Triifid Hunter or post them in the "patches for send.py and RepRapArduinoSerialSender.py" thread at:
http://dev.forums.reprap.org/read.php?154,35440

The default cool type choice in cool has been changed from Slow Down to Orbit because the DC motor extruders can not operate at slow flow rates accurately. Orbit has the problem of leaving hair around the object and emptying the nozzle, but if the extruder does not work properly at slow flow rates, Slow Down can not be used. Geared stepper motor pinch wheel extruders are the way to go, like the one Wade built, with articles at:
http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Development:Geared_Nema17_Extruder
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1794

Raft has been split into raft and temperature, and the setting names have been changed, so please reenter your settings in both tools. Otherwise, unfortunately, all your temperature settings will be the defaults.

Chamber used M109 for the bed temperature, then the reprap host used that command for something else, so I changed the bed temperature command to M110. Then the reprap host used M110 for something else, so now I've changed the bed temperature command to M140, so that chamber should be safe from new commands for a long time. The new commands follow below.

M140 Bed Temperature
M141 Chamber Temperature
M142 Holding Force

Clip now has the default option of connecting loops. Because the extra connection means extra filament, the 'Clip over Perimeter Width' ratio should be increased by roughly 50%, the default is now 0.5. Also, since 'Clip over Perimeter Width' is renamed from 'Clip over Extrusion Width', you have to reenter that setting in any case.

The extruder distance format choice has been moved from preface to the new tool dimension.

The stretch algorithm has been changed and stretch now moves the entire line, it no longer breaks up the line. As a side effect of the algorithm change, on average it does not stretch as much as it used to, so the settings should be increased by very roughly 15% to compensate.

Cheers,
Enrique


P.S.

Because a bit of spam is starting to appear in the comments on this blog, I have turned on comment moderation. So when you send in a comment, it will be a while, on average roughly a day, before it appears in the comments.