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Hello all! My name is Jason. I received my Rostock Max printer a little less than 3 weeks ago. I am very familiar with traditional CNC tools, but have never done anything with 3D printers. I have followed the RepRap project since it started and have been interested in them, but am just now getting my first printer. My printer is still not working, despite having worked on it for the better part of three weeks, which made me think perhaps I should try to find someone local that has more experience and would be willing to help me get it up and running. I live in the Fort Worth, Texas area, on the Southwest side of Fort Worth. If anyone lives in the area and thinks they might be able to help, I would love to meet a new friend who is into this stuff and I would really love some help.

Jason, what problems are you having?

g.

Last night I finished up the wiring for the hot end and got everything set up to print. Couldn't get much going. It did the G28 no problem, then it kept giving me mintemp errors so nothing else would work. I have 12V at all of the power inputs, but nothing coming out of the board going to either the build platform or hot end. I swapped the thermistor leads to see if that would trigger anything. It did allow the hot end to get hot and then it ran away from me and melted the plastic nozzle insulator. Talked to John at seeme and he is sending me a new thermistor and insulator. He thinks my thermistor is bad or shorted out. When I get home tonight, I'm going to try and check the resistance on it before I pull the nozzle thermistor and leads out. I also need to look at the firmware and shut off T0 so I can test the rest of the functionality. I know exactly zip about programming for Arduino, so that is a bit intimidating. Surely I can't mess it up too bad, right? (Of course that's what I told myself right before I melted my nozzle in half.) Needless to say, I'm a bit overwhelmed. When it comes to mechanical stuff, I'm fine. When it comes to electronics, I tend to be more of a "plug and play" kind of guy.

harley573 wrote:Last night I finished up the wiring for the hot end and got everything set up to print. Couldn't get much going. It did the G28 no problem, then it kept giving me mintemp errors so nothing else would work. I have 12V at all of the power inputs, but nothing coming out of the board going to either the build platform or hot end. I swapped the thermistor leads to see if that would trigger anything. It did allow the hot end to get hot and then it ran away from me and melted the plastic nozzle insulator. Talked to John at seeme and he is sending me a new thermistor and insulator. He thinks my thermistor is bad or shorted out. When I get home tonight, I'm going to try and check the resistance on it before I pull the nozzle thermistor and leads out. I also need to look at the firmware and shut off T0 so I can test the rest of the functionality. I know exactly zip about programming for Arduino, so that is a bit intimidating. Surely I can't mess it up too bad, right? (Of course that's what I told myself right before I melted my nozzle in half.) Needless to say, I'm a bit overwhelmed. When it comes to mechanical stuff, I'm fine. When it comes to electronics, I tend to be more of a "plug and play" kind of guy.

Omf, buying a delta printer as a first printer might not have been the wisest choice - the original rostock design was only released last August. While it is a 'reprap', there is a LOT more documentation available for the more traditional cartesian reprap designs. Good luck, i think the hardest part for you will be yet to come - getting the plastic flowing is only the start of the battle. Calibrating the machine and learning how to prevent prints from warping takes a bit of practice.

Thermistor's are a tricky part of the printer. If they are shorted, the printer's firmware is configured so a temp reading of 0 (not connected) or above the threshold, you'll get errors. Additionally, if the temperature is below the limit for the hotend, the extruder will not extrude filament. I actually had a bed thermistor on my other reprap short out, and now I can no longer read temps on my control board for the hotbed, so that printer is a PLA only printer now (until I replace the thermistor and buy a new control board).

getting the plastic flowing is only the start of the battle.

I am finding this to be very true. While I am having glimpses into how good it can be, my prints right now are for the most part, crap. Still, even with the occasional points of frustration, this is still quite a bit of fun. I wish I could meet up with others in the Fort Worth area that know more than I do about it so I could shallow out the learning curve a bit.