I've been a electronics DIYer, computer builder, linux user and electrical engineer for many years but never got the urge to share publicly what I had learned.
DISCLAIMER
./warning_engineer prone to using sarcasm due to cynical nature and failure to respect some pc guidelines ---grammar and spelling are optional
....Off to go buy that printer...
I have been interested in 3d printer technology for some time and recently prices have become somewhat reasonable for a mostly DIY electrical junkie like me.
Thought about building one from scratch, but I wanted to spend more time on the projects that a 3d printer could help me with than building the printer itself.
I thought I would share some of my 3d printer experiences.
It was hard to decide which style to get as many would suit my homemade project DIY purposes but I finally settled on a replicator. I liked the bed size and the fact that it was heated so I could possibly use ABS if need be although I seem to prefer PLA after playing with it.
So doing some shopping around I found a slew of replicator clones on Ebay most of which were from Chinese suppliers despite efforts by some sellers to disguise this fact by putting quotes like, "ships from USA warehouse in LA" or something similar.
looking at the pricing versus features I decided to buy a replicator dual clone from CTC which seems to use similar design characteristics as a Flashforge, I now know this due to the learning curve and troubleshooting I have done - see told you I was cynical.
I kind of figured that there might be some of this because the pricing on these units assembled and shipped seems to be about equal or less than the sum of its parts purchased separately.
I would have much preferred to buy from a source like makerbot but just didn't have enough scratch at the time and let that impatience get to me :/
the ctc printer on ebay is similar to this one
The reviews seemed mostly pretty good. I believe this is a gen2 model where the gen1 is a white frame and gen3 is a translucent frame, not sure what else is different.
The Process
So I cheap out and buy the Ebay model, yeah yeah I know you get what you pay for if your lucky.
I started a project list of things to build to appease my ever scattered mind with more projects which lead to other projects which lead to even more never ending projects.
Well, turns out this printer actually prints very nicely, that is after you invest some time to learn a bit about the software (replicatorg is what I use for now) and the process to make gcode files.
Next I looked at my project list and chose the filament types and colors I would need to complete some of these parts and got it ordered. No problem there, as there are a ton of suppliers that sell filament everywhere on the internet.
I'm cooking right along on a plate half for a PICLOPS unit (oh yeah, I want a 3d scanner too so I thought I'd build one of those, go figure right) and it says it'll take 4 or 5 hours, ok, I'll just leave it running while I go to bed (now there's not such the bright idea as it turns out).
Thunderstorms start rolling in and lightning start up, I get up to a half awake state and I'm thinking oh no, what do I do. I can ditch what I've printed and start over tomorrow or be a real dummy and let it try to finish. ...and you know it, dummy is as dummy does.
I awake in the morning and go check and sure enough it quit extruding half way through but is still powered up and thinks it's running the part file according to the LCD. At this point the extruder and bed are still hot but nothing is moving.
My initial reaction was to think a power spike took out the control board or steppers.
Troubleshooting the printer was a little more than I bargained for. I contacted the seller and they said they would assign an engineer to it (my paraphrase of some really broken English, even worse than my lousy grammar.....you don't say ./sarc).
Two weeks later I hear from them and I have to explain the issue again this time with a picture although i still don't see the point for the picture as the thing won't move at all and they know what they sold me. I guessed they just missed having the unit on their shelf and forgot what it looked like:)
Good for me that during the two weeks I did some research and learned that the replicator clone uses a 'mightyboard' motherboard and seems to be fairly common as are the parts that work with it. I learned about flashing the firmware, which by the way doesn't work on this model for reasons I will learn a bit later.
So next, I receive a really hard to decipher email reply of which I picked out key words of 'USB' 'U-disk', now the bells start going off or more aptly rattling in my head.
I remembered a yellow sticker that kindly suggested that I plug in the unmarked USB stick that came with the unit into the right side of the printer, not referring to the SD card but said something to the effect of 'do not put pc the usb'. Another yellow sticker on the unit kindly suggests that I can purchase supplies at CTC's website.
Now some in depth searching on the web for these terms and I found a google user group where someone was talking about the 'U-Disk' and how it isn't a storage device but some kind of key that ships with the filament and allows a length of 'run time' for the printer.
And another user on the same groups section was ranting about having to 'buy' time on a printer they already owned.
Rants and other things better left unsaid but I can't resist
........and the dots started connecting, .....whaaaaaaat!! you mean CTC has vendor-locked their printer to filament purchased only through their site? that sounds like some pretty shady dealings being as how not a word of this was put on the sellers description (see link in the above section by the picture).
And no, a kind suggestion that customers purchase filament from the original manufacturer is NOT notification of forced vendor-lock-in.
Also, finding out that the version of mightyboard used in the gen2 cannot be flashed (guessing they were kind enough to do this to prevent putting standard firmware in it and bypassing that piece of fine lock-in programming.
Just a guess here but since the 'U-Disk' port is connected to a what looks like a UART connection on the mightyboard I'm guessing that the bootloader has been modified to look for this 'U-Disk' before enabling the steppers - could be wrong about that though.
You would think that if this USB key 'run-time' runs out that a message would indicate as such on the LCD..........nope, nada, at least not on my unit.
On a positive note, at least they are consistent. No notice on the sellers page about having to purchase 'run-time' as included with a filament order AND no notice display about this 'run-time' running out on the unit itself.
See I said something nice:).
One thing that absolutely gripes me is vendor-lock-in that is not documented and catches you unaware.
Of course one could argue that you could look on CTC's site and learn about the 'run-time' buying thing....maybe inferring it by deciphering the filament descriptions but..... na i don't think so.
What's next
What do I do about remedying the lock-in? hmmmm.
well, since I've put the time in to learn about all the parts for this printer I could just replace the motherboard with a standard variety mightyboard and firmware. I am fairly sure this would void any warranty on the unit, but otherwise I sell all the filament I have and buy CTC's.
It turns out a RevE mightyboard is just a little over a C note at some places, could go that route.
enough griping for one day.
Anyway, I am looking forward to building more parts for the 3d scanner as soon as I solve my small dilemma.
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