Accessories
Aug. 26th, 2011 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleyOrdered some RepRap accessories from Ultimachine. A pound of ABS filament, plus a spare Pololu stepper motor driver and a SDRAMPS board for putting a microSD slot on the control electronics.
The spare driver is because it's apparently not at all unusual to burn out drivers due to bad settings or bad wiring, and they're cheap at $14 and besides, I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to do some work with steppers in the future, this will give me something to prototype with.
The SD card is because apparently you can get better prints by putting the g-code onto a card and putting the card directly in the printer than sending the g-code from the computer during the print (and also you can turn the computer off once the print starts - and they can take hours). Apparently there's not much buffer on the printer electronics and if the computer isn't keeping up with g-code uploading, it can cause things to stop and restart.
I wanted to order more filament but Ultimachine didn't have 5 pound spools in stock, and other places have ridiculous shipping or don't have any stock either.
I've decided against PLA for now. ABS looks better suited to my needs.
FWIW, the MakerGear Prusa that I have ordered, I have now seen about a half a dozen sites or videos say is "about the best copy of a Prusa that you can build today" and many people buy MakerGear's hot ends and extruders as upgrades.
The spare driver is because it's apparently not at all unusual to burn out drivers due to bad settings or bad wiring, and they're cheap at $14 and besides, I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to do some work with steppers in the future, this will give me something to prototype with.
The SD card is because apparently you can get better prints by putting the g-code onto a card and putting the card directly in the printer than sending the g-code from the computer during the print (and also you can turn the computer off once the print starts - and they can take hours). Apparently there's not much buffer on the printer electronics and if the computer isn't keeping up with g-code uploading, it can cause things to stop and restart.
I wanted to order more filament but Ultimachine didn't have 5 pound spools in stock, and other places have ridiculous shipping or don't have any stock either.
I've decided against PLA for now. ABS looks better suited to my needs.
FWIW, the MakerGear Prusa that I have ordered, I have now seen about a half a dozen sites or videos say is "about the best copy of a Prusa that you can build today" and many people buy MakerGear's hot ends and extruders as upgrades.
- +1 by dermot dobson
