PS3 controller with 3D RepRap Prusa i2

I am currently trying to control my i2 using a PS3 controller. I have bought one of these and I plan on trying to connect it to the Mega with the un-used pins and then when a button is pressed G-code of your choice is written to the serial line for your printer to execute.

To test the USB host shield I followed this tutorial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3vXTX6Qe54
This shows you that when a button is pressed it prints that button to the serial monitor. I just used a Uno with nothing else attached.

The board also worked great with a Mega, however I could get it to work when the Ramps 1.4 shield was also attached. This was because I couldn't get access to the 6 ICSP header pins in the middle of the Mega. I wasn't will to solder wires to these headers and so despite trying to find another way I couldn't.

If anyone could help me I would be very grateful as I think it would be great.

Auto bed levelling for RepRap Prusa Mendel i2

I have heard a lot of people in the RepRap community talking about how they have set up auto bed levelling, however most of the designs they use are for use on a RepRap Prusa i3. So I thought I would share with you my 3d printed design to hold the servo and z probe end stop. So here are the two designs: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:432232.

I then followed this tutorial:

Part One: http://zennmaster.com/random-things/auto-bed-leveling-for-the-makerfarm-prusa-i3-part-1-assembly-and-basic-setup

Part Two: http://zennmaster.com/random-things/auto-bed-leveling-for-the-makerfarm-prusa-i3-part-2-setting-up-marlin

Part Three: http://zennmaster.com/random-things/auto-bed-leveling-for-the-makerfarm-prusa-i3-part-3-final-setup

This is for an i3 but the setup is very similar! Please see Thingiverse link for pictures and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

RepRap 3Dprinter stepper calibration - not printing desired lengths

After you have uploaded Marlin you need to calibrate a few things, X Y Z and Extruder stepper motors and making sure the bed is level.

To calibrate the stepper motors see the video below, this video is for the Extruder however the same theory applies to the other stepper motors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Wb0i0-Qvo&list=FLsBw9MazlOn_-0v7O8OSgwg&index=7

For X and Y find a reference point on the side of the x carriage or front of the Y frame take a measurement to the extruder module or the front of the bed. Then in Pronterface of Repetier host move the axis by 50mm and then see how far the extruder module or the bed actually moves. Next, find you current E-steps in marlin under the configuration.h file and make a note.

Then use this equation  (expected distance / actual distance) * current steps per mm = new steps.
so if I asked X to move 10mm and it only moved 7 I would do 10/2 = 5 then find my current steps per mm for the X axis and times it by 5.

This works for the Z axis as well.

Then enter the new E-steps into Marlin, upload and save. You can also alter the E-steps on a lcd and save to eprom if you have this enabled. On the LCD go to Control => Motion and scroll down to Xsteps, Ysteps, Zsteps and Esteps. Click on then and change the value accordingly. Then go back to the control menu and click save. This saves the steps for each axis.

My second print - warping issues with ABS

So yesterday I tried my first print which went ok but I know these machines can produce a lot better quality. So after making the adjustments that I mentioned yesterday ( raising the hot end slightly more and setting infill to 100%.

This worked really well, or so I thought! I watched the first few layers which were perfect and left it for 20 minutes or so and came back when it had finished. I found that one of the corners had lifted up of the surface of the bed probably about half way through. After a bit of research I found out that ABS is susceptible to bad warping which means the corners of prints don't stick down to the bed too well and so they curl up away from the bed.




This picture shows the layers curling up at the corner.

There are several solutions to this problem that might work:

- clean the bed to get rid of any residue especially oil or finger marks

- make sure the bed is hot enough ( around 100 degrees C for ABS) to make sure the first layer sticks to the bed properly

- make sure the bed is level, if not one corner/ side could be lower than the others so the filament doesn't stick to the bed as well as the other corners.

I think that my problem was that the bed wasn't level as like I said in the previous post I hadn't done any calibration on my printer.