Yeah the connector for the power and the heatbed have melted completely
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Heard a lot or people talk about the smoothie board. Will my lcd connect to it or will I need to get a new one?
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Did research on the board u have and it turns out that it is a knock off of the melzi and they have issues with connectors melting and starting fires. I may purchase an authentic melzi board. Gonna do some researching on the smoothie board and see if what I have now will connect right to it or if I will have to change parts out or not.
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Mirth
October 9, 2016, 8:57pm
14
From memory I believe it was overpriced and unnecessarily OTT for a simple printer. Especially one of low enough quality to come with a Melzi.
Mirth
October 9, 2016, 9:00pm
15
Melzi runs as a version of Sanguinololu. Thus it uses root sanguinololu files that aren’t in the Arduino IDE. These files were last updated in 2012. On top of that they’re not really expandable, you can’t add more capability to your printer.
As with everyone I’ve met with a Melzi or Anet I’d recommend upgrading to a £20 GT2560 or if that’s too steep a £10 RAMPS 1.4 from China.
Just because a printer comes with a melzi doesnt mean its low quality. I have an all aluminum X3 from Tronxy and albiet I have a few minor complaints for the most part the printer has some high quality components on it.
Mirth
October 9, 2016, 9:26pm
17
True, but it’s not exactly a FF Dreamer or even a Lulzbot, is it? It’s a simple Prusa build, one of the most common, basic and still very reliable ones. They aren’t demanding and you certainly don’t need a 32 bit processor, not even a 16 bit unless you really push it.
So, in the grand scheme of things, it may have excellently high quality parts but that doesn’t mean it’s not a simple one and the overall design isn’t low quality. Same as sticking a 1080P screen on a toaster doesn’t miraculously improve its quality.
To sum: it’s a simple design, not much is asked of it, no need to smoothieboard, just RAMPS or GT2560.
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Send me an email and we can talk if your interested in just running the same setup. I have gt2560 rev a in stock. Online store is georges3dprinters.com yeah I know the store needs work, soon… Can email me at george@georges3dprinters.com if your interested in buying and have some technical support to go with it.
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Well, same kinda firmware anyways.
Impressed with that too. Also been watching to see if/when their “MK42” board becomes cloned and available at cheaper prices. Prusa Research never seem to have it in stock by itself yet due to such a demand for the whole printer.
Interesting how their open source views are becoming more “fenced in” to help sell their printers. I’d love to buy the new addons such as the new bed and the multicolour setup as separate items and add them to my own setup, but it seems for now you need to buy into the whole “Original i3” system to benefit from all of Josef’s cool upgrades and developments with the least amount of headaches and cost.
Didn’t realise the multicolour addon was £220!
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Mirth
October 10, 2016, 8:58am
21
It’s funny how that works, isn’t it? The moment a company realises they’re onto a good thing their morals shift slightly. While you’re a small company being able to open source market and even sell replicas of other open source stuff is a nice, easy and legally simple way to make some dough, then once you’ve got a good thing going you get cagey!
I am glad they still consider themselves open source though, even if they don’t publish their schematics and coding, all it needs is some mid-level genius from China to buy a product, reverse engineer it and start making cheap clones.
I completely agree, I’d like to get my hands on that bed, looks pretty decent! And the multi extruder I’d like to use for different materials more than colour. Though it should be noted you can’t easily print things with notably different temperature requirements as it means some serious temp changing during a print. Would still be fun to toy with, except for the price!
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Being open source does not mean they have to sell the product to you. If the plans and specs are available you are free to make your own.
They most likely have such a demand for full printers that they only have enough available for those.
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Buying a cheaper knock off hurts the open source movement. Prusa went through the work to come up with a good working product. If no one supports their work by buying it from them they will not have funds to research new designs.
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Mirth
October 12, 2016, 3:27pm
24
Of course, the same is true for all markets. The first of a product will be more expensive because there been more R&D and work to finesse it. Later models just copy, change some stuff and sell it cheaper. That’s the way it’s been for a long time, everyone knows that.
It doesn’t hurt the open source movement though, that’s just about making ideas free and available to all. What it hurts is the innovative creators. In this way open source itself can hurt the innovators as there aren’t patent rules to protect them long enough to recuperate some money.
I have to eat my words, the Melzi board in my tronxy had a meltdown. The ground connector for the power coming into the board melted down yesterday on me rendering the board currently useless. Only had the printer up and running for 4 days!
Hmm, let me explain, firmware is setup for many boards. Gt2560 is a knock off of a RAMPs and Arduino mega combo. So arduino mega, which is the atmel2560 MCU that is on the GT2560. The research is not hard but why too much. Check out the blogs I did on georgeroblesjr.wordpress.com And explains what happened with rev a, legacy board, etc. Plus I put up 4 version with autolevel, filament sensor, combo of both or one or simple setup. Not hard to mod for your own setup. Gt2560 is same as a RAMPs board but with a few less pins. The newer one is better but not been able to get large quantities yet. I stand by my product and am in USA southern California. I do most tech support via Skype and help/walk you through it yourself. Point is the difference between RAMPS board and gt2560 is really the heatsinks for the heater performance. The 24 volt setup is the real problem with that board. But if you plan on using dvr8825 stepper driver then go to a Rambo board, who’s is what the new Prusa uses and the original design is produced and design by ultimaker. Lulzbots taz 4/5/6 use Rambo board or the mini rambo. The drivers on those boards are still the regular a4988 drivers. So please, check out the info I gave you instead of just the forums where many who don’t know what they’re doing cause they just copy and paste. I ha e actually modded the firmware for my own and now many actually use it and don’t even know. I had made sure the runaway temp protection was enabled, tuned pid loops, setup and design my own autolevel and z probe bracket that fits on a mk8 or 40mm fan profile that uses magnets, printdparts, screws, tactile button, wires and, I did some g-code to use it, I flick it down bit does 9 point “auto tramming” which is the “autolevel” every one calls it. As for those out there saying Prusa is not open sourced it is, just not easy to find so they get ahead of China. Give it a month and China will be making new clones of the 4 color extruder. Yes it can do multiple materials but time is increased for the switch of filament for temp to change. Prusa uses open source ideas from the community as well. If you have a great idea then tell them and they will do the research.
I also have a RAMPs board but I stack a second 5/3.3 volt regulator on top the first to help handle the extra I put on it, servo control, fan controller, dual extruder with a heat bed, Bluetooth connection, filament sensor and a full graphics. However the MCU is too slow to handle most of it while reading an sd card so octoprint or a computer helps there to take some of the load.
I’m in California, let me know if you need a board, have ramps, Sanguinololu 1.3 and gt2560 in stock if needed.
Does research say anything about how the melzi board is a knock of a RAMPs 1.4 or ultimaker board? Cause that’s where gt2560 came from. Tom Schindler something did a review on it. Board quality depends on the manufacturer of the board. Some China supplier will make it themselves in there garage and resell on ebay, with at times the incorrect assembly process. Please just find a board that meets your requirements. Look into the manufacturer of the open source design. The ground connection is over heating due the the rating of the plastic connector. Most are only rated 10amps usa or “15 amps” outside of usa and have that cl listing and no UK something listing. They are different and they also run different voltage and Hertz. 220-240 @ 50htz. While we run 110-120 @ 60htz. Small things can make a difference in some areas. I say voltage cause so many skip that small line of instructions and don’t flick the psu from 220 volt to 120volt.
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Mirth
October 12, 2016, 5:30pm
30
Tom Sandladerer. I disagree with your use of the term “knock-off”. These boards are all open source. And it’s more of a generational progression. GT2560 is RAMPS but improved. Unlike where things would be covered by patent law and then you be knock-offs.
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