3D Printer User Manual PDF

Part-II Chapter 2 ( 3D Printer) Safety Instructions Please read below instructions carefully before get started. 3D printer will generates high temperature.Do not reach inside of the printer during operation.Allow time for the printer to cool down after printing...

Part-II Chapter 2 ( 3D Printer) Safety Instructions Please read below instructions carefully before get started. 3D printer will generates high temperature.Do not reach inside of the printer during operation.Allow time for the printer to cool down after printing.Get in touch with extruded materials may cause burns.Wait for printed objects to cool before removing them from the build platform. 3D printer includes moving parts that can cause injury. Vapors or fumes may be irritating at operating temperature.Always use the 3D printer in an open,well ventilated area. Be cautious when using the scraper.Never direct the scraper towards your hand. 3D printer MUST NOT be exposed to water or rain. 3D printer is designed to be used within ambient temperature ranging 8℃- 40℃,and humidity ranging 20%-50%.Working outside those limits may result in low quality printing. It is recommended to use protection glasses when cleaning/sanding the printed models to avoid small paricles contacting eyes. In case of emergency,immediately turn off the 3D printer and contact us or consult for professional advice. The firmware has been debugged and uploaded into the motherboard in the factory. Upload incorrect firmware may cause damage or function failure. Please don't upgrade the firmware yourself if it is not necessary. Never leave 3D printer unattended during operation.  Contents 1. Part List...................................................................................... 1 2. Product Overview.......................................................................... 2 3. Menu Directory............................................................................. 3 4. Assembly Instruction...................................................................... 6 5. Leveling Instruction...................................................................... 13 6. Cura Instruction.......................................................................... 18 7. Online Printing............................................................................ 26 8. Offline Printing........................................................................... 29 9. Change Filament.......................................................................... 30 10. Resume From Outage..................................................................... 31 11. Trouble Shooting....................................................................... 33 Technical Specification Printing Parameters: Printing Volume: 300 × 300 × 400 (mm) Layer Resolution: 0.05-0.3 mm Positioning Accuracy: X/Y 0.0125mm, Z 0.002mm Extruder Quantity: Single Nozzle Diameter: 0.5/0.4/0.3/0.2 mm Printing Speed: 10~180mm/s (60mm/s recommended) Movement Speed: 100mm/s Printing Materials: PLA, ABS, HIPS,WOOD,PETG, etc. Temperature Parameter Ambient Operating Temperature: 8℃ - 40 ℃ Operational Extruder Temperature: up to 260 ℃ Operational Print Bed Temperature: up to 110 ℃ Software Parameter Slicing Software: Cura etc. Software Input Format:.STL,.OBJ,.DAE,.AMF etc. Software Output Format: G-Code Connectivity: SD card , USB (Expert users only) Electrical Power Input: 110V/220V AC, 50/60Hz Power Output: 24V 15A 360W Physical Parameter Machine Size: 482mm × 551mm × 656mm Net Weight: 12.8kg 1. Part List 1  2. Product Overview (1)Nozzle (2)Linear Guide Rail X Axis (3)X Axis holder (4)Aluminum frame (5)X Axis belt (6)Hot end kit (7)Feeding tube (8)X Axis holder (9)Cooling Fan (10)Blow fan (11)Filament roller (12)Y Axises rod (13)Screen (14)Heat bed (15)Y Axis belt (16)X Axis motor (17)Extruder motor (18)Z Axis motor (19)Z Axis motor (20)Y Axis motor (21)Filament holder (22)Top connecting holder (23)Z Axis roller (24)Z Axis lead screw rod (25)Coupling (26)SD card interface (27)USB interface (28)Base(Build-in power supply & motherboard) 2 3. Menu Directory 2-1 :Home menu: 2-2 :APPCATION menu: 3 4 2-3 :SYSTEM menu: 2-4 :PRINT menu: 5 4. Assembly instructions Unpack and take out the machine and other accessories then assemble it as below steps. 4-1 : Components assembly steps: Step 1:Install Aluminum frame (AL-1,AL-2,AL-3) and the part which under the heat bed as shown in Fig.1. Tighten Y axis belt and install Y axis motor.(Belt tighten as shown in Fig.1-1.) (Figure 1) (Figure 1-1) 6 Step 2:Install base box and holder as shown in Fig.2. (Figure 2) Step 3:Install heat bed as shown in Fig.3. (Figure 3) 7 Step 4: Install Z axis Alumium frame(AL-4) & T8 leader screw & motors as shown in Fig.4. (Figure 4) Step 5: Install Z axis of Right assembly and Left assembly(Extruder motor,X axis motor,Z endstop) as shown in Fig.5. (Figure 5) 8 Step 6: Install X axis( Linear guide rail,heating assembly) and drive belt as shown in Fig.6. (Figure 6) Step 7: Install the top Aluminum(AL-5) as shown in Fig.7. (Figure 7) 9 Step 8: Install X axis endstop and filament holder as shown in Fig.8. (Figure 8) Step 9: Complete assembly as shown in Fig.9. (Figure 9) 10 4-2 : Main board wiring diagram as shown in Fig.10. (Figure 10) 4-3 : Select the correct voltage mode according to your local voltage ratings(110V/220V).The switch is on the power supply which inside the base box as shown Fig.11.(Factory default is 220V) (Figure 11) 11  4-4 :Filament installation Manually install the filament reel to the filament holder as Step8 shown in Fig.8.Then Pass the filament through the filament sensor.Press the extruder and insert the filament into the extruder and Teflon feeding tube as shown in Fig.12,but do not fully reach it into the hotend(until preheat the hotend later). (Figure 12) (Figure 12) Ø Only insert filament into the hotend after “Preheat” it later. Ø It is suggested to cut off the bent tip of the filament, and rotate the filament if feels any resistance during installation. Ø It is important to make sure there is no tied or tangle on the reel. 12 5. Leveling instructions It is essentia to level the platform for 3D printer before printing.Please follow procedures below: Step 1:Install Z Adjustable nut(M5*45) as shown in Fig.13. The top end of Z adjustable nut can trigger the Z end stop when Home (going down), and "tell" the machine Z axis is getting to zero and stop moving.(There will be more details for the Z adjustable nut in below Step 7(2)) (Figure 13) Step 2:Check and ensure all wirings are OK.Connect the machine to the power outlet by power cord.Switch on the machine. Step 3:Put a piece of paper on the print platform,on Home menu,click"APPCATION"--->"LEVELING", then the machine will home automatically,as shown in Fig.14. (Figure 14) Step 4: Finish home,click ''Next" to level 4 point one by one(Point ①--->②--->③--->④).When nozzle has been moved to point ①, manually adjust (tighten or loose) the corresponding nut underneath the print platform. The purpose of leveling is to adjust the distance between nozzle and print platform to be about a piece of paper thickness (~0.1-0.2mm). Therefore, when just feel the drag resistance as pulling the paper, it means good leveling for this particular point.As shown in Fig.15-1,Fig.15-2 (*Note: “just feel the drag resistance” means the paper can be moved, but with resistance) Please do sthe same to the rest of points. (Avoid nozzle rub against the platform directly without the paper in-between) 13  (Figure 15-2) Step 5: Ideally,after the 4 corners are leveled,the center should be spontaneously leveled,and you may click "Finish" to finish leveling then proceed to do a test print on the platform.(There will be more details for the fine adjustment of the leveling in Step 7.) Step 6:Insert SD card into the SD card slot. Click on the Home Menu “Print” to enter the file list,There is a printable test file included -- “test.gcode” (author: etotheipi, www.thingiverse.com) as shown Fig.16. The machine will be automatically heating the platform and nozzle before printing. 14 Ø Now, as the temperature rises, please manually insert the filament through the Teflon tubing all the way into the hotend. (Refer to previous Fig.12) Ø The filament should flow through when temperature reaching to over~180-190°C, otherwise the filament has not been inserted properly. Ø Customers may use tweezers to carefully remove the extruded filament at the nozzle tip before printing. There might be 3 kinds of results for the first layer of the test prints (Fig. 17). (Figure 17) 15 In case of “nozzle too close” or “nozzle too high”(Fig. 17 A or C), please stop printing, manually fine tune the corresponding nuts under the platform. Particularly, when “nozzle too high”,slowly loosen the corresponding nuts underneath the platform by half circle, while “nozzle too close”, slowly tighten the corresponding nuts underneath by half circle. After that, clean the platform with scraper, and run test file again to verify. It may need adjustment for few times until satisfying results such as Fig. 17 B. Step 7: The supplementary instructions for Leveling (this step is not normally required) In some rare cases, after “Home All”, the nozzle can be still much lower than the platform, even after fully tighten the 4 nuts underneath. On the opposite, sometimes the nozzle is still too high from the platform, even after fully loosen the 4 nuts underneath. How to solve this: (1) Adjust the 4 nuts under the platform, let the height in-between the support plate and the heat bed is a suitable distance for all the 4 corners (Suitable distance means the heat bed must be horizontal)as shown in Fig.18. (Figure 18) (2) As shown in Fig 19, Loosen Z adjustable nut(Refer to previous Step 1) by X mm if nozzle is lower than the platform (X is defined by how much the nozzle is under the platform), while Tighten it by Y mm if nozzle is too high from the platform (Y is defined by how much the nozzle is above the platform). It may need adjustment for few times. 16  (Figure 19) (3) On Home menu,click"APPCATION" --- >"LEVELING" then home to verify the results. After this, please level the platform again from Step 3. 17 6. Cura Instructions DMSCREATE DP-X 3D printer reads Gcode file and prints. It is necessary to convert 3D files (such as stl file) into Gcode files for machine to recognize. Software that convert 3D files into Gcode files is called slicing software. Cura_15.04 is used for example here. 6-1 :Cura Installation Location of Cura: SD card--->"Programming software and Driver"--->"Cura_15.04" Double click “Cura_15.04”, and follow the procedures as shown in Fig.20: ① ② ③ ④ (Figure 20) Next, before start Cura for the first time, there will be more settings about the language and machine types, as shown in Fig.21. 18  ① ② ③ ④ (Figure 21) Upon finish, open Cura for the first time, there might be a default robot model appears, customers may click “File”-- ->“Clear platform” to delete it. 19 6-2 : Cura settings (1) Machine settings Refer to Fig.22, click “Machine”--->“Machine settings” to input those suggested parameters into the corresponding column.If the PC has been installed CH341SER driver, then there should be a COMx for Serial Port as shown in your PC,and set the Baudrate to be 115200.If the PC doesn't install driver yet,could set the Serial port and Baudrate to be "AUTO". (Figure 22) (2) Basic and Advanced options Suggested “Basic” and “Advanced” setting are shown in Fig.23. Stay the mouse upon each box and there will be explanation for it. (Figure 23) 20 *Note:customers may need to fine tune the parameters to get the best results, for example, customers could try different ‘printing temperature’ based on the suggestion from a particular filament supplier. Especially, in order to get a good adhesion for the first layer, the ‘Bottom layer speed’ should not be too fast (20mm/s suggested). (3) Plugins It is recommended for new user to leave the plugins as default (i.e. no plugins enabled). Plugins are custom settings which will active at specific point during printing. There are two pre-loaded plugins with Cura: Pause at height and Tweak At Z. As shown in Fig.24, to enable one of the plugins, such as Pause at height, first click it and then click the drop- down arrow to enter the setting interface. “Pause at height” will allow the printing to pause at a specified height, as well as where the print head would move to and how much filament to retract to prevent extruded filament blobs. So, customers could do filament change during printing. “Tweak at Z” would allow custom changes at specified Z height. Customers may decide the Z height or layer counts at which to make a change. Then there are more settings for how you would like to change, such as temperature, fan speed and print speed. Fine tune those for specific model would produce better results. If wish to delete the plugins, stay mouse at the edge, hold the left button and drag mouse to show the Delete icon. Stay mouse here and drag to show the delete button Delete 21 (4) Start/End-GCode As shown in Fig. 25, custom Gcode allows for complex automatic printer movements and operations. By adding custom Gcode into the start or end of the Gcode file, customer could change how it prints. A detailed list of Gcode commands can be found via: http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code There will be explanation later about how to add command to start-gcode to achieve the function of resume from outage. (Figure 25) 22 6-3 : Load 3D model into Cura (1) Clear the platform by clicking “File”--->“Clear platform” (2) Load 3D files onto the platform by “File”--->“Load model file…”. Files with extension such as “STL”, “OBJ”, “DAE” and “AMF” can be loaded. Model in grey means it is outside of the printable area and needs to be moved or scaled to fit in. 6-4 :Manipulate 3D model in Cura (1) Zoom in/out: scroll the mouse wheel (2) Change viewing angle: right click the model, hold on and move the mouse (3) Position change: left click on the model, hold on and drag the model to move. (4) Rotate: single left click on the model and several icons will appear at the bottom left of the window (Fig.26). Click the rotate button, 3 circles will surround the model. Rotate the model by moving the circle lines. Ø Lay flat: it is very impartant to ensure the flat portion of the model is well attached to the platform. So, please use Lay Flat option everytime after rotating the model, as it will minimize the adhesion issues during printing(Fig.26). Ø Reset: click it to return the model to the original orientation. Lay flat Reset (Figure 26) (5) Scale: to uniformly scale the model along X/Y/Z dimensions. To disable uniform scaling, click the lock in the lower section of the scaling window. (Fig.27) 23  (Figure 27) (6) View mode (Fig.28): to view the model in different ways and helps to spotting issues before print starts. Such as “Layers” mode: to view the toolpath of the print head to check if there are skipped layers or gaps. Scroll at layers mode (Figure 28) 24 6-5 :Save GCode in Cura In Cura, click “File”--->“Save GCode…” to save the file to a desired directory. And it is highly recommended to save the Gcode in a SD card for printing offline. Ø Re-open the Gcode file again in Cura to confirm that all slices of the model have been included by check it in the “Layers view” (refer to previous Fig.28). Ø The file name should only contain English letters, underscore and space. File name contains special characters could not be recognized by the printer. Explanation of Some Parameters about Cura: (1)layer thickness: An important parameter that determines print quality, usually set to 0.1-0.3 (2)Printing temperature(Generally): Nozzle Temperature:PLA material is 190-210℃ ,ABS material is 230-240℃ Heat Bed temperature: PLA: 60℃ ABS: 100℃ (3) Wire diameter: The diameter of the selected wire is 1.75mm (4) Nozzle size: Nozzle diameter is 0.4mm (5) Printing speed: 50-60mm/s is recommended, it should not be set too fast, too fast will affect the printing accuracy (6) Shell print speed: Reduce the print speed of the outermost layer to improve the flatness of the model surface 25 7. Online printing Instruction There are two operation mode for DP-X 3D printer, print offline (via SD card) and print online (controlled by PC via USB). As shown in Fig.29. Print offline: After leveling the platform, insert SD card, click “Print” at the Home menu and select a file (gcode file) to print. Print online: Install CH341SER driver to bridging PC and machine, and install Cura to control the machine via USB. (Figure 29) However, the signal of online printing is transmitted by the computer through the USB cable, which is prone to unstable factors such as signal interference. Generally, it is suggested to use Print offline to minimize the noisy signal via USB.The preparation steps for Print Online are shown as below. 7-1. Driver installation for online printing DP-X 3D printer uses CH341SER chip for communication. So, it is necessary to install CH341SER driver so the printer could be recognized by PC. Ø Firstly, power on the machine and connect it to PC via USB cable. Ø CH341SER driver is copied in the SD card. “Programming software and Driver”---> “CH341SER”. Right click"CH341SER" on your computer to install the driver as shown Fig.30. (Figure 30) 26 7-2. Cura settings for online printing Open Cura software,click ''Machine"--->"Machine settings",set the parameters as shown in Fig.31. Note:After successfully installation, a COMx would appear in the Ports of Device Manager, x is random, customers will have their own COMx depends on their PC. This COMx port will be used for communication between the printer and PC later. Ø If the PC has been installed CH341SER driver before, then there should be a COMx in Ports of Device manager already. Ø Sometimes, even the driver is not installed properly, it may still show an abnormal COMx in Ports, please just uninstall the COMx and try to install the driver again. (Figure 31) 7-3. Print online by Cura (1) After parameter settings, customer can print online by Cura with USB connection. Click “File”--->“Print…” as shown in Fig.32. 27  (Figure 32) (2) After click"Print…",it will appears the printing windows as Fig.33.Then the temperature would rise and it will start to print when reaching to the target temperature. Approx printing time (Figure 33) 28 8. Offline Printing Instruction Insert SD card into the SD card slot. Click on the Home Menu “Print” to enter the file list,There is a printable test file included -- “test.gcode” (author: etotheipi, www.thingiverse.com).The machine will be automatically heating the platform and nozzle before printing. During printing, on the menu of printing,you can set the bed pre-heating Temp,extruder pre-heating Temp,printing speed and other parameters as Fig.34. (Figure 34) 29 9. Change Filament Instruction Feed the filament:on Home menu,click "UNLOAD" enter to "HEAD PREHEAT" menu,set the head pre-heating temperature(PLA:190℃,ABS:240℃),After it reaches to the target temperature,click "∨" to feed filament automatically. Or you also can feed the filament by manual:press down the handle at the extruder as shown in Fig.35,manually push the filament through the Teflon tubing till the hotend and there should be filament melt through the nozzle. Ø Make sure the filament passes through the filament sensor first before reaching into the extruder. Ø For easier feed in the filament, it is suggested to cut off the bent tip before insert. Remove the filament:on Home menu,click "UNLOAD" enter to "HEAD PREHEAT" menu,set the head pre-heating temperature(PLA:190℃,ABS:240℃),After it reaches to the target temperature,click "∧" to remove filament automatically. Or you also can remove the filament by manual:press down the handle at the extruder as shown in Fig.35,manually push in the filament firstly until seeing the filament melt through the nozzle, then quickly draw out the filament. The purpose of pushing in the filament is to minimize the risk of nozzle clogging. (Figure 35) 30 10. Resume From Outage DMSCREATE DP-X 3D printer allows resume print job after accidently power loss. *This function only valid when print offline (via SD card only). (1)As shown in Fig.36, in slicing software (i.e. Cura), it is required to place the model at the rear of platform. Because during “Resume from outage”, machine will home first and could touch/interfere with the unfinished object if the model was placed in the front area (Fig. 37). Rear area Zero (Home position) (Figure 36) (Figure 37) 31 (3) Insert the SD card,Print the just saved file (i.e.“test.gcode”). The machine will automatically heating on and print. During this printing, if there is an accident power loss, the print will stop immediately. But after power comes back, there will show you "FIND UNFINISHED TASK" on the screen (Fig.38), click “OK”, Machine will home first and continuing on the unfinished object. *Note: Ø In order to get smooth surface, use tweezers to carefully remove the excessive filament at nozzle before continuing print upon the last point. Ø DMSCREATE DP-X 3D printer supports resume from outage only when print offline Ø Due to the differences of filaments, temperature, extrusion, etc…we could not guarantee a perfect surface at the point of “Resume from outage”, especially for small object. 32 11. Trouble shooting 1. Not extruding at start of print (1) Extrusion is not working (2) Ensure that the nozzle temperature has been set to match the filament (3) Nozzle is too close to the heat bed (4) Nozzle clogged please try to replace it or clean it (5) Teflon tubing has been tangled, squeezed or bent (6) Filament tangled on spool (7) Not enough cooling for the hot end 2. The first layer doesn't adhere on the heat bed (1) Print too fast at the bottom layer speed, reduce it to ~20mm/s (2) Ensure that the print platform is clean (use alcohol if necessary) (3) Check if the heat bed is proper leveled (4) Check the bed temperature matches the filament (5) Check the filament type matches the heat bed (6) Nozzle is too far to the heat bed (7) Printing model bottom area is too small (8) Open cooling for the first layer,especially for ABS (9) Add a brim or raft to the model in slicing software 33 3. Filament flowing insufficient (1) Measure the diameter of filament precisely to see if it is right size (2) The Flow(%) value has been set too low in the slicing software 4. Filament leaking or flowing too much (1) Nozzle or throat tube is tightened properly, try to fix/change it after cooling (2) Measure the diameter of filament precisely to see if it is right size (3) Check Pulse Number of extrusion motor (4) The Flow(%) value has been set too high in the slicing software 5. There are gaps or hollow on the top layer 34 (1) Insufficient number of layers for the printing model (2) Fill value has been set too low in the slicing software (3) Filament flowing insufficient 6. Wire drawing (1) Insufficient withdrawal distance (2) Insufficient withdrawal speed (3) Printing temperature is too high (4) Poor tangential path 7. Printing model melting because of high printing temperature (1) Not enough cooling for the hot end (2) Printing temperature has been set too high in the slicing software (3) Printing speed is too fast 8. Layer shifting or lost step 35 (1) Print head moving too fast, slow down the print speed. (2) Check X/Y belt and the driving wheel and ensure they are properly installed. (3) Grease the rods and check all nuts and bolts remain tightened. (4) Check the main board 9. There are gaps between layers (1) Layer thickness value has been set too high in the slicing software (2) Printing temperature is too low (3) Excessive temperature difference cause the printing model cracking(This situation is common in ABS) 10. Grinding filament or filament wore out (1) Increase Printing Temperature (2) Reduce printing speed (3) Nozzle clogged,clean or replace it 36 11. Hot end clogged (1) After checking printing temperature,manually feed the filament to see if the filament flow out (2) Clean or replace the nozzle and nozzle throat 12. Not extruding at the process of print (1) Filament runs out (2) Grinding filament and slipping at the gear of extrusion(Gear rotation,but no filament flow out) (3) Nozzle clogged (4) The extrusion motor driver is overheating 13. Filling virtual filament 37 (1) Adjust the Fill value in the slicing software (2) Reduce the Fill Speed value in the slicing software (3) Modify the Fill Width value(Some slice software can be adjusted) 14. Stripes or bulge on the surface (1) Printing temperature is too high (2) Z axis is not straight (3) The setting of Slice path is not good (4) Extruding instability 15. Rough angle (1) Printing temperature is too high (2) Not enough Cooling for hot end 16. Path line on the surface 38 (1) Filament extruding too much (2) Uplift Z axis 17. Wrinkles on the surface (1) The quality of filament is poor,so the diameter is unstable (2) Temperature fluctuation (3) Heat bed shaking (4) Z axis is not straight or wrong installation 18. Vibration 39 (1) Printing speed is too fast (2) The whole machine is vibrating (3) The settings of firmware is incorrect 19. Extruding unevenly (1) Feeding not smoothly (2) Hot end clogged (3) Layer thickness is too small (4) Extrusion width is incorrect (normal 100-150%) (5) Poor quality of filament (6) Extrusion force regulation for extrusion gear 20. Motor shaking or abnormal sound (1) The corresponding end stop could not be triggered when Home, check the wirings, and inspect any obstacles by manually moving the corresponding axis (2) The motor cable are not connected properly, check each connection and then inspect the cable routing for any faults 21. File not printing or SD card failure (1) Remove the SD card and insert into PC. Open the Gcode files using text editor (eg. Notepad), and inspect if Gcode is readable or not. If files contains of multiple “ÿÿÿ” symbol, then file has been corrupted. Try reformatting the SD card to FAT32 format and reloading the Gcode file (2) SD card is not readable, ensure file name does not contain special characters or Change SD card (3) Reboot the machine and try again 40 22. Print stopped halfway (1) Check if the Gcode file is corrupted (2) Delete plugins in the Gcode file (3) Use print offline mode (SD card) instead of print online via USB 23. Touch screen no response (1) Inspect if the touch screen has been pressed by the metal frame at the edge (2) Check if the cables and wires which connect the screen are loose (3) Check if the screen was broken,if so,please contact our service team 41