Heated Bed Upgrade - Guide with Pics/Comparisons/STLs (Page 3 of 4)

I thought I read on here that you could read off of glass with an IR thermometer. Will give this a shot, thanks!

Lawsy, you mention your latest firmware supports the qu-Bd thermistor, do i have to tell the firmware i am using a qu-bd bed? If so how do i do this please?

Urg... Dont even know what config h file is!

Adrain, thanks I've found it, So do i have to alter it then upload it to the sang?

http://www.soliwiki.com/Updating_Solidoodle_Firmware

http://www.solidoodle.com/how-to-2/how- … -software/

Brilliant gents! Thanks again! And again and again!

I think solidoodle should of given lawsy a sd3 for using his firmware!

Well, Lawsy definitely needs to be congratulated, but I reckon Erik Zalm might take offence at the reference to using 'lawsy's firmware'

To set the record straight ; Lawsy made many invaluable changes to the Configuration.h (primarily) of the core Marlin firmware. But thats what it was - Changes to integer values related to Configuration things like Bed Sizes, Tempreatures etc. If you look at the code these days, you'll see references to {SD Patch} in Configration.h and Configuration_adv.h - these are all the mods that primarily lawsy made.

Lawsy also reforked the Marlin source code and re-applied those changes to a later version than what Solidoodle had chosen to work with. The refork and remerge is something thats been done again just recently to facilitate the M600/M601 and Filament Alarm work.

The core firmware that drives things, makes it print, etc etc, is very much the work of the Marlin dev work - Erik Zalm and the many many contributors to the Marlin code (So given Marlin is a Sprinter/Grbl Mashup, then its also thanks to Sprinters and Grbls lead developers ) . We ride on their coat tails and simply change a few settings here and there to make it 'work right' on an SD3's dimensions and temps and mechanical setup.

So, absolutely, lawsy should be commended and massively thanked for the contribution in terms of making the changes - and more importantly - posting them publicly back to GitHub and maintaining the repository quite a few of us have made contributions back to; which is something Solidoodle have been more lapse at. Lawsy made that happen for all of us and needs to be thanked.

Lawsy also needs to be hugely thanked for the documentation and back when it was neccesary, Arduino 022 bundles (Despite references still existing, it is no longer a requirement to use Arduino 022 for example.... you can happily use 1.03 or even 1.5)

But in terms of 'code' - what makes the firmware what it is - That is Erik Zalm's and the Marlin teams work, with huge helpings of improvements from Rincewind and Tealvince with their Hysterisis and ZWobble code.

Anyway... I am all for lawsy getting an SD3 for his community work and contributions.. but lets not forget where the firmware code comes from

Adrian summed it up perfectly.

What I did was fairly simple but needed doing because Solidoodle were unwilling/unable/too lazy to do it themselves.

If it were up to them we would still be using a version a couple of years old that has no support for LCDs and none of the z banding fixes our community has worked so hard on.

I got my new IR thermometer in yesterday. I'm seeing ~20c difference between the center and outside of the pad. I had a hard time removing prints as well unless they were completely cooled. Switched from ABS glue to hairspray and it seems to be working better. So far my 3/16 tempered glass is holding up fine, but I am starting to have an issue with layer separation. Could this be from the bed? I also changed my hotend from my spare to the original. Same exact hotend so I haven't re-calibrated the feed rate or anything as I would expect this to be the same?

I'm using an acrylic enclosure with party tray cover. I haven't done any PID tuning or firmware modification at all, guess it's time to get to that =\

Where did you get that party tray?

I did the wiring as shown, but for some reason I get constant power going to the MK2a PCB.  So, essentially the power control to the bed through Repetier is useless.  Could I have burned out the transistor during the soldering process?  I had tough time getting the jumpers soldered to connection points, so I had the heat applied to the board for quite a while at times.  Also, once I get the bed leveled is there a way to adjust the z-min position other than the Z-Screw.  If not I may have to get a longer screw to hit the switch due to the added height of new bed and platform I made.

Don't consider it. certainly not worth going from useless to mediocre anyway.

If you want to speed up the bed significantly, you need to switch to a far more appropriately powered heated bed, which as the solidoodle supplied power supply is already ran at its hard upper limit, is not going to happen without changing the power supply. But this isn't an issue - you can buy the meanwell PSUs for around ~$30 that are identical to the current Solidoodle PSU's in terms of 'brick' construction, but have the required 25A+...

If its a problem - fix it properly by spending the $50 to get a QU-BD + decent PSU... Otherwise.. forget it.. everything else is just a bandaid.