Pangu i3 .. the best price / quality ratio ? (Page 1 of 3)

I wanted to say "I hate you" , but joke aside... it's not the same price..

and the shipping delay is far to be know..

i explain :

it's kickstarter founded 3d printer ( https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ez … nter/posts ) and their FIRST bakers can hope to receive their printer in MARS 2014 (they think they will send the first 5 printers the 27-29 february).. BUT apart isolated case, kickstarter project are NEVER on schedule...  so i bet on a delayed shipping... (add 2-3 months)

and it's for the priority baker... if you are not baker, you will be oblige to wait after them .. so if i follow their timeline, it's not before april 2014 at best...and it's the best case scenario...

for the shipping, they said 60$ for canada with UPS... UPS is the worst choice (side by side with Fedex) because they take a horrible amount for "custom handling" ... so it will be more around 100+ $  ..hoho we are at 474+100 + tax..

rp3d put a "80$" value on their package (instead of the real value) for custom&tax for the benefit of their customer... not EZ3D... add 50$ or more to the total..

so, we are around 650 $... (at least)... it's +150$ minimum for an assembled printer... and you need to add all the tools you need (+50$... ok, you have a solidoodle, so you didn't need any tools ) , and the RAMBo card can't use an SDCARD in default configuration, and did i said that there is no actual shipping date provided (this is a deal breaker for me)...

no.. i don't take it

rp3d had 900+ kit in stock

a little follow-up...

the printer is easy to build.. But it is not for someone who is not comfortable with DIY.
there is still some little tweaks to do here and there :  the smooth rods of the Y carriage were a little too long, i was obliged to correct the end pieces to let them pass thru..

the hole in the printed parts of the X carriage were not aligned (by a small value), and due to it length , give a small slope to the full carriage : i needed to use my drill to redo clean holes

the Y carriage was already builded, as the Full extruder ..

that was for the mechanic..

for the electronic, the Melzi card use a very old Sprinter firmware. you need to do a firmware upload each time you need to change a value (this firmware didn't use the eeprom to store the value.. you can not change them in repetier-host)... not practical.. and the firmware can't be downloaded on rp3d.com... you need to ask for it thru email...

i put the 2 motors of the z axis in parallel and it seem that the Melzi didn't like it (before i discovered that it was a problem of feed rate in repetier-host)... then i put them in serial.. but I don't like the fact that the torque is divided by 2 in this configuration...

then I lost my zen-itude , and i took the last version of Marlin firmware, adapt it to the Pangu i3 and flash it to the card !! (before I realized that I did not have the old firmware for a backup if I had a problem )

for information, to upload the new firmware on the Melzi card, you need to put the jumper on the jp14 (auto reset), and remove it after finishing.

i use the last arduino IDE (1.05 R2), and don't forget to set the good COM port and the board to "sanguino 1284p with 16 mhz" (follow the instructions on this page .. you also need to upgrade some libray in you IDE arduino for the 1.X.X version..)

at this time, all the printer is working....all the axis are working, and the Z axis motors worked in parallel....  minus the temperature sensor (bed and heater).. i discovered that the NTC 100k , with a beta of 3950 (rpd3 sent me the information after an email from me..) were NOT in the standard list of choice of the Marlin firmware... so after losing 4 hours trying the different Sensor tables, and even trying to build a smah-up new table with a sensor of my solidoodle... i sent a new email to rp3d, and they sent me the original firmware of the Melzi card.

Now i can extract the sensor table of the Sprinter firmware and copy it to the new marlin firmware...

to be continued...

ok... rp3d confirm that it was the wrong sprinter firmware (it was for the Pangu i2)...

now , my Pangu i3 is in good shape and working.... i need to tweak the Z endstop, and the E steps...

but it work well...

i made some test prints and i get horrible banding.... i was thinking of mading a Z backlash nut (like on my solidoodle) then i change how i fix the Z coupler  (something like that )

instead of a central position between the screw and the Z axis of the motor, I decided to lower the coupler to the maximum on the motor shaft. And by magic, the banding are gone... one problem less.. next

YSB - this is very useful info potentially for me thanks.

I have a melzi that was bought by itself (not a complete printer) from RP3D.com, and the firmware on it simply stated "RRP".
The board developed a fault and I have a replacement but have not been able to get the original firmware that the first board had due to lack of details.

I assume from your comments here that it is a version of sprinter but that there are different versions so I was wondering if you have these if it would be possible if you'd mind emailing me copies of the sprinter versions you have?

I'd be really grateful if you're able to help, as this should take out a lot of the time it will take to get my machine running.

Many thanks, and a great write up by the way.

yep.. it's the pangu i2.
sorry joshua/cookiemonster.. i just see your messages now because i was sick for the last 5 days...

i will put all the firmwares i have here...

my version of the up to date Marlin for I3
and the 2 sprinter firmwares that rpd3d send me...

..asap

i forget to add that my marlin firmware was set for a 250000baud communication (even if the original sprinter use only 115200b... but you can change it in configuration.h)

Hello,
This is David from figfab.com . I made all of the videos for the Pangu i3 3d printer, including the one at the start of the forum about the unboxing. YSB helped me so much in getting my printer to operate. I used his firmware and not rp3d's (although they say they have fixed it now). Go to my youtube channel korhonenca or just search pangu i3 3d printer and you can see more videos including some of me printing. I am in London Canada and have worked out a deal for better shipping from RP3d (down to about $50) with no duty if you are in Canada. Keep up the good work YSB. I agree it's the best deal out there.
Have fun

Iam glad i've ordered it in time then
Yesterday i found that the heated bed is not stable on its spring mounted board.. therefore i inverted the bolts, and secured them with a m3 nut, so the bed wont swing out of place due to decelleration of mass..

dropbox.com/sc/2uwqhauvl1uw83v/hUAyN09u5a

Also i added a switch for the extruder fan, since the fan will only induce curling and detachment when printing ABS.
@David: i enjoyed your detailed youtube instructions, and would love to see you doing things like upgrades on the I3.

Thank you for the research!
I am going to reconnect the fan
in the meanwhile i have tought about auto bed leveling too, so today ive printed the bracket which is pretty much perfect!

dropbox.com/s/y7p96tjpdthca3p/20140302_170905.jpg

bracket is from here:

thingiverse.com/thing:252089/#files

luckily i had ordered some 9 grams servos on forehand, so no waiting for part this time
For the bed leveling we need one discrete in, and a pwm output.
Iam working on an lcd/rotary dial (non panalolu) to work on the melzi.
The printed parts are getting more and more straight/pretty.

For my ABS filament, i use 200-220 deg C for the extruder and 110-120 deg C for the hotbed...  warning : for me the hotbed can sustain 120 deg ONLY if you didn't use the fan. With the fan, i can't pass 110 deg..

I will try to upload my slic3r config tomorrow

For the distance between the bed and the extruder tip, use a standard business card.. the card must pass between with just a little bit of strength

Hi Ysb,

Many thanks for your answer. I will try with your settings right now.
I can't wait printing, I hope I will have good results today.

See you soon and waiting for your slic3r config file ;-)