Talk:LulzBot AO-100 3D Printer

Status, issues as of 1/15/2014:

Occasional issues with missed steps, apparent binding in the Y-axis, (leading to a model skewed / stepped in the y-axis,) seem to be due to rapid oscillation of the stepper motor during high-speed gap-filling causing missed steps, NOT because of any bearing binding. (The motor can only reverse direction so fast, and has very little torque when asked to do so too fast, so it never completes the move, the carriage ends up not being where it's supposed to be.)

The best bet is to minimize gap filling altogether by planning wall thickness of your model based on extrusion width, so that you have a round number of layers in horizontal shells.

If you can't control this factor, try the following slicer settings:

-Keep the speed of gap-filling to a maximum of 20mm/sec.

-In slicer's "printer" tab, under advanced settings, set the "vibration limit" frequency to 15hz. (This will force movement to slow down for these bone-shaking gap fills if 20mm/s isn't slow enough.)

COOLING is now a reality, allowing tiny shapes to be printed without melting into goo. If your model tapers at any point to a small surface area, such that a single layer would take <60s to print at the speed you've chosen, (let's say anything 3cm^2 or smaller than a nickel,) make sure to enable the following cooling settings in slicer's filament tab for good results:

-Check the "enable cooling" box.

-Min fan speed 60%, max fan speed 100%. (The fan is unlikely to start if fed <60% power.)

-Disable fan for first layer, (so it doesn't spoil adhesion to the bed.)

-Enable fan if layer time <60s

-Slow printing speed if layer time <30s

-Minimum printing speed = 3mm/s (This is VERY slow, but that's what it took to get a point on a pyramid, even with the fan at full-blast.)

The table is a full house now, with 3 printers... No more room for those silly extension cord reels. Please mind the following for loading filament:

-If you need to switch filament, please carefully stow the mounted skein by wrapping it with string, zip ties, (please, no sticky tape,) so it doesn't unravel, and use the built-in filament reel.

-Please mind that the ears of the reel don't bump into the TAZ as they rotate.

-Filament must wind off of the skein from the BOTTOM to feed nicely into the tube, and allow the pull of the extruder to rotate the reel as it should.

-Tighten the wing nut if the reel sags, ears hit the frame of the lulzbot itself when rotating.

Fixed dead config link with updated config file! 2/12/2015