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Anycubic I3 Mega 3D Printer. 3D Printer Newbie Experience.


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@Arcade King, will the Mega S have the upgraded bed you installed, and will it likely need the firmware upgrade too?

 

The Ultrabase came standard on mine mate and is on the S model and you shouldn't need to touch the firmware on the S.

Keep in mind buying the S will probably mean you get the 32 bit driver board. I don't know if any custom firmware is available or how to upgrade the drivers to the silent type, I haven't done any more reading on it because it doesn't effect me. From what I've read the drivers are surfaced mounted but its not a necessary upgrade, I don't find the noise of mine to be annoying.

 

If the above is a concern you should do what I did and buy the standard version and do the upgrade to S yourself which was super easy. You'll have a better chance of getting the 8 bit board that can be upgraded and use the custom firmware I mentioned above.

 

From what I've read is you go into the menu look for "info" which will brign up the firmware version. If its 1.1 you got the 8 bit if its 1.4 it's 32 bit.

Hope that isn't too confusing.

 

I found a post on the different motherboard revisions. Mines Revision 3 with Ultrabase

https://www.thingiverse.com/groups/anycubic-i3-mega/forums/general/topic:27064

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925893463_IMG_20191115_0620111.thumb.jpg.502030374fdcb4938a3a5746a9aa0bd4.jpg

and done!

 

I wasn't happy with the adhesion of the first layer on the first 2 attempts so changed the bed temp from 60 to 80, turned cooling down to 20% and retraction from 6 to 7 for the first 3 layers and this made a huge difference.

Bed temp and cooling goes back to 60 degrees and 100% after the first 3 layers are done, neat settings.

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Any tips on supports?

IMG_20191118_145254.thumb.jpg.a1116066165f5a3adecff25c1ef64ca7.jpg

I've been playing around with printing out various shells, this ones for the Atari Ultimate cart. I just can't get the support material fully out otherwise its a good print. I'm printing another one without supports under there however not liking my chances.

 

I've also printed out a Pi1541 case and a had a lot of trouble with stringing on the first layer. Turning off Combing in Cura solved this issue.

I took pics but the defects don't show up well on white plastic.

Finally my Red PLA+ arrived today so I have another colour to play with. I've also ordered some glow in the dark green.

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It's a shallow inset, you may get lucky and print it fine without supports. Otherwise, if you haven't done so already, open up the advanced settings and see what you can tinker with within the support settings.

 

Interesting about stringing and combing, I will need to try that.

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  • 3 weeks later...

ok got my anycubic chiron a couple of days ago.

 

First impressions is its big, looks sturdy enough, moves well and has a touch screen. So I'm impressed with that.

 

I did a manual level but then followed it with an auto level so don't know if the manual level in itself would have been sufficient. The auto level I found neat to watch but when I started the test print the head was off by a couple of mm too high. So I had to stuff around tweeking it closer and closer while in test mode. Took me a lot longer than thought to level it via adjusting the compensation for individual points but I think I did a pretty good job.

 

Have done a couple of prints now with what I'd class as excellent results. My test print was ok but I'm putting that down to the surface I have the printer on. Its a chest of drawers on wheels so vibration is evident.

 

Anyway as said my xbox controller stand and this pinball flipper alignment/leveller came out great. There is a small area where it looks like a pass has seperated or was missed. I have to investigate whether there is something I can do to avoid this happening. Slowing print speed may help.

 

I used the PLA it came with, Hot end 195c and bed 60c, print speed 50mm feed, 100% fill.

 

Initial thoughts is a great unit for under $500. Will reserve my finial opinion once I print something quite large that may take around 100 hours plus and see what the results are. I will also try ABS, PETG etc that I've heard this machine can use but people have struggled with getting good results.

 

BTW this flipper alignment tool has provision for a round bubble level for incline, space for a cylindrical level for side to side and the holes are guides to ball sizing so you can check you have the correct ball diameters for your ss/dmd game

1009842571_levelpic3.thumb.jpg.05dda40197b959d8a5b6a5f72c1864f5.jpg

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1063538014_levelpic1.thumb.jpg.12d119e32fc4f4896c588b1ea35c9fa4.jpg

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Firefox_Screenshot_2019-12-14T11-18-03_899Z.thumb.png.d34a9b4fb3566929c7901c96359ff011.png

Testing my octoprint IR camera which is working great considering the room is pitch black now. Printed a nice case and camera mount out of PETG also :)

Printing a nice Dragon for mum for Christmas in a eSun glow in the dark green PLA filament at 0.1 layer height for quality it's going to take some time. This stuff really does glow awesome in the dark. I made a Skeletor bust https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-skeletor-bust-from-masters-of-the-universe-support-free-model-82671 a few weeks back which looks and glows fantastic.

In hind sight I should have done it in blue.

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  • 5 weeks later...
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1003104339_IMG_20200114_0811591.thumb.jpg.d3bb564da27ad2de9b966fc950f6c708.jpg

Poor ol printer is back in action after 3 or so weeks out of action.

One morning I came down doing this exact same print but only half of it was done with the print head still going in mid air. The filament was firmly stuck in the PTFE tube and after disassembling the hotend the PTFE tube had actually melted and welded against the filament.:o ...too many ABS prints.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to install my ABS 3D printed Mega X carriage and upgrade to silent drivers but naturally assembling the carriage was nothing but problems. Knowing this was going to be another one of my "projects" that would just sit there for 6 months not used I bought some PTFE tube and reassembled it with a new nozzle, no fancy new cartridge but at least I'm printing again. I'll try printing it out again in PetG this time, I suspect the ABS slightly shrunk.

:rant:

 

 

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[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"custom","height":"350","width":"623","data-attachmentid":2103259}[/ATTACH]

One Glow in the dark He-Man done.

 

Looks great. How you finding using petg? I've only tried it on a couple of occasions with a lot of stringing. What heat settings and feed settings are you using? It may be simply cheap ebay filament I purchased, I dunno

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Looks great. How you finding using petg? I've only tried it on a couple of occasions with a lot of stringing. What heat settings and feed settings are you using? It may be simply cheap ebay filament I purchased, I dunno

 

Same problem mate, I've had a hard time with petg. I made my octopi and camera case out of it and took several goes to do the case with the thin sides. The stringing is really bad but I'm positive I could reduce it once I can upgrade the carriage. After I do the Skeletor I'm going to have another crack at the X-Carriage upgrade in PetG

I've noticed the stringing always goes the same direction as the fan blows so I think having the upgraded carriage which cools on both sides should make a significant difference.

 

Cura settings for eSun Purple PetG at 230c 80c bed, print speed 50 outer/inner walls 30, Union overlapping off, Combing Off, Fan off for first 3 layers then 100%. retraction 5mm, retraction speed 60mm/s (this is what I did my octopi holder at). Some people recommend no or reduced cooling but for me the prints come out globby like hot glue.

From what I've read most people expect a lot more stringing with PetG :unsure I'll let you know how my carriage comes out using above settings.

 

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Same problem mate, I've had a hard time with petg. I made my octopi and camera case out of it and took several goes to do the case with the thin sides. The stringing is really bad but I'm positive I could reduce it once I can upgrade the carriage. After I do the Skeletor I'm going to have another crack at the X-Carriage upgrade in PetG

I've noticed the stringing always goes the same direction as the fan blows so I think having the upgraded carriage which cools on both sides should make a significant difference.

 

Cura settings for eSun Purple PetG at 230c 80c bed, print speed 50 outer/inner walls 30, Union overlapping off, Combing Off, Fan off for first 3 layers then 100%. retraction 5mm, retraction speed 60mm/s (this is what I did my octopi holder at). Some people recommend no or reduced cooling but for me the prints come out globby like hot glue.

From what I've read most people expect a lot more stringing with PetG :unsure I'll let you know how my carriage comes out using above settings.

 

Thanks mate appreciate it. Got some abs but worried to use it as my printer is in my office and am worried about the fumes. Have you made an enclosure or us the fume scare an over reaction?

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