Get it clean, get it moving!

Lets just start it!

One of the first things on my list when restarting with the printer was to try kicking it off on my current PC. Despite being given multiple awesome opportunities by Microsoft to upgrade my system, I am still mostly using Windows 10.

Getting Printrun and Pronterface running was surprisingly easy. Yes, the official sites are a bit outdated, but the community is not completely dispersed. Amazing kliment still runs a github with latest repo: https://github.com/kliment/Printrun/releases I got Printrun version 2.0.1.

Of course I needed to have Python 3.6 on the system. I can not recall now whether I had to compile the source (I believe not), but even if I did, it was very straightforward.

With Pronterface added as a shortcut to my start menu, I was ready to start! A couple of days prior I cleaned the whole printer with a compressor. When powered it did not burn. I started Pronterface, connected, gave a command and the printer moved!

The old Teacup firmware was still kicking. But I wanted something newer.

Better - worst enemy of good

I recalled Johannes mentioning Ultimaker's Cura as a great slicer and printer control. Well, it did not run Teacup, so I decided to go with Marlin firmware... That was a mistake... Not that Marlin is bad, but... Cura did not support print-over-USB anymore... Plus it did not like my Gen 7 1.4.1 electronics... Plus Marlin was not super easy to upload... But I already tried and erased Teacup from printer's Arduino... That was a bad move...

Dealing with unintended consequences

Not discouraged, I got a new plan. First: get new firmware. I selected Repetier, since it was nicely supported by Cura, which I intended to use as a new slicer. Then try to force old versions of Cura to guide my printer over USB, then move all that to some light Ubuntu distro on a laptop and run the ABS melting in my basement instead of office. This was a start of an interesting and bumpy journey...

Resurrecting the printer - back after 9 years

It has been a while. Couple of years passed. Couple of changes happened. The last post describing the walking-beam project was written while I was still living in Italy. Since then I moved to Germany, stayed there for almost five years and moved back to Poland. I switched between a couple of jobs, extended my family and basically reduced hobby related activities. Through all these years I kept dragging the printer along. While in today's standard it is not even close to what is available on the market and I could get a new machine for a couple of euro. It was always a hobby project - a thing self made. A bit rough, a bit crude, but mine. And it still works!

As I am writing this, I realize how much I have not had written. There were several small projects that I did back in Germany. Be this the homage to my insufficient writing skills or even little reservations to share my "life" online. Still I recognized how useful this blog was when trying to resurrect the machine and how lacking it was in terms of proper data organization and presentation.

At this moment (again) I moved forward with the "Resurrection project" far beyond the scope that can be described in one post. I see the need to preserve this knowledge. I hope to do that on this blog and hope the experience I have gotten over the years will help me do a better job in organizing the information in a useful manner.

In the coming posts I intend to describe the process of how I managed to start-up a machine that was lying dormant for almost a decade. I will describe the required hardware adjustments and struggles with using ancient software. While I still face multiple issues when printing, each is a new experience and a shard of knowledge that helps me improve my understanding of 3d printing.

Upcoming: Teacup firmware replacement with Repetier, running Printrun on Win10, running Printrun on Lubuntu (Light Ubuntu), remote X sessions with Ubuntu, fixing and replacement of old printer parts, first prints: printing bed adjusters, X and Y belt tension adjusters and possibly some nostalgia posts.

See you later!