A few cosmetic details to work out yet… but I’m almost ready to launch the second version of my ProfileMaker. I released the first version late last night.
I’d like to think that I’ve increased the number of options while still keeping a slim and intuitive user interface. I would really appreciate any comments, criticisms, or questions you may have.
Looking at Dave’s Profileinator seems really well suited to a stepper extruder. However, he also suggests adding a “Flow Fudge Factor.” I just use this set to 1.0, so I’m not sure if I’m using it correctly.
Flow Fudge Factor: I have to enter 1.0 into the flow rate to get 2.0 RPMs on the extruder.. I got tired of doing this math so I added flow fudge factor and set it to 0.5. This doesn’t change the volume calculations – it just modifies the flow rate on the table. If you have a MK4/MK5 extruder with a DC motor, start this at 127.5 to get the PWM value to use
In any case, it looks like by multiplying it by 127.5 you can get the required flowrate for a DC motor. In printing with a DC motor, I never wanted to drop the speed below 255, because the DC motor had such a small range of speeds. I could print between about 230 – 255. Given this, I can understand why so many others, probably using a DC motor, would rather pick their flowrate as 255 and then determine the proper feedrates.
What ProfileMaker feature would you like next?
Some of this write up is over at Thingiverse and some of it is at the end of the ProfileMaker page.
Dave Durant’s program for solving for flowrate is really incredibly helpful. It is truly a shame that it isn’t more widely used. I think part of the problem might have been people were intimidated by all the buttons and part of the problem was that it was a Windows only application. There has since been a port to Java, but that’s not as convenient as a truly web based version.
I’ve hard coded the most common options, but fully intend to bring them back later as advanced options. For now I just wanted to whip something together to help people out and show them just how easy calibration can really be. Give it a shot. If you haven’t printed at 0.2mm layers before, give it a whirl!
I’m really really looking forward to being able to enter values into Skeinforge from my cell phone.
Your suggestions, comments, questions, criticism, e-mails, etc are all welcome and invited.
