Conrad Electronic UK
Europe's leading electronic specialists now in the UK

Here are some photo's of the way I built up the hot end o the Sumpod 3D printer. The key issues are the placement of the thermistor, the location of the aluminum housing for the power resistor used to heat the filament, and the placement of the PTFE tube all the way down (and through the new part) to the nozzle end.

I used Kapton tape to secure the thermistor and power resistor, as well as some high temperature ceramic insulation, in place. Its relatively inexpensive and I bought mine from ebay, along with the insulation. If any SUMPOD builder wants some (I have loads left!!!) then send me a stamped addressed envelope and I will send some back to you.

Anyway, the pictures should clear up any confusion........if not email me.

Conrad Electronic UK
Europe's leading electronic specialists now in the UK

Yesterday I had problems with axis going opposite from the controls  under RepSnapper. Looking at other builds I decided to try Renaissance Mans  suggestion and reverse the stepper drivers wiring from black, green, red and blue and just turn the plug around. Low and behold it works! One problem solved.

The second was connecting to ReplicatorG. Asking the question on the SUMPOD forum an answer came back that you need to choose Klimentkip 115200 (menu: machine, sub menu: driver). Secondly, my trackerball seems to affect the connection but once I removed it then it connected straight away and using the control panel found that all axis worked and in the right way. I did have some strange results though with previous directions repeating next time irrespective of button pushed.

Well after a telephone conversation with Richard yesterday I made copious notes regarding the wiring and this morning armed with the additional information I set forth! If you have been following my build you will have seen I had difficulties with the LCD that I put down to my failures as a solderer, when in fact it was the wiring that was not suitable for solder, being meant to be crimped. So its ironic that after two further attempts this morning to solder the crimps on, in the end I crimped them!

Was my soldering at fault? Well yes and no, since the first time I used too much solder to allow the crimps to slide into their plastic covers. So since I have ordered more Hobbystore, I thought I would redo them and try to be much neater. In fact I was pleased with the second attempt and they slid easily into place. It was only then that I found my problem. The solder had run into the main body which needs to fit over the corresponding pins. Some would go, but many had solder blocking them.

Well thanks to "electronica" from the Sumpod Forum I have the wiring schematic for the Sumpod. You can see it in all its glory here.

Basically the 4 wires for each motor in order are Red, Blue, Green then Black (when looking down on the board from above and the D10, D09, D08 ar on the left hand side.

The limit switches go to the block of 3x 6 pins and the axis are identified on the reprap board with the top two (of the 3 pins in line) are used. The orientation I have been told does not matter due to control via software although I have yet to prove that myself. Wiring for the extruder uses D10 as D09 is for a second extruder and D08 for a heated bed (which I am considering buying). So tomorrow I hope to not only get the motors working