BreepBroop

Information

The BreepBroop in it's current state

General

The BreepBroop (nickname) is a standard RepRap Mendel. It's the original design, and was printed during the main build rush after the Mendel came out. Chorca printed the parts on Mack's MakerBot over a period of about a month. It is all ABS aside from the frame vertexes which were purchased from the RepRap Forums, from Joshua Updyke in particular. This style of Mendel is rarely made anymore due to it's complexity. The much simpler Prusa Mendel is more commonly built, due to the large reduction of printed parts and hardware, and the simpler pulley and bearing systems used. Digitalman2112's RepRap is a Prusa.

Electronics

The BreepBroop originally used a Techzone Gen3 electronics set, which needed a good amount of touch-up and had some issues. Chorca replaced this.

• Currently using a RAMPS 1.2 board donated by Digitalman2112
• Bed heater is hooked into an Omron 15A SSR, which is controlled by the DC heater output from the RAMPS. It modulates the SSR, and detects the temperature via a thermistor kapton-taped to the bed.
• With the RAMPS, the steppers are now all drive via the Pololus onboard the RAMPS board.
• Arduino MEGA on loan from Digitalman2112

Mechanical

Most mechanical functions of the BreepBroop are according to the original build specifications. A few modifications have been made:

• Using a Wade's extruder on the OpenX carriage.
• Hot end is a LulzBot Budaschnozzle 1.0.
• Bed has been modified to a 1/8" thick aluminum plate, using a 110v silicone mat heater from McMaster Carr (Part number: 35765K482), controlled by an SSR.

Software

Chorca is currently using the following:

• Latest version of Sprinter firmware
• Host software is Pronterface, using SFACT to interface with Skeinforge

Print Status

The printer is not printing. After a total rebuild of the hot end and reassembly, we are still having major issues. It was able to successfully print a Wade's extruder gear, however, the PLA was burning and oozing out of the top of the nozzle slightly. The X axis is cracked near the belt clamp area and binding badly. The Y axis also has a lot of wobble due to the weight of the copper plate. There are no endstops so homing is a major issue. The extruder constantly strips because of the shallow hobbing and due to the fact that the thermocouples are difficult to use in getting an accurate temperature reading, it is hard to figure out what the temperature currently is.

Current Work

Electronics

Swapped out all the electronics mess with a RAMPS RAMPS platform. This integrates all components onto one shield for the Arduino MEGA, reducing footprint and making everything a lot easier to run. The following are current plans for work:

• Get a second SSR and set it up for the new heater block
• Incorporate a thermal fuse to prevent runaway of the heater
• Build a box for the RAMPS, and install a onboard power supply to help self-contain the unit

===Mechanical===. The following are current plans for work:

• Replace copper bed with aluminum bed to lower stress on Y axis and prevent wobble This is actually not due to the wobble of the bed, but due to using the wrong kind of pulley on my machine. The pulleys that Nophead has made and which are widely used on thingiverse are NOT the correct type for american XL-style belt tooth profiles. His are made for european T5 belts. The proper pulley for XL belt is Here