Upgrading the Mini Kossel to Duet Electronics Part 4: the Z probe

In earlier posts in this series, I described how to install and connect Duet electronics on a Mini Kossel, how to install and configure the firmware, and how to calibrate the printer. In this post I cover using a Z probe.

Upgrading the Mini Kossel to Duet Electronics Part 3: Calibration

In the third part of this mini-series, I will cover final commissioning of the Mini Kossel with Duet electronics.

Upgrading the Mini Kossel to Duet Electronics Part 2: Software and Commissioning

In Part 1 of this two-part series, I covered the hardware changes needed to use Duet electronics with the Mini Kossel in place of Arduino/RAMPS electronics. In this second part, I will cover installing the software and the first stages of commissioning the printer. Part 3 will cover the remainder of the commissioning process, including calibration.

Upgrading the Mini Kossel to Duet Electronics Part 1: Hardware

The Mini Kossel delta 3D printer is available in kit form from various suppliers, including Think3DPrint3d (T3P3) in the UK. The kits currently supplied by TPT3 include an Arduino Mega and a RAMPS board to control the printer with Marlin firmware. Although this combination can drive the Mini Kossel, a number of delta 3D printer owners have commented that this combination of electronics and firmware is barely able to handle the demands of a delta printer and attached LCD display. Users who have attempted to add a 128×64 graphics display have reported very poor performance of the display while printing.

Today, 32-bit embedded processors are cheap. So there is no longer any reason to use 8-bit controllers to drive 3D printers. A few  32-bit controllers boards are available, including the Smoothieboard and the Duet. The Smoothieboard has been described elsewhere. In these articles, I will describe how to upgrade a Mini Kossel built from a T3P3 kit to use Duet electronics and associated firmware. This article describes the hardware, and the following article will describe software configuration and commissioning.

Ormerod and Mini Kossel 3D printer kits compared

I’ve now built two 3D printers from kits: first an Ormerod both designed and supplied in kit form by RepRapPro, and more recently a Mini Kossel designed by Johann Rocholl and supplied in kit form by Think3dPrint3d. So here is a comparison of the kits and my experience of assembling them. I won’t try to compare print speed or quality, because I don’t have enough experience of printing with the Mini Kossel yet. The Ormerod 1 kit that I assembled has now been superseded by the Ormerod 2, so I will try to make allowances for the improvements that I am aware of in the Ormerod 2.

Converting the RepRapPro Ormerod to Two Colour

The RepRapPro Ormerod is sold as a single-extruder 3D printer kit. Although RepRapPro is promising to produce a multi-extruder conversion kit for it, they have not yet provided a date when this will be available. So here is my recipe for converting the Ormerod to a 2-nozzle dual extruder printer.

Five Tips for using dc42 Firmware on the RepRapPro Ormerod

Many of you know me better as dc42 on the RepRapPro and Arduino forums. As the owner of an Ormerod 3D printer and an embedded software engineer (amongst other things!), I forked the RepRapFirmware github repository early in 2014 in order to address some limitations in the stock firmware. My firmware fork has proved surprisingly popular with other Ormerod users. So for all of you out there, and for anyone thinking of using it, here are my top tips for getting the best out of the firmware.