3D printer recommendation

Hi there!
I'm looking to build my first printer and I need some advice from you guys.
I only have little room left on my bench, so I'm looking for a printer with a relatively small footprint. (No more than 25x25cm)
Since the Tantillus seems to be pretty much dead and resources on the Sli3dr seem a bit scarce, I figured I'll take the shot at a Delta style printer.

I pretty much narrowed it down to three Kits:

- microDelta (http://www.reprap-3d-printer.com/product/1234568322-udelta-3d-printer)

- RichRaps 3DR (http://semiu.co.uk/product/richraps-3dr-complete-kit-with-e3d-hot-end-lcd/)

- Fisher Delta [reprappro.com])

So here are my questions:

Which one do you think is the best for the price?
Is building a Delta feasible for a noob?
Should I get a heated bed for PLA printing?
Which one of the above would be best fit to completely enclose the printing chamber?
Can you recommend any other compact printers (Delta or not) that would be easily enclosed?
Does anyone know the exact dimensions of the Fisher?

The Fisher has by far the best electronics and firmware (OK, I am biased because I wrote the delta support for it). You get a fast 32-bit processor (better for handling delta kinematics), digital control of stepper motor currents (which is very helpful for novices), Ethernet connectivity with a good web interface, a built-in SD card socket, and fast auto delta calibration (also important for novices).

The disadvantage of the Fischer it that is is still in beta. Also the price recently went up from £199 to £249. Maybe it will come down again when RepRapPro has caught up with the demand. For more info on the Fisher, and to see the sort of issues people have with building it, visit the Fisher subforum here.

The RichRap uses Arduino Mega/RAMPS electronics, which would rule it out for me. I don't know the electronics used on the Microdelta - I can see it is still 8-bit and has only 128K of flash memory, but at least it has a native USB port.

Printing PLA without a heated bed is OK if you have a suitable build surface. The Fisher uses BuildTak for this, I don't know about the others. An enclosed chamber is not necessary when printing PLA (unless you are worried about noxious emissions), although when doing large prints you should shield the printer from draughts. I am happy to print PLA without a chamber, but not ABS.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

That sounds great!
I totally overlooked that, I think that's going to tip the scales.
Do you know the exact dimensions of the Fisher?
I couldn't find anything on the website.
Also, have you actually seen one?
Because I would like to know if it would be possible to modify
the Fisher to mount the Filament spool on top.
Anyway, thanks a ton!
You have been really helpful.

I have seen a Fisher prototype printing at an exhibition. It looked good to me, although the print it was doing was very small. I suggest you ask what the dimensions are and whether anyone has mounted a spool on the top in the Fisher subforum. Most of the folks there have a Fisher, whereas I don't, what I have is a Kossel using the same electronics.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
dc42
The RichRap uses Arduino Mega/RAMPS electronics, which would rule it out for me.

I am just curious, what are the biggest disadvantages of RAMPS electronics in your opinion?

Even on gantry or corexy printers would you still steer clear of it?

Quote
kkozel

Quote
dc42
The RichRap uses Arduino Mega/RAMPS electronics, which would rule it out for me.

I am just curious, what are the biggest disadvantages of RAMPS electronics in your opinion?

Even on gantry or corexy printers would you still steer clear of it?

I see the same issues with Arduino/RAMPS coming up over and over again on these forums:

- 5V regulator on the Arduino overheating and either failing or dropping the voltage on the 5V rail (which in turn causes the mosfets on the RAMPS to overheat). The regulator is OK driving just the Arduino and RAMPS (even at up to 15V input in my tests), but once you add a graphical LCD display, the current taken by the display backlight increases the power dissipation in the regulator substantially.

- Problems setting the motor current. Novices find this difficult to get right and sometimes blow the drivers in the process. In part this is because the driver chips are intended to be cooled via the PCB, and the area of a stepstick PCB just isn't enough. So the current setting is often a delicate balance between too little current to get enough torque from the motors, and too much current resulting in drivers overheating and going into thermal limiting mode.

- Heated bed mosfet overheating or dropping too much voltage, either because the wrong mosfet has been fitted, or because the mosfet specified in the RAMPS 1.4 design isn't a very good choice (Rds(on) specified at 5V instead of 4.5V, and even if the quoted 20 milliohm value is achieved, the mosfet will dissipate 2W when driving a 10A heat bed).

- USB-over-serial connection with no flow control at the driver level. As a result, some combinations of host program and operating system (e.g. Pronterface under Windows) can't supply data fast enough when printing curves, so the printer stutters and print quality suffers.

All of these problems can be worked around. You can supply external 5V power to the Arduino/RAMPS, you can buy stepsticks with 4-layer PCBs that remove the heat from the chip a little better and/or cool the drivers with a fan, you can replace the heated bed mosfet with a better one (or even buy the RAMPS board with better mosfets in the first place e.g. from T3P3), and you can print from SD card or from Octoprint running on a RPi instead of Pronterface/Windows. But IMO a novice builder should not have to do any of these things; the electronics should be plug and play.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Hi you all!
Greetings from Italy!
I catch your post dc42 while I was looking for more info about Rpi...
And, Damn it, I've got most of the accident you described!
I'm a proud reprapper since almost 2 years, and I burnt 2 arduino 5v regulators, 1 ftdi-usb, or whatever it is called, chip, 1 stepper driver during my first build, and last in all this time I can never run a print directly from any host software. Only SD prints for me...this is not a really bad problem, but my printer can't take place inside home(I print also abs and Petg) that's why i'm gathering info on Rpi...

Luckily I've installed a relay on time to prevent printbed mosfet burnout!!!
If it weren't installed else you will 100% accurate!!!

When I started interesting in 3d printing and reprap building many users told me that due to high complexity/difficulties in building and calibration delta machines are not very suitable as first builds.

I finally like to signal you all that is available a new 32 bit board ARM based which could fix this issues and run with beloved Repetier and Marlin porting firmware: Alligator Board I haven't got one yet but I will soon!

Regard and good prints!!!
Federico.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2015 07:27PM by Fedus82.

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PRUSA I3 Boxframe - Arduino MEGA + Ramps 1.4; DRV8825; GT2 Belts and Pulleys; M5 Leadscrew; LCD 128x64 ; ALU Heatbed MK3; Apone4 Hotend 0,5mm
FW: Marlin V1 ; Host/Slicer CURA 14.01

The Alligator looks like a well made board, but sadly it only runs Marlin and Repetier. So I recommend you get a Duet instead, unless/until RepRapFirmware gets ported to the Alligator. RepRapFirmware gives you easy configuration without rebuilding the firmware, segmentation-free delta movement, fast delta auto calibration, and a good web interface.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].