CubeX + Rambo = Freedom

Hi All,

I recently purchased a Cubex Trio 3D printer. On paper this printer looks great.
Unfortunately the product was released prematurely and as supplied isn't capable of printing a decent part.
The best I've managed to print is a blob of melted plastic. When I asked for a refund on the basis that the product does not meet it's published spec, 3D Systems responded by telling me my expectations were too high and that there is no guarantee on the spec as it is a consumer based printer.

Anyway to cut a long story short I have dismantled my printer removing the controller board & fitting a RAMBO controller board.
I now have X,Y & Z Axis movement under control by Repetier-Host but am having trouble with the Y-Axis homing direction.
When I home the Y-Axis the head moves towards the front of the machine, away from the stop.
I've tried changing settings in the config file to reverse theY-Axis homing direction with no success.

I have attached my current config file.
Any assistance appreciated.

Kind Regards,

RobGer

Change: #define INVERT_Y_DIR false
to: #define INVERT_Y_DIR true

Also, that's lousy of them. Did you pay by credit card? You might be able to do a chargeback through your card company to get a refund, since you should be entitled to one regardless of what they say.

Hi James,

Thanks for quick response.
I changed #define INVERT_Y_DIR false to true and now the Y-Axis moves in correct direction when homing.
The Y travel direction has also reversed so now positive increments cause the print head to move in a negative direction (towards the front of the machine) which seems reversed to me. What I really wanted to do is just change the homing direction to use the Y-Axis sensor at the rear of the printer.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Rob.

Oh I'm sorry, I misunderstood the problem. Undo the change I suggested.

Change: #define Y_HOME_DIR -1
to: #define Y_HOME_DIR 1

That should make the endstop now be the max endstop instead of the min endstop. Hopefully that'll work.

Hi James

I tried this but no movement when Y-Home selected.
I can move Y-Axis in both directions but no movement when homing.

Thanks,

Rob.

Working now.
I found these settings solved my problem.

#define Y_HOME_DIR 1
#define MIN_HARDWARE_ENDSTOP_Y false
#define MAX_HARDWARE_ENDSTOP_Y true

Wow...That is pretty disappointing to hear that a company touting itself as a leader in the industry will not stand behind it's product. So basically you ended up doing a Reprap solution to make the printer better. That is one expensive enclosure!

Rob,

I would like to do this with my CubeX!

So all I need is the RAMBO controller board ? Will it work with the CubeX power supply ?

Will this one work https://ultimachine.com/rambo ?

Thanks,

Eddie

I too purchased a Cube X (dual). It printed a few very poor parts and then would not even boot up. Its also very very slow. To print the basket ball they show all the time would take something like 120 hours. 15mm second max.

I too got the run around with cubify saying we don't give refunds. I used a credit card that they had not even tried to charge yet. I put a stop on there payment. They were going to send me a new unit and a call tag for the dead unit but did not even do that. These guys are a big scam. Anyone thinking of the cube x STEER CLEAR.

I own a engineering company with a full cnc machine shop. I am in the process of designing a full 3d printer. Made in the USA, with all motion critical parts cnc machined out of billet aluminum. After the cubify deal I saw a great need for this device on the market. If you guys have any input on options for a 3 d printer that you like, drop me a note. I want to incorporate as much user input as possible. My intent is to manufacture kits as well as fullly assembled units. All open source software and electronics so you will never be stuck with a Cube X type machine.

Wow thats horrible. I'd fight the charge. I think those cube's are the ones that are gonna be rebranded and sold in toyrus and stuff. Oh man

NM, I am thinking of the other one they make.

Hey how well did you get your cubeX working with the rambo?

I am helping a friend do the same conversion and I am having a few little problems. The first one is that I have no idea what rod is being used on the Z so I am guesstimating my Z right now. It prints but I would love to know the actuall spec. The second problem I am running into is that the extruder keeps slipping, I have it so it is slipping only a little but it shouldn't slip at all. I am not used to direct drive extruders so I'm not sure if I am just printing to fast or if there is another problem somewhere. Using the original PS, I have the digipot set at 185 and I am still slipping. I don't want to go much higher unless I have to because I think heat will become a problem.

The terrible print quality on the CubeX is due to the insanely bad 3DSystems slicer software. For a company that's been in 3-D printing for 30 years, they sure seem like noobs when it comes to their slicing software. Over on the KISSlicer forums, people worked out a way to use KISSlicer instead, and the print quality shot through the roof. The prints are accurate, highly repeatable, and look amazing.

That aside, I'm another one of the many owners looking to convert my CubeX Trio to an open source RepRap controller board. The CubeX mechanism is sturdy and precise, with a huge build area, so I'd like to keep it. I just want to swap out the electronics. Unfortunately, the Trio has 7 stepper motors total (two on the Y axis.) I haven't found a board that natively runs 7 stepper drivers. The RUMBA is close, but no cigar. I'd pay $500 (maybe more) to get a drop in Marlin-based replacement that works well with Cura. If any of you brilliant electronics hackers wants to hack one up for me, let me know. I'm sure you could sell a lot of them, if you make it.

@BKasper

My wish list for the new printer you're designing is:

1. Similar tank-like mechanical stability to the CubeX
2. Big build volume, like the CubeX
3. 3 extruders
4. A quick heating heated build platform that can handle higher temperature materials than ABS
5. Nozzles that can print high enough temperatures to do nylon and polycarbonate
6. Self-leveling build platform - I've seen this on a few new printers coming out and love the idea.
7. Use all standard filament spools
8. An available enclosure/stand which houses/feeds the filament spools and includes dessicant to remove humidity from the enclosure - preferably with the ability to hold up to 5 LB spools.
9. Uses standard electronics which are compatible with Marlin firmware and can interface with Cura.
10. Enclose and sound dampen it, so it can run overnight without waking the entire household.
11. Cheaper than the CubeX Trio.

If you could make and sell the printer I've described for under $3k, I'd be all over it.

As it is now, I'd just be happy to get my CubeX running on open electronics and Marlin.

BillDempsey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The terrible print quality on the CubeX is due to
> the insanely bad 3DSystems slicer software. For a
> company that's been in 3-D printing for 30 years,
> they sure seem like noobs when it comes to their
> slicing software. Over on the KISSlicer forums,
> people worked out a way to use KISSlicer instead,
> and the print quality shot through the roof. The
> prints are accurate, highly repeatable, and look
> amazing.
>
> That aside, I'm another one of the many owners
> looking to convert my CubeX Trio to an open source
> RepRap controller board. The CubeX mechanism is
> sturdy and precise, with a huge build area, so I'd
> like to keep it. I just want to swap out the
> electronics. Unfortunately, the Trio has 7 stepper
> motors total (two on the Y axis.) I haven't found
> a board that natively runs 7 stepper drivers. The
> RUMBA is close, but no cigar. I'd pay $500 (maybe
> more) to get a drop in Marlin-based replacement
> that works well with Cura. If any of you brilliant
> electronics hackers wants to hack one up for me,
> let me know. I'm sure you could sell a lot of
> them, if you make it.

Just wire up the Y stepper motors in parallel to the Y driver on a RUMBA. As long as the steppers don't need more than 1A or so each to keep from skipping that would work fine. That's how most RepRaps drive two Z steppers.

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Hi all,

I too am a proud owner of a 3d Systems CubeX (Duo) and I'm looking to jail-break it. However there are two pieces of information I've been unable to ascertain thus far are:
1/ The type of thermistor used in the CubeX (I gather from the config file above that it's a 200K thermistor? Is this correct and is anyone aware of a data sheet for this?)
2/ The type of heater used in the CubeX.

Any other information or advice would also be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Nigel

Bumping to find out if anyone has more detailed information on doing the electronics conversion on the CubeX Trio.

Has anyone heard anything new about this conversion? I'm currently trying to switch my Duo to RAMPs 1.4

Why wouldn't a RUMBA work for 3 extruders?

In the next couple of weeks I will come into possession of a CubeX Duo from another frustrated customer that is fed up an overpriced machine that constantly needs repair. I have built a MendelMax in the past and have and extra RAMPs 1.4 on hand. Right now my plan is to gut the electronics from the Duo and install the RAMPs.

I'd be interested in hearing more about your conversion as it progresses. (challenges, obstacles, lessons learned, etc). I'll let you know how it's going on my hand once I get my hands on the machine and start the conversion.

Rob do you have more details on your cubex rambo mod?

Hey guys,

Its been some time since anybody has posted on this thread regarding a conversion to a RepRap style machine. I just want to let everybody know that I've modded a machine and will be modding several others as part of a project. I'm documenting everything after having done some fairly extensive research into the machines.

I've essentially stripped the machines down to frame, steppers and endstops and added Rumba electronics, a new PSU, e3d hot ends etc and have created mounts, cases and brackets for all of it. If anybody still wants to convert these machines I hope these things will be of some help and that we can get some collaboration going for the best solutions to these horrid proprietary machines.

Any dialog is much appreciated! I'll be documenting everything at http://reprap.org/wiki/Cubex_to_RepRap_Conversion and adding all the information I have over the next few days.

Regards,

Dane

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2015 05:52AM by danekshea.

Dane, I am just finishing up a Duo conversion using a Duet board. I also changed the extruders to Bowden to lighten up the gantry. This Duet is amazing. I just preordered the new Duet WiFi board. I'm going to use it to convert my Trio.

Quote
joestefano
Dane, I am just finishing up a Duo conversion using a Duet board. I also changed the extruders to Bowden to lighten up the gantry. This Duet is amazing. I just preordered the new Duet WiFi board. I'm going to use it to convert my Trio.

I also decided to try the Duet board (0.8.5). All my parts are in the mail so the conversion will begin soon but in the meantime do you have any advice or a config.g that might help make the process go smoother?

TIA
Renee

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2016 06:16PM by r3n33.

I'm interesred in converting my Cubex Duo as well. I'm not very familiar with the Arduino based programming so any info you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated. I haven't had much time to search on the web, but are there any good videos covering the conversion?

Thanks,

Dan

Hey guys, I've had moderate contact with people attempting to do this mod. I believe at least a few people have but I would especially like to make a point of sharing your progress! If anybody has any good ideas, tips, hacks etc then please share them and post them on the wiki page!

Cheers,

Dane