More Fun To Be Had

While I continue to print bigger and better things on my Heacent 3DP02, I have learned quite a bit about 3D printing in general.

Temperature Is Important

Take for instance the temperature setting for the extruder hot end.  If it is set 5 degrees too low, the extruder will not put out enough material and you will get gaps and weak bonding between layers.

Just 5 degrees higher and the same model comes out like this...

By the same token, I had alot of trouble printing with the translucent PLA, because apparently it needs a much higher temperature.

Another problem I seem to have is temperature consistency.  The hot end temperature does oscillate by several degrees, so I will probably have to tune the PID values.  Again, because I do not know what "normal" is, I think something is fine... but it really isn't.

New Firmware

If I have to consider tuning my temperature PIDs, I may look again at upgrading the firmware on my printer.  The latest Marlin firmware has auto-tuning commands built right in to the firmware... as well as a bunch of other nice features.

The issue I have is whether I should (or can) upgrade any of the other software.  I have already upgraded to the latest version of Slic3r within the Repetier Host... I'm just not sure I can upgrade the Repetier host app.


Some parting shots of items I have printed...