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SeeMeCNC ERIS DELTA, Manual

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choosing 

Slic3r

 or 

CuraEngine

 to do your slicing.  Selecting a different slicing engine will 

change the options available on the 

Settings

 pane, but shouldn't disturb those you've changed 

in the past.  The MatterControl team has tried to keep common names across slicing engines, 
so the most noticeable change you'll see will be additional options supported by one slicer but 
not the others.

MatterControl offers two kinds of rendering for the thumbnail display that's in the upper 

left corner of the print window.  See below for the two different options as they apply to the 
Blinky Eyes token you printed earlier:

MatterControl supports both the traditional mouse interface as well as a touchscreen 

interface.  

Display Mode

 dictates which of the two modes that MatterControl is operating in.

Clear Print History

 will remove all the items that are currently in your queue display.

Theme

 allows you to change the primary color that the user interface renders in.  The 

top row of color selections provide the selected color against a light background.  The second 
row of color selections provide the selected color against a dark background.

36

Rendered "flat"

Rendered "3D"

Summary of Contents for ERIS DELTA

Page 1: ...16 By Gene Buckle geneb deltasoft com Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3 0 Disclaimer text provided by LulzBot Official support is available through support seemecnc com As a new SeeMeCNC printer owner you ll also find a ton of great resources on the forums at forum seemecnc com 1 ...

Page 2: ...ruded plastic The plastic can stick to your skin and cause burns Also before of the heated bed which can reach high temperatures capable of causing burns Fire Hazard Never place flammable materials or liquids on or near the printer when powered on or in operation Liquid acetone and vapors are extremely flammable Pinch Hazard When the printer is in operation take care to never put your fingers in t...

Page 3: ...st Print 14 6 MatterControl Basics Slicing 15 7 MatterControl Basics Loading Printing an Object 29 8 Advanced MatterControl Options 33 9 Advanced MatterControl Settings Print 37 10 Advanced MatterControl Settings Filament 47 11 Advanced MatterControl Settings Printer 50 12 Using the 3D View and Layer View 54 13 A Strategy for Successful and Great Prints 62 3 ...

Page 4: ...f the rare people that downloaded the manual BEFORE opening your new Eris SeeMeCNC has a treat for you We ve produced a short little video that shows how to unpack your new Eris as well as how to load filament for the firs time Eris Unboxing and Setup Video 4 ...

Page 5: ... down to the Software heading and you ll see the links for MatterControl Download the version for your platform and install it Note that the MacOS version is functionally identical to the Windows version so I ll only be showing examples from Windows the same procedures should apply to both versions You ll also want to download the Eris Default Files from the Eris page on the SeeMeCNC website https...

Page 6: ...he Save Continue button to move on to the next step Next you ll be presented with the option to install the communication driver that MatterControl needs to talk to the Eris If you ve used a RAMBo or Mini RAMBo based 3D printer on your computer before you can skip this step Otherwise click the Install Driver button to have MatterControl install the driver for you MatterControl will run a driver in...

Page 7: ...rol will attempt to automatically configure the connection Please disconnect the Eris and click the Continue button Once you click on Connect the following dialog should appear Congrats You re all done Click on the Done button to continue 7 ...

Page 8: ...w the bed temperature Both values are shown in degrees Celsius 3 Queue Count This shows the number of objects currently in the print queue 4 Library This is a list of items that you ve stored in your object library We ll cover this one in detail later 5 Print History This will show you what you ve printed in the past along with statistics about each print 6 Settings Controls this is where you can ...

Page 9: ... currently loaded and ready to print 1 The 3D and Layer view controls allow you to switch between the 3D view shown and the Layer view The layer view shows you the path the print head will take as your part is printed The layer view won t display anything until the part you want to print has been sliced 2 View manipulation controls Rotate Pan and Zoom By default the 3D view will show a rotating di...

Page 10: ...ure that the nozzle on the hot end is free from any filament or other debris A clean nozzle will ensure a clean hit as the calibration routine probes the bed surface You also want to make sure that you ve got the hot end cold the calibration process will not work reliably if the hot end heater is active Click in the input field as shown and enter G29 and press the enter key This will run the calib...

Page 11: ...s you should also use the online calibration wizard that SeeMeCNC has created This tool is very easy to use and includes very detailed instructions on how to use it The calibration wizard can be found here https www seemecnc com pages delta calibration wizard 11 ...

Page 12: ...de tube on the Eris as shown below Open the filament tensioner by compressing it between your thumb and forefinger then feed the filament into the EZStruder Feed only enough filament to exit about 1 past the PTC fitting on the outfeed side of the EZStruder as shown below 12 Into the guide tube to the EZStruder Compressing the filament tensioner 1 feed through ...

Page 13: ...will then finish feeding filament in and prime the hot end You can tell the Eris hot end is active by looking for the red LED on the effector PCB as shown below Unloading filament is just as easy go to the queue and choose the Unload Filament item and hit Print The Eris will bring the hot end up to operating temperature and then rapidly back the filament out of the system 13 ...

Page 14: ...g finger marks cleaned off Because we ve already loaded the Eris defaults all you ll need to do is click on the object Calibration Box and then click Print to being the print job With the print job started you ll notice that the hot end temperature is increasing and there s a tiny up arrow indicating that the hot end is active and is heating When the set temperature is reached the little arrow wil...

Page 15: ...into a number of layers basically the model height divided by 0 2mm For a tall part this can mean a LOT of layers MatterControl provides three slicers for your use MatterSlice CuraEngine and Slic3r This guide will only cover the specifics of MatterSlice but don t let that stop you from experimenting with and using the other slicers I ll show you how to change the slicing engine later on in this gu...

Page 16: ... for right now There s a LOT that goes on to configuring your slicer and the Simple configuration setting allows many of those to be hidden until you re more comfortable with how your printer works Layer Height This parameter tells the slicing engine how thin to make the layers when it slices up the model as I described earlier A good default layer height is 0 2 or 0 25mm The lowest practical laye...

Page 17: ...u want to print something really quick you could go up to a 0 35mm layer height I wouldn t recommend anything over 0 40mm if you re using a 0 5mm nozzle however Fill Density This parameter controls how solid your printed part is The number is a percentage from 0 totally hollow to 1 totally solid The default fill density also known as infill is 0 2 or 20 The image below shows what that looks like i...

Page 18: ...your part will print on top of Rafts are most often used when printing a part that is having bed adhesion problems due to its geometry For example if you re printing a part that sits on small feet a raft would come in handy if the initial layers of the feet don t stick very well In the image below you ll see an example of both support material and a raft I took the little test cube and through a l...

Page 19: ...such a way that there is just enough of it there to handle the actual print layer that it will be supporting In my example the support material has a 2 5mm spacing between the walls of support material and it uses an infill angle of 45 degrees The printed part will usually separate from the support material fairly easily however some material will be left behind if you re using a raft Cleaning up ...

Page 20: ...can see there s still a little clean up to to be done to the printed cube on the left A quick hit with some 220 grit sandpaper will knock the rough edges of the support material down That s pretty much all there is to the Simple settings level Next let s dig into the Standard setting 20 ...

Page 21: ...st Layer Height is 0 3mm This will create a good first layer when using the 0 5mm that comes with your Eris The thicker layer provides more surface area for the follow on layers to adhere to The Outer Surface setting allows you to specify how thick the skin of your printed part will be The default setting will result in a skin thickness that is roughly 1mm This translates as two perimeters in the ...

Page 22: ... pattern I would probably pick the Triangles option It offers a good internal structure for most infill densities that I ve used it with Skirt and Raft This is a new option that appears with the Standard and Advanced setting levels The Skirt option is used one of two ways First it can be used to prime the hot end with filament before the actual part itself begins to print You may notice that your ...

Page 23: ...y generate support for those elements that can be supported with the support structure starting from the bed surface If you check Support Everywhere MatterSlice will add support where ever it s needed Standard also exposes a new support tuning category called Support Options Here you can adjust the Pattern Spacing and Support Percent Pattern Spacing controls the distance between support material l...

Page 24: ...erature range is between 80 and 100C For PLA a heated bed isn t required Note that the Bed Temperature parameter may not appear unless you ve indicated to MatterControl that you ve got a heated bed installed The Retraction group includes Length on Move Speed Z Lift and Wipe After Retract These items control how the slicer deals with filament retraction Retraction is used to help minimize or elimin...

Page 25: ...erial configuration In this example I ve named it after the vendor the material color and the date I purchased the material Since this is the first time I ve used this material the only thing I know for sure is what the average filament diameter is To enter that I picked Filament from the Select Category drop down then from the Select Group drop down Filament was chosen again and finally Diameter ...

Page 26: ...he QUALITY and MATERIAL presets can store identical settings They re split into two categories in order to make it easier for you to group common settings together You will typically store things that directly affect the print quality of your model in the QUALITY presets Things like layer height print speed etc MATERIAL presets should only contain those settings that directly deal with the materia...

Page 27: ...ontrols pane contains controls that will allow you to manually position the Eris s effector platform The row of buttons to the right of the little house icon control homing of the movement axes in the Eris Because the Eris is a delta configuration printer the only buttons active are the ALL and Z buttons they perform the same action Connect your printer if you haven t already and click on one of t...

Page 28: ...t your first layer is either too high or too low you can use one of these two distance presets to bump the Z axis higher or lower by a tiny amount The other highlighted items show the current locations of the three motion axes on the Eris The X and Y axes show as being in their home position which is the center of the bed at 0 0 The Z axis describes the height of the hot end and it s at its home p...

Page 29: ...not all 3D printer slicing programs can read a file format called STL You can learn more about this file format including its origins here http en wikipedia org wiki STL_ 28file_format 29 When you download a file from Repables or one of the other free online object repositories you ll often get the file as a zip file One nice feature of MatterControl is the ability to select a zip file and MatterC...

Page 30: ...d Fortunately this is a really easy fix Click on the Edit button that s located at the bottom of the model view pane That will activate the model editor so we can adjust the scale of the object The various edit tools are on the right edge of the model view pane Click the Scale button and enter 10 in the Ratio field Click the Apply Scale button to make the change Once the scale has been changed you...

Page 31: ...d this object yet you ll like see the text Press generate to view layers Go ahead and do that now When the slicing process finishes you ll be presented with a display that shows you what the first layer of your object is going to look like When it finishes the layer view will display the first layer of your print job You ll notice right off the skirt that I covered previously It s important to mak...

Page 32: ...in to the box and click Go After slicing the object MatterControl will display a few statistics about the current print in the Layer View window This can be handy information if you re selling your services and need to know how much a particular part is going to consume in both time and materials Go ahead and click the Print button and get your object printing Once the print job finishes you shoul...

Page 33: ...eveling you won t even see this option The EEPROM Settings configuration option will allow you to edit firmware parameters that are stored on the controller inside your Eris Please take special care when changing EEPROM values An improperly set configuration parameter can cause your Eris to misbehave Sometimes rather dramatically One user reported something about his Eris chasing the cat and yelli...

Page 34: ...the Eris This is how MatterControl is able to continually update things like the temperature displays In order to be able to use the terminal for basic tasks you ll need to click on the Filter Output check box that s at the upper left corner of the window This will filter out the telemetry information coming from the Eris s controller and allow you to directly interact with the printer without hav...

Page 35: ...nd when the current active print job completes However you can change this behavior via the Notification Settings configuration screen You ll be able to configure MatterControl to send you an email or text message when your printer completes a job The Language setting allows you to change what language MatterControl uses when displaying the user interface The Slice Engine configuration will allow ...

Page 36: ...left corner of the print window See below for the two different options as they apply to the Blinky Eyes token you printed earlier MatterControl supports both the traditional mouse interface as well as a touchscreen interface Display Mode dictates which of the two modes that MatterControl is operating in Clear Print History will remove all the items that are currently in your queue display Theme a...

Page 37: ...ments that relate to how the plastic is laid down Filament covers parameters specific to the type of filament that you ve chosen to print with Printer handles those remaining parameters that describe the physical printer you re currently using to print with This section will cover Print Let s start this overview on the main page of General Layers Surface 37 ...

Page 38: ...like to clip off a specific amount from the bottom of the model For example say you ve got a 200mm tall model but you only want to print the top 50mm or so You can enter 150 into the Bottom Clip field and when the slicer generates the G code for the print job it will begin slicing 150mm up from the bottom of the model Select Layer To Pause gives you the option of telling MatterControl to pause the...

Page 39: ...the print progresses This results in a perfectly seamless object which can be important for artistic prints such as vases When you re printing a vase or similar object you ll want to make sure that you set the top layer count to zero to prevent the vase getting a lid that you ll have to cut off By default objects are printed from the inside features to the outside If you want to reverse this proce...

Page 40: ...s Now if you change the starting angle to 45 degrees you ll end up with an infill pattern that looks like the example below Note that changing the starting angle will also change the angle in which the top and bottom layers are printed You can see this in the image below this shows the second layer as it would be printed Infill Overlap is used to adjust how well the infill pattern attaches to the ...

Page 41: ...eel for as you gain experience with your printer You ll quickly learn that the Eris will talk to you if you re printing too rapidly for a given temperature The extruder will begin to skip periodically or frequently depending on how fast you re going A skipping extruder has a very distinct sound it s kind of a light bump or knocking If you watch the manual feed knob on the extruder you ll notice th...

Page 42: ...le layer loops printed around the perimeter of the part This acts as a method to prime the hot end with material before the actual part begins to print Loops defines how many times you want to go around the print This is tied to the Minimum Extrusion Length parameter If the number of loops you specify are not enough to meet that minimum length additional loops will be added automatically The Dista...

Page 43: ...red when a part has an overhang or other angled feature that would result in little or no physical support to put a print layer on The Support Type selection allows you to define the geometric pattern for the support structure You have GRID and LINES These patterns were covered earlier so I won t cover them again here Pattern Spacing controls the distance between each track of support that is laid...

Page 44: ...u want your part to print at all Infill Angle adjusts the angle at which the support structure is built Interface Layers allows you to specify solid layers interspersed with the support material This comes in handy when using multiple extruders For example if you re printing a part in PLA with lots of support you can generate all the support with PLA and then have 5 or 6 interface layers of PVA a ...

Page 45: ...to do its job very effectively If Support Everywhere is checked you re probably going to get more support material than you bargained for If you have an internal feature of a part this may be required in order to support it but keep in mind that it will also add support to features like horizontally oriented holes which don t normally need support to print properly Create Perimeter will generate a...

Page 46: ...aced around the part In a two extruder system the unselected hot end will create this shield in order to avoid dripping or oozing plastic on other parts of the model Wipe Tower is used when changing extruders The active nozzle creates a tower of the specified size and will use it to wipe the nozzle in order to reduce the possibility of oozing or dripping material on the model while the other extru...

Page 47: ...ts of the diameter A good rule of thumb is to include the date you started using the filament as part of the material profile name Note the date on the spool label if it has one and add one if it doesn t This will help you track individual spools of the same color and manufacturer The Extrusion Multiplier parameter allows you to tweak the flow rate of the material coming out of the hot end A basic...

Page 48: ...n printing move has completed Z Lift is used to lift the nozzle off of the part as each retract finishes This can help prevent blobbing Minimum Travel Requiring Retraction is used to prevent retractions during very short moves when retraction isn t really necessary When executing a non printing move the nozzle will have to travel at least this distance in order to trigger a retraction action Minim...

Page 49: ...int speed down during a print if needed If the current layer will require more than the specified time to print the slicing engine will automatically slow the print speed down to meet this goal This can be important because if you don t use a fan a layer will need time to radiate its excess heat before the next layer is applied If the material isn t cooled or given time to cool via radiation heat ...

Page 50: ... updated by the auto calibration routine Z Offset can be used if you want to set a specific adjustment to the z zero position of the G code when it s created by the slicing engine The Bed Shape parameter dictates what bed type is shown in the 3D viewer The Hardware section allows you to specify what features are installed on your Eris Has Fan when checked will allow the slicing engine to control t...

Page 51: ...Extruder Count should be set to 1 If you add an additional extruder in the future you can tell the slicing engine about it here Heat Before Homing will force the nozzle to heat up to operating temperature before homing Share Temperature is used when utilizing multiple extruders that share the same heat source The Firmware section allows you to tell the slicing engine about the firmware you re usin...

Page 52: ..._temperature End G code is inserted into the output at the very end after all print operations have been completed Pause G code is sent when the Eris is paused during a print Resume G code is sent when the Eris is resumed Cancel G code is sent when you cancel a print job from MatterControl The last page for the Printer tab is called Extruder This page allows you to configure each extruder you have...

Page 53: ... like to cover can be found here The Options control allows you to import and export configurations This can be handy when you want to share your slicing engine settings with others or import settings from other sources 53 ...

Page 54: ...ement icons in conjunction with the left mouse button The first icon will reset the view The second icon will allow you to free rotate the model and build platform The third icon will allow you to move the part and build platform left and right as well as up and down The fourth icon will allow you to zoom in and out You can use the mouse alone as well Holding down the left mouse button will allow ...

Page 55: ...hiana object http repables com r 146 MatterControl is pretty smart you don t have to extract the STL file from the ZIP file Click on Insert and navigate to where you saved the downloaded zip file and select it When the file is loaded your screen should look something like this If you didn t already have the example cube loaded you may only see one object in the center of the bed If this is the cas...

Page 56: ...D View window Ungroup Group Align Copy Remove Cancel and Save The Ungroup button will undo the grouping done by the Group and Align buttons Clicking Group will virtually connect all the objects on the print bed so they can be moved all at the same time The Align button has the same effect as the Auto Arrange button but the resulting group of objects are not centered on the virtual print bed Copy a...

Page 57: ...lick the axis you want to apply that value to Below is an example of what the example cube looks like after rotating it 45 degrees along its X axis Being able to re orient the part on the build surface can be handy to have especially if you re dealing with a part that was saved in a position that didn t lend itself to easy 3D printing Clicking Align to Bed will automatically orient the nearest fla...

Page 58: ...rint Area is handy when you want to see exactly how much space your parts are going to take up When selected it will display a shadowed cylinder that encapsulates the maximum bed diameter and print height as show below The Shaded Outlines and Polygons options allow you to change how your objects are drawn By default the Shaded option is checked For most parts this is fine but if you d like to see ...

Page 59: ... left corner of the Layer View display This will hand over the parts to the slicing engine and will create the G code required to print your parts In the image above you can see that the parts have been sliced and layer 1 is being displayed Along the right side of the display you ll see a printing time estimate as well as an estimate of how much filament will be required to print the two parts sho...

Page 60: ...ump to a specific layer and click on the Go button The Layer View will also allow you to see the layers in 3D Just click the 3D icon at the upper right corner of the display window to see your layers in 3D The display can be moved around in the same manner as that shown for the 3D View The Layer View will also display other information about the printing process such as non printing movement retra...

Page 61: ...changing extruders The red and blue points in the image to the right show where the retractions are happening Red shows the retract operation while the blue color shows the resume extrude Speeds will color the layers based on how fast the layer is printed The Extrusion option will thicken the lines used to draw the layers in order to give a more accurate visual representation of what the actual pr...

Page 62: ...tgun approach of trying one thing after another So I thought it would be helpful to describe a method that you can use to 1 develop a reproducible approach to successfully printing the things you want and 2 improving the quality of your prints to meet your realistic expectations I ll likely do this as a series of posts starting with this one Don t hesitate to join in or ask questions After some ti...

Page 63: ... in a 30 minute practice session you are really only practicing what you need to practice for 1 minute This completely changed my approach to practicing everything from guitar to 3D printing to machining to learning CAD to How does this apply to 3D printing Easily start with a simple object to print and practice nailing the first layer Once you have that nailed print the rest of the object Once yo...

Page 64: ...at s happening I ve identified everything from loose pulleys to a worn joint on a delta arm to separating arms on magnetic ball joints And I ve helped a lot of folks identify other issues simply by slowing down 6 Watch What s Happening Especially in the early stages of learning watch all aspects of the printer Combined with strategy 5 you ll start to develop an appreciation for how the slicer does...

Page 65: ...e it down see 7 you ll never second guess how best to print that filament again It s important to realize that higher temperatures are not always better they can actually lead to issues parts that are just a little too large parts that stick to the bed too well and can t be removed blobs on the print stringing and a host of other problems In general I like to print at the lowest temperature possib...

Page 66: ...where the rubber filament meets the road bed and getting it right is absolutely critical to successful fused filament 3D printing All sorts of folklore on bed materials coatings coverings concoctions and juju exists here and elsewhere on the internet It is also one of the areas that there is no one right way to do it If you have discovered a special incantation and bed preparation that works by al...

Page 67: ...Your fingers can also leave contaminants on the bed when you remove a part or brush off stray filament strands Don t touch the bed surface if at all possible If you do clean degrease it with an appropriate cleaner For uncoated surfaces like borosilicate glass PEI the various 3d party surfaces PrintInZ and BuildTak and films window tint Kapton you can use isopropyl alcohol I like to use the little ...

Page 68: ...e member walked up to the mic now there are 2 victims on the stage and a hoard of people working to revive them and carefully reached out his finger looked like the scene from ET and very very gently touched the mic with just the tip of his finger He was immediately thrown to the stage as the third victim All of this was caught on video No one died we were told Neither of the second two victims st...

Page 69: ...empt at using flexible soda straws 2 of them to direct the air flow to exactly where I needed it I also ran the fan at 20 The angle of the photo doesn t show it clearly but the double barrels are focused at the tip of the nozzle The dead air space between the tubes prevents air from flowing over the nozzle I know it s terribly clever It s a work in progress and I ve almost got it perfected with a ...

Page 70: ...ktop 3D printers is extremely primitive at this point It s fine for the majority of objects you might print but as we push the envelope on what s possible part cooling is one area that needs some more work to automate it Consider this the way I maintain very tight tolerances on the rotating spindle and hub assemblies on my fly fishing reels is to use a low beam of air cooling on the spindle as it ...

Page 71: ...ed to test adhesion to the bed and first layer thickness measure it with a micrometer or calipers and compare to what the first layer height was supposed to be You can use this to tune your printer and slicing parameters to get perfect infill and explore the effects of speed on infill quality without wasting a lot of time and filament printing larger parts poorly I also use it when I am testing a ...

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