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Hi It’s the first thread that I writ it on this forum and also I’m new in the 3D printer world. I came here hopping to get some help from you.

I have a 3D printer Kossel 2020 that I bought it on January and till now I didn’t print anything with it, because my friend and I got a lot of problem with it and each time when we fix something , another one shows up . All the problems that we get is from the program. Our printer use Mega 2560 motherboard.

We have 2 problems, the first one we don’t know how to program the servo ,we followed the guide, but we see that it’s not clear, how does it work? I need a clear explanation about the programming of the servo, also my friend told me, wires can also a possibility of not working. When I put the G code on the Pronterface software,I see that the servo turn and it works perfectly ,but how can we program it so if we need to print something it should be working automatically??

The second problem, since we didn’t know the problem of the servo, we skipped it ,so it was the last setup as the PDF guide shows us, I decided to print something ,I putted the design in the slicer software to convert it to G codes, after doing that, I added the G codes (of the design) on Pronterface software to print it. And since we have PLA , I heated the bed at 60C and the temperature of the nozzel at 185C , when they got at these temperatures, I clicked print to start printing , but nothing happened. The temperature of the nozzel stopped a 185C (but still working) and the temperature of the bed continue increasing more and more , from 60 to 74C , but I didn’t understand why it’s not printing. Even the mini machine that takes the filament didn’t start, so what is the problem???

And the program that we are using is the Arduino, Btw the computer recognized the temperature clearly ,but still didn’t work, I disconnected and shut it down ,but didn’t work, so what is the problem??? Thank you so much for the help

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It sounds like you bought one of the Folgertech kits. Is that right? A friend bought one their kits back in January, and the documentation was very poor, Folgertech has been working on improving it though. Since then, I’ve built one from scratch and three other friends at our local MakerSpace have built one (one is actually just getting started).

Forget about the servo - basically nobody uses it. It’s not really supported anyway. All of the machines we’ve built from scratch use an effector plate that I designed which has an integral Z-probe based on an L-handle wrench. But seriously, the Z-probe really isn’t necessary at all. The calibrations can be done manually, and quite frankly, you’ll learn a lot more by doing them that way.

What firmware did you flash onto the controller? Based upon our experiences, I’d strongly recommend the Repetier firmware which has been pre-configured for the Folgertech Kossel. I’d also run Repetier Host, not Pronterface. Repetier host is much better. Getting the controller board properly configured requires some time and learning on your part - these machines are NOT plug and play. There is a lot of tweaking required to get the arm lengths, delta radius, and many other settings correctly and accurately configured in the firmware.

There is a very active thread on the RepRap forums on the Folgertech Kossel - I’d go there and read it from the beginning.

I will try to answer any specific questions you might have.

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Thanks you very much for the help, Yah that’s right ,I bought it from folgertech , and I’m using the Kossel firmware that is recommended in the guide, but is the software matter if I change it to Repetier Host, I mean,it will print without any problem??? Also thanks for recommendations, I’ll do more research and read the thread on Reprap forums…

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You’ll probably find that the bed temperature setting in pronterface/slic3r is set to 75-80 degrees, so the machine is waiting for the bed to heat up.

have you made sure that all the motors move as they should? your post doesn’t say you’ve tested the steppers for direction.

I don’t have any experience with a delta bot, but afaik you should really set up all of the endstops before trying a print, as it might try to drive the hotend through the bed, and damage your hotend and/or the bed. Usually the endstops are max endstops on a delta, so the firmware needs to know how far it should move the hotend down so it’s touching the bed.

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You are exactly right, all the endstop positions have to be measured and saved in the EEPROM before you dare to try to print. Same goes for Z-height, rod length, and delta radius. They are all set with the M665 and M666 commands.

An incorrect Z-height can smash the nozzle into the bed immediately.

The machine has to me homed, and then all the distances have to be measured and set before anything else can be safely done.

The numbers included in the original firmware and saved to EEPROM are just examples - they are likely not even close.

There are about a hundred things that have to be setup on a delta printer before you can start to print, and we can’t help unless we know exactly what you’ve done and haven’t done.

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Ohhh OK , thanks a lot for the help, I already set the high of the Z and the X Y axes , also I did the nozzle , so now it doesn’t touch the surface of the bed, but what I should do is the M666 and M665 so I’ll check the video and see what can I do and what is missing …

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Thanks for replying …The endstops work perfectly ,when I use the code G28 the 3 axes move to the top and they touche the 3 sensors that are placed for each endstop, and the bed heated to 74C and its supposed to be heated to 60C and when I click print it doesn’t print , also the nozzle heated to 230 but nothing was working. G28 works and other codes work also ,but I dunno why I click print it doesn’t print…