TAZ 5 with Pronsole & STL files

General Software
1

Started printing this morning with my new TAZ5, and ran into a bit of trouble… hoping someone can help me out here…

I just loaded and printed my first STL file (an iphone case), using HIPS.

The problem I encountered is as follows.

I turned on the printer and loaded pronsole, loaded the STL file (which pronsole proceeded to slice successfully). I selected on the printer to pre-heat for HIPS.

When I started the print job, it reduced the hot end temperature to 200 degrees (which I believe is too low for HIPS). The end product printed successfully, however, when I put the phone in the sides cracked (which I attribute possibly to the plastic not adhering to itself during the printing process as the heat appears to have been too low for the hot end).

Any ideas why the temperature would have dropped to 200 for the print? Is it something to do with the STL file?

I also noticed that the pronsole doesn’t list HIPS as an option for materials. Just ABS and PLA. Any ideas why that is, or if perhaps that’s the problem?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Going to have to stop printing for now (STL files anyways) until I figure out the heating problem.

Thanks to anyone who can help me out here.

Thomas

2

I think I may have solved my own problem.

I think it’s all about not having the “profile” for HIPS installed. Having discovered that, my wife suggested I try Cura as we had heard good things about it on some youtube videos we’d watched… Had forgotten about that.

Anyways, I installed that, and found that it already had settings for HIPS… so was all set for that.

Found something to print as a tester (Spockapus… in memory of Mr. Nimoy’s passing). Printing that with Cura now… will see how it goes, but it’s lookin alright.

One thing, that HIPS sure does stink… Had to close the door to the room and crack a window. Gave me a bit of a headache earlier sitting around watching the printing going on.

Thomas

3

When you loaded a profile in Slic3r you may not have done so correctly, as Slic3r opens with a generic slicing profile with an extrusion temperature of 200C. Anytime you see that temp in gcode or during a print, you don’t have a proper LulzBot provided slicing profile.

Cura’s a bit easier to get started with, you’ll find that the more you print the more comfortable you will be. Here’s a link to the Cura manual: http://devel.lulzbot.com/mini/software/cura/documentation/Manual.pdf

4

Thank-you very much for your reply.

I’ve since been printing with Cura, and my prints have been coming out fine.

The more I print, and use the software, the more comfortable I’m becoming with the machine.

Thomas