Printer software for the TAZ 3?

Hello, I just dusted off my TAZ 3, it has not seen much action and I wanted to get it up and running again. Its been standing for 2 years more or less now.

I am running macosx high sierra on the machine the TAZ3 is connected to, it used to work with Cura “14-ish” but the new Cura Lulzbot edition does not seem to recognize/support TAZ 3.

Would anyone happen to know the highest version of Cura I can use with my printer (or whether I can setup a TAZ 3 with Cura Lulzbot editon) ?

The control board inside a 3 is the same control board inside a 5 or a 6, so it will certanly connect. You are going to not want to update your firmware though, because the 4, 5, and 6 firmware uses a different leadscrew z steps value. As long as you connect and tell it to just use the existing firmware, you should be fine. you’ll have to adjust your print profiles to get the temperatures right for the older style nozzle, but it should otherwise work.

I would reccommend you look into sourcing a set of the Taz 4-6 style leadscrews and upgrade your printer to at least a Taz 5 spec. The new hotend and Z axis setup really improves quality oveer what the 3 is capable of. The endplates will run you $40 https://itworks3d.com/product/lulzbot-taz-4-5-x-axis-endplate/ Finding the leadscrews and leadscrew nuts is a bit tricky, but the ones for the 6 work just fine there too. You also need the two couplers, 4 608zz bearings, and the parts for the Z endstop height adjustor(m5 heat set insert, bolt, spring, thumbscrew end), the X axis limit switch extension wire, or the auto leveling parts for the 6 (expect to spend $150 there)

Thanks, that was a alot of advice. Suppose I’ll use the latest version of Cura-lulzbot then and try to connect and print a few simple pieces.

I never printed very complicated stuff, just a few odd bits for the bike and some small brackets and fixtures. Mostly used the flexystruder really. If the printer start seeing action I’ll consider new hot ends if they fit my extruders (the original one and the flexy).

Do not know the printer parts/terminology very well but maybe I should start off contacting Aleph about those other parts needed to upgrade and getting endplates from that url (itworkd3d).

The new hotends require a different extruder body for the “j head” style top recess, The hobbed bolts, gears and other bits are the same.