I got the go ahead for these documentation improvements! Will be using this thread now to ask any specific questions on the machines for documentation purposes, that are not clear from either non-invasive inspection, the product manuals, or existing documentation.
I am going to focus on the filament-based printers first
ORIGINAL MESSAGE
Hi all!
I recently joined and gained access to the 3D printers. I have several years of printing experience and part of why I wanted to join the makerspace and gain access to the 3D printers here was to increase my printing throughput (in addition to my two printers at home) and use printers that have features I do not have at home (such as larger print beds or dual extruders).
I was looking for information on the wiki about the specifications of each printer, but many of the pages are minimal (just a pic of the printer and link to the manual) and inconsistent units are used in the descriptions (between mm, cm, and inches). I have some wiki markdown experience and I took some good notes on details about each printer during my class earlier today with @Devmani , including verifying what upgrades were included on each printer and which printers are ready for immediate use, which are working but in storage, and which are broken.
I would like permission to do the following changes to all of the printer related pages:
Create a main “3D Printing” page with more detail (than just the 3D Printers Category page)
A table that shows all of the printers, their online/storage/broken status, and stats like bed size, nozzle size, print temp range, printer speed, direct/bowden, stock/modded, etc
At-a-glance chart showing which filaments each printer can use
“Prints Easily and Beginner Friendly” (ex, PLA on the Prusas)
“May have difficulty” (ex, TPU on the CR-10, because it is bowden)
“Impossible/Unsafe/Forbidden/Damaging” (ex, Abrasives like CF-Nylon on the brass-nozzle printers. Extremely toxic filaments like POM we do not have the ventilation for. Resin in the filament-based printers.))
to be honest, the mental image of someone dumping a bottle of resin on an FDM printbed makes me giggle
Wikipedia-style Infobox template on each individual printer’s page, with information such as above
Detailing any special requirements different printers have, such as how the Polyprinter needs a special slicer, TAZ only takes 3mm (vs 1.75mm) filament
I believe I was referred to @Jon for discussing significant changes to our wiki documentation
Ahhh I just realized, I need the “editor” permissions to actually make the changes. My username on the Wiki is also pearlgreymusic
I’ve begun to tabulate the data, though I’m not terribly confident in the bed/nozzle/print-speed numbers since different sources are giving me different numbers for some of these models (wonder if these may have been bumped up/down with firmware updates, which explains the contradicting information)
What are the official names (the names that were like people or pet names, not model names) of each printer
Which printers are network connected? And what are their network addresses? Are all of the network-connected ones Octoprint or do others have their own panels?
For any printers that aren’t network connected, do they use either SD/Flash-drive input instead, or software controlled by a host PC connected by USB?
In the wiki, this sticker is present at the top of the CR-10S, but I don’t remember if it still existed when I last visited Saturday. Do you happen to know if it is still there? I thiiiiiiink I did not see it which may imply it was upgraded to all-metal, and the max temp is no longer 230C?
The CR-10S firmware goes up to 260C but Creality ships the CR-10S stock with a PTFE-lined hotend which really shouldn’t be used above 230ishC. For now, I’m just going to put the max temp at 230C just to be safe in our documentation.
@Jon I initially moved a couple pages but I realized page moves sort of break the “Information” QR code- you need to click the redirect link to get to the new page name. Just to be safe, for now, I’m going to revert the page moves that I did, although for the sake of consistency, I would like to rename them all to have a consistent “[Manufacturer] [Model]” naming scheme
@Devmani I’m in here to get collect data on the printers I missed on Saturday. It turns out the Flashforge printer is actually v1 of the Creator Pro, I’m going adjust the documentation on it (our documentation lists it as the v2 which has IDEX, v1 doesn’t)
@duskglow all good, I’m not concerned with who/what was the source of inaccuracies, just interested in improving the current documentation to accurately reflect all of the printers’ capabilities at a glance.
@Jon good to know! When I realized page moves would make the QR codes a little messy to use, I was concerned there were possibly other systems I didn’t know about that relied on those URL too and wasn’t sure what all the possible fallout from page moves could be. Since it is safe, I will continue with those page moves.
Concerning my question about the sticker on the CR-10S regarding no temps above 230C and no flexible filaments, I did also confirm the sticker is still there, so I’ll keep it’s max temp as 230C in the documentation.
I didn’t see a link anywhere in here. I think this is the page we’re talking about (for future reference when people find this topic). Category:3D Printing - Asmbly Wiki
heya, it is this set of pages I made some improvements to! I still haven’t gotten around to all the improvements I want to do and small things have changed so I should probably do a pass soon to get it up to date.
The most important thing left on my to-do list is to add a table showing which printers should be compatible with which filament types (on a scale of “Officially supported” “Compatible” “Difficult” and “Impossible/Dangerous/Prohibited”)
Oh, the link that you posted, I was confirming that was supposed to be the most up-to-date documentation on our printers, albeit I last did the pass to it 3mo ago and not sure if its been maintained since
