dzach's Hadron build

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Thermistors and tuning the PID

Postby dzach » Mon May 14, 2012 1:44 am

Spent the day trying to debug my Marlin settings. Here is the first strange thing I discovered:
performance1.png
CuHotE performance curve

21 to 200°C in about 37 sec.
performance2.png
21-200deg C in 37 sec.

Not bad, but what is this ripple on the top?
performance3.png
Strange ripple and steps along the curve

Here are some close-ups of the graphs:
performance5.png
40-45°C

performance6.png
200-205°C

After looking into thermistortables.h in Marlin's source files I discovered that the table for setting 6 - EPCOS 100k, which I was using, has errors in it. I spent quite some time learning about thermistor internals and ended up verifying and using setting 1 - 100k thermistor
While going through the source I disabled the timeout check in line 230 in temperature.cpp which was giving me PID Autotune failed! timeout errors and could not complete the PID auto-tuning process.

This is the result:
performance7.png
Thermistor table corrected, PID tuned

performance8.png
21.6 to 200°C in 31 sec.

Looks good!
dzach
 
Posts: 180
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:47 am
Location: Athens, Greece

Printing!

Postby dzach » Wed May 16, 2012 1:38 am

I gave up on Marlin. It still refuses to work for me even after I disabled the error generating routines in the source.
So, I tried Sprinter and it printed immediately without any complain whatsoever.
This is what it printed, a single wall open cube:
2012-05-14-173830.jpg


Then I discovered that the filament I got from ReprapWorld is not round:
2012-05-15-165002.jpg
Min. 1.62, max. 1.81

Trying to calibrate the bot, I calculated the cross section area of this shape:
PLA_area.png
Min = 1.62mm, max = 1.81mm, avg = 1.72

From that I got the equivalent diameter, which is equal to 1.72mm.
Funny thing, the average of the min and max diameters is also 1.72mm :oops:

Now, Sprinter lacks a workable PID control so this is how CuHotE performs:
performance9.png
Heatsink reaches 33°C max with an ambient temperature @25°C.

This is what the tip of the filament looks like in the melt chamber:
2012-05-16-043423.jpg
The melted part measures 10mm, exactly the height of the cylindrical heating element.
The inner diameter of the barrel is 2mm.

I also did a feed vs. temperature measurement to see how CuHotE performs:
performance10.png
For each measurement, I extruded 100mm of PLA and accepted the measurement only if there was no missed steps.

It can extrude PLA filament at 300mm/min @200°C, but because of the ripple of the temperature with Sprinter, I'll have to repeat the measurement with Marlin and its working PID.
Last edited by dzach on Mon May 21, 2012 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dzach
 
Posts: 180
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:47 am
Location: Athens, Greece

Re: Thermistors and tuning the PID

Postby frob » Mon May 21, 2012 6:24 am

Wow excellent work! this will benefit everyone here i think.
Me for sure, i was also having trouble getting the extruder temp right, i may have been experiencing the same problem ,
i'll try this as soon as my Hadron is rebuilt (probably next weekend)

Cheers!

dzach wrote:Spent the day trying to debug my Marlin settings.....
This is the result:... Looks good!
frob
 
Posts: 260
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:24 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Re: dzach's Hadron build

Postby Enraged » Mon May 21, 2012 6:30 am

how do you log the temperature?
Enraged
 
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Re: dzach's Hadron build

Postby dzach » Mon May 21, 2012 3:46 pm

Enraged wrote:how do you log the temperature?

I use a small script to send temperature settings and M105's to read temperatures from the RAMPS @100ms intervals through the serial USB connection.
frob wrote:Wow excellent work! this will benefit everyone here i think.
Me for sure, i was also having trouble getting the extruder temp right, i may have been experiencing the same problem ,
i'll try this as soon as my Hadron is rebuilt (probably next weekend)

Thanks! I have a need to understand in more detail how an extruder/hotend pair works and I bet others need that too. Temperature fluctuations of +-5 deg, though tolerable, are too big for a quality print, I can now see the difference.

I have disabled the MINTEMP alarms and am able to print with Marlin, but I still have problems with USB communications. At 115200 bps I get checksum errors that stop the show, so I have to work at 57600 bps. Why would a checksum error stop a print? As soon as I manage to load the 3D development environment to another PC I'll know if it's a local problem or something to blame Marlin for.
dzach
 
Posts: 180
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:47 am
Location: Athens, Greece

Re: dzach's Hadron build

Postby Enraged » Mon May 21, 2012 4:22 pm

would you mind posting the script?

I used google to find some PID settings for my J head, and even though I haven't done any long prints yet, they seem to have the temp pretty stable.

For reference, here is what mine is set too currently:
//J Head
#define DEFAULT_Kp 20.18
#define DEFAULT_Ki 0.69
#define DEFAULT_Kd 197.48
Enraged
 
Posts: 439
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Re: dzach's Hadron build

Postby dzach » Mon May 21, 2012 4:37 pm

Here is the TCL script, you will need a TCL console to run it:
Code: Select all
proc rec usb {
   if {[chan gets $usb data] < 0} return
   incr ::cnt
   lassign $data ok T _ B _ _
   lassign [split $T :] _ T
   lassign [split $B :] _ B
   if {$T ne ""} {
      set res [expr {([clock milli] - $::t0)/1000.0}]\t$T\t$B
      puts $::out $res
   #   puts $res
      if {$::cnt >= 100} {
         puts $res
         set ::cnt 0
      }
   } else {
      puts $data
   }
}
proc ask {{stop 0}} {
   puts $::usb M105
   after 100 ask
}
proc stop {} {
   foreach a [after info] {
      puts "Stopping $a"
      after cancel $a
   }
   chan close $::usb
   chan close $::out
}
proc start {{dev /dev/ttyACM0}} {
   set ::usb [open $dev RDWR]
   chan config $::usb -buffering line -blocking 0 -mode 115200,n,8,1
   chan event $::usb read [list rec $::usb]

   set ::out [open temperatures.txt w+]
   set ::t0 [clock milli]

   after 2000 ask
}

start

# set temperature commands with:
#   puts $usb "M104 S200"

# switch off heater with
#   puts $usb "M104 S0"



The results are put in a file "temperatures.txt" at your home directory.
dzach
 
Posts: 180
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:47 am
Location: Athens, Greece

Re: dzach's Hadron build

Postby dzach » Mon May 21, 2012 4:42 pm

Enraged wrote:For reference, here is what mine is set too currently:
//J Head
#define DEFAULT_Kp 20.18
#define DEFAULT_Ki 0.69
#define DEFAULT_Kd 197.48


Why copy values form others? You can send a "M303" and let Marlin autotune the PID parameters for you. Here are mine for CuHotE:
Code: Select all
// CuHotE V1
#define DEFAULT_Kp 21.24
#define DEFAULT_Ki 0.05
#define DEFAULT_Kd 2324.5
dzach
 
Posts: 180
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:47 am
Location: Athens, Greece

Re: dzach's Hadron build

Postby Enraged » Mon May 21, 2012 4:46 pm

I wanted it in the right ballpark from the start, as I was dealing with stepper driver issues as well. I'm tuning everything today so I'll adjust it.
Enraged
 
Posts: 439
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 3:13 pm

Temperature uncertainty

Postby dzach » Mon May 21, 2012 11:16 pm

I guess I have to correct myself. The temperatures shown in the graphs are what Sprinter and Marlin THINK they are, based on the 100k thermistor tables. I have not yet verified the actual temperatures, and when I do, I'm afraid I'll be surprised.

I keep extruding ABS at what seems to be very low temperature, about 180 deg. C. This, I think is not normal but rather an indication that my thermistor tables are the wrong ones, or that the difference between the thermistor reading and the actual melt chamber is a lot greater than I thought it is. I'll do a test with icy and boiling water and see how it comes out.

EDIT:
I just turned the heater off and kept pushing the filament by hand in the barrel. It stopped coming out of the nozzle at abt. 90°C !!
Is this normal? I definitely need to do a temperature verification.

EDIT 2:
Or I may have done something wrong while fiddling with the extruder tonight. :?

EDIT 3:
As it turns out, I fried the thermistor while doing some high temperature measurements last night. It continued showing temperatures, only they were way out of order. I will probably have to use thermocouples for such work. Ιt looks like the 300°C limit on the EPCOS thermistor needs to be taken seriously into consideration. :oops:
dzach
 
Posts: 180
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:47 am
Location: Athens, Greece

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