Monoprice Mini Delta minor issues

Printer Support
#1

Hi,
I’ve been using Astroprint for a little over a month now and I have noticed a few issues. None of them are show stoppers, but could add confusion. I figured I’d post them in case no one else had.

Issue 1 Slicing software almost always suggests scaling the print
The mini delta has a 110 dia by 110 high build area, but to be safe I make sure that my prints always fit into a 90 dia by 90 high envelope. Almost ever time I import an STL it suggests scaling the print.

Issue 2 XY scale is off
When printing a calibration cube of 20x20x20 I get a 19.4x19.4x20 cube. I’ve tried the slicer settings for both cura and slic3r, but have not had any success.

Issue 3 Astrobox does not see the printer initially
This one is a weird one and very repeatable, Astrobox does not see the printer when it is plugged in. I select the connect to printer button once and nothing, then refresh the page and select the connect to printer button again where it connects almost immediately. At first I thought it was the raspberry pi 1, so I purchased the kit from the Astroprint store and it too had the same issue. My father has the same setup too and it is the same on his as well.

Again all of these are definitely not major issues as they can be worked around, and I really like the Astrobox solution. I’m simply posting to give an heads up in case the issues were not known.

#2

Thanks for sharing this @Daniel_J_Shrader_Jr

#3

Just a follow up to the above:

Issue 2 XY scale is off
I’ve written a simple single page application to adjust the STL files based on the printers calibration. I figured I’d share it here for those in the same boat. STL-Scaler is a browser only application (no servers) and has only been tested on Chrome OS

Issue 3 Astrobox does not see the printer initially
With the latest update (July 9, 2018) it’s become more challenging to connect the mini delta to the Astrobox. With the elimination of the Cancel button it takes longer to connect.

#4

Just an update for those looking at the same issue

Issue 3 Astrobox does not see the printer initially
Last night went through a lot of different settings trying to get the connection to happen faster. I saw on https://www.mpminidelta.com/specifications that the initial Baud rate is 115200 and switched to it from the prior 25xxxx. This seems to have helped a lot as now sometimes the printer will automatically connect. There were only a few times where the connection took a long time after that. I do not know if it helped, but on those occasions I switched the baud rate to a higher number, then back to the 115200, which triggered the Astrobox to connect to the printer.

#6

For issue #2 I went into the “Printer Settings” of Astroprint and adjusted the Bed Size for D (XY) to 110.6 instead of 110.

For issue #3 I’m using Octoprint and there’s a plugging that installs on your OctoPi that addresses the connectivity issues. Assuming you are running an OctoPi

#7

Hi @JuanJax,

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m actually only using astroprint 100% in my workflow and the plugin does not work for that - I wish it did.

Good idea on the ‘over sizing’ of the build area for issue 1 - I’ll give it a shot a little later.

I ended up re-calibrating the printer with g-code commands for the scaling issue, which seems to get 95% of the issues.