Axon 3
Hi All
I upgraded my BFB touch with the latest firmware and used axon 3 for my latest print's.
I have to say that the quallity of the prints have increased. But......
Axon 3 has far less oportunities to make the prints like they should. You can't set the fill grade and this is a major problem because printed objects are mechanical verry weak and almost hollow on the inside? You cant set thin walls? You can't shose the type of filling? You can not print more than 1 object at the same time??
Will there be an update for axon 3?
What he said. (But, then, you knew that.) A hacker-type is already working on this: http://kisslicer.com/ There's even a thread here on the forum abouit it. We're all sincerely hoping that BfB doesn't super commit suicide and make dumb moves to lock out other slicers altogether, because they can't stand the comparison, rendering our machines near to useless. If they do, there are a lot of people out here who paid a lot of money that will rise up as one. Like I said in another thread, competition is good. Instead of trying to lamely hide your code and limit what can be done with your machines, make a better slicer than anything out there. Giving users what they want is the way to gain market share; solid, loyal market share.
At any rate, on this day after our supposed final day, and on a Christmas weekend, Happy Christmas to all!
Thank you, speed, I agree totally! At least with Axon V2.1 it is possible (for me anyway) to fine tune and get a print I can live with -- eventually. So one thing I've done for certain is to save a backup copy of V2.1 and the firmware (V4.5.1 works just fine), just in case BFB takes these versions off their download page sometime in the future.
I think I came across the kisslicer site previously, but didn't really look into it yet, something I will now do. Thanks for reminding me!
Recently I was looking into getting one of those paper cutting machines and when I started searching online for one, the "Cricut" is one that often shows up first. So I looked into it and found that their machines will only cut pre-designed shapes that come on expensive add-on cartridges. After looking at some of their competition, I found that most (if not all) other similar cutters do not require proprietory cartridges, so the user can make and cut their own designs. Which unit would you buy? Obviously, a more versatile machine is what anyone would want and if I decide I really need one of these paper cutters, I would not in the least consider a "Cricut" because of this serious limitation.
There have been hacks of the Cricut, but the company that makes Cricuts sued (and won) against the "hacker", who still offers his software, which works with practically all the competition's machines, but with support for the Cricut no longer provided. I can only conclude that this cannot be good for Cricut sales. I immediately decided the Cricut was not for me -- no sale!
Yep. That tactic sounds all too familiar. Unfortunate that some MBAs still think that is how to make a business model.
We have a Cricut and design our own shapes, although the SW is a bit quirky as far as doing things in a logical manner. Can't copy/paste whole sets of shapes to clone them on the sheet, have to follow some arcane method of creating shapes by overlapping them and let the machine figure out what is the perimeter. IOW, you can't just draw the perimeter but have to construct it out of basic shapes that altogether make the shape you want. Stuff like that. Gets the job done but there's room for improvement. With it, the Cricut works pretty well and I'd recommend the machine to others. WIthout it, not so much. Gotta tell someone something...
Edit: Maybe not. Just reserched the law suit issue. Learned that Sleezeball (with a capital S) Bank of America now owns Provocraft and began suing everyone in sight, right after they bought the company. Not a surprise. More and more like Bank Against America all the time.
Wow, now, after all this time, and all of the help given over the months since buying my $4,000 3D Touch, and having to fill in captchas periodically, my recent comment has been held for approval by the moderators.
Edit: Never did get approved.
HI
I am personally insulted by BFB!!
What you are basically saying is we the end users are too stupid to be allowed to play with settings!!
If anything I would want more settings, tweaks ability to customize everything.
I would like someone from BFB to comment an ensure us that we did not spend thousands of $$ on a professional machine
that will be relegated to printing simple toy pieces from thingverse!
OMG! I'm glad I didn't buy a Cricut, especially now after hearing Bank(rupting) America bought the company! BofA is much hated for their practice of shipping their profits offshore to dodge taxes, while at the same time, taking advantage of the services our (the people's) taxes pay for. If you pay taxes at all, you paid more tax per year than BofA, who not only doesn't pay tax, but gets bailed out with our tax dollars. We protest them regularly around my neck of the woods (Seattle) To Americans: Put your money in a credit union and get it out of the big banks! Big money interests are cashing in on the perpetuation of war for profit, war being the most profitable business on Earth. Nothing new -- it's just our time to be the ones getting screwed.
BFB scares me because of their apparent lax attitude when it comes to customer support. Reminds me of many big corporations where the left hand knows not what the right hand is doing. They don't seem to be listening, and seem to be running their own agenda on the presumption they can do no wrong. I distrust companies that never admit a mistake.
I just received the V7 Print Bed upgrade for my 3D Touch and there are no instructions to clarify why two of the three springs are of a lighter wire guage than the third, or why the new screws are apparently unnecessarily a few mm longer than the old ones, and why I need any of the new hardware (that cost extra) at all! The most logical guess is the heavier spring goes on the front-center mount position, but why not even the simplest of instructions?
I also notice the BFB manuals are out of date. It is as though BFB rushed the 3D Touch (et al), into production and forgot to finish the software and the documentation. They should be paying their customers for doing their product development.
We got an eCraft "sticky board"-less cutter. Works great. The design SW that comes with it is more than capable, so not upgrading Sure Cuts A Lot yet.
Yes, the heavier guage spring would go in front. One spring has to do the lifting of two. The longer screws would be appreciated, here. I'm near the limit of adjutment, front to back. When the interim bed design came out, it was thicker by quite a bit and in order to flip it periodically, I'd have to do a few turns of the rear screws to press it down far enough. Makes leveling more of a pain.
What I'd welcome is a slot, a square or a hex on the thread end, so that the screws can be easily turned from below without releasing spring pressure, while using the feeler guage, and then set the locknut. Working both sides of the bed is a pain in the butt, what with the head assembly having to be near the adjustments and. of course, the bed raised up to them.
I must say, to BFB's credit, they are responding to my ticket. They have asked me to send pictures of the warped V7 bed, so I centered the middle (No.2) extruder and brought the bed up to just barely touch the nozzle, took the center picture, then moved the carriage to the left, took the left picture, then to the right for the right picture. These shots show the approx. .38mm gap when in the left or right position, while having no gap in the center position. I placed a block of white plastic behind the extruders to make things more visible.
They told me they would be sending me another V7 bed. I don't know yet if they want to spend the money to get their warped V7 bed back -- the shipping charge may not make it worthwhile to them.
Edit: BFB support also confirmed that the heavier spring does indeed go on the front/center mount, but the reason they gave had to do with "harmonic damping". I still find it strange that no documentation was supplied, especially for how high the bed should be positioned above the mounts, which dramatically affects the spring tension.
I totally agree. Binary files instead of ASCII G-Code and removing fine tuning controls is the wrong way !!
At least when the software quality is that poor, fine tuning options are essential !
But let's be fair. Axon 3 is still in Alpha stadium. I just printed a really simple part (cylinder diameter 16mm heigth 12mm) with Axon 3 - material PLA. The output was crap. Then I reprocessed the same STL file with Axon 2 - and it was OK.
I will continue to use Axon 2 until BFB provides a stable release for Axon 3. Alpha and beta versions from BFB are just a wast of time.
> the reason they gave had to do with "harmonic damping"
That's just a fancy way of saying that the spring wasn't strong enough to hold half the mass of the bed once inertia aggravated the situation during Z moves. There's already compliance in those long arms cantilevered to more than 10X the wheelbase of the linear bearings that they ride on. They're oscillating already, no matter how stiff the springs are. Having a spring that isn't up to the task of providing enough force to overcome these energies just magnifies the problem. The arm flexes, then stops, then the spring compresses then stops and then they both rebound. Eliminating most or all of one that can be eliminated by swapping out one inexpensive part is a step in the right direction. Lowering the mass of the moving parts, without introducing increased compliance, would be a good move as well.
With all the problems I see all over this forum from disappointed users, you can be certain that Axon 3 will be updated, and hopefully it will restore some essential controls that they took away from us. The best thing BFB can do is to stop development of software that takes control away rather than improving it. If there isn't an upgrade for Axon3 (which is so awful I went back to the latest vers 2.1) there will be a lot of really ticked off people like myself that spent over US$4300 to find out the 3D Touch has great potential but the software has not been refined to the point where you can print something and have it come out the way you want or expect.
Please BFB! Stop taking the controls away. Fix the bugs like you should have done before you even started selling the machines! I am really dissapointed with Axon 3 -- it's a major step backwards. I hoping some hacker-type will independently develop software for the 3DT that works. Another really poor idea in Axon 3 was to eliminate the generation of G-code. What is BFB trying to accomplish by making their softweare proprietory? Suicide? Looks like it!