My new Anet A8 printer

[FryingSaucer]

My new printer kit finally arrived - only £115 so I'm not expecting too much. It's a Prusa i3 design. Build size 220x200x240mm.

Everything in the kit was well labelled, and assembly was reasonably straightforward, because as well as the manufacturer's instructions there was a complete video of the assembly process. It would have been much more difficult with just the supplied instructions.

The video also had helpful warnings along the way. This was nearly my downfall. One warning was how to connect the power leads to avoid destroying the mainboard. The connection he suggested didn't look right to me, and I realised in time that Anet had swapped the connections round on the board since the video was created. So fortunately my mainboard is still intact.

When the assembly was complete, the video recommended starting with the Home All command. I did this, and the printer carriage slammed over to the right side and made a horrible grinding noise until I could turn off the power. There's a limit switch on the left hand end of the axis, and after a little thought I realised I'd installed the x-axis motor facing the wrong way. I'd checked all the wiring carefully, but didn't notice my assembly looked different from the one in the instruction. Anyway, the motor seems to have survived.

These are a few pictures of the assembly

This is as far as I've got. I've not tried printing anything yet, and probably won't for a day or so. I've had to send back my Canon MX925 and our other MX925 is not printing yellow. My inkjet printers are more in need of attention than my 3D one. I hate MX925s

 

[Redbrickman]

I've been looking at that model this week and one thing that is strongly recommended is to fit a Mosfet board to prevent the high current damaging the motherboard. If you Google Anet A8 Mosfet upgrade you will find it easily. They are available for a few quid on Banggood etc.

Others from memory are 3D printed upgrades for the head cooling fan and tensioners for the X and Y belts.

I hope it all goes well for you with the build. You can't really go wrong at the price

 

[FryingSaucer]

I've been looking at that model this week and one thing that is strongly recommended is to fit a Mosfet board to prevent the high current damaging the motherboard.

There are several things I plan to do to improve the printer, and taking the power supply for the bed and extruder off the board is number one. Anet have swapped round the power supply inputs to the mainboard in this latest version. They may have tried to do something to improve the current carrying capacity on the board, but I'm sure it's still worth moving the heavy current off the board.

I've noticed a few other minor changes in the kit I received from the one that features in the video. Maybe Anet have been incorporating some of the mods that people have suggested.

 

[Nifty]

Wow, congrats!!! Also, thanks for posting the info and those great picss!!!

the printer carriage slammed over to the right side and made a horrible grinding noise until I could turn off the power.

Ya, that happens to me all the time with my MP Select Mini when I'm sending data via USB from my PC and I cancel a print or otherwise mess with things mid-print. I have to turn off the printer to get things to reset. I'm at the point now where I know in advance when it's going to happen and cut-off power before it does!

 

[FryingSaucer]

Well, I finally did my first print on my Anet A8. I just selected one of the files that came with the printer, a pyramid, which I thought would be a small simple polyhedron. Wrong! It became clear this pyramid was going to have many levels with steps up to each level. Also it was massive. After 2 hours it had only printed 16% and I wanted to go to bed. So I cancelled it. It's a very stunted pyramid.

Actually the photo doesn't do it justice. The real object looks a lot better; the bits on the sides are the steps to the first level.

My main problem was trying to remove the print next morning. I was using this tape. There's no possibility of reusing the tape after I finally managed to separate the print off it, and I've scratched the print bed as well. I'll try once more with this tape and if there are still problems try either glass or different tape.

I have a couple of MOSFETs on order to take the extruder and bed power off the mainboard. So I will print this mount for them next. I don't plan to print anything else till these power mods have been done. I don't want to risk over stressing the circuit traces that at present are carrying the high current on the main board.

 

[The Hat]

Nice one @FryingSaucer, it’s just a pity you didn’t leave it to finish out, I leave my printer running over night and it usually finishes just before I get up, the first time I did that, I checked on it during the night, bad mistake I was there for an hour just watching it.

If you double click on the Gcode file, it will tell you how long the file will take to print and then you won’t have to miss out on any sleep, these 3D printers are great but putting lipstick on them doesn’t make them print any faster...

The MS Mini heat power went west a couple of days ago on the platform, I wasn’t bother because you don’t need it for PLA filament, the next day it was back and has continued ever since...

 

[FryingSaucer]

I leave my printer running over night and it usually finishes just before I get up

Yes, but this Anet A8 is dead cheap. I doubt if there's any safety checks in the design. Also I built the thing! For both these reasons I don't feel comfortable leaving it running overnight. I'm already in some trouble because I hadn't explained how big it would be and how hot it gets. If I burn the house down as well, I'll be in even more trouble

 

[Nifty]

Looking great!!

Ya, I've not yet felt comfortable sleeping with a print running. I only recently left the house for an hour while a print was going.

I think if when I get to the point that I have to leave a print for a long time, I'll make 100% sure that it's SUPER attached to the bed and that I have TONS of filament. I don't want to wake up to any problems!

It's amazing that someone with a bit of patience and tinkering ability can have a 3D printer up-and-running for $150 US!

Great work @FryingSaucer ! Keep the updates coming!

 

[Redbrickman]

Yes, but this Anet A8 is dead cheap. I doubt if there's any safety checks in the design. Also I built the thing! For both these reasons I don't feel comfortable leaving it running overnight. I'm already in some trouble because I hadn't explained how big it would be and how hot it gets. If I burn the house down as well, I'll be in even more trouble

You probably already found it but there is an Anet A8 group on Facebook that might be worth a look. It is the biggest one and seems to have plenty of tech stuff going on.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1068531466501015/

 

[The Hat]

I’ve checked on my CR-10 this morning, it’s been running over 16 hours and the control power box was still very cool to touch, and my print model is progressing nicely.

I once had a problem with the MS mini running over night, I came back to find a big ball of fur because the model had not stayed stuck down, the MS mini control unit tended to run quite hot too, till I put in the plastic air vents on both sides, now it barley get warm.

I am currently making the joints to fit this upgrade to reduce the head vibration on the upper cross bar, two down two to go..

Utube picture...