Category:Mendel RepStrap

Catalyst rep strap Mendel frame printer

The Catalyst is a threaded rod driven machine that uses the Mendel frame and z axis design.

there are several differences in this version than the regular Mendel. It is threaded rod driven. It is cnc host software dependent, designed primarily for emc2 or mach3 software, and its controller board includes parallel inputs. It can also run the arduino with a parallel port adapter. the recommended way is with parallel port and emc2 software. threaded rod systems are timing critical, recommend a 700mhz or faster machine with 500meg + of ram with emc2 to run. also computer usb port will run the heater. with a program found here: temp control arduino

The design is with 1/4 in ch 20 turns per inch rods, or 5/16 1/18 turn per inch rods.

It uses modified 5d g code created from skienforge. the code needs to be edited to remove the m-codes and have the "E" code converted to "A" axis code. the "A" axis is used as the stepper that goes to the extruder. the program that does this conversion is here:converter.zip

There are a lot of videos on its construction. also the web site that produces this is www.profounddevices.com

here is a video of it working: video youtube

here is a draft manual in the middle of being updated with pictures [www.profounddevices.com/draft_help_guide.doc manual 24mb!] here is the manual of the cnc board used pdf file here is a diagram of the heating nozzle extruder design

The catalyst uses arduino for temp control, but work is going on for gcode functionality with arduino as well.