I have a question, I revently found a old 3d printer in my brothers basement, apparently its a “nophead mendel 90” that he built years ago but then lost interest in.

I would love to try and bring it back to life, but I know very little about printing, and have no idea where to start. Is a printer this old compatible with modern slicers? What software would I use to connect to it via usb? I tried to do research on my own, but found very little useful info about how to actually get it working

  • @RobotToasterEnglish
    5•11 months ago

    There’s some info about it here https://reprap.org/wiki/Mendel90

    This is a very old printer, from the early days of reprap. From a practical standpoint you would get better results from the cheapest new ender i3, and it would be a lot easier.

    If you want an interesting project though it should be entirely possible to get it working, and you’ll learn a lot from it. If it’s still using the original Sanguinololu controller board that will be your biggest issue, as I doubt a modern version of the marlin firmware will fit in a ATmega644P. Your best bet would be to replace the controller board with something modern, then you can use it as any modern 3d printer.

    • @MrSlicer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1•11 months ago

      “Fewer vitamins”

      What does that mean? I’ve been 3d printing a few years never heard that before.

    • @RobotToasterEnglish
      1•11 months ago

      To add, if it’s using the Melzi board that some used, then you should be able to load g-code onto it using the micro SD card slot. It will depend on the firmware if it can recognise modern gcode though. You may be able to compile a modern version of marlin for it too.