What’s the current state of the RepRap project?
Any new releases? Bugfixes to the Prusa Mendel or MendelMax?
What’s the most current release? MendelMax, Prusa Mendel, RepRapPro, RepRapPro Huxley, original Mendel or Wallace?
(The Build A RepRap doesn’t say)
Reprap wiki look in the forums.
Nobody reads all of 2 dozen forums just to see the current state of a project.
Looks like the maintainer still hasn’t started to …maintain anything at all.
I think at this point “RepRap” is more of an umbrella term, kind of like a franchise. =D
The RepRap website/wiki is more of a “place” to put each 3D printer project. The only thing is that the project should rely on 3D printed parts for some part of it’s creation (the whole self replicating aspect).
If the people who create those projects (they’re isn’t any specific team, they’re done by individuals or groups of individuals) fail to do anything more with them, or fail to update the RepRap wiki, then that’s their problem. If you feel strongly enough about a specific project (whether it’s a printer, or a type/style of electronics, or anything related), feel free to help out. It’s a wiki for a reason.
IMO: The main issue is that people just don’t like doing documentation. If someone wants to go through and update a particular wiki page for a specific project with updates, then I say go for it. I’ve updated a few wiki pages to cover common issues that I’ve seen repeated time and again on the forums, etc. It’s not hard.
Also, who do you mean by maintainer? Maintainer for a specific printer, (like @Josef_Prusa for the Prusa Mendel), or the forum maintainers, or the website maintainers, or the wiki maintainers, or what? There’s a lot of people, and not everyone has the time (or money) to 24/7 to work on just the RepRap project. Everything’s volunteer. Please remember that.
@Marcus_Wolschon the wiki gives you links to the github site then you can tell by the listing how up to date for you. Really it sounds as if you don’t know what you want to look for.
The core RepRap project around Adrian Bowyer has apparently given up on creating or designating official designs - just look at how outdated the Wiki’s front pages are. The latest design they created was the Huxley, which was basically just a smaller Sells Mendel.
All printer designs are now created independently by makers all around the world and tested and improved by others. While everyone can create and share updates to the designs, only the original creator of the printer can make them an official part in a newer revision of their design, which is why there are so many variants and sub-variants of e.g. the Prusa i3 by different folks.
There are many great designs that haven’t made it to the wiki’s front pages, including the aforementioned Prusa i3 or the similar Mendel90, but also shiny new Deltas, like the (very RepRap-esque) 3DR and the original Rostock and its variants.
It’s a shame since it slows down development as no Maker has any overview of what the current state of the art for Extruders, Carthesian Bots, Electronics, Software,… is and has to solve problems other have already solved.
I do understand the Wiki frustration, and quickly learned that more recent info is there, but you have to know what to look for. Like most open source things, you DO have to read all the forums, to find what to look for;)
I think it can be taken as the ultimate compliment. The RepRep “franchise” has developed so well that people forget it’s just a group of enthusiasts (to put it mildly) creating, testing, and sharing. And just like most business “models” you show people what your building, and as soon as works, your emphasis shifts to… production, NOT documentation 
I don’t consider it the ultimate compliment but the ultimate shame for the maintainer that everyone else feels compelled to start their independent development instead of contributing on one source base.
How many Apache web servers do we have?
How many Firefox browsers?
How many FreeCAD?
One!
There’s no issue tracker, no releases, no timeline for the next release, no updates, no testing.
You wouldn’t even know WHERE to report your issue to or look for an improved design that is reported to solve your issue in it’s release notes.
There are dozens (EASILY) of Firefox forks.
There are hundreds (EASILY) of web servers.
FreeCAD is a special case because of how complicated the subject matter is.
That’s how open source works.
Breadth first, not depth first. That’s how reprap works.
@Marcus_Wolschon how many browsers, how many os , how many CAD programs. Now you feel its wrong well you start a central resource for repraps and maintain it, its a full time job, and its unpaid maintained by hobbyist’s. just do a browser search it will take you to the forum where you post problems. Don’t blame others for your lack of computer know how.
@Nigel_Dickinson show me one person who even KNOWS or one resource that lists at least all the hot-ends and extruders, what design each one is based on and what they improved on it.
That’s now computer know how that’s lack of documentation. A forum is no documentation, it’s a forum. A place to discuss and find concensus. Afterwards that consensus needs to be documented.
RepRap started out as an experiment around evolution; trying to see if open-source 3D printers could evolve by the hands of the community. Now, a critical component of evolution is mutation (Prusa, Max, 90… and their sub-variants) and also mis-mutation (cough, kickstarter) to sort out which concepts work and which don’t.
Having the one and only “official” model would kill off most mutations before they could even prove themselves out in the field. I know there is a huge choice of models , but i see that as a good thing. Having a concept die off due to lack of documentation, on the other hand, is pitiful, but just part of the game as well.
A forum by its very nature is documentation. 90%+ of my questions have been answered by looking at a forum post, coming from searching google for an answer. Documentation only ceases to be documentation if it’s not written down anywhere…
@Marcus_Wolschon why one resource. Its not a business run by one firm. Do Apple, Goggle and Microsoft share one site. NO they don’t, before you spout of about a list for this that or the other think who would do this, and if its a full time job would you pay to look at this list. You my friend are looking at open source as though its a traditional business, I’m building a printer and had no problem finding information before I purchased it. I’ve also found things I feel need reworking and when I do I will post them. But it will be where you fail to look, in the forums.
One resource because it’s one place where everyone looks and instantly sees the current state of the art and the currently unsolved issues to work on.
The point is to not have 2 people trying to solve the same issue oblivious to each other and a third one starting to solve another one based on an already outdated design but to have 3 people working together and everyone knowing that they are already working on the issue and afterwards that it is solved and they should incorporate the solition into their own work.
Yes, it IS a full time job to be a good maintainer of something this large. But even a bad maintainer would be better then none at all!
I don’t see success because there is no maintainer doing his job but I see extremely slow and fragmented progress with tons of duplicated work going to waste.
I tried to get issues solved via the forum…doesn’t work. Half the people working on 3d printers aren’t even reading the forum
(I gave up on it when I sold my old Repman 3.0) and the other ones will never find the thread because it’s instantly burried beneth dozens of other ones asking for (not really discussing) the same things over and over.
Where did you find the information on how to build a good Z axis that isn’t overconstrained?
Where did you find the correct way to calculate what power supply you need and how to dimension your heated bed for the perfect resistance?
Where is an objectively meassured and repeatable comparison of hotends for 3mm+1.75mm ABS+PLA? Lots of hearsay and “mine is better because…I never had any issues even though I have never seen the other ones”.
@Marcus_Wolschon your problem is you want it easy. 3d printing is not easy. Power supplies well there plenty of resource sites to help you work it out. There are places on the web that review hot ends and printers. Why scratch build a heated bed when you can buy one custom built. Really I think you are not the sort of person who has the “smarts” to build a printer. Maybe you should look at a pre built and stop bitching about you lack of knowledge.
I’m going to let that insult slip for the sake of a real debate.
The current topic is “current state and done maintenance of the RepRap project”
Because at that point I already had an aluminum plate and a power supply and needed to find out what power resistors to add to get the thick plate to the right temperature.
Back in that day there was no place to buy pre-build ones that fit a RepMan. (The Mendel was much smaller and too flexible to fit the Z stage.)
Show me one place that compared hot ends.
A real, scientific, repeatable comparison with a stated set of meassurements taken.
Not just lots of blog posting of people trying out there one, new hot-end and comparing it to just one other in a completely subjective matter.
I’m waiting for my third printer kit and there was barely anything original on the second one after I pulled it apart to integrate it into the smaller of my CNC machines last week.
A well documented project attracts developers and encourages them to tacke one of the open issues for the next release instead of confronting them with lots of work just to find out that what state the project is at.
You’re misunderstanding the process. If 5 of your neighbors get together and build a trebuchet, are you going to complain to them that they need show you proof that they made the best choice of design, all based on scientific method?