I still got lots of edge adhesion problems with those changes.
I’m going to try a 0.3mm layer print instead of the 0.1mm layer prints next. I have to change speeds too; otherwise I would exceed melt volume limits. I’ll also trying a brim. And I’ll try printing on kaptan instead of glue stick, since that totally wasn’t working. If at first you don’t succeed, try three more things at once!
(I’m a bit annoyed because the STL file doesn’t load in slic3r due to manifold failures. Cura manages to figure it out, but cura doesn’t give me much control compared to slic3r. I haven’t successfully repaired the STL in meshlab or freecad so far.)
@mcdanlj - Part of me is jealous at not being quite to the level I can test these things along with you. Another part is observing all the failures and filing them away for the future.
Keep up the good work of pushing things to their limits.
The hot end cooling fan has already started to exhibit bad bearings. So far it “finds its groove” and reverts to running smoothly, but that will stop at some point and then I’ll have either vibration showing in the prints or a clogged heat break if it dies altogether. Fingers crossed that it survives until the dual extruder arrives with its own fan!
@mcdanlj - I’ve found that screwing on metal blade protector too tight causes the blades to it it periodically. See if loosening each corner doesn’t stop the perceived vibrations.
Thanks for that tip, I’ll have to see. But it sounds a lot more like bearings; it starts to howl at a changing pitch for a bit when I turn it on, then within about 20 seconds (at this point) speeds up and quiets down. I have heard this pattern many times before from failing fans.
Printing on kapton tape with a brim and 0.3mm layers got me what I think will be a serviceable part. Surface adhesion still wasn’t great; a few lines of the first layer dragged, and one or two adhered to the heater block. The brim curled at one corner, but the corner itself was OK. The holes will need to be drilled out to fit their proper sizes. But I think that if an X gantry plate failed, this part would rescue me. )I should try also printing it in eSun PLA Pro since that’s supposed to tolerate higher heat than standard PLA…)
The fan problem is definitely bearings. 40mm fans are not horribly expensive for quality parts. I expect I’ll be buying one, and I probably am at least partly to blame for early demise for overheating it testing an overly-insulating enclosure. But it might be a hint to you not to over-do the insulation when you find a round tuit.
Turns out that I didn’t tighten the heat sink tight enough so the head was pivoting slightly, which was almost certainly the cause of dragged lines. Given that, I’m impressed that I got a maybe-usable part at all. I can’t re-test right now because I re-zeroed on hairspray for printing parts for the family, but it gives me hope that I’ll get ABS right some day.
I’ve already replace the original fan due to trying to tighten an alternative part cooling piece and missing by a little bit with the screw driver - taking out two fan blades and throwing it all off balance. I’ve since stopped tinkering while the power was on. (A bad idea to begin with.)
Turns out the power switch came with only a 5A fuse. That works not so well protecting both the 360W 12V and 480W 24V power supplies from 120V maybe! I wonder what fuses I have handy… OK, 8A should at least last longer, but I should probably put a 12A fuse on my shopping list.
@mcdanlj - Understanding watts, amps, volts, and how to convert between each is something I wanted to learn long ago, but never got around to. Then our kids actually learned that as part of their 8th grade classes. (Standard in Japanese middle school.)
I just guestimated before. Let me do the math and see what happens…
8A would be a little dodgy if it were running at full load, because 360W+480W=840W/120V=7A/80%efficient=8.75A — but I’m not using most of the 360W since the heatbed originally intended to be supplied from that 360W is instead being supplied by the “24V” controller. (This is evidenced by the fact that it ran more more than 24 hours before the 5A fuse blew.) I haven’t measured the exact 12V power draw, but the nozzle has a 40W heating element and the steppers aren’t drawing 1A each axis (they run cool), so at less than 48W for the steppers, a few watts for fans, and peanuts for the arduino, that’s probably around 100W total. Then I know that I’m actually drawing 15A on the heat bed, so that’s 408W because 15A*27.2V=408W. So 408W+100W=508W would be a reasonable estimate for normal power use, and 508W/120V=4.23A/80%=5.3A — which makes perfect sense for the 5A fuse not blowing for a while but blowing when I turned on both bed and nozzle heat at the same time on a cold printer. ~40% engineering margin is probably reasonable, so an 8A fuse is actually probably about right.
Cool! I don’t have to or want to buy a different fuse! At least for now.
Once I made it clear to Tronxy that I was actually suggesting that they follow the license for Marlin and release source code, I got no more responses.
cyberbask on thingiverse configured Marlin 1.1.6 to the Tronxy X5S board. I’m in the middle of installing Umikaze on a BBG to try replacing the board with a real computer so I haven’t tried building it.
It’s at least not ancient, unlike the janky firmware provided with the printer. I changed the default language to English and put English instructions in the commit message, but that’s it. I can’t even say “YMMV” because I didn’t even try my own milage!
The lead screws I bought were 500mm 2mm pitch 2mm lead single-start https://www.ebay.com/itm/T8-Lead-Screw-Pitch-2mm-Lead-8mm-4mm-2mm-Nut-for-3D-Printer-CNC-Machine/232438424451 and they arrived minimally but sufficiently packaged in a hard plastic tube inside a paper envelope, with packing peanuts at either end of the tube, and tightly wrapped together, with the nuts in separate packaging with both bubble wrap and foam to protect them. The screws appear fully straight and the nuts thread smooth. I’ll have to cut the rods down a little bit to fit, and I’ll put the cut ends into the stepper motor couplers to avoid damaging the threads on the nuts.
On the other hand, the https://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-Printer-V6-2-in-1-out-2-in-2-out-Cyclops-Chimera-Print-head-Extruder/232472493674 heat sink has the set screws on the back instead of the sides, to make machining a little easier, but also making it basically impossible to mount correctly so that the heat breaks can be fixed tram to the bed. That’s not awesome. I haven’t worked out a way to mount it using the existing X cart and expose the set screws. The picture clearly shows the missing set screw holes, I just didn’t see it.
[Edit: turns out the three mounting holes on the top of the heat sink are not M3 as they are supposed to be, and the holes on the back of the heat sink are off by over 2mm from where they are supposed to be, so it won’t fit properly on anything designed to spec.]
Creating a new X carriage is just some time spent in TinkerCAD, Fusion 360, or other software. That should be fairly easy and fun.
But why the new lead screws? Were the ones that shipped with the X5S bent? Or are you already modifying to build it taller? Or perhaps use them for X and Y instead of CoreXY?
It seems that I missed something in your modification mission plan.
The lead screws are single-start 2mm lead instead of 8mm lead to reduce creep. The sides can get out of sync from just adjusting the Z endstop screw. Single-start fixes that. At least, it has on my i3 clone.
I want to use the existing steel plates for the X carriage. It’s just that the cyclops/chimera heat sink set screws are blocked by the lower wheel on the X carriage. The problem isn’t designing the part in OpenSCAD or FreeCAD, given a design concept. It’s coming up with the design.
That looks like a nice general purpose gantry. I’ve noticed the three wheels allow some wobble when it changes direction sometimes. It’s probably due to one of the add-ons I’ve done allowing the wheels to no longer keep all three tight. Going with four wheels might help stabilize it.
I printed a prototype from PLA just to see whether it could work, but it would not work directly because the belt slots aren’t tall enough. Would need either to extend the slots (dremel?) or print an attachment for the belts, and I could cut out the middle in order to be able to access the back of the heat sink. I would get http://openbuildspartstore.com/v-slot-gantry-set/ with the wheels included rather than buy the parts separately.
The larger holes along one side of the plate are for eccentric spacers that let you adjust the wheels with the right tension and no load.
Might be possible to use these as Y gantry upgrade plates, too. I’d like to be 100% sure before paying $90 for a set of three, though!
Since I had some filament grinding earlier, I didn’t realize I was skipping extruder steps sometimes. Looks like I also need to adjust current for the extruder axis.
@mcdanlj - That reminds me. I had a problem with some filament going through the Bowden Tube. It would twist and jam up, causing the extruder to skip and chew up filament.
My solution was to extend a hook from the neighboring cabinet and hold the Bowden Tube up over the center with a rubber band. Like this:
)
