3D Printer Retrofit

Hi Guys,

About this time last year I brought a Tronxy 3d printer from China. When I got it, I assembled it and found out the electronics were absolute crap. Well crap compared to the quality Mesa hardware I have grown use to.




Once assembled the X axis limit switch worked intermittently. To the point homing the machine was almost impossible. I asked the manufacture for a replacement and was told I could not get that switch anymore. I had it literally a week and could not get spare parts. At that point I put the project aside and decided I would retrofit it with better quality electronics when I got a chance.




Before I could work on the printer I needed to get it off the ground. I have built this frame for it. I plan on putting a sheet of steel over the top and mounting a smoke detector that will shut off power in case of a fire. I will also mount a fire extinguisher to the frame.

So I looked around for new 3d printer hardware. The Duet board seems to be what people recommend but I cannot justify the price for something that has built in stepper drivers that cannot easily be replaced. If one dies its a pain to replace. I then came across this board.


Big Tree Tech GTR V1.0, its still a China made board but its a decent quality board. I added six of these,



TCM2209 stepper drivers with sensorless homing. They also run quite,unlike the HR4982 drivers that came with the printer.

I decided since it would be a long time before I could get a LinuxCNC config setup for printing I would go with a tried and tested 3d printing route.



I had a Raspberry Pi 3 b+ lying around and a touch screen so I installed Kilpper and Duet Web Controller 2 on the Pi.




I then made a panel mount for the touch screen with my plasma,



I have the software installed at this stage and I need to set up the config to work with my new boards and existing stepper hardware, heat bed, hot end and extruders.

you will need lots of filament choose a 3mm filament noozle setup 4colors

bbsr_5a wrote:

you will need lots of filament choose a 3mm filament noozle setup 4colors

I have 1.75mm nozzles on at the moment. Is there a benefit to using the thicker filament? If so I will get some 3mm and nozzles to suit.

phillc54 wrote:

Looks good Stefan, you don't take any half measures.

What is the print volume?

I have a Duet WiFi on my little Delta and am very happy with it.

The volume is 500x500x600.

My brother has a Duet board and likes it but I cant see the value in it, but maybe depending on how hard it is to get the new board fully set up my mind might change.

I plan to use this for prototyping so I need it to work well and be comfortable to use.

Just to know. Why not Marlin. I think that is a very active comunity with a lot of skilled programmers. F.x. Their autocalibration for my deltas is impressive.

I'm in with mks pro and also tmc2209. Those drivers are realy fascinating calm.
But i would advice to use inductive endstops as the idea of sensorless seems to prove less precise.
The 3mm brings to my knowledge only advantage when you need to laydown lots of plastic. But for this you need adequate nozzle.. Like the volcano.
Mike

the 3mm filament gives you the opotunity of having mutch more material to print in the same time
so you can go double speed and ofcause double layer for structual
cura got a new layerfeaturer that can stack material settings to printheight
so details in 0,2 and struct parts at 0,5 makes it very fast print on 3mm

marlin woudt be best also for the 4 color print or 3+1 filler

Mike_Eitel wrote:

Just to know. Why not Marlin. I think that is a very active comunity with a lot of skilled programmers. F.x. Their autocalibration for my deltas is impressive.

I'm in with mks pro and also tmc2209. Those drivers are realy fascinating calm.
But i would advice to use inductive endstops as the idea of sensorless seems to prove less precise.
The 3mm brings to my knowledge only advantage when you need to laydown lots of plastic. But for this you need adequate nozzle.. Like the volcano.
Mike

I could go with Marlin, I might if Kilpper does not work out. I have found it easy to use up until this point. I need to get the printer.cfg file set up and see how it goes. The duet web controller 2 interface is also interesting. I can configure it to my needs. Although I am sure Marlin probably has something similar.

And yeah the TCM2209 has piked my interests. The claims of sensor less homing are interesting. I will be sure to test the shit out of it before letting it loose on a print. I might still use a normal limit switch for the Z axis. Not sure yet.

bbsr_5a wrote:

the 3mm filament gives you the opotunity of having mutch more material to print in the same time
so you can go double speed and ofcause double layer for structual
cura got a new layerfeaturer that can stack material settings to printheight
so details in 0,2 and struct parts at 0,5 makes it very fast print on 3mm

marlin woudt be best also for the 4 color print or 3+1 filler

Do you loose resolution with the thicker filament? As in its harder to get the fine details correct on smaller parts? I am thinking maybe its similar scenario to 0.9 and 1.2mm MIG welding wire. With the 1.2 over the 0.9 it gets hotter and deposits quicker but it makes welding thinner sections harder.