Dual x-carriage, with Y motion controlled by a smart stepper

I'm trying to get a RAMBO board to run a dual x-carriage machine.
Rambo has 5 drivers for steppers, so i picked up a Leadshine iES-1706, encoder stepper for Y, my heaviest axis.

My plan is to drive Y with that, so I need STEP/DIR pins on a header to signal it.

Rambo axis assignments will be:

X digipot - X1 head
Y digipot - X2 head
Z digipot - will be Z stepper
E0 digi - will be E0 Titan
E1 digi - will be E1 Titan
Y - will be on pins 5/4 or 85/70 for STEP/DIR. Different headers, but available and tried both.

Using Marlin RC8, enable dual x-carriage, changed Rambo pins to the picture attached.

I tested the Leadshine, and it works in demo mode.
I've tried the ENABLE+ both open and tied to +5V.

Can't get Y moving.

Anyone with dual X want to jump in and debug?

Dave




In powering up board, I've got a stepper on X1 and it responds to x motion in Printrun.

I'm going with an Azteeg X3 Pro, and a Viki 2. Never have had a display, so I hope that works.
seems like a good solution to get going with a mixture of open and closed loop motors.
If at any point in the future I want closed loop for other axis, that simplifies the access to STEP/DIR pins as well.

Here's my starting point for the mechanicals, an old 3D printer I built in 2013 and was abandoned at work.

I'm going to make a coldend from an aluminum block and use 4mm airline to pipe 10-30 or whatever psi compressed air into each.
There will be 0.016" holes blowing across the threads and directly at the heatbreak.
The heatbreak is not threaded into the cold end but fits to a bore sized to max outside dim.
The threads are like mini fins and air is forced around and out the front slot. some conduction to the aluminum block as well.
The resulting air supply in each head might also be used to direct cooling air at the print, although I might just have fans directed across the build elevation from the sides and use room temp air to cool print.

I'm using the volcano inspired long hotend and volcano nozzles and heatbreak.
I might try thermocouples on the hotends, since the X3 Pro has that.

the overall print area considering lost inches due to dual x-carriage, looks like 17x15x13 inch.
The dual motor X carriage design came out clean, with just 3 new plates to mount the two motors, plus a stack of end bearings.

If interested, the Solidworks2013 or STEP data is available.

so i have the RC8 Marlin loaded on the X3Pro with a Viki2 LCD.
struggling to find out why the board is oscillating and frozen.
I even put a RC3 Marlin on it, and it clicked with define Viki2 uncommented, and did not click when I //commented it out.
Might be a clue, but ..?

I've got no drivers installed, running dummy 998 25C temps, no endstops, heaters, or anything but Viki2.
It clicked with and without the Viki2.

here is a link to a video.

[www.youtube.com]

Anyone seen this?

when the firmware/controller are clicking and oscillating, the controller can move steppers in a host.
So it's not locked up and unresponsive, just ticking and flashing between screens.

I'm still experimenting and starting to add in endstops, and thermistors, hoping that my minimal hook up is the issue.

And now ,what kind of your main board,RAMBO or AZTEEG X3 PRO?