Thanks for your answers everyone! Think I was probably over complicating things. I was thinking about it and really the one component that's always drawing current when the machine is in operation would be the extruder cooling fan. Easiest solution to this would be to connect a SSR up to that, wouldn't it? It wouldn't matter the speed the fan was running at. Objective was to actively cool bothby pugzor - Controllers
Hi guys, This is a really dumb question and I'm 100% sure I'm just thinking about this the wrong way. Is there a device out there that would act as a relay when current draw hits a certain amount? Kind of like a current-sensing relay/switch? Problem I'm trying to solve - I'd like to build separate enclosures for my power supply and other electronics (just to make them more accessible for upgraby pugzor - Controllers
Thanks Matt! Actually not too worried about price - would prefer it to take a little longer and buy quality parts than be frustrated with crap. Admittedly though, AliExpress has served me well and generally speaking I haven't had an issue with anything from there! Takes a bit of selection - finding stuff that isn't the cheapest but seems more legit. Lots of investigation to do! I'm now wonderby pugzor - CoreXY Machines
@Mark, I've been thinking pretty heavily about some of the things you've said, mostly around the rails. Originally I thought you were referring to how the Z axis moves but I'm now worried about the gantry (X&Y axes). Smooth rods were planned but I suspect these would be quite prone to sagging too over the ~750mm they need to cover. Based on the layout I'd originally been working with, chanby pugzor - CoreXY Machines
Again, really appreciate that advice Mark. You're right and I don't think there's much way around the flatness issue. Even if you added bracing underneath (or had a thicker piece of plate, then milled out a lot of the meat to have cross-bracing), it's likely it'd heat unevenly and likely result in some kind of distortion. Fully supported rails would be easy to add on in place of smooth rods.by pugzor - CoreXY Machines
Really appreciate the time you took putting into that post Mark! I whole-heartedly agree with you on most of those points and the rest has definitely given me more to think about. Some clarifications: In terms of plastic parts I've really limited it. At the moment it's brackets for the smooth rods (which won't have any force on them that they wouldn't have in a smaller scale) and the rest of theby pugzor - CoreXY Machines
Hi all, I want to pick up my build which sort-of started maybe 18-24 months ago now. Long story short, I found a girl (we're getting married in September) but this is something I got a damn good start on and would like to finish. Anyway, I've had a few printers starting with a home-made Cherry Pi IIIS delta. Was a silly way to get introduced to 3D printing and I really should have done somethinby pugzor - CoreXY Machines
@Qdeathstar, thanks, that's what I was originally thinking! Having known some people have sync'd their steppers, I'm curious though. @o_lampe, that's amazing. I had pretty much exactly that setup in my head... How do you keep the belt tensioned though? I've got some nice leadscrews which are relatively low in friction, to the point you can put the nut on it and it'll just slide on down. Not asby pugzor - CoreXY Machines
David, thank you for such a comprehensive reply. You're always very informative. I remember you have suggested the Duet boards a few times in a couple of threads. If there's a way to get multiple motors to sync, I think that would be preferred even if it comes at more expense. I'm pretty concerned about the tensioning on a very long belt driven by a single motor. Do you have any links to whereby pugzor - CoreXY Machines
Hi guys, I'm trying to pick up a build I've begun with a large print bed using a CoreXY config. Anyway, the one thing I'm not 100% confident about is the way I'm thinking about moving the bed vertically. I really would like to know what the best options are out there for this.The whole machine is around 750x750x750mm, so it's quite large. Original thoughts were based on the Vulcanus Max but Iby pugzor - CoreXY Machines
I'm not that worried about the leadscrews, it's mostly the belts which hold my concern. I won't be using standard 20-tooth pulleys but rather 32-tooth at the minimum, maybe much larger in some instances. This should ensure a decent number of teeth have contact with the belt at any one time. I'm also more than happy to place bearings at various places to guide belts to have more contact. Findinby pugzor - Mechanics
Hey all, I'm building a relatively large coreXY printer and I wanted to get some advice on belts. Here's the legend for the image above: Orange square = print bed Blue stars = leadscrews driving the Z axis Green diamond = Nema 23 Red stars = Drive assembly connecting the Nema 23 and the individual leadscrews I'm using a piece of tooling plate for the print bed, which is quite flat but unfortby pugzor - Mechanics
Funnily enough, I'm an Aussie from Brisbane and I had this exact same idea. I ended up going with a silicone mat with a SSR because the management side of having four separate MK2B or MK3 beds wasn't worth the effort.by pugzor - Mechanics
Quoteetfrench Do a search for 'cast aluminum tooling plate'. Mic 6 is Alcoa's brand name and doesn't seem to be easy to find in Australia. Here's one in Australia: Thanks for the link but they don't do small hobby stuff (they're trade only). Really annoying to say the least.by pugzor - General
Quotethe_digital_dentist Ebay is full of cast tooling plate sellers. There are plenty of on line metals shops that sell the stuff, too. Check Speedy Metals. Not in Australia.by pugzor - General
Hey all, For anyone who follows my sporadic posts, you'd know that I'm building a large CoreXY. I seem to have a solution for most of the problems except one... I can't find a suitable bed. It's been suggested that I use 'tooling plate' but no where in my city seems to sell it. Furthermore I'm not having much luck finding someone who's just machine standard aluminium plate to be flat within a rby pugzor - General
Again David, thank you so much. I might put in the level shifter because for only $5 it'll rule out potential issues with ground noise. I was looking at Jaycar a bit further and they have a little MOSFET Seems to be a NTD5867NL which has a lower output (still a respectable 20A) but has a Rds(on) of 39 mOhms @ 10V. It's a slightly more expensive option but at $7/piece it's still economical andby pugzor - Controllers
Thanks for that David! Out of interest, how do you know the smoothie clone uses 3.3V signal level? I thought I saw that the AUX-1 block had a 5V pin... I know that means nothing for signal level but just thought it was strange. If I do need a level shifter, would something like this do the trick?by pugzor - Controllers
Quoteo_lampe When you say Mega2560, you actually mean RAMPS? Ramps only has three MOSFETs, so the SBASE would have to power one bed itself. The fuses on the Ramps are not suited to drive 3 beds. You'd have to replace the 5A fuse at least. The traces between 5A power connector and MOSFETs are my next concern. -Olaf Hmm, not quite the concept I had in mind. I was just going to use the Mega2560by pugzor - Controllers
Hey there, I'm building a large CoreXY printer and one of the problems I've come up against is that of heating the bed. It was suggested that I could use a mains powered heater but I'm not keen on that (small child + moving mains powered metal parts = not acceptable risk to me) so I'm trying to find the next best option. Printer is running a MKS SBase 1.1 (Smoothieboard clone of debatable qualby pugzor - Controllers
Awesome resource just put up by Simplify3D, with LOTS of pictures:by pugzor - Printing
Hmm, so I can just use what would traditionally be the heatbed output as the trip to feed the relays? I'll probably still have 4x individual channels with their own relays, connected in series....by pugzor - General
Thanks for the reply David! I do already have the heatbed PCBs and the big DC power supply, so I guess I'm looking for a solution that matches that. I guess I'm kind of fond of using low voltage where possible too.by pugzor - General
Sorry if this has been asked before, but what's the rated life of a piece? How many prints on the same area could I expect before it needs replacing?by pugzor - General
Hey all, I'm starting an ambitious build which uses 4x standard MK2B heatbed PCBs to heat up a large print bed. Obviously this is much more power/current than any of the usual controllers can handle (I'll be using a 32bit Smoothieboard or clone). I do have a dedicated power supply just for the heatbeds (720W) but the control is where I'm a bit unsure. I was just going to use some standard autoby pugzor - General
QuoteDownunder35m A jhead is not designed to be all metal. With no heat break and cooling the entire head will heat up and that is nothing anyone would want. Hmm, that's unfortunate then haha. Guess I'll have to get creative with a solution then. Appreciate the reply!by pugzor - Printing
Hey all, Overnight I installed an all-metal Jhead clone and had an unusual experience; the brass push connector (my machine is a delta so it's running a Bowden setup) had ended up acting as a heatsink for the hotend! I only came to this deduction because I opened it up this morning and found that the brass connector, which connects to the PTFE feeder tube, had blocked up with molten PLA... yetby pugzor - Printing
Hey there, I'm building a large-ish CoreXY and wanted to control the Z axis with three NEMA 17's. Two on the front corners and one on the rear. I guess they could be operated separately for bed leveling but let's not worry about that just yet. Anyway, I was hoping to run them in parallel from a standard Mega2560 and RAMPS 1.4 board. Is this possible at all? Motor specs would be this in a NEby pugzor - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
Anyone got any ideas? I'm desperate.by pugzor - Printing
Guys? Anyone able to give me a hand? It's driving me nuts and I haven't managed to get help.by pugzor - Delta Machines