I second the fireproof building materials suggestion, you really don't want anything with multiple heat sources enclosed inside something that can burn. If you're going to have a fan you're probably not going want to have it exhausting heat for the whole time the printer is running or it will never get hot enough. You might have to set the fan on a thermostat or set it for a warm up cycle whereby Shreks donkey - General
What type of couplings are using on your steppers? I've had similar issues on two of my printers when I was running flexible couplings - the type with a helical slot between the screw and the stepper. It drove me nuts for a while trying to work out what was going on. I switched to solid couplings just to eliminate that as a possibility and my issues were solved.by Shreks donkey - CoreXY Machines
I bet your inbox is full of messages from people wanting those parts. I've had my sanity tested by a 3d printer before, mine was a Tevo Tarantula that someone gave me to fix up. They'd fixed it to the point where nothing worked. I got seriously pissed off at it quite a few times but I never actually got violent with it. I did threaten it a few times though.by Shreks donkey - General
It looks like I've solved the skipped steps issue. I installed a set of header extension pins below the driver module and put another heatsink underneath directly on the chip. I confounded things a bit and flashed some new firmware (the latest Marlin 2.0 bugfix from github) at the same time though. I configured the new firmware to use the new JUNCTION_DEVIATION jerk control & also enabled Sby Shreks donkey - Controllers
Thanks for the extra info! The more I read about the Duet boards the more I want one.by Shreks donkey - Controllers
Ah I see now I'm on the laptop. It looked like a single slash on my phone. Cheersby Shreks donkey - Firmware - Marlin
I've had some second rate crap lately too. I had an MKS GEN L board with a faulty voltage regulator and it set drivers to operate at twice the normal VRef. I also had a box set of A4988's that had trimpots that did nothing and the VRef was a constant 0.62v. I've come to expect crap when I buy Chinese but I normally buy through ebay and it's not too hard to get a refund. It's just a great wasteby Shreks donkey - Controllers
Awesome guys, thanks for the feedback! You have confirmed all the concepts I wanted to be clear on and enlightened me on a few things I knew nothing about. Now I feel more confident making firmware changes to suit these boards. Muchas Gracias Edit: @dc42 - Does the Duet Maestro run in UART mode as standard? You seem to have a lot of hands on experience with the symptoms generated when the drby Shreks donkey - Controllers
Thanks for this I'm just working my way through a new setup for v 2.0 and I wasn't 100% clear on the new jerk setup. Just to clarify your single slash there is for a comment and not a division sign? And did you enable S_CURVE_ACCELERATION?by Shreks donkey - Firmware - Marlin
I'm running mine on a 24v supply so from what I've seen they should be more reliable as you noted @Pippy. So from reading the instructable I linked above my understanding was that TMC2208_STANDALONE mode is mode 2 and that only works for chips that have had the OTP bit set to change them to spreadcycle mode. My original firmware was setup with TMC2208_STANDALONE mode but I couldn't see the poiby Shreks donkey - Controllers
No takers? So to answer my own question, I configured new Marlin 2.0 firmware myself and set the drivers as A4988's and ran that and it works just the same as it did with the other firmware which had them set in TMC_STANDALONE mode, it still skips steps. No-one got back to me on the facebook group but it's starting to seem like some of the people posting firmware there are just tweaking other sby Shreks donkey - Controllers
I'm trying to get to the bottom of a layer shift issue and working through some pre-configured firmware (marlin bugfix 2.0) to try and make sense of it. The firmware came from a facebook users group and made no mention of being configured for OTP mode. I never seem to get any answers when I post there, so I thought I'd ask here. I'm running TMC 2208's on the X,Y & Z and an LV 8729 on the exby Shreks donkey - Controllers
I had a similar problem with one of my printers ( a Tevo Tornado) where it would do random X or Y homing mid print, it was like it decided to have a bludge when it thought no-one was looking and take a rest break mid-print. It drove me nuts trying to work out what was going on and I ended posting a question about on the ultimaker forum because I thought it was an issue with Cura. One of the modsby Shreks donkey - Printing
It sounds like you've had a tough time with it mate, we've all been there and most of us more than once. I've had my sanity tested by a few printers over the last few years so I feel for you man. I'm no expert so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm just wondering if you were using a different type of thermistor in the hotend when you changed to the E3D V6. The E3D's use the newer cartridgby Shreks donkey - Printing
As far as resources go for designing gears and gear trains goes. A few come to mind. There's an online gear generator that's been up for a while but I think you have to pay a small fee to use it these days. Inskape has a provision to design gears but I never persevered with it as it wasn't very intuitive to me. Onshape has a gear generator feature script which I used recently to knock out aby Shreks donkey - General
This is all sorted now, the first layer is as perfect as I've ever seen it and the outline for the holes are staying where they are printed. I've done a few single layer level test prints and it's measuring consistently 0.3mm everywhere, which is awesome because my bed has some serious distortion in it. Thanks for the assistance @Roberts_Clif, I really appreciate you taking the time to set me onby Shreks donkey - General
I'm using digital calipers too. 0.35mm really did seem a bit much to me too, I'm used to just going by intuition and it just looked a bit high when it did the cleaning run. Thanks for the feedback it's always good to get another opinion/perspective , I'll adjust my offset and make sure I'm not cancelling the mesh leveling and run a few tests tomorrow.by Shreks donkey - General
I come from a mechanical engineering background and I've struggled with this type of problem quite a bit too. When we design something to be machined from metal or injection molded we're working with very precise tolerances but the average 3D printer plays by a slightly different set of rules. When we slice something we have several confounding factors that don't occur with a machined part. Theby Shreks donkey - General
Thanks for the reply @Roberts_Clif, I'll revise my start code tomorrow when I'm not as intoxicated and see how it turns out. Does 0.35mm seem like a good first layer height for a 0.4mm nozzle printing PLA? I'd normally run it bit lower for a 0.4mm nozzle but the brim looked excellent and was almost that exact thickness all around, although I'm only measuring with verniers so they could be a biby Shreks donkey - General
----------SOLVED---------- Here we go again, another first layer problem thread. I really thought I had this sussed ages ago but it's come back to haunt me. So I do a manual bed mesh leveling routine (9 points) using a piece of paper (0.12mm thick) as a feeler gauge and save the settings. I have LCD bed leveling enabled in the firmware and save the settings, so I assume the next G28 called befoby Shreks donkey - General
That video was the inspiration for the TCM's and the LV driver modules. I have it running that configuration now, it's running quieter and giving me a better finish on my prints. I was thinking of setting them up in UART mode but I need to do a bit more homework before I plunge into that. There's a good series on the different modes they run on youtube.by Shreks donkey - Controllers
Yeah it did have a single Z axis motor when my mate got it, it was a top mount setup on a flimsy acrylic plate. He set it up with dual Z steppers mounted on the bottom with brackets from thingiverse printed from PLA but the brackets he printed melted from the heat of the steppers and they were softening up and distorting every time the machine ran. So I ditched the printed brackets and ordered soby Shreks donkey - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
I played around quite a bit with these stepper drivers over the last week and they just don't want to run the steppers at a reasonable temp without missing steps. I have them on separate drivers Z and E1, if I make a split cable and run them both from the same driver will that halve their operating current and enable them to run cooler?by Shreks donkey - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
Just an update if anyone was interested. I looked around quite a bit for info about this with no luck, so it seems like it's an unusual problem. It ended with a dead A4988 driver module (I'm guessing from the abnormally high voltage) and it didn't want to waste any more time with the MKS board so I just threw a new board at it and now all is well.I can only assume the other board had a faulty voby Shreks donkey - Controllers
I've just replaced an MKS Gen L V1 board and I had problems with the steppers as soon as I powered it on. It had jerky movement on the X axis and then it failed to home and halted. The Z axis didn't even move. I thought I'd check the V Ref on the stepper drivers (generic A4988 modules) and the V Ref is roughly double what it was when the modules were in the old board. They were running at 0.89vby Shreks donkey - Controllers
Reducing the current was my first thought too and I have dialled it back a bit on both drivers but it still seems the same. I didn't want to go too far down that route in case I went too far on one side and it started losing steps, they were out of sync and skipping steps when I first got it & I'm sure it caused some minor psychological damage trying to figure out what was happening. I'm noby Shreks donkey - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
I'm rebuilding a printer for a friend, it's a Tevo Tarantula. If you ever hear the words Tevo & Tarantula mentioned in the same breath do yourself a favour and head for the nearest exit. II could really go off on a tangent here but I'll leave it at that. I's got an MKS Base V1.4 board with dual Z nema 17's, one is attached the Z driver and the other one is running from E1. They are drivingby Shreks donkey - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
They are really large layer shifts. The only time I've had layer shifts anywhere near that magnitude was when I was printing while the washing machine was running. Every time the motor switches off the field collapses & the counter EMF puts a spike back through the houses' wiring and causes the steppers do all sorts of crazy stuff. Anything that switches an inductive load (like a motor) onby Shreks donkey - Printing
Yeah that seems like what's happened, I must have put 24v through it with the brush . When I saw sparks my heart skipped a few beats. I like that E3D cartridge setup, it seems like a better way to secure the thermistor than a dinky little screw and it would be much more resistant to my bungling. I was thinking of upgrading the hotend so that's clenched the deal. Thanks for all the input guys, Iby Shreks donkey - Controllers
Quotedc42 There is only one ADC in the microcontroller, with a multiplexer to select which input it reads. Over voltage on one input usually wrecks the ADC, not just that input. Shorts between thermistor and fan or heater connections on the hot end are quite common, so Duet electronics is designed to survive these shorts. See . A multiplexed ADC would certainly explain why it happened, thanks fby Shreks donkey - Controllers