Micron 180 - LDO Kit build

[mvdveer]

My list of todo's:

1. Switchwire (VS.486) Revival - Canbus conversion, Voron Tap installation with bed mount mod, replacing BTT skr3 mini with Octopus board and removing the key back by installing the Z-motor Brake.

2. Voron 2.4 300mm (v2.4008) - Convert to Canbus, install chaotic labs TAP, reprint some parts that I am not happy with.

3. VZBot 330 - rebuild to new version, Upgrade printer control board from BTT SKR 3 EZ Max to Octopus pro with TMC5160 drivers, Canbus and Rapido hotend.

Currently printing the parts for this. First build was a dual Z-motor setup. Switching to single Z and AWD (4 motors for X and Y). Again had the heated aluminium cut locally - in retrospect not the best solution - ordered a new bed from the Mellow Store on Ali Express. Should be here in 3 weeks.

4. Rat-Rig V-Minion build - kit been lying around for some time now. (including mods suggested by @Penatr8tor). Waiting for some more ASA/ABS  filament from the local supplier in V-Minion green ) - out of stock at present. Once filament arrives, will start printing the mods ready to rock and roll. One thing I noticed whilst unpacking is that the linear rails are absolutely soaked in oil.

Still waiting for the filament - Siiighhhh. Just not prepared to pay double the filament price for shipping to Australia. 

5. Voron Micron 180mm build - LDO kit arrived from Fabreeko (now this kit really impressed me - starting from the packaging) - needed a challenge after reading the experience and following the build of @Maurici.  Did not follow the live build of Steve, but have watched his stream. So set to go.

LET'S GO!

6. Vorron Tridex 300mm build - kit arrived from Formbot - must be better option than ERCF for multicolour printing. Would probably definitely use this more than the ERCF. (I know for sure as the ERCF is already packed in a waterproof tub and stored away.)

Kit has arrived bur in stead of a 350mm , I stupidly/Absentmindedly ordered a 300mm kit. Awaiting the 350mm extrusions.

MAYBE: ( @Maurici suggested a donation of fuel for a bonfire)

7.  Ender 5 - Conversion to Voron 2.4 or Mercury one. (These have been done and have joined the discord channels) May even consider a conversion to a Trident. Why would I want to convert? Because I can. Already have linear rails and afterburner toolhead on the printer)

8. Ender 5 Plus - As above - Have already converted to linear rails and afterburner.

9. Ender 3 pro - Switchwire conversion (Release 2) - Already has linear rails and afterburner

10 Ender CRX - Swithcwire conversion - Hardly ever used this printer - only upgrades done are Bondtech extruders and improved cooling for the toolhead (Bowden setup)

 

On to the Micron Build..........

 

[mvdveer]

As I said before - very impressed with the LDO kit.

All parts printed.

Color scheme: 

Main - 3D BRO ABS Pro Sparkle Radiant Filament - Sparkle Obsidian Black

Accent - 3D BRO ABS Pro Sparkle Radiant Filament - Sparkle Purple

                              

Electronics: Raspberry Pi 4B, BTT Octopus v1.1 

On to the actual build.

[mvdveer]

Micron Manual pages 1-25  

Micron /manual - WIP - 6-20-23 (As it says a work in progress and only covers this section, then nothing. Hartk is working on this according to the discord channel)

The Micron manual ONLY references to the 120mm build where the Micron-WIP manual references both the 120 and 180 (Micron +) build.

Finally started the build and would like to share some observations. I got the LDO kit from Fabreeko and am highly impressed with this kit. First thing that caused some pause was organising the extrusions. The manual calls for 10X B-extrusions (280mm) . The LDO kit only has 8 of these and 2 slightly longer extrusions (310mm), to be used for the bed, without the corner brackets. (Found this out by watching Steve's build from January this year).

Like the Voron 0, Trizero and Boxzero the micron uses 1515 extrusion. This is important as ALL nuts have to be pre-loaded. I again went with the "no drop nuts" option. There are differences in the two manuals as to how many nuts are needed to be pre-loaded. ( I loaded as per the "WIP"manual ) Neither manual calls out preloading nuts into the lower extrusion inner aspect for mounting the din rails. Also bear in mind that if you are considering mods like LED's or camera mounts, then you need to load these nuts at this stage in the build.  I mounted extra nuts for the din rails, wago mount in the electronics bay, Chamber LED's in the two top extrusions and camera mount in the top extrusion. Let's hope I don't have to take the frame apart to mount more.

Considering all these options, the frame was assembled on the back of a 6mm mirror to ensure squareness. With the LDO kit, had to deviate from the manual when mounting the bed extrusions as these did not require the 1515_corner_brackets. These were fitted to the frame with blind joints using M3x6BHSC into the no drop nuts of the lower front and lower back extrusion.

The WIP manual calls out the distances for mounting the bed extrusions for the Micron + (180mm build). The Micron manual only specifies the distances for the 120mm build:

Another difference in the two manuals occur after page 23. After mounting the deck panel, the micron manual moves on to the Z-joints, where the micron-WIP manual calls for mounting the din rails before moving on to the Z-Joints. Thus, I mounted the din rails at this point. 

On to the Z-joints. The Micron manual has two options for the Z-joints - Z JOINTS (Option 1 KGLM-03 Spherical Bearing, Option 2 Using M3x20 BHSC in different printed parts). The LDO kit comes with the KGLM bearings and that option was utilised. The WIP manual only has this option, so it seems this is the direction the developers are heading in. 

As the WIP manual so elegantly states:

 

I have been FRAMED.

 

Next BELTED Z-DRIVES (pages 27 - 36)

 

[Penatr8tor]

Looks good so far.

This is the part of the build where you feel like your covering a lot of ground...

 

 

...then comes the crimping. 

[mvdveer]

37 minutes ago, Penatr8tor said:

.then comes the crimping. 

Don't remind me. Will have to get "crimpers for ants" 

 

[mvdveer]

Another point of difference in the manuals are the orientation of the nut carriage for 2mm nuts in the WIP manual as compared to the old manual. The WIP manual has the rail, nuts and plastic nut carrier. (Also how Steve did his in the build)

as opposed to  rail, plastic printed carrier, nuts in the old manual

 

I mounted these as per the WIP manual and as per Steve's build.

 

[mvdveer]

Micron Manual Page 27 - 36: Z-Drives

Micron - WIP manual - Only has two completed pages on the Z-Drive. One that is quite important in my opinion.

The micron manual calls for two spacers in assembly of the Z-Drive pulley and assumes you are using the printed 64T pulleys. The importance to the page from the WIP manual , is that it calls out the length of the pulleys you are going to use, in order to print the correct spacers. 

The problem: The micro manual asks for a 2.2mm and 3.4mm printed spacer. However there is no 3.4mm spacer in the stl folder.

The manual does not indicate whether this is for the printed or aluminium 64T pulley. Neither does it take into account the length of the GT2 16T pulleys.

You will also notice there are two folders 14L and 15.5L. This is where the page in the WIP manual explains the meaning:

Thus for the LDO kit, which came with 15.5 mm pulleys, the correct spacers are 5.2mm and 1.2mm if you are using the printed 64T gear or 2.6mm and 2mm if you are using the metal gears. 

Well as I printed everything before starting assembly, I printed the whole lot. Lesson learned - read the manual before printing parts! I normally read the manual 2 or 3 times prior to assembly, but not before printing.

Now these spacers are not essential - it just helps aligning the pulleys on the shaft.

Assembly of the shafts went without a  hitch after this.

There are two baseplates for the feet, depending on what is supplied in the kit. The LDO kit ships with the Voron2.4r2 feet and not the V0 style feet. Thus used the "amp" feet. (Printed both sets )

 

I skipped the part in the manual that mounts the electronic hinge plate as I intend to use the hartk1213 electronics bay mod.

The importance of reading the manual is highlighted in the instructions on page 36 concerning the pre-loaded nuts. One nut has to be moved into position between the Z-Drive and the motor mount:

     

There is no tensioner for the motor belt as in the V2.4r2. At this point the pulleys on the motors were not tightened and they where aligned with the printed 64T fully, locktite applied to the grub screws and tightened into place.

 

 

Next Z-Idlers.

[mvdveer]

Micron Manual pages 37 - 45 Z-Idlers:

Page 38 calls for M3X16 BHSC to be used for the Z-Tensioner, but they are wayyyy too long. And the LDO kit had no M3x16 BHSC. The correct size is M3x12 BHSC, which the LDO kit has plenty of.

Skipped pages 40 and 412 as I am not using the sexbolt endstop, rather going to fit either BOOP (currently in Beta4)  or a Beacon Probe/Scanner. I plan on using one of the two I have in the VZBot AWD resurrection. LEt's see how I feel when I get to that stage in the build.

Hit a snag with the bed heater. As I imported the kit from Fabreeko in the USA, a 120V silicone heater-pad was supplied.

 

Australia is 240V. E-mailed @Fabreeko_Hector and awaiting his advice. Don't want to ruin the LDO kit by fitting a heater-pad knock off from Aliexpress.  

Fitted the bed wago mount (not in the manual) as it makes maintenance to the printer much easier by being able to remove the bed assembly.

Bed assembly fitted to the frame, although I know I have to take it off again to fit the heater when a replacement arrives/is sourced.

Another deviation from the manual - The hardware to mount the bed is indicated as M3x16SHSC which is way too short. Ended up using M3x20 BHSC. I guess it depends on the size of the M4 Knurled nuts.

The LDO kit is supplied with a DarkRock build plate - will gives this a go.  The good thing about the Micron + build (180mm), is that it uses the same sized build plate as the Prusa Mini, so should not be too difficult to source a PEI plate for it.

 

Next Up - Gantry

[mvdveer]

Micron Manual Page 46 - 85 Gantry

Now this was fiddly for clumsy hands. And may I say the micron manual needs some serious work. I guess that is why there is the WIP- manual. For the belts routing on both the Z-Motors and the AB drives, I would refer any newbie to the Voron 2.4 manual as this is so much clearer than the Micron manual.

The AB idlers were a pain to build. Cannot remember the amount of times I had to start again. Kept loosing the bearings and washers once I removed the screw as per the instruction manual to install the tensioner. I ended up building the stack, slowly advancing the screw through the tensioner. Must say, this worked so much better.

Skipped the klicky-probe section as I planed to use the mini-stealth orbiter version, with a beacon probe from @atrushing. Stupidly, without thinking printed the Switchwire beacon X-Carriage from that repo - only problem is, that it is not for a MGN9 rail. Will have to rethink this and perhaps go Boop instead.

Cute little printer:

Still to do - Toolhead and Electronics. Might start the electronics as I am not sure which way I am going with the toolhead, other than it will use a Revo Voron Hotend  - Love those things.

 

Next: Electronics

 

[atrushing]

3 hours ago, mvdveer said:

Skipped the klicky-probe section as I planed to use the mini-stealth orbiter version, with a beacon probe from @atrushing. Stupidly, without thinking printed the Switchwire beacon X-Carriage from that repo - only problem is, that it is not for a MGN9 rail. Will have to rethink this and perhaps go Boop instead.

I checked the Micron GitHub page and their MiniAB MGN9 carriage wouldn't need too much work. I couldn't find anything from them about a Beacon3D mount though.

[mvdveer]

8 hours ago, atrushing said:

wouldn't need too much work

That would be great thanks - much prefer your version of the mini- stealth.

8 hours ago, atrushing said:

I couldn't find anything from them about a Beacon3D mount though.

The switchwire X-carrriage you have in the Orbitor 2 repository, has the beacon mount, if that would help

[Penatr8tor]

@mvdveer Looking really clean! 

[mvdveer]

1 hour ago, Penatr8tor said:

@mvdveer Looking really clean! 

Thanks, really enjoying this build.

[Killajoedotcom]

Also building a Micron 180! Good to see you documenting your progress. I'm terrible at keeping up with the details like this. Happy you're eyeing the Mini S-Orbiter. Would be cool to see this implemented for the Micron.

[atrushing]

16 hours ago, mvdveer said:

The switchwire X-carrriage you have in the Orbitor 2 repository, has the beacon mount, if that would help

The Beacon mount will take some more work since the Micron screw spacing is 30.6mm but the Beacon spacing is 31.6mm and to fit more hotends I had placed it 3.5mm further back than the standard Micron x-carriage would allow.

3 hours ago, Killajoedotcom said:

Would be cool to see this implemented for the Micron.

For now, here is the standard Micron x-carriage only modified to fit the Mini Stealth Orbiter 2.0. It should be directly compatible with the Micron carriage_probe_mount.

Micron_mgn9c_toolhead_carriage_Mini_Stealth.stl

[mvdveer]

5 hours ago, atrushing said:

here is the standard Micron x-carriage only modified to fit the Mini Stealth Orbiter 2.0

Thank you - appreciate your efforts . Don't spent too much time on it, your Vorpal takes precedence. For the moment I am happy go with Boop and the Voron Mini-Stealthburner. Can always replace this at a later stage.

[mvdveer]

Micron Manual page 86 - 90 Electronics

As this is a 180mm build and the manual is for a 120mm build, I skipped the instructions in the manual altogether. Also realised (after printing the parts), that the Hartk123 electronics mod was for a bigger power supply - more parts in the bin!

Lay out the electronics - it is a tight fit.

[mvdveer]

9 hours ago, Killajoedotcom said:

Also building a Micron 180!

See you have a front idler mod and using the beefier Z-Idlers.

[Killajoedotcom]

13 hours ago, mvdveer said:

See you have a front idler mod and using the beefier Z-Idlers.

Good eye

[mvdveer]

Micron Manual Page 80 - Mini Afterburner. 

Only one page in the Micron manual referring you to the manual of the V0.2 build. Opened that up - pages 157 - 188.

Enjoyed building this - was quite fun. 

Build Boop, mounted to the rails and mounted the toolhead.

Mounted and wired the Mellow Fly SHT36 v2. (Crimping those small connecters is a real pain!)

AC wiring in Electronics bay done.

Awaiting the 240V heater pad for the printbed before I can sign off on the AC wiring.

Next - Wiring in the motors

 

[atrushing]

On 8/13/2023 at 11:35 AM, mvdveer said:

the mini-stealth orbiter version, with a beacon probe

I have worked up something that should work but doesn't use very common screws. With the offsets, overhangs and collision avoidance it requires M3x28 screws and it would be best if they were flathead. The screws shown are 25mm and 30mm long and you can see the issues (the 30mm would hit the MGN9C carriage and the 25mm would have minimal thread engagement). Also, this carriage would only be compatible with the Beacon and no longer with the standard Micron probe mounts. I suppose something could be designed to use more standardized screws but that would involve creating a new connection system while still including the X-axis endstop.

This design would also not work with hotends that have larger heat blocks..

 

Micron_mgn9c_toolhead_carriage_Mini_Stealth_Beacon3D.stl Micron_mgn9c_Probe_mount_Beacon3D.stl

[Killajoedotcom]

On 8/19/2023 at 6:41 AM, atrushing said:

I have worked up something that should work but doesn't use very common screws. With the offsets, overhangs and collision avoidance it requires M3x28 screws and it would be best if they were flathead. The screws shown are 25mm and 30mm long and you can see the issues (the 30mm would hit the MGN9C carriage and the 25mm would have minimal thread engagement). Also, this carriage would only be compatible with the Beacon and no longer with the standard Micron probe mounts. I suppose something could be designed to use more standardized screws but that would involve creating a new connection system while still including the X-axis endstop.

This design would also not work with hotends that have larger heat blocks..

Micron_mgn9c_toolhead_carriage_Mini_Stealth_Beacon3D.stl 1.92 MB · 1 download Micron_mgn9c_Probe_mount_Beacon3D.stl 376.25 kB · 0 downloads

Would a shim or two under the head of the 30mm screw space it down enough without issues?

[atrushing]

1 hour ago, Killajoedotcom said:

Would a shim or two under the head of the 30mm screw space it down enough without issues?

It could work with flathead screws but then they start getting very close to the same height as the nozzle.

The overhang at the bottom of the carriage is already steeper than the typical 45° but I might be able to re-work the highlighted section so the heatset inserts can sit lower to work better with 25mm screws. The only problem is that I will be on vacation for the next couple weeks..

[mvdveer]

FINISH LINE in sight.

The build is nearly done - awaiting the heater pad replacement, then I will install the panels.

Installed the firmware to the octopus and Mellow Fly SHT36v2 Can Board. This took me most of the weekend as there are no clear instructions on how to go about this task. The Mellow website says the board comes shipped with the installed boatloader, however I could not install the latest klipper firmware - did not get an UUID for the SHT36.b(Despite flashing it multiple times)

Went searching and found various sites with limited information on it. Finally got the board in dfu mode and installed the latest katapult canboot loader.

To save anyone else the hassle, I posted a tutorial here.

All is working, save the printbed (no heater pad ). Will have to wait with further progress until this arrives and is installed.

[mvdveer]

NEARLY THERE.

Heater pad ordered and received from Keenovo.

Heater pad installed and wired - done

Belts tuned and adjusted - done

Panels and door fitted - done

Iinitial configuration tests - done.

Input shaping - done.

Ellis Tuning guide opened and printer tuned

Pressure advance - done

Voron Test Cube - Printing - Looking good so far

Next - Serial Request.