"Squirrelbrained" V-Minion - a Non Voron Build

[mvdveer]

Had the kit for about 6months now, but was awaiting Rat Rig Green ASA filament form the local supplier. (The cost to import the suff to Australia is about the same as the price of the filament. Well it finally arrived and I started printing and commenced the build.

Frame:

     

Z-Rails:

  

Spot the mistake - When preparing the parts outlined is Two MGN15 rails - so I mounted both. No wonder when it came to the Y-axis, I was scratching my head - where is the other MGN15 rail - lightbulb moment.

Y-Axis:

  

Z- Axis:

 

 

Finally realised my stupid blunder and removed the MGN15 from the Left side of the Z Extrusion, mounted it on the Y-Rail and at last I could mount the bed.

  

Whilst I was at it, did the Y-Cable chain mod.  (Thanks to @Penatr8tor) The BOM for this uses a 15x10 open cable chain. However I had plenty of 11X10 open cable chain, so used that instead. Moving pretty good on the Y-Axis with this size chain.

 

Decided I will do the Z-Cable chain mod as well - printing those parts now before continuing the build.

Also doing the base for the electronics and the EVA Toolhead Mod.  The only mod I am not doing as I came across it to late is the belted-Z for the minion. (An excuse to mod later, I guess) I can say this V-Minion has been "squirrelbrained"

[mvdveer]

X-Axis :

Mounted the reprinted X-Motor carriage and ran into a sng. The printed parts have the chain connectors printed on them - thus in search for a 15x10 cable chain - found one!

   

 

This mod incorporated the chain for the x-axis. Did not have enough 15x10 chain, but plenty of 11X10 which I managed to fit quite nicely.

 

On to the Toolhead.

 

 

 

[Penatr8tor]

Wow... Look at that. How awesome!

Squirrelbrain created a lot of really good mods for the V-Minion. I really like the case he designed. Yeah, it's tight but there also isn't much real estate to work with.

I'm still running an umbilical and the cable chain mods look pretty cool. Fortunately, I have a breakout box between the printer and the case so upgrading to the drag chains might not be so painful. 

Upgrading to the EVA 3 toolhead is right up there with printing a Stealthburner versus Afterburner.

@mvdveer What hotend extruder combo are you going with? The stock dragonfly/LGX Lite maybe? I know you're a Revo guy but... the Rapido is a pretty awesome hotend... 

[mvdveer]

4 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

The stock dragonfly/LGX Lite maybe

For the time being, just going to run with this combo. Got to have an excuse to mod later 

[Penatr8tor]

18 hours ago, mvdveer said:

For the time being, just going to run with this combo. Got to have an excuse to mod later 

Nothing wrong with that combo actually. I had really good results with no issues running it. Actually, I had much better results with the dragonfly versus the dragon I had on my V2.4. Strange that this hotend rarely gets a mention. I guess everyone is focused on the latest greatest and some really good products get pushed to the side just because the spotlight is aimed at something else.

[atrushing]

1 hour ago, Penatr8tor said:

Actually, I had much better results with the dragonfly versus the dragon I had on my V2.4. Strange that this hotend rarely gets a mention.

Yeah, I am pretty happy with the Dragonfly and I'm getting almost 20mm3/sec with it. Phaetus even says that it has a higher flow rate than the Dragon SF due to the heat transfer of its conical connection. I would like to try the Dragon HF but I guess that will wait till my next printer build..

[Penatr8tor]

4 minutes ago, atrushing said:

Yeah, I am pretty happy with the Dragonfly and I'm getting almost 20mm3/sec with it. Phaetus even says that it has a higher flow rate than the Dragon SF due to the heat transfer of its conical connection. I would like to try the Dragon HF but I guess that will wait till my next printer build..

Makes sense... I think my dragon was the HF model. It's what I ordered with my formbot kit. A lot of people complained about the Dragon clogging but I never had any problems so... TBH, I'm sold on the LGX Lite / Rapido combo and if the VzBot didn't come with the hextrudort and goliath I would have went that route. 

[mvdveer]

Toolhead finished 

What an interesting way to square the gantry?

It has been a long time since I had to feed 15 wires from the toolhead to the electronics. Give me the 4 wire Canbus any day!

Printer build.

On to the electronics - you guessed it - squirrelbrain mod.

[Penatr8tor]

The drag chain mods really clean up the printer. Looking really nice @mvdveer.

I would recommend swapping out the top cap for the Vector3D one with bowden tube. The filament comes off the roll from the bottom and runs upwards into a bowden tube then back down into the extruder creating a nice smooth S curve. Bowden mod

[mvdveer]

Well electronics done. Boy the space is tight

Wired the electronics box. Cannot believe I fitted an Octopus board, Raspi 3 B, power supply and all wiring in there.

Flashed RatOS and configured Klipper - Though nothing connected as yet. No magic smoke - always a good sign.

Struggling to get touch to work on some old 5" HDMI screens.

Went with the Vector 3D breakout board. However, when I ordered there were no kits left, only bare boards. Sourced all the components. At this point, most of it is assembled, just waiting for some micro fit connectors to arrive from Element 14.  Struggled to get hold of those. No Australian stock - awaiting UK stock to arrive.

Here she is - will be a fortnight before I get her live and printing.

    

Quite happy how she turned out

 

[Penatr8tor]

Really nice work @mvdveer

You will be very happy with the performance. I call it the little printer that could, LOL, because it just prints without fail.

FWIW... I printed all of the black Squirrelbrain case parts on the V-Minion.

[mvdveer]

The machine is done. But boy did I have a struggle with probe. The kit came with a PINDA probe. Installed this from the start. Did the Vector 3D PCB mod, (that crimping was a pain0 - everything working perfectly.......... EXCEPT that damn probe. No matter what I tried - NO LUCK (Checked the crimping, Checked continuity between the Octopus and PCD, Checked wiring, changed probe pins, wired directly to the Octopus, Changed the pull-up resistor, Removed the Bat diode, Soldered a bridge where  the diode was meant to be, connected directly to the board on the BLTouch port, connected to the prov=be port on the octopus - - - -  NIL, NADA, NIX!!!!!!) Nothing got the probe to do what it was supposed to. Funny thing - the probe had power and when  a metal object was introduced, it triggered (light went out)., but RatOS klipper REFUSED to acknowledge the probe. After two days of cursing and frustration, I grabbed a BLTouch (brand new, never used - those who know me - I am paranoid about spares) - wired this - and Whala!!!!!- it works first time around. Removed the SupaPinda, installed the BLTOuch and away we go.

Thanks for following - here she is - finished and ready to be put to work!

 

 

[YaaJ]

Everytime I see such a printer (cantilever), I imagine a second bed on the other side, as well as a longer X axis with a second head.

If the second bed and second head (or weight) moves the opposite direction, maybe the machine could auto cancel vibrations. (but at first glance, the two beds could generate a reciprocating rotational movement). This most likely was experimented, but never seen such a design. (similar thing has been done on at least one core XY)

[Penatr8tor]

@mvdveer The printer turned out awesome! I really want to do the X-Z drag chain mod. 

Do you think the Pinda probe might be bad? I have them on both my RatRigs and there was zero issues with klipper recognizing it. You may have just gotten a bad unit. I also swapped out the stock Pinda for a legit Prusa Super Pinda, granted I didn't see any benefit one way or the other. Just thinking that the cheapo clone one that comes with the kit is more likely to have quality issues.

Hopefully we get an update soon on your experience printing with it. 

[mvdveer]

2 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

Do you think the Pinda probe might be bad? I

Yep, it has to be - no other explanation. 

 

2 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

Hopefully we get an update soon on your experience printing with it. 

Just have to tune it, then I will post an update. Time unfortunately is not on my side this time of the year.

[mvdveer]

Well, she is up and running and printing. But not without a snag or two. Despite setting the Z_Offset, the nozzle dug into the print plate (and I was not really paying close enough attention at the time)  - goodbye new PEI plate. Not that bad, still usable but my OCD won't allow me to continue using this. New one ordered.

    

Ellis Tunig guide followed. All done except input shaping. 9Got spoiled with the input shaper on the canbus boards - will have to connect manually)

 

 

Closing the thread - thanks to all for your support and advice. 

[BeerMedic522]

So how does this printer compare with a V0.2?? Looking to do a small footprint printer, can’t decide…

[mvdveer]

8 hours ago, BeerMedic522 said:

So how does this printer compare with a V0.2?? Looking to do a small footprint printer, can’t decide…

Vo is a 120x120 build, enclosed and capable of printing ABS, ASA and other filaments that need an enclosed environment. V-Minion is a 180x180 build - open, thus PLA, PETG , etc. V-Minion comes with RatOS, a purpose specific version of Klipper. Vo is corexY, V-minion is cartesian.

Having one V-minion and three V0's, you know where my sentiments lie. But is all about personal choice.  The Micron comes in a 180 build if you still want a small footprint printer, but bigger than the V0. (Basically a scaled down V2.4) Or the Salad Fork (a scaled down Trident).

In the end, it comes down to what the printer is meant for.

[BeerMedic522]

I don’t need enclosed, just want it for PLA or similar. I have a V2.4 and K1 Max for ABS. Plus I think I like building a little bit more than printing…..

 

So looks like a Minion might just be in my future, and what do you know, Fabreeko has them on sale….

[claudermilk]

Fabreeko sales are dangerous to your bank account <looks at new V0.2>

[Penatr8tor]

20 hours ago, BeerMedic522 said:

I don’t need enclosed, just want it for PLA or similar. I have a V2.4 and K1 Max for ABS. Plus I think I like building a little bit more than printing…..

So looks like a Minion might just be in my future, and what do you know, Fabreeko has them on sale….

Then the V-Minion is a good option. Plus, there are quite a few options for the little beast. 

and... You can really push this little printer.