Bertha's Build Blog

[xyleth]

Well, more of a pre-build blog at this point.  Having seen others work it seems like a good idea to document everything in one place as I go, if only so I can look back and answer the question 'what on Earth was I thinking'!

As an aside, for those of you not raised on 1980's children's TV in the UK the namesake of my newest printer can be seen in action here

As I have pushed my current franken-printer to it's realistic limits I have decided it is time to invest in a new machine.  My requirements are:

• Klipper based firmware
• Enclosed so that I can start to print in ABS/ASA filaments
• Capable of higher speeds than the 40-50mm/s I can currently reliably do
• Greater than 250x250 build plate

My target prints are initially the StageTop gaming table and, longer term, the Q-Pack v4 Ghostbusters Proton Pack replica.  Yes, I am a giant nerd.

After a brief flirtation with an off the shelf Qidi tech X3 series printer I decided that I would just end up re-engineering that as I did with my Ender 5 and might as well build from scratch to my specifications.  To that end I decided on the Voron 2.4 platform, because that flying gantry is beautiful and I hate lead screws, as my target and quickly settled on the 300mm version.

I have placed an order for the Siboor Voron 2.4r2 August '23 kit the BOM for which can be found linked on that page.  Kit was ordered on March 5th for delivery to the UK.  I elected for the generic rails for Z and Y axes and HiWIN for the X axis.  Went for their printed parts for functional parts only in black and blue with the plan to print the decorative parts myself once the printer is up and running.  This kit has a few changes out of the box from the stock Voron BOM:

• 5" Touchscreen for Klipper Screen
• BTT 2209 CAN
• BTT Octopus pro mainboard
• BTT Pi SBC in place of Raspberry Pi
• Nevermore v6
• Cartographer eddy probe
• Stealth Burner with DragonHF hotend
• I also ordered their CNC Aluminium X carriage for the SB and Cartographer

Since ordering I have fallen deeper down the Voron rabbit hole and come up with a list of changes / improvements I want to do during the initial build.

I have, and really like, the E3D Revo high flow hotend on my current printer.  As I can reuse the heater core and nozzles I only need to purchase the Voron Revo cold side hardware.  This, of course, needs a different hotend cartridge for the SB than Siboor ship.  Looking for someone to print that led me to Jamie at https://jb3d.uk/ who has been very helpful. So now I'm getting a entirely updated toolhead assembly in PC-CF.  And while I'm about it I may as well build in the Galileo 2 extruder (printed parts by Jamie, mechanical parts from OneTwo3d) because I like the Orbiter 2 on my current printer and this seems like the Voron equivalent. 

So basically an entirely different hotend assembly from stock.  But that's okay because I have plans that involve toolhead changers in the future, so having a second complete SB assembly is not such a bad thing!

After a bit more reading I also decided to do the Ramalama Front idlers with the kit courtesy of LS Labs.  The Pin mod for the other pulley assemblies looks tempting but as it involves yet more (re)printed parts I've decided to leave those stock and maybe look at it once I can print my own.  I chose this mod because I preferred the look of its tensioning system over the stock one and research suggested people find stringing the belts through it easier.

The RockNRoll mod will probably be very high up the list once I start printing.  I may even print them out in PETG on my current printer as I don't think they'll be exposed to high temperature.

And so here I am.  Waiting for a stream of boxes to start arriving and some awkward questions from my wife about what I'm up to now.  I hope everything will be here before Easter so I can spend some time on it over the long weekend.  Updates will follow as and when things arrive and the build can commence.

[xyleth]

Oh, and in preparation for all of the heat set inserts I'm going to have to do I finally got around to building a inset press:

This is an instance of this design and used parts I had lying around from previous upgrades, with the exception of the 2040 extrusion which I had to by in.  It is printed in PETG on my current printer and works well enough, although the rear carriage binds on the extrusion to the point where it doesn't fall freely under its own weight, so the return mechanism doesn't actually work.  I may start with heating up the insets and moving them fractionally to the side to improve clearance, it probably won't take much.  If that doesn't work then a re-print is in order, maybe at 101%.

[claudermilk]

Yes, the Galieo2 is the Voron version of the Orbiter 2. I just upgraded my Trident with one and it's working really nice so far. I'm in the middle of swapping the MiniSB tool head on my V0 to a Dragon Burner + Galielo2 standalone (4 printed parts is all?). Both running standard flow Revos.

I swapped to the Ramalama front idlers a while ago and like them. When you build them up, remember to be very careful to evenly tighten the tension screws. If they are not evenly tightened, the belt will ride up or down to whichever is too tight and rub. Runnning the belts through it during the build is really easy.

That gaming table topper is interesting looking, you'll have to do a little build thread on that when you get to it. I'm not likely to print one up myself (I have a gen 1 Table Toppers one that I use the heck out of), but I'd be curious to see how well that concept works.

[xyleth]

Received the shipping notification and tracking number this morning.  Excitement is building!

Moving the inserts on the press carriage out slightly using additional heat made them run much more freely and the return now works with the help of 0.5kg of misc M10 nuts and bolts as ballast!

The Galileo 2 kit has arrived, and the idler kit has shipped.

In order to give me something to do I'm printing some of the mods that live outside the chamber, like the RockNRollers, in PETG on my current printer.  It may be displacement activity, and I can always re-print in ABS later, but it at least gives me something to keep me busy

[dasbooter]

Just following along.

[xyleth]

Parts have started to arrive!  These are just some upgrades / alternate parts I've ordered locally or printed myself - the main kit is still in transit.  It has been shipped and I do now have a tracking number though!

These are the hinge and door parts for the ClickyClacky Door mod (minus one hinge I had to re-print).  Printed myself on my current printer in Hatchbox PETG (I really like this colour).  I'm really happy with how these have come out - I've struggled with PETG in the past but seem to have got it dialled in now.

These are the upgraded Stealthburner parts in PC-CF printed by Jamie at jb3d.co.uk.  I'm really happy with them - there's minimal cleanup needed and they slot together nicely.  Not shown is the Voron Revo cold side which also arrived with them.

Here are the Galileo 2 parts, also printed in PC-CF, to go along side the LDO parts kit which arrived earlier in the week.  I spent a happy couple of hours this afternoon assembling this with this result:

I have some questions about the G2 build which I'll raise in a separate thread.

In other news I've also been convinced of the superiority of the Beefy Front and Z Idlers over stock or the Ramalama parts I had ordered.  Luckily the BOM for the front idlers is similar that all I really need is the printed parts.  And while I've at it I've also decided to do the Pin mod for the A/B drives and XY joints.  It satisfies my inner OCD (Slop in the belt drive system?  Not on my watch!) without requiring spending half the cost of the printer again on CNC printed parts .

I'm also considering printing myself a set of the cable management ducts for the electronics bay just to keep everything tidy.

And that's all for this week.

[zav3nd]

5 hours ago, xyleth said:

I'm also considering printing myself a set of the cable management ducts for the electronics bay just to keep everything tidy.

Hopefully the Siboor power supply wires are longer than Formbots. Kinda my biggest complaint on mine so far. All the other wire seem to have more than enough.

 

I ordered some 16 gauge silicone wire to make my own longer. (And then I have it for the next voron!)

[claudermilk]

The cable ducts are well worth it. Neatens up the wiring so much.

[xyleth]

It works!

The results of a fruitful lunch break tinkering.  Other than the new extruder this was made entirely from bits and pieces I had l lying around which was very satisfying.  A RPi 4 with a broken SD Card holder in need of repair and a SKR Mini E3 v2 with a blown cooling part fan port.  I even had to dig out an spare v6 style hotend thermistor to plug into the board!  It's nice when your prudent habit of never throwing anything away / borderline hoarding pays dividends  

Got Klipper installed and setup and the extruder just works . There doesn't seem to be any binding or skipping steps as it rotates and once I got it rotating the right way when you press 'Extrude' filament went right through it.  I had previously taken it apart, sanded some of the contact areas to make the tensioner movement a bit smoother and re-built the gearbox.  All in all pretty happy with it right now, although obviously the proof will be in using it in anger.  Plus I get a test rig I can try steppers and such out on into the bargain.

 

[xyleth]

It's here!

Typically it was delivered while we were out, so the delivery man treated it with their usual care and attention and yeeted (yote?) it over our side gate . Thankfully the packaging from Siboor seems to be up to the task and no damage has been done after a cursory inspection.

Initial impressions are good, everything is securely packed in foam cutouts and I _think_ everything is here, althoughI haven't done a full BOM check.  There's even a nice set of tools included.

Now the work / fun begins!

 

[xyleth]

The frame is built, checked with a engineering square and measured.  All of the diagonal measurements are to within 1mm of one another, as best as I can tell with a tape measure.  Is that square enough?  I'm aware that if I mess this up everything else will be off so I want to be sure it's right before proceeding!

[claudermilk]

That should be good. My Trident 250 is within 0.5mm and prints nice, dimensionally-accurate parts.

[xyleth]

So, more progress today and it’s starting to look printer shaped.  First was putting in the bed supports with some printed spacers to guide me from here.

 

Then on to cleaning and mounting the Z rails.  Soaked the carriages in IPA for 10 minutes or so then flushed through and cleaned the rail.  Left to dry then greased with lithium grease via the LDO flip’n’pack method.  The result is carriages that run smoothly with no binding that I can discern, but are a little slow to drop under gravity.  From previous experience with linear rails that will free up as they run in.

 

Next up heat inserts in the Z-drive assemblies.  So happy I finally made the heat set press!

 

and the base plate mounted too!

Now time to assemble the Z-drives.  Lots of set screws here so lots of thread lock!  This is the stuff I’m using as it’s plastic safe.

It is very goopy and dries into a rubber like coating, essentially turning the thread into like a nylock nut.  I’ve found the best way to apply it is put a few drops on a peice of shiny cardboard bent into a V and then roll the bolts through it and then leave to dry.

Finally assembly and mounting of all the Z-drive units. Really starting to look like something now!

[dasbooter]

I'm appreciating the detail you are going into here especially in terms of squaring the frame and all the engineering machining aspects. I have I guess more of a hacking soldering software background and never had to make something physically perfect or within tolerance. Example looking for a machinist or engineering square, that's where I'm at lol. Bit daunting. Any ways appreciating the detail

[xyleth]

25 minutes ago, dasbooter said:

I'm appreciating the detail you are going into here especially in terms of squaring the frame and all the engineering machining aspects. I have I guess more of a hacking soldering software background and never had to make something physically perfect or within tolerance. Example looking for a machinist or engineering square, that's where I'm at lol. Bit daunting. Any ways appreciating the detail

Glad it's useful!  My thinking is very much that if it is something I don't know / had to go look up then it's probably something someone else might need and putting it here might help someone else down the line.  I know I've certainly learnt a lot by reading other peoples build logs.

[xyleth]

So, onward from yesterday!  First order of business was building and installing the beefy Z idlers. The documentation is next to non-existent for these, but then they are quite simple and assembly is pretty obvious.  I do love that they kept the angry faces from the stock idlers!

 

Next was prepping the bed.  The video linked from the build guide was really helpful for this (as they are in general).  I first scrubbed the plate with some steel wool to rough it up and then washed with IPA and wiped down with a paper towel.  Then applied the magnet and heat bed respectively.  The one thing the manual doesn't mention is that you have to cut out the holes for the screws.  I used a small diameter drill bit to drill through the magnet from the other side through the holes and then used a scalpel to finish it off.  It's currently wighted down while the glue cures.

 

While that sits I moved on to assembling the various pin mod parts.  This includes the A drive with integrated / relocated Y end stop.  This was a real PITA as it is very tight and very little room to manoeuvre.  Took me three attempts to get it working and went through three JST connectors in so doing.  It's not the tidiest job I've ever done but hooking it up to a multimeter shows it works, and a blob of hot glue will hopefully keep it stable and working in place.

It was then just a case of assembling the bearing stacks.  Again the documentation on exactly which pin goes where is...hit and miss to say the least.  It is basically just replace the M5 bolt from the original BOM with the same length Pin, but nowhere is this explicitly stated that I could see.  This video was incredibly helpful here.  Here are the assembled A/B drive without the motors:

And here are the X/Y joints:

And finally here are the beefy front idlers, which do have great documentation:

That was it for today.  Tomorrow hopefully I'll fit the bed and then it is on to building the gantry.  There will be a bit of a pause on the mechanical build here as I'm waiting for some titanium gantry backers - I really must stop reading other peoples build logs and getting ideas!  While I wait for those to arrive from foreign parts I may look to get a head start on the electrical bay and wiring in there.

[xyleth]

Oh and I should say that the pins I were sent were generally good but one or two of them were 0.5mm or so too long.  This isn't a problem on the A/B drives and X/Y joints but on the idlers it would visibly distort the carrier if pressed in.  A few minutes of gentle attention with a file took that extra length off and the fit no problem.  Again its an example of the kind of fettling you need to be prepared to do that I wasn't initially expecting, but probably should have.

[xyleth]

So it's been a day or two and I've made some good progress.

I realised that:

1. The gantry backers would interfere with my locking gantry mounts
2. They would be simple to fit with the gantry in place anyway

So elected to get on with the gantry build and mounting.  This proceeded pretty much as per the instructions, not that much to add.  One note is that if you are using the Beefy Front Idlers then on each side there will be one turn of the Z belt that is very close to the body of the idler.  This felt counter intuitive and is another one of those things that is implied rather than outright stated, although if you look at the picture on the very front of the (otherwise excellent) documentation for the BFIs it clearly shows that's how it is supposed to be.  But that's on the first page and not at the end which is where you'd be when you're thinking about that.  Here they are:

Next was mounting the gantry in the frame.  The instructions are correct that 3 hands would be useful here, but lacking a third hand I resorted to using some reusable zip ties as a kind of ratchet lift to bring it up from the base plate to height:

Once it was at the height I wanted I installed a set of these 150mm Z-locks I'd printed in PETG earlier.  They just twist into place (you will need pliers though) and held the gantry securely in place for what came next:

What came next was running the Z belts and attaching the Z rails.  Here is where I found my first dodgy printed part in the kit:

I hope that if nothing else it will hold out long enough for me to be able to print a replacement.  Luckily these can be replaced without dismantling the entire machine! Someone on Discord suggested replacing all four with this Annex Labs kit so I may investigate that as a replacement / upgrade once it's working.  I want to order the Clicky Clacky door mod from there anyway so may throw that in the cart at the same time.

Speaking of carts I have decided not to cannibalise my current printer for its 60W Revo heater core, which necessitates the purchase of a new one for this printer.  E3D have just dropped their prices for these parts, a rare and welcome occurrence, and put together a range of new bundles.  I've elected to get the high flow X kit which comes with the 60W heater core and two of their high flow ObXidian Revo nozzles in 0.4 and 0.6mm.  My hope is that the Revo X nozzle will serve as a kind of 'does everything' nozzle.  I'm not after world beating speed so the slightly lower flow vs pure brass hopefully won't be a issue, and off set by the benefits of the Obxidan coating.  We will see.

The rest of the assembly proceeded as per the manual and voila - the gantry hangs on it's Z belts:

Not shown in this image but I have also printed some of these belt clips for the Z belts. Much nicer than cable ties!

Then it was on to de-racking the gantry which went pretty much exactly as the documentation and linked video described.  Serioulsy, the videos they link in the instructions are awesome and answer many questions much more effectively than the documentation can.  In fact I've found in general whenever I've had a question some time searching YouTube for a relevant video usually clears it up.

Then it was on to running the A/B belts.  I was not prepared for how fiddly this job is!  And the CNC X-carriage does not help because it doesn't assemble in two parts like the printed one does so clamping the belts is even more of a pain.  As suggested I first ran the A belt and cut it to length, then removed it and trimmed the B belt to the same length before running both belts.  When I was done the B belt was 4 teeth shorter than my A belt which was annoying, and quickly traced to an incorrect run through the B drive assembly.  Judging by the reaction on Discord this is a common error, so watch out!  But now that job is done, all of the belts are installed and everything moves smoothly and freely.

The instructions here direct you off to the Stealth Burner manual, and then back for the electronics bay.  As this kit has the CAN umbilical to the tool head and not X/Y chains I think I will continue on with this build and do the electronics and wiring next, then come back to the tool head at the end once I'm ready to run the umbilical.

As it's the long Easter Weekend coming up I'm hopeful of making good progress.

[xyleth]

Electric bay time!

Lots to do, not many photos.  Mainly mounting things onto DIN rail mounts, discovering I'd installed my DIN rails in the wrong orientation and running out to get tape.

Note that if you are building the Siboor kit there is a error in the wiring guide on page 5, step 5 is wrong - there should be a jumper on the leftmost jumper in that area.  The diagram shows no jumpers.

Also if you have WAGO connectors on a frame, install that frame before you install the power inlet.  Otherwise you'll have to dis-assemble everything to get it in.  Ask me how I know

The kit comes with some conduit which I've affixed with double sided tape, and I'm adding some parts from this cable management mod, mainly the up and over ducts that take wires over the DIN rails.  Currently waiting for two of them to print before proceeding.  There's not a lot of room in the 300mm 2.4 electronics bay so it can't be as neat as the image shown for the 350, but it'll still be better than spaghetti everywhere.

More wiring to come tomorrow!

 

[dasbooter]

Could you comment on some of what you think are the most important upgrades out of the gate. As a would be first time builder i'm trying to figure out what is just an awesome upgrade, what is a QOL update, and what is a save yourself the trouble and replace this now update. Understand if u wanna keep the build log contiguous but maybe at the end you could answer. Looks like your getting close, I imagine myself trying to sneak away from my Easter obligations to make the final push lol. Thanks for the details and pics

[xyleth]

So, that's the long weekend done!  We had family over and I've not been well so perhaps not as much progress as I would have liked, but still got a good bit done.

Last you saw it I had just embarked on wiring the electronics bay.  This is now mostly complete:

Sharp eyed readers will note that I am using WAGO connectors to extend my A/B drive stepper looms.  They are perhaps not the most aesthetically pleasing (although I do plan to replace them with the in line variant) but they are reliable and easy, plus I trust them much more than I trust my soldering!  I will eventually print a small backing plate / housing to tidy them up and connect them to the bottom plate.  The WAGO connectors are also much easier to make changes to if you suddenly discover you have, say, connected the B extension to the incoming A loom.  Hypothetically speaking. 

I also had to break the side of one of the cable trays that hopped over the DIN next to the BTT Pi in order to make room for the HDMI cable to the screen.  This would have been even worse if I'd used the supplied micro-HDMI to full size HDMI converter and full sized HDMI cable, I'm not sure it would have fit next to the Octopus mainboard!  Luckily I had a cable going spare from one of the many rPi kits I've bought over the years.

At this point I also opted to fit the Rock'n'Roll parts I had previously printed.  These have earned their keep already in terms of making the electronics bay easier to access so I'd recommend them to everyone.

After double and triple checking the wiring and continuity checking as much as possible it was time to apply some power and see if it booted up.  It did!

 

The BTT Pi came with a 32Gb SD card pre-installed with a Debian derived OS, Klipper, Moonraker, Mainsail, Klipper screen and a few other bits.  This is my world (IT / Software) so after changing the default password and installing my SSH certs I set to work.  Installed KIAUH and used that to bring everything up to date release wise, then installed Katapult and set about getting the CAN network running on the workbench.

For this part I can't recommend Estoerical's CANBus guide enough.  It walks you through everything and provides a ton of worked examples which, once I worked out which version of the Octopus Pro I had, were flawless.  Putting the Pro into DFU mode is a matter of adding a jumper and then double clicking the reset button after applying power.  I suspect it already had Katapult installed from the factory but wanted to be sure so I re-flashed it with my own Katapult build and then used that to flash Klipper via CANBus to the Pro.

Next up was the toolhead.  Getting the BTT SB2209 RP2040 into DFU mode proved a pain, and some googling around shows I'm not alone.  In the end it was down to the USB cable I was using, trying with a different USB A - USB C cable and it appeared on the BTT Pis USB bus first time (this was after 30-40 minutes of head scratching and repeatedly power cycling the toolhead board).  From there again it was a case of flash Katapult using the instructions from Estoerical's site and then flash Klipper once that is done.

Finally it was a case of removing the 120Ohm jumper from the tool head and attaching the Cartographer v3 which has a built in terminating resistor.  This appeared on the CANBus right away and I elected not to mess with it's firmware unless it becomes necessary later on.  Here is everything on the bench:

And here is the result of my CAN probe:

You can see the three objects (Octopus Pro, Toolhead and Cartographer) all on the CANBus.  And yes I kept notes on which is which for later!

It was then time to start mounting the toolhead.  This required un-hitching the CAN umbilical so I could route it properly through all the glands.  As the CAN support for the Galileo 2 I've opted to use takes a PG7 gland, and the kit only comes with the one, I've had to order some more and am waiting for those to be delivered before I can complete the umbilical install.  Here's the toolhead end:

This keeps the cable away from interfering with the Z chain at the very back of the Y axis.

Today the titanium backers and the Revo Hotside are due to arrive in the post, so I'll be able to continue the build of the toolhead.  The PG7 glands are due tomorrow (thank you Mr. Bezos!) so I should be able to complete the umbilical install.  Then it's wiring everything back together and moving on to configuring Klipper.  There's a decent chance I might be pushing plastic by the end of the week!

[xyleth]

On 3/30/2024 at 6:46 PM, dasbooter said:

Could you comment on some of what you think are the most important upgrades out of the gate. As a would be first time builder i'm trying to figure out what is just an awesome upgrade, what is a QOL update, and what is a save yourself the trouble and replace this now update. Understand if u wanna keep the build log contiguous but maybe at the end you could answer. Looks like your getting close, I imagine myself trying to sneak away from my Easter obligations to make the final push lol. Thanks for the details and pics

Hmmm.  As I haven't actually run the printer yet it's hard to say what falls into which bucket there!

The big changes I've made from stock that I think are best built in from the beginning (other wise you have to disassemble) are:

• Galileo 2 extruder
• Beefy Idlers (Front and Z)
• Pin mod for A/B Drives and XY Joints

I went with the Galileo because I'd read enough complaints about the CW2 to make me nervous and I have the Orbital 2 on my existing printer and it's probably the best extruder I've used on it, and I've had a few!  I have my concerns about the G2 now I've built it, access to clear the filament path is a big one, but we'll see how it fares in play.

The Idlers are widely said to be a must-do mod so I opted to do them at build time instead of re-building later.  And once I'd done those it seemed odd to not do the Pin mod for the rest of the belt path.

I also plan to do the reenforced Z axis mod but that is more because one of the Z axis parts from the kit has questionable print quality so I'm probably going to have to replace it sooner rather than later.  But I do intend to print the parts for that myself so it's not a 'as I build' mod and the Z axis joints are easy to access.

I don't know if the extrusion backers are a 'must have' mod, but the detail and reasoning presented on the site seems sound to my mind so I opted to go with it.

The RockNRoll mod is a must-do QOL mod in my mind - they just improve access to the electronics bay on the 2.4 so much.

I also plan to fit the ClickyClacky door instead of the stock two part door.  I'm also investigating ways to hook it up to my existing extraction system so I can vent ABS fumes, even though it has a Nevermore v6 included.  Which, I suppose, is technically a mod but seems to be considered a 'must have' as well if you are printing with ABS/ASA.  There's a few other things in the Siboor kit that are not 'stock' Voron but are part of the kit - like the all CANbus tool head and the cartographer v3 eddy probe.  The inclusion of these was part of the reason I chose the Siboor kit, so I guess I'd call them must have as well!

Edited April 2 by xyleth

[claudermilk]

For extruders, I would recommend either CW2 or Galileo2. I put a CW2 on my Trident back when I was building it and Stealthburner was still beta (hey, let's learn about Vorons and build our first one with a beta tool head and first-run hot end, because why not? ). I built probably 3-4 updated copies of it over the last couple of years and it worked well for me; my biggest issue was the cheap gears I originally got.

I just switched to Galileo2 last month and absolutely love it. Easy build, plugs right in to the Stealthburner, getting filament in and out is so easy I'm barely even using my load unload macros any more--at least running PLA with the top panel off. 

I have the Ramalama front pin idlers and they are nicer than the stock ones. I'd be torn between those and the beefy ones were I making the change now. The Ramalama ones look so clean with those magnetized front covers.

Adding something like the Nevermore filtered chamber fan and a chamber thermistor are worthwhile mods. The thermistor is really easy and makes monitoring chamber temps for materials like ABS easy. The Nevermore (or similar) is good the scrub the chamber air, and help speed up heating times.

[xyleth]

Quite a bit of progress this evening, but not much to show for it photo wise.

The Revo hot side arrived and I installed that.  I'd love to understand what was going through E3D's mind when they designed this- let's make a Revo specficially for Voron's, but let's make the cabling just that little bit too short to plug into a Toolhead CAN board.  Oh and let's terminate everything in microfit connectors too.  So I had to fashion a pair of adapters to both lengthen the wires and fit into the correct ports on the SBB2090.  At least it'll be an easy change if I ever need to replace the heater core for any reason.

After that it was on to mounting the Cartographer probe and discovering that it's wires were also just a tiny bit short, so this time I had to break out the soldering iron.  Although someone on discord just pointed out I routed them wrong and they would have fit - oh well now I've got a bit extra to make removing the front less of a drama I guess.  I also managed to mess up the colours (don't ask) such that my +5v is now the black wire and ground is Yellow.  But wire is wire to electrons and it all works so I've just made a note so I remember in the future (I hope).  I may have to re-wire this though, watch this space I guess.

Tomorrow is the face plate and finishing the SB assembly, and maybe rewiring the carto probe.  Third times the charm right?!

[xyleth]

So, where was I...

So yes, dear reader, I did rewire the Cartographer for the third (and final) time.  I also installed the SB faceplate and screwed everything down (Except the door):

Needs the side door and a bit of cable management, but functionally it is complete.  Also in the post came the extrusion backers which were duly attached:

A note on the X backer.  If, like me, you have taken advantage of the pin mod revised A drive base plate with integrated Y endstop then you will find that the X extrusion backer limits the Y movement just enough that the gantry no longer hits the switch.  I've had to move the backer slightly off centre for the time being so that the backer itself hits the endstop, long term I may print a spacer so I can re-centre the backer.

On the topic of the Y endstop I'm not sure that the pin mod solution of a tight corner and a JST socket is a durable one.  I've already had issues with the plug there and I'm not convinced how it will hold up in use.  I think the issue is that the hole is slightly too small for the socket and so the plug can't fully seat, in which case shaving the plug down might resolve it, as may a dab of superglue.  We'll have to see but the worst case is I'll have to tear down the A drive and re-work that connection.

If I were doing this again I would just solder the wire directly onto the switch and skip the JST connector.  The connector is nice in a kind of Platonic ideal kind of way, but I'm not sure what it adds functionally and really it just seems to add an extra failure point.  That is what I may end up doing, but as that would require a full tear down of the A drive and re-build I'm going to try and avoid that if I can.  Learn from my mistakes!

All this talk of Y endstops and movement has slightly spoiled the big reveal - ITS ALIVE!!

I'd love to be able to tell you what the default config that Siboor ship is like, but I cant' because the first thing I did was throw all that in the bin!  I used KIAUH to make sure everything was up to date and then installed Kilppain.  Most of the Kilppain defaults for my configuration worked, there were a few tweaks like the X endstop being on the toolhead board and not the main MCU, but identifying and making the changes was really quite straightforward.  One thing that Klippain doesn't have is any built in support for the Cartographer probe (it has Beacon, but Cartographer is slightly different) so I had to do that manually.  Thankfully Cartographers documentation is really good so this went well.

Then it was on to working through the Klipper commissioning checklist.  All was well until it came to the Stepper buzz checks on the A and B drives.  Tell me dear reader, can you see what the problem might have been from this photo?

Obvious yes?  Not to me after many hours of working on the printer!

After a bit of swearing and re-running some cabling all was well and it was on to tensioning the belts to 110Hz and then testing the motion system.  It works!  I don't think I can embed videos, but I can home all axes and do QGL.

And that is where I left it for the night.  More checks (belt paths for rubbing, extruder rotation distance and such) today, but there is a chance I might be pushing plastic by the end of the day!

Edited April 5 by xyleth