Voron Adjacent Modding Journey

[atrushing]

The 24V 300W power supply came in today.

And I have installed the first modded piece. I remixed the Y-motor-cage mod that Vector3D made to add some RatRig styling back into it.

Edited November 30, 2022 by atrushing
added content

[Penatr8tor]

11 minutes ago, atrushing said:

Plus I am employing a secret weapon against gravity

Don't even bother implementing a counter weight as you won't need it. Gravity won't turn a lead screw with that pitch, plus with the gear reduction it now takes 4-5 times the effort (torque) to spin the lead screw unless... You're going to use a belt. Then maybe you need it or use one of the motor locking PCB's Nero3D showed off a few days ago.

[Penatr8tor]

Power supply fits right in there nicely. 

[atrushing]

Just now, Penatr8tor said:

unless... You're going to use a belt. Then maybe you need it or use one of the motor locking PCB's Nero3D showed off a few days ago.

Bingo!

I watched his video and like the idea but I don't want the toolhead to creep down to the bed. On my belted V0.1 the bed drops out of the way and that is fine but I don't want the V-Minion dropping the nozzle into a part.

[Penatr8tor]

Yeah, I like the idea of a belt driven Z. I am curious to see what you come up with.

[smirk]

3 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

A lot of times WIFI problems aren't with the devices themselves but the router you're using.

Could also be a driver issue. WIFI support in Linux has definitely improved over the years (gone are the days of having to bodge in a windows driver/firmware) but if the device is cheap and using cheap components then there's a non-zero chance the WIFI board will not be some hobbled variant for which the Linux driver will be sub-par or simply won't support "standard" protocols and features. I'm rather intrigued that they've gone for an external aerial on a pig-tail (which you'd expected in a fixed assembly like inside your phone or laptop) rather than a more integrated effort......but I guess that will be a cost saving.

I am perhaps just being mean spirited and cynical 

Hopefully my Manta does not get delayed with just about every person in the UK going on stirke at some stage in the run-up to Christmas so I'll find out for myself.....

[atrushing]

2 hours ago, smirk said:

Could also be a driver issue.

We can hope that BTT is working on the drivers and updating their image files. But if it is a driver problem, then there are several WiFi dongles that work well on Linux.

2 hours ago, smirk said:

Hopefully my Manta does not get delayed with just about every person in the UK going on stirke at some stage in the run-up to Christmas so I'll find out for myself.

Good luck and try to avoid the GOM downward spiral . I got mine from 3dJake.com and it arrived quick enough.

 

[atrushing]

I have started assembling the X-axis. The motor cage still needs the endstop mount modified because I didn't get the PCB mounted switches that RatRig uses. I also cheated a little by using a few roll-in t-nuts left over from my Trident build. Trying to get four of the square t-nuts to fit at the same time was too much for my patience..

Using the roll-in t-nuts for the motor cage also allows me to install it at any time instead of sliding it all the way from the left before installing the MGN12 linear rail as shown in the guide.

[Penatr8tor]

Install the bed before tightening the X axis extrusion. Use your 123 blocks to get it parallel then torque them down. This printer has no adjustment and mine was out by 1.5mm side to side. 

 

[atrushing]

6 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

This printer has no adjustment and mine was out by 1.5mm side to side

That is a fair bit!

The gantry is barely snug for now. I have a feeling I will go back and forth with shims a bit before I properly torque the screws down. I am trying to visualize a tilt-adjust screw, that could make it easier to fine tune the gantry level, somewhere at the X-Z intersection but haven't gotten anywhere with it yet.

[claudermilk]

These cantilever printers are..."fun" to get square. I have fiddled several times with my Prusa Mini. I hate having to pick it up now and ditched the idea of the Z-axis handle mod.

[Penatr8tor]

My V-Minion is still out by .43mm on the X side to side and it prints perfectly. It does that because it uses bed mesh. I was printing a little box with lid last night so the print is doing long runs along the X and Y. I lightly put my finger in the leadscrew couple and wile it was moving along the Y I could feel no movement but along the X, you could definitely feel the leadscrew move a few degrees as it traversed across the bed.

So here's what I learned... if the software can compensate then it really only needs to be close and you can carry it by the X extrusion if you want. And the credit really goes to the people at RatRig for creating the RatOS.

I little story... I was at the point where I had everything on the printer working as expected, I did a couple bed meshes to see how far out the bed was and after adjusting I went from 1.5mm to .43mm, better but certainly not good enough to print. I took a look at the print_start macro in RatOS and it was doing a lot of cool stuff including bed mesh. So I closed out the file and said to myself... Fvck it, I'm just going to send it, God hates a coward LOL. So I loaded the generic V-Minion profile in SuperSlicer and sliced up a 20mm cube and saved the g-code. I jumped into mainsail and clicked upload & print and low and behold... A frikken perfect cube. I mean, surface finish was excellent, dimensionally every dimension was within 0.03mm. That event is what showed me the light and sent me on a journey to have my Voron print the same way. Click print and forget about it, come back and see it done. I'm like 99% there with the Voron BTW.

Below are the first prints that I ran (and the first 20x20 cube), all with stock RatOS settings and no tedious shimming and calibrating.

 

[atrushing]

20 minutes ago, claudermilk said:

I hate having to pick it up now and ditched the idea of the Z-axis handle mod.

I am thinking of trying to make a handle like this for the V-Minion.

[Penatr8tor]

So I want to add one last thing. @atrushing the further away from the stock configuration you go... the less likely things are going to work right off the bat. Not saying the modding isn't fun or worth it, just know that you'll have more tinkering to do.

[Penatr8tor]

@atrushing You might have an issue with the bowden tube hitting the handle on tall prints. I would attach a handle to the back spine of the Z extrusion. The fact that it's mounted in a channel and can be positioned anywhere along the Z gives you the opportunity to test locations and find a nice balance point. 

 

[atrushing]

3 minutes ago, Penatr8tor said:

just know that you'll have more tinkering to do.

Good point, but that is half of the fun for me. And once I get it dialed back in it should be reliable.

[Penatr8tor]

1 minute ago, atrushing said:

Good point, but that is half of the fun for me. And once I get it dialed back in it should be reliable.

Yeah, I figured as much Hahaha. I do the same thing for the same reason, just thought it was worth mentioning. I think the real take-away from my story is that Bed Mesh Leveling is your friend if implemented correctly.

[atrushing]

Just now, Penatr8tor said:

You might have an issue with the bowden tube hitting the handle on tall prints.

In the rendering, the X-axis is at its highest point. I left 75mm clearance above the top of the Mini SB to the lowest point of the blue handle piece to match the clearance in my Trident. I've taken the basic measurements because I'm also thinking about making an enclosure. I have enjoyed printing ABS on my Vorons.

[Penatr8tor]

@atrushing Are you going to try the RatOS version of Mainsail? I think you should at least try it. I think you'll like it, granted it's not to tinker friendly but when has that stopped anyone.

[atrushing]

9 minutes ago, Penatr8tor said:

Are you going to try the RatOS version of Mainsail? I think you should at least try it.

I guess I'll try it. I am very used to Mainsail OS but I should try the full RatRig experience.

[Penatr8tor]

2 minutes ago, atrushing said:

I guess I'll try it. I am very used to Mainsail OS but I should try the full RatRig experience.

It is mainsail, It's the macros they added that makes it RatOS. And they added some really great ones. You'll see. I recommend giving it a try.

[smirk]

40 minutes ago, Penatr8tor said:

It's the macros

You'll have to let us know which ones are especially worth pilfering utilising. Definitely sounds like there's value in them thar macros.

[Penatr8tor]

27 minutes ago, smirk said:

You'll have to let us know which ones are especially worth pilfering utilising. Definitely sounds like there's value in them thar macros.

Ask and you shall receive. This is the primary macro file from RatOS. You really only need to do a search and replace the RatOS variable to something like SmirkOS. There might be a call to some other file but I'm pretty sure it can stand on its own in any klipper setup. The RatOS printer.cfg only contains pointers to this and other files. Merry Christmas. 

RatRig Macros

Edited December 1, 2022 by Penatr8tor

[claudermilk]

 @ SmirkOS. The GOM OS.

We do have to remember we are cobbling together homemade robots with hot glue guns attached to them. It's amazing the result we are getting with that in mind.

My Trident is back to fire-and-forget with perfect (or near-perfect) parts at the end. This is after much time spent going through the Ellis guide, input shaper, and careful tuning of the first layer Z offset (looking forward to installing Tap to make that forever moot).

[Penatr8tor]

1 hour ago, claudermilk said:

 (looking forward to installing Tap to make that forever moot).

Just ordered a Tap kit from AliExpress. I'm not really looking forward to ripping my 2.4 apart but... I have a LGX Lite on the way, I really like this extruder over the CW1 I have. Not that the CW1 or CW2 are bad... I just like the fact the LGX is a compact and rigid extruder that is not 3D printed and... I also need to yank off the bed and install a new bed heater as I'm currently using a seperate thermistor because the one from Formbot broke. The tap will be an extremely interesting mod. One thing for sure... My old worn out PEI sheet is going on the printer for testing.