Voron FFC Mod by SchmidtProto

[Demosth]

I am not affiliated with SchmidtProto in any way and am giving my honest feedback and review.

FFC stands for "Flexible Flat Cables"

I just received my Voron FFC Mod parts in the mail 4 days after ordering it, and I am excited to get use this on my Fystec kit opposed to using the included drag chains.  The PCB appear to be super high quality and came package neatly and safely in separate packaging in a sturdy shipping box.

I am really interested in how this works for a few reasons, obviously weight and wear will be different opposed to the standard umbilical, but also because I have a Dremel3D45 that has over 500 hours and it too uses FFC.

Seller's FAQ

1. With the recent release of Voron Trident, will this kit be compatible? Yes, this kit will work with the Trident just as well as the 2.4.
2. Does this kit come with a 'Toolhead' PCB? Yes, this is intrinsic to the mod. There are 3 PCBs total. One at the Z/Y axis junction, one at the X/Y axis and one at the Toolhead. The toolhead PCB can be directly soldered to or used with 0.1" header pins/connectors.
3. Do I need reflow or special soldering equipment? No, soldering is all through hole and any standard iron with a conical tip will work great.

If you are interested, I was able t purchase the item straight from SchmidtProto.

https://www.schmidtproto.com/shop

[Demosth]

The pinout diagrams...

[Voojoo]

I see there are STL's to print out the mounts.  Is there a mount for an LGX on the toolhead?

edit:  the LGX Mount for the Schmidt Proto FFC toolhead board has been aquired.  I'd like to thank a fellow Voron Discord user for his quick work on it.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Voojoo

[Demosth]

@Voojoo Do you mind the discord link to it? Or Perhaps encouraging to post in the files section of the site? Id di Reach out to SchmidtProto and he indicated you contacted him personally - I want to help the community for anyone else who might ask!

Thank you!

[Voojoo]

Sure: I've got the message link where the item was posted for the public.

Discord Link to Post with LGX Mount attached.

Feel free to post it on your forum.  Just attribute it's creation to "HartK1213"

 

Edited September 27, 2021 by Voojoo

[Demosth]

Spot on, thank you!!!

For anyone who does not have Discord, or has problems navigating, here is a link to the download... 

 

[Voojoo]

I'm really excited to get the FFC kit.  I've been breaking FEP wires, Especially the big 20awg ones that run to the heater.  I thought the 24awg wires (FEP also) were safe but I woke up to find that my parts fan wire was worn through and snapped in the radius of the X cable chain.  This was the final straw, I've spliced the heater lines more than 3 times so far and saw a new nick in the insulation of the same heater line where it's going to break soon.  I pictured what could happen if the hotend fan stopped working on an overnight print or worse.  My options were 1) rewire the entire v2.4 and have it happen again 2) get igus chains and have it happen again 3) get 'better' fluro-polymer wire and hope it doesn't happen again 4) bail on the X cable chain altogether. The printer has around 2k hours on it according to the moonraker history db.

Ideally, I'd like to try something that would let me install the Schmidt Proto FFC kit on just the X span.  I don't have any issues with the Y cable chain (at least, not yet...).  When I receive it, I'll see if I can engineer an X axis only installation even if I have to have a board made.

 

[ThaNeub]

I recently installed this mod on my V2.

Has anyone a PCB Cover for this Mod or can you tell me which I can use?

[Demosth]

I am unsure, I will reach out and see if I can find an answer for you!

[ThaNeub]

Did you find anything?

 

[Dajo]

On 8/31/2021 at 8:02 AM, Demosth said:

 

I'm very interested on implementing something like this, but I'm thinking on modifying the toolhead pcb to accomodate the stealthburner leds and some extra signals. I might buy the kit and just replace the pcb. How long are these ribbons? are the connection points on the same flat side on each end? or opposite? Looks like one is 20 channels (Y->X) and the other 24 (Z->Y).

Edited January 5, 2022 by Dajo

[Demosth]

From a discord discussion (if it helps at all)

Quote

I'm running the FFC mod with Evan's FFC toolhead PCB, which I think is based on hartk's PCB in terms of sharing power and ground . For the SB LEDs, I put 5v on the PCB alt voltage line and took over the filament sensor connector (ground and signal)

The SB LEDs lit but colors and transitions were not per the macros. After troubleshooting wiring and cfgs, the fix was to add a 330 ohm resistor in the data line at the toolhead. After that they worked perfectly. ...until I added a klicky probe. Here's where it gets weirder. 

Adding the klicky probe broke the LEDs again. Specifically, it was REMOVING the inductive sensor that broke the LEDs. With the PL-05 plugged, they worked. With no PL-05, they did strange things.  I have no idea what and where the interaction is between them, but it was 100% reproduceable.

The fix was to increase the data line resistor to 680 ohms.

So if you are seeing strange behavior with your LEDs and have ruled out everything else, try a resistor in the data line. And then a bigger resistor.

 

[joshman1204]

Anyone have any reviews on this after running it for some time? 

[LunarOrbit VT.366]

Well I have an issue with the Y-Axis to X-Axis PCB. The ribbon cable holder on the X-Axis PCB hits on the X-Carriage mount preventing the X-Axis homing switch from being made. Yes I will modify so it works but this is some basic stuff that should not be an issue on a retail mod. This is why mods should be rigorously beta tested.

Getting a mod to work on one machine is fine for one individual but there needs to be many installs on all the machines the mod is designed to work with.

The choice at this point is to either mod the X-Carriage mount or the limit switch mount position losing some X travel. Another possibility is switchless homing or possibly hall effect. I suspect the original was possibly designed around one of the later two methods of homing.

Voron Trident 300mm

[Demosth]

Can you share a photo of the issue? 

[LunarOrbit VT.366]

On 2/11/2022 at 7:01 AM, Demosth said:

Can you share a photo of the issue? 

Voron Trident the X carriage mount hits the X FFC ribbon connector before triggering the X Homing switch. My solution was to put a gently radiused 90° bend on the X homing switch arm to extend it 2.00-2.50mm. There are other ways around this I could rework the X-Y homing mount in Fusion as well.

[ERRU]

Can anyone show a picture of their setup at each endstop? And what type of connector they are using?

[3DPrintChCh]

On 2/11/2022 at 2:15 PM, LunarOrbit VT.366 said:

Well I have an issue with the Y-Axis to X-Axis PCB. The ribbon cable holder on the X-Axis PCB hits on the X-Carriage mount preventing the X-Axis homing switch from being made. Yes I will modify so it works but this is some basic stuff that should not be an issue on a retail mod. This is why mods should be rigorously beta tested.

Getting a mod to work on one machine is fine for one individual but there needs to be many installs on all the machines the mod is designed to work with.

The choice at this point is to either mod the X-Carriage mount or the limit switch mount position losing some X travel. Another possibility is switchless homing or possibly hall effect. I suspect the original was possibly designed around one of the later two methods of homing.

Voron Trident 300mm

I stuck a small 5mm thick piece of plastic on the toolhead when the button should touch.  Problem solved, although x width reduced a small amount.

[3DPrintChCh]

On 1/6/2022 at 2:14 PM, joshman1204 said:

Anyone have any reviews on this after running it for some time? 

I'll say I love this FFC mod.  Its just so lightweight I feel nothing is holding back the toolhead  -certainly not the heavy drag chains or multiple sheathed wires.
And it looks like it will last forever.

[3DPrintChCh]

Is there a special mount for using this on the Stealthburner?