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"GinaRep Concorde" 3D Printer


Gina

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This 3D printer makes a bit of a departure from my others in that it is designed to give the best accuracy I can achieve rather than concentrating on speed or size, though I did want to print at least as big as my Titan printer (290mm x 290mm x 250mm).  Like Titan it uses a box as the main frame but unlike Titan and my other printers does NOT use "pink string and ceiling wax".  It uses tried and tested 3D printer designs rather than my usual "way out" ideas.  I took advice from a friend who has spent a lot of time on developing high accuracy 3D printers.

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Cut one of the metre threaded rods in half for the Z drive, so I expect the 500mm rods to show up now! ?  Also, cut some extrusion to length for the X rail and made holes in the base of the box for the Z rod couplers.  3D printed X motor mounts and the front and back plates for the X carriage.

Edited by Gina
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Before I mount the Z motors I shall need to find some suitable wooden block or wheels to raise it off the floor.  Empty filament spools will do - I have no shortage of those - one at each corner.  That'll do for the time being.

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I think I have now "borrowed" all I can from the Giant printer.  I can't "borrow" the wheels as these are all of a larger size than the ones required for the Concorde printer and I have now run out of spare small wheels.  It has now come to the stage of needing to demolish the Titan printer to gain parts for the printer that is replacing it.  Titan will be no more when the Concorde is built and Concorde will do all that Titan has done and more.  It was always intended that the Concorde should "consume" the Titan printer.  I shall still have my Mini printer while Concorde consumes Titan so won't be without a 3D printer.

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I feel a bit nostalgic about my Titan printer as it was the first printer made from scratch to my own design although it has been much modified since the first build so I guess it isn't really the original design.  Also, guess it's daft to conserve something with highly usable parts some of which are quite expensive just for the sake of nostalgia...

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Titan is no more :crybaby2: R.I.P. Titan you served me well and now your parts are going on into a new body where they will continue to serve.

Yes, I have dismantled my Titan printer.  Didn't take long...

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Recovered PSU, SSR for mains voltage bed heater, Duet WiFi, extruder and hotend, three stepper motors type JK42HS60-1206 (see bottom line below) and various other bits.

1848706057_Screenshotfrom2019-01-1511-56-16.png.d16c75eccfe20ef11902f2c6a072f4bd.png

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I was planning to use two of the stepper motors in series for the Z drive though wonder if the phase resistance and inductance may be a bit high for series use on 24v.  I also have some other motors a bit smaller (48mm v 60mm long) but lower resistance/inductance.  Wantai 42BYGHW811  These are rated at 2.5A and the Duet will handle up to 2.4A so no lack of power.  I'd appreciate advice as to which motors would be best for the Z motors.

1445728718_Screenshotfrom2019-01-1512-29-13.png.9b4cf508973fc3ca1d869167c978f27c.png

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Mounted the 60mm steppers to the base and connected up the threaded rods.  Plugged into Duet board so Z drive is ready to go when I get power on the Duet control board.

632999853_ZDrives01.JPG.e550cb2bae9698566acbb9444bcd6441.JPG1070877705_ZDrives02.JPG.d797091a8d60e79337ff500b8af35f51.JPG

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Connected a mains cable to the PSU and tried moving the Z.  LHS wasn't too bad but the RHS didn't have enough drive power and the motor skipped steps intermittently.  So I need to see if I can adjust things.  Motors were quite noisy.

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Of course the Z calibration is far from right having changed from gears and string for the Z drive (this is the Duet board from the Titan).

Threaded rods are single start so one revolution = 1mm Z feed.  So we need 200x16 microstrps per mm. ie. 3200.

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Repaired the couplings by squeezing them together in a vice and remounted the Z motors to ensure accurate alignment.  Sort of working but the maximum Z rate I can get is 200mm/min which is pretty darn slow (two minutes for the full Z range).  And even at that speed the motors are noisy - not that that bothers me much.  I may try the other motors but I would have thought 60mm NEMA17 stepper motors running at 1.2A should be able to do better.  I don't know why I should be having trouble with threaded rod Z drive when everyone else seems fine!!  Am I missing something?

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Maybe I should go for NEMA23s instead.  Why "spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar"?  It does seem that NEMA17s are underpowered for Z drive at a reasonable speed using threaded rods.  OK I know that for printing the Z speed is minuscule but it's nice to be able to move the print bed out of the way reasonably quickly to change filament or move the print down away from the nozzle after printing.

Matching shaft couplers :- 8x6.35mm Motor Shaft Coupler for 3D printer, Flexible 8mm to 6.35mm Z Axes, CNC

Edited by Gina
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I'm going for it!  I not only want accurate drives but I want to be able to move the bed reasonably quickly so I will give NEMA23s a try.  Never used these bigger stepper motors before but read that they are much more efficient than NEMA17s (even long ones).  NEMA23s are easier to mount too - no messing with tiny M3 screws that have to be just the right length.  The idea of the Concorde printer is to go for the best without too much overkill.

Quoting the Duet2 documentation :-

Quote

Use Nema 23 motors if you cannot get sufficient torque from long Nema 17 motors.

 

Edited by Gina
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Now have the X carriage assembled and installed on the X rail.  Also run both timing belts and secured to X carriage, connected XY motors to control board and been testing.  Y direction moves very smoothly but something is stopping the X movement.  Evidently the X carriage is no longer moving freely along the X rail so I have an investigation to do.  I've found the Z rods are slightly too long and catch on the Y carriages so will need to shorten them.  I shall wait until I have the NEMA23 motors though (due to arrive tomorrow) as the shafts may be different lengths, the couplers may be different and the mountings are definitely different.

Later... Found the X carriage problem and fixed it - one of the belt clamps touching the rail.

Edited by Gina
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Now for the XY calibration.  The motor pulleys have 20 teeth and the belt is 2mm tooth spacing so one revolution is 40mm.  200 whole steps therefore gives 40mm thus steps/mm = 200/40 or 200x16/40 microsteps per mm = 80.

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Having fixed a broken wire in one of the connectors I now have both XY motors connected and all X and Y belts attached and tensioned ready to go.  Got a funny though!  Y movement works normally but X give -Y movement with no X movement.  Clearly I must have something wrong in config.g.

; Configuration file for Duet WiFi (firmware version 1.20 or newer)
; executed by the firmware on start-up
;
; generated by RepRapFirmware Configuration Tool on Wed Jan 31 2018 10:30:18 GMT+0000 (GMT)

; General preferences
M111 S0                                  ; Debugging off
G21                                      ; Work in millimetres
G90                                      ; Send absolute coordinates...
M83                                      ; ...but relative extruder moves
M555 P1                                  ; Set firmware compatibility to look like RepRapFirmare
; Automatic saving after power loss is not enabled
M667 S1                                  ; switch to CoreXY mode *** Gina added
M208 X0 Y0 Z0 S1                         ; Set axis minima
M208 X400 Y400 Z350 S0                   ; Set axis maxima

; Endstops
M574 X1 Y1 S0                            ; Set active low endstops
M574 Z1 S2                               ; Set endstops controlled by probe
M558 P4 H7 F600 T6000 I1                 ; Set Z probe type to unmodulated and the dive height + speeds
G31 P500 X20 Y0 Z2.2                     ; Set Z probe trigger value, offset and trigger height
M557 X50:350 Y50:350 S300                ; Define mesh grid

; Drives
M569 P0 S0                               ; Drive 0 goes backwards
M569 P1 S1                               ; Drive 1 goes forwards
M569 P2 S1                               ; Drive 2 goes forwards
M569 P3 S1                               ; Drive 3 goes forwards
M350 X16 Y16 Z16 E16 I1                 ; Configure microstepping with interpolation
M92 X80 Y80 Z3200 E418.5                ; Set steps per mm                                   ******************* 80 microsteps/mm XY and 3200 microsteps/mm Z for Concorde ************************
M566 X900 Y900 Z12 E120                  ; Set maximum instantaneous speed changes (mm/min)
M203 X6000 Y6000 Z150 E1200             ; Set maximum speeds (mm/min)                              ******************* mm/minute Z for Concorde ************************
M201 X500 Y500 Z25 E250                 ; Set accelerations (mm/s^2)                              ******************* Z acceleration 1/10 for Concorde ************************
M906 X500 Y500 Z1200 E1000 I30          ; Set motor currents (mA) and motor idle factor in per cent1010  ******************* 100omA Z for Concorde ************************
M84 S30                                  ; Set idle timeout

; Heaters
M305 P0 T100000 B3950 C7.060000e-8 R4700 ; Set thermistor + ADC parameters for heater 0
M143 H0 S150                             ; Set temperature limit for heater 0 to 150C
M305 P1 T100000 B4725 C7.060000e-8 R4700 ; Set thermistor + ADC parameters for heater 1
M143 H1 S350                             ; Set temperature limit for heater 1 to 300C

; Tools
M563 P0 D0 H1                            ; Define tool 0
G10 P0 X0 Y0 Z0                          ; Set tool 0 axis offsets
G10 P0 R0 S0                             ; Set initial tool 0 active and standby temperatures to 0C

; Network
M550 PGinaRep Concorde                   ; Set machine name
M552 S1                                  ; Enable network
M586 P0 S1                               ; Enable HTTP
M586 P1 S0                               ; Disable FTP
M586 P2 S0                               ; Disable Telnet

; Fans
M106 P0 S0.3 I0 F500 H-1                 ; Set fan 0 value, PWM signal inversion and frequency. Thermostatic control is turned off
M106 P1 S1 I0 F500 H1 T45                ; Set fan 1 value, PWM signal inversion and frequency. Thermostatic control is turned on
M106 P2 S1 I0 F500 H1 T45                ; Set fan 2 value, PWM signal inversion and frequency. Thermostatic control is turned on

; Custom settings are not configured

 

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Swapped motors and got a similar result except both X and Y drove the Y positively.  The NEMA23 Z motors are out for delivery and the couplers have arrived.

Edited by Gina
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NEMA23s have arrived.  Here's a photo comparing the 60mm long NEMA17 (on 3D printed mounting plate) with the NEMA23.

1121094907_NEMA17vNEMA23.JPG.d26e37ceb6ed9d13ec9a4b75d16f5472.JPG

 

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1 hour ago, Gina said:

Swapped motors and got a similar result except both X and Y drove the Y positively.  The NEMA23 Z motors are out for delivery and the couplers have arrived.

Sounds like one motor may be reversed?

I notice one is 'upside down' which would reverse the sense of direction.

Try unswapping them then flipping the connector on one stepper

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Yes, agreed the RH motor will be reversed.  Can't flip th connector on the Duet board as these connectors are polarised,  OTOH it's easy enough to reverse the motor in the config.g file via the web interlace.

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Put the connectors back as they were viz. LH to  Drive 0 and RH to Drive 1 and reversed Drive 1.  Now X moves +Y and Y moves -Y so that's reversed the motions but still no X motion - only Y.  This is daft!!

Edited by Gina
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Tried disabling CoreXY so that i could test the motors individually.  There is a problem with the RH motor (Drive 0) or X motion. The Y control moves the X carriage diagonally as expected.  That would indicate a RH motor problem yet that motor works with CoreXY mode.  I have confirmed that everything moved freely by hand.

Another test - swapped motor leads over and it's still the same physical motor that is at fault.

Edited by Gina
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Hello Gina,

I'm following your thread with a lot of interest, since I have been planning a similar build for some time.

One question, though: did you leave some built-in "give" to avoid over-constraining your axes? The difference in coefficients of expsinsion between the AL components and the wood frame (in particular given the size) can create some "interesting" issues there.

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