VzBot 330

[PFarm]

@TitusADuxass @Penatr8tor, Wow pretty impressive prints!

[TitusADuxass]

9 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

Nice looking prints!

PETG is some really pretty material.

I played around with a 0.8mm nozzle and the results were pretty spectacular.

I might have try 0.8, are they also in vase mode?

[Penatr8tor]

5 hours ago, TitusADuxass said:

I might have try 0.8, are they also in vase mode?

Yes, below are the settings I used on my Voron 2.4

 

The VzBoT can handle a lot more flow than my old Rapido HF on the Voron so you could probably increase the print speed and acceleration.

Print temps were 265c for the nozzle and 80c for the bed. Part cooling fan (5015) was set to 40% with 90% for overhangs.

And obviously you want to dry the filament beforehand.

Here's the Dragon Scale Pot I printed, if you're interested.

DragonScalePot.stl

 

[claudermilk]

The layer lines actually enhance the look on those. Beautiful prints.

[TitusADuxass]

Update, and it's not good.

The Vz has been getting louder and louder when moving the toolhead, and as I have not made any changes to the stepper config I looked at the mechanical side.

I pulled the belts and checked the linear rail travel:

Both Y rails move smoothly and freely but all the retaining screws needed tightening at least half a turn.

The X gantry rails feels like it's got rocks for bearings!

I tried to remove it with a view to cleaning and regreasing but I cannot!

The threaded inserts in the carbon ganty turn with the screws, so they cannot be removed, nor can they be tigthened.

The hole on the underside of the gantry is too small to allow any reasonable access to the threaded inserts. So it looks like I'll have order a new gantry (and possible linear rail). I very much doubt that it is salvagable even if I drill out the screws.

[TitusADuxass]

There has been changes.

I got rid of the exhaust fan, I never used (I never had it wired in).

I also got fed up of staring into a black abyss, so I changed the back panel (it wasn't supposed to be yellow, but I bought so I'm using it.

I've tidied up the back a bit.

And I have a new X rail, the other one has rocks for bearings. I regularly lubed it but it still failed prematurely.

I went for a high end (read expensive) HiWin rail as a replacement.

I think I'm going to replace the carbon X ganty with a CNC alu one, it simply looks better.

And the obligatory Beacon (the original is now in my V2.4.

[Penatr8tor]

5 hours ago, TitusADuxass said:

And the obligatory Beacon (the original is now in my V2.4.

I'm dreading writing this already so hopefully I'm wrong on this.

The VzBot toolhead uses the LP (low profile, cable points to the rear) Beacon. A Voron uses the N (normal, cable points up) version. 

Fingers crossed I don't ruin your day.

[Penatr8tor]

On 1/6/2025 at 2:13 AM, TitusADuxass said:

Update, and it's not good.

The Vz has been getting louder and louder when moving the toolhead, and as I have not made any changes to the stepper config I looked at the mechanical side.

That happened to me a few weeks ago. X axis was sounding like it was running on gravel. After some inspection I found that there was solidified grease clumps in the ball groove of the rail. I used the official cleaning tool (a paper towel wetted with some alcohol and my thumb nail) to clean out the front and rear grooves. I then used a few drops of gun oil (good for high heat environments) in the grooves and worked the toolhead back and forth a few times and it was as good as new.

The HiWin is a really nice upgrade tho, as is the CNC X-Beam. 

 

 

[TitusADuxass]

18 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

I'm dreading writing this already so hopefully I'm wrong on this.

The VzBot toolhead uses the LP (low profile, cable points to the rear) Beacon. A Voron uses the N (normal, cable points up) version. 

Fingers crossed I don't ruin your day.

I hadn't thought about that, I'll just swap them over.

[TitusADuxass]

18 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

That happened to me a few weeks ago. X axis was sounding like it was running on gravel. After some inspection I found that there was solidified grease clumps in the ball groove of the rail.

I stripped it down and washed it in IPA, the problem is where the balls transistion from the rear compartment to the actual working side. The balls do not run smoothly. I'm going to soak it in some brake cleaner, as the IPA does appear to do much to the grease.

[TitusADuxass]

I think the grease that I have been using (Connex Titanium Grease) is too thick for linear rails. It does allow the balls to travel through/around the saddle. I cleaned it all out of the new rail and have now lubed it with Muc-Off C3 Ceramic Lube dry condition chain lubricant (it's the only oil that I have).

[Penatr8tor]

5 hours ago, TitusADuxass said:

I stripped it down and washed it in IPA, the problem is where the balls transistion from the rear compartment to the actual working side. The balls do not run smoothly. I'm going to soak it in some brake cleaner, as the IPA does appear to do much to the grease.

Yup, there appears to be two camps in the 3D printer linear rail world... Those that think it's best to pack as much grease into the carriage as possible and those that like a light film of lubricant. I'm in the light film camp because I feel that the carriage moves best when ball bearings in a re-circulating ball slide actually re-circulate. Call me crazy.  

I don't have a lot of experience with lubricants, but I do know that operating a slide in a heated environment will cause some/most lubricants to evaporate over time. I think this is what happened to the VzBoT rail. And given that we're printing ABS/ASA and other engineering plastics in a heated chamber, a dry lube like graphite would probably be the best. It's messy sh!t tho. I guess you'll find out how well Muc-Off chain lube works. 

[PFarm]

I've used chain lube on my Trident stepper motor lead screw before assembly, seems to have workout well.

Edited January 26 by PFarm

[TitusADuxass]

Okay, I've installed a Mellow SHT36 v3 toolhead board and a Mellow UTOC - the can side of things is working good.

But, setting up the SHT36.cfg is turning out to be a right PITA. I'm using a BTT PiV2 and all the pins should be tagged with sht:gpio then the actual pin number.

Unfortunately, the Mellow documentation is pretty dire when it comes to the V3 variant. I'm getting lots of Not a valid pin name errors.

[Penatr8tor]

You mean this one?

Are you using an alias file?

BTW Here's the link although you might already be using this site.

[Penatr8tor]

12 minutes ago, TitusADuxass said:

I'm using a BTT PiV2 and all the pins should be tagged with sht:gpio then the actual pin number.

According to the Mellow docs it should be sht:PA0 per the pin no. or if you have an alias file sht:LIMIT_0 per the alias.

See above.

[TitusADuxass]

40 minutes ago, Penatr8tor said:

You mean this one?

Are you using an alias file?

BTW Here's the link although you might already be using this site.

I think that's for the V2 version.

The V3 uses the Pi cpu. I have found a partially complete .cfg file a that has what looks to be an updated alias section.

 

[board_pins toolhead]
	mcu: toolhead
	aliases:
	aliases_2209:
	EXT_EN=gpio14,EXT_STEP=gpio7,EXT_DIR=gpio6,EXT_UART=gpio15,EXT_DIAG=
	aliases_endstop:
	LIMIT_0=gpio20,LIMIT_1=gpio16
	aliases_probe:
	PROBE_1=gpio22,PROBE_2=gpio24
	aliases_cnc_fans:
	FAN0=gpio13,FAN1=gpio21
	aliases_thermistors:
	TH0=gpio27,PT100=gpio17,TC0=
	aliases_heaters:
	HE0=gpio23
	aliases_rgb:
	RGBLED=gpio26
	aliases_lis2dw:
	LIS2DW=gpio12
	aliases_spi:
	MOSI=gpio3,MISO=gpio4,SCK=gpio2
	[temperature_sensor toolhead]
	sensor_type: temperature_mcu
	sensor_mcu: toolhead
	[lis2dw]
	cs_pin: toolhead:LIS2DW
	spi_software_sclk_pin: toolhead:SCK
	spi_software_mosi_pin: toolhead:MOSI
	spi_software_miso_pin: toolhead:MISO

 

Using that and this I should be able to come up with a working file.

 

[Penatr8tor]

1 hour ago, TitusADuxass said:

Using that and this I should be able to come up with a working file.

Cool.

I'm learning as well. It's turning out to be a good experience for me anyways. Once I get the Voron done, I'll probably update my VzBot with CAN and will probably go with the Orbitool board.

[mvdveer]

7 hours ago, TitusADuxass said:

Okay, I've installed a Mellow SHT36 v3 toolhead board and a Mellow UTOC - the can side of things is working good.

But, setting up the SHT36.cfg is turning out to be a right PITA. I'm using a BTT PiV2 and all the pins should be tagged with sht:gpio then the actual pin number.

Unfortunately, the Mellow documentation is pretty dire when it comes to the V3 variant. I'm getting lots of Not a valid pin name errors.

Here is the pinout. I just swapped out a faulty EBB36 on my micron with a mellow SHT36 v3

It uses a RP2040 chip thus pin names are "GPIO" nominated not "P"

 Example: sht36:gpio21 instead of the v2 sht36:PA2

Also important:

The switches on the rear of the board needs to be set. The top one needs to be set down and the bottom one to the right to activate the canbus. Else it will not work!.

Then enable the 120ohm resistor by setting the tiny switch on the front of the board upwards.

Klipper and katapult configuration are important as the Tx and Rx pins are not the default values

• (4) CAN RX GPIO number
• (5) CAN TX GPIO number

for the RP2040 board. The need to be changed fro (4) to (1) and (5) to (0) in both Katapult configuration as well as klipper configuration. You also need to enable the status LED and for startup (last lines in configuration):

Hope this helps

[TitusADuxass]

10 hours ago, mvdveer said:

Hope this helps

It helps greatly, thank you.

I flashed it okay once I found the cable failure. 

[TitusADuxass]

Much progress has been made thanks to @mvdveer.

I just have an issue with the ls2dw accelerometer now:

Klipper reports: SHUTDOWN

mux command ACCELEROMETER_MEASURE CHIP None already registered ({'lis2dw': <bound method AccelCommandHelper.cmd_ACCELEROMETER_MEASURE of <extras.adxl345.AccelCommandHelper object at 0x7fa4206c70>>, None: <bound method AccelCommandHelper.cmd_ACCELEROMETER_MEASURE of <extras.adxl345.AccelCommandHelper object at 0x7fa4206c70>>, 'beacon': <bound method AccelCommandHelper.cmd_ACCELEROMETER_MEASURE of <extras.adxl345.AccelCommandHelper object at 0x7f9622dc40>>})

I looked at the klipper documentation and I've installed numpy but the error is still there.

This is the relevant section of my SHT36.cfg

[lis2dw]
cs_pin: sht:gpio12
spi_software_sclk_pin: sht:gpio2
spi_software_mosi_pin: sht:gpio3
spi_software_miso_pin: sht:gpio4

[resonance_tester]
accel_chip: lis2dw
probe_points:
    165,165,20
min_freq: 5
max_freq: 133
accel_per_hz: 75
hz_per_sec: 1

[mvdveer]

55 minutes ago, TitusADuxass said:

I just have an issue with the ls2dw accelerometer now:

Can have a look at it but I did not use this as I am using the acellerometer on the Beacon Probe for resonance testing.

[TitusADuxass]

6 minutes ago, mvdveer said:

Can have a look at it but I did not use this as I am using the acellerometer on the Beacon Probe for resonance testing.

Ah! I forgot about the Beacon Probe - I am also using that for resonance testing. I've removed the ld2dw section from my SHT36.cfg file.

Now I have a new error - Sensor 'extruder' temperature -240.037 is not in range. It looks like the Rapido's thermistor has failed.

[mvdveer]

1 minute ago, TitusADuxass said:

Now I have a new error - Sensor 'extruder' temperature -240.037 is not in range. It looks like the Rapido's thermistor has failed.

Oh boy! It seems you just can't catch a break. I know it sounds stupid, but I made that mistake - Is the thermistor in the correct socket and is the dip switches set to your thermistor type?

[TitusADuxass]

21 minutes ago, mvdveer said:

Oh boy! It seems you just can't catch a break. I know it sounds stupid, but I made that mistake - Is the thermistor in the correct socket and is the dip switches set to your thermistor type?

Doh!

I'm getting my printers mixed up!

The failure is on my v24 (which was working yesterday).

I should really stop trying to multitask and just go back to bed with a beer.