My mods and upgrades

Since my top mounted spool holder deemed it necessary to drop my filament spool on the glass bed during a print, I know find myself in a position to do some upgrades I had been putting off.

Prior to the incident I had done
- Top mounted spool holder (this design NOT recommended for obvious reasons)
- Smart LCD 2004 XXL version
- Marlin 1.1.0 RC6

During this downtime I plan to
- Install 5V 3A switching supply in base (always on, will switch 12V)
- Install RPi 3 in base (Octopi setup for WLAN)
- Install Sainsmart dual relay board in base (Relay 1 for 12V power, Relay 2 for LCDs)
- Install DC/AC SSR to switch new heated bed
- Install new bed holders and 8mm rods to increase Y printing area to 330mm.
- Install custom 240mm x 350mm 110VAC 360W Heater (fully heated print area of 220mm x 330mm)
- Install 10in x 15inch Neoceram glass bed (glass used for stove tops)
- Replace custom Mega board with standard one so that right angle USB to RPi will fit inside case
- Install RaspiCam for timelapse of builds

I'll take some pictures of the upgrades inside the bottom shell once I have them all installed. I'll post any thingiverse links or custom stuff I use in case someone is crazy enough to follow along on this adventure.

And yes, I do realize this will totally void my six month warranty.

 

For the Smart LCD XXL upgrade, I used the following stuff

- Riser feet by WheresWaldo - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:868246
- LCD Case by Kals - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:393856
- Smart LCD XXL from PrintedSolid - https://printedsolid.com/collections/accessories-and-upgrades/products/smart-lcd-controller-xxl
- 1 x M3 x 10mm and nylock nut (for the hole by the controls)
- 4 x M2.5 x 20mm and nylock nut (for the LCD holes)
Note: I used M2 which were a bit too small and I know M3 is too big. Guessing on M2.5
- 1 x M6 x 16mm Flat head bolt (you could reuse the one from the side but mine were bad)
- 1 x M6 x 20 Pan head bolt (replaces side bolt, you could also use a Flat head one here also if you mod the mount)

I also did a few custom changes.
- Drilled 6mm hole in Robo base to align with top hole on XXL mount
- Counter sunk the top mount hole to allow M6 x 16mm to sit flush (used drill, would love to modify STL instead but not sure how)
- Made a special part to fit the side countersunk hole and provide proper spacing between side tab of XXL mount and Robo case
- To do: top hole in the robo base won't allow M6 nut to fit, design plastic piece and tap with M6 to hold bolt

BTW it is not necessary to drill the top plate of the Robo but it does make the mount more stable. You could try some thin double sided tape instead but it didn't work well for me.

Here is the custom spacer (still working on screw holder).

 

For the Marlin 1.1.0 RC 6 update

- Document your current Marlin settings
- Get Arduino 1.6.8 (latest IDE)
- Get Marlin RC6 code from Github
- Get WheresWaldos Configuration.h and Configuration_adv.h files and replace the github ones with these
- Open the Marlin.ino in the Arduino IDE
- If using 2004 or XXL controller change LCD settings, WheresWaldo has it setup for Full Graphic display.
- Update any other changes from your saved settings (M575 is now replaced with M851)
- Compile/Upload
- Enjoy

Note: Make sure you pick the right ones from WheresWaldo, he has two sets one for Mesh leveling and another for Auto leveling

 

Yeah, that would have been smart but I already did the XXL and the Hexagon has been working well so far. I'm still not quite clear on what an E3D would require on an R1+. Still reading up on that.

 

I've messed with the Rich Cattel Delta Auto level version of Marlin before. But yes the stud thermistor looks easier to work with than the stock one. I went to RC6 specifically because I was having problems with the stock firmware when kicking off SD prints in Pronterface. Sometimes I'd have to reset and restart the print 2 or 3 times to get past a lockup when waiting for the hot end to get to temp. With RC6 it was working great but then I had the incident with the bed glass that has prompted a ton of mods.

 

Have not made much progress waiting for parts.

I'll be installing this weekend
- Raspberry Pi 3 with OctoPrint
- 5V 3A supply
- SainSmart 5V 2 Relay board (printer / LEDS)
- DC/AC SSR for new bed heater

Still waiting on
- New extended bed holders
- New glass plate
- New heater

I have the new smooth rods for the extended bed so if I hear from the 3D hubs guy soon I may end up putting that together since the glass should arrive today.

 

Bummer, the guy I hired to print the ABS bed holders did not take into account ABS shrinkage, yup you guessed it parts are just enough out of spec as to be worthless. I could fix the rod holes being to small but the rod to rod spacing is off enough to be a problem. Looks like I'm going to have to find go back to the originals in order to get printing again. The 10 x 15 x 3/16 NeoCeram is pretty heavy compared to the old plate.

 

Didn't know about them. This guy on 3D Hubs had done some good work for me before but I guess this project was outside his abilities. For now I'll try finding some Magnets and glueing them to the glass to make it work with the old rods and holders. Unfortunately now my custom heater will be too big. At least I'll have it and some 495mm rods for my next try.

 

Bought some Neodymium magnets from Home Depot and Gorilla glued them to the glass I bought. This plate at 3/16 (5mm) is much more solid than the 1/8 (3mm) stock one. Its the glass used for fireplaces and is rated to 1200 degrees so shouldn't have any problems at typical bed temperatures ;-)

In case your wondering the stock ones demagnetized when I tried to remove them with heat as someone had suggested. Neodymium magnets do not like the kind of heat that loosens the glue BTW.

Also replaced the bottom LM8UU bearings since the originals lost some balls when I took out the rods. Marlin recompiled to remove the bed thermistor also. Also added some Tri-Flow oil to the bearings/rods when I redid the bearing blocks and reassembled the bed.

Now I get to figure out printing PLA without cheating by using bead heat at 50C.

 

The 3/16 (5mm) glass plate may be overkill but there was very little visible flex doing the ABL probe. So it is either that or the new LM8UU linear bearings I put in but overall it looked better than before.

Kind of nice being able to totally remove the plate to spray with hairspray. So putting some connectors on the heater and thermistor cables when I get the heater back on.