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Upgrade and refit of my R1

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Kingbob, May 30, 2018.

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  1. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    So my R1 is an older one, not kickstarter, but early 2013 vintage i think, so doesnt have many of the changes that came afterwards. Printed ok to begin with, but never managed to get it to print what i considered well. Also had several issues: broken power switch, had to replace the arduino and the RAMPS board, melted wiring and connectors, dud bed thermistor, and all sorts of little things.

    But i know the printer can be excellent, and its hackability was why i chose it to begin with. So today the last of the parts I ordered to give it a refit and upgrade arrived, so its time to take it apart and rebuild it.

    Things i'll be doing:
    - Installing a Pi to run Octoprint
    - Replacing the hobbed bolt
    - Installing a proper cable chain to the carriage
    - Total rewiring to get rid of the cheap wire in it.
    - Replace the couplers (have new solid and flexible to try)
    - Replace the 5/16 threaded rod with 8mm rod.
    - Install trinamic 2130 stepper drivers (which will eliminate the end stop switches)
    - Replace the power switch
    - Re-do the LED lighting
    - Re-do the cabling to the heated bed to eliminate cable issues
    - Replace the RAMPS cooling fan with a Noctua
    - Tighten or replace the belts
    - And probably some things i've forgotten.


    Things i'm considering doing: (these will depend on the results from the above lot of upgrades)
    - Install an E3D titan extruder (or clone)
    - Add an Anycubic Ultrabase panel on top of the existing glass bed
    - Maybe remove the existing glass bed altogether and replace with an aluminium plate and better heater pad, and the Anycubic panel.
    - Maybe build an entire new corner levelling style base (not sure how on this)
    - Use lead screws instead of 8mm threaded rod
    - Replace the steppers with ones with integrated lead screws.
    - Replace the linear bearings with new ones, or polymer bushings.


    The printer has had an E3D hotend in it almost since new, a V5 at first, then a V6, with the nozzle changed now and then, so no need to replace that.

    Can anyone think of anything else i could/should do? I'm sure theres things ive forgotten.
     
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  2. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Cant speak much for things you should do other than the 8mm lead screws :D. The rest is totally up to you. Of course replace anything suspect wiring wise. Dont need any melt downs. The V6 hotend (genuine from E3D) is what I use on most machines and am quite happy with it. If your going to add a titan get the real deal as well and dont spend the money on a new hobbled bolt as you'll be replacing all that stuff with the titan.

    Unless you remove the top like @mark tomlinson I'd suggest against a cable chain. Not my favorite thing, I just use a loom. If the top is off while printing you can certainly use a chain, just dont like the idea of a chain being crammed up in the case. I just use a loom with strain reliefs.

    I prefer home switches (good ole mechanical stuff lol) but trinamic silent step sticks are fantastic upgrade. In all honestly...a bit much for the R1 series. I'd stick with whats cheap unless the noise is bothersome to you.
     
  3. BrooklynBay

    BrooklynBay Active Member

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    Some people on this forum installed stepper shim pads to help reduce stepper noise. TL smoothers might help too.
     
  4. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    I got the new hobbed bolt from ebay for a few dollars, so no big deal if i end up using a Titan. Put it in last night and gave the extruder a good clean. Shreds of filament and oil down in it everywhere. Hopefully will make a difference.

    Some of the upgrades are basically "because i can" upgrades. Figure if im doing the functional ones i might as well do the bling ones as well :D
     
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  5. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    Oh and I have an external MOSFET board to use. Rather kill that than the one on the RAMPS board.
     
  6. jim3Dbot

    jim3Dbot Active Member

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    Be sure to, at minimum, take sequential pics of the progress......others will be surely interested......I would place the lead screws in phase one though...Take Care
     
  7. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    Yeah just waiting on the leadscrews to arrive. Though i think i ordered TR8x8, should have gotten TR8x4 or 8x2.
     
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The real differences are very minor. Just make the firmware match what you install and you are probably fine :)
     
  9. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Basically the difference you will see is in the minimum resolution of the Z axis, Stepper motors are usually 1.8° per step 200 steps per revolution. Your TR8*8 will move linearly 8 mm per full revolution. A single full step will be 8.00 mm / 200 steps = 0.04 mm per step. On top of that the RAMPS board is capable of driving the stepper in partial steps. By default 16 microsteps per step, so the final resolution is approximately 0.04 mm/step / 16 microsteps = 0.0025 mm per microstep. The reason that is only approximate and not exact is that microsteps being electrically generated are not a guaranteed step on any stepper motor. More than enough resolution for these types of machines.
     
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  10. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    Finally started my R1 rebuild, installed my new leadscrews and noticed that where they go through the carriage, theres no bearing, or sleeve or bushing, so they can wobble around quite a lot. The smooth guide rod has a bearing, but not the leadscrew.
    Is that normal?

    [​IMG]
     
  11. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    Loaded up Octoprint on a Pi 3. It was one from an aborted project so has had its ethernet and 2 usb ports removed. But didnt really matter here. Installed it and began re-wiring.
    Also installed a new power switch that actually operates in both the ON and OFF positions! :D

    [​IMG]
     
  12. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    And just installed a Noctua 60m fan blowing over the RAMPS board. The fan is 25mm thick so wont fit flat on top of the board.
    The crappy little 40mm fan that was there, looks like it was only moving 5 or 6 CFM of air down onto the drivers. This 60mm fan blows a bit over 17CFM. So i figure since it moves triple the air, mounting it sideways next to the board should work fine. Or if i need to, a small printed duct across the board would work nicely.

    [​IMG]
     
  13. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    Knocked up a quick little adapter to mount the brass leadscrew fitting to the carriage.[​IMG]

    And fitted. Rigidly fixed atm but If i remove the black screws it will float like th original endstop switch mounts.
    [​IMG]
     
  14. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    Next stop, new TMC2130 trinamic stepper drivers. Should improve accuracy a bit and reduce lots of noise.

    [​IMG]

    And all wired up. These drivers have endstop/stall detection so dont need actual endstop switches which cuts down on cabling.
    [​IMG]

    And the wiring diagram i drew as a reference first. I didnt actually bother to connect the extruder driver though.
    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    putting the TMC 2130 on the ramps board? If so can you throw some instructions on this thread? Curiosity has the best of me. The last time I put silent step sticks on a robo there was some...dicking around.... to be done to get them to work lol
     
  16. Kingbob

    Kingbob Active Member

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    Marlin does support the 2130's as of 1.1.6 i think, but there are config changes that need to be made, not least to set the pins i've used.
    Im hoping to have time to do that this weekend so will document as i go.
     
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  17. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Thank you. I believe the last time I mucked about was prior to that version of Marlin (maybe? Been a long time lol). Back when you actually had to jumper the stepsticks pins themselves. Hoping that is gone so it can be a more accepted (easy) mod.

    Thanks !
     
  18. Connor1998

    Connor1998 New Member

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    Hey man,

    Did you ever get to documenting the firmware updates on this upgrade?
     
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Kingbob was last seen:
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    I think he is gone...
    This thread has not been updated in 3 years either :)
     
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