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Wild Idea

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by LordPeq, May 29, 2022.

  1. LordPeq

    LordPeq Member

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    So I have had my R2 since 2018, I took about a year off to educate myself a little more, get divorced and have the time to devote to my hobby. Over the last year I fully immersed myself in this tech and have my R2 tuned pretty well and it is mostly reliable. A few things bother me continually.

    First, the OctoPrint plugin sucks. It is buggy, it never wants to reconnect after any of my computers go to sleep, and when the webcam is turned on, I get an infinitely longer web page and the video image disappears, though I can still see the feed on a stream or in Cura under the monitor feature.

    Second, speed. I think I am hitting the natural limits of the machine. I am trying to print above 70 mm/s but It does not appear the machine is keeping up.

    So here's my thought. I have been saving to build a RatRig V Core 3 but in the meantime, what if I swapped out the brains of my R2? I would upgrade to a Raspberry Pi 4 or use a 3, I have both. I really like the BTT Octopus board and I have been reading a lot about Klipper firmware.

    Does anyone have any red flags or has anyone done this before?

    I am very open to suggestions and coaching
     
    #1 LordPeq, May 29, 2022
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The R2 already has a Pi 3 inside unless it is a very early one with a Pi 2. My C2 came with a Pi 3 (which I did upgrade to a 4 for no real reason).
     
    #2 mark tomlinson, May 29, 2022
  3. LordPeq

    LordPeq Member

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    Yeah I have a pi3 in there now. I have a spare 3 and a 4
     
    #3 LordPeq, May 29, 2022
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  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Unless there is something else you want to tag the Pi to do (remote desktop or VNC maybe) then I wouldn't worry with the upgrade to a Pi 4 (given the prices on the Pi these days). It works fine with the Pi 3. The gantry style machine the R2/C2 are will not have quite as high of a maximum print speed as the R1 series (the gantry can't quite move that fast)
     
    #4 mark tomlinson, May 30, 2022
  5. LordPeq

    LordPeq Member

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    So if I am hearing you right, I could theoretically swap the boards, and go to Klipper but I would still be limited by the stock gantry? What would you suggest? You are a celebrity here after all lol
     
    #5 LordPeq, May 30, 2022
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    :) The gantry will limit the max travel speed given the mechanics of how it works. If you want to swap to a different control board and firmware -- go for it. It just won't likely make your max speed any better. The majority of FDM printers are not going to work any faster with a better driver board (one with a faster CPU). The delta style printers will benefit from a 32-bit controller, but not the carrtesian machines. There is no complex math involved :)

    I would not use a delta without a 32-bit board. Ours is outfitted with a Rambo
     
    #6 mark tomlinson, May 30, 2022
  7. LordPeq

    LordPeq Member

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    Interesting… I of course am on a quest for those ultra fast CoreXY boys crapping out a benchy in 14 minutes. Didn’t you rebuild your gantry?
     
    #7 LordPeq, May 30, 2022
  8. LordPeq

    LordPeq Member

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    And wouldn’t a better 32 but board take full advantage of the Robo? Like make it function to its physical max? My goal for the R2 is 100mm/s print speed… reliable of course
     
    #8 LordPeq, May 30, 2022
  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Not really a rebuild, we modified it a bit to minimize the stress on the bearings. There are a couple of folks who have done more significant changes.
     
    #9 mark tomlinson, May 30, 2022
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    There is nothing else (much) you can do electronically to improve the machine -- certainly not beyond what the mechcanical limitations are (and that is true for any printer). Raw speed? You want a delta style printer.
     
    #10 mark tomlinson, May 30, 2022
  11. LordPeq

    LordPeq Member

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    I’d love to study your work… I am of the mind that if I can tweak this thing and swap out the electronics, I can have a really fast and well performing 3D printer.
     
    #11 LordPeq, May 30, 2022
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Well almost all of the modifications I did to the R1s and C2 are in the projects sections of the forums for those printers.
    I didn't buy an R2, the C2 was mopre usefull to me since it has greater precision for smaller parts.
     
    #12 mark tomlinson, May 30, 2022
  13. LordPeq

    LordPeq Member

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    Thanks for the tips! I’ll marinate on the idea a bit
     
    #13 LordPeq, May 30, 2022
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Our largest printer is a delta style. Five foot high and about 12 inches diameter -- it flies when doing larger prints. Radial printing versus cartesian :)
     
    #14 mark tomlinson, May 30, 2022
  15. Jerome Helbert

    Jerome Helbert Member

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    If you are moving to Klipper, the mainboard speed really doesn't matter as much since most of the heavy math is moved to the RPi.

    I would agree with @mark tomlinson that you're never going to reach the 14min benchy time of speeds on the R2s style of gantry. IMO one of the best features of Klipper is resonance compensation. It will help to cancel out ringing and allow to run higher accelerations with impacts to print quality.

    But, even with resonance compensation, the R2 is limited on how fast it can go. There are some pretty low frequency resonances (at least on my printer) that are hard to effectively cancel out at high accelerations without impacting printer quality in their own way. I'm still trying to narrow down the exact source of the resonances, but my best guess is that it's either the belt tensioning springs or the plastic frame itself.
     
    #15 Jerome Helbert, May 31, 2022
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