So I know I don’t give Tiertime a lot of praise; so this is partly to rectify this.
Just for giggles I tried adding some TL-Smoothers to my Up Mini 2. This is basically a bunch of diodes that tries to add some bias to remove the zero cross distortion from the DRV8xxx stepper drivers. Plugs into the stepper outputs, and plug the motor cable on the other side, easy peasy installation, and quite cheap. Not so easy to install on the extruder however.
This is using the original Tiertime board, but with the smoothers and Up Studio so no fancy options like that.
But there is a little play in the linear guides so I’m attributing the edge to backlash. Will put in same type of linear rails as the Cetus has in the near future. Just need to decide on CoreXY or plain Cartesian layout first (and fix the cnc so I can make som belt idlers that won’t flex in the heated build chamber).
The point was more to show that the original board can produce smooth prints with a $4 upgrade. (The smoother boards did help a little with the resonance issues as well, but its still there)
They’ll have pretty much the same effect on all of the DRV8xxx drivers from Texas. No point with Trinamic upgrades though, so when putting back the Duet 2 Maestro board they will be removed.
(Added bonus is that you should be able to hotplug the motors without burning the drivers as the diodes should absorb the back emf - but better to be safe than sorry, and stick to pulling the power before the stepper cables)
Once I’ve published the first-round of mods for the Cetus, I’ll install the Azteeg X5 Mini I purchased years- ago when I partnered with another company to create a larger version of the Herculien 3D printer. I also have a gear-set(1.75 and 3mm) of the first commercial version of BondTech equipment, I was on the beta-tester list back then. You can view a photo of the clear gear-case I printed on a Form1 SLA (Kickstarter version but now a 1+ modded) printer at https://www.thingiverse.com/make:146517 , an elegant design by https://www.thingiverse.com/walter/about .
I’ve designed a floating bowden-setup for the Cetus that will hover just above the nozzle entry-point, and looking forward, I’ll likely install the Mosquito hot-end. I’m also considering dual floating-bowdens feeding dual Mosquitos. Yeah, I just love to be in deep rabbit-holes.
I think I’ve suffered enough with an 8bit controller, but was important to use a stock Cetus to develop the mods I’ve created so those unable to afford expensive upgrades will be able to enjoy greater accuracy at faster print-speeds on their Cetus printers.
I have one of the Azteeg X5 minis as well, weird its the only open source 32bit board with step stick sockets; but it works great with grbl-lpc and tmc2108 in my toy laser engraver.
Haha…yeah it was truly sick back then for sure! I mastered see-through clear-resin printing loooong before the rest-of-the-pack. When I joined 3DHubs with my Form1 there were only 8 hubs operating in Western Canada, and I was the only Form1 hub in Canada. I often delivered the print-orders back then and always delivered clear-resin print-orders. My favorite moments were the jaw-drops on customers when they held their clear prints for the first time…always more-than-filled the satisfaction-cup for me and the customers. I delivered a clear print to a designer, a perfume bottle, once we got past the jaw-drop moment, and after many put-the-bottle-down and immediately pick-back-up in amazement, he directed me to the 20-or-so other clear prints from my competitors…they were all there from around the world…all the big players…and all were fails. Those moments were the best I had experienced as a 3D print-service provider!
This Azteeg v1.1 board is a beauty, even by today’s standards, love the quality, no scimpin’ on this board!
