24 November 2025
I had a good time over the weekend, but am going a little backwards. 3D printer is in bits at the moment as I stripped the bed assembly and fitted the stiffer supports along with the z-axis synchronising belt. The problem now is that the z-axis is stuttering when going up, so I need to check the current going to the motors. That should be simple given the various instructions, but the setting pots are not showing any voltage against which to check and I can't find any alternative instructions for the X5SA controller. What I have found in my sorting through are the bits to switch from 12V to 24V which the board will support, and doubling the motor voltage will help. All the fans need changing from 12V to 24V and while I have 2 for the flat fans, the 'blower' fan has proven a little difficult to source as everybody insists on supplying 2, but I have now found a source for a single fan. I have a 24V extruder heater, but given the problems with the ABS cooling down too quickly I've ordered a 60W 24V one, which should not be a problem for the board as it will be lower current than the current 12V one. I'm also working on tidying all the wiring and lengthening the cables that are too short given the new display position and also the overhead extruder. I managed to print a few bits before trashing the machine but I will now need to print a couple more bits once it is restored.
The laser cutter is proving more stable and a linux package called rayforge is coming along nicely. There have been a couple of version updates over the weekend adding improvements to the stuff *I* am working with and I even have the source code accessible in VSCode along with the Python extensions. Knew I would have to get involved there sometime, and with it mirroring FreeCAD this seems the right path going forward. I think I will still need a little pre-processing of what is passed to rayforge, but it even bypasses the need for UGS so that is a plus.
Addressing the damp problems in the garage, and not being able to move the two mills here, I stripped all the stepper motors off and they, along with the electronics to drive them, are sitting on the floor of the loft. Plenty of things to keep me busy going forward, and now the Taig mill is probably light enough to move here. It's cabinet is going to be too big to do anything with, so perhaps it's time to see if anybody wants to buy it, along with the chassis of the 5" gauge Springbok and all the parts for the 3" Burrell traction engine. I am not going to be able to do anything with them going forward and someone else might appreciate them. Just need to sort all the paperwork for both projects such as drawings and the Model Engineer articles.
Need to take a few photos of progress on the 3D printer and should probably have taken a few as that work progressed ...
The move to 24V had been planned when I first built the printer and now the 24V supply has been installed.
The bed was switched to a mains powered heater early on, and now the cable to the power switch needs a little extension to get it back onto the base plate. The aluminium base plate has now been fitted and things can be secured to it finally.
There was little detail on the TronXY controller in the original paperwork and even the latest manual does not detail just where each cable should go. There are lables on the board, but they are a little difficult to read.
Another quick printing job was a spacer to clear the bed mount and allow a cable duct to be fitted between front and back. This needs a little fix as the bolt hole for the extrusion bolt is a little too close to the front and had to be eased back a bit. At some point I probably need to address the problem of panelling to keep the heat in but we can easily print a few more brackets when required.
Not sure now this is entirely necessary, but it has resulted in the bad no longer rocking front to back. Weight wise it is no different to the metal bar that it replaces, but there is still a little amount of rocking.
Keeping the wiring out of the way of the bed has been a little bit of fun especially since moving the extruder drive to the overhead position, but things are heading in the right direction.
Adding a duct from the back rail to the front will keep things tidy and all the slack wire should fit inside it. Just waiting on the 24V extruder heater before I can complete the hook up via it.
The use of two motors to drive the z axis may seem an easy solution, but the two have never stayed in sync. The problem can be addressed by a quick tweak of the left hand motor while printing the skirt, but keeping the two screws in sync is the right approach ... that is if the motors can drive the extra load that this creates. Hopefully the move to 24V will give more power to them, but I also need to sort checking the power setting on the drivers. Something which is not working as indicated.