Wanhao i3 duplicator

Doowrednu · 10 Oct 2016, 15:13

Hi - I'm going to upgrade my Wanhao i3 duplicator to Duet wifi this week. http://wanhaousa.com/products/duplicator-i3-steel-frame
Was wondering if anyone else had done this upgrade or any general gotchas I should watch out for with this type of prusa printer?

It currently has a meizai marlin controller with MK 10 single extruder.

I'm really looking forward to adding the IR probe for levelling - would be grateful for any guidance on best way to mount it. I think there is enough space next to extruder but worried about heat and how to attach it.

Look forward to any advice you can offer - I will take photos and take notes as I go.

Doowrednu · 11 Oct 2016, 15:41

Got the upgrade done ok - very pleased with the Duet - everything is so much quieter

First couple of prints didn't work - I hadn't set the Z steps / mm correctly - but once that was done next couple of prints were great. Very pleased

Next up is to figure out how to mount the IR Probe

I will post the settings I used later

iDevelo · 11 Oct 2016, 15:55

Good work. How did you manage to mount the board in the controller box?

Doowrednu · 11 Oct 2016, 16:43

Its out in the open at the moment - there is space inside the controller box but I am going to repurpose the LCD for an arduino project so I think I will print a new box for the Duet.
As the PSU fan is now the noisiest part of the printer I think I will switch to a computer PSU with a larger quieter fan in it so will end up with a custom case for that also.

darookee · 13 Oct 2016, 09:29

@Doowrednu:

Got the upgrade done ok - very pleased with the Duet - everything is so much quieter

Are there benefits beside quiter motors? I can't decide if I need the upgrade or not, because the main reason I would do it is a problem with my USB connection, and if there would be no benefit besides working USB and quiter motors I don't know if I want to spend the money…

T3P3Tony · 13 Oct 2016, 10:32

I don't know the Duplicator however we have seen quality improvements from using the 256 micro stepping, as well a quieter motors. Its a different printer but check out this post on the bigbox forum about the quality improvements:
https://forum.e3d-online.com/index.php?threads/bigbox-duetwifi-controller.1766/

There are many usability improvements compared to other solutions such as the web interface, macros and gcode control of a wide variety of variables.

Cheers

Tony

darookee · 9 Nov 2016, 16:39

@Doowrednu Could you post your config.g? I have the conversion done, but I'm not sure about the stepper motor currents. I currently use

M906 X855 Y855 Z1080 E855

but they seem to be vibrating a lot. Currently printing my first piece, so I'm not sure if this is something that influences the quality…

T3P3Tony · 9 Nov 2016, 16:57

Stepper motor currents need to be appropriate for the motor you are driving, those are every specific currents you have set there (855mA, 1080mA) do you know what model on stepper motors the duplicator uses

darookee · 9 Nov 2016, 20:08

That guy did the math: http://www.hacking3d.com/2016/05/wanhao-duplicator-i3-v2-stepper-tuning.html and I checked the numbers on my motors and used the values he calculated, just to get started.
Now that my first print is finished I have to say it turned out better than I was expecting with all this jiggeling the motors did. It seems that I dialed the nozzle too far away from the bed so the first layer is a bit ugly, but the rest looks realy good.

T3P3Tony · 9 Nov 2016, 21:04

Ahh I see, well the current setting you have are unlikely to be the cause of the jiggeling what setting are you using for M305?

darookee · 10 Nov 2016, 08:24

My M305 look like this:

; Heaters + Thermistors
M305 P0 T100000 B3950 R4700 H0 L0	; Put your own H and/or L values here to set the bed thermistor ADC correction
M305 P1 T100000 B4388 R4700 H0 L0	; Put your own H and/or L values here to set the first nozzle thermistor ADC correction

But you probebly wanted to know about the M350 settings?

M350 X16 Y16 Z16 E16 I1             ; set 16x microstepping with interpolation
M92 X80 Y80 Z400 E98                ; set axis steps/mm
M350 X256 Y256 Z256 E16 I1          ; set 64x microstepping with interpolation and automatically
                                    ; update steps/mm accordingly

I probably need to delete the second M350, as the I1 does the same thing if I undetstand that correctly…?

dc42 · 10 Nov 2016, 08:42

I don't recommend setting x256 microstepping explicitly until we have implemented dynamically-varying microstepping. The reason is that the step rates required for even modest movement speeds are very high, for example 128Ksteps/sec per motor to obtain 100mm/sec on a typical machine using 1.8deg/step motors and 20 tooth GT2 pulleys.

T3P3Tony · 10 Nov 2016, 10:46

Hi darookee yes, the last M command in config.g is the one which will be in effect.

darookee · 10 Nov 2016, 15:03

I removed the second M350 and now have just the 1/16th with interpolation, I'll report back after a few tests…

darookee · 15 Nov 2016, 09:44

After using this configuration for a few days now it seems fine. So it was probably the 1/256 steps…

T3P3Tony · 15 Nov 2016, 10:16

Thanks for the update, good to know you got to the bottom of the issues and yes that makes sense.

If either/both of you get a chance to post the details of your upgrades into the " My Duet WiFi-controlled machine" examples forum that would be really appreciated:

Thanks!