Best posts made by jamesadoty

I'm in the process of installing a Duet 2 Wifi board on my Tronxy X5SA, I don't have Z homing and bed leveling working yet though.

I had to rewire my X and Y limit switches, The limit switches have a three pin connector with an end pin used and the center pin used for the Tronxy controller. I had to use a paper clip to release the center pin and plug that pin in to the unused pin mount on the Tronxy connector. It wasn't terribly challenging (I'm disabled, I have SMA), but if you only have one hand to work with you may need assistance or a small vise to hold the connector still while you remove the center pin.

Once done I was able to plug the Tronxy X and Y limit switch cables in to the Duet 2 Wifi board. I did have to remove the orientation clips from the board though since my original connectors are a bit wide.

I don't yet have a proper crimping tool and crimping pins is challenging for me to do due to poor hand strength so I try to avoid crimping if at all possible.

Time to sing it:
"Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy!!!"

The learning curve is killing me. But some progress made!

I thought macros were automatically run. Nope. Did some research. Tried:
P/macros/setnetwork.
Nope, no go.

Did even more research
M98 p/macros/setnetwork

M587 showed belkin.c6f but no IP address or netmask or anything, all zeros.
Rebooted, ran M587. Connected with an IP address!!!!

Thank you all of you who helped me figure this out.

@phaedrux
I'll look up the motor specs. Thanks.

Right now I'm printing at 4000mm/min, moving xy at 8000mm/min, down from 5000mm/min printing and 9000mm/min moving on my last attempt.

Z is set to 1000mm/min. I've not needed to change that.

I upped current on xy to 1.1amps, and e to 1.05amps. I started with all my stepper motors set to 950mA.

As of the print I'm running now I have retraction set to 5mm at 6000mm/min. Looking at my print stringing is very reduced and the print looks pretty good. I've really struggled with pinning this all down, but each print I tweak a bit.

@xsivspd
Still 12vdc.

I've seen that the bed should allow for 24v connectivity but the wiring diagram on the bottom of the bed doesn't match up with the number of solder pads next to it.

The printer draws 20 amps during operation with the hot end at 200c and the bed at 60c. During load the voltage from the power supply drops to 11.5 volts. I've considered turning the power supply up a bit to compensate since it wouldn't hurt anything.

If I can verify 24v wiring for the bed, I can jumper the fans for 12v (I think I read that someplace), and change the heater cartridge in the hot end and find a 24 volt 15 or 20 amp power supply to power it all.

With xy set to 1.1amps, and e set to 1.05amps movement speed set to 8000mm/min, and print speed set to 4000mm/sec I managed a print last night with no skips and no feed issues.

But yeah, the bed draws 16 amps at 12 volts, tested with a Fluke meter. I moved up to 12 gauge power lead and T60 connectors and the power lead is warm to the touch. It would be good to switch to 24 vols.

I still have some fine tuning to do in Simplify3D, I'm getting whispy stringing. I had really bad stringing initially but playing with retraction is having a positive effect on fixing that issue.

@xsivspd

I think I have the amps settled down for my stepper motors. Two prints in a row of more than four hours each with no skips.

I've upped the retraction to 7mm and that seems to have helped. I'm going to try 8mm of retraction on my next print tomorrow.

Isn't there a jumper or jumpers on the Duet 2 Wifi board to set the fans to 12vdc? The hot ends for this printer are dirt cheap, I'll likely buy another complete hot end for 24 volts.

I've installed a four pin 5 amp Molex connector to my printer near the hot end so I don't have to replace wiring running through the cable chain. Makes it almost plug and play, though I do have to put a new male connector on the heater cartridge and thermistor, but that's pretty easy in comparison of pulling wire from and installing wire in the cable chain.

@xsivspd

That along with replacing my xy motor mounts with metal mounts from Open builds have been two of my favorite modifications. Of course installing the Duet 2Wifi board is my favorite modification.

I insulated the bottom of the heated bed which was my first modification.

I genuinely like my X5SA though in fairness it's not a great printer out of the box. But my X5SA came with great features, which I really like.

To digress a bit. I bought an Ender 3 just weeks after my X5SA arrived and it is without a doubt my favorite 3D printer to date. It will also end up with a Duet 2 Wifi board and seven inch LCD panel because I love them so.

Before I bought the X5SA I bought and was using a QU-BD Two Up. It was better than my first 3D printer but to make it capable of reliably producing good 3d prints it went through extensive changes and except for the top brace and the hot end mount is now devoid of horrible wooden parts.

Before the Two Up, I built a Prusa Mendal. It's a good and reliable printer but can't match the print quality of modern printers. Still it was a lot of fun to build and is reliable.

Oh, and shame upon shame, I have most of C bot built. I need to program the electronics and do something with the horrible z axis mechanics. It's nearly as big as my X5SA. A buddy of mine has been bugging me for a year to finish building it so that if nothing else, I can sell it.

I'm well of topic, I'll stop that now.

After payday I'll investigate switching my X5SA to 24 volts. I need to work out the heated bed, I expect I'll need to find a combination of solder pads that give me full coverage on the heater and has about 1.5 ohms of impedance. My bed draws 16 amps at 12 volts so it's wired for 0.75ohms currently. I'll need a 15 amp 24 volt power supply, three new fans, and a 24 volt hot end. I expect it'll cost less than $100 to make the changes.

I think those changes may have done the trick.

I'm printing an enclosure for my 7 inch Duet display and it's been printing for 25 to 30 minutes and looks pretty good.

I may have to adjust the offset a bit but so far so good.

Thanks for your help.