Posts made by Zottig

Thanks. I will have to check with @W3DRK.

Ben

Thanks for your help. I had another issue with the 1.01 beyond just the wifi. The part cooling fan stopped working randomly a few months ago on F0 and I had to move it to F2. Not sure why, but from what I've read I assume it's the mosfet.

I got some replacement mosfets but they're probably a bit smaller than I dare mess with. The Wifi module wasn't that hard to swap, but those look like another matter. It's been just annoying enough to remember that printer is on F2 compared to all my other ones that with the disconnecting thrown on top I think it's worth it to me to just get a new one.

I hope they reply back that ethernet they have in stock is 1.03 as I would like the added fuse protection so whatever happened with the F0 doesn't happen again.

Thanks again for your help! Other than this particular board, I've loved running Duets on all my other printers.

Ben

The 1.03 board has been fine in the printer that had been a problem. Just debating whether to replace the wonky 1.01 with a 1.03 wifi or whatever ethernet version Filastruder has in stock... they don't specify if it has the blade fuse to protect the fans or not on the ethernet product page. I emailed them asking.

I didn't know the 1.01 board could be easily updated to the ethernet module. I don't have any of the 1.02 boards.

Ben

I had v1.01 board for my FT-5 that I got from Filastruder last year (just after MRFF) and have had no end of issues with the WiFi disconnecting while printing. I have the firmware to the most recent edge release and while it's gotten better, it still disconnects frequently.

When I was at MRRF again this year I bought a v1.03 board for another printer and decided to put it in the FT-5 and use the other board in the new printer to see if the board was the issue. The FT-5 has not disconnected yet using the 1.03 board but the 1.01 board still seems problematic in the new printer.

I saw some suggestions in the forum about a drastic move to replace the wifi module with one that has an external antenna (which of course would void the warranty but it was probably out of warranty by this point anyway). That went smoothly and gives me a little stronger RSSI (I believe it's 58 instead of 61 or 62) but it still disconnects when printing. Oddly it stays connected just fine when I am not printing. That made me wonder if it was electrical noise from the motors or something, but moving it to a different printer with a different power supply, motors, etc... I don't know what there is left to try.

So I am thinking about just buying another 1.03 board and giving up on the 1.01 board... but now I am debating the logic in getting another wifi vs maybe the ethernet version.

The FT-5 running the 1.03 has not disconnected while printing yet and that's very reassuring, but a friend at MRRF who had a 1.03 board was having issues keeping a connection to his machine (I don't know what firmware he was on though). Of course that was a terrible environment as there was lots of wifi congestion... even my laptop wasn't happy.

But since I bring at least one printer there per year, that made me think maybe it'd make sense to go with an ethernet board and use an ethernet to wifi dongle. I can have the convenience of wifi at home but have the reliability of a wired connection for times when wifi is problematic.

Anyone have any thoughts or had similar issues with the older board revision?

Ben
Grand Rapids, MI

Is it recommended to put a G29 S2 at the start of homeall.g and homez.g to clear any existing bed compensations to get an accurate Z home value consistently? I'd assumed the bed compensation numbers wouldn't come into play when homing Z, but I get as much as +.25 Z drift if I do a manual bed level and then say a print's gcode does a home and another bed level. It's as if the offset numbers sometimes compound and then every so often they correct and then start to drift again. When I noticed it I started homing Z and doing a bed level over and over to try to determine some pattern.

The only repeatable scenario was total power off and then homing and doing the first bed level. That was consistent… but additional bed leveling while powered on, the Z would seem to drift as if it weren't being zeroed out by the homing.

At first I thought it might have been that my BLTouch just had terrible repeat-ability but I noticed that I get consistent offset values for the 9 points I am probing, it's just the height of the grid off the bed varies based on Z.

I am not sure when this started being an intermittent issue. I didn't notice it when I was running 1.19 (but I started to notice it around 120b10).

All I know now is that if I do a G29 S2 to unload the compensation and THEN home Z I can get far more consistent values each time I home or do another bed level.

I guess I expected homing Z would be more of an absolute and wouldn't take the bed compensation values into consideration. Is this expected behavior and if so, is a G29 S2 recommended before homing Z?

Ben

Thanks. I didn't think they'd be needed. Just wanted to be sure. Wiring the Y axis in series seems to have worked. Finally printing reliably. Now to dial things in.

Ben

Oh, one additional question. I had TL smoothers for the MKS board and stock drivers. Do the Duet's TMC drivers benefit from something like that or are they unnecessary?

Ben

I have not gone above 2000 on the Y and I have heat sinks on the drivers with a fan blowing on them. And part of my troubleshooting was the put the single X motor on the Y driver and the X motor runs fine on the Y driver so it should be OK. Really good to know though that 2400 is the max you should go though. Just curious, would it let you put in values higher than 2400 in the config.g or will it complain?

I will look into wiring them in series. Still puzzled how others are running an FT-5 with them in parallel unless they aren't and just never mentioned that as part of switching to the Duet that they also made that wiring change.

Thanks

I have an FT-5 where pretty much the only thing stock at this point is the 2020 extrusion because I've been chasing unending problems. Yet while there are a lot of people who have had issues, I know there are a LOT who get amazing results from it even in stock config. By the way, one of the changes I made was switching to 24v.

Anyway, I eventually determined I had three questionable motors and they were likely the cause for a number of the issues. I've since replaced the four for the Y and Z with essentially the same 1.8 degree NEMA 17s spec as stock but they are a tad taller and are rated at 2 Amp instead of 1.5, have a resistance of 1.4, and are 59g/mm rather than the stock 50g/mm.

The majority of my issues stem from the fact that the Y and Z axis use two motors. The Z ended up not needing a lot of tweaking. It's the Y that's giving me fits though. Even at 2000mA in config.g I am getting slipping. And the rails are smooth as butter (they aren't locking or sticking), upgraded idlers, now slightly more powerful motor… I am at a loss.

Now at 2000mA in parallel each motor is only getting 1000mA, right? I certainly don't want to overdrive the driver chip. I don't know how high I can set things in the config.g... 3000mA I assume but probably best not to max it out either and in parallel the motors would only be getting 1500mA. So I stopped at 2000mA since I am concerned about going too high and figured I'd better ask.

One thing I read was that with the Duet WiFi, the Z motors are in series when using the two connectors on the Duet... the FT-5 stock config is to run them in parallel with both motors turning in the same direction.

As I said earlier, the Z didn't need a lot of tweaking... the stock setting is 1200mA for the 2 in parallel and in parallel I had to up it to 1500 to 1600 with the new motors they seem to be working OK now. I ended up using both connectors on the Duet Board which I discovered were wired in series and the Z works reliably at 900mA now.

The Y however still has the motors in parallel but they are wired so they will turn in opposite directions. I'm not exactly sure how I would switch to having them wired in series with the four wires and how they cross over, etc. But my biggest question is why I have to make all these adjustments that differ so greatly from people who have it working stock or even people I've read who are using the Duet. I mean I know the different drivers likely are game changers and any settings are automatically going to vary a bit. But mine for some reason seems to be an edge case even at 24v where I am having to run it at settings far higher than others with similar setups, even with the Duet, and some even at 12v.

Before making this new thread, I scoured the forums and saw the recommendation to use the 2nd extruder driver and to drive each Y motor separately but unfortunately I'm using the 2nd motor for my Prometheus dual extrusion System. I considered a Duet expansion board but I don't know how this all works for other guys with the stock MKS board so I figure it SHOULD work with just the Duet WiFi alone since others are running it with the Duet successfully.

So I guess my questions are... how high can I safely go in the config.g for the Y's M906 and what are the up and down sides of running it as it is now (both Y in parallel), vs serial (and how would you wire two Y in series to go in opposite directions) and finally would a Duet Expander be the best way (but I'd have to do something different with my BLTouch then I suppose... not sure what) and if the Expander is the best solution... how are people getting FT-5s to work on Duet hardware alone?

Ben Lewitt
Grand Rapids, MI