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Misc Electrical & Mechanical Notes

A project log for Monoprice Select Mini Electro-Mechanical Upgrades

Endeavoring to build upon the existing fanbase work of this $200-ish printer.

michael-obrienMichael O'Brien 07/22/2016 at 02:480 Comments

First off, some have mentioned thread lock already. I know how to torque down a bolt, but the bottom panel had 3 screws come loose from the printing I've done so far. If you never plan on opening your Select Mini in the near future, blue thread lock is needed on these bottom 6 bolts

Though not the precise model, this motor is from the same family as the NEMA-17 x-axis and y-axis motors. Scroll down for specs. I'll call it close enough since I was trying to get a finite answer on what the stepping resolution was on these guys.

The z-stepper is unmarked as far as I can tell.

The Kapton-insulator wrap that was on the hotend is primarily there to help prevent thermal transfer to the feed tube and provide a better thermal break, FYI. Guess how many prints it took to figure that out ;)

As for the motors, you may note that during a print that lasts 30 min or more, that you have a few pixels on your LCD. Consider these flipped bits because the entire screen isn't redrawn when there is an update. I've not sure if these are caused by EMI from the Z or Y axis motors. The screen itself is shielded, but it's ribbon cables, nor the ones from the driver board, are not.

There is a vent for a 80 mm fan on the bottom panel. There are no mounting holes for a 80 mm fan though. Either I drill 4 holes, I make/print a bracket, or put a 60 mm fan in.

The PCB's dimensions were not specified in the review, iirc, nor the bolt pattern holding it down. You have 43.2 mm center to center and 92.2 mm center to center, +/- 0.1 mm.

The thermistors for the hotend and heated bed do seem to be the 100K NTC with a Beta value of 3950 cause I plug the other ones in and I get an appropriate room temp reading. I've messed with thermistors before.

My Select Mini isn't entirely "complete". It only has 3 of the plastic rings identifying what cables are what, unlike the Benchoff review, fwiw. Things aren't that difficult to discern, though.

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