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[T] Octopus Pro + EXP MOT and the Tool Bar

A project log for SecSavr Sublime [gd0036]

An FDM 3D printer that I described as "The FULL Coverage, Extended X, Pro Max, Ultramatrix Solution".

kelvinakelvinA 05/24/2022 at 13:290 Comments

Published: 14:53, Tues 24th May

A few logs ago, I said I was going to watch a Spider V1.1 listing to wait until it got taken down or I could deduce it was legit, and the former happened as expected. There was even a Spider V2.2 for the same price, magically.

Controller Boards

Anyway, after thinking over my options multiple times, I just decided to see how much more it would cost me to go down each other route for both SecSavr bays:

  1. Monster8 x 4 + EXP MOT x 4 + Tax = £152
    1. (All orders under £135 from a single seller have 20% added on as tax)
  2. Oct Pro x 3 + EXP MOT x 4 = £153
    1. (I've already got one of the Oct Pros so I only need 3 more)
  3. Monster8 x 6 = £152

As you can see, and as I found out, I was basically worrying about barely a difference. However, this relies on the idea that I don't need to motorize the Tool Bar, or else I'd need 23 steppers per SecSavr bay. The EXP MOT's also make wiring up the 3 micro steppers much easier as I can just send 5V to those boards. I also don't have to start soldering a bunch of wires and capacitors with the Oct Pros, and I don't need to buy a seperate 5V PSU either (Monster8 doesn't have enough amperage on the 5V rail for a SBC).

Tool Bar

Having the tool bar connected to the main gantry is the simplest and cheapest option, with the only drawback being that I might need 5 counterbalance pulleys and the top acceleration will be further reduced. The control boards are in the tool bar so that I don't have to make as many extremely long wire runs to components. With this method, I just have to have long runs to the heated beds and the W axis motors, as well as the PSUs.

An option I thought of is to have the Z axis slider 

I'd then want to make swapping the Z axis motors as easy as unscrewing and screwing in 8 screws and adding 2 cables. However, this feature only makes sense to implement if the "bed gantry" is significantly lighter than the main gantry and the achievable acceleration makes a real difference in print times / noise / vibrations without quality loss, for which I'm skeptical about. 

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