Compliments to you dude! This is the simplest, easiest print for the linear rail conversion. I’ve installed and tuned, happily running at 150mms with 6k accel
Thanks Zain! I try to keep it simple as I'm always futzing with it :) Awesome speeds! I got my other printer up to 140 @ 4k but stopped tweaking it while I worked on other stuff. Please let me know if you get any higher!
@@LilMikeysBigPlans Aye, I got some artefacts so backed down to 140/4000 as well. I’ve posted the below on thingiverse This is a amazing design. Not complicated to do at all! Easy fitting and a throughly thought out design to ensure newbie compatibility. Two quick questions though. 1. The blower mount for Bowden sits about 20mm above the nozzle. 2. A request, can we get a dual blower mount? The speeds that this can reach need some hardcore cooling :)
@@zainie1408 Hey Zain, also replied on Thingiverse - but there should be two sets of holes in the blower, one for standard heater blocks and one for volcanos. I switched back to a direct but you can see the bowden + volcano in intro to this video so it should be aligned. If you can't get it to fit, please send over a pic as it may be something I can debug without having to re-convert to bowden :)
Hey Mike. Thanks for the reply! I’m thrilled that you’re gonna look into the dual 5015 requested! I’ve uploaded a make on thingiverse to show the fan position. Although the pictures aren’t great, the fan is sitting halfway up the block. The bottom edge of the fan is about halfway down the block. Not sure if by design. Will upload more pictures soon :)
Hi, I just began to upgrade my x5sa-2e to linear rails with your design, now I encountered the issue, that my hotend doesn't fit into the bowden carriage. Could you edit or add this Hotend to your design? I'll be happy to assist with measurements, if needed. Best regards and thanks in advance Danial
Hey Matthew. Good idea on the Aero! It should mount to the carriage fine but designing a part cooler will be a trick. I've uploaded the step files for the Direct drive carriage, bottom plate and blower to the Thingiverse page. All of these are still WIP and I'm going to put the whole system on something like github when it's complete but if you need additional steps before then just give a shout. Also, I have an Aero here somewhere so if you run into issues or just don't want to deal with it I'm happy to whip something up.
Can you make a video on fan duct upgrades? I try looking for a good air duct so it can cool the print all around it instead of one side but have no luck. I have a tronxy x5sa 300
Hey Boomer, Unfortunately the blowers are usually coupled with a specific carriage. I can make a video on how I designed the 3/4-around blower for this carriage if you like.
Judging by the alignment of the belts to the printhead, this design should work with a voron tap/stealthburner? Obvioulsy the x rail needs to be mounted on the front face of the 2020.. but based on this video, it seems like it would work, no?
Do you have a Bowden bracket for the Proximity detector vs the BLTouch? I have bent too many pins on BLTs traveling over curled edges. The current print finishes fine, it is the NEXT print that fails dramatically. I know it is not as accurate as a BLTouch, but a raft, or a thicker first layer takes care of that.
I have one question. Can some one tell me the dimensissions of the toothless pulleys i can't find out the outer diameter of the pulleys and the height of them and I know that the bore is 5 mm and the belt width is 6.5 mm for a 6 mm belt, but I don't know the diameter of the belt width?
Great video, very informative! This design, flipped over, so the belt system is on top would allow over 380x380x380 with an e3d v6 and volcano. (As my setup has) I've got something similar, but used the stock xy plates with new holes drilled., and stock plates at the extruder with a filistruder v6 mount. Obviously completely rerouted the belts away the corners to have perfectly straight alignment. Thanks for your videos, I've watched several 😌
Thanks James! I've switched to all linear rails with a different belt system altogether. Cool to see people making this cheap printer 'kit' into something awesome :)
You are correct. I left an update in the description noting the loss of build area; a few mm on X and ~40mm on Y due to the belts and motors being relocated inside the frame. You can minimize Y loss by putting the X/Y motors on the front of the gantry and I have some design ideas to squeeze a few more mm out of the X but at the end of the day the focus is on simplicity for generic cube frames.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans I try to mod some of the files. In my mod all you have to do is to move the build plate 10mm off the heating surface and you have the full 400x400mm. When it works I will share the files.
Sounds good! Can't wait to see what you come up with. If you don't mind a more involved upgrade I have a Two Motor Z gantry: www.printables.com/model/239989-two-motor-z-gantry-big-plans-printer-system and a Three Motor Z gantry: www.printables.com/model/240093-three-motor-z-gantry-big-plans-printer-system that would let you mount the bed plate where you want it to be. I'm working on a video for the three Z system in an X5SA now.
Cool mods. The m5 bolt through the pulleys would be good with nylocks upside down on the top. Man, metric hardware is expensive ehh. Whenever I get an Amazon gift card I just waste it on metric fasteners
Yeah, nylocs would be a very good idea on the TronXY since the bolt is upside down. Less important on a standard install since the bolt would be coming down from the top but certainly wouldn't hurt then either! I bought a variety pack of m3s another of m4s, and another of m5s so while they were pricy (like $20 a pack) I should be good on fasteners for the next decade :)
Nice Job Mikey, Keep up the good work. Been Following you since last year. I have the X5SA 330 and have been looking for a linear rail setup and this looks good. I upgraded the mainboard and the LCD for the Octopus V1.1 with a BTT TFT7.0 and the Tronxy Official Direct Drive Titan Extruder setup and have had extremely good results with my prints. However I wanna go linear rail for smoother motions. This is a good start for that adventure. Thanks again.
Thanks for watching! Why did you go with the Octopus? Are you planning on using all of those drivers or was it a price thing? Personally I'm not sure how they can charge $50 for an Octopus and still get $40 for an skr.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans I opted for the octopus for future upgrade ability like ( Dual Extruder's, mixing hotend, multiple Filament Sensors ) but I chose the Octopus for the Processing Speed. The Octopus has a 180mhz Arm Cortex and with that speed it can Crunch alot of math pretty easily when printing and I do notice that it is very efficient and consistent when printing at High Speeds. Mikey, Why did you opt to place the X Gantry Linear Rail underneath the 2020? I know you mentioned in your other Video that you had some Jerk control issues when printing!
When I run cables I prefer to use ethernet. The one you see in this video is for the BLTouch as I just happened to have a long stepper cable handy but on my other large printer I'm using ethernet for everything except the high draw heater wiring. I'm happy to elaborate and upload the things if you're interested in doing the same.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans I love the idea. I looked over some on your thingiverse designs and have an idea of how you did it. I definitely considering doing the same for cable management with keystone couplers and jst connectors crimped on Ethernet cable (mainly to avoid having to buy breadboard and screw terminals).
@@nmos001 You probably came across my break-out boards w/ keystones. That solution worked well but it took up a lot of space. I tried just wiring everything directly to the keystone jacks however keystones aren't made for stranded wire and was getting frequent failures - especially with the little thermistor wires. Now I'm using little breakout boards with pin headers on them. I'll upload those models tomorrow if you want to play around with it. You'll want to use stranded CAT5 for the runs.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans same, found out the hard way that stranded wire does not work well with keystones. If you tin the wires, it may work better assuming the wires are 24 gauge. I wouldn't do that for Ethernet wiring due to signal integrity, but for these low frequency applications, it should not be a problem. I think the best solution is to use keystone couplers to attach Ethernet cables, and to connect to the components, you will use a Ethernet cable with ethernet connector crimped to one end and JST connect crimped to other end. I haven't tried this though; let me know if you have tried this.
@@nmos001 I've recently started using these with soldered pin headers: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079L6C96M with these connectors: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CWJZSPC. That's actually what you see in the video but it's under a shell. It's been working well so far and they're cheaper than keystones but you do have to crimp connectors on all your wires. These breakouts worked very well (with solid wire from keystone to screw terminal) and may still be a good option at the board-side but it was too large at the carriage end: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3766450.
Mike, what solution do you have to relocate the power supply motherboard and display Also did all stl files have the option to use lan cable?? If not i like to see the mode for that all places
Here are my 2020-mount PSU shrouds/mounts: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4852521. I believe the 'generic' version is what you want for the included PSU. Here is the 2020-mountable SKR 1.4 case with generic LCD mount: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4852479 I also have one for MKS and working on Octopus as well. The latest LAN cable stuff hasn't been uploaded yet. My older screw-connector version is here: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3766450
Hello. I print a *lot* of prototypes so I end up going through a lot of material :) There are actually two 'blues'. The darker blue is Duramic PETG and the lighter blue is Inland PLA+ IIRC. I like PLA+ for most of the mechanical parts as it's very stiff and brittle while high temp PETG is great for parts around the hot-end.
Hey Mike, Love the design and explanation on how to build it, I'm in the middle of printing all the parts for this upgrade. I seen on the link to download the prints that there was a picture with the extruder motor moved to the top rail and was wondering where the stl for that could be found, I'd like to put a little slack in my bowden tube if I could. Thnx again and great video.
Hey Randall, I just threw together a quick and dirty mount since I couldn't find any of the stock ones. I uploaded it to the thingiverse page but I'm sure there are better mounts out there :)
Hey John! I'm running a 110v silicone heater so my setup is pretty substantial. I have the stock aluminum plate, then a layer of cork over that. The cork works as both an insulator and accommodates the channels for the silicone pad wiring. The a sheet of tempered glass on that. It's 1/4" and I probably could've gone with a 3/16 or so. The I have a PEI sheet stuck to the top of that. If you're interested in silicone heaters or this bed setup I go into a bit of detail in the silicone heater video: ua-cam.com/video/yhzWj-oaikk/v-deo.html
Hello I have made changes (updates) you have suggested in the video. I have a raspberry pi 4 and use kipper. Can you please share your (working) config or any information that will operate the tronxy x5sa with your suggestions? Thank you.
Thanks aloot buddy i have a 330 and just printed 5 things whit it whit no mods as it came from the box and just had the stringing issue but nothing too bad and now looking forward to mod it because i love the damm thing... This was really handy thanks
Great video. Is there an actual parts list? I need to order the stuff in which will take a bit to get to me and want to make sure I've got everything needed.
Ya, VzBot is the Voron of the X5SA world. Amazing design but a bit more complex. Last I saw the dude was printing at like 300/30k. I don’t think I could even run a bmg/volcano at that rate much less the belts and frame.
Awesome. Just wished I could use a EVA 2.4 carriage on it (I very much like the modular design of thos EVA carriages and as I like to use the Dragon hotend). Just wonder whats easier to redesign, the EVA carriage or your XY-carriage?
Hey Wolfram. The EVA is a great carriage - lightweight and has a lot of options, but is complex. The carriages published here were designed to be super simple. For the most part they are just one solid body with various holes and hangars on them - mainly because they don't straddle the X extrusion like the EVA (and most carriages) do. You should be able to pretty easily modify it for whatever you need. Were you interested in the bowden or direct carriage? I've recently started migrating to printables.com and I'll upload the correct step files and update the description with the links tonight.
looks good. I like the design of the printed parted you used. I think im going to do something simular. I just ordered 3 450mm rails for mine. Just finished upgrading my mainboard to the duet 2 wifi, bl-touch and dragon hotend with all new fans for it and the part cooler. so far the printer is way better. I had it working pretty good with the stock board and hotend, But i had to print quite a few parts to get rid of some of the problems the x5sa 400 had outta the box. Im thinking after I add Rails this thing will be rock solid. Now I need to work on my Delta and Cr10. I kinda robbed them both of some parts I need while I was getting this guy working the way it was supposed to. lol
It feels a lot more solid on rails - not that I had significant issues with the wheels. For folks like us that know what they're doing the X5SA can be a good deal but there's design issues, rigidity issues, and QA issues that make it a poor choice for beginners. I've not used a Duet yet. Seems quite pricy and would love your feedback on the Duet vs something like the BTT family of boards. Good luck with the rail conversion!
Mikey, I want linear rails for my x5sa. Do I get them online or from you. Have you done anything special to the ones you use? Want to use x and y axis rails.
I certainly don't sell them :) If you're not in a hurry it seems AliExpress is the cheapest place to get rails - although some folks complain about dirty/low quality bearings on the lowest-end rails. Most of mine have come from 'TwoTrees' on Amazon.
Hello James, it's a bit hard to come up with a singular BOM since there are a lot of optional/various components. Here's a pretty good starting list for the direct drive setup: Rails: 3x 450mm MGN12H rails w/ single carriages minimum of 12x m3 6mm + boat nuts Each (2x) Motor Mount: 3x 10mm m5 + boat nuts (optionally 4, extrusion) 2x 6mm m3 (stepper shallow) 2x 10mm m3 (stepper deep) Each (2x) pully block: 5x 10mm m4 + boat nuts (extrusion) 2x 30mm m3 + nuts (block assembly) 2x 30mm m5 (pulley shaft, nuts optional) 2x 6mm width, 5mm bore aluminum GT2 pulley optionally you can include 2x 2040 corner brackets - you will have to replace 4x 10mm m4 with 4x 14mm m4 Each (2x) Y Carriage: 4x 10mm m3 (carriage) 3x m5 10mm + boat nuts (X Extrusion) 1x m5 30mm (pulley shaft, nut optional) 2x 6mm width, 5mm bore aluminum GT2 pulley Direct Drive X Carriage: 8x m3 12mm w/ nuts (cable clamps) 8x m3 10mm w/ nuts (end stop, bl touch, fan mounts) 2x m3 6mm w/ nuts (blower assembly) 1-2x m3 20mm w/ nuts (blower) 4x m3 8mm (carriage mount) 2x m3 36mm (bottom plate) 2x m3 8mm (cable tower) Basically, you'll want one of those big kits of a gazillion m3 bolts and nuts and then pick and choose the m4/m5 stuff.
Thanks Shayne. The pulley mount ends about 58mm from the edge of the frame and the motor mount about 60mm from the edge of the frame. So you should be able to measure the outside of your frame in Y and subtract 118mm and that would be the longest rail you could use on Y. As for X, where the mount would hit the rail is about 40mm from each side, so your frame size minus 80mm would be the longest rail you could support on X - however you could get by with a rail 4cm or so less and not lose any range.
great video, I just acquired a Tronxy X5SA 2E in need of lots of love, during my rebuild I was considering some kind of umbilical, I'm trying to reduce the total cables back to the mainboard. would love more detail on that RJ45 connection, I read below you have a printer that's running everything but heater, this is what I would LOVE to see...I have been looking at some of the voron toolboards, but they either have too much, or not enough!!!
@@LilMikeysBigPlans I used a Silver Satin Cable the kind that are used to serial connect to a Cisco Switch or Router, for my BL Touch connection. I found that the benefits are better Signal to noise, better shielding and stable power delivery with cleaner routing of the cabling. Cat6 ethernet cabling would work nice also since its capable of providing a good amount of voltage thru those fine copper wires. I will be using analog phone cables for my fans since I can wire 2 fans with one cable and I'm sure it can handle the fan current draw...
This is a killer design! I wanted to ask: why mount the Y axis rails on the top (instead of the sides), and the X rail on the bottom (rather than the top)? Do you lose any of the 400mm Z height? I'm hoping to implement this design in June, though I'd like to update the motor mounts to be inside the frame rather than sitting on top to keep everything inside (if possible) :)
Hey Kevin. I mounted the Y rails on top instead of inside for two reasons - the more practical one is that I didn't have to worry about the length of the X extrusion. If I mounted on the inside I'd have to cut the extrusion a couple cm to fit. As it is now you can use pretty much any length extrusion on the X axis :) This design also has the weight of the X axis sitting on the rail sliders instead of suspended by plastic. Probably not a big deal but 'feels' more stable. I mounted the X rail on the bottom because if you mount the rail on the top and want to use a direct drive you can't use a stock direct drive BMG/Titan setup. There isn't enough distance between where the motor sits on the carriage and the bottom of the extrusion to mount the V6/standard block directly to the Titan/BMG. Carriages like the EVA get around this by putting a small run of bowden tube between the BMG/Titan and the radiator but that seems a lot more complex than just mounting the rail and motor under the extrusion. There are some printers that mount the rail on the front face of the extrusion but that seems like it would introduce a lot of torque. Voron does this but they use a second rail to stabilize it. As for keeping everything inside, the whole thing was actually designed for regular 2020 extrusions. If it wasn't for the 2040 verticals then the motors could be mounted on the bottom of the x/y gantry. Either way, the Y carriages both stick up and out a bit so you won't be able to enclose without some kind of stand-offs. Both the motor mounts and the pully blocks leave a gap to extend a 2020 extrusion up and that could be used for enclosure. VZ-Bot is designed to be enclosed by the frame and might be an alternative worth considering. The motors mount outside the frame but it would just be a matter of cutting some rectangles in the panels.
Sorry, got delayed a bit on the ethernet things. They're up here now: www.thingiverse.com/thing:5220190. The single slot lid works with the ethernet tower.
WOW, this is exactly what I want to see :) . Actually I am trying to make my still pretty new original X5SA 2E more accurate, and looking for some nice already tested upgrade to linear rails :) And then I found this great guide, with all printable parts (I am just a bit nervous if I am able to print them in good quality and accuracy, because this is exactly why I am looking for the upgrade) :) Thanks so much man! Lookig forward for more X5SA upgrades and tips :)
Hey Terablick, glad you found the video helpful! The parts are pretty easy to print so unless you're really struggling with print quality now I don't think you'll have any issues. Good luck!
Hey Per, the V6 hot end mounts directly to the BMG and Titan extruders. Just disassemble the extruder, remove the bowden tube plug and slide in the top of the V6. Depending on which version you have you might need to add a short length of PTFE tube inside the heat sink. Feel free to reach out at bigplans@lilmikey.com if you need to send a pic.
If you don't mind, please stop saying "cable" when you mean "belt"... and if there's any confusion, refresh yourself on the definitions of each. It took me a couple instances of you misspeaking to understand that you're not talking about wires.
Awesome deal! Let me know if you have any issues. I have one rail from Ali (it's the red/green carriage from the video) that's years old and it seems fine but with shipping delays I didn't want to wait for the others.
Compliments to you dude! This is the simplest, easiest print for the linear rail conversion. I’ve installed and tuned, happily running at 150mms with 6k accel
Thanks Zain! I try to keep it simple as I'm always futzing with it :) Awesome speeds! I got my other printer up to 140 @ 4k but stopped tweaking it while I worked on other stuff. Please let me know if you get any higher!
@@LilMikeysBigPlans Aye, I got some artefacts so backed down to 140/4000 as well.
I’ve posted the below on thingiverse
This is a amazing design. Not complicated to do at all! Easy fitting and a throughly thought out design to ensure newbie compatibility.
Two quick questions though.
1. The blower mount for Bowden sits about 20mm above the nozzle.
2. A request, can we get a dual blower mount? The speeds that this can reach need some hardcore cooling :)
@@zainie1408 Hey Zain, also replied on Thingiverse - but there should be two sets of holes in the blower, one for standard heater blocks and one for volcanos. I switched back to a direct but you can see the bowden + volcano in intro to this video so it should be aligned. If you can't get it to fit, please send over a pic as it may be something I can debug without having to re-convert to bowden :)
@@zainie1408 And for dual-blowers, I'll have to see what I can come up with. :) Working on some other mods at the moment but I'll get back to it soon.
Hey Mike. Thanks for the reply! I’m thrilled that you’re gonna look into the dual 5015 requested!
I’ve uploaded a make on thingiverse to show the fan position. Although the pictures aren’t great, the fan is sitting halfway up the block. The bottom edge of the fan is about halfway down the block. Not sure if by design. Will upload more pictures soon :)
Hi, I just began to upgrade my x5sa-2e to linear rails with your design, now I encountered the issue, that my hotend doesn't fit into the bowden carriage.
Could you edit or add this Hotend to your design?
I'll be happy to assist with measurements, if needed.
Best regards and thanks in advance
Danial
Dude this is RAD, thank you so much! Would you be willing you upload STEP files so I can make a TitanAero mount?
Hey Matthew. Good idea on the Aero! It should mount to the carriage fine but designing a part cooler will be a trick. I've uploaded the step files for the Direct drive carriage, bottom plate and blower to the Thingiverse page. All of these are still WIP and I'm going to put the whole system on something like github when it's complete but if you need additional steps before then just give a shout.
Also, I have an Aero here somewhere so if you run into issues or just don't want to deal with it I'm happy to whip something up.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans It's really civil of you if you also upload the .step files - way to go.
Can you make a video on fan duct upgrades? I try looking for a good air duct so it can cool the print all around it instead of one side but have no luck. I have a tronxy x5sa 300
Hey Boomer, Unfortunately the blowers are usually coupled with a specific carriage. I can make a video on how I designed the 3/4-around blower for this carriage if you like.
Judging by the alignment of the belts to the printhead, this design should work with a voron tap/stealthburner? Obvioulsy the x rail needs to be mounted on the front face of the 2020.. but based on this video, it seems like it would work, no?
Do you have a Bowden bracket for the Proximity detector vs the BLTouch? I have bent too many pins on BLTs traveling over curled edges. The current print finishes fine, it is the NEXT print that fails dramatically. I know it is not as accurate as a BLTouch, but a raft, or a thicker first layer takes care of that.
I have one question. Can some one tell me the dimensissions of the toothless pulleys i can't find out the outer diameter of the pulleys and the height of them and I know that the bore is 5 mm and the belt width is 6.5 mm for a 6 mm belt, but I don't know the diameter of the belt width?
Great video, very informative!
This design, flipped over, so the belt system is on top would allow over 380x380x380 with an e3d v6 and volcano. (As my setup has)
I've got something similar, but used the stock xy plates with new holes drilled., and stock plates at the extruder with a filistruder v6 mount.
Obviously completely rerouted the belts away the corners to have perfectly straight alignment.
Thanks for your videos, I've watched several 😌
Thanks James! I've switched to all linear rails with a different belt system altogether. Cool to see people making this cheap printer 'kit' into something awesome :)
On the X5SA 400 the conversion reduces the build area...
You are correct. I left an update in the description noting the loss of build area; a few mm on X and ~40mm on Y due to the belts and motors being relocated inside the frame. You can minimize Y loss by putting the X/Y motors on the front of the gantry and I have some design ideas to squeeze a few more mm out of the X but at the end of the day the focus is on simplicity for generic cube frames.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans I try to mod some of the files. In my mod all you have to do is to move the build plate 10mm off the heating surface and you have the full 400x400mm. When it works I will share the files.
Sounds good! Can't wait to see what you come up with. If you don't mind a more involved upgrade I have a Two Motor Z gantry: www.printables.com/model/239989-two-motor-z-gantry-big-plans-printer-system and a Three Motor Z gantry: www.printables.com/model/240093-three-motor-z-gantry-big-plans-printer-system that would let you mount the bed plate where you want it to be. I'm working on a video for the three Z system in an X5SA now.
man its a shame i caugth this stream so late but i think is a tremendous upgrade man keep them coming. great one.
Thanks, will do!
Cool mods. The m5 bolt through the pulleys would be good with nylocks upside down on the top. Man, metric hardware is expensive ehh. Whenever I get an Amazon gift card I just waste it on metric fasteners
Yeah, nylocs would be a very good idea on the TronXY since the bolt is upside down. Less important on a standard install since the bolt would be coming down from the top but certainly wouldn't hurt then either! I bought a variety pack of m3s another of m4s, and another of m5s so while they were pricy (like $20 a pack) I should be good on fasteners for the next decade :)
Nice Job Mikey, Keep up the good work. Been Following you since last year. I have the X5SA 330 and have been looking for a linear rail setup and this looks good. I upgraded the mainboard and the LCD for the Octopus V1.1 with a BTT TFT7.0 and the Tronxy Official Direct Drive Titan Extruder setup and have had extremely good results with my prints. However I wanna go linear rail for smoother motions. This is a good start for that adventure. Thanks again.
Thanks for watching! Why did you go with the Octopus? Are you planning on using all of those drivers or was it a price thing? Personally I'm not sure how they can charge $50 for an Octopus and still get $40 for an skr.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans I opted for the octopus for future upgrade ability like ( Dual Extruder's, mixing hotend, multiple Filament Sensors ) but I chose the Octopus for the Processing Speed. The Octopus has a 180mhz Arm Cortex and with that speed it can Crunch alot of math pretty easily when printing and I do notice that it is very efficient and consistent when printing at High Speeds. Mikey, Why did you opt to place the X Gantry Linear Rail underneath the 2020? I know you mentioned in your other Video that you had some Jerk control issues when printing!
Great video. Keep up the good work!
On your setup, your using a Ethernet cable to connect three stepper motor?
When I run cables I prefer to use ethernet. The one you see in this video is for the BLTouch as I just happened to have a long stepper cable handy but on my other large printer I'm using ethernet for everything except the high draw heater wiring. I'm happy to elaborate and upload the things if you're interested in doing the same.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans I love the idea. I looked over some on your thingiverse designs and have an idea of how you did it. I definitely considering doing the same for cable management with keystone couplers and jst connectors crimped on Ethernet cable (mainly to avoid having to buy breadboard and screw terminals).
@@nmos001 You probably came across my break-out boards w/ keystones. That solution worked well but it took up a lot of space. I tried just wiring everything directly to the keystone jacks however keystones aren't made for stranded wire and was getting frequent failures - especially with the little thermistor wires. Now I'm using little breakout boards with pin headers on them. I'll upload those models tomorrow if you want to play around with it. You'll want to use stranded CAT5 for the runs.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans same, found out the hard way that stranded wire does not work well with keystones. If you tin the wires, it may work better assuming the wires are 24 gauge. I wouldn't do that for Ethernet wiring due to signal integrity, but for these low frequency applications, it should not be a problem. I think the best solution is to use keystone couplers to attach Ethernet cables, and to connect to the components, you will use a Ethernet cable with ethernet connector crimped to one end and JST connect crimped to other end. I haven't tried this though; let me know if you have tried this.
@@nmos001 I've recently started using these with soldered pin headers: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079L6C96M with these connectors: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CWJZSPC. That's actually what you see in the video but it's under a shell. It's been working well so far and they're cheaper than keystones but you do have to crimp connectors on all your wires.
These breakouts worked very well (with solid wire from keystone to screw terminal) and may still be a good option at the board-side but it was too large at the carriage end: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3766450.
So where are the links to the linear rails?
With all these upgrades, might it not be cheaper to just build your own from scratch?
Funny you should say that: lilmikey.com/printersystem/index.html
Mike, what solution do you have to relocate the power supply motherboard and display
Also did all stl files have the option to use lan cable??
If not i like to see the mode for that all places
Here are my 2020-mount PSU shrouds/mounts: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4852521. I believe the 'generic' version is what you want for the included PSU.
Here is the 2020-mountable SKR 1.4 case with generic LCD mount: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4852479 I also have one for MKS and working on Octopus as well.
The latest LAN cable stuff hasn't been uploaded yet. My older screw-connector version is here: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3766450
Very good.
I have 2 questions, 1.What material is blue parts? PLA? ABS? 2.The parts printed X5SA?
Hello. I print a *lot* of prototypes so I end up going through a lot of material :) There are actually two 'blues'. The darker blue is Duramic PETG and the lighter blue is Inland PLA+ IIRC. I like PLA+ for most of the mechanical parts as it's very stiff and brittle while high temp PETG is great for parts around the hot-end.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans thanks! I will refer to it!
Hey Mike,
Love the design and explanation on how to build it, I'm in the middle of printing all the parts for this upgrade. I seen on the link to download the prints that there was a picture with the extruder motor moved to the top rail and was wondering where the stl for that could be found, I'd like to put a little slack in my bowden tube if I could.
Thnx again and great video.
Hey Randall, I just threw together a quick and dirty mount since I couldn't find any of the stock ones. I uploaded it to the thingiverse page but I'm sure there are better mounts out there :)
could you tell me what the bed consists of and thickness or where to buy. I am building my old Troxy to match yours. Thanks
Hey John! I'm running a 110v silicone heater so my setup is pretty substantial. I have the stock aluminum plate, then a layer of cork over that. The cork works as both an insulator and accommodates the channels for the silicone pad wiring. The a sheet of tempered glass on that. It's 1/4" and I probably could've gone with a 3/16 or so. The I have a PEI sheet stuck to the top of that.
If you're interested in silicone heaters or this bed setup I go into a bit of detail in the silicone heater video: ua-cam.com/video/yhzWj-oaikk/v-deo.html
@@LilMikeysBigPlans thank you
In which material, you printed all these parts? Overall - great work! Clean, simple and sturdy update of good old Tronxy!
Hello
I have made changes (updates) you have suggested in the video. I have a raspberry pi 4 and use kipper. Can you please share your (working) config or any information that will operate the tronxy x5sa with your suggestions? Thank you.
Thanks aloot buddy i have a 330 and just printed 5 things whit it whit no mods as it came from the box and just had the stringing issue but nothing too bad and now looking forward to mod it because i love the damm thing... This was really handy thanks
29:30 Did you ever ended up doing that printer kit to make a core XY from scratch?
I just ordered One..!! .Im Bored off Bedslingers..i got a couple..thanx for making this Video.
Great video. Is there an actual parts list? I need to order the stuff in which will take a bit to get to me and want to make sure I've got everything needed.
pretty nice upgrades if you dont want to turn your X5SA into a VZBot
Ya, VzBot is the Voron of the X5SA world. Amazing design but a bit more complex. Last I saw the dude was printing at like 300/30k. I don’t think I could even run a bmg/volcano at that rate much less the belts and frame.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans yeah they certainly are crazy, u quite literly have to bolt them to solid surface otherwise it would vibrate of its table
Awesome. Just wished I could use a EVA 2.4 carriage on it (I very much like the modular design of thos EVA carriages and as I like to use the Dragon hotend). Just wonder whats easier to redesign, the EVA carriage or your XY-carriage?
Hey Wolfram. The EVA is a great carriage - lightweight and has a lot of options, but is complex. The carriages published here were designed to be super simple. For the most part they are just one solid body with various holes and hangars on them - mainly because they don't straddle the X extrusion like the EVA (and most carriages) do. You should be able to pretty easily modify it for whatever you need. Were you interested in the bowden or direct carriage? I've recently started migrating to printables.com and I'll upload the correct step files and update the description with the links tonight.
looks good. I like the design of the printed parted you used. I think im going to do something simular. I just ordered 3 450mm rails for mine. Just finished upgrading my mainboard to the duet 2 wifi, bl-touch and dragon hotend with all new fans for it and the part cooler. so far the printer is way better. I had it working pretty good with the stock board and hotend, But i had to print quite a few parts to get rid of some of the problems the x5sa 400 had outta the box. Im thinking after I add Rails this thing will be rock solid. Now I need to work on my Delta and Cr10. I kinda robbed them both of some parts I need while I was getting this guy working the way it was supposed to. lol
It feels a lot more solid on rails - not that I had significant issues with the wheels. For folks like us that know what they're doing the X5SA can be a good deal but there's design issues, rigidity issues, and QA issues that make it a poor choice for beginners. I've not used a Duet yet. Seems quite pricy and would love your feedback on the Duet vs something like the BTT family of boards. Good luck with the rail conversion!
Love your videos BUT: a cable is not a belt and a belt is not a cable. Cable implies wiring. Please don't call a belt a cable.
Thanks for the clarification. Will be more careful with the terms in the future.
Mikey, I want linear rails for my x5sa. Do I get them online or from you. Have you done anything special to the ones you use? Want to use x and y axis rails.
I certainly don't sell them :) If you're not in a hurry it seems AliExpress is the cheapest place to get rails - although some folks complain about dirty/low quality bearings on the lowest-end rails. Most of mine have come from 'TwoTrees' on Amazon.
do you have a BOM? Not sure how many of each bolt I will need and whatnot.
Hello James, it's a bit hard to come up with a singular BOM since there are a lot of optional/various components. Here's a pretty good starting list for the direct drive setup:
Rails:
3x 450mm MGN12H rails w/ single carriages
minimum of 12x m3 6mm + boat nuts
Each (2x) Motor Mount:
3x 10mm m5 + boat nuts (optionally 4, extrusion)
2x 6mm m3 (stepper shallow)
2x 10mm m3 (stepper deep)
Each (2x) pully block:
5x 10mm m4 + boat nuts (extrusion)
2x 30mm m3 + nuts (block assembly)
2x 30mm m5 (pulley shaft, nuts optional)
2x 6mm width, 5mm bore aluminum GT2 pulley
optionally you can include 2x 2040 corner brackets - you will have to replace 4x 10mm m4 with 4x 14mm m4
Each (2x) Y Carriage:
4x 10mm m3 (carriage)
3x m5 10mm + boat nuts (X Extrusion)
1x m5 30mm (pulley shaft, nut optional)
2x 6mm width, 5mm bore aluminum GT2 pulley
Direct Drive X Carriage:
8x m3 12mm w/ nuts (cable clamps)
8x m3 10mm w/ nuts (end stop, bl touch, fan mounts)
2x m3 6mm w/ nuts (blower assembly)
1-2x m3 20mm w/ nuts (blower)
4x m3 8mm (carriage mount)
2x m3 36mm (bottom plate)
2x m3 8mm (cable tower)
Basically, you'll want one of those big kits of a gazillion m3 bolts and nuts and then pick and choose the m4/m5 stuff.
Great video. I plan on using this for my X5SA 330x330x400. My question is, what size rails would I need for x,y and gantry. Would I need 400mm rails?
Thanks Shayne. The pulley mount ends about 58mm from the edge of the frame and the motor mount about 60mm from the edge of the frame. So you should be able to measure the outside of your frame in Y and subtract 118mm and that would be the longest rail you could use on Y. As for X, where the mount would hit the rail is about 40mm from each side, so your frame size minus 80mm would be the longest rail you could support on X - however you could get by with a rail 4cm or so less and not lose any range.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans My X5S is X 535-80=455mm and Y 500-118=382mm I can get two 400mm and one 500mm rails and cut them down I guess.
great video, I just acquired a Tronxy X5SA 2E in need of lots of love, during my rebuild I was considering some kind of umbilical, I'm trying to reduce the total cables back to the mainboard. would love more detail on that RJ45 connection, I read below you have a printer that's running everything but heater, this is what I would LOVE to see...I have been looking at some of the voron toolboards, but they either have too much, or not enough!!!
Working on an ethernet cabling video now :)
@@LilMikeysBigPlans I used a Silver Satin Cable the kind that are used to serial connect to a Cisco Switch or Router, for my BL Touch connection. I found that the benefits are better Signal to noise, better shielding and stable power delivery with cleaner routing of the cabling. Cat6 ethernet cabling would work nice also since its capable of providing a good amount of voltage thru those fine copper wires. I will be using analog phone cables for my fans since I can wire 2 fans with one cable and I'm sure it can handle the fan current draw...
This is a killer design! I wanted to ask: why mount the Y axis rails on the top (instead of the sides), and the X rail on the bottom (rather than the top)? Do you lose any of the 400mm Z height? I'm hoping to implement this design in June, though I'd like to update the motor mounts to be inside the frame rather than sitting on top to keep everything inside (if possible) :)
Hey Kevin. I mounted the Y rails on top instead of inside for two reasons - the more practical one is that I didn't have to worry about the length of the X extrusion. If I mounted on the inside I'd have to cut the extrusion a couple cm to fit. As it is now you can use pretty much any length extrusion on the X axis :) This design also has the weight of the X axis sitting on the rail sliders instead of suspended by plastic. Probably not a big deal but 'feels' more stable.
I mounted the X rail on the bottom because if you mount the rail on the top and want to use a direct drive you can't use a stock direct drive BMG/Titan setup. There isn't enough distance between where the motor sits on the carriage and the bottom of the extrusion to mount the V6/standard block directly to the Titan/BMG. Carriages like the EVA get around this by putting a small run of bowden tube between the BMG/Titan and the radiator but that seems a lot more complex than just mounting the rail and motor under the extrusion. There are some printers that mount the rail on the front face of the extrusion but that seems like it would introduce a lot of torque. Voron does this but they use a second rail to stabilize it.
As for keeping everything inside, the whole thing was actually designed for regular 2020 extrusions. If it wasn't for the 2040 verticals then the motors could be mounted on the bottom of the x/y gantry. Either way, the Y carriages both stick up and out a bit so you won't be able to enclose without some kind of stand-offs. Both the motor mounts and the pully blocks leave a gap to extend a 2020 extrusion up and that could be used for enclosure.
VZ-Bot is designed to be enclosed by the frame and might be an alternative worth considering. The motors mount outside the frame but it would just be a matter of cutting some rectangles in the panels.
@@LilMikeysBigPlans Thank you so much for the detailed response, you're the best!
Mike i dont see the cover for the lan cable tower in the stls
Sorry, got delayed a bit on the ethernet things. They're up here now: www.thingiverse.com/thing:5220190. The single slot lid works with the ethernet tower.
WOW, this is exactly what I want to see :) . Actually I am trying to make my still pretty new original X5SA 2E more accurate, and looking for some nice already tested upgrade to linear rails :) And then I found this great guide, with all printable parts (I am just a bit nervous if I am able to print them in good quality and accuracy, because this is exactly why I am looking for the upgrade) :) Thanks so much man! Lookig forward for more X5SA upgrades and tips :)
Hey Terablick, glad you found the video helpful! The parts are pretty easy to print so unless you're really struggling with print quality now I don't think you'll have any issues. Good luck!
mount extruder and hotend together what coupling is used to get he super close so you don't get hotend to far down
Mike how can i add a picture showing my question
Hey Per, the V6 hot end mounts directly to the BMG and Titan extruders. Just disassemble the extruder, remove the bowden tube plug and slide in the top of the V6. Depending on which version you have you might need to add a short length of PTFE tube inside the heat sink. Feel free to reach out at bigplans@lilmikey.com if you need to send a pic.
If you don't mind, please stop saying "cable" when you mean "belt"... and if there's any confusion, refresh yourself on the definitions of each. It took me a couple instances of you misspeaking to understand that you're not talking about wires.
Will do, infowolfe. You're not the first to call me out on it :)
Got my mgn12 for $18 a pop from Ali express
Awesome deal! Let me know if you have any issues. I have one rail from Ali (it's the red/green carriage from the video) that's years old and it seems fine but with shipping delays I didn't want to wait for the others.
Give us the link please