The Voron kit build thread

I haven't done the bed meshing yet on the Trident. The VZero bed is so small they don't generally recommend meshing. It's definitely more important as printbed utilization or size grows.
My Prusas both do bed meshes before each print. They just mesh the area the print is going to use.
I use a similar bearing type spool holder on the Trident.
 
AlanB said:
I haven't done the bed meshing yet on the Trident. The VZero bed is so small they don't generally recommend meshing. It's definitely more important as printbed utilization or size grows.
My Prusas both do bed meshes before each print. They just mesh the area the print is going to use.
I use a similar bearing type spool holder on the Trident.
Click to expand...

Good to know. Doing a mesh before each print has made the biggest difference on my ABS prints. Alot easier to get prints without warping since adding bed mesh to the print start macro.
 
We made an ABS print on the Trident yesterday, no warping issues, about 10 minutes of preprint warmup. It adhered well and easily came off after the bed was cool. But it was only about 4 inches across. The build plate is textured, the standard LDO supplied items. I suspect the larger prints are more of an issue. Used Polymaker lime green ABS.
 
My hot-end stopped working yesterday in the middle of a print.

I broke out the multimeter and checked the voltage output from the octopus board, which showed 24v. All's well there.

Checked the voltage at the heater cartridge, 0V. Definitely a problem.

Checked at the cartridge to PCB connector, 0V. Checked the 14pin input cable connector on the back of the PCB, again 0v.

Started opening up the cable chain and following the heater cartridge wires all the way along down.

Found the wire broken neatly in half, about halfway down the length of the Y axis cable chain.

The wire is from the stuff that came with the Voronkits.com kit. I believe it is a ptfe coated awg20 copper wire. I'm at 1600 total hours on the Voron. Replacement wiring is cheap enough that i'm going to replace all of them. If one broke at the 1600 hour mark, there is a good chance there are more of them at a similar level of fatigue.

I'm going to give this kit a try:
 
Ken226 said:
My hot-end stopped working yesterday in the middle of a print.

I broke out the multimeter and checked the voltage output from the octopus board, which showed 24v. All's well there.

Checked the voltage at the heater cartridge, 0V. Definitely a problem.

Checked at the cartridge to PCB connector, 0V. Checked the 14pin input cable connector on the back of the PCB, again 0v.

Started opening up the cable chain and following the heater cartridge wires all the way along down.

Found the wire broken neatly in half, about halfway down the length of the Y axis cable chain.

The wire is from the stuff that came with the Voronkits.com kit. I believe it is a ptfe coated awg20 copper wire. I'm at 1600 total hours on the Voron. Replacement wiring is cheap enough that i'm going to replace all of them. If one broke at the 1600 hour mark, there is a good chance there are more of them at a similar level of fatigue.

I'm going to give this kit a try:
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear you are having cable problems. In the history of Vorons there have been a lot of drag chain related wire failures, many due to using the wrong types of wire in the chains. Three basic problems seem to be at the core - the wire size and stranding, the insulation type, and the routing/anchoring of the wires. These days it has boiled down to two recommended types of insulation - FEP and PTFE. FEP is the preferred type, and PTFE the second choice, perhaps due to cost as FEP is not only very good but often lower in cost. PTFE is premium insulation, and having worked with PTFE cables in the past it does tend to cold flow if not restrained properly.

Make sure there are no cable ties or other constraints inside the chains, and the wires are anchored near the ends of the chains with enough free play so they never get tight. If the chains have rough spots inside they should probably be replaced with better chains. Igus chains are often recommended.

The stranding and flexibility of the wire is also important, flexible wire has many more but smaller strands. Even the history of the wire can be a factor, if it was yanked or suffered from handling during manufacture or installation and a weak spot was created.

Another approach is to go to a bus oriented cabling arrangement so only a very few conductors are needed, and/or go to umbilical style wiring which is less hard on the cables. CanBus or USB are both being used for this. Prusa uses pretty standard wires in the umbilicals and they hold up quite well. Cable chains are a more difficult environment.

Another option is to go with the newer cable setups that use breakout boards on both ends, and the cable has a large plug on both ends so it is much easier to change. This does require cable chains that open to lay in the wires.

Since you were already using PTFE wire one wonders why there was a failure, but there are still many things that could cause it, from too-large strands to an imperfection in the cable chain to a flaw in the wire to insufficient free play in the cable or something else. Cable chain wires do need to be replaced periodically but 1600 hours seems pretty low.

Replacing all of the wires together is the right choice. The product you linked looks decent, though I have no data on it. The price seems low, the kit I bought to make a cable harness was more costly, and that isn't even a finished product.

On a completely different note, the Steve Builds utoob channel recently had a 10k subscriber giveaway. I was on the road at the time and never win anything of note anyway, but my son in law won the LDO Voron V0.2 kit and printed parts to go with it. I gave him his first 3D printer some time back, and this will be his fourth printer and first Voron. He's pretty excited. A lot of people (me included) think the V0.2 is too small, but then it turns out to be their most used printer. It is quick to heat and print and big enough for a lot of things. Big printers are good for big stuff, but they are not as good for small things and quick turnarounds.

We gave away our Artillery X1 and have a Voron 2.4 350 kit on the shelf. We ordered a workbench to replace the small printer table and when that comes in we will have room for the three printers on it downstairs - the Prusa XL, MK3 and Voron 2.4 350. I've prepared a new Octoprint for the MK3 using a Pi02W. It is tiny, and I'm going to mount it right on the Prusa frame when the interconnect cable gets here. So all my printers will be networked. One problem we had with the Artillery X1 was due to cycling the plug bringing in files to print. Don't wear out your printer plugging in and out.

I have a couple of Voron kits to build, but I haven't started any of them yet. Also have a Bear frame for one of the Prusas. Too many interesting projects!
 
AlanB said:
Make sure there are no cable ties or other constraints inside the chains, and the wires are anchored near the ends of the chains with enough free play so they never get tight.
Click to expand...


I had small cable ties inside the cable chains. Lots of them. That probably had something to do with it. I didn't realize, but it makes sense they they might obstruct and cause problems.

Despite being low priced, the wire kit I ordered seem to have good reviews. It's advertised as being all PTFE. I suppose I'll find out in a few days.
 
I think, as clean as the break was, maybe a cable tie was the culprit. Maybe the clipped stub end of the tie was snagging the inside of the chain and stressing the wire at the edge of the cable tie.

The break looks almost like a cut.

IMG_20231115_174606354.jpg
 
Ken226 said:
I think, as clean as the break was, maybe a cable tie was the culprit. Maybe the clipped stub end of the tie was snagging the inside of the chain and stressing the wire at the edge of the cable tie.

The break looks almost like a cut.
Click to expand...

Cable restraints inside the cable chain focus stress on the wires so could easily be the cause of the breakage. The wires must be free to move in the chain. In some cases they actually lubricate them to minimize stress. If there's no other sign of wear on the wires they likely would have lasted much longer but something concentrated the stress. The LDO instructions are clear to remove all the restraints on the wires inside the chain.

The Voron group went through a period of using silicone wire and found them to fail in the cable chains. Silicone wire has wonderful strand counts but the insulation is too soft and wears poorly. The manufacturers of cable chains have a lot of experience, and they recommend FEP or PTFE for best life in the chains. Other things may work, for awhile.

I rebuilt the Prusa Bear frame tonite. I assembled the frame some time back but it wasn't quite square, and I never went farther on the project. Now it is very square and I'm considering going ahead with it. It's not a Voron but I'm considering putting Klipper on it. It's basically a very stiff frame to mount Prusa MK3 parts on. Reminds me of the Voron Switchwire frame, heavy extrusions, but not quite as heavy as the Switchwire.
 
7milesup said:
I have used silicone wire for some of my builds.

It is extremely flexible and has a high strand count. The one negative is it comes in only a few color choices so shrink tube labeling is a must.
Click to expand...

The LDO chain cables are one color, so labelling is critical. They often use breakout boards and bulk connectors so no labels till the jumpers on each end. Makes for a clean installation but lots of connections.
 
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