The Voron kit build thread

[7milesup]

I was able to get all of the software loaded onto my Orange Pi 3 LTS.
@Ken226 How do you have the Octopus hooked to your Orange Pi? You said it is sitting there with your Orange Pi, which is running Klipper. I was just wondering how you have everything powered.
I am stoked that I was able to get this working. One of my realizations after I got this done is that I was way overthinking this process. One of the Ah-ha moments was the fact that I did not need Putty at all since my UI was the keyboard, mouse, and monitor connected directly to the Opi. This resulted in utilizing the baked-in Chrome browser and then the command line in Kiauh to get it all installed and running.

I am hoping that I can get some shop time today and make some serious progress.

 

[Ken226]

I was able to get all of the software loaded onto my Orange Pi 3 LTS.
@Ken226 How do you have the Octopus hooked to your Orange Pi? You said it is sitting there with your Orange Pi, which is running Klipper. I was just wondering how you have everything powered.
I am stoked that I was able to get this working. One of my realizations after I got this done is that I was way overthinking this process. One of the Ah-ha moments was the fact that I did not need Putty at all since my UI was the keyboard, mouse, and monitor connected directly to the Opi. This resulted in utilizing the baked-in Chrome browser and then the command line in Kiauh to get it all installed and running.

I am hoping that I can get some shop time today and make some serious progress.

Mine is currently connected using a charger cable from my Motorola G-power phone. It's a regular usb-a to usb-c cord.

Make sure the power jumper is installed, and connect the Orange Pi and octopus with a regular USB to usb-c cable.

The jumper has to be installed so the USB power will power the board.

Later, make sure the jumper is removed before you connect the 24v power supply to the octopus. It (so I hear) can smoke the board If you leave the jumper on and connect the USB and 24v at the same time.

Later, when you are doing the electrical, check your power supplies. Mine have a switch to set 240v or 120v input. Mine were default set to 240v.

 

[Ken226]

But,

You don't need the octopus board connected to orange pi to flash the firmware. Just a SD card, and USB to (with jumper installed), to power the board. I did my firmware flash with the octopus connected to the O'pi, because, it was a convenient USB power supply. But I could have plugged the USB into a laptop, or anything to supply power.

Once the board powers up with the flashcard firmware file inserted, it'll flash the firmware to the MCU automatically.

I used the instructions here, option#1

Octopus (Pro) Klipper Firmware

Voron Official and Community Documentation

docs.vorondesign.com

Follow the first set of instructions to create the firmware file, then the "option 1" instructions to save it onto you SD card and flash it onto the MCU.

Youll need to know your MCU chip model. Its printed on the top of the chip. Mine was the stm32f446.

I had to search a bit in the O'pi file explorer to find the firmware.bin file.

 

[Ken226]

the Alibaba magnetic build plate Ive been using in my flashforge warped. I guess a solid month of near 24/7 use printing mostly ABS finally did it in. Between my collet racks, and this Voron project, it's been running nearly constantly.

It was pretty bad. Parts started lifting at the edges, but sticking so well in the center that it wouldn't come off. Not even with a steel scraper. I had to dissolve it off with acetone.

When I tried to re-level the build plate, after setting the right gap distance at 3 corners, the nozzle was dragging across the center.



I can't mill it flat because it's the type with lots magnets pressed into pockets in the top face. (Probably why it warped). Milling the top off of a bunch of neodymium magnets probably wouldn't go well.

Yesterday I made a new plate, but this time I'm going with a stick-on magnet, like the one in my Voron kit. So, I gotta make do without my Flashforge until Thursday, when Amazon drops off the new magnetic sticker.


That gives me some time to redesign my touchscreen housing to fit the new Waveshare USB touch 4.3" that I ordered. I was able to get most of the dimensions from their website, but ill have to wait for the screen to arrive before I can finish it up, as im missing some important dimensions.

I spent some time further optimized the design for 3d printing. If it goes to plan, I should be able to print the entire housing with no supports!

The smaller screen also gives me a little more room for a nicer, 2-piece bezel design too while fitting within the confines of available space.

I may adjust the model to add some USB ports on one of the sides, once I find the right USB extension hardware on Amazon.

something like this:

Positioned on the bed like this, there shouldn't be any angles that exceed 45 degrees relative to the print surface and no bridging. I'll print this in PLA.

 

[AlanB]

I have one of those 4.3" displays but have not used it yet. I also have one of the really simple knob and LCD displays that can work with Klipper. I've been wondering if the touch screen is worth the trouble and cost. Generally I control the printer mostly from Octoprint. On the Prusa the knob and LCD works fine for heating up and ejecting and loading filament which is about all I use it for. How useful is the touch screen versus a simple knob and display??

 

[Ken226]

I have one of those 4.3" displays but have not used it yet. I also have one of the really simple knob and LCD displays that can work with Klipper. I've been wondering if the touch screen is worth the trouble and cost. Generally I control the printer mostly from Octoprint. On the Prusa the knob and LCD works fine for heating up and ejecting and loading filament which is about all I use it for. How useful is the touch screen versus a simple knob and display??

Probably not very useful at all, depending on the accuracy of my current knowledge and assumptions.

I could be totally wrong about the following, but my reading this far indicates that the little screens that connects to the octopus board are only capable of displaying info from Klipper. It can't be used to load g-code files from a USB drive, scroll through options, change temps/speeds, etc.

I'm trying to set up a screen that's connected to the Orange pi and is compatible with Klipperscreen.

I'd like to be able to plug in a thumb drive, load and start printing a g-code file, change speeds, temps, do bed levelling without any internet. I like the internet thing and all, but I would very much like to have complete control from an interface that's hard wired and attached to the machine as well.

If Comcast gets too uppity and I tell them to go pound sand, I don't wanna be running out to the my shop building, trying to turn on a hotspot, searching IP addresses, etc, just to print plastic widget.

 

[AlanB]

I think Nero said the little Klipper display/knob does everything he wants a screen to do, it communicates with Klipper via the controller board, and appears to have all the usual functionality, just through a knob rather than touching the screen. He didn't seem to think the touch screen was necessary. Klipper controls the temperatures, motions, runs the macros, reads the gcode files, etc. I don't know about selecting print files from that screen. Certainly that works with Marlin, I would think Klipper would have to do at least as much. Looks like it does from the video below. It should be adequate for basic functionality. Originally I was planning to use that so I have it on hand. That was before KlipperScreen was commonly used.

Many folks use an old/cheap/free tablet or phone to communicate with Octoprint or Mainsail, etc, to do these things (and don't bother with a screen on the printer at all, or rarely use it if it is there). The touch KlipperScreen should be pretty similar, though I suppose that is comparing KlipperScreen with the full Mainsail/etc interface so there will be differences. And it probably doesn't support all features like editing config files.

I don't depend on Comcast (or any internet provider) for home networking. I don't use their wireless, I have a three node mesh that covers the house and shop much better. If I unplug Comcast nothing changes here except internet access.

I never use the SD or USB card on the printer for print files. I know people who do use them, and they often have problems with them getting flakey. Apparently the low budget sockets aren't up to the actual specs for number of insert cycles, so they are a reliability problem.

Here's a comparison video showing several options for Klipper user interfacing:

KlipperScreen does have a lot of nice options. One thing that is useful it has features to update the Pi or shut it down. The simple screens didn't seem to have that functionality, though a shutdown option might be easy to add in the configuration, the update option is not likely do-able.

 

[Ken226]

I don't depend on Comcast (or any internet provider) for home networking. I don't use their wireless, I have a three node mesh that covers the house and shop much better. If I unplug Comcast nothing changes here except internet access.

It looks like pretty much any and all of these options would, probably, work for me then.

I have no idea what a three node mesh is, but I'm assuming it's some kind of wifi router?



I may experiment with this idea.

So, I have an old Linksys router, the blue one with the two antennas from around 2005, ish. If I unplugged the Ethernet cable and put it out in the shop, it would still work as a access point for the 3d printer, Just without internet access?

I bet I can access the router wirelessly with my CNC mill. It's computer uses Windows 7, and internet explorer.

 

[AlanB]

Yes, if you set up an old Linksys it will make a wifi network. We do exactly that in the forest for Ham Radio Field Day.

The network meshing is a more capable automated local wireless network. The mesh nodes work together to automagically create a wireless and wired network. Each node has a connection for the internet (only one is used) and a connection for a local wired network (which you can use or not, but it gives us a wired network island in the vicinity of the node). They present two wireless networks for the users, one is for guests and one for us, so we can allow guests without sharing our network password, and change guest passwords as often as we choose. The nodes evaluate the wireless path and choose the best path so the phone or 3d printer or whatever doesn't have to worry about different networks, and as it moves a different path may be the best path. It just appears as one network to the device. The three nodes in my mesh network use a 5 ghz back channel to communicate with each other and relay traffic, so there are no cables, there are various product in this market space with different features. They can relay through so the edges of the network can be farther than direct paths would support. My experience has been that it works better than a single router/wifi and aside from occasionally one node needing a power cycle they have been trouble free. A larger area might require more nodes.

Keeping the network off the internet is good for security but makes software updates difficult.

 

[Ken226]

Yes, if you set up an old Linksys it will make a wifi network. We do exactly that in the forest for Ham Radio Field Day.

The network meshing is a more capable automated local wireless network. The mesh nodes work together to automagically create a wireless and wired network. Each node has a connection for the internet (only one is used) and a connection for a local wired network (which you can use or not, but it gives us a wired network island in the vicinity of the node). They present two wireless networks for the users, one is for guests and one for us, so we can allow guests without sharing our network password, and change guest passwords as often as we choose. The nodes evaluate the wireless path and choose the best path so the phone or 3d printer or whatever doesn't have to worry about different networks, and as it moves a different path may be the best path. It just appears as one network to the device. The three nodes in my mesh network use a 5 ghz back channel to communicate with each other and relay traffic, so there are no cables, there are various product in this market space with different features. They can relay through so the edges of the network can be farther than direct paths would support. My experience has been that it works better than a single router/wifi and aside from occasionally one node needing a power cycle they have been trouble free. A larger area might require more nodes.

Keeping the network off the internet is good for security but makes software updates difficult.

Excellent info.

I got the router set up in the shop about an hour ago. I took the Orange Pi out, and connected it to the router via WiFi. It seems to be stable, and working good.





I'll leave it running and connect to the O'pi Mainsail with a web browser occasionally, to make sure it's going to be stable.