prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...  

my infrared pictures of the MK42 (3)

and here pictures from the heatbed at the genuine i3 mk2 kit.

heatbed idle, you can see that the steppers get a little bit warmer as at my clone (picture was taken 5 minutes after power up).

no real differences in heating up the printbed:

or when it reaches 60°C.

my infrared pictures of the MK42 (last one)

now some last pictures, before the testo goes back into it's case.

here the steppers of the genuine i3 mk2 after about 30 minutes.
with 40°C they are about 11°C hotter than the ones at my clone (driven with the same current, in silent mode).

here only the right stepper motor:

and if somebody is interested in the A4988 stepper driver for the z-motors at the pololu breakout:

as you can see, it get's decently warm, because the z-motors are always on... but still not to hot !
by the way: i didn't attach the tiny coolers that you can glue at the chip... they are only to calm down your worries :roll:.

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

Thanks for these, I was thinking about getting an IR camera for this exact thing.

I think the other thing people wonder about is the power supply, particularly if it's in the heated enclosure.

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

...I think the other thing people wonder about is the power supply, particularly if it's in the heated enclosure.
yeah, but therefore you have to open the psu and even then it would be very tricky to make shots of the hot parts (switching transistor, schottky diodes, transformator & low-esr electrolytic capacitors), especially when the printer is inside an enclosure.

my printer meanwhile is fitted with another psu as you can see at the beginning of this thread (where i used a 240W PSU).
i'm now running with a 360W supply, with integrated fan. the fan switches on when the critical circuits inside get to hot.

but anyhow, if the psu remains inside an enclosure, the electrolytic capacitors will have a drastically decreased lifespan. the capacitors will dry out ultra fast, you'll get noise and ripples at the 12V rail and this may lead to inpredictable behaviour of the printer.

if the psu is workin properly 1/2 a year inside an enclosure in hot environment, you'll be very lucky.

Re: my infrared pictures of the MK42 (last one)

now some last pictures, before the testo goes back into it's case.

here the steppers of the genuine i3 mk2 after about 30 minutes.
with 40°C they are about 11°C hotter than the ones at my clone (driven with the same current, in silent mode).
i3_MK2_steppers_30min.jpg

here only the right stepper motor:
i3_MK2_right_stepper_30min.jpg

and if somebody is interested in the A4988 stepper driver for the z-motors at the pololu breakout:
A4988_Z-motors_uncooled.jpg

as you can see, it get's decently warm, because the z-motors are always on... but still not to hot !
by the way: i didn't attach the tiny coolers that you can glue at the chip... they are nearly completely ineffective and only to calm down your worries :roll:.

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

...I think the other thing people wonder about is the power supply, particularly if it's in the heated enclosure.
yeah, but therefore you have to open the psu and even then it would be very tricky to make shots of the hot parts (switching transistor, schottky diodes, transformator & low-esr electrolytic capacitors), especially when the printer is inside an enclosure.

my printer meanwhile is fitted with another psu as you can see at the beginning of this thread (where i used a 240W PSU).
i'm now running with a 360W supply, with integrated fan. the fan switches on when the critical circuits inside get to hot.

but anyhow, if the psu remains inside an enclosure, the electrolytic capacitors will have a drastically decreased lifespan. the capacitors will dry out ultra fast, you'll get noise and ripples at the 12V rail and this may lead to inpredictable behaviour of the printer.

if the psu is workin properly 1/2 a year inside an enclosure in hot environment, you'll be very lucky.

wow you guess 6 months max eh? ood to know, i guess i better get my anet a6 power supply out of the enclosure then haha. you know, i found this MK42 heat bed on....some site? this dude makes em in small batches and sells them for i think 50 bucks. i may give that a shot when i finally get a round to making my own printer. man ures is gorgeous..

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

... you know, i found this MK42 heat bed on....some site? this dude makes em in small batches and sells them for i think 50 bucks. i may give that a shot when i finally get a round to making my own printer.
if you don't mean this site, posted by dave in this thread, have you found another one ?
if so, it would be nice to dig out the link and share your info.

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

... you know, i found this MK42 heat bed on....some site? this dude makes em in small batches and sells them for i think 50 bucks. i may give that a shot when i finally get a round to making my own printer.
if you don't mean this site, posted by dave in this thread, have you found another one ?
if so, it would be nice to dig out the link and share your info.

well crap. yup, that's the same one. i placed my order a little bit ago. im pretty excited to receive it

I saw you declined to share the whole design near the beginning of the thread. Would you be willing to share stl's for any of the parts in your build? im just curious if there were just certain ones you'd rather keep to yourself.

and last, can we see the underside of the printer?

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

Ok, here's a picture of the underside of the printer:

about the *.stl files, they are either already published... or very specific (e.g. for the electronics & psu housing).
here are some links where you can find the *.stl files i've used (and maybe altered):
david's prusa i3 mk2-x rebelix approach
david's printable trapezoid nuts
the rebelix x2 files by kissman
scalar tennis ball damper feet

and of course the genuine prusa mk2 and mk2s files for the x-carriage (while the extruder body has been altered by me, to fit the cheap chinese E3Dv6 clone hotend).

sorry, but i won't give away other *.stl files, due to several reasons. two of them may be stated here: 1. copyright reasons about altered files, 2. i want to encourage all makers to pick up the challenge to design their own parts... or alter available parts for their own purposes.

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

Hello Jeff,

How are the tennis ball damper feet performing?
That sounds like a nice and cheap idea to add on the genuine I3MK2.

Cheers.

Fosk

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

...How are the tennis ball damper feet performing?...
they are quite effective. but the design doesn't match the genuine i3 mk2(s).

but i've got my genuine mk2 fitted with the usual recommended dampers standing on a 58cm x 63cm plate of 19mm chip board that uses the tennis ball dampers as well... so sound transmission is double decoupled and i even got no problems printing stuff during the night, while my neighbour has her bed room right underneath my "lab".

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

Dear Jeff,
Thank you for the info. I was always wary of the printed damper as I thought they would be too wobbly.
If you say it works then I will give it a try.

Fosk.

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

SO,
I finally took the plunge. I ordered all the parts for the HARIBO Black Prusa Mk2.
I am keeping my original MK2S completely intact and building the Haribo from scratch.
for the frame, linear rods, LM8UUs and a pack of nuts that fit 3030 costs $207.00 ... $241 after shipping and tax.

Now all i need to do is order the RAMPS 1.4 with Trinamic TMC2100 drivers OR DRV8825. + Z axis stepper motors with Rods attached.

Anyone here know of a good brand to go with that isnt $30 per motor? annnd anyone prefer 1 driver over the other? why?

Honestly, i am super nervous about messing this up :/.

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

...
Anyone here know of a good brand to go with that isnt $30 per motor? annnd anyone prefer 1 driver over the other? why?

all the steppers with already attached trapezoidal spindle with 300mm or more (e.g. 320mm) are about 30$ each 😕 .
for my printer i used a set of 5 NEMA17 motors, while 2 of them were already fitted with 300mm spindles. the total set cost me 70€ (approx. 78.4$ US).
unfortunately it's not available anymore...

it might be a little bit cheaper to use standard NEMA17 steppers an use couplers to attach spindles to them.... but with these couplers, you'll lose some height.

---

about the stepper drivers: for my printer i used the "standard" A4988 drivers (pololu shields). they provide the required 16 micro-steps resolution (more isn't supported by the firmware and would slow down the printer unnecessary).

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

Ok, here's a picture of the underside of the printer:

about the *.stl files, they are either already published... or very specific (e.g. for the electronics & psu housing).
here are some links where you can find the *.stl files i've used (and maybe altered):
david's prusa i3 mk2-x rebelix approach
david's printable trapezoid nuts
the rebelix x2 files by kissman
scalar tennis ball damper feet

and of course the genuine prusa mk2 and mk2s files for the x-carriage (while the extruder body has been altered by me, to fit the cheap chinese E3Dv6 clone hotend).

sorry, but i won't give away other *.stl files, due to several reasons. two of them may be stated here: 1. copyright reasons about altered files, 2. i want to encourage all makers to pick up the challenge to design their own parts... or alter available parts for their own purposes.

Where did u get that awesome Bed Mount? i love it. i was thinking of designing and just printing my Bed Mount. i know alot of mistakes can be made going threough route... but i know it would be the lightest approach. annnd im surer it costs a pretty penny to get one cut.

ALSO, from what i understand, i can set the TMC2100 to 16. then soldr a jumper so the driver itself will transform the 16 to 256. have you heard of this approach?

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

...
Where did u get that awesome Bed Mount? i love it. i was thinking of designing and just printing my Bed Mount. i know alot of mistakes can be made going threough route... but i know it would be the lightest approach. annnd im surer it costs a pretty penny to get one cut.

ALSO, from what i understand, i can set the TMC2100 to 16. then soldr a jumper so the driver itself will transform the 16 to 256. have you heard of this approach?

guess you mean the y-carriage, that holds the heatbed. that's from a little company in the netherlands, called "achatz-industries" they've set up a brand called "RepRapUniverse".

but as i already mentioned: i was not very satisfied with the quality of this part, because the holes for the screws to hold the MK42 printbed were severely misaligned.

about the tmc2100: nope, haven't heard about it. just ordered a bunch of DRV8825 drivers (which will support up to 32 microsteps), just to check out how they will perform.

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

...
Where did u get that awesome Bed Mount? i love it. i was thinking of designing and just printing my Bed Mount. i know alot of mistakes can be made going threough route... but i know it would be the lightest approach. annnd im surer it costs a pretty penny to get one cut.

ALSO, from what i understand, i can set the TMC2100 to 16. then soldr a jumper so the driver itself will transform the 16 to 256. have you heard of this approach?

guess you mean the y-carriage, that holds the heatbed. that's from a little company in the netherlands, called "achatz-industries" they've set up a brand called "RepRapUniverse".

but as i already mentioned: i was not very satisfied with the quality of this part, because the holes for the screws to hold the MK42 printbed were severely misaligned.

about the tmc2100: nope, haven't heard about it. just ordered a bunch of DRV8825 drivers (which will support up to 32 microsteps), just to check out how they will perform.

nice! hey so... i just got in all my parts for the frame portion of the HARIBO MK2-X build yesterday... ive been looking around for a while.... and the majority of the integratd 300mm lead screw stepper motors i see that arent like 40 bucks a piece are pretty large.

do you have any idea where i can get good integrated stepper motors for the Z axis? the others i can just purchase the regular run of the mill type.. but i would really like to have similar ones used on the MK2S without spending 75 bucks for a set.

which ones did you buy? did you buy a set? did u just get the prusa upgrade kit? ( i cant go that route because i already have 60% of the items sold with that kit... so itd be a waste of money... plus $350 is prety steep ..

btw thanks alot for all this info. youve been a great help!. i actually found an .STL of the heat bed mount recently. i printed it out and it looks and fit GREAT.

EDIT*
Let me rephrase. I am afraid of getting Z axis stepper with crooked rods. if you know of a decently priced brand that isnt 75$ for 2 of em, please let me know. it would be greatly appreciated 🙂

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

just comming back from the customs duty office, where i've to pay the vat (9.59€) for the two steppers i just bought through banggood.
so at least i've to pay 60€ for both steppers.

the trapezoidal screws are dead straight, but they are screws with 2 leads, instead of 4 as supplied at our genuine prusa.
david also mentioned these steppers at his thingiverse part for the printable trapezoid nuts.
so you have to take this into account when you compile the firmware for these trapezoidal rods while changing the "3200/8" value inside the Configuration_prusa.h to "3200/4" at the #define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT section.

btw. as i already mentioned: at my clone i used a complete set of steppers (while two of them had 300mm trapezoidal screws with 4 leads) which cost me 69.98€ through eBay, but unfortunately this set is no longer for sale and the seller is not active anymore.

Re: prusa i3 MK2 - my way ...

Thanks for the share, and nice details 🙂