Stepper motor damper  

Re: Stepper motor damper

My impression is the Y axis noise is caused/exacerbated by multiple things:

1. The bed vibrates mostly as a result of bearing play/"stiction". As bearings loosen up over time, the printer gets louder.

2. The lightweight nature of the bare-PCB bed means it doesn't have enough mass to fully bias the bearings or dampen vibrations; in fact the vibrations resonate through the PCB and pretty much turn it into a speaker.

Slow moves you won't hear, but fast moves you can hear. Fortunately, the fast moves are travel moves where it's not laying filament, so it doesn't affect print quality.

The motor is connected to the bed through the belt which I don't think is particularly good at transmitting vibrations.

So I think putting a damper on the motor isn't really going to help.

Let us know how this goes.

Re: Stepper motor damper

At 6mm thickness it may be too big without redesigning the mount.

Re: Stepper motor damper

I myself do have 2 NEMA dampers on my MK2 3D printer. I designed this to be the new Y axis motor mount. And putting a damper on the X axis is a quick drop in replacement. I've been printing this way for over a month without many issues. Now the loudest thing on my 3D printer is the 30mm fan. I still haven't redesigned the E3Dv6 hotend holder to hold a Noctura 40mm fan (2 parts, extruder-body and extruder-cover).

Re: Stepper motor damper

Ayourk,

Excellent to see someone has done this and made the needed changes to the motor mount.

I'm thinking the fan conversion may be a little harder. If you put a 30-40 mm adapter the fan will stick out too far and it won't trigger the x-axis endstop. I guess you could modify something to trigger it but I can't see any way that you won't lose some x-axis area.

Re: Stepper motor damper

I've noticed the biggest issue seems to stem fro what the printer is standing on. Mine is one our dining table and makes a right racket (full power) but if, while printing, you lift it up by the Z-Frame it is almost silent! The table and the empty space underneath seem to act as a speaker box and amplify the vibrations and thus sound!

What we need are anti-gravity supports! 😆

Re: Stepper motor damper

Ayourk,

Excellent to see someone has done this and made the needed changes to the motor mount.

I'm thinking the fan conversion may be a little harder. If you put a 30-40 mm adapter the fan will stick out too far and it won't trigger the x-axis endstop. I guess you could modify something to trigger it but I can't see any way that you won't lose some x-axis area.

The only way I see mounting the Noctura 40mm fan is to redesign the existing 2 hotend holding pieces. The Noctura is the same width as the existing 30mm fan, so I know that it will have enough clearance if I make the case for the E3Dv6 hotend bigger and allow more airflow.

And yeah, a 30mm to 40mm adapter won't work. I saw that clearance issue a month ago.

I've noticed the biggest issue seems to stem fro what the printer is standing on. Mine is one our dining table and makes a right racket (full power) but if, while printing, you lift it up by the Z-Frame it is almost silent! The table and the empty space underneath seem to act as a speaker box and amplify the vibrations and thus sound!

What we need are anti-gravity supports! 😆

Prusa Research has designed something similar to this. Print these antivibration feet in Ninja Semiflex and that should take care of this problem for you 3Delight.

Re: Stepper motor damper

Prusa Research has designed something similar to this. Print these antivibration feet in Ninja Semiflex and that should take care of this problem for you 3Delight.

Sshhhhhhh Ayourk!! I'm trying to encourage Josef to invent Anti-Gravity...Let's face it if anyone can, he can! 😀

Re: Stepper motor damper

So, pending arrival of the stepper dampers, I put a really thick mousepad (Steelseries QCK Heavy, 6mm thick) under the printer and it already helped a surprising amount on noise reduction. A worthy substitute for the vibration dampening feet (though not quite as economical).

Re: Stepper motor damper

I made some test some time ago and came to the conclusion that most of the noises are solid transmission. So a 10 mm cork support mode me decrease the noise by ~10 dB, making a print in silent mode in the 40~50 dB range.

The little fan is then the noisiest part, making almost only aerial noise (which is understandable for a fan 😉 )

Re: Stepper motor damper

I made some test some time ago and came to the conclusion that most of the noises are solid transmission. So a 10 mm cork support mode me decrease the noise by ~10 dB, making a print in silent mode in the 40~50 dB range.

The little fan is then the noisiest part, making almost only aerial noise (which is understandable for a fan 😉 )

Noctura fans are known for having the least aerial noise.

Re: Stepper motor damper

When browsing for replacement fans, make sure they provide at least the same amount of static pressure and airflow as the stock fan (if you have the specs for that one).

Sadly, small fans will usually produce more noise than their larger brethren no matter what. And in these smaller sizes, I worry not even Noctua's precision engineering can do much. 🙁

The stepper dampers arrived today, I'll check this weekend if I can mount them.

Re: Stepper motor damper

I can definitely say that the small prusa feets to install on the rods near the 4 corners worked really well. I printed them in PLA with 10% honeycomb infill, and added a cheap 3mm adhesive neoprene strips. Plus the printer sits on a small ikea drawer (similar to the malm) with the castors taken off.

Still, the best next step would be to redesign the extruder to hold a bigger (and less noisy) fan

Re: Stepper motor damper

When browsing for replacement fans, make sure they provide at least the same amount of static pressure and airflow as the stock fan (if you have the specs for that one).

Sadly, small fans will usually produce more noise than their larger brethren no matter what. And in these smaller sizes, I worry not even Noctua's precision engineering can do much. 🙁

The stepper dampers arrived today, I'll check this weekend if I can mount them.
Well, I finally have mounted a Noctura to the hotend; and here are the results. I'm quite happy with the little noise my MK2 printer makes now.

Re: Stepper motor damper

I myself do have 2 NEMA dampers on my MK2 3D printer. I designed this to be the new Y axis motor mount. And putting a damper on the X axis is a quick drop in replacement. I've been printing this way for over a month without many issues. Now the loudest thing on my 3D printer is the 30mm fan. I still haven't redesigned the E3Dv6 hotend holder to hold a Noctura 40mm fan (2 parts, extruder-body and extruder-cover).

Nice job on the redesign on the Y mount ayourk, do you mind sharing some pictures of the dampers installed on your printer?

How much has this reduced your printer's Db levels?

Re: Stepper motor damper

I myself do have 2 NEMA dampers on my MK2 3D printer. I designed this to be the new Y axis motor mount. And putting a damper on the X axis is a quick drop in replacement. I've been printing this way for over a month without many issues. Now the loudest thing on my 3D printer is the 30mm fan. I still haven't redesigned the E3Dv6 hotend holder to hold a Noctura 40mm fan (2 parts, extruder-body and extruder-cover).

Nice job on the redesign on the Y mount ayourk, do you mind sharing some pictures of the dampers installed on your printer?

How much has this reduced your printer's Db levels?

The Noctura made the most difference, but here is the closest I have to a picture of the NEMA damper on the Y-axis:

Re: Stepper motor damper

I myself do have 2 NEMA dampers on my MK2 3D printer. I designed this to be the new Y axis motor mount. And putting a damper on the X axis is a quick drop in replacement. I've been printing this way for over a month without many issues. Now the loudest thing on my 3D printer is the 30mm fan. I still haven't redesigned the E3Dv6 hotend holder to hold a Noctura 40mm fan (2 parts, extruder-body and extruder-cover).

Nice job on the redesign on the Y mount ayourk, do you mind sharing some pictures of the dampers installed on your printer?

How much has this reduced your printer's Db levels?

The Noctura made the most difference, but here is the closest I have to a picture of the NEMA damper on the Y-axis:

Looks very clean.
I have heard that using dampers, although much quieter, introduces some slop or banding in the prints. Have you experienced anything like this?

Re: Stepper motor damper

Looks very clean.
I have heard that using dampers, although much quieter, introduces some slop or banding in the prints. Have you experienced anything like this?
Nothing more than before the Dampers.

Re: Stepper motor damper

I have heard that using dampers, although much quieter, introduces some slop or banding in the prints. Have you experienced anything like this?

I've heard this as well, although I can't seem to find any good tests or evidence of such banding. I wonder what exacerbates it. Too much belt tension? Too little? What about print speed?

if there is a good test print that is particularly bad at banding, then perhaps this is something we can test.

Re: Stepper motor damper

I have heard that using dampers, although much quieter, introduces some slop or banding in the prints. Have you experienced anything like this?

I've heard this as well, although I can't seem to find any good tests or evidence of such banding. I wonder what exacerbates it. Too much belt tension? Too little? What about print speed?

if there is a good test print that is particularly bad at banding, then perhaps this is something we can test.

I will say this: I'm using the same belt tension on my prebuilt printer that I have been using since I got it from the factory.
There may be a rubber quality difference between different Dampers. I don't really know. Some rubber may be stiffer than others, kind of like different grades of flexible filaments.