Anycubic i3 Mega: 1 year on plus quietness upgrades w/ reference mic (Noctua fan and TMC2208)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ค. 2018
- In which we have a quick look at how my i3 mega is doing after 1 year and ~4 Kg of PLA, and then install some TMC2208 silent step sticks and hear the difference through a reference microphone.
TMC2208 drivers:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283005129765
Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX (12V version)
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/381029518971
IMPORTANT NOTE: in the video I set the reference voltages to 0.85V. That is not enough for the extruder and it ends up skipping steps and causing under-extrusion (not to mention an annoying clicking sound) when doing the faster parts of the print. I set the reference just for the E0 driver to 1.5V and it is now behaving itself again. 1.2V was not enough.
IMPORTANT NOTE 2: The latest version of these printers from Anycubic have a different main board with the stepper drivers soldered on directly, rather than on pluggable modules, so you can't change them unless you're very proficient at surface-mount rework (n.b. I do a lot of surface mount rework and would not guarantee I could swap out the drivers successfully on the new boards, so I would say that attempting it at home is not recommended). - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Your videos on this inspired me to get mine out again after months and months, nearly got it perfect now so thanks!
I have been wanting to purchase the I3 for a while now and your vid has made up my mind to go ahead even more so knowing the noise can be sorted for a reasonable price
Do watch out, at least for a while the newest one came with a motherboard where you couldn't (easily) change the stepper drivers. This may have changed, I have no idea now. If you get one and it doesn't have swappable modules you could maybe swap out the whole motherboard to the older style.
I like the very good advice on waiting for the bed to cool right down. My printer sits close to me and when it is cool enough there is actually a obvious 'click' sound as the print literally pops off the bed. Looking to upgrade to cooling fan very soon.
Thank you, I have just finished my upgrade to TMC 2208. It´s a huge difference! Last thing i would recommend is to change heatbreak and blower fan for Nocuta 40x40mm. And power supply and electronic fans for bigger ones (I chosed 92mm 1500rpm fans, which are much quieter, but i added a serial resistor to slow these fans to 900 rpm). Now my printer is as quiet as possible.
OK. After adding an bed auto-levelling probe, "silence" mod is on my list.
Definitely worth it, I agree. Fans and steppers noise are being quite... annoying. You convinced me.
phenomenal printer. I've had it for around 5 years now and it still running like a baby horse
Wow, what a difference!!
Wow! What a small world! I was looking for some curious information about the noise on the Anycubic i3 and I found a familiar face. Not sure you will remember but we shared some time being on XTA. I hope everything is alright! Good job changing those stepper motor drivers! Big difference!!
Fran
Oh hey Fran! Small world indeed. Hope you're well, do me a tweet or whatever if you want to chat outside of the comments section ;)
Thanks Wolverine, really
lol Wolverine
To me, he looked like short hair John Wick, so thanks, Mr Wick.
works fine, thx. Now i need a fan upgrade for the powersupply
Nice video, I think that most important is that you are quiet during comparison, not still talking some sh*ts as others are doing during sound comparison. Thank you, I will upgrade motor drivers definitely on my i3 Mega S!
Definitely ordering a set of these off the bat, because that stock noise will drive me insane
My i3 Mega S arrived today and after printing the Owls, off came the bottom panel and in went some nice TMC2209 drivers. Sooo nice! I'm also swapping out the motherboard cooling fan with a 120mm x 15mm Scythe fan, and when it arrives ill be doing the same with the PSU and hotend fans.
Good call on the motherboard cooling fan, I should do something similar.
What a world of difference.
Great video! This helped me, thank you. What’s the name of the tool you used to reverse the connectors on the board?
I did the TMC2208 upgrade to my Anycubic i3 Mega back in 2017. Worked great totally silent except for the fans. Well worth doing if you have not tried it. Also did the TMC2208 drivers on my Fulsun delta. Totally quite ! Do it you will not regret it.
Did you set all axes at 0.86? Cheers
@@joshgibb04 Its been 3 years, I do not recall what current setting I used on the drivers. The stepper motor do not run hot and I do not lose any steps, but I seem to recall having set it higher than .86, maybe around 1 volt.
Thanks will do that to mine!
That powersupply has a jet engine inside..... i took off the cover and removed the stepper fan and replaced both with a 120mm case fan that can be bought for super cheap snd yet be quiet.
Holy jesus, thats really hard whinning, they changed that now with the newer Mega printers it seems. Mine does not but i paricularly wanted to see how well a fanupgrade would do. Thanks Mate
now you have done it !!! my wife want's me to upgrade my i3 mega......pfffffff
Your video is very helpful.
I bought a new mega-s.
There's no change in the board here.
Do I have to use only TMC2208 V2.0 like a video?
I'm not so sure about the mega-s, if it has the 8-bit mainboard with pluggable slots (looks like this i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAwMFgxMDAw/z/hQEAAOSw43haRKHy/$_12.JPG?set_id=880000500F ) then you can use this method. If not, I'm afraid I don't know. Good luck!
Yesterday made this upgrade on my Anycubic 4Max (2017)... Near total silence! Waiting for Noctua fans. VRef = 0.905V and all good.
Does anyone have a guide on how to replace then in the latest version? (The soldered one) hot air gun and smd soldering is not a problem
This is the only example I've seen (doesn't mean there aren't others): th-cam.com/video/ZgfgaxbQA6w/w-d-xo.html I think if you're super comfortable with SMT rework it's quite doable, but still I was glad that mine were on headers :o)
Hello! Could you test the printing and traveling noise level in db? I really need these data to help me make up my mind on which printer to buy. Thanks
Alas, I do not have an SPL meter or a calibrator for the reference mic.
Can you link to the brand and model that you purchase? I'm looking around on Amazon and I'm seeing different colors and companies and I'm not sure which ones work with the least hassle.
I have added links to the ones I bought in the video description. Hope this is helpful.
You can get these stepper drivers on Amazon these days with 2 day delivery for under $17.00 amzn.to/2BEoA2l
What do you mean with reference voltage. Where do I have to set it ?
And it seems that I don't have the newest anycubuc because my stepper are removable. But why we have to turn the wires to 180 degrees ?
Each stepper driver has a tiny preset potentiometer that sets the reference voltage, so you measure between ground and the reference pin with a voltmeter and turn the potentiometer with the supplied screwdriver until the voltage reference is where you want it (0.85 for the axes, ~1.5 for the extruder).
The TMC2208's direction control is the opposite of the original driver, and turning the wires around is the simplest way to make the motor turn the opposite direction.
Yes I read something about 1,4V but someone changed it for all to 1,4V
1.4V is unnecessary for the X, Y and Z steppers (in my experience) and just results in extra heat in the steppers and extra load on the power supply. It'll work, but it's not optimal.
@@funksterdotorg Thank you. And where do I know which connector is for the extruder? are they labeled? Some people didn't turned the connectors. they changed the configuration file.
do you know the labels of the connector pins. I was confused because the Colorado black and red with plus and minus because after turning they are on other positions. but I think the pins are like this:
A A' B B' and after turning B' B A' A
would it not better understanding invert like A' A B' B ?
Yes, the connectors are labelled.
Only you can decide which way of reversing the direction suits you best - I chose this way because it meant not having to fiddle with the firmware or configuration at all, and reversing the pin order works perfectly.
Gday mate, since changing my drivers to 2208's ive noted that when homing all axis, that my driver fan isn't kicking in where before with the original drivers it would kick in straight away, my question is, is the cooling fan for the drivers temperature controlled ? Or is it meant to run constantly when the printer is moving axis ?
I don't think there is any way for the main board to know the temperatures of the drivers... I thought that the fan got turned on whenever the drivers were enabled. Don't quote me on that though!
@@funksterdotorg Thanks for the reply mate, while awating reply I decided to pull the fan off and test it on an external power supply to make sure it wasn't at fault, and low and behold, the positive wire had detached from the fan, so a quick soldering job, and its functioning.
Glad to hear you're back up and running!
thanks just installed mine and this helped!
where did you buy those ?
@@mitcha8662 Aliexpress, €15 for 5.
@@BobvanVelzen so those : h5.fr.aliexpress.com/item/1000007373392.html?spm=a2g0n.seo-amp-search.searchResult.1000007373392
Hi there! Can you write some tutorial what did you do to adopt this drivers to the trigorila board?
There's an excellent overall upgrade post by petrzmax on Thingiverse: www.thingiverse.com/thing:2901190/
Thank you friend!
I run two with the stock drivers and upgraded firmware and don’t have this much whining.
You have set all driver to 1,5? Read Axis with 1,1 and Extruder with 1,4. Thx
No, only my extruder is set to 1.5 - the rest are 0.85 still and no skipped steps.
question why did you turn the stepper motor connectors around? can I leave it in place the way it came?
The replacement drivers go in the opposite direction, so you definitely can't do nothing. You have to either reverse the header, or change firmware to a build that drives the motors the opposite way. I'm still running stock firmware so I had to reverse the headers.
Awesome video thanks for sharing.
Question: E0 and E1 would you change both to 1.5v?
No, E1 is the second Z axis motor and should be set the same as your other Z axis. Only E0 needs the extra torque.
Do you know if this kind of upgrade will work for the Mega X as well? Just got mine last week and it's just as loud as yours was.
I'm afraid I've never seen the insides of a Mega X so I can't advise. You will have to take the bottom off and see if the motherboard has the stepper drivers on modular boards, or if they're soldered on directly.
be careful with vref with the new version of the printer (i3 mega s), it has a different extruder with smaller motor (with maximum voltage = 1V), i set with my printer 0,85 for x-y-z e 0.79 for the extruder, seems all ok, i have printed 3 objects, zero problems, more and more better and silent than the horrible original stepper drivers
whether it is an E0 or E1 Extruder?
First : curious if there’s any difference in print quality at all. Theoretically you’ll be getting less torque with the silent steppers
Second : curious if just changing the X and Y drivers is a decent go-between since they’re the ones doing the most ‘talking’
I haven't noticed any change in print quality (once I turned the threshold up on the extruder drive). I think the silent drives are smart enough to increase the torque when it's needed. And the cheap option is to just do X, Y and Extruder (the extruder makes quite a racket what with retraction) as the two Z drives don't operate frequently during a print.
Just like with all drivers you can set the drive current up higher, the cooling fan will keep the TMC drivers nice and cool as they do run warmer than standard drivers. But I have not had any missed steps so they seem to work just fine.
I changed mine with tmc2209 switched the plugs around but now the feeder extruder will not take or remove filament
Do all the other axes work okay? Maybe try swapping a module between the extruder and e.g. the x axis to see if you have a faulty module?
Have you had any problems with Y-axis missing steps during printing since this upgrade? I have the TMC2100 installed but have ordered the TMC2208 to install. It seemed to print well off and on. Some good prints and then others are stepping. I have checked belt, replaced belt and replaced stepper motor so from what I can find it may be the stepper drivers ref not being correct.
Cheers
No, it's been good as gold ever since. Is your Y axis noticably tighter than the X just pushing it around by hand?
funkster dot org Just had a quick look, but if anything the x seems a bit tighter than the y. But the y isnt loose.
Im going to try uping the vref for the stepper drivers. As they are only set to 0.86 and seems people mention to up them on the y and extruder stepper drivers to about 1.0.
@@joshgibb04 I had to really crank the reference on my extruder feed, about 1.5 iirc, and it hasn't burned the motor out yet. Good luck!
funkster dot org But you have only cranked up the Extruder to 1.5 but not the others?
@@joshgibb04 Yes only the extruder, the rest are still at 0.85 iirc.
In fact, the drive of extruder and two Z-axes can be used without replacement. Ensure the best efficiency
But adjust the motor steering.
Hi.
How much do you set TMC2280 for each board?
0.85V for everything except extruder which I set to 1.5V.
Thank you very much. I'll try it.
what about i3 Mega S's main board. Is this possible to do with it ?
I can't say for sure, but searching for pictures of the S main board appears to show that it has the headers for removable stepper modules, so it should be okay. You won't know for sure until you take the bottom off your printer though.
@@funksterdotorg Yes i think you are right. I couldn't decide between Anycubic i3 mega S (with tmc2208) and Two Trees Bluer. I should buy which one i dont know. It's hard to choice for me
Are you using the standard Trigorilla board?
Yep, the original 8-bit motherboard as supplied with the printer.
Hi, why the plugs have to be turned around? Thx
The TMC drivers make the motors turn the wrong way due to a difference in pinout - turning the plugs around fixes this. There are also firmware builds around that fix this without needing to reverse the connectors, but I wanted to leave stock firmware in place.
The fans (here Noctura) did not calm down, others were louder (power supply and filament fan). I bought up to 2 Noctura, it's a shame.
Yeah the one I changed doesn't make a huge difference overall, apart from the fact that the bearings fail in the originals and then they make a really horrendous noise. The bearings are gone in my PSU fan now so I need to fix that, and I seem to remember reading that there's not much you can do about the part cooling fan without affecting performance.
mine makes loud noises when doing travel movements still even at 80mm/s normal prints are fine. is yours the same?
Travel moves are definitely louder, annoyingly I didn't include any of these in the video. However I came to the conclusion that most of the noise was coming from the bearings on the rails, not the steppers. I guess if you have noisier bearings that might explain it - maybe try a hint more grease on the rails?
@@funksterdotorg I actually use ptfe busings so no noise basically when I move it WITHOUT the belkt. once I attach the belt my motor even when off makes noise. maybe my motor is just bad?
Ah! Yes maybe your motor has a bad bushing? Is it noisier in X than in Y? Mine is about the same regardless of which direction it's doing travel moves (though obviously the sound comes from different places so it's not 100% identical).
@@funksterdotorg motors are expensive :( i'll try replacing one of the Z motors with the Y and see what happens. but my X barely makes any noise. it does make a light "bzzzt" on travel movements but it's nowhere near annoying
Brand-name motors are expensive, the generic ones as used on my printer (can't comment on yours) are... under $10 maybe? Still, a shame to have to replace one.
Which is louder, the power supply fan or the board fan?
Hmm, good question! Gut feel says it's the power supply one, but I don't have any hard data for you.
wow.. i have i3 anycubic too but mine never do such a crazy noise :D
me too i have two running normally and i watch tv in the same room .. no noise problem for me ;)
Do ya have upgraded fans as well? Or just drivers? Thanks
Just the extruder cooling fan. I should do the one in the power supply at some point, that's pretty loud.
funkster dot org do you have to do anything with the firmware when just adding the 40mm fan
I have done nothing with the firmware.
Awesome thanks for the quick reply really helps me, also how did you cut the baffles out of the shroud?
Chain drill, cold chisel, and file :)
if i insert the tmc 2209 is it the same procedure?
I can't say for sure, but... probably? The 2209 has some different features, might need you to do extra stuff.
@@funksterdotorg Thanks
what kind of tool did you use to remove the connectors?
Just good old-fashioned pliers! Nothing fancy.
Vref 0.86 is for A4988, for TMC2xxx, for 1.5A motor,, Vref = 1.06V with 30% safe
PS: the e3d v6 has been fan more reliable for me. I'd just switch a v6 next time. you don'thave to get a genuine get a trinagle labs one. if you want order a genuine heatbreak for it too. or even better microswiss :)
Спасибо тебе большое!
Добро пожаловать!
Does it do tpu?
I have never tried it but I have read that bowden style printers have a hard time with flexible filament.
Hi funkster, the Anycubic i3 Mega Ultrabase I purchased 2 weeks ago seems to have a different board layout: i.imgur.com/Qm48H4o.png most notably there don't seem to be any physical stepper drivers that can be removed. There are some heatsinks where they are in your video, but those are attached almost directly to the board. Nothing on the underside of the board as well. I'm guessing they've started soldering the drivers onto the board to cut costs?
Edit: After a bit more digging it appears that version 1.3 and earlier used an Trigorilla 8bit mainboard, while the 1.4 uses a Trigorilla 32bit mainboard which does not allow for stepper upgrades. More info on the different versions can be found here: www.thingiverse.com/groups/anycubic-i3-mega/forums/general/topic:27064 - If possible please upgrade your description so that it's clear that this upgrade is not possible on the new models.
Quite right, added to the notes. There's a video around somewhere where an owner of one of the new ones solders 2208s onto it, but I'm pretty fearless at surface mount rework and would still not attempt it on my only board.
What causes the whine?
It's the vibration that comes from the motor moving between steps, stopping, moving again. The Trinamic drivers do very smooth micro-stepping so there's a lot less vibration.
@@funksterdotorg thanks for explaining. Im looking to get my first machine and am really interested the i3 Mega.
Answer to the original post: Lack of S-curves. Newer versions of the firmware supports S-curves, though.
th-cam.com/video/C0XjXqO6Ji8/w-d-xo.html
-If you like beer (which I do not), this may explain much better how important S-curves are: th-cam.com/video/qYJpl7SNoww/w-d-xo.html ... ;)
I just ordered one, and I'm wondering, why they don't do that at anycubic!!???, just by changing a component, what a difference!, for me it would be fine to pay 20£ extra, and I don't want to do it straight away to not lose the warranty, please Anycubic do those little changes from factory!
More important to them to be cheap, I guess. Beware: the latest printers have the drivers soldered down (see other comments here).
@@funksterdotorg thanks for the heads up, it's my first 3d printer and I'll have it in another room anyway so I think it will not be a problem with the noise.
It's secure to let the machine run over the night?, I'm a bit concerned about chinese electronics to be honest I don't want to burn my house! lol , or can I pause a model and use the feature recover from power lose to start it again next morning?, I don't think that's possible due to the beds properties.
@@JP-xd6fm I know it's a while ago you posted the comment, but it's just as valid today.
The power supply that comes with your Anycubic (or any other 3D-printer in fact) are "chinese-off-the-shelf PSUs".
They do not conform to the EU standards, even though the printers are sold (illegally) all over the EU.
However, recently, Anycubic added a MeanWell PSU option for their Kossel.
MeanWell *do* conform to the EU standards and you'll get a high quality PSU from MeanWell.
That being said, the PSU is unfortunately not the only problem.
There are cables going to the heatbed and these are bent back and forth many times during printing.
One day, these cables may break and may result in sparks being generated.
Some heatbeds are powered by 100V ... 120V, others are 12V or 24V with high current. Both have equal chance of starting fires.
Anet made a printer that was great at starting fires, as far as I recall - this was a problem with the heatbed cable's connector being a 'knock-off' connector that could not handle the high current (only 12V or 24V, but the Amperage was high and the connectors often melted).
It's always best to keep your printer off when you're not in the same room. I recommend having it in a place where you occasionally look at it from time to time (eg. not hidden away completely in a closet).
Next to a computer-monitor would probably be a good idea, except from if you're printing with 'toxic' filament such as ABS, TPU and the like. (I use PrimaSelect PETG and PrimaSelect PLA, which is made in Sweden and conforms to EU regulations; their PrimaSelect PETG can in addition be used for food-contact; however their EasyPrint PETG can not).
And as a final note: If you have a Raspberry Pi (or anoother single-board-computer), install OctoPrint and let it handle some of the tasks; it's possible to improve the safety of your 3D-printer a little using this setup, besides you'll be able to 'network-print' and still be able to turn off your desktop computer during prints.
@@68HC060 Thanks for the info. One thing thought even if the filament is food- contact approved, is not recomended to use 3d printed stuff for food due to the bacteria is getting stock in the gaps between the layers.
What's E0?
Extruder.
I added hot glue around the heat sink after experiencing two of them fell off from the new driver.
Good intel, thanks. I think I have some thermal epoxy somewhere, which will certainly do the job if the tape fails.
@@funksterdotorg I worked with assembling high-end amplifiers and CD-players and would like to stress the importance of the heatsink compound:
Use as little as possible. The heatsink compound acts as an insulator, so you want it to fill only the 'holes' in the metal, you don't want it to space the heatsink from the heat source.
I've never used the 'double-sided insulation tape', though it may work, I see that it's horrible compared to something made for the job.
In this particular case, I'd recommend a heatsink compound that's made for:
1: Thermal conductivity
2:: Electrical insulation (non-electrical-conductivity).
3: Strong adhesion
As far as I understand, Arctic Silver is very popular and should cover these 3 points. If you can't get Arctic Silver, ask 'PC-modders' what they use. If you haven't come across any 'modders', try 'gamers'; they usually modify their PCs. ;)
As for the amount of heatsink compound used, I used a single drop of DOW Corning 340 per 1" x 1" MOSFET. These were tightened by bolts. But right after applying the heatsink compound, I spread it evenly around the MOSFET's back side, then scraped it off with a razor blade; it would get less than 1/10mm thick layer. When the bolts were tightened, a thin line of heatsink compound would become visible on all 4 sides of the MOSFET. If one or more sides had broken lines, there wouldn't be enough heatsink compound applied; wipe off and try again. That's how thin a layer of heatsink compound one should use. =)
Fuck. I just bought my forst printer not knowinf this..... I’m sensitive to sound. Ouchie