A8TX - Anet A8 Build and Power Upgrade
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ม.ค. 2018
- After much research, I have jumped into the deep end and bought myself a 3D printer. I have also bought some aftermarket parts to do some mods and upgrades along the way.
I sourced the BuildTak adhesion mat from:
Spare SD card www.gearbest.com/memory-cards...
Heat pipes www.gearbest.com/3d-printer-p...
www.torwell3d.com.au/products...
The printer and associated parts wear purchased from:
Spare Nozzleswww.gearbest.com/3d-printer-p...
Ceramic Heater www.gearbest.com/3d-printer-p...
Thermistors www.gearbest.com/3d-printer-p...
K-Camel Filament www.gearbest.com/3d-printer-s...
GT Rubber Belt www.gearbest.com/3d-printer-p...
Mosfet www.gearbest.com/3d-printer-p...
Heatbed Connectors:
Connector - au.element14.com/jst-japan-sol...
Pins - au.element14.com/jst-japan-sol...
The power supply was purchased from:
pccasegear.com.au
Thingiverse models
Electronics box - www.thingiverse.com/thing:273...
Spool holder - www.thingiverse.com/thing:274...
Wingut Screws - www.thingiverse.com/thing:200...
Y Axis Chain - www.thingiverse.com/thing:191...
ATX Holder - www.thingiverse.com/thing:199...
Extruder Button - www.thingiverse.com/thing:218...
Hot End Blower - www.thingiverse.com/thing:195...
Filament Guide - www.thingiverse.com/thing:230... - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
this is a perfect demonstration of the anet a8. lets face it, its a rubbish printer as stock. but the kit does include most of the bits needed to build a good printer. mine is 2 years old, with all of these upgrades and more, and i get the same print quality as friends with decent expensive machines. videos like these made that possible. thank you from myself, and all the people who dont yet know they need to thank you!
So far the best ATX upgrade video I've seen, appreciate the extra effort with the visual aids.
This is my favorite anet a8 build video! Excellent job!
Great Video, well done. Your modifications are meaningful.
Great video. I love the effort for on the wire routing to make it look like less of a rats' nest. Also, mad props for actually including a wiring diagram.
Mate, as a fellow Australian, I share my gratitude with you for this amazing video. The competition is tough, but with videos of this quality, there is a clear path to success.
Can you please do a step by step full video on how to do all the wiring?
WoW! One of the best videos about anet a8
Thanks Felipe!
Thank you for telling me about the bed wiring. I have found the common practice of directly soldering the wires to the bed to be an inelegant solution and knowing how to rewire the connector Is great and I feel dumb not realizing that's why there was two connections for both positive and negative. Good job, Anet, on making your cheap printer a little more dangerous than necessary.
Great build video. I got my A8 just after Christmas, I've added similar mods, but went with a 30A cooled power supply rather than ATX. Although you made it simpler than other ATX vids I'd seen.. I'd highly recommend some frame stiffeners so you can add a Y belt tensioner without straining the fragile acrylic.
Great job with the video, I as well own an A8 and currently use it injunction with a rpi v3 and octoprint print server. These are fantastic cheap units even with the little quarks and inconsistency they have.
bloody ripper video mate. i just got mine during the week and building it yesterday / today. building it as base to start with then will mod ASAP. thanks heaps for sharing, esp with the AU content man
Incredible video!
I think you covered all the gotchas except for a firmware update, and auto bed leveling.
Thanks for the inspiration!
i wish i had view you video sooner! i just soldering the wire to the bed without changing/modifying the cable. so 12 amp from each original cable. the original connector burn just like the picture you showed. my anet is pretty old +- 8 year i think and only advice is to add fan on the board ( i put a big pc 120mm blowing on the bord and the x step motor) and add a small 20mm fan right below the stepmotor for the bed and add heatsink to those 2 stepmotor. they wont get hot anymore and since i add that cooling system i have 0 glitch printer is perfect! without cooling those stepmotor would slip or just go nuts on their end.
Waooo very good video for improve anet'power =)
i bought an A8 recently and funny thing it came with an upgraded connector and the auto bed leveller and 3d printed mods, i was quite surprised
I've run my Anet A8 for 2 and 1/2 years with no power supply problems, no heat bed problems, no mosfets! Printed rolls of filament. The acrylic Y axis motor did shatter and had to be replaced with a metal one.
Brilliant video dude, well done. Wish this was on the updated version though as thats what I have, would like to know what issues still persist
Great video!
Thanks Renato!
Nice video!
There is no reason to fork out for a new ATX PSU.
Any old PC PSU from 200W up would be more than adequate for the job.
But the basic idea is fine as then you also have the +5V at hand for any Arduino or Raspberry PI add-ons.
Good stuff. Been running an A8 for about 3 years now. Prob still my favourite lol. A couple of things may help make it even safer. 1) Upgrade the firmware. The stock firmware still ships with thermal runaway detection disabled. This means that if the thermistor or heating cartridge fall out, it will still keep heating and is a fire hazard. 2) Some sort of hotend cable support to stop 1 from happening in the first place. 3) Periodically check the grub screw that holds the hotend cartridge in place to stop 1 from happening. 4) Would suggest a 15a car blade fuse on the bed power cable and a 5a on the rest. I also put a 3a dedicated on the hotend. There are NO fuses on the stock board. 5) Heat washers between the bed springs and the heat bed as the springs are very close to the traces and the only insulation is paint. Lastly, I am not sure what one 12v cable on that PSU is rated for, but you are pulling about 10-15a over those cables to the bed. I used AWG14. Love the spool holder. Keep it up.
Plus Octopi with Temperature Failsafe and Smartplug plugins and a TP LInk or Wemo Smartplug and it will shut off all power if any temperature goes out of bounds.
I recommend adding fans for the motherboard because the ic’s get pretty hot
good observation with hot casma at 6 amps per terminal
If you end up having trouble with your BuildTak (my prints stuck too well on it and ended up pulling out pieces of the surface) try out PrintBite, it has been amazing and pretty much self-releases when the bed cools.
thanks, big help.
Great video - eloquent and factual. Do you think you'll add a Bowden extruder?
my cble already came upgraded and also siliconed inside the pins with in the connector on top of dual wires. still debating soldering since that's no thing for me to solder. but, if ever need to swap the the bed it's an extra step.
Awesome. You've convinced me to go the proper route and wire it up properly. Looks cleaner, sounds better and is probably safer. Thanks.
The A8 being incorrectly wired is a problem that has been fixed. Plus a super simple way to add a power switch immediately is to just add a power strip to it. I went through every single connection with my DMM and they all checked out. I also powered my A8 for a while now with no issue (I'm not adding MOSFETs, at least yet. Because I'm going to upgrade my board soon to a Mega2560 and TMC2130 stepper drivers. Probably gonna go with a newer RAMPS setup (1.6) but still doing some research on what suits me best. Likely adding a RasPi with Octoprint as a print server. I'm also canning the entire PCB heatbed in favor of the more efficient silicone one. There's a lot more, but just some things that I've chosen after much research that may be worth looking into yourself. Specifically the TMC2130 stepper drivers, as they're unanimously regarded as the best there is. And your motor drivers have the largest effect on prints aside from hotend/extruder (which everybody upgrades quickly anyways) _ as long as there's no frame issue. Just some ideas to explore. Good luck and remember to have fun
Piano Boys - Thanks. That was my plan from the very beginning. Which is why I went with the cheapest i3 I could find. As it ultimately didn't matter. I'm going to swap out the frame with T-slot aluminum extrusions which I'm getting for my lathe already, so I'm just gonna add the ones for my printer to the order so I can avoid extra shipping on such long packages. I'm making an enclosure from an IKEA Lack and some thick pieces of glass from a couple old tables that I was going to throw out, which will keep the heat and noise inside. Especially since I got a water-cooled kraken knockoff (which I also setup super cheap using a wine chiller from a thrift shop as my water chiller and 1/4" air hoses to the printer and another to my laser cutter with just 2 reservoirs and pumps. I could go on and on but it'll be way too long
A great informative video about the A8, I ordered one and is in transit, also I ordered some upgrade parts. I will definitely add this video as reference in my researched data about it. Did you upgrade the MARLIN software to turn on the runaway heat detection system function (FIRE PREVENTION FUNCTION)? I understand that the firmware provided with the kit comes with this function turned off.
Hi Edward,
I have only just recently done the MARLIN update, I did a quick youtube search on how. I have to say it went pretty smoothly and I haven't had any issue since
with the ATX power supply what time take your hotbed to get higher temps?
Hi great vid, My second chinese stock PSU died yesterday, thinking of upgrading with an ATX PSU like you, one year later, does is still work? is it safe? some talk about too thin PSU wire for the amp needed . I run 2 mofset like you .all the rest of the electronics parts is stock. I just added fuses. thanks.
Hi! Great video, I am almost there, I ordered my filament PLA, soon to come. Would like to aske you what software are you using to do your drawings
Hey Flor,
Those drawings were done in Visio and powerpoint! I also Use Blender for 3D images
Cheers
Ben
Great video! Can you list the sizes of the braided PPS sleeve?
Hey Paul, I used both 3 and 5 mm braid
Cheers
Ben
Thank you
Mount the printer to a stable platform or surface, thus reducing any movement of the frame.
Awesome video about a8. Even I just built this one week ago and not sure how to go about printing the adding. You already printed the wire chain zero the heated bed - did you do that with Abs or Pla ? After reading/ watching a ton of tutorials it seems most the adding that are near heated bed need to be in abs. But out of the box it’s difficult to print abs as the bed has a hard time trying to get to the 100c mark and even if it does the prints are bad with skipped layers. It seems the solution is to insulated the bed on the backside and/or make a enclosure for ABS prints. Please let me know if your parts are pla. Thanks.
Hey, all my parts are PLA, not had a problem with any of them being affected by heat from the bed and I have prints abs as well
Thanks for your response. you were able to get good ABS prints with the a8 setup you showed or you took additional steps to retain the heat of the place or the whole print space. I see you got a c10, i though about getting it then went with converting A8 to AM8.
get the marlin firmware for mesh leveling and overtemp safety features
I also have an Anet A8. I just received my JST crimp tool. I don't have made the new bed connection yet.
Why did you choose to put the connector on the left side instead of the back ? There is more stress when put on the left side.
Hey, I put the connector on the left initially because that’s what the instructions said 😁
While I agree with you that placing it at the connector at the back is better for strain relief, there is nowhere to connect a rigid protector for the plug as these get mounted to the H plate and the screws are at the sides not the back
In the PDF I received with the printer kit, it show the connector at the back. But, I've seen a lot people putting it on the left, and I always wondered why :)
The first thing I printed was a strain relief for the connector at the back. It's not the best, maybe I'll design a better one, one day.
That being said, if the printer is jsut before the wall, the connector at the back could be a problem :)
Do you have a picture of the strain relief?
I would be really interested in seeing that solution, it’s always great to see what others have done 👍
Better than a photo, here is the thingiverse : www.thingiverse.com/thing:2438246
All credits to "Exterminate" user ;-)
I use it without screw, it holds enough. A drawback is the lost of some printable space. As I have a glass of 213 x 200, it's not a big deal for me for now.
I liked this solution because of the print time, I wanted to protect that connector as quickly as possible (who is not suitable for a non stop moving cable).
Mine is on the back, im using this strain relief mod
www.thingiverse.com/thing:2700340
I'm about to hook up a atx power supply to my anet a8, do you have any instructions as a guide, the original psu blew on 1st start up!!
Derek Thompson Hey Derek, all I have is what’s in the video and the schematic. Are you running mosfets or just the printer?
just the printer
Ok cool, connect the hotend and the bed to the mainboard as per instructions.
Make sure that the ATX 12v rail has min 20 amp (this will be one of the 4 wire plugs usually 2 black and 2 yellow wires.) Some PSU's have them in a 2 x 4 configuration (ATX 12v 4+4), you will only need to use one of these.
Join the 2 black wire together from the PSU, crimp them with a fork or ring terminal and connect to the mainboard negative power
Join the 2 yellow wires together from the PSU, crimp them with a fork or ring terminal and connect to the mainboard positive power.
(Same steps I use at 8 min 10 sec)
Thanks for the reply, I will be following that process, another thing to clarify when I disconnected the old psu it had the z axis motor connected to it?, where does that now need to go?
Thats a new one on me, both my z-axis motors are connected to the mainboard on mine. If you have a photo I can take an educated guess for you though
At 9:25, what are those connectors called? It’s hard to hear
Hey Cole, They are fork spades
Ben Armstrong Thanks!
1:34
I don't know what happen, my name is Frank G. I would like to do 3D drawing too. Thanks Frank G.