Make your Black Widow silent as the real Widow!
Install TMC2100 Steppers in Black Widow MKS 1.3 Board
This guide is purely going to focus on how to get
from wanting to buy SilentStepsticks to installing and using them in
your MKS.
And it is minimal effort. Hardest part is the
soldering really.
SilentStepstick
To get started, you need to buy some of these, and
the only place you can do that, is at the manufacturer homepage:
http://www.watterott.com/de/SilentStepStick
Heatsink
You also need a heatsink for each SilentStepStick
you buy. If you have some lying around, it is important they have
non-conductive tape on them. You can not use thermal paste:
http://www.watterott.com/de/Kuehlkoerper-fuer-DIL-…
Step 1: Preparing the SilentStepstick
While handling the SilentStepSticks, try to avoid
putting sticky fingers on on largeish golden pad on the side marked
with “TOP”. In fact, try only handling it by holding the edges.
Take a plyer or similar and remove the 3rd pin
from one of the two rows of pins that comes with the
SilentStepSticks. This missing pin is going (not going really) to the
spot where CFG2 is marked on the SilentStepStick.
If you do not have a breadboard like I do, you can
use a kitchen sponge, some cardboard (carefull not to bend the legs,
puncture with scissor first maybe) or something else you have at
hand.
Line up the two rows of pins and make triple sure
the missing pin lines up with CFG2 on your SilentStepStick.
Now solder up the two rows.
Put on the thermal non-conductive tape on your
heatsink while making sure you do not put sticky fingers on either
side of the tape and not o the bottom of the heatsink itself.
Make sure the Heatsink covers the entire gold
area, and do not cover the hole in the end of the SilentStepStick
that leads down to the Potentiometer which we need to access to
adjust the power to our motors.
Step 2: Prepare MKS for your SilentStepSticks –
and install them
MKS
If you are using the common A4988 StepSticks like
I do you need to invert the direction of your motors.
I recommend inverting the motor direction in
firmware. Unless you currently run your steppers at something else
than 1/16, you need to make changes in the firmware anyway.
You can also switch the motor-pair cables going to
your mks by swapping over the pair to the right, with the pair to the
left – I prefer doing it in firmware. (which is why I do not having
picture of the cable-swapping).
On the board
Under each of your drivers there is a number of
jumpers. Note their placement, as you need to know your current
microstepping settings.
If you are unsure on your current microstepping,
you can Refer to this table.
Jumper 1 is the one closest to the MKS
power-connector. Number 3 is the other way.
jumper Yes/No step size
1 2 3
no no
no full step yes no no half step no yes no 1/4 step
yes yes
no 1/8 step
yes yes yes 1/16 step
Now you have removed ALL the jumpers under the
location where we are going to install each of the SilentStepSticks.
We do this, as we want to run it in 1/16 microstepping. The
SilentStepSticks then dials it to 1/256 – just in case it confuses
some (I know I was confused).
Install the SilentStepSticks
Now place the SilentStepSticks onto your MKS board
with the hole for the trimpot (potentiometer) facing towards the MKS
Powerplug. The potentiometer on the old A4988 were facing the other
way.
Now lets head over to the firmware part before we
start tuning these babies.
Step 3: Prepare MARLIN (firmware) for your
SilentStepSticks
Change motor direction in firmware
If you are using the common A4988 StepSticks like
I do you need to invert the direction of your motors.
This can
be done in firmware by changing “false” to “true” for each
axis you install the SilentStepSticks on.
The changes are made
in Configuration.h – Hit CTRL+F and search for INVERT_X_DIR – The
// True for SilentSteppers is just my comment in order to remember
why I made the change.
// @section machine // Invert the stepper
direction. Change (or reverse the motor connector) if an axis goes
the wrong way.
// True for SilentSteppers
#define
INVERT_X_DIR true
#define INVERT_Y_DIR false
#define
INVERT_Z_DIR false
Change steps pr mm in firmware
Now do the CTRL+F thing and find
DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT
You might have something like this (default) where
each number is representative of X,Y,Z and Extruder.
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT
{80,80,1600,822}
It is a good idea to copy the old values – just
copy the line, place it above the other line and place two // in
front of it – you can even make a comment to help you remember,
like so:
// My original values
// #define
DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {160,160,3200,822}
This way you can remember what your original steps
were.
You will most likely need to do the M92 command as
sometimes the firmware upload will not change the Steps.
So in your interface you would enter M92 X80.00
Y80.00 Z1600.0
and once that is done save it to memory with M500
Change Direction of motors
If you did not do this allready, you need to
change the direction of the motors.
Here I’ve changed it for X
and Y and made a comment to remember why I did it.
// @section machine
// Invert the stepper
direction. Change (or reverse the motor connector) if an axis goes
the wrong way.
//True for SilentSteppers
#define
INVERT_X_DIR true
#define INVERT_Y_DIR false
#define
INVERT_Z_DIR false
Step 4: Tuning the SilentStepSticks
Now we come to the not so fun part – at least I
thought so.
How to adjust the SilentStepSticks properly.
I know two methods and I’ll list the
non-technical one first, as I used to do it like this, as all the
vref stuff was very confusing.
Method 1 – the listen feel method.
Put your hothead in the middle of the axes, turn
the printer on, and give it a command to move. First 1mm and if it
does that, move it 10mm or even 100 if you have the room.
Does it move smoothly? Good. If not, then you need
to dial up the potentiometer on the SilentStepStick. Turn it
clockwise. Just a tiny tad. Like 1/8th of a turn. Less if you can as
it is really sensitive. Mine moved 0.1 volt to 0.2volt for each
infinitesimal small move I made
If the motor moved smoothly you can try dialing
the potentiometer counter-clockwise – very small increments as
above, until it does not move smoothly anymore. Then dial it up a tad
again to make it run smoothly once again.
Do a test print of a cube or some other
testprint/calibration you have or find on the net.
Method 2: adjust potentiomenter and measure vref
I don’t know how to really use the value we
measure here, but it is recommended to put it at 0.8 volt and take it
from there.
What you do is put your multimeter on 2volt, put
the red wire on the potentiometer and the Black one on the GND pin.
As my board is oriented in the Photo it is the lowest left pin.
Read on the board to make sure you hit the right
one.
If you are unsure or shake a bit then do not do
this. You will short something out if one of the probes slip and hit
something else. The Red part is going to be stable, as it will go
through a hole, but the GND one can easily hit the pins next to it
Both my SilentStepSticks initially measured at 1.1
to 1.2 volt, so I dialed mine Down some. It really very, very small
increments they need to turn, so take it slowly
When you get it dialed in, you go back to Method 1
and see if they run smoothly.
Step 5: All done.
Your done. Congratulate yourself on your new,
maybe not shiny, but silent 3D printer!
If you find the hissing
noise from the motors annoying, you can try adjusting the
potentiometers some.
