I'm scouting out parts and planning to purchase and build my own v-core-3.1 kit. Your series has been a tremendous help for me grasping the fundamentals of this machine as you've gone along. Thank you for sharing your hard work with us viewers! :)
It means a lot to know that someone actually planning to build one of these printers is getting value out of this video series Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for watching!
Oh man I'm such a n00b. That makes so much sense. To be fair, the board doesn't come with docs, and I never saw anything about jumpers except the recommended positions from the main wiring diagram which assumes 24V. I'm sure there's a document I could dig up from somewhere to tell me what pins to jump. OTOH - since I had the adjustible-output buck converter, I actually undervolted them to 8-9V which brought down the noise considerably. Probably not worth the trouble, but they are on all the time now and hardly audible. Either way, thanks for the tip!
@@heisenberg19x66 I guess I really needed to find better documentation on that board. I was going from the incomplete wiring diagram from RatRig which didn't mention any of these things. Good to know that's an option, though I still would've powered it separately to avoid the unclean shutdowns.
@ObsessiveEngineering what was your Discord name again. Wanted to send you the link to the full documentation but RUclips seems to delete github links automatically
I just fired mine up last night for the first time to check wiring and what not. I'm right there with you when it comes to the wiring, cutting, crimping.... I have always wanted to learn it and am turning into a pro myself lol. I'm still questioning some of the design choices for this printer (I pray nothing happens to the belts as you have to rip the entire thing apart it seems), but so far so good. Going to do the PA and Input shaping tonight, so I hope printing works well! Great series btw, it gave me some good insight and tips. Also, that mat!!! I got one myself lol.
Everyone loves that mat! I love it too. Well I did. I accidentally cut it one day and tried to get a replacement and 2 different reorders had permanent bends and it wouldn't stay flat. I ended up getting a different brand that I don't like as much, but it's better than nothing! I'm glad you enjoyed the series, let me know if you have any questions and good luck with the build!
@@ObsessiveEngineering Thanks! The first print before doing anything, like yours, came out really good. I'm having an issue with the adxl input shaper as the cable I bought for it isn't pinned for my Octopus v1.1, so I'll run it on my rpi, but I can't figure out which pins to connect it to. I did it that way on my Voron 2.4, but had a kit that was prewired. So now I have to figure this out, but it's going good, just cleaning up the wiring a bit.
Yes! This thing feels more like an industrial machine than a consumer 3D printer. At this point I've got a couple hundred hours on it and it never lets me down!
Fantastic series, thank you, big help with the 400mm RR build I've just started. Really hoping it will continue, as you ended on a bit of a cliffhanger :)
I like your power distribution blocks with the Wagos. I don't like those connectors because i'm thoroughly old school but have been considering a similar solution for the DC side of mine, except i'd use a potted bus bar
Definitely was worrying about this part a bit. From what I've read on the Discord and the guide, it's lacking certain steps and explanations... Luckily it looks a lot like how a voron is setup and they have great guides!
This. I did read through the Voron wiring docs, and it helped clarify some of the missing details, and also pointed me to those printable DIN clips and a few other things.
Good series. I watched the EVA first as I'm trying to change mine and agree that there is very little documentation. It takes a while to understand it is like a lego set that you have to figure out how to assemble. The wiring is also a challenge. I built my first a 400 cube almost 2 years ago and my second a year and a half ago a 500 cube. Then modified both from V3 to 3.1.
Hi! I didn't remember the exact model I used, but printables has quite a few if you search for "RatRig IEC" or "RatRig Power". Here's a link to one: www.printables.com/model/536710-ratrig-v-core-3-iec-adapter
Next time for first test of endstops just press them with your fingers and go into mainsails machine tab to see if they are triggered, for the inductive Probe use some metal part and put it below
I actually did exactly that but thought it was too much detail for the video. I was pleased to find Klipper had an easy way to view endstop status as you described. But even though I had tested it manually, I was still nervous that something would go wrong when the machine was doing its thing.
@@ObsessiveEngineering I must've done this several hundred times during development by this point, i've been through every situation, every accident, every fix/repair/rebuild, i know have nothing to worry about and i'm still on the verge of crapping mi pantalones everytime i do this on fresh build. It's just how it is 😅
Thanks for your previous reply. I see that you have some sort of top encloser plate above your electronics. Can you also share the stl for that one :) Thanks alot your video has helped alot with wiring. Im almost done.
I am not sure exactly what you're referring to. I think it's the two printed flat plates that are in the back of the machine when looking at the front. Those were part of the official STLs for the build. Here's the left one. There's one for the right in the same folder. github.com/Rat-Rig/V-core-3/blob/main/cad/printed_parts/stl/enclosure/shelf_left_400_3.1.stl
Wow, why did I not think of putting the fans in series? I guess, I tend to avoid series wiring in general, so it doesn't come to mind in cases like this where it would actually be fine. Good luck with the build!
Hah yes. I have had some bad experiences running things in series and I sometimes don't even think of it when it's appropriate. However, one benefit of doing it this way was that I could undervolt them to reduce noise, so it's not a total waste!
you can also run the fans off the Octopus, unless the pro lacks the jumpers to set fan headers to 12v. I do also like they put the electronics on the back, that is one issue I see on the Voron design is if something goes funky monkey with it you have to tip the whole printer over as the electronics bay is on the bottom. Opps did not expand the description, Anyway once the fans are running off the octopus you can also set it so they only run when the motion system is active. However being 120mm fans its probably not a big deal and they are not the 60mm screamers from a Voron.
Yes, I totally missed the memo on changing port voltages using jumpers. But since I already got the buck converters, it was trivial to undervolt them to 8-9V to reduce the noise even further. They just run all the time now and are hardly audible.
Great videos thanks for taking the time to film all of these. Can you share your Wago holder file please. I can not find anything out there I like as much as yours.
I sooo want to put a display on this. My foolishness got the better of me though and I grabbed a BTT HDMI5. I found one model and I think I failed to scale it but if I go larger the frame is off.. very frustrating. Printing the tabs fort he spine now.
Never heard of the BTT HDMI5 before. Just looked it up and it looks convenient and reasonably priced. I'd consider it if I didn't have already have a laptop setup next to it that can control all three of my printers. Another option is just find an old tablet and permanently mount it and power it near the printer. It only needs to be good enough to run a web browser and access the Klipper/Mainsail webUI
The 1,000W bed only consumes 850-950W during heating, and after that only consumes an average of like 300W to keep the bed at ABS temps (110C). The hotend peaks to like 80W during initial heating and similarly drops to like 20W-30W, though that's going to depend on your temperature and flow rate. With motors and other things, it's looking like 400W-ish. It would be less for materials with a lower build plate temp. This is based mostly on memory, and if you're really interested I will get more precise measurements next time I do a print.
@@ObsessiveEngineering thanks! That's excellent info. Looks like the Prusa XL solution with segmented heater zones is the best answer at the moment. I might try using a 24V heater pad and take the hit on bed heat up times. But I guess the 300W average load at temp is independent of heater pad power. : / That's just a thermodynamic constraint related to the bed size and thermal transfer dynamics. I'm expecting the printer to have to run on battery power roughly half the time (because South Africa). So if my calculations are correct, at 400W for 4hours I'll need 400W/12V*4hrs +35%(efficiency loss) = 180ah 12V battery 🥺 And then I'll only be able to run it through a 4 hour power outage once per 24 hours because otherwise the charge rate needs to be too high.
@@SidekickElements keep in mind that my numbers are for printing ABS when the bed is at 110C. The bed is the majority of the consumption, and it you're doing PLA at 55C bed, it will be significantly less power. Also note that this is for the 400mm. the 300mm V-Core-3 has a much smaller bed, which I think is only 500W max. And of course the 500mm is more (1,500W?)
When I did it, there was no supplied list of wire gauges. I'm pretty sure I used 14AWG wires for most of it. You can look up wire sizes based on max current, below. For the heated bed, the 500mm V-Core-3 uses up to 1,500W continuous. In the US, outlets provide 120V, so max current is about 13A. If in Europe on 220V, or smaller V-Core-3 , it will use significantly less. The remaining wires where there is significance current is from the 24V power supply to run everything else. The biggest power sink there is the hotend, which I believe peaks at 70-100W, so max 4A. Add a few more amps for motors and other stuff. I believe I used 16-18AWG for those. Don't forget to tie everything to the ground. Including the bed, SSR, DIN rails if you use them, and the aluminum frame (I assume the docs have a complete list). I actually drilled and tapped a small hole in one of the rear extrusions so I could add a ground wire to the frame (it needs contact beneath the black anodization).
There's a bunch of stuff in my printables profile here. The cool DIN clips are included in the labeled wago mount model. www.printables.com/@etotheipi/models I think the rest of the stuff is in models created by blacksmithforlife: www.printables.com/@blacksmithforlife/models
It's also missing the details of how to hook up the heated bed to the mains/AC power through the solid state relay (SSR). Both components are on the diagram, but only shows their connection to the mainboard (it's not wildly complicated, but when dealing with this stuff it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling to get confirmation that you're doing it right -- which I got from the Voron docs, instead). In fact, no wires that carry high-voltage are shown at all, and more importantly, it doesn't mention what components should be grounded, including the aluminum bed, the SSR, the DIN rails if using, and the 3030 aluminum frame where you need to scrape off some of the anodization (there might even be something else but it's been like 6 months now, so I might've forgotten something!)
There's a channel about this in the RatRig discord. It would be worth looking through that and asking questions about other people's experience with self-sourcing. They could also give you data points wrt pricing, like how much you're saving doing that.
After publishing this video I went looking for them and couldn't find them. I even looked in the Voron GitHub repo. I have no idea what happened to the original, but I uploaded the STLs of them with the Wago mount thingies I designed, so you can get them there: www.printables.com/model/376537-mount-for-3x5wire-wago-connectors-with-mains-power
Coincidentally I just bought new ones for other projects and noticed they looked different... and genuine. So the ones in this video probably are clones 🤦♂️
The terrible noise during the first print was a loose screw or captive nut somewhere. I forgot what exactly, but it was an easy fix. I believe the remaining noise is primarily due to the default configuration which disables stealthchop. I have tried enabling it, and it does reduce the noise considerably, but it limits your print speed, and still not even close to as quiet as my other two printers (which have the same TMC2209 motor drivers and Stealthchop enabled). 🤷♂
Did you already tried to reverse the order of the pins for the motors? This helped a few people suffering from the motor buzz. There is a whole channel about this on the RR discord
@@lemarkde I *just* discovered that Discord thread the other day. Like everyone else, I'm weirded out that the wire order actually makes a difference, but I have seen enough testimonials to believe it. Next time I extract my printer from its tiny closet and get access to the electronics I will try it.
Hi, it's difficult to troubleshoot wiring issues over RUclips comments. I recommend you join the Discord community for RatRag, which has lots of channels you can use to ask questions, or search for answers to questions that have been asked before. That's where I got most of my help when building it: v-core.ratrig.com/community/#unofficial-community-on-discord
I can't wait. My pi comes in today so I can finish the build and start printing. The build was a blessing and a curse
I'm scouting out parts and planning to purchase and build my own v-core-3.1 kit. Your series has been a tremendous help for me grasping the fundamentals of this machine as you've gone along. Thank you for sharing your hard work with us viewers! :)
It means a lot to know that someone actually planning to build one of these printers is getting value out of this video series Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for watching!
I agree!
No smoke! Yey... Time to print a 🦥
The octopus pro supports 24V, 12V and 5V fans. All you need to do is read the documentation and set the jumper(s). You do not need a bug converter.
Oh man I'm such a n00b. That makes so much sense. To be fair, the board doesn't come with docs, and I never saw anything about jumpers except the recommended positions from the main wiring diagram which assumes 24V. I'm sure there's a document I could dig up from somewhere to tell me what pins to jump.
OTOH - since I had the adjustible-output buck converter, I actually undervolted them to 8-9V which brought down the noise considerably. Probably not worth the trouble, but they are on all the time now and hardly audible. Either way, thanks for the tip!
The octopus has also an own set of pins just to power the PI
@@heisenberg19x66 I guess I really needed to find better documentation on that board. I was going from the incomplete wiring diagram from RatRig which didn't mention any of these things.
Good to know that's an option, though I still would've powered it separately to avoid the unclean shutdowns.
@ObsessiveEngineering what was your Discord name again. Wanted to send you the link to the full documentation but RUclips seems to delete github links automatically
@@heisenberg19x66 hi do have the rat rig documentation wiring diagram.. am lost 😞
I just fired mine up last night for the first time to check wiring and what not. I'm right there with you when it comes to the wiring, cutting, crimping.... I have always wanted to learn it and am turning into a pro myself lol. I'm still questioning some of the design choices for this printer (I pray nothing happens to the belts as you have to rip the entire thing apart it seems), but so far so good. Going to do the PA and Input shaping tonight, so I hope printing works well!
Great series btw, it gave me some good insight and tips. Also, that mat!!! I got one myself lol.
Everyone loves that mat! I love it too. Well I did. I accidentally cut it one day and tried to get a replacement and 2 different reorders had permanent bends and it wouldn't stay flat. I ended up getting a different brand that I don't like as much, but it's better than nothing! I'm glad you enjoyed the series, let me know if you have any questions and good luck with the build!
@@ObsessiveEngineering Thanks! The first print before doing anything, like yours, came out really good. I'm having an issue with the adxl input shaper as the cable I bought for it isn't pinned for my Octopus v1.1, so I'll run it on my rpi, but I can't figure out which pins to connect it to. I did it that way on my Voron 2.4, but had a kit that was prewired. So now I have to figure this out, but it's going good, just cleaning up the wiring a bit.
Great video - keep them coming! I built a VCORE 3.1 - it's an amazing machine!
Yes! This thing feels more like an industrial machine than a consumer 3D printer. At this point I've got a couple hundred hours on it and it never lets me down!
Fantastic series, thank you, big help with the 400mm RR build I've just started. Really hoping it will continue, as you ended on a bit of a cliffhanger :)
I like your power distribution blocks with the Wagos. I don't like those connectors because i'm thoroughly old school but have been considering a similar solution for the DC side of mine, except i'd use a potted bus bar
Definitely was worrying about this part a bit. From what I've read on the Discord and the guide, it's lacking certain steps and explanations...
Luckily it looks a lot like how a voron is setup and they have great guides!
This. I did read through the Voron wiring docs, and it helped clarify some of the missing details, and also pointed me to those printable DIN clips and a few other things.
Good series. I watched the EVA first as I'm trying to change mine and agree that there is very little documentation. It takes a while to understand it is like a lego set that you have to figure out how to assemble. The wiring is also a challenge. I built my first a 400 cube almost 2 years ago and my second a year and a half ago a 500 cube. Then modified both from V3 to 3.1.
Finally the next part ;-)
Thanks alot for these videos. I was wondering your power plug has casing around it. Can you maybe share the stl for this ?
Hi! I didn't remember the exact model I used, but printables has quite a few if you search for "RatRig IEC" or "RatRig Power".
Here's a link to one: www.printables.com/model/536710-ratrig-v-core-3-iec-adapter
You might look at the buzzing steppers fix on the discord. Where you swap the wires from blue red green black to black green red blue - or whatever
WTF, I was just scrolling on RUclips thinking that I need to wire up my ratrig 3.1 then this video popped up on my feed !!!!!
Next time for first test of endstops just press them with your fingers and go into mainsails machine tab to see if they are triggered, for the inductive Probe use some metal part and put it below
I actually did exactly that but thought it was too much detail for the video. I was pleased to find Klipper had an easy way to view endstop status as you described.
But even though I had tested it manually, I was still nervous that something would go wrong when the machine was doing its thing.
@@ObsessiveEngineering I must've done this several hundred times during development by this point, i've been through every situation, every accident, every fix/repair/rebuild, i know have nothing to worry about and i'm still on the verge of crapping mi pantalones everytime i do this on fresh build. It's just how it is 😅
Thanks for your previous reply. I see that you have some sort of top encloser plate above your electronics. Can you also share the stl for that one :) Thanks alot your video has helped alot with wiring. Im almost done.
I am not sure exactly what you're referring to. I think it's the two printed flat plates that are in the back of the machine when looking at the front. Those were part of the official STLs for the build.
Here's the left one. There's one for the right in the same folder.
github.com/Rat-Rig/V-core-3/blob/main/cad/printed_parts/stl/enclosure/shelf_left_400_3.1.stl
Why didn't you just put the fans in series?
Btw watching this before working on a partially built one I just got. Thanks :)
Wow, why did I not think of putting the fans in series? I guess, I tend to avoid series wiring in general, so it doesn't come to mind in cases like this where it would actually be fine.
Good luck with the build!
Hey mate you dont need that buck konverter for the fans just run them in sires 🙂
Hah yes. I have had some bad experiences running things in series and I sometimes don't even think of it when it's appropriate. However, one benefit of doing it this way was that I could undervolt them to reduce noise, so it's not a total waste!
Now theres an full wiring how to but I had to do it like you with limited help
you can also run the fans off the Octopus, unless the pro lacks the jumpers to set fan headers to 12v. I do also like they put the electronics on the back, that is one issue I see on the Voron design is if something goes funky monkey with it you have to tip the whole printer over as the electronics bay is on the bottom.
Opps did not expand the description, Anyway once the fans are running off the octopus you can also set it so they only run when the motion system is active. However being 120mm fans its probably not a big deal and they are not the 60mm screamers from a Voron.
Yes, I totally missed the memo on changing port voltages using jumpers. But since I already got the buck converters, it was trivial to undervolt them to 8-9V to reduce the noise even further. They just run all the time now and are hardly audible.
Great videos thanks for taking the time to film all of these. Can you share your Wago holder file please. I can not find anything out there I like as much as yours.
Sure thing. I just uploaded it to Printables.
www.printables.com/model/376537-mount-for-3x5wire-wago-connectors-with-mains-power
Also the cable rail in the middle is there an stl to print this ?
I sooo want to put a display on this. My foolishness got the better of me though and I grabbed a BTT HDMI5. I found one model and I think I failed to scale it but if I go larger the frame is off.. very frustrating. Printing the tabs fort he spine now.
Never heard of the BTT HDMI5 before. Just looked it up and it looks convenient and reasonably priced. I'd consider it if I didn't have already have a laptop setup next to it that can control all three of my printers.
Another option is just find an old tablet and permanently mount it and power it near the printer. It only needs to be good enough to run a web browser and access the Klipper/Mainsail webUI
First signs of life!
What did the data from the power meter reveal?
I need to put mine in battery backup to last 2 hours and I'm wondering how big the battery needs to be.
The 1,000W bed only consumes 850-950W during heating, and after that only consumes an average of like 300W to keep the bed at ABS temps (110C). The hotend peaks to like 80W during initial heating and similarly drops to like 20W-30W, though that's going to depend on your temperature and flow rate. With motors and other things, it's looking like 400W-ish. It would be less for materials with a lower build plate temp.
This is based mostly on memory, and if you're really interested I will get more precise measurements next time I do a print.
@@ObsessiveEngineering thanks! That's excellent info. Looks like the Prusa XL solution with segmented heater zones is the best answer at the moment.
I might try using a 24V heater pad and take the hit on bed heat up times. But I guess the 300W average load at temp is independent of heater pad power. : / That's just a thermodynamic constraint related to the bed size and thermal transfer dynamics.
I'm expecting the printer to have to run on battery power roughly half the time (because South Africa).
So if my calculations are correct, at 400W for 4hours I'll need 400W/12V*4hrs +35%(efficiency loss) = 180ah 12V battery 🥺
And then I'll only be able to run it through a 4 hour power outage once per 24 hours because otherwise the charge rate needs to be too high.
@@SidekickElements keep in mind that my numbers are for printing ABS when the bed is at 110C. The bed is the majority of the consumption, and it you're doing PLA at 55C bed, it will be significantly less power.
Also note that this is for the 400mm. the 300mm V-Core-3 has a much smaller bed, which I think is only 500W max. And of course the 500mm is more (1,500W?)
Question is there a list of the gauge of wires used for each section ?
When I did it, there was no supplied list of wire gauges. I'm pretty sure I used 14AWG wires for most of it. You can look up wire sizes based on max current, below.
For the heated bed, the 500mm V-Core-3 uses up to 1,500W continuous. In the US, outlets provide 120V, so max current is about 13A. If in Europe on 220V, or smaller V-Core-3 , it will use significantly less.
The remaining wires where there is significance current is from the 24V power supply to run everything else. The biggest power sink there is the hotend, which I believe peaks at 70-100W, so max 4A. Add a few more amps for motors and other stuff. I believe I used 16-18AWG for those.
Don't forget to tie everything to the ground. Including the bed, SSR, DIN rails if you use them, and the aluminum frame (I assume the docs have a complete list). I actually drilled and tapped a small hole in one of the rear extrusions so I could add a ground wire to the frame (it needs contact beneath the black anodization).
Could you provide links to the 3d printed parts? (the clips, mainboard/pi mount)
There's a bunch of stuff in my printables profile here. The cool DIN clips are included in the labeled wago mount model.
www.printables.com/@etotheipi/models
I think the rest of the stuff is in models created by blacksmithforlife:
www.printables.com/@blacksmithforlife/models
isn't the only thing missing in the picture the connection from the psu to the ac power input where u plug in your cable ?
It's also missing the details of how to hook up the heated bed to the mains/AC power through the solid state relay (SSR). Both components are on the diagram, but only shows their connection to the mainboard (it's not wildly complicated, but when dealing with this stuff it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling to get confirmation that you're doing it right -- which I got from the Voron docs, instead).
In fact, no wires that carry high-voltage are shown at all, and more importantly, it doesn't mention what components should be grounded, including the aluminum bed, the SSR, the DIN rails if using, and the 3030 aluminum frame where you need to scrape off some of the anodization (there might even be something else but it's been like 6 months now, so I might've forgotten something!)
I really want to build a Ratrig also but i want to source the stuff myself but Idk if thats so smart to do😂
There's a channel about this in the RatRig discord. It would be worth looking through that and asking questions about other people's experience with self-sourcing. They could also give you data points wrt pricing, like how much you're saving doing that.
i agree with you about wiring i haired someone to do wiring for me at end its electric you dont want to burn your house while you learning
can you give a link to those voron DIN spring mounts ... google can't find them ...
After publishing this video I went looking for them and couldn't find them. I even looked in the Voron GitHub repo. I have no idea what happened to the original, but I uploaded the STLs of them with the Wago mount thingies I designed, so you can get them there:
www.printables.com/model/376537-mount-for-3x5wire-wago-connectors-with-mains-power
@@ObsessiveEngineering Thanks!
@@ObsessiveEngineering I see your wago connectors .. but not the spring DIN rail mount ... is there somewhere to get that?
@@BJ-GoldenTuna It's in the file list for that model.
@@ObsessiveEngineering sorry ... I'm blind ... can't believe I didn't see it .. sorry to have taken your time .. but Thanks!!
Those WAGOs really don't look right to me, are you sure they are geniuine? Clones like to catch fire unexpectedly.
Coincidentally I just bought new ones for other projects and noticed they looked different... and genuine. So the ones in this video probably are clones 🤦♂️
Good first print but why so noisy?
The terrible noise during the first print was a loose screw or captive nut somewhere. I forgot what exactly, but it was an easy fix.
I believe the remaining noise is primarily due to the default configuration which disables stealthchop. I have tried enabling it, and it does reduce the noise considerably, but it limits your print speed, and still not even close to as quiet as my other two printers (which have the same TMC2209 motor drivers and Stealthchop enabled). 🤷♂
Did you already tried to reverse the order of the pins for the motors? This helped a few people suffering from the motor buzz. There is a whole channel about this on the RR discord
@@lemarkde I *just* discovered that Discord thread the other day. Like everyone else, I'm weirded out that the wire order actually makes a difference, but I have seen enough testimonials to believe it. Next time I extract my printer from its tiny closet and get access to the electronics I will try it.
@Alan Reiner just commented this above. Made a huge difference for me
Hi … I need help in the wiring diagram please 😢
Hi, it's difficult to troubleshoot wiring issues over RUclips comments. I recommend you join the Discord community for RatRag, which has lots of channels you can use to ask questions, or search for answers to questions that have been asked before. That's where I got most of my help when building it:
v-core.ratrig.com/community/#unofficial-community-on-discord
first!
😻😻😻💙💛😻😻😻💯