Hi Everyone,
This is a quick summary of initial setup, wiring, calibration and test of the 'new' (at time of writing) DuetWifi board. (7-7-2016)
Short version - I'm impressed and It's all going great!
As delivered, I was slightly concerned about a lack of Ethernet and also wondered about range and coverage with the Wifi, as it turned out the Wifi is actually very convenient, fast and quick to setup. - I'm now sold on it, but would still quite like a wired IP connection…
You do need USB drivers if they have not already been installed, the files are here - https://github.com/dc42/RepRapFirmware/tree/dev/Driver - and could have been added to the supplied microSD card - most people could read them from the card and install drivers etc.
I was originally going to install it into a Delta printer, but after some further thought I decided to fit it into a BigBox Printer. Having fitted 400step motors everywhere it seemed like a good idea to try out the new drives and also see if it can further improve the BigBox capability.
I'm running most of the motor's at around 850mA - the motor's are happy and not hot, and the TMC2660 driver are cool with no extra heat-sinking.
Wiring was not a problem, but I did obviously need to change some of the connector's and sensor pinouts etc.
Main changes here were for the probe sensor - now using a 4 pin connector rather then the standard 3 pin.
Motor wiring is slightly different on a Rumba for some (maybe historic?) reason - so one coil was swapped. Not really an issue - could have just reversed in firmware, but I wanted to follow the Duet pinout for now.
Fans and whatever else are running at the main input voltage, so make sure if you are over +12V that your fans are also rated the same.
Hot-end and heated bed are also at main power input as normal. The BigBox is already designed for 24v operation and that's about the limit of the new DuetWifi board, so it's a good match.
For info it's running at 24v with an E3D Volcano Hot-end at the moment, but the plan is to get many more extruders running with the DuetWifi as soon as possible.
I'm using a thermistor rather than a PT100 at the moment, but I expect to try out different temperature options soon.
Doing the thermistor setup in the configurator was not ideal - beta values rather than a table, but it does give an accurate reading - I'm just not sure everyone will understand what to do to get their correct thermistor sensor reading accurately.
I had a few minor configuration setup issues, originally I edited an existing config file, then after a little experimentation and some confusion over the Z end stop (I'm using David's IR sensor for Z) I used the really nice and easy online configurator - https://configurator.reprapfirmware.org/# . After completion, that seemed to spit out a file that did not correctly configure the microstepping rates (still not totally sure why), so after some further experimentation and a few more edits I then had a fully configured BigBox printer with Duet Wifi electronics.
I originally had the IR sensor connected to the Z end-stop, but quickly worked out that it was actually best used on the Probe input. That could do with a brief note or some simple wiring and setup details as I imagine more people will want to go with this configuration. The IR probe really does work very well as a no-contact Z sensor.
Some fumbling was because I'm not completely familiar with the Duet and RepRap firmware, I have only used it in RepRapPro machines to-date, I'm really getting into it now. It should be used much more widely in existing and new machine designs in my opinion. It's a total joy to have such control over the machine configuration without the need to re-compile or modify the core firmware.
I'm also getting used to using it in Wireless mode. It's a bit of a pain when you are just doing the basic but time-consuming configuration of a new machine, but many people may just be selecting an existing config, so will have less reason to keep on resetting / restarting or modifying the config data etc.
Quick point - When resetting the board via the web interface you often see the axis move and make some odd noises - that could do with being more gracefully disabled as it's a little disconcerting when motor's drive and grind into endstops etc. even if it is for only a second.
Now it's all setup, I really like how well the Wifi works although because it needs to connect to your router, coverage can be an issue. I would have liked an Ethernet option, but it's not a big issue. Maybe if the Wifi module was on pin-headers then an Ethernet module could have simply swapped out, so people can choose one or the other rather than only have Wifi on the new board.
When using the web-interface it feels like you have total control (It really is fantastic). Without it, I'm really missing an LCD panel and control knob. I will be looking at adding one ASAP.
I was also slightly concerned about the location of the 'erase' button, it's close to the reset, which I used quite a few times to stop the machine when the axis was going in the wrong direction before correct configuration etc. In more of a panic I could have easily pressed the erase instead. Not a big issue, but I would have used an option jumper for the firmware erase/recover feature as it's not often you should need to do that.
I'm running a combination of x32 and x64 microsteps, that's actually quite a lot of steps per/mm because of the motor's being 400 step and the extruder also being a geared drive system.
Overall the first power-up was quiet and the motion both looks and sounds smooth. Almost no driver noise or 'funky music' from the motor's being driven.
Fan noise is now my focus - but that's not the electronic's fault - that's just noisy fans.
First print was almost spot-on for calibration, just a few minor tweaks to the config for acceleration, speed/direction change and maximum speeds (I'm going around 20% faster with most things than before) - not found the upper limits yet.
I will add some pictures and further progress.
But if anyone has any questions or would like any further info on any aspect, just let me know.
Cheers,
Richard
@RichRap3D
Blog - www.richrap.blogspot.com
