Controller Power - Longer Axes

Snapmaker Original
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I just love my Snapmaker! This is my first 3D Printer and I can only compare this printer to those of friends. The Snapmaker is very robust and modular, no loose cables and open parts.

I would like to build longer actuators and use my Snapmaker Controller and Extruder on these longer axes. Before designing these longer actuators, I want to determine what the power throughput of the individual ports are. Would it be able to drive my stepper motors or do I need to need an external power supply?

Regards
Waldo

1 Like
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The problem wouldnā€™t be the torque required by longer axes since the linear modules donā€™t need more power (mass inertia is not much higer for the thin spindle).
But I think the resolution of the controller board for the stepper motors can be the limiting part.
Canā€™t tell you for sureā€¦

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Thank you @rojaljelly

Maybe I must just buy a motor and test.

Regards

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The stepper motors donā€™t have a feedback like a multiturn absolute enccoder (like on the industrial motors Iā€™m selling) so the controller has to count the steps. Because of the threaded shaft the Motor has to make more rotations than on a machine with pulleys
and belts.
The current controller mabe can count a little further than 125 mm linear movement but not much I think.

PS: These are just my personal thoughts as an electric drive systems engineerā€¦

5

Thank you Michael

Thus, my question should be how many steps the current controller can count?
@doug or @Tone or @CthulhuLabs do you perhaps know what the resolution or span of the controller would be? Or should we ask @Rainie ?

Regards
Waldo

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@whimsycwd is the one to know. The controller could be hard coded for span limits or it could have a changeable parameter. The stepper motor has a limit to the number of steps per turn for resolution but that can be modified by the ā€œleadā€ of the lead screw. The SnapMaker has a 4 entry lead screw so the resolution could be multiplied by 4 by going to a single entry lead screw. I suggested that for the z-axis so it could lift 4 times the weight.

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@Tone
Thank you very much for this feedback. I will post my progress on this link. Unfortunately I cannot find the neat aluminium profiles that is used by Snapmaker. My housing might look different. Unless someone has an exact link or part number. Or if anybody knows when the longer actuators, then my project can stop nowā€¦

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Bonjour,

As-tu avancer sur ton projet ?