Shapeoko 3, Pushing Machining Limitations!

I’ve run the stock steppers with the stock drive, the stock ones at higher voltage (24V IIRC) with external drives (provides more torque), higher power steppers with standard voltage, standard board (a little more torque), and am now running higher power steppers at 48V with external drivers and getting a lot more torque.

Upgraded steppers (higher current, say 2.1A) will provide more torque, and seem to be handled by the stock power supply ok, are within what the stock drivers can support. To really get everything from them requires external drives and a higher voltage power supply.

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I was waiting on someone much more informed on the subject to chime in. Thanks for the info @mikep!!! I may need to pick your brain if I don’t go down the S3 Pro rabbit hole…

Excellent,

Would you be able to share the specs of the bigger steppers you’ve been able to run on the stock driver board pls?

e.g. current rating, inductance etc.

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Anyone want to bet on how long that Dewalt will last?

Also my vote is for rigidity mods before power. What’s the point of having a race car if it has all season tires on it?

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Or putting a more powerful engine in it? :wink:

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The stepper at a standstill should be it’s highest holding torque. As soon as it starts moving, the holding torque decreases.

I agree, but I can’t bring myself to justify adding linear rails. I also don’t know how I could be 100% sure the x and y axes would be completely square with installing the linear rails myself… Too much cost and work… especially since I could upgrade to the Shapeoke 3 Pro if I really wanted.

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Sort of…but not quite. Delivery of more current can suffice for some gain. It’s not that great, but better than zero. It’s not the full gain you would get if you supplied proper rated voltage at rated current.

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4 DM542S 24-50v, 4A digital stepper drivers ($32 ea),
2 48V PSU’s (7.3 A each) ($23 ea)
1 Keyestudio GRBL board ($20) with GRBL 1.1f loaded.
3 [Nema 23 Bipolar 1.8deg 2.4Nm (340oz.in) 1.8A] (Yx2 and Zx1) ($25 ea)
1 stock stepper (on X - because I was short a pulley)
Total of: ~$255

(Steppers, Drives, Oh My! Adventures with replacement electronics and drives)

The keystudio board is…junk. Don’t use that.
I’ve since changes to a TR https://shop.tomsrobotics.com/product/grbl32-3-axis-cnc-controller-g32f13-150khz/ which is a little off the beaten path, but works great. It’s software port is far better than the supergerbil board and I’ve fed back a few changes to it.

1 48V PSU is sufficient. The current rating you need is (1.8*3 + the stock one) * .666 = about 6A.

The DM542S drivers are very, very quiet.

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Thanks,

That’s a really helpful writeup of the upgrade. The TR controller looks like a tidy option too, a shame that the new Carbide electronics don’t give us step / dir headers, but the extra clock speed on these units seems to be important too.

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The ARM based boards have a lot more clock rate, and much more memory (depending on the part) allowing the queues to be larger.

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Where did you get your upgraded v-wheels?

Purchased these off of amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FJHSN0C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Has a larger bearing surface, aiding to slightly more rigidity.
NOTE: You need to trim your belt retainers for these to fit.

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FWIW, I’ve just added the same wheels, but had issues with fitting them top and bottom. I couldn’t seem to get the eccentric nuts open enough to use them on both sides the rail. Did I miss something?

I do not know if the HD eccentric nut offset is the same or not, but I that’s what I have. It was a little tight for me, but I got them on and had a little adjustment left to need to tighten them. It was defiantly a close fit though…

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I have the same problem with the regular V Wheels, both the regular and HD eccentric nuts the left hand lower V Wheel on the HDZ will barely fit and even at “loosest” won’t turn by hand, the right hand lower will take about 20 degrees to tighten up (I tried swapping the V Wheels around).

I didn’t think of the HD eccentric nuts reducing the clearance. Definitely a possiblity. Maybe in combination with 3rd party wheels the issue shows up.

The HDZ kit didn’t have any issue with the HD nuts and the included (and apparently bigger) v-wheels supplied by C3D. But I didn’t need to tighten at all after assembly. Very very tight fit.

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These V-wheels DO NOT work on the HDZ. You must use the provided v-wheels for the HDZ, which sre more beefy than the standard ones anyways.

@duexx If that is what you were referring to ^

They only work on the Y-axis if using the HDZ.

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Correct, only used the third party on the Y axis. I used the C3D wheels on the HDZ.

Still had issues fitting the third party wheels top and bottom with an HD nut upgrade. I ended up just using them on top and used standard ones on bottom.

Has anyone who’s fitted those Biqu V wheels made any comparative measurements of the lateral or radial deflections?

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