As the topic indicates, I'm thinking of changing the motherboard in this X-Max to something else.
I'm pretty much over the Chitu (should be called Shitu) board that's in it, its noisy, its locked down, Octoprint doesn't work well with it and I cant use Klipper.
I have spare Bigtreetech E3 RRF board, it can run Reprap, Marlin and Klipper, I think before I start to mod any more hardware in this printer, I would like to see how well it can actually perform with a nice control board in it.
Would anyone like me to post pics and a how too on this?
I will most likely replace the mainboard, install a RPI 4, camera, and a RPI touch screen for Klipper, along with a BL-Touch, and a Gyro sensor.
I am running Klipper on the stock mainboard. Before that I was using Octoprint without issue as well. It's all about knowing the quarks.
I've shared a lot of the process in the Discord.
I'll come take a look, but I really like Reprap and I have purchased an Octopus Pro with 5160 drivers and a touch screen to replace the factory one, my thoughts are, I cant really increase the XY stepper sizes due to space limitations, so I will upgrade them to 48 or 52v instead.
Tested Klipper out on my Ender 3 with EX RRP board, was a little overwhelming at the time, and felt like it wasn't really offering me anything over Reprap, maybe Klipper makes more sense if your using a Pi and the factory board in a printer, or if your using a speed demon like a Voron, but I find Reprap with DWC to be fantastic, quick to edit and make changes to the firmware on the fly, it supports linear advance and many other cool features now, you can even run multiple firmware's on one SDCARD and quickly swap between them without rebooting.
For what it's worth I did something similar with my X-pro a number of months back and used a Lerdge-K setup. I couldn't happier with the conversion. So much so I've been waiting months for Lerdge to have the boards back in stock and they did on Christmas day. so I promptly bought another full kit to retrofit my X-plus printer and it was good timing too because that printer has been acting flakey recently. I'd love to retain the ribbon cable on that printer so I think I'll order a replacement breakout board that goes on the hotend or cannibalize the other hotend that came with it and see if I put one on both ends it will allow 2 way communication. If not I'll have to run new wires for all the parts which isn't a big deal but the ribbon is cleaner looking.
Octopus Pro
60v Drivers
5" Biqu Screen
Spare Ribbon Cable 2 x Breakout boards
10mm GT2 Belts
Alloy 10mm gears and idlers
Gyro Sensor
BLTouch
Copious amounts of PTFE coated wiring
and a plethora of bits and pieces
Still need to find a 52v power supply to run the steppers and I have now ordered a liquid cooled Biqu H2, I'm running the Hercules with at the moment, with what I would consider to be the worst hotend I have owned, the High-Flow Dragon, its total garbage and suffers from major heat creep, I run Biqu H2's on 2 other printers, and never do I have any issues, this Dragon is terrible and has got to go.
I'm currently building a compact Core XY from scratch at the moment, as soon as that's finished and operational, the X-Max is getting the X-factor treatment.
The Ribbon cable terminates the same at each end, but all you need to do is connect a breakout board to each end and do continuity probing, the other option is to move over to the Hermit Crab system from Biqu, that uses a USB-C cable instead, I've ordered a couple of these to upgrade some other printers of mine.
Really excited to see your progress on this. I am strongly debating doing a swap as well because of the limitations of the close loop and the limited support for mods they offer. Also linear advance is missing which I feel could dramatically improve some of the flaws with this printer.
I've just finished the upgrade, Ive posted pics and and information in the Qidi-tech Discord server, its worked out pretty good, the only thing I would have done diffferently, is not used the flat ribbon cable, I'd prefer to make my own cable and plugs.
Yes, there is two main reasons I want to swap out the board, linear/pressure advance, and Auto Bed Leveling, everything else I could live with.
I have everthing ready to go, but I need to keep the printer running as I'm in the middle of building a customised RatRig, so I need an operation printer until its completed.
As the topic indicates, I'm thinking of changing the motherboard in this X-Max to something else.
I'm pretty much over the Chitu (should be called Shitu) board that's in it, its noisy, its locked down, Octoprint doesn't work well with it and I cant use Klipper.
I have spare Bigtreetech E3 RRF board, it can run Reprap, Marlin and Klipper, I think before I start to mod any more hardware in this printer, I would like to see how well it can actually perform with a nice control board in it.
Would anyone like me to post pics and a how too on this?
I will most likely replace the mainboard, install a RPI 4, camera, and a RPI touch screen for Klipper, along with a BL-Touch, and a Gyro sensor.
Yes please!
I am running Klipper on the stock mainboard. Before that I was using Octoprint without issue as well. It's all about knowing the quarks.
I've shared a lot of the process in the Discord.
I know some in the discord group have done klipper with the Chitu (shitu) boards. Come join us and see. https://discord.gg/HHctkQUm
Hi Bud, I didn't actually see this link until recently, can you repost as that one is now dead.
Here you go - https://discord.gg/HkVHYdBj
Can you send the discord link again it’s expired? Thank you
Can you send the discord link again since it’s expired? Thx
https://discord.gg/aYSmXX4q
Sorry to be that guy could you sent a link for that group on discord.
https://discord.gg/PPgwwUqP
Awesome thank you.
Thx
I'll come take a look, but I really like Reprap and I have purchased an Octopus Pro with 5160 drivers and a touch screen to replace the factory one, my thoughts are, I cant really increase the XY stepper sizes due to space limitations, so I will upgrade them to 48 or 52v instead.
Tested Klipper out on my Ender 3 with EX RRP board, was a little overwhelming at the time, and felt like it wasn't really offering me anything over Reprap, maybe Klipper makes more sense if your using a Pi and the factory board in a printer, or if your using a speed demon like a Voron, but I find Reprap with DWC to be fantastic, quick to edit and make changes to the firmware on the fly, it supports linear advance and many other cool features now, you can even run multiple firmware's on one SDCARD and quickly swap between them without rebooting.
For what it's worth I did something similar with my X-pro a number of months back and used a Lerdge-K setup. I couldn't happier with the conversion. So much so I've been waiting months for Lerdge to have the boards back in stock and they did on Christmas day. so I promptly bought another full kit to retrofit my X-plus printer and it was good timing too because that printer has been acting flakey recently. I'd love to retain the ribbon cable on that printer so I think I'll order a replacement breakout board that goes on the hotend or cannibalize the other hotend that came with it and see if I put one on both ends it will allow 2 way communication. If not I'll have to run new wires for all the parts which isn't a big deal but the ribbon is cleaner looking.
Here's my other post on the Lerdge-K conversion: https://www.thingiverse.com/groups/qidi-tech-x-pro/forums/general/topic:53123#comment-5521006
Since doing that my x-pro became my go to printer again over the plus unless I needed a larger bed size.
I have pretty much everything to:
Octopus Pro
60v Drivers
5" Biqu Screen
Spare Ribbon Cable 2 x Breakout boards
10mm GT2 Belts
Alloy 10mm gears and idlers
Gyro Sensor
BLTouch
Copious amounts of PTFE coated wiring
and a plethora of bits and pieces
Still need to find a 52v power supply to run the steppers and I have now ordered a liquid cooled Biqu H2, I'm running the Hercules with at the moment, with what I would consider to be the worst hotend I have owned, the High-Flow Dragon, its total garbage and suffers from major heat creep, I run Biqu H2's on 2 other printers, and never do I have any issues, this Dragon is terrible and has got to go.
I'm currently building a compact Core XY from scratch at the moment, as soon as that's finished and operational, the X-Max is getting the X-factor treatment.
The Ribbon cable terminates the same at each end, but all you need to do is connect a breakout board to each end and do continuity probing, the other option is to move over to the Hermit Crab system from Biqu, that uses a USB-C cable instead, I've ordered a couple of these to upgrade some other printers of mine.
Really excited to see your progress on this. I am strongly debating doing a swap as well because of the limitations of the close loop and the limited support for mods they offer. Also linear advance is missing which I feel could dramatically improve some of the flaws with this printer.
I've just finished the upgrade, Ive posted pics and and information in the Qidi-tech Discord server, its worked out pretty good, the only thing I would have done diffferently, is not used the flat ribbon cable, I'd prefer to make my own cable and plugs.
Awesome I'll check it out thanks for the reply!
Here's the link if your part of the discord server: https://discord.com/channels/686160672211730511/686175937859289130/958266034366849084
Yes, there is two main reasons I want to swap out the board, linear/pressure advance, and Auto Bed Leveling, everything else I could live with.
I have everthing ready to go, but I need to keep the printer running as I'm in the middle of building a customised RatRig, so I need an operation printer until its completed.