"RepRapFirmware 1.16 and later allow you to configure up to four X-carriages." cool just thinking how... Maybe two Y systems?
Lets work out the bugs for multiple X carriages first before thinking about multiple Y's lol Will have to build a whole new frame for the big box at that point, maybe exruded aluminum since its relatively easy, cheap and strong?
@dc42 wonderful, reads perfect, I am really looking forward to try this! Printing X carriages at the moment, then I need the motor carriages. Will do the switch soon and just leave the second carriage unmounted, I will mount the bearings so, and print only single. Didn't do dual for a while anyways...
Dragchain confusion: I ordere a 13.5x10.5mm which will work but is smaller than the original one... Then I ordered a 10x15 like others but I think they sent me a wrong one... I don't find "10" or "15" in any dimension on that chain... Measuring the outsides it is 22.5x15 WTF?
I haven't ordered one yet, nor attempted to measure. It would be good if @Greg Holloway can confirm what the original BB ones are
They generally use the internal measurements when they list dimensions for drag chains. You have to double check which ones they are referring too. The BigBox ones are ~15mm x ~10mm external and ~10mm x ~6mm internal.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Bes..._3&btsid=ab2a6d38-8fe9-41d6-93b7-cdbe94bae666 English version on Aliexpress.
I don't find such a chain neither on Amazon nor on eBay. Sellers are divided which dimensions the print in the header so I'll stick with the small one I got. It is more than enough for the six cables though with a connector like the motor connector it does not work. That maybe the reason why E3D chose a little larger one. But I don't have to feed a connector through it because I have to increase the length of the cables anyways so no problem for me...
We are expecting the first 2 prototypes to be manufactured on 28 October, but it's just possible that they could be a week earlier than that i.e. this Friday. Subject to satisfactory testing of those two over the weekend, the rest of the pre-production batch will be manufactured the following Monday/Tuesday.
We have 3 extra axes available in 1.16, so we could do 3 X and 2 Y axes, or 2 and 3. After that we run out of letters for the new axes. I guess we could go to accented characters, but those are a pain for Brits and Americans to type.
So the good news is the steppers are nice. Bad news is my bolt supplier, bolt base, have sent several grub screws of various sizes instead of the bolts I wanted. Not sure how useful an M4x30 grub screw is. The M4x30 bolts would be good for the idlers tho Edit: No connectors - mistook the plastic edging for them on my first quick look.
I'm finding that you'll definitely want some M3x6 for screwing the motors. The others for the motors are okay with M3x8 - I'm using the locking washers too. I didn't buy square nuts and so I'm using a mixture of half nuts and full nuts.
The majority of the mechanical side of my rebuild is complete, I will do the wiring tomorrow. Regarding screws etc: I found the M3x8 worked for the nema14s, the longer set of Titan screws works for the extruders. There were M3x8?10? grub screws left over from the original build that worked nicely for the belt tension, the left over m3x18s from the frame assembly work for the carriage mounting brackets. Generally my box of leftovers did all the screws, nuts etc. I had to buy the Nema 14s, LM8LUU and 604ZZ flanged bearings and drag chain (I had a GT2 20 tooth pulley and GT2 belt). This upgrade adds Titans as well for our BigBox although that is outside of the scope of the upgrade cost.
I've used mine for other projects and bits and bobs so needed some other parts. Here's a photo of progress: I've a print job to do but hoping I can change it over tomorrow.
@T3P3Tony are you using Duet or Rumba? Would be cool if you post up a config please when you've got the hardware side done.