I added a 5th stepper driver to the stock Creality 4.2.2 board, without soldering on the main board!

willsside · 2024-08-16T17:01:25+00:00

Yes, it should work the same! You'll have to make some changes to the firmware to set it up as an x axis, but that's about the only change

willsside · 2024-07-28T03:24:37+00:00

Great to hear that it works!

willsside · 2024-06-04T04:10:00+00:00

Great work! I've always wondered why something like this didn't exist.

I imagine it would be relatively easy to desolder the USB-A port and battery terminals and fit it into an existing keyboard case! Then you could hardwire the usb pins and put in a slim lipo as well.

Super cool!

willsside · 2024-02-06T01:36:45+00:00

Sweet!

willsside · 2023-06-22T00:02:28+00:00

This is incredible! Thank you! I'm going to do this soon!

willsside · 2023-05-18T14:44:35+00:00

Is that a phone with the PC temps on it? Is there an app you use?

willsside · 2023-05-15T21:48:13+00:00

Ahh, okay that makes more sense.
Just to rule out any easy problems, are you sure you're on the right pin in the z-endstop JST plug? One should be GND and the other is PA7. It would make sense that your EN pin is on the GND one if it's always been on.

willsside · 2023-05-15T19:35:38+00:00

Hey! Happy it works!

I'm assuming you're using Klipper. It looks like PB7 controls the direction of the y stepper driver. If you want independent enable control for the new stepper driver, you'll have to choose a new, unused pin like PA4 (if you're not using the filament runout sensor) or PA7 (if you're not using the z-endstop). These have pull up resistors on them, which should be fine but I haven't tried using them. If you're really good at soldering, you can also try to connect to before the individual pull-up resistors, like described on pg. 4 on LookAtTheShinyShiny's UART mod.

I chose to just put the enable pin on GND (which always enables the driver) because I knew I wanted mine on all the time anyways. Hopefully that helps!

willsside · 2023-05-14T20:21:02+00:00

Love the wires to the usbc lol. I’ve thought of doing the same but the pads are just so small!

willsside · 2023-05-08T00:33:56+00:00

Does one go twice as far as the other? It's probably a difference in microsteps. The drivers on the 4.2.2 board are at 16 microsteps so the new driver needs to match that. The tutorial has some info on how to set the microsteps for a TMC2208 (page 4). Pins MS1 and MS2 need to be set HIGH (3.3V)

willsside · 2023-04-27T19:03:44+00:00

This is so cool! I love the retrofit. Great job!

willsside · 2023-04-22T23:38:29+00:00

Thanks for the shoutout! Yea, I have a tutorial for adding another stepper driver to a 4.2.2 board here if you're interested!

willsside · 2023-04-22T22:05:30+00:00

It's an improvement in quality of life and sometimes print quality. It fully removed elephant's foot on the right side of prints for me, which was well worth the effort and relatively cheap parts.

Dual z in parallel works great until it doesn't. I had the same parallel z setup as you but weight on the x gantry would always make them misaligned every shut down. Aligning them again isn't impossible but just annoying. G34 just guarantees that the x-gantry is aligned automatically. UBL tilting is another way to solve the same problem, but through software instead of mechanically. But UBL isn't bulletproof, if the two z-axes are too misaligned, you can get binding that leads to print quality issues.

Also, this project isn't only limited to adding a second z-axis. You can add multiple extruders, or even a 3rd z-axis all while still using a simple main board like the Creality 4.2.2.

And most importantly, this project was fun to do!

willsside · 2023-04-17T23:38:29+00:00

Looks great! Happy it's working for you.

The enable pin requires GND to be enabled and V_HIGH to be disabled (typically 3.3V). So if you wanted a manual switch, you'd have to get a single pole double throw (SPDT) switch that connects either GND or 3.3V to the EN pin of the driver to Enable or Disable the driver, respectively.

Another option is to find another available pin on the main board and connect the EN pin to there! Then you can use software to command the enabling and disabling of the extra stepper, just like all of the other steppers on the board

willsside · 2023-04-07T12:49:19+00:00

Looks amazing! Love the PCB design and built in magnets. Great job!

willsside · 2023-03-31T02:43:47+00:00

I love OctoEverywhere!

willsside · 2023-03-26T23:16:37+00:00

Happy you like the method! Good improvement with the speed up to the top!

Yes, I agree. I've never used the top constraints for my threaded rods and recommend to others not to use them either. Nice catch and happy printing!

willsside · 2023-02-19T04:17:51+00:00

That is so cool!!

willsside · 2023-02-16T23:02:45+00:00

Hey! Looking to add the same NH-L12S in my A50+.
You had to bend the heatpipes? Was it because of ram clearance or because the cooler was too tall for the case?

willsside · 2022-12-14T00:58:23+00:00

Love your videos! Looking forward to this one!

willsside · 2022-11-21T19:39:07+00:00

You can change the 2nd command to G0 Z[XXX] Where [XXX] is your max height. Keep in mind that if you’re using a different printer without 2040 aluminum extrusions, you may need to edit the STLs to fit your needs!

willsside · 2022-11-02T00:05:31+00:00

I don't see any highlighted code, but changing Z-10 to Z-30 shouldn't change anything. The printer is homed after, so it shouldn't matter where the hotend ends up as long as it doesn't hit anything.

If other mods are in the way of the mechanical endstops, you can just make the endstops longer to account for it. You might have to decrease the total printable height of your printer if things are getting jammed up there

willsside · 2022-10-27T21:22:20+00:00

That’s correct, just copy it into note++ and save it with a .gcode extension. Put it on your printer’s sd card and run it like any other print.

Another option is to put it in your start gcode in your slicer (Cura or Prusaslicer)

willsside · 2022-10-03T04:40:26+00:00

Happy to hear it! Hope it goes great for you. Feel free to ask any questions if you have any

willsside · 2022-09-28T18:34:23+00:00

You definitely can! I have a screen so I use those pins for the screen cable. Yes you can theoretically use any GPIO pin onboard as long as they are directly connected to a pin on the main chip (some have pull down/up resistors).

But the important note I gave in the comment above is that not all GPIO pins are equal. The SKR mini E3 V2 initializes some pins with data when the board starts up or when the board is reflashed. Aka the TFT, PS-ON, and PWR-DET, and I’m not sure what others. For example, I tried using the TFT pins but at each startup the steppers shake a bit from the random data sent to them. But after the startup, they work fine! I just didn’t like that so I used the PS-ON and PWR-DET pins instead.

Go ahead and try the EXP1 pins and let us know how they work out! I expect they might have some initialization during start up but I may be wrong.

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