Cletus' Crossfire Build n Mods

That printer is nice and tight. What printer is it?

Ender 3 pro

Power failure about 12 hours into the print. Luckily, I designed it 1/2" longer than necessary. So, salvaged it!

Progress report:
It’s alive! I’ve got all the necessary power connections done, and isolated the USB power. Got the X and Y axes connected and set the dip switches as per the OEM configuration. Happy to say so far so good, presently it works exactly as the OEM control box, no blue smoke.
So,now the focus is on building the Z-axis circuitry. Will have a fresh beer to celebrate and then hit the sack!. At the crack of dawn, Z-axis here I come!

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Hmmm, where do I find this?

Well, I didn’t intend it to sound bigger than it is, but it’s in Finally completed my CrossFire mods - #11 by TomWS, about halfway down,

The main point is to cable it so that you can wrap the two cables together to feed the Z Stepper directly without the THC controller messing you up.

Ahhhh! ok cool!! …I’m at that point in wiring now.

Ok, so, is the general wiring diagram I should be using to inter connect the THC? (i’m using the 50:1 divider so I know that will be wired to the other terminals)
I’ve seen a couple variations and a now little confused.

Yeah, it took a while to figure out. I still have my chicken scratchings but I don’t dare post those. I’m redrawing now, be back in a couple…

Don’t stress out over it, we accept finger lickin’ Chicken Scribblings!:rofl:

This is where I’m at (Gnd, +5 and +24 to the THC going in now):

RB 2020-08-29 11.34.26.pdf.dxf (146.5 KB)
Ok, so there are 4 connectors in the system, one for the Z stepper, one for the CF controller signals, and two for the THC, one input one output. The connectors are mating where the Z Stepper is a plug and CF controller a socket. Same thing with the THC connectors, inputs are plugs, outputs are sockets.

Connected with THC in place, that CF connector goes to the THC input and the THC output goes to the Z stepper. Bypassing the THC, you simply connect the CF connector to the Z Stepper.
The only thing that’s sort of funky is that the THC In GND gets connected to the ARC OK GND. This provides the return for the ARC Ok. I don’t use this signal at all, but the connection is there.
Note that the THC In + pin isn’t connected to anything. It’s there only so the CF + pin can drive the Z Stepper plus if you’re bypassing…

GREAT! …Mulling that over now!
Thanks, will holler at the first signs of blue smoke! :rofl::rofl: :fire:

Thanks Tom!
OK, that took a bit of concentration! :nerd_face:
But its done, no smoke, lights be lighting and fans be fanning!
Now to mount limit switches and the Z-axis on the table.
The cabinet is essentially done!:heart_eyes:

BTW I like the ability to bypass the THC altogether if necessary.

Same mount system for both cabinets, the OEM and Mine, makes for easy changeover using two 3" x 1/4" bolts and wing-nuts.

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Yeah, you probably want to bypass initially until you’ve got your Z settings tuned. You’ll need that info (plus some trial cuts) to setup the THC registers.

Understood.
I just hooked up the z in bypass mode. Works fine. Will try to do a cal tomorrow. Machine torch from George coming in next week… more toys in the cave! :grinning:

Ah ha! …I may have encountered one little snafu! :crazy_face:
In bypass mode I can jog the z up and down just fine. In THC mode I can only jog the z up, it does not respond to down. Probably a direction signal issue somewhere. Will dig into that tomorrow when I’m less tired!

I can see no issues tracing the wiring. However, there’s no continuity between THC Dir In and THC Dir Out and I suspect that is very normal.

You are correct. THC regens the signals, but there was one comment from @Dicky that said you MUST set the Stepping config to be negative pulses or the THC doesn’t work… I can’t confirm that it MUST be because I just followed his guidance on that and it worked. I think this is opposite of the original CF Mach 3 config.

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OK, so I got it all running. Tried to do the Z-calibration in Mach3 and I may have screwed-up somewhere, the Z now does not move ony makes a brief noise! Been screwing around trying to fix this for the last six hours to no avail! …and, I can’t get the motor tuning screen to open!:crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face:

Any advice on this?