(old thread) Astrosyn NEMA 17 dampers

[astroboy907]

Excited!

Hehe yeah me too! Judging by what I have read about customs/UK to US shipping times they should be here around 7/25-7/29 depending on how long customs takes. Or they might be here a lot earlier, IDK. I didn't get a tracking no. so I can't exactly tell

I'll probably post a video too of one mounted on an aluminum structure before and after the damper. Just to show you what you are getting

[theverant]

Dang it, missed out on this. If you have any left over I will buy a set.

[CJGerard]

I want a set also

[astroboy907]

Excited!

Just letting everyone know that everythings sent out, and actually many were delivered today so if you haven't already, go out and get the mail
Of course some packages will take longer to ship *cough, Alberta* but have been sent out.

Waiting for someone to post a review because I'm still messing around trying to get my stepper driver to do speed control. Let me know how amazing these are!

[barnett]

I installed mine over the weekend. Maybe someone else said this already, but you do need longer screws to mount the steppers. I think I needed an extra 6mm per screw. Also, I wasn't sure how tight to screw them in because you can compress that rubber and mine did not compress the exact same amount on all corners. I made them as tight as I could and still have them all be even (per eyeball measurement).

They do make quite a difference. I don't have a before/after video, but to me the printer sounds like I went swimming and have water stuck in my ears. You might be able to simulate what these dampers are like by sticking your fingers in your ears or putting in earplugs.

One thing is that apparently at least one of my steppers makes a very faint, high pitch sound (like a dog whistle) that I could not hear before because it was drowned out by the normal sound.

I am very satisfied. I think every rmax kit should come with these (or something like it).

[lordbinky]

My first guess to the noise is just coil whine, sometimes coils/inductors/chokes/etc. aren't potted 100% secure and you can hear vibrations from the coil wires. Nothing to worry about besides being damn annoying. Now that I think of it, that explains why my dogs give it dirty looks and don't stay in the room when it's going full speed.

[Flateric]

I installed mine over the weekend. Maybe someone else said this already, but you do need longer screws to mount the steppers. I think I needed an extra 6mm per screw. Also, I wasn't sure how tight to screw them in because you can compress that rubber and mine did not compress the exact same amount on all corners. I made them as tight as I could and still have them all be even (per eyeball measurement).

They do make quite a difference. I don't have a before/after video, but to me the printer sounds like I went swimming and have water stuck in my ears. You might be able to simulate what these dampers are like by sticking your fingers in your ears or putting in earplugs.

One thing is that apparently at least one of my steppers makes a very faint, high pitch sound (like a dog whistle) that I could not hear before because it was drowned out by the normal sound.

I am very satisfied. I think every rmax kit should come with these (or something like it).

I am betting that you are running a higher current to your motors than needed and this will cause the sound you describe. The default current trimpot setting in the firmware is 195 if I am not mistaken. You should be able to dial this down to a 135 trimpot setting without any I'll effect and then you will hear nothing. If you are losing steps after this adjustment when pushing higher speeds. Simply increase the value by 10 at a time until steps are not lost anymore and you will still be far below the current induced while it was set to previously.

Try it. 195 is too high regarrdless, your motors will also run much cooler.

Almost forgot. the 4th & 5th values in the "#define MOTORCURRENT (135,135,135,165,165)" firmware settings (X,Y,Z,EXT1,EXT2) are the steppers on your extruders and typically need higher values than the drive axis motors. Especially if you are running a direct drive extruder such as the EZstruder. It will slip/kickback/stop worse than you can imagine if you lower it's current to far. You can improve it also by upping the current to 195 or above infact to help those problems. By take care to monitor the stepper temp as you up the value.

[thenewguy]

Worth every penny! Thanks for taking the risk with the order!

[MDMD]

I installed mine over the weekend. Maybe someone else said this already, but you do need longer screws to mount the steppers. I think I needed an extra 6mm per screw. Also, I wasn't sure how tight to screw them in because you can compress that rubber and mine did not compress the exact same amount on all corners. I made them as tight as I could and still have them all be even (per eyeball measurement).

They do make quite a difference. I don't have a before/after video, but to me the printer sounds like I went swimming and have water stuck in my ears. You might be able to simulate what these dampers are like by sticking your fingers in your ears or putting in earplugs.

One thing is that apparently at least one of my steppers makes a very faint, high pitch sound (like a dog whistle) that I could not hear before because it was drowned out by the normal sound.

I am very satisfied. I think every rmax kit should come with these (or something like it).

Are you sure you installed them correctly? I did mine as follows for each motor:
Two existing screws w/ washers from the existing motors on opposite corners go through the melamine into the threaded damper hole. They do not touch the actual stepper motors.
Two new 5mm m5 screws attach the damper to the motor through the unthreaded holes - they don't touch the melamine.

The only connection between the motor and the melamine now is through the rubber damper.

[Flateric]

I have to agree, the rubber does not get compressed at all during installation. Longer screws should also not be required. I think you have yours incorrectly mounted MDMD.

[kbob]

I'm a little late here, but Astro Boy, I want to thank you for pulling this together. The dampers work great. You found us a great product, and you shipped them out fast. I appreciate all of that.

[barnett]

just reading this now, it appears I did not install correctly. I'll report back after I fix it, but it could be a few days. Thanks!

[geneb]

Someone should probably post pictures of the installation in their Rostock MAX to avoid confusion.

g.

[kbob]

Someone should probably post pictures of the installation in their Rostock MAX to avoid confusion.

g.

Here are the dampers on my motors. Once you get this far, it's pretty hard to mis-install them.

The screws seen here are M3×6. They go through the damper's unthreaded holes. I used two of the kit's M3×10 screws to affix the damper to the printer.

The pulley has been raised 6 mm. I used the M3×6 screw as a depth gauge, then checked it with a caliper. The toothed section of the pulley is wider than the belt, so it's okay to be off by half a millimeter or so — just check that the belt doesn't rub the flanges after everything is assembled.

Use thread locker all around, of course.

[barnett]

Last night, I reinstalled the dampers so that the shorter screws attach the motor to two damper corners and the regular screws attach the other corners to the melamine. Before, I had longer screws attaching all four motor corners to the melamine through the damper. The result ...

- it's a little more effective than when they were installed incorrectly ... I don't know, maybe 10% - 20% less sound?

- I can't tighten the belts as much as I used to. If I try, the belts pull up on the motor shaft causing the motor to tilt upward a bit. It looks like the belt might eventually slip off when in use. Also, when pulled up at that angle, the setscrews on the shaft start to rub the melamine. I could move the pulley even farther out to alleviate that, but I don't like having the shaft at that angle. So I set belt tension as tight as I could before the motor tilt started to be an issue.

I'll try some prints this weekend and see what happens with the looser belts. If no one else had this issue, then maybe I've been making my belts too tight all along?

[barnett]

it's a little more effective than when they were installed incorrectly ... I don't know, maybe 10% - 20% less sound?

I take that back. After actually running some print jobs I'd say it's more like 50% better. My shafts are still being pulled up by the belts, but it's not causing a big problem.

[lbarger]

I know I'm very late to this party. I just ordered a Rostock Max V2 kit last week and it will arrive in a few days. Does anyone have a few of these dampers laying around? I did not immediately see the parts listed for sale in the US. Sounds like it would be a good thing to incorporate into the build if I can find them reasonably quick and for a reasonable price.

[Captain Starfish]

PM astroboy907, got some recently from him and was all super easy.