Everyone is different with different ideas and needs but this is what I know so far… And, if I was to build another Voron I would factor all of this in right from the start.
I started with the following Voron2 v2.4r2, RPi 4B, BTT Octopus V1.1 MCU, initial build from kit (similar to Formbot).
- WS2812 LED bars in top, front and sides, because more light is good. In hindsight I did not need multi-colour; just bright white would be even better! I actually started with 24v WS2811 LEDs because higher voltage meant lower current and that seemed like a good idea. But it is higher risk and I damaged an MCU with a wiring error. So now all my machines are running with WS2812. And, over time I have learned to appreciate the colour capabilities.
- Nozzle wipe brush, lots of designs out there. I designed my own. Very effective and a must in my opinion.
- USB Camera, for me a must to allow convenient remote monitoring. I originally mounted it on the rear gantry which was great but the wires in the drag chain failed quickly as they were not designed for continuous movement. So now all my cameras are top front centre. I designed a quick-release plate so that if the tool head ever does hit the camera it will pop off and hopefully avoid any serious damage. Because the camera is so effective and basically just plugs in and works I highly recommend this. I did have some cheap web cameras that did not work but most seem to.
- Quick release latches for all panels (except the bottom), significant QOL improvement. Being able to remove the panels quickly and easily means you will rather than trying to reach in and work wth the panels on. So much better! I am still looking for / thinking of a better solution than screws for the bottom panel. And, closely related to this… removable doors. I didn’t think I needed them until I implemented them and it is so great. So easy and quick I remove the doors without hesitation anytime I need to get into the machine.
- BTT TFT50 LCD Display, because the original little screen with the scroll control is useless or near useless. I then discovered having the touch screen and Klipper screen functionality makes the LCD a must-have for monitoring and operating the machine directly. Makes everything much easier especially z_calibration. I strongly recommend getting touchscreen LCD installed ASAP.
- Get rid of the accent covers for the MCU bottom case fans, OMG silence!! It is truly golden. I lived with the whistle of the fans not realizing that they were not actually making the noise. It was the fan accent cover. Remove them immediately. What a simple QoL improvement.
- BTT SFS (smart filament sensor), because it stops the printer when things aren’t right. Fantastic. I recently bought the new V2 ones and will install those ones soon.
- Adaptive Purge and Adaptive Bed Mesh, Software enhancements. amazing! A must-do. And, super easy to implement.
- Stealthburner / CW2, great upgrade but also needed for Tap.
- Tap, a game changer!! Beautiful in its simplicity.
- External venting (exhaust system to outdoors), ABS gave me a headache.
- Sensorless homing, Software enhancement. Awesome! One of my x-axis microswitches failed (or so I thought) and that was the last time it will. No more microswitches. Sensorless homing is easy to implement, software only, and allows you to do away with micro switches and wires. Fantastic. However, it turns out my switch was not the problem. My problem was my wire harness had failed (and after less than 2000 hours). That seemed unlikely but since then I have had 3 failures. This is why I am moving towards the CANBus tool head and the umbilical solution.
- PCF on during heat soak to address Heat Creep – Add PCF to pre-flight to reduce heat creep issues.
- CNC Tap (ChaoticLabs) [ must convert to 5v tap PCB ] – solves the belt slipping behind tap assembly and reduces vulnerability to heat creep.
- Titanium Backers – to compensate for heat swell.
- CanBus – gets rid of the wiring harness. I had 3 commercially made wire harnesses fail all at about 1000h hours of printing. And, CanBus wasn’t as challenging as I expected to get done. The only thing is the super micro connectors on the BTT SB2209 are impossibly small. I belive there have a new model that has larger headers on it – get that one.
Future:
Better acceleration tuning, once CANbus is implement.
HE Fan with Tach (4 pin), once CANbus is implement. This allows the operating system to know when the hot end fan fails and stop the print. This will save the hot end.
BTT SFS v2
Kinematic Bed Mounts