Where to get 3g5d Shield

[Paul Höfler]

Hello!

I'm still tinkering around with my Cupcake and would like to upgrade to a Stepper extruder. The problem is, I can't find any place that still sells the 3G5D Shield. Has anyone one left and is willing to sell it or knows where I could get one?

Best regards, Paul

[Dan Newman]

seeed studio (yes, 3 "e" in "seeed") was selling them for a while. I even used to have a spare
around. (I'll look for it this evening.) I cannot seem to reach seeed studio right now via the
net.

Dan

[Dan Newman]

Seeed studio has discontinued it,

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/PSMD-Triple-Axis-Driver-p-1029.html

I had two, one which was installed in my old Cupcake before I gave it away.
The other I no longer have -- I sent it to someone else in need.

Dan

[Andrew Plumb]

Rob’s source files are here:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11837

…and looks like OSHPark can digest the Eagle .brd file without any issue: https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/xGShWzd4

Caveat: I have *not* had this board fab’d by OSHPark; feel free to go thru the motions yourself. I didn’t have to do anything special and Rob shared his files under a simple CC-By license.

Andrew.

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[Paul Höfler]

Thanks for the reply!

This seems like good choice, since all the Sites from Europe charge about 50$!

I just ordered and now am thinking about which Extruder to choose.

Best regards, Paul

[James McCracken]

I've got a Mk 7 from makerbot in my frankencake (cupcake upgraded with 3g5d, 4th gen stepper drivers, acme z rods, bigger power supply, lexan windows, lexan door, z max endstop, and diy heated build platform), works great... I think any direct drive stepper based extruder should work very well for you.  I'd stay away from Bowden style designs due to some of the firmware quirks.  Speaking of which, be aware the z max endstop stops the z stepper in both directions!  My homing script requires me to manually back the z stage off the endstop.

[David Weier]

I have not seen them for sale in a long time. I ended up soldering a pin header to the top of my motherboard (in the holes outside of parallel to the processing chip) and creating a plug that used the appropriate pins for the extruder stepper motor. (I can not seem to find pictures of it right now, but I could take pics when I get home.) I then made a custom motor driver board that accepted the other end of the extruder plug I made and the plugs from the axis. (This board also included stuff for the endstops as well since I only wanted the endstop itself in the printer and not the PCB board with the endstop on it.) If you are interested in the details let me know. I can post them on thingiverse or somewhere. BTW, This was all for my frankencaker project if you are interested. (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:234282)

[Paul Höfler]

Today I ordered a Bulldog Extruder, and now am waiting for the 3g5d shield and the extruder to arrive...

And now I'm wondering about how to connect those two? I heard that it is possible to use the Extruder Controller V2.2 I currently have with a hack? Is this advisable?

Best regards, Paul

[Jetguy]

No, clearly you don't understand the 5D shield.
The entire point of using it is to have all 4 steppers driven by the mainboard (X,Y,Z, and the extruder motor).
The ONLY job of the extruder controller is to control the heaters and fan in this mode.

The stepper hack firmware is not advised and is poor performance at best when it did work.
#1 You are limited by the H-bridge on the extruder controller
#2 there is no current limiting. This hack DEPENDS on using a 12V 0.4A rated motor.
Again, simply put, this is the last thing you would do.

All you have to do is load Sailfish firmware, connect a 4th stepper driver to run the extruder motor, and use it per the instructions.

[Paul Höfler]

Thanks for clearing that up, probably saved me a lot of researching time!

I knew that i was going to use Sailfish, but I didn't know how to properly connect everything.

This means I only have to get a 4th Stepper Driver to get everything going.

I'd like to thank everyone for responding so quickly, especially since Makerbot kinda abandoned the Cupcake and the pages are only accessibly through archive.org 

(I can't wait to finally have a Stepper Extruder :)

Best regards, Paul

[Jetguy]

Sorry, I've been meaning to make a huge post and tutorial on using older gen3 with a 5D shield, explaining the ins and outs of it.

You don't strictly need a 5D shield. It makes the wiring nice, makes the endstops easier, but it's not "required"
All that is happening in the firmware is that we have limited pins on the 644p processor. Stock, you have 3 steppers (step, dir, and enable pins for each and max and min endstops).
Since all we need is 3 endstops for homing to start a print, they repurpose the unused endstops to drive the 4th extruder stepper.
As such, the ugly cable hack works just as well, it's just not as pretty or easy as the 5D shield (here is a pretty version http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:17852)