alicephilippa / flsun-q5

My repo for my FLSun Q5 3d printer

FLSun-Q5 w/ MKS Robin Nano V3.0

My repo for my FLSun Q5 3d printer

This is for me to keep and share my Marlin builds for the FLSun Q5 printer using the MKS Robin Nano V3 board.

The V3 kit that I got came with 4x 2209 Drivers, along with the 3.5" display (MKS TS35 V2.0)

Physical Mounting

The board physically fits fine, although it does block the new USB drive port. You'll have to cut a hole in your machine if you want to use that feature, but it will otherwise fit, and everything from the OEM board just plugged right in to the new board, in the same locations.

The new display doesn't fit, and as soon as I get my design tweaked in, I'll upload some STL files for a mount adapter.

Fan Wiring

Part cooling fan goes to "Fan 2" on the mobo. Hotend fan goes to "Fan 1" Internal fan goes to one of the 12/24v plugs so it's always on. I've got mine spliced into Fan 1 and it's been fine. You're usually not jogging around enough to heat things up without the extruder on anyway.

Install Instructions & Notes

1. Load the 'assets' folder and the 'Robin_nano_v3.bin' file onto an SD card, load the card into the printer, and turn it on. This will flash Marlin.
2. Warm up the bed to around your normal print temp, I do 60C for PLA.
3. Run the "Auto Config" from the Settings->Configuration->Delta Calibration->Auto Calibration. That does an M33 command, feel free to do it more than once. https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G033.html
4. Click Settings->Configuration->Store Settings to save the config you just did.
5. Connect OctoPi or another terminal program so you can type in G-code. I think you can do the bed leveling through the menu, but I do G-codes.
6. Type in 'G28' (home)
7. Type in 'G29 P1' (create UBL bed mesh) We're following this: https://marlinfw.org/docs/features/unified_bed_leveling.html
8. Wait for the machine to probe the bed.
9. Type in 'G29 P3 T' and view the output. If the mesh isn't full of values everywhere, type the command in a few more times until it is.
10. Type in 'G29 S1' to store the Mesh
11. Type in 'G29 A' to activate bed leveling (this will be added to your start code later)
12. M500 to save the settings to EEPROM.
13. Set your Z probe offset height. This is where your first layering comes in. Mine is at ~19.00 for reference.
14. Home/G28
15. Jog the Z down until the paper catches
16. Remember the current Z value, and add it to Settings->Configuration->Probe Z Offset

And that's it. I just did a full reset of my printer using these instructions, and it's good to go! You can stop here if you know what you're doing, the rest is for my own notes.

Auto Configuration & G33

You should run G33 a couple times so that Marlin can tweak in your machine's individual build characteristics. Everyone's arm lengths are gonna be slightly off. Everyone's tower heights are gonna be slightly different. The endstops are mounted a few microns different. That's just manufacturing for you. Use the guide on Marlin's site.

https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G033.html

This will tweak everything just a bit and make your prints MUCH more accurate.

Bed Leveling

I have enabled UBL in marlin, and it works really well for me. You will need to follow Marlin's guide on how to set it up before using it.

https://marlinfw.org/docs/features/unified_bed_leveling.html

Of note: G28 turns OFF bed leveling, so be sure to add the G29 L1 and G29 J to your start code in whatever slicer you're using. I have turned on the feature in marlin that turns leveling back on after homeing, but I haven't tested it yet.

Also of note, as it says you might have to do 'G29 P3 T' several times. You'll know when it's done because every dot in the grid will have a value in the console output. If you've still got dots, run 'G29 P3 T' again!

After setting it up, you'll just do a 3-point mesh tilt procedure before printing each time.

Pre-built Firmware

I've included a folder called "pre-built firmware" in this repo. That's the firmware currently running on my Q5. If you wanted to use it, just copy the Robin_nano_v3.bin and assets folder to a SD card, and stick it in the SD slot, and it should flash it.

As with all software that someone else made: Use it at your own risk! If it breaks anything, I'm waiving all reponsibility.

Start & End G-code

I'll preface this by saying I was a CNC machinist for 7 years before I was a SWE, so G-code is just the world I live in.

My code is a modified version of something posted in the FLSun FB owners group. I didn't like a few things, and it didn't have UBL codes, so I've made it my own at this point.

I also like to have comments for what the codes do, becuase it's just easier to know what a thing is, than to question yourself and have to look it up again.

Start

G21 ; mm mode
G90 ; absolute positioning
M82 ; extruder absolute mode
M107 T0 ; fan off
; start hotend warming, no wait
M104 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} T0;
; wait for bed warming
M190 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0}
; make sure hotend is to temp (wait)
M109 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} T0
G28 ; Auto Home, disables UBL
G29 A ; re-enable UBL
G29 L1 ; Load slot 1 mesh
G29 J ; 3-point mesh tilt
G92 E0 ; extruder set zero

G1 X-98 Y0 Z0.2 F4000 ; move to ARC start
G3 X0 Y-98 I98 Z0.2 E40 F400 ; PRINT PRIMING ARC
G0 Z1 ; raise Z
G92 E0 ; re-set extruder zero

Of note: I didn't like waiting for the bed to come up to temp, and then waiting for the hotend to come up. It just adds time. So I start warming the hotend, wait for the bed to heat up (while the hotend is also warming), and then have it wait for the hotend to finish. It just saves a few minutes, and the power supply & board are plenty strong to handle both at once (as they do while printing).

Also, the UBL start codes are important. I, personally, have the 3-point mesh tilt turned off (the semicolon comments out the command, remove it to enable), as it wasn't adding much level-ness to my bed once I had everything tweaked. That said, I always print at 60c on the bed, I literally don't have anything other than PLA. If you print at different bed temps, you might want to re-enable the mesh tilt to account for different bed temps. (Or store meshes in other slots and use those for different materials, but that's more UBL depth than I want to include here).

Lastly, I do have a priming arc, feel free to comment it out with a semicolon if you don't want it.

Stop

M107 ; fan off
M104 S0 ; hot-end off
M140 S0 ; bed heat off
G92 E0 ; store current extruder pos
G91 ; relative pos
G1 E-1 F300 ; retract 1 slow for cooling
G1 Z+0.5 E-5 F9000 ; backoff z & extruder
G28 ; go home
M84 ;steppers off
G90 ;absolute positioning

Nothing fancy here, just turning everything off. If your extruder drools a bit, increase the 'E-5' value. If your effector falls down after you turn your steppers off, you need to snug up your carrages. Feel free to leave them on, but you really shouldn't need to, and I like the idea that if power cuts my effector isn't gonna come crashing down on my part.

Wifi

My kit also came with the WiFi module, but I haven't played around with that yet. Apparently it just involves activating it in Marlin, and flashing your own Wifi Access Point info using a procedure similar to flashing the main board, but again I haven't done it myself yet.

Marlin Build Notes

This is mostly for me to remember 'why' I did things...

build command

'pio run' (i'm using the PIO build system in windows and whatnot)

Marlin display mode

I had issues accessing certain menus in the fancy LVGL display mode, so I swapped back to the #define TFT_COLOR_UI mode, and it seems to work well enough for me.

Encoder pulses per step

I had an issue where the scroll wheel was jumping so I upped this and it seems to work well at 4.

Wifi

It's enabled in Marlin, but you'll need to flash it with your own SSID & Password, see here: https://github.com/makerbase-mks/MKS-WIFI

Extruder Fan (not part cooling fan)

I've got it configured in the Configuration_adv.h to use PC14 as a hotend fan. This means the fan only comes on when your extruder is above 50 degrees C.

It helps quiet down the printer during non-printing times. My internal fan is doubled with my extruder fan, as I'm running 12v noctua's. This shuts them both off, and I should be more concerned about heat on the mobo, but I'll be okay.

Fan1 vs Fan2

So, MKS has some 'splanin to do. Their wiring Schematic and their pinout say different things.

In the Silkscreen on the board, and on the "Pin" document, they list
FAN1 as PC14 on connector J7
FAN2 as PB1 on connector J6

On the Schemtaic page (Rev V3.0..002), page 4, it lists:
FAN1 as PB1 on connector to J6
FAN2 as PC14 on connector to J7

So already we've had them switched.
In Marlin, where we define what pin on the CPU does what, we've got:
#define FAN_PIN PB1 // FAN1, Pin36 board, FAN2 connector, part-cooling
#define FAN1_PIN PC14 // FAN2, Pin9 board, FAN1 connector

Note: I added the comments. As noted in the above section, PC14 is the Hotend-cooling fan, and PB1 is the Extruder fan. To achieve this wiring, do the following:

Extruder Fan plugged into "FAN1"/J7 connector Part Cooling Fan plugged into "FAN2"/J6 connector