Quieter Farmbot / Replacing A4988 Stepper Drivers with TMC2208

Hardware
1

— CORRECTION: I made a mistake and this can’t apply to 1.5 —

My neighbours are not happy with the noise of my Genesis XL 1.5. Going through the forum, I saw that the best option is to replace the A4988 stepper drivers with TMC2208.

I have ordered four Bigtreetech TMC2208 V3.0 UART and done my homework sifting through the various postings (thanks @Klimbim, @Ascend, @Gabriel, @eide and all the others who have contributed) but before I break anything, would a good soul with more experience please validate my understanding of what needs to be done?

  • Replace the A4988 the TMC2208 – Watch out for the correct orientation
  • Set the jumpers to MS1 = HIGH / MS2 = LOW / MS3 = LOW (i.e. 1/2 microsteps)
  • In the Web App, change
    • Steps per mm x 2 = 10
    • Microsteps per steps = 2
    • Invert motors X = Yes / Y = Yes / Z = Yes
    • Invert 2n motor = Yes
    • Encoder scaling = (10,000 x 200 x 2) / 360 = 11,111
    • Anything else?

Finally, I saw some references to changing the voltage but I am not sure how to do that and the implications?

Many thanks!

2

I have a Genesis XL 1.5. It has Trinamic TMC2130 drivers, not A4988. They are soldered onboard, not removable. The specs say it comes with Trinamic drivers:

Maybe you have an older model (?).

3

Thanks @jebba. You are absolutely right. Going through the forum, trying to find a solution for a quieter Z axis, I came across several people talking about replacing the stepper drivers but I hadn’t realised that this didn’t apply to the latest version. Doh! Thanks again!

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4

If you really want to make Z quiet, put it on a belt system instead of a lead screw. :slight_smile: That’s a lot more work though…

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5

I have a v1.2 Genesis. I don’t have a problem with the z axis noise. I did spend a great deal of time on assembly of the z-axis to minimize the drag of the wiring/water in the link belt. I also use a dry teflon coating lubricant on the lead screw. And double triple check the alignment of the whole mechanism.

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Thanks @John_D. I did all that but it is still quite noisy. I’ll take another look. BTW - Which lubricant did you use?

7

3 in 1 All Temp Silicone. It leaves a dry film.

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Many thanks, @John_D. I’ll try to find an equivalent in Switzerland.

9

Salü. A year ago I did the TMC2208 replacement of my FB 1.4, it instantly got quieter and way more robust on the X axis. Now after a firmware reset, I lost all my motor/axis settings and Farmbot has been out of service for a few weeks now. Perhaps you could share yours?

However my microswitches are MS1=off, MS2=off, MS3=on, I think that this is 8 microsteps per step.

If you haven’t done already, please join Farmbot Europe on Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/farmboteurope/shared_invite/zt-hb2vzeol-hpPPUhLqugeHKmEE5X2V5A

10

Please note that TMC2208 and TMC2209 and other drivers are “NON-STANDARD HARDWARE” and we can not guarantee that our firmware will be able to support these drivers. The errors that you are encountering are likely due to firmware updates that don’t support those drivers.

There are just so many different drivers available. With our limited firmware developer time we don’t have the ability to support all different kinds of hardware configurations. In the future, we can not guarantee that these drivers will be supported by the firmware.

The A4988 Stepper Drivers are the ones that we selected and there is a current adjustment on the driver that helps us manage power.