Let's start it like this...
Here's the first 3D printer I bought in 2017. It was an Anet A8. It taught me a lot about 3D printing; how it works, bed leveling (tramming), slicing, etc. I have printed some "improvements" that made it functionally better. Functionally, it was perfect...until I changed out parts that I felt I was pressured into getting. After swapping out those parts, the prints just got worse. To top it off, the display had a weird blooming effect, making it hard to read. Then, I messed up something when I was building new firmware for it.
I just sidelined it. That was late 2021.
I looked at updating the A8, since I was already in the process of upgrading the Ender 3 Pro. So, I ordered the same BigTreeTech SKR Mini E3 V3 for the A8. I also ordered a new touchscreen to replace the one that was going bad. While I was at it, I also ordered a 3DTouch to add on for automatic bed leveling.
While waiting for the board to come in, I went ahead and built the firmware that I was going to use with the A8. There was a bit that I had to change, but some online tutorials assisted with getting that all done. I also got some parts printed for fan holders, electronics case, and the bed leveling holder.
I also took the time to get the A8 stripped down to get ready for the new parts. I took the main board out, cut out all the wire ties out, and all the wire looms removed. I'm planning to get some cable chains printed for the extruder and heater wires looking good, but I want to make sure that everything worked before I printed the cable chain parts out.
I also had to get the endstop switches changed out from the 3 pin JST connectors that the Anet board used to 2 pin JST connectors that the BTT board needed. I had some of those connectors from the Arcade 1up project last year, so I de-pinned the connectors and re-pinned the endstop switches with the 2 pin JST connectors from the joystick wires I had.
The new board finally arrived. I started by getting all the connectors installed on the new board, getting the new firmware put on an SD card, and get the A8 ready to be powered on.
On power up, the new display and the bed level probe worked. However, there were a few hiccups. The first one was that the X axis were reversed. A quick change in the firmware build fixed that problem. Then the probe was not working properly. The probe would trigger, but it would not stop the Z axis from going down. This caused a divot in the spring steel build plate I had. There was a lot of searching I did. It turns out that there was one option I did not tun on to make it work. Another firmware re-build later...
Probe starts working like it should! I ran an auto bed level command from the printer and off it went.
This is the full thing. The screen is a nice upgrade to the 5 button screen it was before. The nice thing with this touchscreen is that I can swap between the touchscreen and an interface similar to the Ender's screen. The biggest plus with this upgrade? SILENT STEPPER MOTORS!
So, as it is in the picture, it's functional. It will home properly, it will run the auto bed leveling sequence, it will heat the extruder and bed to the proper temps. I'm still having issues with actual prints. It will home, but sometimes the X and/or the Y axis will bind and not move, not without a little nudge. I'm pretty much done with these bearings. I'm going to put the original bearings back in after giving them a deep cleaning.
Just a few more things need to be done before I can call this upgrade done. The A8 will hopefully return to its working self soon.
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