Using Voxelab Aquila (original) Mainboard on Anet A8 Plus?
This is my first post on this forum.
I recently received an Anet A8 Plus printer that I finished assembling yesterday. It consumed the better part of two days (with interruptions), but I do enjoy tinkering. I like the dual stepper motor arrangement for the Z-axis. And the direct drive extruder is necessary for TPU, which I have been struggling with in the past. The large build volume will no doubt come in handy vs printing smaller objects and assembling them.
This is not my first printer. I started my 3D printer hobby with a Monoprice III, then graduated to a Voxelab Aquila. Then I built a massive Core-XY printer from Tronxy, but sent it back due to constant challenges with leveling and misalignment. Last month I purchased a used Flashforge Adventurer 3 printer with glass bed and upgraded the nozzle to 265c, which I'm having lots of fun with.
Back to the A8 Pro. The Apollo-era 8-Bit mainboard (V1.7) uses 'non-quite' stepper motor drivers. Also I've been reading that this processor architecture and firmware (V1.6) may struggle with large or complex gcode designs. Yesterday I reached out to Anet support to report a thermal runaway issue. Right now the printer is sitting in my basement doing nothing.
Here's my ask: I was considering selling my Voxelab Aquila, but then I was thinking the mainboard could be used in my A8 Plus. Is this possible? The two boards use 24v fans. All the ports on both boards appear to have the same generic layout, albeit I'll need to run the Z-axis steppers in parallel. The only big difference would be to change the profile so as to reflect the larger build volume, and ... ?
Your feedback / wisdom on the above would be greatly appreciated.
Thomas
