Suggest release the tension on the belts before commencing the upgrade, hard to separate the halves when tensioned.
No hidden nuts now! Bonus!!
One motor bolt (out of 16) impossible to get out. sheared off the head trying.
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Excellent feedback!
Had two successful cuts with the M4 after the JST upgrade. M4 is performing much better, no errors since I replaced the ethernet cables. Belts appear to be tighter and movement smoother.
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Excellent! That is great feedback! 
Any ETA on JST-XH 5 Axis Control Boards back in shop?
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On the topic of releasing tension, I think the instructions should say to just add the belt but don’t wind it. Then make pulling in the belts the first thing that we do when turning it on. Have people pull the belts in and extend them out a couple of times before adding to a frame.
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I think the biggest problem with that is getting tangled up in an octopus of belts as you are attempting to finish the assembly.
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They should be back in stock in about two weeks.
I like to wind mine up about 70% of the way so they don’t get too tangled, but also I don’t try to make them fully tight
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Howdy all. I’ve been taking a break in the shop but decided to install the JST upgrade to get the Maslow ready for some serious Texas winter projects.
I too rounded the heads of the bolts that hold the stepper, board, and belt housing half. I ordered a hardened steel 2mm Allen key to hopefully avoid this with the rest of the threadlocked screws. I had to drill the heads off to get things apart (cobalt alloy bit worked well). I’ll use some compressed air to clean things up before assembly - but I will be looking for some better M3x12 (Edit: M2 changed to M3) bolts that can fit flush in the recess.
These pix are for those who enjoy the challenge.
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I had the same issues. I needed to upgrade my no-longer-working M4, so I replaced the controller and encoders to JST versions. I replaced my timing belts, and so on. My biggest problem was getting the motor screws out. My conclusion was that the kit-included blue/white thread lock was too strong. All 4 of my motors were stuck with at least one stripped hex screw. I tried to use off-the-shelf screw extractors, but to no avail. After Googling it to death, I wound out hammering a slightly larger Torx screw into the stripped screws and extracting them that way.
My rebuilt M4 seems to be working well! My one change to the assembly instructions is that I would use red thread lock – admittedly weaker – instead, when screwing in the motors.
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Paul Modiano wrote:
My rebuilt M4 seems to be working well! My one change to the assembly
instructions is that I would use red thread lock – admittedly weaker –
instead, when screwing in the motors.
Are you sure about this? I thought the red threadlock was stronger than the
blue. I thought it’s the green threadlock that’s weaker
David Lang
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David,
I was not using Loctite. I was using a product from Harbor Freight Tools that I mistakenly assumed was color coded similarly:
Silly that they color code differently from the industry leader!
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I just came back to my M4 after a couple of weeks, planning to cut some needed panels for the set I’m working on. One of my Z-axis stepper motors isn’t turning, any more…
I swapped the connectors at the controller board and the stepper that isn’t turning switched sides, so I presume the steppers and cables are fine and I have a problem with the controller board. Is my thinking correct?
Would not use Red here… Blue or lower for sure with the default hardware. What was supplied in the kit hold very well.
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A long thread on Reddit, but a couple of makers of Threadlock color code the package the same, so you need to read the label to be sure. Always gets me in the shop when I reach for “blue”.
My fat fingers couldn’t handle holding the belts in place and choosing the mechanism at the same time.
We could have some setup program that allows us to connect the ring motor to the board to wind it in, rather than having to wait until it’s all assembled.
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Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.
Grim wrote:
My fat fingers couldn’t handle holding the belts in place and choosing the mechanism at the same time.
We could have some setup program that allows us to connect the ring motor to the board to wind it in, rather than having to wait until it’s all assembled.
you don’t have to wind the belts first, if you assemble things without winding
the belts, you can then retract and it will pull them all in.
I would like us to be able to do this an arm at a time without having to hook up
all four arms at once (make it easier to test as you build)
David Lang
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Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say.
I assembled mine that way but was missing being able to retract each arm individually. That would have been handy.
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