Tronxy X5SA Horizontal Cable Drag Chain Support

cults3d

As you may know the Tronxy X5SA printers have an issue over time with the horizontal cable drag chain: it tends to bend downwards! This may lead to dangerous contact with the XY belts, idlers or Y stepper motor ... To prevent this there are already some solutions available (e.g. vertical drag chain mounting; extension of the existing drag chain mounts to gain additional height). All of those solutions have their pros and cons. Here is another solution that you may find helpful. I designed a support for the horizontal drag chain in its original stock position. It is a kind of "roof" sitting above the upper back frame profile. It has a height of 53mm what is exactly the clearance that the drag chain has initially at its mount on the frame. The drag chain will slide on the "roof" and therefore maintain its clearance as long as it sits on the "roof". So there will remain a (much) shorter part of the drag chain that is unsupported till it reaches its mount at the printhead, thus bending much less. The "roof" even covers the Y stepper motor and it covers 3cm in X direction but that should not interfere with any printhead / gantry movements. There is no space required behind or left besides the frame profiles, hence any additionally back mounted devices / parts should not interfere with this thing. The original stock mount of the drag chain has to have a distance of 22cm minimum to the Y stepper motor - that is the bottom length of this thing. It will be mounted on top of the upper back frame profile with M4 T-nuts and M4 10mm screws. Place it directly adjacent to the Y motor. Place the original drag chain frame mount as far as possible to the right because this shortens the unsupported part of the drag chain. The length of the "roof" is 26cm (22cm + 4cm above the Y motor). The width of the base is 2cm and has screw holes and tabs for the 2020 profile slot. For some live footage how this thing works while doing an auto bed levelling tour see the video section below or see this Youtube playlist. Please note, that almost all pictures and videos refer to Version 3 of the design. V3 is the 1st version actually printed and installed. Update V5: - Strengthened support for overhang over Y motor - Overhang over Y motor prolonged from 4cm to 5cm, making the total length 27cm - "Roof" thickness increased from 3mm to 5mm