Active project A3DP custom Troodon

Custom Troodon 3D Printer

A 300 × 300 × 400 mm printer that started out as a stock Vivedino Troodon. It's had so many upgrades since that there isn't much stock left.

The enclosed Troodon on a shop shelf, lit up inside, with the FXD toolhead on the gantry and the touchscreen below the door

Build volume: 300 × 300 × 400 mm
Top speed: 3 m/s on XY
Chamber: Heated to 100°C
Firmware: Klipper, CAN bus

How it got here

It started as a Vivedino Troodon. Since then I've upgraded pretty much every part of it, one thing at a time, until it turned into its own machine. It's an A3DP build, from Advanced 3D Printing, where I worked as a PCB designer.

Almost all metal

Most of the gantry is custom metal, with very few 3D-printed parts. Printed parts flex, especially in a chamber sitting at 100°C. Metal keeps the whole thing stiff and flat, and that matters a lot when it's moving at 3 meters a second.

A machined aluminum corner bracket on the gantry with idlers guiding the wide belts — **Gantry corner.** Machined plates and idlers running the 10 mm belts.

An A3DP servo motor mounted on a machined aluminum plate at the back of the gantry — **Servo mount.** One of the XY servos, bolted to a machined plate.

The toolhead from the front: the blue FXD extruder on top, the hotend in the middle and a cooling fan on each side — **Toolhead.** The FXD extruder on top of the Chube hotend.

How fast

This is from back in 2023. At the time it was faster than about 95% of printers out there, which was really rare for a printer this big. The one in the video is the larger 400 × 400 × 500 mm version.

Printing in 2023, on the 400 × 400 × 500 mm version.

What's on it

Servos on XYFull servo motors on the XY gantry in place of steppers. That's what lets it move at up to 3 meters a second.
GantryA CNC gantry running 10 mm belts, built to be as light and efficient as possible. Less mass to throw around is what makes those speeds usable.
HotendChube Conduction hotend.
ExtruderA3DP custom FXD extruder.
ChamberChamber heaters that get it up to 100°C, so it can handle high-temp materials.
ElectronicsKlipper firmware, with CAN bus everywhere, so far fewer wires have to run back to the main board.
Electronics bayA custom enclosure on the outside of the printer for the electronics, so they aren't sitting in a 100°C chamber.
Air filtrationA custom filter on top with sensors that read VOCs and other air quality numbers, so I know the air around it is actually healthy.

On the convention floor

A3DP flew me out to showcase the printer and my boards at three conventions: ERRF, RMRRF and 3D Printopia. I spent the days at our booth walking people through the builds and explaining what the boards were for.

I sold my boards right there at the table, along with the rest of what A3DP makes, like our extruders and other parts. A lot of people walked up with a custom printer project and a specific problem, so I'd work through it with them on the spot and put together a combination of parts that fit their build.

Jack and four A3DP teammates in matching black A3DP shirts and exhibitor lanyards, standing arm in arm in front of the A3DP booth backdrop — The team and me at the A3DP booth, 2024.

The A3DP booth: a large enclosed printer on the left of a branded table, with boards, extruders and spools of filament laid out in front of the A3DP backdrop — The booth, with a printer, the boards and extruders on the table.

The rebuild

Right now it's stripped back down to the bare frame so I can rebuild everything.

The printer stripped down to its black aluminum frame on a workbench, with the motors and gantry still mounted — Down to the frame.

Custom PCBs

Servos normally take a lot more wiring than steppers. I designed a small adapter board in KiCad that makes them plug-and-play with any standard 3D printer mainboard that uses TMC stepper drivers. Each one breaks out ground, power, direction, step, enable and alarm on a single connector, so a servo driver plugs straight in.

I had them made, and now I sell them.

A panel of fifteen black servo adapter boards, each with a white six-pin connector labeled GND PWR DIR STP EN ALM and A3DP x Jack — A panel of the servo adapter boards, before they're snapped apart.

Tech stack

Motion: Servos10 mm beltsCNC gantry
Hot parts: Chube ConductionA3DP FXD extruder100°C chamber
Electronics: KlipperCAN busCustom PCBsKiCadVOC sensing

The full model

This is the whole printer in Fusion. Drag to spin it around, scroll to zoom, and click into parts to see how it all goes together.

Interactive model, viewed through Autodesk Fusion. It's a big model, so give it a few seconds.

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