Does anyone have any experience upgrading the Taz 6 with the current Archim2 32bit board?
I am trying not to reinvent the wheel getting this thing upgraded.
Several questions on this. Why the Archim? It’s more than double the price of comparable, more modern board with swappable stepper drivers like a $60 Octopus 1.1. I run the Octopus in my Taz6. Just a few wires needed extensions for it to plug in and I put together firmware to support the BLTouch as well with it. I compiled the custom firmware needed for this swap, so it’s not a hard swap. Honestly, if this swap is beyond what you want to do with a 3D printer, the Taz 6 isn’t a great choice. It’s old, slow, and less user-friendly than modern machines. It is near-infinitely maintainable and modifiable though, which is why I love tinkering with mine.
But - Easiest option - There’s a DrunkenOctopus firmware for Taz 6 + Archim2, but you need to be contributing to the guy maintaining it to get the firmware for Taz6+Archim combo builds. I believe the wires all plug right in without needing extensions with this board.
But if you’re at the point of dropping $150+ into the machine and not willing to reinvent things, putting half the cost of a faster, modern machine into keeping it going might not be smart. When $299 will get you a centauri carbon, or $239 gets you a SV06 ACE it’s tough to justify owning the Taz6.
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I figured I could find one someone who was willing to part with an Archim 2 for less than $150.
I always wanted to try the Taz 6 and I finally got one for a good deal less than I paid for my first printer back in 2016.
Alot of people start upgrades and then get sidetracked and abandon their parts.
I have a Duet2 WIFI that I can swap in there and a few BTT 32 Bit boards.
I have extensive experience with Marlin and Klipper.
I already downloaded the DrunkenOctopus sources for the stock board last night and modified and compiled it. The settings haven’t been optimized all that much. The only thing that I really needed were the tool head offsets for the Moarstruder. After I did testing I found and fixed an issue with the thermistor disconnecting because the metal tabs were not holding to the plastic.
I have a few other bed slingers so I know what to expect as far as the quality.
I just finished going over the PID Autotune testing for the bed and the hot end. I have all my changes compiled into the firmware. The next thing I am going to do is debloat the firmware to save some space.
I planned on getting it running on the stock board and then switching to Klipper for a few weeks so I have a baseline before I upgrade to a 32bit board. I haven’t bought a BTT board since the Octopus came out and they have a ton of new boards on there.
I have built a couple Hypercube machines so I don’t really mind it being slow. It’ll never be as slow as when it first came out with the old firmware. 
I am kind of tired of the BLTOUCH. I spent a long time working with Bed leveling sensors with Marlin. I built a bunch of them for Tiny Machines and TH3D. Inductive and Capacitive.
I kind of like the method they used on the TAZ. I went hog on the real vs fake BLTOUCHs back in the day. I want to try something different on some of my other builds eventually.
It sounds like you’ve got it handled, and enjoy the hobby of the printers as much as the printing aspect. That being the case, the Taz6 is a robust enough platform. It’s never going to get much faster than stock. The toolhead can absolutely be reduced in weight from stock and let you up the X travel acceleration, but reducing the weight of the bed to speed up the Y axis (along with the other issues with slinging the bed and part at high speed) isn’t going to get you far.
Accepting that it’s always going to be a slow motion system, I’ve focused on my Taz machines being capable for other things, like running 65A flexible filament and using up 2.85mm filament that goes on clearance for awesome deals as 1.75mm becomes the standard.
I haven’t done Klipper on my Taz machines yet, as I don’t see it helping much at these speeds, but my major overhaul of the Pro will do it so I can use an Eddy probe.
What version firmware are you running and what leveling are you using the stock leveling or a BLTOUCH? Do you know where I can find good start/stop gcode?
On my Taz6, BLTouch, custom marlin 2.1.x build from late 2024 I believe.
On the pro, it’s currently a lightly modified build from the official lulzbot firmware to add a microswitch as a bed probe. Part of a custom toolhead based on the original pro dual toolhead. Both toolheads lift up and that leaves the microswitch as the lowest point on the toolhead. Works pretty well.
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