MakerGear Forum

Just thought I put a post out here now that I finally had a chance to get the new E3D v6 hotend on the printer. So far this thing is much better than the E3D v5 hotend I have which didn't make me fully leave the MG V3B on the bench. This new one however isn't coming off the printer anytime soon.

For those wanting to try one, I modified rsilvers E3D v5 mount to accept the new v6. The STL can be found here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:349859.

apparently they said its the same mounting dimensions as the v5 but looked to me like it just needed the notch in the top for the little black piece? or were there other mods? so what do you like about the v6 over the v5? any difference in print quality? i just got a v5 about a week ago, 2 days before they released the v6 . so far prints great just like the makergear hot end. the 2 i thought had the same print quality just the e3d needed way less retraction and coasting for the same given filament which is really just due to the shorter hot zone. i am still eager to try makergear's v4 when its available. i had made this.... http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:344950 to fit the e3dv5. i will download yours to get some dimensions and try to mod this for the v6.

edit: i made a v6 version tonight and uploaded. i have no idea if it fits or not since i cannot test it without an actual v6. i just used the drawings from 3ed.

The new one looks good Jim. It just needed the top notch and shorten up the bottom since the v6 is more compact all of which you have covered.

The print quality is really good with the new one. It seems to take less pressure to extrude and even less coast and retract. My v5 may not be the best comparison though as it had the feed hole machined off center. I ended up machining a taper in the top to help the filament transition to the off center hole. This helped but it never really worked 100%, so I've been using the V3B mostly. The v6 I received is spot on and after many hours of printing this weekend looks like a keeper. I did put my 24v heater in it, after hours of messing with the 12v heater. In the firmware I dropped PID_MAX down to 40 and ran through PID autotune a bunch. It would always over shoot the target temp by 30c and would get there almost instantly. There were a few things I needed to get printed this weekend so I just swapped heaters and life was good again.

Time to get some Polycarbonate filament and try it out

Great. Good to hear. Fir the pc, I think youll have a real hard time since pc has an extremely high thermal contraction rate. Im fairly sure you wont be able to keep it from warping right off the bed. I use it here in my shop alot and to take a wild guess i would say its 2-3 times more than abs. I doubt its printable without a heated chamber but actually trying it is the only real way to tell....let us know how it works out

I ordered the V6 yesterday but only thought now to check the voltage on the heater block. It looks like 12V from the description. But my M2 uses the 24 v power supply. Am I going to have a problem? Is there an easy fix for it?

it will come with a 12v heater cartridge. its easiest to not use the new one and use the 24v one you are using now just like cmenard is doing. only other thing you need to do is change the temp table in the firmware to use table 5. if you still want your v3b as a backup then order yourself another 24v heater and some connectors.

Ah missed that. Thanks. I also emailed the US supplier (Filistruder) so I'll see what they have to say about it also.

Well I just got an email from them... referring me to this:

http://forum.e3d-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2

if it were me i would just pull the heater out of the v3b and use that one. i guess then you just need to make the adjustments for the fan.

Toby wrote:referring me to this: http://forum.e3d-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2

If you use a series resistor, calculate the power dissipation!

power = voltage * current
power = voltage^2 / resistance = current^2 * resistance

For their example, dropping 12 V at 70 mA requires a 170 Ω resistor (so you'd use a 180 Ω resistor) that dissipates almost 1 W, so you must use a 2 W or 5 W package. The more common 1/8 W or 1/4 W resistors found in ordinary circuits and Radio Shack parts cabinets will emit The Magic Smoke in short order.

However, the motor doesn't draw a constant current, which means the resistor drops a varying voltage. That may not matter, but I'd be sorely tempted to splice in a 12 V regulator, perhaps an LM7812 in a TO220 package, and run the fan on the proper voltage. Better to buy one of those spendy 24 V fans and be done with it, though.

It is a very elegant-looking hot-end and I must say I'm intrigued by it.

I still have the earlier version M2 all set up for 12V. . . does that mean that I could use the E3D-v6 as essentially a plug-in replacement? Do the firmware tables still need to be adjusted? Any other firmware changes required?

Did you get the 0.4 nozzle or did you get an assortment? MakerGear warns against clogging issues with their 0.25 nozzle; E3D appears to be promoting their lack of jamming/clogging/feeding issues. But their standard-issue nozzle is 0.4, while MakerGear's is 0.35. I've never used anything other than the 0.35. How does the nozzle diameter affect the printing, in practical terms?