Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

The official subforum for discussion of the installation and use of the official M2 Dual Extruder upgrade.
I-Right-I
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 8:49 pm

Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by I-Right-I » Tue Sep 29, 2015 9:59 pm

Ok everybody, for those interested in upgrading to a badass dual extruder, below are the links to the 4 videos I've made to go over the setup process. There was very little documentation on the process so it was quite the pain in the ass for me, haha. To make it a smooth process for you, take a look. They go over hardware, software, firmware, etc... and should get you printing pretty quickly. If you have any questions about the process, please feel free to ask. What I can say is, it works fantastically! An all metal design, makes it extremely robust.

VIDEO 1: https://www.facebook.com/TheKnuckle/vid ... 250769650/

VIDEO 2: https://www.facebook.com/TheKnuckle/vid ... 455369650/

VIDEO 3: https://www.facebook.com/TheKnuckle/vid ... 605984650/

VIDEO 4: https://www.facebook.com/TheKnuckle/vid ... 774189650/

User avatar
insta
Posts: 2007
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:59 am

Re: Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by insta » Wed Sep 30, 2015 5:43 am

Finally, nice to see some demos on aftermarket dual-extruder setups.

I've been looking forward to a review & comparison of this one vs. the V4. I'm very happy with my V4, but it's interesting to see competition.
Custom 3D printing for you or your business -- quote [at] pingring.org

User avatar
sthone
Posts: 897
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2014 8:25 pm
Location: Connecticut
Contact:

Re: Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by sthone » Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:18 pm

I'm pretty sure "Micron" is that same Israel company selling stuff on eBay... Hopefully it works better than that all metal extruder I bought from them I can't get anything but PLA to feed through that thing.

-Steve
____________________________________________________
See my projects at https://www.theneverendingprojectslist.com

I-Right-I
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 8:49 pm

Re: Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by I-Right-I » Wed Sep 30, 2015 3:44 pm

Yes, the one on ebay is the same as this one. Micron 3DP is out of Israel. I'm pleased with their product, I've been able to print with every material I've tried, except carbon fiber and ninjaflex; I'm still trying to crack that code. I was thinking about making some other short tutorials on printer settings I've used with various materials. There was a lot of trial and error there, and it would be nice for people to avoid all that mess.

User avatar
Farr0wn3d
Posts: 319
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2015 4:16 am
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Re: Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by Farr0wn3d » Sat Oct 03, 2015 5:50 pm

Does anyone else have any firsthand experience with Micron's components? This seems like an excellent concept, and should be a serious competitor to E3D but somehow E3D is a big deal and you NEVER hear of micron??

User avatar
jimc
Posts: 2888
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:30 pm
Location: mullica, nj
Contact:

Re: Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by jimc » Sat Oct 03, 2015 6:07 pm

If you do a little digging, not on the makergear forum bet elsewhere, you will find very few good reviews of their stuff. Nit many m2 owners have made that switch to micron but alot of reprap guys have. I have never heard anything good. I also dont have any first hand exp with there stuff other than their drive gear which was macined really nice.

User avatar
innkeeper
Posts: 266
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2015 3:56 am
Location: New Windsor, NY

Re: Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by innkeeper » Mon Oct 05, 2015 6:29 am

Farr0wn3d wrote:Does anyone else have any firsthand experience with Micron's components? This seems like an excellent concept, and should be a serious competitor to E3D but somehow E3D is a big deal and you NEVER hear of micron??
wow this digs up some good and bad memories...

Yes, I got one of their all metal single extruder blocks a long time ago (circa 2013) originally bought to deal with a repetitive jamming issue with my m2 machine as shipped (ultimately caused by temperature fluctuations)....

beautiful peace of engineering... not worth he expense....looks nice...also needed modification to mount right to the stepper.

The micron all metal extruder block Had a lot of issues with it any filament that was the least bit flexible. I used it with e3d hotend, and with a Pico hot end - (part of the kickstarter) .... long story short, it is not better then the printed hot end mount, perhaps a bit easier to set the tension. it did wok fine with ABS and PLA for me.

I was one of the early users of the micron all metal extruder block so they might have changed it some, but it looks identical to what they sell now..

I tried this block while trying to solve jamming issues on the stock m2, i also tried all metal hot ends on it as one of the suggestions on the jamming was the hotend was bad or there was a issue with the thermistor, tried new thermistors along with a myriad of pid and auto pid tunings .... I even upgraded to the latest marlin at the time and made it work with the reprap discount lcd panel and was testing that .. hoping newer firmware would possibly help the issues. I finally stepped away from the makergear m2 completely for a while after dealing with it on and off for over a year...giving up getting help from mg after much back and forth over a years time...I just stuck the m2 on a shelf.....the issue ultimately turned out to be a bad electronics (Rambo board or Power supply) from day one ... a sad series of events that cost me time and money to get to a point of a usable machine,..... Thankfully I had other printers that did the job I needed.

.... when I went back to the m2 a few mo. back as a platform to try out smoothiewrear / smoothieboard, I also upgraded to a v3b and 24v (mostly just to play and potently to just to sell it off the m2) .. so the micron extruder came off .... also tossed the Rambo board, along with code changes I did have the reprap discount lcd board running on the Rambo (though that's easy to do its all documented in the code and most reprap lcd boards now ship with the Rambo adapter) ... Surprise to me when the m2 worked once I replaced the Rambo board and PS ... so i've kept the m2 and been using it pretty hard recnetly even did some testing of auto tramming sensors and a few other things, some experiments posted here. I've since upgraded the z stepper which was the older 'bad' hi resistance model that maker gear used at the time, and also replaced the extruder stepper which is another component that dies young on the earlier m2's due to a flaw it had with a soft metal pinion gear..... bitter sweet ... an extra 850+ out of pocket in trying things and getting it to a point were it works as it should have when I bought it...

So, if someone really still wants one of the micron all metal extruder block, let me know i'll make you a good deal on it :) they retail for like 135 ... its part of some bitter history that just reminds me of what transpired... plus I have no plans on using that block again.

it has been machined by me to fit the gearbox correctly, as it needed to be reversed from the side machined for the geared box to not have any issues hitting the frame. I'll include a hotend mount plate if I can find it, that was custom machined also, but could easily be re-fabricated from a standard mount plate..

there used to be pictures posted of it back in the day of it, with the e3d mounted, but who knows what happened to those.

if there's any interest, I could probably dig up a pic or two of it mounted or re mount it just to give you an idea on how to do it yourself if you have the desire.
mount was very simple and I was able to mount it to the existing m2 mount points. machining was pretty straight forward also....

i'm happy to answer any questions on it, or run any quick tests and give you the results...

Oh, micron used to also sell a replacement filament (hobbled) gear - not sure the right term maker gear uses. that was actually very good, a lot sharper then the original as grips the filament better with less bite required, I still use it. ... (see jules excellent write-up on the correct bite viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2694 ) I can highly recommend that if they still sell it.

with all this said.... if I were to try adding dual extruders going on an m2,and not use maker gears soltion id likely opt for something like this http://www.geeetech.com/mk8-dual-extruder-p-921.html and just totally do away with the geared extruder...its a failure point you don't need.

this is probably more then anyone ever wanted to know ... shouldn't have coffee this late at night :)
M2 - MKS SBase w Smoothieware, GLCD, 24v, Upg Z & extruder stepper - IR bed leveling, Astrosyn dampers X/Y/Z, MIC 6, Zebra, PEI, & glass Build Plates - E3D, V3B Hotends, & more - many other 3d printers - production printing.

User avatar
Farr0wn3d
Posts: 319
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2015 4:16 am
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Re: Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by Farr0wn3d » Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:14 pm

Hahaha have more coffee next time dude, I really appreciate the detail!! haha, thanks a lot for your input

User avatar
Tim
Posts: 1205
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:19 pm
Location: Poolesville, Maryland
Contact:

Re: Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by Tim » Mon Oct 05, 2015 2:06 pm

innkeeper wrote:this is probably more then anyone ever wanted to know ... shouldn't have coffee this late at night :)
No, that's very interesting. You appear to have ended up with a setup very much like what I have now, with a Z-probe and the Smoothieboard, upgraded 24V power supply, and a replacement Z-stepper motor. The main differences are that I have the dual extruder and I have not bothered to replace the extruder stepper motor(s), because they have never given me a moment's trouble (like anything mechanical, it's a bit hit-or-miss, and you seem to have ended up with a number of bad components, which is unfortunate).

User avatar
sthone
Posts: 897
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2014 8:25 pm
Location: Connecticut
Contact:

Re: Micron 3DP Cobra Dual Extruder with the Makergear M2

Post by sthone » Mon Oct 05, 2015 4:29 pm

Farr0wn3d wrote:Does anyone else have any firsthand experience with Micron's components? This seems like an excellent concept, and should be a serious competitor to E3D but somehow E3D is a big deal and you NEVER hear of micron??
I did a Write Up on the all metal extruder from Micron when I was installing it but overall I wouldn't recommend it because I haven't had much luck running anything but PLA through it.

It's a nice piece of equipment (as far as the machining goes) but I think the design needs a bit of work. The area between where the filament leaves the bearing/gear and where it exits the bottom of the extruder is just to large of a gap so any flexible filament has a tendency to just bunch up. I even have trouble with ABS and PETG. Anything that is harder to extrude than PLA just binds up if it can't extrude fast enough. I'll give them this though the spring loaded bearing is nice because it feeds non stop, which is to say it never cuts the half moon in the filament least until the bunch up below it to great. (which would either be a good thing or bad thing depending on how you look at it.) I thought about machining up a new door piece to incorporate more of an inner guide (so to speak) for the filament but I just haven't had to time to redesign it yet. I'm still running it only because I haven't had the time to reprint the stock V4 mounts in PETG yet, but as soon as I do it's probably going in the scrap box until I can see if it can be improved.

-Steve
____________________________________________________
See my projects at https://www.theneverendingprojectslist.com

Post Reply