E3D V6

[Tim]

Thanks, Toby. That would be a big help.

One more general question about the E3D-v6: They sell a lot of spare nozzles. That sort of suggests that if you want to use different types of plastic, you might just keep the one hot-end and swap out different nozzles. Does that make sense? Or is there going to be leftover plastic building up in the heating chamber until the whole hot-end clogs up, regardless of how clean your nozzle is?

[jimc]

hmm, i guess you could just change the nozzle but there still is a heat break tube which could get tight and have some buildup. i think its far easier to just swap the hot end however nozzles are cheaper. i personally dont have anywhere near the experience with this particular hot end as i do the makergear. sorry tim i cant really say for sure

[Tim]

I was reading through the very detailed description of what improvements E3D made between the v5 and v6, and one of the things they mentioned was that they did a lot of work getting the surface of the bore through the heat break smooth, citing the roughness of the bore as being a major cause of plastic residue building up. So chances are that the problem is much alleviated on the v6. I put the same question directly to E3D; I'll see what they have to say about it.

[jimc]

yes and the v6 has a ptfe liner down to the start of heat break so the filament slides really smooth. somewhere i read it was really designed to improve extrusion of the flexible filaments.

[Toby]

somewhere i read it was really designed to improve extrusion of the flexible filaments.

That's what sold me on it. They've got it set up so there is no unsupported path anywhere from the filament spool all the way into the hot end. I'm hoping it will let me print flex filament at a reasonable rate.

Tim-- modifying the firmware and loading it onto the M2 with the Arduino IDE is straightforward.

On a windows 7 machine here's what works:

Download the appropriate version of Marlin from Makergear.
Change the name of the directory to Marlin (rather than Marlin24r2 or whatever).
Close all software that might connect to the M2.
Start the M2.
Open up the Arduino IDE.
Select "Mega 2560 or MegaADK" under Tools->board
Check your serial port under Tools->serial port (in windows, mine is com3 and that's the only one that shows up)
I also opened up the serial monitor and set the baud rate to 115200. It'll reset the M2 and give you some startup echo, hopefully not in gibberish if the baud rate is correct.
Open up your Marlin.ini file from the Marlin directory.
You can edit your configuration.h file right there, from a tab across the top.
Under file, click "Upload" or ctrl-U. It'll compile and upload to the M2.

[Tim]

Thanks, Toby. I think I was on the right track, more or less. Apparently I don't get the Tools->Board menu selection, for some reason. I'll still have to figure out where it wants to find the files it's surreptitiously compiling. I do not like the Arduino way of hiding all the details of the process and then doing silly things like combining compilation and upload, apparently without ever leaving a hex file behind where one can find it.

Anyway, remember that when you say "Here's what works on Windows 7", the answer is always "Nothing".

[jimc]

i have the bed fan duct done. im just doing a print now to check tolerances to make sure it doesnt snap into place too hard or too easy. i put a ghosted pic below so you can see how its mounted. basically a hinge pin catches in the top hook then you just rotate it down and it snaps into place. for those of you that do alot of abs you wont need to keep the fan on the machine. just pop it in place when you need it for pla. ill get this posted up on thingiverse later tonight. i have the setup done for both v5 and v6. the duct will use the 40mm fan.

Screen Shot 2014-06-07 at 12.14.18 PM.png (272.72 KiB) Viewed 12552 times

[jimc]

the hinge fitment came out perfect with just a nice gentle force to snap the duct on and off. i uploaded the files to thingiverse

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:344950

[Tim]

That's really nice, Jim. But no hurry---the E3Dv6 I ordered just shipped.

By the way, that fan connects on the side? Does it do that without restricting the X axis maximum position? Or does that fan go in front with the extruder fan on the side?

[jimc]

hey tim, the fan is on the right side. there is nothing on the right for it to hit. that side is wide open. i just got it all mounted up on my machine.