Ulticreatr 2X: Dual extrusion for Ultimaker 2 and Ultimaker 2+

[conny_g 251]

 

 

Hi @dancorrigan,

Have you see this mod? It is definitely an interesting approach and shows quite some potential

 

Pretty cool. I like the concept. I don't like the loss in Y printing space though. Any idea why Ultimaker chose not to include dual extrusion out-of-the-box for the UM2+ ?

 

What @Meduza said. It would have involved either very complex modifications to your trustworthy Ultimaker 2(+) with risks or such an expensive upgrade to cover all that, that would be unreasonable to charge. Hence, we did not feel comfortable unleashing that on our community and we felt the user experience was too important to mess around with.

 

Ultimaker has an "Appe like" attitude: quality before time to market, make sure the device works perfectly well before getting into feature creep.

I am totally behind that as I am very happy with the reliability and quality of the Ultimaker, which is a result of that attitude.

Only 1 of 5 prints that I do have some severe issue. And if there is an issue then more due to material change and non-perfect parameters.

[sc0tt 0]

The 2X setup looks promising, does anyone have experience with the setup?

Maybe a video or something?

[timschneider 0]

hi,

i recently received the 2x kit from ulticreatr and mounted it to my ultimaker 2+. They didn't shipped the firmware with the kit, so i just branched the original ultimaker2marlin and patched it for the dual extruders.

Moreover I patched the power consumption problems of the ulticreatr2x kit in a very naive way.

The problem with the power consumption is, that the original power supply is not strong enought to serve the 2 heaters, each with 2 heat capsules, and the heat bed at the same time. It is only possible to switch both hotends on or the heat bed, not even one hotend with the heat bed is stable.

I solved it by a simple bidding approch, if one of the hot ends is requesting power and the sum of both hot end requests is greater than the request of the heat bed or one of the hot ends is requesting full power, then the hot ends are served. Otherwise if the heat bed is requesting power it is served if it is requesting power.

You can find my changes in my repo on github, feel free to use it or to improve it

https://github.com/timschneider/Ultimaker2Marlin/tree/ulticreatr-2x-bidding-approch

https://github.com/Ultimaker/Ultimaker2Marlin/compare/master...timschneider:ulticreatr-2x-bidding-approch?expand=1

 

One thing i have in mind, is to average the power consumption, e.g. start the heat bed after at hot ends are switched off within a pwm period. it is as well very easy, but currently the first approch is working fine, so no need to change

tim

[SandervG 1,521]

If you look around on the forums you will find a variety of user experiences.

Most leave some to be desired...

[timschneider 0]

the power skewing approch is even simpler

https://github.com/timschneider/UM2.1-Firmware/tree/Ulticreatr2x

What it does is, that the hot ends start at pwm k=0 and stop till they reach there power request aka soft_pwm_0 and soft_pwm_1. The heat bed will start at 127-soft_pwm_b and stop at k=0. This results in the behavior, that the hot ends are controlled as usually and the heat bed is truncate, if the hot ends would overlap the heat bed.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Guest

[DLMeyer 0]

Like many of you, I'm waiting to see more of these upgrade kits out in the wild. I love the idea of dual extruding on my UM2+, but if it requires a priming/wipe tower to do every dual print, I can't say I'm happy with that. I've seen a CTC Bizer Dual Extruder machine at work, and there was no requirement for any kind of tower. Granted, that was on the dual extrusion hazard cone model, so perhaps it didn't require it.  

Anyway, would love to see some more samples of this in action and even a detailed video walkthrough of installation.  

I'll be patiently waiting.

 

Hi dancorrigan

I have an UM2 and it seems that since the UM3 was benchmarked as the dual machine, all development on having dual extrusion on the UM2 ceased. This is a pity, because what are we UM2 owners suppossed to do now? Go out and buy an UM3? Thats a bit unfair i think.

Has anyone seen the Prometheus System (

) or something similar

Would that not be a viable option for the UM2 range?

[meduza 191]

@DLMeyer, the official dual extrusion development did cease quite a long time ago, it is almost two years now since Ultimaker announced that there would be no dual upgrade kit since it requires more changes than what is feasible in a upgrade kit.

About the Prometheus, it all depends on what you are after, if you only want to print with two colors of the same material and are OK with wasting quite a lot of material on a large prime tower to purge the hotend on every layer, then it would be totally possible to go for a solution like the Prometheus.

If you want to do printing with PVA support and dual materials and are ok with a smaller build area, then you should look at the amzing @foehnsturm tool changer which is in beta right now: https://ultimaker.com/en/community/10657-a-different-multi-extrusion-approach-um-tool-printhead-changer

Edited December 19, 2016 by Guest

[Shane 3]

hi,

i recently received the 2x kit from ulticreatr and mounted it to my ultimaker 2+. They didn't shipped the firmware with the kit, so i just branched the original ultimaker2marlin and patched it for the dual extruders.

Moreover I patched the power consumption problems of the ulticreatr2x kit in a very naive way.

The problem with the power consumption is, that the original power supply is not strong enought to serve the 2 heaters, each with 2 heat capsules, and the heat bed at the same time. It is only possible to switch both hotends on or the heat bed, not even one hotend with the heat bed is stable.

I solved it by a simple bidding approch, if one of the hot ends is requesting power and the sum of both hot end requests is greater than the request of the heat bed or one of the hot ends is requesting full power, then the hot ends are served. Otherwise if the heat bed is requesting power it is served if it is requesting power.

You can find my changes in my repo on github, feel free to use it or to improve it

https://github.com/timschneider/Ultimaker2Marlin/tree/ulticreatr-2x-bidding-approch

https://github.com/Ultimaker/Ultimaker2Marlin/compare/master...timschneider:ulticreatr-2x-bidding-approch?expand=1

 

One thing i have in mind, is to average the power consumption, e.g. start the heat bed after at hot ends are switched off within a pwm period. it is as well very easy, but currently the first approch is working fine, so no need to change

tim

 

[Shane 3]

Hi Tim.

I also bought this kit but gave up on it.

It appears that you got it to work. Is the machine fully functional and still capable of nice prints? I would love to hear more.

I have the 2+Extended and could pay you for a working hex file.

[Andrey1 17]

Hello, guys!

I have bought Ultikreatr dual extrusion kit about four month ago. Yesterday I finally ventured to install it on my Ultimaker 2.

It was hard, but solvable quest. Now it looks like 3d printer with double extrusion.

Today I tried to improve Cura as it described here http://ulti.creatr.it/en/support/2x/slicing.html.

I have done all steps, but it was all for nothing. Cura doesn't work.

Did anyone have positive experience in changing Cura 2.3.1 for Ultikreatr dual extrusion kit?

[Andrey1 17]

Hi, guys!

I'd like to share my experience in double extrusion on Ultimaker 2.

I guess it will be useful.

Several month ago i bought Ulticreatr 2X (see the post above). I knew it was not good (according to some replies here), but desire to upgrade my printer and to make double coloured print prevailed. After it was delivered, I decided to postpone installation. Designers of the Ulticreatr 2X said that its feature didn't allow to use heated bed. So, i decided to study this problem first.

I don't want to describe all my way to double extrusion. It was thorny. Besides heated bed issue, neither firmware nor Cura modifications, presented by Ulticreatr 2X designers worked.

So, I searched decisions in the community. And I have found it.

The first it was firmware. Tinkergnome, thank you very much for your work. It is extremely useful and works excellent!!!

The second was slicer. I tried to modify Cura 2.3.1 as it was described by Ulticreatr team, but it was all for nothing. Then I tried to modify it according to this topics, but still without success! I tried even Simplify3D. Really powerful tool, but I need more time to study it.

And then, thanks to Crema I tried Cura 15.04!

Today I printed my first double colloured model!

So, Ultimaker 2 + Ultikreatr 2X + Tinkergnome firmware + Cura 15.04 = Dual extrusion

Thanks everyone!

[ruedis 0]

This Add-on is complete rubbish. I bought the kit a year ago. I had some issues with missing parts, some issues with wrong wiring, etc. The amount of emails I sent to Sam are numerous. But do you think I ever got reply? No, he just made good money for some cheap Chinese parts.

Edited October 27, 2017 by Guest

[SandervG 1,521]

If you are interested in dual material print with an Ultimaker 2, I would recommend to look into the 'Mark 2 project'. It has a lot of community support and the people involved are really talented

[ruedis 0]

If you are interested in dual material print with an Ultimaker 2, I would recommend to look into the 'Mark 2 project'. It has a lot of community support and the people involved are really talented

Sounds interesting. But having spent about 850 € on this upgrade, it makes me angry that it doesn't work. And now I have a bit more time to spare and I determined to get it to work.

My main problem ist that the feeder for the first extruder is turning the wrong way. Instead of feeding the PLA it retracts it. What could be a possible solution? Any ideas? The stepping motor is Moons Stepping Motor 17HD6482-01N, 60612643, 16/05/06. The motor of the second feeder (for the 2nd extruder) is the same model. Do I need to change the wiring? If so wich wires need to be swapped?

Or is there a simpler solution by changing the the firmware?

[tinkergnome 927]

Do I need to change the wiring? If so wich wires need to be swapped?

Or is there a simpler solution by changing the the firmware?

It depends... I assume that you have two different feeders installed now - probably one from the UM2 and one from the extrusion upgrade kit?

Regarding the wires: AFAIK there should be two pairs of wires on the connector that are twisted together. One of the pairs needs to be swapped (if you count the contacts - swap either contact one with two or three with four - that's all).

Which firmware are you using? -That may be even easier, but i'm biased...