Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

[Blizz 53]

Unfortunately I have to agree with Nicolinux, I also change filament almost every print

 

[mnis 11]

Hi and thanks for your opinions

With little practice, the filament is changing almost as fast as with the normal UM2 feeder. Only it's not currently with your fingers, it is a small flat nose pliers needed. It's not like in the Formula one, but in maybe 30 seconds, even untrained persons should be able to make it. We will see if it is a real disadvantage, because in my view has reliability priority. And these feeder, pushes with a good engine blunt filament through the asphalt. :lol:

How, as so often, is finished only the beginning:

I am aware of the existing problems consciously, and will later publish optimizations for the base. It will not be necessary to print the entire feeder new, because CPv7 is modular.

Quick-change material will come, that's not a promise but a commitment. Today I designed a few parts a bit more accurate, so I will hold back the release a few more days.

The following video shows a still early prototypes at work. An early prototype, which is printing parts of an optimized version. Hehe, something RepRap feeling is in the air.

Printing is INNOFILL PLA blue with 55mm/s, at 210 degrees, Layer 0.1mm. The crackling noise coming from this rather soft filament and were already existent with the original feeder. Mostly after the first third of a new filament role, the noise normalized.

mnis

 

[Nicolinux 288]

Hey Markus,

You forgot the following video

 

[mnis 11]

Thank you Nico

I had not forgotten it, there were problems with file format and size. :unsure:

bye for now

mnis

Edit:

The following weekend, is really conclude with the restraint. Everything is working as desired, but I want to make a few more observations.

mnis

 

[eldrick 65]

Looks like Spirit's feeder is coming along nicely - now on Rev. E

https://0x7d.com/2014/07/improved-ultimaker-2-material-extruder/

I'm thinking Diamondage PLA for durability - Hmmm - or maybe that Taulman nylon that I never got around to using, for the gears...

 

[flashp0int 0]

Printed in PET 100% fill with a 0.8mm longer Yoke.

Quite pleased now with this format.

Printing with PET enabled great precise parts. Spacers are slippery and strong.

 

[spirit 0]

Looks great, I love seeing all the derivatives and creative solutions of everyone.

Do you mind sharing it on YouMagine too so that most of the alternatives are centralized?

 

I wanted to wait till I finalize the design before making the STLs more widely available. I just wrapped up and tested rev. E of my design and verified that it's working as intended.

The files are posted on YouMagine.com now if anyone is interested in testing it out: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/belt-driven-ultimaker-2-extruder

 

[feik 0]

Spirit your design is impressive. Where did you get the belts from?

 

[spirit 0]

The belts were from McMaster-Carr in the US. Unfortunately they don't stock metric belts so it may be hard to source if you're in the UK. Direct link to the belts is here: http://www.mcmaster.com/#7887k71.

 

[donmilne 2]

I'm just posting to thank the contributers to his thread, especially IRobertL for his design, and Sfriendri for his variant, which is the one I actually went for (I liked those spools guiding the filament in).

No real problems, except that I stabbed myself in the hand with a Philips head screwdriver while trying to get that spring compressed on the yoke! There's probably some clever way to do it, but none that occurred to me. Ouch!

I've no idea how to tune this for optimum working, I just backed off the pressure until it stopped skipping.

Oh, and a lot of crap (old ground off bits of PLA) fell out of the stock feeder when I removed. That might explain the unpredictable underextrusion problems I've been having lately? The replacement looks like it'll be a lot easier to keep clean.

 

[Blizz 53]

The clever way to do it is these:

I've stabbed and cut myself plenty of times so I now have a habit of putting those on first.

And yes, the ground filament does hinder regular extrusion if its bad enough.

 

[IRobertI 520]

Not using those annoying Philips screws is a good start Allen or Torx is the way to go.

 

[Blizz 53]

I prefer those as well but unfortunately wasn't able to locate M3 screws with a flat torx head

 

[donmilne 2]

The clever way to do it is these:

 

Yes, well, hindsight is wonderful isn't it. I read the entire thread before starting and I'm pretty sure nobody said "btw, wear gloves".

I felt I needed the strength of the 6mm screwdriver shaft to push down the spring, and another stubby screwdriver on the other side to stop the nut from being pushed out. I don't know how I could have done it with an allen key!

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Blizz: I usually buy at conrad or rs-online (rs are the guys that gave us dsm...)

[Blizz 53]

DonMilne: Whenever I see a combination of philips screws and exerting force I immediately put on gloves, those things are nasty sharp

Arjan: Yeah indeed, but that is a longer wait Usually when I set my mind on something it has to be *now*

 

[donmilne 2]

Weird thing. Today I wanted to give the printer a bigger test print, but I noticed it was printing 2mm above the glass. I did increase the motor current limit to the max allowed (yesterday at the same time I replaced the feeder). However it seems to do fine on a small test print immediately afterwards. Can changing one of those advanced settings cause it to lose the bed levelling calibration on the next power off?

 

[BasVanDeursen 0]

Weird thing. Today I wanted to give the printer a bigger test print, but I noticed it was printing 2mm above the glass. I did increase the motor current limit to the max allowed (yesterday at the same time I replaced the feeder). However it seems to do fine on a small test print immediately afterwards. Can changing one of those advanced settings cause it to lose the bed levelling calibration on the next power off?

 

I don't know about the levelling but I was wondering about something else.

Did you do a factory reset after you changed the settings for the motor current? I've been experimenting with different motors for the feeder and if I remember correctly, the settings for motor current are stored in the EEPROM. When I changed the motor current setting in the firmware, the new settings were only implemented after I reset the printer to factory default.

 

[donmilne 2]

Did you do a factory reset after you changed the settings for the motor current? I've been experimenting with different motors for the feeder and if I remember correctly, the settings for motor current are stored in the EEPROM. When I changed the motor current setting in the firmware, the new settings were only implemented after I reset the printer to factory default.

 

A "factory reset" to me means to discard my mods and return to factory settings, so no I did not do that.

ISTR that I did check, on next power-up, that the adjustment was still in place: and I would expect that if the printer is showing me a value for a parameter in "Advanced settings" then that is the parameter it's going to use. I'll double check this however after the printer completes what it's doing now.

 

[donmilne 2]

Copied from another thread:

Ok, I've just gone back over the notes for IRobertL's feeder. I still don't see a discussion of how that idler bearing hub pin is supposed to be held in place. Surely it isn't just supposed to screw into the plastic of the yoke - or float loose? Help!

 

[donmilne 2]

If I remember correctly, one of the holes is slightly smaller than the other. When I printed it (v2 I think), an M3 screw fit perfectly, so that it could just slide through the one and bite into the other. The smaller hole is meant to be toward the body of the machine, so the screw can just be pushed through from the front, through the bushes that hold the bearing, and then be screwed into the smaller diameter hole on the back. I had to cut the screw down to length (I could only find longer ones at my local hardware store). Mine was completely solid when assembled, not loose or floating at all.

I suspect that generally only people using printers that are giving some sort of trouble bother with printing an alternative feeder, so print quality issues might be to blame for some of the problems people have had (broken latches, etc). I'm still using the first |Robert|'s feeder I printed, and I honestly cannot imagine it physically breaking. Perhaps we need a bootstrap feeder design that is optimized to be as easy to print and as tolerant of underextrusion as possible, sacrificing beauty, openness, quick filament change, etc. Then when the machine is printing better parts, the final feeder can be printed. I can't immediately think of how that could be achieved with those trade-offs, but there are many designers on this thread smarter than me

 

Yes, I had noticed that the holes on either side had different sizes, but hadn't really understood the purpose. I had the same problem regarding M3 screw lengths btw.

Actually, my printer is doing quite well at the moment, so perhaps now is the time to print a new yoke. Making sure the small hole is the perfect size. Mind you, I already stabbed myself getting the spring on once, I'm not looking forward to doing it again! :sad:

 

[donmilne 2]

As help for anyone browsing this thread, I'd just like to point out a feature of IRobertL's design that may not be obvious to someone who hasn't tried it (it wasn't obvious to me at any rate).

There has been some talk about reserving a motor mounting bolt, so it never has to be removed, thereby eliminating the problem of requiring 3+ hands to change the feeder. Someone did do a variant with 3 mounting points for that reason.

Now while IRobertL's design does technically require all four mounts, in fact once the main body is in place I can't see why you'd ever need to remove it again. All the "problem" parts (yoke, arm, latch) can each be replaced by removing a single bolt. Or two bolts, if you wanted to to remove all of them at once.

 

[donmilne 2]

Job done. However, while replacing the yoke I noticed that the feeder motor shaft has no flat on it. That seems like a mistake. It seems to me to invite problems whereby the knurled sleeve slips on the shaft, leading to inconsistent feed rates.

 

[eldrick 65]

Re. my issues with the Mk8 hobbed wheel on Roberts feeder: I'm thinking that the fact that the wheel is smaller diameter than the OEM burr-grinder causes the filament to take a slight bend and detour as it passes thru the feeder, instead of in a straight line.

Seems like this might be causing enough friction that it could cause the skipping and under extrusion that I've seen with this combination of parts. Thoughts, anyone?

 

[takei-naodar 0]

Its simple EldRick the filament path needs to be readjusted. I have done that months ago with the Variant for the MK8 of my feeder.