ultimaker original mod: IRobertI's feeder on UMO

[ataraxis 51]

I designed a new adapter for IRobertI's feeder to use it at the UMO.

It is inspired by vaques design!

What you need:

[*]1x MK8 drive gear (ID 5mm) or any other drive gear that fits

[*]1x Stepper (NEMA 17, bipolar, 400steps/revolution (0.9°), around 44Ncm holding torque or more (e.g.: sparkfun's ROB-10846))

[*]XH 4pol male connector (used at LiPo balancers)

[*]1x Ball bearing from the original feeder

[*]some screws and washers

 

What you gain:

 

• A more silent, super solid and rigid feeder on the UMO that is in addition shorter in depth.
  
• You can benefit from new drive gears.
  

 

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultimaker-original-mod-iroberti-s-feeder-on-um

Edited May 11, 2015 by Guest

[ataraxis 51]

The new stepper arrived and is installed now, this is the my first print:

 

 

i really like the retraction sound the new feeder makes, it is so "unimportunate".

 

[zumfab 3]

Very nice, I have been thinking about doing almost exactly this. Judging by the pictures this is a direct drive feeder, right? Might it not be more beneficial to make a kind of hybrid which reduces the motion and increases the torque?

 

[ataraxis 51]

Hey, yeah there is always one who already did it

Yes, it is direct driven without any gear between the stepper and the filament. The "knurles bolt" (or better: the drive gear) is directly mounted on the stepper - just like the UM2 feeder.

What do you mean by "reduce the motion and increase the torque"?

If you buy the new stepper motor, the torque is high enough and in addition you really need the new one because of the higher resolution (0.9° instead of 1.8°). I tried to print something in high quality with the stock-stepper, but the surface was way too rough.

You could also put again a gear between the stepper and the knurled bolt in order to increase the actual resolution and torque at the filament, but if you do so, it would be nearly the same as the original feeder: you cannot directly use new types of drive gears (like the mk8) and more/faster moving parts lead to more noise in general.

 

[neotko 1,417]

How you secures the mk8? I though about doing this weeks ago but all the motora I found didnt had or the connector or the metal was rounded. Did you dremel a bit to make it flat on the screw for the mk8?

[Titus 170]

One thing that bugges me is that you can't manually feed the plastic any more to prime the nozzle. How do you do that?

Otherwise I'm interested in building one. The speed and sound level attract me

 

[ataraxis 51]

@neotko: the shaft is round, but the mk8 seems to be tight so far, even without a d-shaped shaft.

@titus: i just increased the extrusion at the start gcode to 10mm, thats way enough at my case

[drayson 75]

Looks great!! I'm also very interested to mod my UMO to get it more silent...

Anyway...

Which changes were necessarry in the FW???

Maybe you could post a step-by-step instructable..??

[ataraxis 51]

hey drayson, you mean the firmware changes?

that's easy, if you install a new 400steps/rev motor: use your ulticontroller if you have one, go to CONTROL -> MOTION -> E-Steps/mm and set it to 302 (or higher/lower if that value doesnt work for you).

otherwise go to http://marlinbuilder.robotfuzz.com/ and edit the steps per unit,

then upload it via CURA.

if you have any questions, just ask.

have phun

Edited May 11, 2015 by Guest

[ataraxis 51]

new version 4.0 is out which uses 4 fan dampeners (http://www.amazon.com/GELID-Solutions-Silicone-Vibration-Dampening/dp/B003Q5GI2U):

the noise is much much lower now as you can see here:

Edited May 11, 2015 by Guest

[gadgetfreak 7]

Nice work. The biggest improvement from Roberts feeder IMHO is that it makes feeding flexible filaments easier when using the optional plate to restrict sideways movement of the filament.

 

Is it compatible with this mod?

[ataraxis 51]

Hi gadgetfreak, i never tried it but since the only difference is the place where it is mounted, i guess "yes". The design where i got the idea from is https://www.youmagine.com/designs/um2-feeder-on-um1 and he is using it

[czucker 0]

Just a note on this.

After moving my XY steppers to the outside of my UM, I was able mount my extruder motor inside the enclosure, removing the need for the external mount.

All I had to do was print a 4mm Nema 17 plate to overcome the lip on the UM, so that the feeder was able to open.

I'm using the original stepper with good results. The printer is much, much quieter and more stable.

[ataraxis 51]

@czucker:

I also did that at first (since my rods are also direct driven) but some of the downsides are (in my eyes):

 

1. you lose another side to which you can flip the ultimaker when you need access to the electronics
   
2. it requires direct driven rods
   
3. the entry angle of the filament
   
4. it's more noisy than the damped version on the outside
   
5. the bowden tube is maybe a bit too short since the distance between feeder and hotend is longer
   
6. whats about dual extrusion?
   

 

I also thought about possible solutions then:

 

1. to mirror the feeder design and flatten the protruding side a bit
   
2. well, I like the direct driven rods...
   
3. design some filament guides like for the UM2
   
4. it should be possible to integrate dampers to the mounting plate
   
5. i didn't really faced problems here, but a longer tube should fix that
   
6. you could maybe drill a new hole or something like that but i always like the possibility to change everything back "as it was" (i.e. if you realize that a design doesnt work as it should). I didn't found a good solution and that's the reason why i did the design above
   

 

furthermore you say the quality is still "good" with the original stepper...

i also thought like that at first but then, while printing really high quality prints (0.6 layer height at around 30mm/s), i recognized a "rough" surface. Some of the developers of Ultimaker confirmed that in an google-group discussion. To avoid problems in the future i would really recommend an 0.9° stepper (or maybe one of foehnsturms trials here in the forum: flexible shaft/direct extruder at the printhead).

Edited June 2, 2015 by Guest

[czucker 0]

You're correct, correct and correct. . . .

I went ahead and got a larger stepper (Amazon Link) but, I'm actually finding that when the heated bed gets to a certain point, the stepper is heating up way too much.

I'm going to give your mount a go. . . . I'm a bit unclear on the fan silencers though. Where are you using them?

Thanks!

Chris

 

@czucker:

I also did that at first (since my rods are also direct driven) but some of the downsides are (in my eyes):

 

1. you lose another side to which you can flip the ultimaker when you need access to the electronics
   
2. it requires direct driven rods
   
3. the entry angle of the filament
   
4. it's more noisy than the damped version on the outside
   
5. the bowden tube is maybe a bit too short since the distance between feeder and hotend is longer
   
6. whats about dual extrusion?
   

 

I also thought about possible solutions then:

 

1. to mirror the feeder design and flatten the protruding side a bit
   
2. well, I like the direct driven rods...
   
3. design some filament guides like for the UM2
   
4. it should be possible to integrate dampers to the mounting plate
   
5. i didn't really faced problems here, but a longer tube should fix that
   
6. you could maybe drill a new hole or something like that but i always like the possibility to change everything back "as it was" (i.e. if you realize that a design doesnt work as it should). I didn't found a good solution and that's the reason why i did the design above
   

 

furthermore you say the quality is still "good" with the original stepper...

i also thought like that at first but then, while printing really high quality prints (0.6 layer height at around 30mm/s), i recognized a "rough" surface. Some of the developers of Ultimaker confirmed that in an google-group discussion. To avoid problems in the future i would really recommend an 0.9° stepper (or maybe one of foehnsturms trials here in the forum: flexible shaft/direct extruder at the printhead).

 

[ataraxis 51]

well there are two plates, one is mounted to the case the other one is for the feeder, they are seperated with the silencers. take a look here:

 

 

[Twan 0]

Hi,

My name is Twan and just began printing with my own sourced UMO+ using this particular feeder system... but I can't seem to get it functioning properly.

There is almost nothing coming out of the nozzle by 400 steps. I tried pushing the amount of steps up to 3200, but nothing seems to work. the MK8 gear doesn't grip the fillament tight enough. Can anybody help me out?

Thanks in advance

[stefan1 0]

Hi all,

i updated my UMO with this direct drive feature and it works nearly

It prints and results are ok, but not perfect as showing.

The problems is sometimes the nema 17 "snaps back".

It looks to me that torque not enough or i dont know :/

Also with very low speed it happens so i hope you have some ideas to check the problem.

thanks+best,

Stefan

Edited April 21, 2017 by Guest

[the_mechanical 0]

The problems is sometimes the nema 17 "snaps back".

It looks to me that torque not enough or i dont know :/

 

Hi Stefan,

had this problem too, especially on my second printer, a Prusa i3MK2. It really seems like you think, too less torque. Therefore i solved this problem at Prusa i3MK2 with a geared bowden extruder instead of the direct drive extruder.

I ended up in a modified solution of chopmeisters H3-Extruder:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2277417

At the moment I'm modifying my UMO+ to dual extrusion and the second extruder will be one H3+Extruder (I'll not replace the original extruder at the moment as it is working quite well). At the Prusa the new extruder is working very well with 1.75mm filament, at the UMO+ it has to run with 2.85mm filament.

In my opinion a geared extruder is best for reliable working, the nozzle clogs vanished at Prusa since i have the geared extruder - it seems it is strong enough to press clogs through the nozzle. Another solution would be a stronger motor (nema 23?).