Upgrade time. DirectDrive Extruder Upgrade for my Creality Ender 3V2 #3dprinting #3ddruck #3dprint
@maxheadroom Why direct drive on ender3 ? it makes it print slower
@kreyren because of the long Bowden tube the Ender can't reasonably print flexible filament. Why would it print slower with the direct drive?
@maxheadroom Interesting, didn't think that the bowden tube would a problem for TPU
Printing slower because of the added weight so at +400mm/s mine is causing a lot of vibration with added 800mg of weight to the extruder (simulated by added weight not tried with direct drive convertion).
p = m*v
@kreyren I've also added a second Z-Lead screw. That would give it more stability. Also that's the same design as the Prusa Mk2 now basically and they print fast as well. At least I haven't seen any problems with the setup so far. But it's also pretty new still. Was testing the flexible filament. TPU would compress/stretch on a 40cm distance between extruder and nozzle too much. Retract didn't work at all and normal feed also didn't work good. The direct drive works much better for TPU.
@maxheadroom Afaik prusa has a different construction to reduce the vibration from the added weight and uses lighter stepper for the extruder so this is not an issue there?
> TPU would compress/stretch on a 40cm distance between extruder and nozzle too much. Retract didn't work at all and normal feed also didn't work good. The direct drive works much better for TPU.
Maybe you were feeding it too fast and/or used a too wide of a bowden tube and/or too thin of a TPU?
... How did you added the second Z-lead screw? Just a brace or is there a mod that adds a stepper for the Z-axis like prusa has?
@maxheadroom Cool! What kind of PCB is it using?
@kreyren it's the stock Ender 3 V2 32-Board version 4.2.2
@kreyren or do you mean that fancy tiny PCB on top of my extruder in the picture?
@maxheadroom No the PCB used by the printer itself.. ehh that doesn't have a socket for a 2nd Z-axis motor as far as i am aware though? It is like a connector that splices both steppers together or?
@kreyren yes, exactly. It uses a Y-Cable splitter for the Z-Axis stepper motors to connect two to the single port on the PCB.
There are other kits which work without a second stepper but with a belt drive on the top gantry.
@maxheadroom and the connecting of both steppers to one port works without issues?
I would think that it would create a power management issues
@kreyren I think I've printed about 40 hours with this new setup. No issues so far.
@maxheadroom that's cool! thanks i will be doing that upgrade too.
@kreyren haha fancy task management. I see you were looking into silencing the Ender as well. That was also my first upgrade. Replaced all fans with Noctua. A huge difference in noise level.
However, I think my Hotend setup was suboptimal and allowed heat creep into the upper part of the Hotend and melted the bowden tube.
@maxheadroom I actually opted against the noctua as they are significantly less economical in comparison to sunon with which i so far had a good experience and should be sufficiently silent.
Worst case scenario they are well balanced in terms of the construction and the fan is removable so i can do fluid simulations in FreeCAD for airflow and optimize that further.
https://www.gme.cz/ventilator-sunon-ha40101v4-1000u-999
https://www.gme.cz/ventilator-sunon-mf60101v2-a99-a
> However, I think my Hotend setup was suboptimal and allowed heat creep into the upper part of the Hotend and melted the bowden tube.
ye also have issues with heat creep they are managable with the stock ender-3 atm, but i don't like it's energy efficiency as it requires a fan constantly blowing on the hotend.
I have scheduled tests to find an alternative solution, but so far didn't get to it.
@kreyren if I need to touch my Hotend again, I'll probably switch to an all-metal Hotend. That should reduce the risk a bit. The DirectDrive kit came again with the noisy stock fans from Creality. Will eventually go and replace them as well. But this time probably also opt for the Sunon fans to ensure proper airflow.
@maxheadroom You probably have a better option to sunon in germany from the last time i was looking for them..
i just picked the sunon as i don't like waiting for delivery :p
@kreyren haha, I'm an impatient person as well. Would have to check an see whether I got the proper voltage and size. For the Noctuas I used Buck converters. Those are the PCB sitting right above my old Hotend. But I also wired them slightly wrong so that the speed control doesn't work theoretically.
I'd probably have to find and print a new fan duct for the direct drive. But for the time being I'm too lazy for that ;)
@maxheadroom Hmm looking at the fan construction it might be worth it to redesign it so that it's printable including the motor part so that the phases then can be wrapped manually with copper wire.
@kreyren what's that for?
@kreyren I bought a readymade kit with a second lead screw, 2nd stepper motor, New X-Gantry mount and Y-Cable. Was easy to install.