Quick Change Hotend board

[bvandiepenbos]

Could I drill a hole in the correct location without messing up the board electrically?

Actually I would bore the new hole on the mill with a carbide end mill so any hole overlap would not pull bit off location.

[stonewater]

purchased mine toaday!

Tom C

[Jassper]

Could I drill a hole in the correct location without messing up the board electrically?

Actually I would bore the new hole on the mill with a carbide end mill so any hole overlap would not pull bit off location.

NOTE: This issue has been corrected, leaving post for reference.
You can if you are really careful, It comes dangerously close to the neg trace for the LED connector (blue dotted line) It looks like you might cut into it, but not cut it completely. I would also recommend a Nylon screw so it doesn't contact the edge of the LED trace to the edge of the top copper trace causing a short. OR, mill the top opening larger, half way threw the board, and the bottom hole keep at 3.35mm. That would keep the top trace edge further away from the screw boddy. If that works out for you, lets talk. I might have a few done like that for these special cases.

Again, this only is a factor for a few Rostocks. If you are using the standard Hotend, There is no issue. If you use a Groove mount with the SeeMe effector plate, then you should be able to use the error clamp here: http://www.themakerhive.com/FTP/jassper ... _error.stl to clamp the groove mount in place.

[img]http://www.themakerhive.com/FTP/jassper ... _error.jpg[/img]

[stonewater]

got my board yesterday, is there any assembly instructions for the new version? ... I could figure it out but I thought I would ask.
Tom C

[626Pilot]

If this had support for two hot ends, and enough space in the middle to run the Bowden tubes for an E3D Cyclops/Chimera/Kraken, I'd be interested. Maybe in the future you can think about doing a "pro" version. I don't need a hot end mount, but a "patch panel" for all the wiring would be really nice.

[Jassper]

Build video is published, https://youtu.be/a3hlvcpuvuY

as well as on the sight
http://www.themakerhive.com/shop/viewit ... oductid=20

Sorry it took so long.


@626Pilot, sounds interesting. I'll look into it.

[stonewater]

Jassper,

the V6 hotend from E3D does not fit into my board. first I had to file the large hole to get the end to pass thru, which is in the instructional vid, then had to file the small hole so it would slide over into the center of the board, then the thermistor connector sticking down actually hits the cooling fins preventing me from completely inserting the hot end into the slot and bolting it in.

any work around for this other than wiring the thermistor directly to the board? and using a different connector?

Tom C

[Jassper]

Can't delete

[Jassper]

Jassper,

the V6 hotend from E3D does not fit into my board. first I had to file the large hole to get the end to pass thru, which is in the instructional vid, then had to file the small hole so it would slide over into the center of the board,

Actually the video states that the small hole must be filed, It helps to also file the larger hole, but mine fit fine but was a little snug, so I will enlarge that holes as well.
The reason the small hole must be filed is because the SeeMe hotend is 11.5mm while the most of the Groove mount ones are 12mm.

then the thermistor connector sticking down actually hits the cooling fins preventing me from completely inserting the hot end into the slot and bolting it in.
any work around for this other than wiring the thermistor directly to the board? and using a different connector?

Tom C

It's either wire the Thermistor directly, or use a standard 2 pin 0.1" spacing header. As pictured.
[img]http://www.themakerhive.com/FTP/jassper/QCHE/e3d.jpg[/img]

This and the miss-aligned hole will be address in the next batch, but right now I am having a sale on the incorrect ones!! (limited time)
http://www.themakerhive.com/shop/viewit ... oductid=20

[stonewater]

thanks for the response.

Tom C

[Jassper]

Alternate to using the Pluggable connectors if you are already set up with JST's
[img]http://www.themakerhive.com/FTP/jassper/QCHE/alt5.jpg[/img]

[Jassper]

Corrected boards should be available in about 2 weeks. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Those of you that have purchased a incorrect board will be given a chance to buy at discount.

[Jassper]

Version 3 boards now available and going fast
http://www.themakerhive.com/shop/viewit ... oductid=20

Issues corrected:
Corrected off set mounting hole for the Groove mount style hotends.
Moved Thermistor connector out as far as possible so hopefully the plug-able connector provided will work without obstruction.
Added a 16mm circle and moved all traces outside this circle to prevent any shorts and also provides a safe zone for anyone wanting to mill out the center hole bigger.

[jlmccuan]

The web site says "Available Soon". Are they available?

[KAS]

The web site says "Available Soon". Are they available?

Looks like six in stock: http://www.themakerhive.com/shop/viewit ... oductid=20

[jlmccuan]

Thanks. Mine is on the way.

[Jassper]

The web site says "Available Soon". Are they available?

Yes they are available. The "Available Soon" tag was brought to my attention and taken down.
The page shows 6 in stock at the moment.

Thanks for your patience.

[Midnight Rust]

Sweet, I just ordered one of these. Gotta wait for my backordered TrickLaser stuff to start building, but I've got a couple questions in the meantime.

Call me a dummy, but once you've bridged the pads to make the holes live, what do you do to attach the TrickLaser LED ring and tophat?

For the two fan connections, is one supposed to be the hot-end fan while the other goes to the layer fan?

If I'm planning to have three layer fans, (plus the hot-end fan, a total of 4 fans) how should I wire it?

Are there any issues with using this board and the Prometheus v2 hot-end? All the specific advice seems to go towards the E3D.

I think that's everything. Sorry if I've asked anything I could have figured out by just waiting to physically hold the products.

[nitewatchman]

I wired my three fans together in parallel using a wye pigtail on two of them with one leg going to the connector on the QC Board.

One lesson learned concerns the wires going into the connector to the QC Board. Even after restraining the wire at the plug the wire fatigued from flexing during rapid reversal and broke. I solved my problem at least by terminating the connector using short lengths of Piano Wire crimped and soldered to the connector pins. The fan wires are then soldered to the piano wires and insulated with heat shrink tubing. Solved my problem, no broken wires since. Plus if they do break they are just tagged back to the piano wire.

gary

[Jassper]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.

once you've bridged the pads to make the holes live, what do you do to attach the TrickLaser LED ring and tophat?

Not sure which version of the light ring you have, but the latest one also has jumper pads to solder. then the wire leads can be removed.

For the two fan connections, is one supposed to be the hot-end fan while the other goes to the layer fan?

Correct, or you can wire both to ground so they are on all the time if you want.

If I'm planning to have three layer fans, (plus the hot-end fan, a total of 4 fans) how should I wire it?

Wire the 3 layer fans in Parallel (reds together and blacks together)

Are there any issues with using this board and the Prometheus v2 hot-end? All the specific advice seems to go towards the E3D.

Should work just fine with the Pro

[davec3275]

My apologies for posting in an old thread, but I just purchased one of these boards and am looking for some help.

I have the current stock wiring on my V2 hot end (i.e. 2 18 gauge wires for hot end, 2 18 gauge for thermistor, and 4 26 gauge wires for each of the fans). No matter how much i look at the wiring diagrams, I cannot for the life of me figure out which wire goes where in the connector. I know I need to solder 22 gauge wire onto the 18, but that is about it. Since each fan has 2 wires (red & black) where do they go? Do they get soldered together and placed into 1 slot?

My PEEK fan is set to always on and the Layer fan is controlled.

Thanks for the help.

[Jassper]

Hi davec3275

Wires from the V2;
The Red 18awg hot wire for the Hotend will need to be split into two 22awg wires as you mentioned, then put one into Pin 1 and one into Pin 2, Ignore pin 3.
Do the same with the Black 18awg wire for the hotend but put them into pins 4 and 5. Pin 6 is left empty.

Again you will need to reduce the two 18awg Thermistor wires to 22awg wires (only one 22awg for each 18awg, not 2 like the hotend wires) and connect one wire to pin 8 and the other to pin 9 of the main connector (doesn't matter which).

The fans only need to use the ground side as the Hotend positive will provide power to the fan. The fan speed is controlled via PWM on the ground side only. So you only need to connect the ground wire for each fan into pins 10 (Fan 1) and pin 11 (fan 2). The other 2 wires are now extra and you can re-configure them to run the LED ring if you want. Agian you will only need one for the ground side.

Then simply plug the fan itself into the appropriate fan connector on the board.

[davec3275]

That sounds simple enough. Much clearer too. So the fans will run as normal like that?

Hi davec3275

Wires from the V2;
The Red 18awg hot wire for the Hotend will need to be split into two 22awg wires as you mentioned, then put one into Pin 1 and one into Pin 2, Ignore pin 3.
Do the same with the Black 18awg wire for the hotend but put them into pins 4 and 5. Pin 6 is left empty.

Again you will need to reduce the two 18awg Thermistor wires to 22awg wires (only one 22awg for each 18awg, not 2 like the hotend wires) and connect one wire to pin 8 and the other to pin 9 of the main connector (doesn't matter which).

The fans only need to use the ground side as the Hotend positive will provide power to the fan. The fan speed is controlled via PWM on the ground side only. So you only need to connect the ground wire for each fan into pins 10 (Fan 1) and pin 11 (fan 2). The other 2 wires are now extra and you can re-configure them to run the LED ring if you want. Agian you will only need one for the ground side.

Then simply plug the fan itself into the appropriate fan connector on the board.

[Jassper]

That sounds simple enough. Much clearer too. So the fans will run as normal like that?

They should ,yes

[626Pilot]

I have a great idea for version 4. You're gonna love it.

There are so many wires going to the hot end. I currently have twelve, use every one of them, and still have support for only one heater/thermistor! I propose a method for reducing this. It requires only a few wires, but can control (for example) a full Kraken hot end (4 heaters + 4 thermistors), LED ring, hot end cooling fan (or not, if you have a Kraken), part cooling fan, LED ring, Z-probe, servo, or whatever else you want.

1: High-current Vcc (12V)
2: High-current ground
3: Low-current Vcc (5V)
4: Low-current ground
5+: Signal wires

The reason for separate grounds is to help reduce noise from the hot end/fan PWM, which might conceivably interfere with some of the more delicate 5V circuitry, like - say - an accelerometer-based Z probing solution, like SeeMeCNC is working on.

The signal wires can carry I2C, SPI, or a self-clocking one-wire protocol in the fashion of this driver I wrote for running NeoPixels off a Raspberry Pi. I2C is probably the easiest (2 wires), SPI needs a few more wires but can run faster (if it really matters?), etc.

Downstairs, where the electronics are, is a board with a small MCU, like an Arduino, or Teensy++ 3.2 or LC. (LC is cheaper and probably good enough, and has one native 5V pin for driving NeoPixel rings.) On one half of the board, a bunch of pins take hot end and fan PWM signals. The MCU reads these once every millisecond or microsecond or whatever resolution is necessary to accurately carry the signal. (1uS is better than 1mS if we want to carry Z probe data.) Analog and digital (PWM) signals are read, converted into whatever wire format (I2C etc.), and shipped upstairs to a satellite board on the hot end. The connector for this uses optical couplers so that you don't fry the MCU if you disconnect the cable with the power turned on.

The satellite board decodes the signals. For the outputs, it has some FETs going to six pairs of pins. These are for running up to four hot ends, plus one hot end and one part fan. The remainder of the output signals have their own FETs, or maybe just regular old transistors, and go to the 5V pins.

Inputs from the thermistors, Z probe, etc. go to the satellite board's MCU, are converted from analog to digital, and sent downstairs to the other MCU, where they are turned back into analog signals and sent to the 3D printer's controller, which has no idea that an intermediary is handling its signals. (However, thanks to the opto-couplers, it will be very appreciative of not being fried to hell if you disconnect the cable. I destroyed the thermistor pins on a Smoothieboard like that once.)

Bonuses:

• Put an accelerometer on the upstairs board. Have the MCU turn that into a consumable endstop signal by analyzing the change in acceleration.
• Make the upstairs MCU drive a NeoPixel ring. This could reflect the hot end temp, bathe the part in a beautiful RGB light show, or whatever.
• Add an I2C or SPI port to the downstairs board so that a 3D printer controller with requisite software can communicate directly with the upstairs board, freeing the user from having to run dozens of wires all over the place.

Oh yeah - make the hole big enough for a Cyclops/Chimera or Kraken hot end.