Broke stuff on hotend... (all fixed!)

[redoverred]

So I went to revamp my hotend wiring with some connectors and add in some connectors for LED lighting and 40mm fans on my RMv2 and ended up breaking the heating element on one side. Lesson: don't fix what ain't broke.

I know I could just get a new resistor, but I decided to go hog-wild and buy the E3D v6 hotend and the SeeMeCNC J-Head mount for it. I wanted to go for the dual extruder setup or even the tri-nozzle that is being talked about here, but since I don't currently have a hotend I can't even print a mount and no one sells a Dual-E3D mount for our printers! Anyways, I think I can do pretty much everything I want with a single hotend anyways, so I'm just going to keep it simple, since I'm stupid.

In the mean time, I'll be making a redesigned 3x 40mm layer fan mount for the E3D, putting in a thin copper heat distribution plate for below the build glass, creating a better system to attach the glass and copper than the tabs I made a few days ago, designing an enclosure, and wiring up some fans in the base of the printer. Then when I get the hotend, I will have tons of projects in my queue to print!

Overall, I have to wait 2 weeks or so for the parts I need to get here, so I may as well do some overhauling in preparation since I've been running it for about a month now. Also, my poor printer can get some rest for a bit since I've been running it ragged!

Edit: see my post near the bottom, I installed the new parts!

[Jimustanguitar]

Check out the YellowJacket mount, it's great!
http://makerhive.proboards.com/thread/6 ... tock-orian

I also use some knarps from the BMX store to connect my heater leads (you can see them best on the top hot-end).
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xjXbato.png[/img]

[BONE]

I remember seeing this before and liking the design. I see a piece that holds the E3D v6 hotend on the top, but I do not see it in the kit photo. The assembly video only shows the stock hot end being assembled.

[redoverred]

Check out the YellowJacket mount, it's great!
http://makerhive.proboards.com/thread/6 ... tock-orian

I also use some knarps from the BMX store to connect my heater leads (you can see them best on the top hot-end).
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xjXbato.png[/img]

Ooo, I ordered a mount already, but I totally wish I had see that one first!

[Jimustanguitar]

I see a piece that holds the E3D v6 hotend on the top, but I do not see it in the kit photo.

That's correct. The kit comes with what you need to attach the stock hot-end. To mount a JHead, you have to remove a perforated knockout on the board to turn the center hole into a keyhole shape, and you have to use a clamp. I'm using the clamp piece leftover from my Trick Laser kit http://tricklaser.com/J-Head-Groove-Mou ... JHGMNT.htm

Brian actually makes a spacial piece (larger hole in it) just for the E3D. Shoot him an email and he'll make some up.

[BONE]

I just order the arms and LED light ring from trick laser, so I might have to wait on this. I'm using the Monolithic platform design right now. I might work the Yellow Jack mount in the next platform design. There are somethings I want to change already and I want to add a layer fan. That mount would be perfect for plug and play devices and fans. I'll just order one any and work it into the next design.

[Jimustanguitar]

I like it because I can switch hotends without having to cut and reterminate wires.

[redoverred]

I just order the arms and LED light ring from trick laser, so I might have to wait on this. I'm using the Monolithic platform design right now. I might work the Yellow Jack mount in the next platform design. There are somethings I want to change already and I want to add a layer fan. That mount would be perfect for plug and play devices and fans. I'll just order one any and work it into the next design.

As soon as I get my E3D v6 and get it mounted I'm going to take measurements for a layer fan shroud modification for my stock 3x 40mm fan shroud and model it. Might take a few weeks to get it here, install it, make the model, and test it, but keep on the lookout.

[Eaglezsoar]

I see a piece that holds the E3D v6 hotend on the top, but I do not see it in the kit photo.

That's correct. The kit comes with what you need to attach the stock hot-end. To mount a JHead, you have to remove a perforated knockout on the board to turn the center hole into a keyhole shape, and you have to use a clamp. I'm using the clamp piece leftover from my Trick Laser kit http://tricklaser.com/J-Head-Groove-Mou ... JHGMNT.htm

Brian actually makes a spacial piece (larger hole in it) just for the E3D. Shoot him an email and he'll make some up.

I bought two of the YellowJacket boards that I want to use for E3D.
Could you tell me what Brian's email address is so that I can order some of the clamps?

[Jimustanguitar]

[email protected]

The other clamping option is to use a hot-end heating indicator: http://tricklaser.com/LED-hot-end-heati ... ED-HAT.htm
The triangle shape has the same hole pattern, and they're stiffer and lighter.



Eagle, the other things that you may consider.... Brian custom made me some custom 40mm standoffs to mount my E3D V6. It's long enough to clear the new fan shroud on a version 6. You'll also need to figure out screws that are a little bit longer and know that your clearance below the effector platform will decrease a tad.

[Eaglezsoar]

[email protected]

The other clamping option is to use a hot-end heating indicator: http://tricklaser.com/LED-hot-end-heati ... ED-HAT.htm
The triangle shape has the same hole pattern, and they're stiffer and lighter.



Eagle, the other things that you may consider.... Brian custom made me some custom 40mm standoffs to mount my E3D V6. It's long enough to clear the new fan shroud on a version 6. You'll also need to figure out screws that are a little bit longer and know that your clearance below the effector platform will decrease a tad.

The hotend heating indicator should work fine. Thanks for the reply!

[redoverred]

[email protected]

The other clamping option is to use a hot-end heating indicator: http://tricklaser.com/LED-hot-end-heati ... ED-HAT.htm
The triangle shape has the same hole pattern, and they're stiffer and lighter.



Eagle, the other things that you may consider.... Brian custom made me some custom 40mm standoffs to mount my E3D V6. It's long enough to clear the new fan shroud on a version 6. You'll also need to figure out screws that are a little bit longer and know that your clearance below the effector platform will decrease a tad.

Do the stock standoffs not clear the fan shroud for the v6? If not, do you think it would be wise for me to just inset a series of washers to make the difference? I'm thinking it would be okay under compression and wouldn't move around, but I am no expert.

[redoverred]

Well, I got my new e3d v6 wired and did a bed leveling test and it works! The seemecnc j head mount isn't the sturdiest, but it'll do for now but I will be replacing it for sure. I did tweak the settings for the firmware to use dead time for the hot end and bed and some other stuff as well and then reuploaded it and restored my calibrations. This time I wired everything with quick disconnects so it is much cleaner than before and I was able to shim the stock standoffs just the right amount to fit the e3d supplied fan shroud and fan. With the shims, my nozzle was literally right at the same z0.0 that was set with the stock hot end! I'll take photos tomorrow!

[geneb]

It's plenty sturdy for the job it's designed to do. It's light and holds the hot end in place.

g.

[redoverred]

It's plenty sturdy for the job it's designed to do. It's light and holds the hot end in place.

g.

It just weirds me out that it bends so much (the top part). It works fine for sure, but also I want to get rid of my stack-o-washers shim device and printing a mount is basically the easiest way for me to do that I think.

[redoverred]

https://imgur.com/a/TrxsU

Here are the photos. As you can see, I installed quick disconnects for everything using some pre-wired JST connectors I bought from a link in a thread I saw here (I forget where, though). I put all of the connectors the same way (female on frame, male on hotend) except for the thermistor which I did in reverse to ensure I plugged everything in properly every time even if they are color coded.

I also "color coded" the connectors (kind of) with tiny zip ties in different colors, hotend is red, hotend fan/LED expansion is green, and blank/no tie is the layer fan. I also added one connector (you might see it) in parallel with the hotend's fan for use with LEDs later since it's always on when printing.

I haven't connected any layer fans yet since I'm working on a modified 40mm x3 shroud for my e3d v6. Also, I managed to shim the stock standoffs with some of those white shims leftover from the build and some washers. There isn't much room on the stock machine screws on the ends once they go through all that stuff, but I did get the nylon locknuts on there so the screws go all the way to the other side of the nut so it's safe and secure!

I also modified the firmware to have higher max temperatures, use the dead-time heat manager rather than PID, and a few other tweaks that I saw that I wanted to include. The dead time manager for the hotend is SO AWESOME! I recommend it to EVERYONE. It is faster and the temperature stays PERFECT all of the time now. The bed works about the same as before, but I was getting spikes to 60 C when I had it set for 50 C with the PID method (no matter how many times I calibrated the PID values or recalculated them by hand) but that is gone with the dead-time method now. For the bed, you can set the heat manager in the EEPROM settings, but I'm not sure for the hotend if you can do it since I did the hotend in Configuration.h before I uploaded it and did the bed after it was uploaded. If you want to use it, you set the heat manager for the hotend/bed to 3 (PID is 1) and then set the PID_P value to the time in seconds that is your dead time (http://www.repetier.com/dead-time-control/). I used 3 seconds for my hotend dead time and 12.5 for the bed and they work great.

One thing I did notice was that the stock firmware settings for the thermistors from the seemecnc github use the custom 97 and 98 thermistor tables. I changed the 97 on the hotend to type 8 since that's what they use in the e3d v6, but 97 worked fine when I had first tested it, so I assume that seemecnc guys did some tweaking on the thermistor table to make them more accurate or something. Basically, type 8 and 97 seem to be the same or close enough to the same in the seemecnc github version of the firmware.