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Feeding Bertha


xyleth

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this is a continuation of my Voron 2.4 build log and will detail my build of the Siboor 8ch ERCF kit.

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The kit has arrived and the printing is (mostly) done.  Just waiting on some transparent ABS to print the couplers in.

I am building a 8 channel ERCF with the ERCT filament buffer to mount on my 2.4.  I dunno if I'll ever use all 8 channels, but that was the size the kit came in.

As I really don't want to have to rebuild my tool head yet again I am planning to add the EREC filament cutter which mounts onto the ERCF selector and cuts the filament tips there rather than going with the Filametrix.

One thing I am struggling with as a consequence is a toolhead filament sensor.  I have the Bondtech LGX-Lite Pro extruder and while this has a mounting hole on top specifically for a filament sensor no design currently exists, and I'm not sure my novice CAD skills are up to modifying one. It is sufficiently different from the LGX Lite that designs intended for that extruder don't fit.  The tension arm has a wider sweep and it has this little nub to guide the bowden that the plain LGX lite doesn't, both of which get in the way.

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I am considering one that mounts on the bowden just before the toolhead entry, like this example but I'm not sure how well that will work with ERCF and Happy Hare.  I'd welcome commentary from those who have more experience with MMU builds, I believe @mvdveer is one of the resident experts here?

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14 hours ago, xyleth said:

I believe @mvdveer is one of the resident experts here?

Sorry no expert, just an avid builder. Thus both my ERCF toolhead and Tradrack toolhead still have CW2 extruders, as these were easy to adapt to dual toolhead sensors - lots of mods on printables for this. There is also a toolhead mod for the Galileo 2, but have not tried it as yet.

As ingle sensor before the toolhead entry will work well, as long as you define the position on relation to the melt zone and hotend nozzle:

See here

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Well that is two more than I've built!

Thanks for the link, that's very helpful.  If I can't finagle one onto the top of the extruder itself I'll use the inline one I linked.

I've also added The Blobifier to the plan, except instead of the brass brush I'm using a mirrored version of the Bambu Lab silicone brush I already have to protect the cartographer probe.

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16 hours ago, xyleth said:

've also added The Blobifier to the plan, except instead of the brass brush I'm using a mirrored version of the Bambu Lab silicone brush I already have to protect the cartographer probe.

Very wise - have converted all my brass brush nozzle scrubbers to the Bambu labs brushes. Gotta try the blobifier - thanks for the link.

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  • 5 months later...

Question for the overnight (from my perspective).  One of the M3x8 Socket heads holding the gearbox onto the 2020 extrusion is sitting slightly proud of the unit:

image.thumb.jpeg.14a678ba0fd5428222def3faa174b728.jpeg

 

Is this something I need to worry about now (maybe changing to a 6mm) or is it fine as nothing is going to foul it there?

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Some more pictures of the WIP.

A few thoughts.  The ERCF documentation doesn't seem to be quite as...comprehensive as the Voron docs?  There have been more times where I've had to stop and have a good think about what the instructions are trying to say, and how that relates to the parts from my kit, than I did with the Voron.  Or at least it feels that way.  It doesn't help that Siboor don't provide an annotated build guide for the ERCF, simply a webpage with a list of statements like 'Page 99: At this point, you should install the selector LED lights'.  Despite pg 99 saying nothing about LEDs in the original document, nor it being entirely clear (except with hindsight), why it is relevant at that point.

There are also some additional parts, LED carriers mainly, that you need to print that aren't then referenced anywhere in any of the documentation - it is apparently just supposed to be obvious where they go and when they're needed.

Also those of you who have done this before will have probably spotted my beginners error with the ECAS couplers.  If not then learn from my mistakes - insert the little blue bits before you insert the coupler into the printed part.  Seriously.  It'll save you having to, say, disassemble the entire thing to replace a channel base that failed under the stress of inserting the thing.  Or two filament paths that likewise died.  And of course it was channel #1 that failed so I had to take almost the entire assembly to peices.

Still, gives the printer something to do I guess....

 

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Looking really good.  I think I mentioned in my build that the documentation can be very confusing at times. For example the servo arm installation is not mentioned in the documentation but it is in the setup_calibration readme.

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1 hour ago, mvdveer said:

Looking really good.  I think I mentioned in my build that the documentation can be very confusing at times. For example the servo arm installation is not mentioned in the documentation but it is in the setup_calibration readme.

Thanks 😀. I am at least getting very familiar with taking it apart and putting it back together!

Can I ask did you power yours from the printer PSU or use a separate, dedicated PSU.  I have the parts to do either and am unsure which would be best.

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3 minutes ago, xyleth said:

Can I ask did you power yours from the printer PSU or use a separate, dedicated PSU.  I have the parts to do either and am unsure which would be best.

I powered mine from the printer PSU, Just have a set of Wago connectors at the top back of the printer so I can disconnect power and can bus in order to take the unit off when I need to do maintenance.  One of the future projects is to add a Deutsch Connector to the backplate to make it easier to disconnect. But currently work is busy and I am servicing the Voron 2.4 before tuning the BoxTurtle, so time is limited.

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A few shots of the unit assembled with the ERCT buffer unit.  This was...a pain to assemble.  The Siboor kit uses a PCB for the gate microswitches with absolutely no direction of how to fit that into the assembly sequence.  In the end I found it was easiest to assemble the ERCT off of the ERCF, holding it together with the M3x8 screws in the spool area and then clipping the filament blocks into place.  You could then drop the ball bearings in, put the PCB in place and screw the microswitches to the filament blocks.

When doing this make sure you attached the provided ribbon cable for the switch connections to the controller board before you mount the ERCT to the ERCF.  Ask me how I know 😛

Speaking of doing things out of order, I now realise that the EREC filament cutter mod requires a custom encoder block.  So I've had to disassemble the encoder and will have to rebuild it from scratch with the custom block!  It does mean foregoing the LED on the encoder block, but I feel that is a good trade off.  So that's why there's a picture of it encoder-less below.

Question for anyone with experience of the ERCT - two of the ERCT wheels have much more resistance than the others.  I suspect I'm going to have to disassemble it to sort it out - did anyone else have this kind of problem and what did you do to resolve it?

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Also, is there a trick to getting the MCAS fittings in without splitting the piece you are inserting them into that I'm missing?  Because currently I'm 50/50 on weather the part will split or not as the MCAS goes in.

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3 hours ago, xyleth said:

Also, is there a trick to getting the MCAS fittings in without splitting the piece you are inserting them into that I'm missing?  Because currently I'm 50/50 on weather the part will split or not as the MCAS goes in.

Not that I am aware of, other than printer tolerances. Had a few split on me as well. Gentle does it, but difficult as it is a tight fit. Try and adjust the seam position in Orca, don't know if it would make a difference.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got around to fitting the filament sensor just above the toolhead after a short wait to get some appropriate sized JST connectors in.  And....it worked perfectly first time.  Maybe I'm getting good at this?

@mvdveer if you'll excuse the ping, can I ask how you mounted the ERCF on your Vorons?  I'm getting to the point where I need to hook it up and power it up to start the config phase and I've realised that it's actually too small to directly mount on the extrusions that make up the frame.

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4 hours ago, xyleth said:

@mvdveer if you'll excuse the ping, can I ask how you mounted the ERCF on your Vorons?  I'm getting to the point where I need to hook it up and power it up to start the config phase and I've realised that it's actually too small to directly mount on the extrusions that make up the frame.

I mounted to extrusions across the top of the machine and mounted the ERCF to that. These are the brackets I used. But there are many other options. It just depend were your Filament buffer is going to sit and were the spools will be located.

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