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Source Of Truth?

I recently bought and installed my 3D chameleon, but it was not without its hardships.

I'm wondering if there is a DeFacto guide for setup for both standard and advanced modes. The playlists on the 3D chameleon page are unlisted for some reason so I had to find those manually. Also, the only instructions for advanced mode include all the stuff for the MK2 in there as well, nothing about the new firmware which really changes things.

The most manual process was the GCode generator. It seems many people have problems with it, I had to use a new browser and go incognito and the GCode it spit out was all messed up. Had to go in and manually add newlines and indentations. Not to mention I see it has GCode for turning the fan off, but none for turning it back on. I saw a forum post about it but it doesn't appear to be fixed in the current version.

Overall the experience was mixed, but it's a vert cool product. I would really just hope for

Two YouTube videos for the MK3 with both advanced and basic installation using the new firmware
A reliable GCode generator
More information on 3DClippy
Actual links to Thingiverse files instead of just saying grab them from our page (it takes you to anything with 3D chameleon in the name, some being made by Bill and some aren't even related to the product.

6 answers0 replies

6 Comments

Paul Phillips

Jun 28, 2023

I know it would take a bit of time to film, but yes, a step by step walkthrough from opening the box to working unit for even one printer (please let it be an SV06!) would be an ideal starting place where we could each jump off from for our own various printers. I am sitting here looking at the various screws, bolts and plastic bits wondering where to start. I still need to go source a spring for the cutter, but not even sure what length to get. Maybe I'll partially assemble the cutter and take it with me and test out various ones. I'm thinking I'll swing by Lowes/Menards later on today to see what they have as options, anyone have recommendations of what they used?

woodwaker_dave

May 02, 2023

Bill, I see your point, as the designer and producer you are too familiar with the product. I think what is needed is a complete set of videos showing the MK3 from arrival to successful printing. A lot of the videos are old and show various versions of the 3D chameleon. That was my first concern when I received mine the video that is linked in the instructions was for the MK2, and had many differences to my kit. I know for you many of the changes are small and big improvements, but to the user who just received the kit and trying to follow the video it is quite a concern. A area that has confused me and many others is the shims used to change the relationship to the filament rollers. I also have mine sitting on a shelf waiting for more time to work on it. I'm trying to make a mount for a RAT RIG and figure out the switch selection, so even more new territory for me. I hope you see that a lot of the feedback is from users who want the product to work, but have various levels of expertise and would like a complete instruction manual with pictures or video links for each step.

Nathan Reed

May 02, 2023

Good luck man. I struggled with this thing for a month and a half and never got a decent print. More struggle than result. Useless "help" and following rabbit hole and rabbit hole. Definitely false advertising going on here. Wish it worked but I'm betting if a survey was taken the amount of please customers is incredibly small vs sold amounts. Wish you luck though

Bill

May 01, 2023

Hi Kelton,

My plan is to have the videos be the source... but I really need to know exactly what everyone wants... I'm not a video expert, nor a documentation expert, so I'd love your input on what is missing or what you want. ;-) I can't see what is missing, because I'm too entrenched in knowing how exactly everything works.

But, here's a start on what you're asking... 1) I am working on exactly that.

2) This is not an issue with our website, but rather a bug in Wix's latest update to their platform... as stated in the other thread, they are actively working on it... but in the mean time, please feel free to send me an email with the details you need and I'll generate it for you. This just appeared in the last two weeks, but we haven't changed the code in 6 months... we have an active open ticket for it. 3) 3DClippy is an open source project... I've published a few videos on it... but I really don't know what more is needed for it... it's simply a cutter that is mechanically activated... please tell me what it is you think is missing and I'll get it for you. 4) Please tell me specifically what you're referring to... the links in all of our videos are up to date as far as I can tell... if I'm missing something, then please tell me where.

As always, my email is Bill@3DChameleon.com and I'd love to help you with any questions at any time.

Bill

Kelton O

May 02, 2023

Replying to

I appreciate the quick response.

I think the main thing would be to have some sort of official documentation page instead of reading posts. I've spent hours reading forum posts to figure things out.

I had to find an old forum post to figure out how to reverse stepper motors for the different tools in direct drive which lead me to an old YouTube video. Had to read a forum post about the fan turn on. Etc..

Addressing the issue I had with sourcing the STL files for the chameleon parts. Some things are on tinkercad, some on thingiverse.

I also can't find any reference to the reversedrive.py script in the instructions.

As far as 3DClippy goes, I know it's not your project to maintain, but it seems like people who use it have dramatically better results, I see it as almost necessary to get repeatability on the machine. So I feel it deserves a section in the documentation.

I am wiling to help identify more pain points. But my feelings can be summed up by saying that this is a $200 product, my ender 3 cost me $275 so I am paying for most of another machine. But there are basically no official instructions for this whereas even cheapo printers will have official included instructions.

woodwaker_dave

May 03, 2023

Replying to

Very well stated. I think we all want to support Bill and what is a good product, that could become much better with some consolidated documentation. I saw this as a way to get multi-color - multi-material for my Rat Rigs. I have a Bambu X1 Carbon with the AMS it is slow and wastes material , but works out of the box. I have a 5 head Prusa XL on pre-order and too many projects going on at this time to spend much more time on getting the 3D chameleon working, I agree that the 3D Clippy seems to be a solution to a lot of the problems that I have seen in the forum.