Hi all,
I'm getting some issues with filament loading through the extruder (downstream of the chameleon quad filament junction).
I'm using an all metal dual gear extruder and it seems the filament loads into the gears but often causes the stepper motors to skip before exiting the extruder. The extruder does well with single filament when manually loaded, but doesn't seem to like it when fed automatically.
Any recommendations on better extruders to use with the ender 3 V2?
Also, I was curious about using the 3Dchameleon directly for the extruder function on the output side of the quad junction. It sounds like this was the original intended use on an ender 3 but resulted in complications while troubleshooting?
v/r,
Glen
Personally, I use the BMG style extruders... but if it's just hitting the edge of the PTFE, then you can flare it... or insert a small section of smaller diameter PTFE that is narrower... like our clear 1.8mm for just that little section.
Perhaps you could use our PTFE coupler to integrate it... but make sure you don't change the length... so that our 10second 10inch load unload timing is still maintained. Also, make sure you flair the inside of the tube to guide the larger diameter into that smaller diameter... that will align it to the middle of the opening for your extruder. The PTFE coupler is here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4806296
Did a little more troubleshooting tonight and it looks like the issue is that things are getting caught on the edge of the boden tube on the exit side of the metal dual gear extruder I'm using. If I remove the tube, it seems to have no problems pushing filament through the hole on the output side though this probably makes any alignment issues less critical (but also far less useful).
I'm wondering if perhaps my metal extruder is just not up to the task of allowing filament to be loaded cleanly without catching. In normal service, it would always have filament loaded beyond the exit point. I'll keep trying to work on flaring the end of the boden tubing to help the loading process. Not sure the capricorn tubing I have is helping me much in this service as it is very stiff relative to other tubing I've seen and clearances may be tighter down the tube.
The extruder seems to have plenty of power once it grabs the filament and it's hard to make it skip manually once the filament is past the output of the extruder.
I'll try to doublecheck the load speed. When the downstream extruder skips steps it does so continuously even after the chameleon has released the filament to allow the extruder to continue to feed it down the line so I think the problem is in my extruder at that point and not differential speeds?
Does anyone have an extruder recommendation that might result in more reliable initial feed through?
I can think of two scenarios where that might be an issue... 1, is the stepper motor current high enough? My guess is it is... but it is one place to look. 2, are they trying to load and two different speeds? Normally our loading speed is 1s per inch... and your extruder should load that at that same speed... what ever that equates to. (about 25mm / s.) If it's loading slower or faster than that, it will cause the two to fight each other. As for your last questions... get it out of your mind... please don't even consider it... it's more headache than you could possibly imagine. ;-) (That was a previous generation of device, and this one is not supported in that mode.)
Bill