DIY: 3D Chameleon on Prusa MK2 Clone

Dear Bill:

Half a year ago, I stumbled upon the 3D Chameleon, while searching for a MMU for my beloved Prusa MK2 Clone.

Back these days, 3D Chameleon was no open source project jet. So I checked the price for a 3D Chameleon to be delivered to Europe. Totally cost (incl. Tax, Delivery) more than USD 300. No way I would pay that much.

So I started to build it by my own. Thanks to Bill, lots of videos and this forum, I managed to find out, that an Arduino might work as an controller for the 3D Chameleon - Bill mentioned that at an interview I saw.

I had quite a lot of fails during the build - but I learned a lot and I could solve all the problems I ran into.

For example:

Fried two UNOs during finding the right input- output Pin for the swich (I guess).

I was building the 3D Chameleon on a breadboard. Maybe I was not concentrated enough.

Attached the NEMAs to the board. No movement - only weird sound. Had to study more of the background of these puls driven motors to find out about the (correct) micro stepping.

The Cam of the 3D Chameleon did not fit at all. No way to get it over the NEMA shaft. To much (or less) tolerance. So I printed the Cam in 95%, 98%, 100%, 102% and so on. Finaly I got it. A perfect fit.

The Springs. No dealer in Europe. Lots of other springs - but not the once I needed. Bought some in China. They looked simular but did not do the job. Finaly ordered the springs in the US - Amazon US only accepted credit card and did not accept my European Bank account. God knows why. Do we live in the 21th century?!

With the right springs I was hoping, that the problem of T1 and T2 filament moves at the same time would be solved. Nope. So I tested endlessly different bearing carriers. Printed nearly hundreds of them. With minimal to no success. Near to the point to throw it all through the window, I watched Chris Riley for the (that is what I thought) last time. I became aware, that my sel-motor was spinning in the wrong direction. So it was never calibrated the right way but seemd to work correctly. Had to figure out how to revers the direction. Pretty simple - as it turned out.

And the 3D Clippy - oh - lots of hours. I needed a 45 degree cut - so I had to redesign it and test, print, repeat...

cut

Well, I thought this is it. But no! The work just begun.

Calibrating and optimization of the g-code took just exact the same long time.

Long story short: have a look at the pictures... And do not give up. Have fun!

Test print with fuzzy skin enabled...

From top to bottom: Filamentalist spool holders for rewinding, 3D Chameleon, Electronic enclosure

I love the logo and the display

3D Clippy with 20kg servo. Driven at 8.6V outside specification. 25kg would be better...

Left: open enclosure with power converter for 3D Clippy and the Switch - Right: Enclosure prototype

Guess what? Yes: 10 Colors in the near future?

How it all began... Here I was checking my design versus the first open source step Bill made...

To all Makers and Bill: thank You for sharing these ideas to the public. I will now switch to T1 after homing... :-)

All the best to You! Stay safe and healthy. Greetings from Germany,

googler 25