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Diamond Hotend supporting 3 filament colors at once.

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Ben Lindstrom, Apr 2, 2015.

  1. Ben Lindstrom

    Ben Lindstrom Active Member

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  2. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Be wary. The maker of this does not have the best reputation.
     
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  3. Galaxius

    Galaxius Well-Known Member

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    That's pretty cool but I think I like the Cyclops better. Though Spectrum gives thousands of colors with a single nozzle/hotend/extruder. It's exciting times.
     
  4. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Spectrom only works 1 color per layer.
     
  5. Galaxius

    Galaxius Well-Known Member

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    At the moment
     
  6. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    There's the mosaic as well. Similar idea to the spectrom, but it splices multiple filaments rather than coloring a single feed.
     
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  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    3D printers now feel like computers did in the 80's*
    It was fun building and learning, but many swear words were spoken.

    *what I remember of the 80's through an alcohol induced fog at least :)
     
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  8. cosber

    cosber Active Member

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    Yes, it was fun, and there is something about being on the cutting edge, but sometimes I wish printers felt like 21st century computers.
     
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  9. FlyMario

    FlyMario Member

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    I don't get it, if you have only one nozzle there must be some color mixing. Do they move the head over to another area and extrude a bit to get to the second or third color? I don't see how the color could be that on demand.
     
  10. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Yeah you need to use a wipe and prime tower to purge any filament still in the channel
     
  11. FlyMario

    FlyMario Member

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    Well, I meant if you have 3 colors coming down to one nozzle like the Diamond.
     
  12. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    I knew what you meant, that's how you do it without mixing.
     
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  13. Ben Lindstrom

    Ben Lindstrom Active Member

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    Yet in their videos they don't show that happening. They state they retract the filament and push the new one in. So as far I can tell they don't purge the print head.

    Later they show color mixing where they extrude two colors and blend them into a single color in the print.
     
  14. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    It is a pretty small mixing chamber, might be possible. You'd get a small color blend on transition but that would probably disappear before the outer perimeter. I think mixing would be very difficult without some sort of chamber to "combine" the colors. According to E3D you tend to end up with "Toothepaste mixing" with two halves of the color.
     
  15. Ben Lindstrom

    Ben Lindstrom Active Member

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    I'm as clueless on this as a congressional person is about the "average American"... =) I can only go off the video they did for color mixing:



    So either they did something magical or they somehow are pulling a fast one. =)
     
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  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    It looks like all that they are mixing in is really the nozzle (or effectively just the nozzle). That would minimize the transitions.
     
  17. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    That's definitely interesting. We'll see what happens when someone else gets their hands on one.
     
  18. Stephen Capistron

    Stephen Capistron Active Member

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    If the layers are sufficiently thin the colors ought to mix enough that from a distance any lack of mixing is imperceptible.
     
  19. jbigler1986

    jbigler1986 Active Member

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    That's probably why they are printing vases.
     
  20. FlyMario

    FlyMario Member

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    I guess I read this all wrong, I didn't even consider the fact people were wanting blended colors. I looked at it as if I wanted to run ninjaflex down one element, Abs down another and PLA down another to melt away with acid. Switching between them. Therefore it seemed like this head would have to be purged off the print area when running the other material.

    Seems like a pretty cool head if you wanted to blend though.
     

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