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Dual extrusion mod for C2

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by mark tomlinson, Feb 15, 2017.

  1. RoboticsRob

    RoboticsRob Member

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    hey Mark, know of anyone making us of this guide or your latest firmware to convert an R2 to dual extruders?
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I am not sure if anyone has tried that, but ... it would be easier in at least two ways.

    1) the internal wiring inside of the extruder mount that goes form the up-town board to the down-town board for the second extruder is probably already in-place. I had to add that on the C2. Not complicated, but extra work that I detailed in the thread. The wiring and connectors are probably already in-place which would save time.
    2) There is already a pre-made mounting point for the bowden extruder to fit in on the outside-back of the R2. They clearly thought that part out ahead of time.
     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Ultimately with dual-extrusion the real challenge is software and modeling (not the hardware). Slicers have to be smart enough to deal with two (non-independent) extruders on the same carriage and the modelling has to account for dual-extruders too. We usually just model around the need for it and seldom actually use the dual extruder printers for dual extrusion.
     
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  4. RoboticsRob

    RoboticsRob Member

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    Hey Mark, I can confirm that the wiring from the mainboard for the second extruder is present in the R2, and I’m fairly positive I saw the uptown to downtown jumper in there as well last time I assembled the extruder assembly; but I’d have to double check.

    The mounting for the Bondtech BGM Robo was going to ship with the upgrade kit is present on the back of the R2. Remove the left rear upright cover and you can see the mounting location for the extruder and stepper.

    Like you mentioned, the hardware is the easy half of the upgrade.

    Sorry to send it a bit off topic from the C2. I have many thoughts on this and if I decide to look further into the R2 dual extruder setup I’ll post it to the R2 forum
     
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  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    No problem :)
    There is not a lot of people interested in dual extrusion on a C2, it was a "because I could" not a "because I should" sort of thing.

    Thanks for confirming that. When I pinged them about it way back they seemed surprised (rightly so) that anyone had even though to loose print area on the C2 by adding a second extruder... and I thought they indicated that the R2 extruder chassis would have the wiring in place. That was an extra added annoyance that I am glad is not there for the R2.

    The plus side is that with the effort to add it, it works as any other dual-extrusion (with ganged extruders) works. Not as good as a Sigma with independent extruders, but it does work if you model and slice for it correctly. Cura is supposed to work, but I only ever had actual success with Simplify3D. The others all barfed in some way, shape or form.
     
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    P.S. I know @Geof has some dual-extrusion miles under his belt and some of the old-time (and probably gone) members like @Mike Kelly had as well. Not sure about the current crop.
     
  7. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    even in "todays great age" dual extrusion outside of an ecosystem is just hard. You can make it work but I personally prefer an Idex set up (two extruders on seperate drives that work independently of each other). Trying to get two hotends to line up just perfectly on the same carriage fixed, then set the offsets, then apply the offsets to a print on a regular basis and hope nothing changes....its hard. The absolute worst part is that second nozzle can very easily catch the print and ruin your day.

    Not trying to talk you out of it- but I firmly believe that if it was easily achievable and working it would have been a release.
     
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  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yep, even if you are not USING that second extruder.
    I Second the notion that getting the leveling IDENTICAL for the two hotends is a challenge.
     
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  9. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Back in my day lol 2012 -2013 before I had Robo machines I had a home build machine with dual extruders and the only way I got it to work as accurately as single nozzle was by milling the nozzles as an assembly - mechanically setting gets close but after the heat seal process it’s not as close - depends on your needs but at that time I needed identical and it was a nightmare. In 2015 or 2016 I bought my idex machine and while still a giant pain- it works easier
     
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