E3D V6 Upgrade... And new questions

After my recent upgrade to the E3D V5 hotend (as reported here), I have now received my E3D V6 today (I ordered only Tuesday this week, and although the lead time for the V6 was supposed to be a week, it shipped the same day, and was delivered today, this Friday morning, in only 3 days, from UK to the Philippines! Wow!).

With a new hotend come new questions... And I wonder if anyone else of you who have installed the V6 have run into the same, so far.

1. Fan confusion. In Tom's review of the V6, at around 1:00 in, he states: "... the V6 also comes with the updated and quieter seven-blade fan instead of the noisy five-blade one that came with the early V5 hotends." Now... In my case, the V5 (ordered and delivered mid-May) already came with a 7-blade fan. However, the V6 that I received today comes with a 5-blade fan. The labels on both fans are exactly the same: "RD3010B12H, DC12V, 0.08A, Two Ball" So... Is this just a shipping mistake? Or did Tom get it backwards? Should I keep the 7-blade fan (already wired up), or switch it for the new 5-blade fan?
   
   
2. One of the main things I'm trying to achieve ever since I got my RoBo is to print flexible filaments like NinjaFlex or Flex EcoPLA. I have had some success following codeblue's instruction here (inserting an 1/8" brass tube into the extruder), and I was at least able to print Flex EcoPLA. No success yet with the (much softer) NinjaFlex or Flex-PolyEster (Shore 40D), they keep curling up in the extruder. Now, from what I understood, the piece of PTFE tube that comes with V6 could be run all the way up through the extruder, until just below the hobbed bolt, to allow for a better lead of flexible filaments. Howewer: The PTFE tube's outer diameter (4mm) is way to thick to fit through the duct in the extruder. My question: Has anyone here who has also installed the V6 been brave enough to extend the duct with a 4mm drill, so the PTFE tube can fit? Is this advisable, or are there any strong arguments against doing that? And... If it goes wrong, which part exactly do I need to download and print as a replacement? Is that part available somewhere in Thingyverse?

Thanks again in advance for any ideas and suggestions.

 

Im waiting on my v6 as-well but I do know that you can download the extrusion assembly as a replacement form here from here
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:69794

 

Thanks, Collin. I had already found the extruder on thingiverse, and tried two prints, which both failed (due to the support material. The extruder needs quite some support, and I don't have much experience with that. Wasn't able to make the support layers stick to the bed). So, I gave up on that, and just disassembled and modified my extruder without a backup. What could possibly go wrong?

Anyway, in the meantime, I

1. decided to simply stick with the 7-blade fan that came with the V5. It was already wired up anyway.
   
   
2. Disassembled my extruder, but ended up using a round file (and not a 4mm drill) for extending the filament duct mo make the PFTE tube fit. At the top, it stands out about 6 mm... It cut it so that it barely doesn't interfere with the hobbed bolt.

After reassembling everything, it printed the usual PLA just fine as always. Then I tried Flex-PolyEster (Shore 40D), and... Success! I was finally able to print 2 different objects with that flexible material, they came out great. Still no luck with NinjaFlex though... That one seems to be too floppy even for the PFTE tube. I read somewhere that some oil might help... Will experiment further.

I wonder if anyone here has successfully printed NinjaFlex on the Robo (with or without modifications) so far?

 

Maybe you could help us v6 people out and take a photo of the wiring and positioning of the e3d in the robo. I have having some issues deciding that now too..

 

Im still on the fence about putting that tube in. I have my e3d up and working with no issues. I dont want to disrupt a good thing.

 

Sure, I'll do that. Just give me some time to disassemble my hotend assembly again (I was going to do that anyway, once I have the molex connector for properly wiring up the new print head to the existing cabling. Right now, it's pretty much make-shift.). I'll then take photos of the various steps, and post them here.

 

Ah, cool. Interesting that you cut your tube so that it has only a small hole for the hobbed bolt, but the smooth bearing presses against the tube (and not the filament). On my end, the PTFE tube ends just straight below the hobbed bolt.

I'll experiment further with modified speed/retraction settings.

 

I'm working on installing my e3d v6 as well. I want to cut the wire to fit the original molex connector, my question is has anyone figured out where to get a compatible 4 pin molex connector? Part number and such?

Also, is anyone doing this with an R1 with the auto leveling bed? I've read that I need a different firmware and can't figure out where to go to modify it so that I can heat up the e3d to cure it at the recommended 300c...

 

This is the latest firmware for R1 https://www.dropbox.com/s/hd6djpsdaaqiumw/Auto_Level_6_10.zip

 

I have exactly the same problem: I haven't been able yet to find (offline or online) the 4-pin molex connectors used here (and for the heated bed). Would have imagined it's a fairly standard item, and easy to find in hardware or electronics stores... But no. I'd also be thankful for any pointers.

Yes, I had the very same question. You can find the latest Marlin firmware with auto-leveling support here, courtesy of Mike. See this thread for details.

 

Just starting this upgrade and I wanted to post some positioning pics for reference. It doesn't seem to fit right with the blue fan shroud bump on top, which would allow a little more freedom orienting the heat block, but I sure think it looks sexy. .

 

Great looking photos

 

Thanks Mike! Here it is with the block wiring in place. I'm wiring up the mini fan now, and I'm sure I saw a post here somewhere about where to land the terminals, but I can't find it, argh. Please help!

 

Red and black wires plugging into the red/green wire terminals.

 

Thanks again Mike! Here is how it looks on my machine:

I am in the process of flashing the Arduino board with this: Auto_Level_6_10.zip as you described earlier. I made the two changes in the Configuration.h section and successfully flashed, but now the homing is all wacky. Hard to describe, so I made a quick video here:

I started a print to confirm that it started printing in mid-air, ignoring the z endstop position. Anyone else had this issue?
BTW, same result when controlled from Repetier Host, so I don't think it is related to the lcd screen controller.
Update: I think I figured this out for anyone who has this issue - I have an early (pre bed leveling R1) machine and needed to use the Marlin 3-14-14 firmware.

 

Is this the latest firmware with the modifications for the e3d V6? sorry if its a silly question, I got my e3d v6 installed and am having a hard time finding a thread explaining the changes I need to make.

 

Never mind! I found some more info and have changed #define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 295 //robo

I have noticed that my E3d Print head likes to print PLA at 205deg C now... Is this expected? before 205 it doesn't easily extrude PLA.... do I need to change the temp of PLA and ABS now that I'm using the E3Dv6 head?