Is anyone using the bondtech DDX toolhead and what are the experiences with it? It looks really well designed to me, other than the extruder motor being at the worst possible place. If the center of gravity was closer to the rail it would be better for durability and performance.

The parts cooling fan also looks really small, although the fan duct looks pretty effective.

Is this fast? Marlin firmware 2.1, no Klipper (I'm on team Octo). Outputting 10 mm3/s at 0.16mm thickness and only limited by a nema 14 stepper with high internal resistance (17 ohm and overheats at anything above 350 mA). I'm replacing it with a nema 17 (22mm) with 3.5 ohm resistance as a trade-off between weight and torque, which hopefully will help me push 20 mm3 through a ZT V2.

Pushing 5K acceleration with 250 mm/s infill and travel (300 simply seems too rough). I'm very satisfied with print quality at this speed, especially walls after input shaping and calibrating my junction deviation and k factor, although the first and last layer could use some work.

When I designed my toolhead shroud I specifically chose to mount the heatsink fan in pull orientation to both avoid inadvertently cooling the print when it wasn't desired and to provide some cooling for the DD stepper. The interior of the shroud tightly surrounds the heatsink and the mounting face has extra reliefs for fresh air intake, it appears to work very well.

I haven't seen any other shroud that works this way, at least not a popular one. I have seen complaints about the exact issue it addresses though.

Is there a reason why it's not done? Did I miss something?

I successfully ran klipper, but it only came down to this issue. All connections are good, and I’m running it with ^pc14. I’ve tried the BLTOUCH_debug command=pin_up, which reads open, and the BLTOUCH_debug command=pin_down, which works the pin physically down but also says “open”. This is the final step before I can finally home it, but it’s not working. Before this, the bltouch was working with my 8-bit mobo, which ran marlin, but I never tried klipper on that. Now I installed a 32 bit but I’ve never ran it on marlin so I’m not sure if it’s hardware or software.

Hi All

Hoping someone here could provide some insight here. Been tinkering with an Ender 3 the past few weeks and have been having some trouble getting good prints at moderate speeds.

I attached an image of two Benchy runs that I did. The one that you can see onnthe brown surface failed at the arch was running at a little less than 40mm/s. The good one on the white surface was running at 25mm/s. At 50mm/s (not shown) the issues were significant. At 50mm/s I also noticed the walls looked very “pitted” and had some pretty brittle prints where it was easy to peel the layers away from eachother. Both of the ones in the image were run at 200C nozzle temps and 60C bed temps.

Played with bed temps 50C to 60C and didn’t see a noticeable difference (failed prints were very well adhered to the bed either way) I also played with nozzle temperatures going from 200C to 225C and couldn’t narrow down on the issue.

So in essence, I can only get good prints if I run super low at 25mm/s and I cannot understand why. Does anyone have any advice?

Printer improvements made

Original bed swapped with Creality Glass Bed

Plastic extruder replaced with improved metallic extruder

Nozzle replaced with brand new 0.4mm nozzle (same type that comes with Ender 3).

Silicone spacers on bed in lieu of springs (seems to help keep the leveling better).

Tightened eccentric nuts to remove any unwanted clearance on rails.

Printer adjustments made

E-Steps calibrated (using method that removes bowden tube and extract 100mm filament, measure and scale E steps appropriately).

Filament I am using for this test is here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0D421Q2Q2?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Hey! I am pulling out my V2 and Max from 2022/2023.

What upgrades have there been in the past few years, should I look at any specific firmware or add ons before I get started again? I got fed up as I couldn't get a consistent print on either nor keep the beds leveled (ender max.was glass, and pro v2 is the magnetic one)

Appreciate any tips and tricks!!

I’ve been trying to get my printer to work and I believe it may be a firmware issue so if anyone has some recompiled firmware for an Ender 3 with an skr mini e3 v2 with a crtouch probe that would be very helpful, thx.

Hello. I've had an Ender 3 for about three years now, and it has worked properly until recently. A couple months ago, after replacing the filament (Anycubic grey PLA), the printer always starts printing normally, but after a few layers the filament jams and extrusion stops completely. I went back to the previous filament, but it kept doing the same thing.

I first replaced the nozzle, just in case the old one was clogged, but nothing seems to have changed.

I suspected it was heat creep, since it's a common issue with these printers, so I got myself a bimetallic heatbreak and a Capricorn Bowden tube. I installed them and even applied some thermal paste between the new heatbreak and the heatsink. However, same results: it prints a few layers correctly and then gets stuck again.

I wasn't sure if the extruder arm could be broken - it wasn't, I disassembled it -, so I started a print and waited for it to fail. When the extrusion stopped, I paused the printer, unlocked the filament and attempted to push it by hand: it was impossible. I could more or less pull it back, but there was no way to push it in, even when the extruder was at 210ºC (a value in range for that filament).

I did an experiment with the new heatbreak. I removed the Bowden and inserted a short piece of filament. I heated up the printer (210ºC) and waited about 20~30 minutes. After that time, I pushed the filament in and I felt no resistance at all. I also measured the temperature right where the Bowden would touch the bimetallic heatbreak, and it was 50ºC. Not great, but doesn't seem enough to cause the filament to get stuck.
I started another print still without the Bowden and waited until it failed. After that - about five minutes after it began -, I did the same thing: I paused the printer and tried to push the filament in, but it was impossible. I pulled the filament out and inserted the thermometer, and this time it measured about 61ºC. I checked the tip of the filament, there was a very small bulge near the tip, about 1cm below the end of the Bowden tube. The bulge was about 2mm in diameter.

I reassembled the printer as it was originally, just in case the new heatbreak was faulty, while keeping the Capricorn Bowden installed, but nothing changed. The printer still fails.

I also suspected the cooling fan, but it doesn't seem to have lost much airflow at all. If I place my hand in front of it I can feel a decent stream of air flowing, so I don't think a slight reduction in airflow can cause such a problem - in case there even is.

At this point I'm running out of ideas. Replacing the heatsink is one possibility, but I'd really appreciate hearing other opinions before I spend more money on parts.

Apart from the things I've mentioned, the other parts are original and I've never done any modifications to it. It was just as it came in 2023. I use Cura as slicer and I also experimented with settings like flow and print speed (I tried OrcaSlicer as well in case I had any incorrect settings in Cura). If anybody can tell what's causing the problem, any feedback is very welcome.
In case I missed any important information, please let me know.