E3Dv6 hotend

With minor exceptions, I've been very happy with my Mendel90 ever since I burned up the last of some crappy filament. It has been printing reliably and the already good quality only improves (as I learn, tweak, and repeat). My Mendel90 was produced in late November 2012 and therefore has a few issues with known fixes, most of which I haven't implemented. It's time I buckled down. Since the printer will be apart anyway, I was considering swapping the original hotend for an E3Dv6, mostly for the ability to swap nozzles but also for the increased maximum temperature.

I see from the comments that most folk are happy with the E3Dv6 on their Mendel90s, but just wanted to do a sanity check. Exactly which model E3Dv6 to get has me scratching my head too, but I've only just begun looking at this. I was also thinking about making the jump to 1.75mm filament, but to my surprise, it seems like the more exotic filaments, which are my main motivation to change the hotend, have better availability in 3mm.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2016 04:11PM by Rural.

I personally have the 1.75mm fitted to my mendel 90. You can do a swap but:
- the print cooling fan will not fit ( i think someone has resolved this: [forums.reprap.org] )
- the E3D fan duct was mounted to the right (from looking at the front), which just fits if the wingnut is placed with the wings front to back
- you will loose some z height
- i opted to increase the filament path diameter of the wades block to 4mm so that i could run PTFE tubing all of the way through for less filament bending
- i had to grind flats on to the steel bar used for the wades tensioning block in order to get the filament to grip the hobbed bolt correctly
- i put in an extra pair of wires for the E3D fan

Even considering these issues i would do the same again, just remember to change the z height when your done!

I am very happy with my Mendel 90 and my 3mm E3DV6 Hot End direct version This is.
I have my Mendel90 since 2014 and my E3DV6 since 2015.

Recently Nophead updates the GitHub repository to include the E3D Hot End. E3D-Addition
The parts that changes are de x_carriage_fan_duct, x_fan_bracket and the wades_block.
Nevertheless I had been using without any problems the E3DV6 with the original wades_block
and without the x-carriage_fan_duct.

The electric connections that I did are shown in the attached image.

One more thing, I realize that one of the three M3 x 16 mm cap screw has to be replaced by a M3 x 12 mm
to avoid crash with the idler block. In the manual this corresponds with the Stage 19: Extruder Assembly Step: 2

or you can just about squeeze it in with the fan clip mounted upside down

Just ordered my direct E3DV6 and printed a couple of new parts for it. I've got a couple of questions:

I can't read electric diagrams, it looks confusing Does much change on this front? Would anyone have a picture of how it's wired?

What is a safe maximum heat? What can the current Mendel90 setup reach?

Thanks

the fan has to be wired in to always on, i wired mine to 12vin and etemp-. i set my maximum heat to 280 because of the PTFE liner, you wont often need anything greater than this though

Thanks for the reply. Attached is an image of my current setup. I'm a bit confused as to where the correct wires should go for the new setup.

Could anyone give me some advice on:

Where do the black and red wires need to go for the hot end cooling fan?

Where do the black and red wires for the thermistor need to go and in what order?

I don’t want to wire anything wrong and damage the new hot end.

Thanks

the thermistor and heater element both go onto the small pcb, just like the j-head configuration, polarity is not important. Like i said, for the cooling fan you need to find 12v to power it on at all times, on mine, the red wire goes to the same connector as the yellow cable from the power supply into the melzi. the black cable goes to the negative etemp connector on the melzi. Don't forget to adjust the z height in the firmware as the e3d is longer than the j-head

Did you run the cables for the fan all the way to the melzi board? Can I use any of the pins on my PCB board?

I'm not very got with electrics... as you can tell.

What is the height loss from using the E3D?

Is there anything else that needs to be changed in the firmware?

Thanks

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2016 04:07PM by danlad1631.

Danlad - The fan can be connected to the left connector marked P P and the left H.
For the E3D the thermistor type needs to be changed to 5 in the config.h

Thanks for the reply. If I put the red cable in the left H and the black cable on the left P the fan works, but I get a 0 reading on the hotend temp. If I switch the cable around the fan doesn't work. Any thoughts on why?

Should the fan run constantly even when not printing?

the fan should run constantly even when not printing. I added extra wiring to mine to connect straight to the melzi

Ok thanks. I was trying to workout from your previous post what yellow cable it is on the melzi? Is it the one with all the yellow cables joined together?

Going down the pcb route, why would I be getting a 0 reading from the hotend?

Thanks

A zero reading on the hotend temp suggests that the thermistor is disconnected somehow. The fan needs to be on continuously including after printing until the hotend is cool to avoid heat creeping up.
The fan is probably polarity conscious so needs to be reversed to change the air flow direction.

Thanks for the help, got it working!

Just to to check. When I stert to heat the hotend up, the fan turns off. Is this correct?

Then when it's reached the target temp the fan comes on, is this correct?

When the print stops, the fan stays on until I turn the power off. Is this correct?

Thanks again.

No, the fan should be on all the time. It sounds as if it is wired incorrectly. What you are describing would happen connected to the wrong heater wire.

Ok. I've got it connected to the left H?

It stays on once it's started printing and once it's stop.

This may sound stupid, can I print the new fan duct in PLA? I don't have any ABS and never print with it.

I do have some tglaze, would that work?

i wouldn't recommend PLA, it would sit too close to the hotend and start to melt!

Perhaps the heater wires have changed since I built mine 3 years ago. I would try the other one. My fan stays on all the time.
PLA will melt, as mentioned. PETG would be my choice or polycarbonate. I'm not sure about Tglaze but it would be better than PLA.

I've managed to find a bit of abs, not enought though! Got enough to do most of it, so I'm hoping to change it with pla for the last bit. lol

Couldn't get the abs to stick! Would anyone mind printing me a fan duct for a fee?