RepRapPro Tricolour improvements

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Introduction | Frame assembly | Y axis assembly | X axis assembly | Z axis assembly | Heated bed assembly | Extruder drive assembly | Hot end assembly | Wiring | Power supply | Commissioning | Printing | Multi‑colour/multi‑materials | Colour Printing - Slic3r | Colour Printing - RepRapPro Slicer | Maintenance | Troubleshooting | Improvements

A notice about these instructions!

These instructions are open to editing by everyone and anyone.
For the official, and most up to date, instructions, see the RepRapPro wiki here


This is the place to describe upgrades and improvements to the RepRapPro Tricolour

Quad Colour

When I look at the tricolor there is a space which could easily fit another hot end. As far as I can tell, electronically the endstop connections and thermistor connections are electronically identical on the board.

Is it possible to use an endstop connection in the same way as a thermistor connection to determine the temperature? If so, would it be possible to use the power connector for the fan to power a hot end?

If both of these work, then it should be possible to add another extruder and hot end to the tricolor to make it a quad colour.

What do you guys think?

(If I had one of my own to play with I would test it, but currently don't have the money to buy one/the parts for one). JackBlack 09:49, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

Generally, we're using the extra nozzle space to mount a fan. It's certainly possible to mount another hot end, and there's a couple of spare motor axis controllers, and you could use the extra 'fan' terminals to control the 4th heater, too. The problem, as you have pointed out, is attaching another thermistor to control it. The endstops can't be used, as they go to digital pins on the Arduino, not the analogue to digital converter (ADC) pins. However, the spare ADC pins are broken out to the pins of J16, so it may be possible to create a circuit that uses them.

Ian, RepRapPro tech support