Sourcing

After my bad experience with the “Cyclops/Chimera” clone (2-in-1 with mixing capability), I purchased (June 2019) the improved “Cyclops” which resembles the “Cyclops NF 2-in-1” or “LERDGE 2-in-1 V2” , so I name this variant “Cyclops NF 2-in-1“:

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which can be ordered at AliExpress (affiliate links):

• SANBrother Improved Cyclops (my source) or
• LERDGE 2-IN-1 V2 (slightly different screws holes to fasten heatbreak),

and uses E3D V6 nozzle (clone) and 30x10mm fan on top. The two mounting holes are 24mm apart and fit the Prusa i3 X-carriage.

Further, the two filaments cannot be mixed like the original Cyclops but either filament A or B can be fed into the nozzle, but not both at the same time. Also, one can print with one filament solely, a 2nd filament must not be present.

Pros:

• affordable
• simple setup
• single filament printing possible without 2nd filament being present

Cons:

• cannot mix colors
• long retraction required for tool change (>34mm)
• long transition purge (~55mm)
• custom PTFE or nylon piece in the heatbreak (not easy to source)
• uncoordinated retraction can cause one filament blocking another

Model & Part Cooler

I quickly modeled the heatsink in OpenSCAD:

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so I was able to adapt my Parametric Part Cooler with following settings part_cooler(name="cyclops nf",m=30,wx=25,yoff=10):

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and the printed assembly:

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Download

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3680090

Full Assembly

I finally turned the heatblock around (from the default orientation), so I could see the nozzle better and the LED strip shining more direct on the nozzle and bed.

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Operation

The long tool switching retraction of > 34mm imposes quite additional risk of jamming combined with temperature sensitivity: depending on the temperature the pulled back of end of filament changes shape, and may not able to re-enter at next tool switch – so I’m a bit skeptical on the reliability – time will tell.

As I use print3r solely (without GUI), I set following in the printer profile:

# -- slicer=slic3r, slic3r-pe and prusa only:
retract_length_toolchange = 36

and a small macro named e2-nf-t1.ini for my Ashtar C #1 (380x400x380) Core XY style:

prepend_gcode="G91\nT0\nG1 E20 F100\nG1 E-36 F3000\nT1\nG1 E36 F3000\nG1 E60 F100\nG90\nG92 E0\n"
end_gcode="G1 Y{$machine_depth-10} F6000\nG92 E0\nG91\nG1 E-2 F2000\nM104 S0\nG1 E-36 F3000\nT0\nG1 E36 F3000\nM84\nG90\n"

which I use as print3r @e2-nf-t1 ... in case I like to print with 2nd filament only:

• start:
  • T0: purge 20mm
  • T0: retract -36mm
  • T1: forward 36mm
  • T1: purge 60mm
  • reset E meter and go back to absolute positioning/extruding
• end:
  • go back to Y380 (absolute)
  • T1: retract extrusion -2mm
  • T1: retract -36mm quick
  • T0: forward 36mm quick
  • switch off heating and motors

This way I keep T0 as default, and on-demand switch to T1 only with @e2-nf-t1 macro in operations. One case is not covered: if I abort a print then T1 is still active in the printhead and manually needs to be retracted (future print3r version will resolve this).

print3r --device=tcp:printhub:0 --printer=ashtar-c-1-e2 --random-placement --scad --slicer=cura print 'for(i=[0:2]) translate([50*i,0,0]) cylinder(d=5,h=40)'

That’s it.