Tag Archives: Diamond Hotend

3D Printing: Diamond Hotend Part Coolers Design Reviews

The past weeks (2019/09) I adapted existing Part Cooler designs, and redesigned them in order to work with the Diamond Hotend, as I have been searching for a good part cooler option and did not succeed with what’s out there already.

So here my 3 designs so far with a short review of their use quality:

Dual (or Single) Short Fan Shrouds

At the first sight this looks a promising design, but in reality there were major drawbacks:

  • adjustment of height (vertical) was critical and required fine-tuning
  • tendency to cool down the nozzle instead of the molten filament, in particular at lower layers near the bed
  • max cooling was 35% with my 5015 blowers

Rating: ★★★★

See details at Dual Short Fan Shrouds.

Ring Cooler

As next I designed the ring cooler, with small holes around the nozzle, also adjustable in the height (Z), but the cooling wasn’t really sufficient, as the nozzle still was cooling off a lot (no more than 45% cooling fan with 5015 blower was possible) – quite a disappointment for the rather sophisticated setup, but this general “ring cooler” design has failed for me also for other printheads like E3D V6 or so, and I switched back to “bull horn” like fan shroud.

Rating: ★★★

See details at Ring Cooler.

Single Directional Cooler

This rather simple design turned out the best option so far:

  • wide: 5015 blower runs at 80% without cooling the nozzle too much
  • narrow: 5015 blower runs at 50% without cooling the nozzle too much
  • creates sufficient disturbance around the nozzle to cool opposite side as well

and the XYZ 20mm Hollow Calibration Cubes came out quite well, on all 4 sides the letters were printed OK – not as good as E3D V6 and other printheads.

Rating: ★★★

See details at Directional Cooler.

Addendum: Dual Directional Cooler

Although it seemed logical to use two direct cooler, but the amount of air around the nozzle in operation was too much, and it required 20% fan cooling so the nozzle was still properly heated, but this was too low to provide any sufficient part cooling. So this option, without silicon sock on the Diamond Hotend, is not suitable.

Rating: ★★★ 

Summary

The winner is the Directional Part Cooler as it brings the cool air close enough where the molten filament exits the nozzle, without affecting the bare nozzle too much. As mentioned, either way a silicon sock would be recommended when using a part cooler with the Diamond Hotend – so far (2019/09) there is no commercial source but DIY approach with this thing.

As you can see I used simple E3D V6 Fan mount in combination of LED Strip holder to lighten up the tip of the nozzle and the printing operation.

That’s it.

3D Printing: Diamond Hotend Directional Part Cooler

Diamond Hotend Part Coolers Design Reviews:

This is the 3rd option for a Part Cooler for Diamond Hotend I designed, a pointy directional approach using again 5015 blower:

Screenshot from 2019-09-11 08-55-14Screenshot from 2019-09-11 08-55-30

Assemble

Functional Setup

Parts

screenshot-from-2019-09-13-17-45-31.png

Printable:

  • diamond_cooler_shield_blower-2mounts
  • diamond_cooler_5015-mount-inset-right
  • diamond_direct_part_cooler
    • print without support but with additional brim to increase adhesion of 1st layer
    • print with 0.4mm nozzle / line-width, with a good slicer this gives 3 perimeters for the model with 0.2mm or 0.25mm layer-height
    • -narrow: use ~50% fan cooling, position as low to the nozzle height as possible (e.g. 2mm above, not less, not more)
    • -wide: use ~80% fan cooling: more tolerant on vertical position / height
  • optional:
  • optional (recommended):

Vitamins (Non-Printable):

  • 5010 fan (main heatsink fan)
  • 5015 blower
  • 3x M3x20
  • 2x M3 nuts

Download

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/diamond-hotend-directional-part-cool

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3855947

Throttle Fan & Positioning

Even though the air output is close to the nozzle tip, you might reduce the fan

  • -narrow: use ~50% fan cooling, position as low to the nozzle height as possible (e.g. 2mm above, not less, not more)
  • -wide: use ~80% fan cooling: more tolerant on vertical position / height

to avoid cooling the nozzle and run into “THERMAL RUNAWAY” error – or you use a Diamond Hotend silicon sock, then you likely are able to use 100% cooling fan.

XYZ Hollow Calibration Cube with 3 Colors Mixed

The actual success of this setup is seen in this test cube (printable with 0% infill):

The “X” and “Y” junctions are quite well printed, not as good with a “bull horn” part cooler as with E3D V6 setup.

Addendum: Dual Directional Cooler

Although this looks like a nice setup, the overall output of air to the nozzle is overpowering and cools off the nozzle too much. The cooling fan, in my case, required reduction to 20% to avoid “THERMAL RUNAWAY ERROR”, but at 20% the cooling effect on the extruded filament was less optional than with a single directional cooler – therefore this option isn’t recommended, unless you have a silicon sock over the nozzle.

 

That’s it.

3D Printing: Diamond Hotend Ring Cooler

Diamond Hotend Part Coolers Design Reviews:

After the “Diamond Hotend with Dual 5015 Fans” I thought of using a Parametric Ring Cooler and use a single 5015 blower fan:

Screenshot from 2019-09-10 03-10-20

Screenshot from 2019-09-10 03-10-29

and actually printed and assembled:

20190910_050608

20190910_051222

20190910_051600

Parts

Screenshot from 2019-09-10 11-22-25

  • 1x diamond_cooler_shield_blower-2mounts
  • 1x diamond_cooler_5015-mount-inset-right
  • 1x ring_part_cooler
  • 3x M3x20 to mount 5015 blower
  • optional (recommended):

Best print ring_part_cooler in white PLA, as it obstructs the nozzle quite a lot and if you use LED strip to lighten up the nozzle, white PLA might help to keep the brightness.

Pros:

  • adjust vertical distance of ring to bed/nozzle

Cons:

  • vertical position only adjustable when 5015 blower is deattached

Download

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/diamond-hotend-ring-part-cool

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3853962

 

Addendum: With LED Strip

If you like light near the nozzle, there is ring_part_cooler-x=12,led=true model which looks like this:

Use adhesive LED strip of 50mm length, and tape it underneath, and use some isolated wires to fasten the strip:

 

That’s it.

 

3D Printing: Diamond Hotend Dual Short Fan Shrouds

Diamond Hotend Part Coolers Design Reviews:

The past months (2019/09) I used a temporary setup for part cooling as most designs I explored for part cooling for Diamond Hotend did not work for me – so I finally I remixed an existing design in order to use 5015 blower fans and the “BQ fan shroud”:

20190907_081956

20190907_072421

20190908_093821

Parts

Screenshot from 2019-09-10 11-03-15Printable:

  • 1x diamond_cooler_shield_blower-2mounts
  • 1x diamond_cooler_5015-mount-inset-left
  • 1x diamond_cooler_5015-mount-inset-right
  • 2x bq_extruder_Tobera or bq_extruder_Tobera-clean(air outputs)
    • -clean​” version requires glueing but has no internal obstacle
  • optional LED strip:
  • optional (recommended):

Vitamins (Non-Printable):

  • 1x 5010 fan (main heatsink fan)
  • 2x 5015 blowers
  • 2x M3x16 (each 5015 mount)
  • 1x M3x14 (each 5015 mount, mounting bq_extruder_Tobera)
  • 2x M3x10 or x12 to (each 5015 mount)
  • optional: 4x M3 nuts (within diamond_cooler_shield_blower-2mounts)
  • optional (but recommended): Diamond Hotend silicon socks

Pros:

  • elaborate setup
  • adjustable height (Z) for 5015 blowers

Cons:

  • elaborate setup (same as ‘Pros’)
  • height adjusting only reachable when 5015 blower is detached
  • without nozzle socks don’t use 100% fan, but 20-30% depending on the 5015 blowers in use – otherwise it will cool nozzle down and you get “THERMAL RUNAWAY ERROR”

Assembly

  1. insert M3 nuts into diamond_cooler_shield_blower-2mounts
  2. use 2x M3x12/14/16 to attach diamond_cooler_5015-mount-inset
  3. adjust height as you like (enable part cooler and check air direction)
  4. use 2x M3x16 to attach 5015 blower
  5. use 1x M3x14 to attach bq_extruder_Tobera and simultanously attach 5015 blower too

Fan Positioning

After a few tests I found the ideal vertical positioning of the fans:

  • most vertical top of the fans (like the above photos indicate) at 25% max cooling fan (your percentage may vary)
  • any other vertical position lower in theory should give more surrounding cooling, but in reality the air flow bounces back to the nozzle and cools it down (without socks) much faster

At a later time I may provide alternatives for the bq_extruder_Tobera air output.

Download

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/diamond-hotend-short-fan-shrouds

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3846993 (thingiverse is broken 2019/09)

How I Did It

screenshot-from-2019-09-07-05-56-39.png

Remixed in TinkerCAD

 

That’s it.

3D Printing: Diamond Hotend or Mixed-Color Deep(er) Dive

20190502_133621

It has been a few weeks with the color mixing Diamond Hotend 3-in-1 (there is also an 5-in-1 option) – a few notes:

Pros:

  • affordable, various sources available for 3-in-1 ~10-15 EUR (although the 5-in-1 only from RepRap.me 100-250 EUR)
  • simple setup with 3 (or 5) E3D V6 heatsinks and 3 (or 5) extruders with Bowden setup
  • lightweight mixing color approach using Cyan/Magenta/Yellow for 3-in-1 (plus Black/White for 5-in-1)

Cons:

  • complex prints with a lot retraction voids proper mixing
  • mixing not perfect, depends on material and orientation (front and side might have different degree of mixing)
  • delicate heating procedure: keep it hot between prints or let it cool down to 50C before reheating to 180C or higher again
  • all 3 (or 5) filaments must be present to print even if they aren’t printed but provide resistance to pressure within the nozzle

Starting Properly: Building Up Pressure

Alike with single extruder, with Diamond Hotend one must build up pressure within the hotend so the print is successful:

20190430_122046
20mm XYZ Hollow Calibration Cube: Left: No Pre-Pressure, Right: Pre-Pressure Preparation

This procedure worked for me:

  • extrude from each individual filament 15mm
  • extrude from all filaments together 10mm

The Gcode looks like this:

G91                    ; relative positioning
M165 A1                ; color A
G1 E15 F100            ; extrude 15mm
M165 B1                ; color B
G1 E15 F100
M165 C1                ; color C
G1 E15 F100
M165 A0.33 B0.33 C0.33 ; all colors each 1/3
G1 E10 F100            ; extrude 10mm
G90                    ; absolute positioning
G92 E0                 ; reset extruding position (to be sure)

Hue Wheel to CMY

hsv-shading
Hue Wheel (Creative Commons CC)

Hue wheel is a simple way to remember the colors, and is part of Hue Saturation Lightness (HSL) representation covering entire human color spectrum (more natural than remembering RGB values).

  • h: 0 .. 360 degrees
    • 0 = red
    • 60 = yellow
    • 120 = green
    • 180 = cyan
    • 240 =  blue
    • 300 = magenta
  • s: 0 .. 1 (ignored)
  • l: 0 .. 1 (ignored)
function hsl2cmy(h,s,l) {
   r = ((h+180)%360)/360;
   c = r < 1/3 ? 1-r*3 : r >= 2/3 ? (r-2/3)*3 : 0;   // 1..0..0..1
   m = r < 1/3 ? r*3 : r <= 2/3 ? 1 - (r-1/3)*3 : 0; // 0..1..0..0
   y = r >= 1/3 && r < 2/3 ? (r-1/3)*3 : r >= 2/3 ? 1 - (r-2/3)*3 : 0; // 0..0..1..0
   return (c,m,y);
}

So, in case you use Cyan, Magenta and Yellow filament, you are able to cover some of the Hue wheel – I say “some” as getting Magenta filament seems not that easy – e.g. I used Glowing Magenta (less pigments) vs Rose/Magenta filament, here the two as comparison:

20190415_183743
Glowing Magenta (top row) vs Rose/Magenta (bottom row)

A proper color space mapping is required, e.g. accounting the different pigment density and thereby consider the strength how one color might dominate another in the mixing.

Repeatability

Usually the first print of the day, cooling up from 15-20C room temperature, gives me not a good print, even using my pressure building Gcode, the 2nd and 3rd print color mixing becomes more reliable. Yet, as you can see, color blending/mixing isn’t fully consistent:

20190430_103755

No 1 was 1st print heating up from 15C ambient to 205C – including pre-pressure preparation. No 2-4 were printed with nozzle kept at 205C and not cooling off.

Some wider strips also single layer about 0.25mm thick with 0.4mm nozzle printed with various extrusion multipliers (0.5 – 1.0x):

20190426_172337
Single Layer Wide Strips with various extrusion multipliers: 0.5, 0.75, 0.9 and 1.0 printed at 0.25mm height and 0.4mm nozzle

Partial Mixing: Orientation Matters

Looking from the top of the Diamond Hotend, you have 3 (or 5) filament intakes, and in case of 3-in-1:

  • front (A)
  • back right (B)
  • back left (C)

and the following examples I use

diamond-hotend-sketch-with-filament-wkr
  • white PLA (A/front),
  • black PLA (B/back right) and
  • red PLA (C/back left)

and you clearly see that color mixing is highly dependent on the orientation, using my xyz 20mm Hollow Calibration Cube printed with 0% infill, 2 perimeters, 0.4mm nozzle, 0.25mm layer height:

Front vs Side

Let me focus on three cases more detailed:

20190429_141749
A=50% white, B=50% black

As you can see, white PLA fed 50% through A (front), gives the X face predominent white, whereas the black PLA fed 50% through B (back right) gives the “Y” face predominent black. Ideally, this cube should be mix 50/50 white/black, a shade of grey, but obviously isn’t. The same with red (C) and black (B):

20190429_141944
B=50% black, C=50% red

although the mix in front of “X” face is ok, And looking at A (front) 50% white and C (back left) 50% red PLA:

20190429_142005
A=50% white, C=50% red
20190430_110005
Close Up: A=white 1/3, B=black 1/3, C=white 1/3

And looking at the 20mm Hollow Calibration Cube with A=0% white, B=50% black and C=50% red:

each side has another shade of red, even though 50/50 red/black is defined.

Another example with 50/50 cyan/yellow which should give green:

each side has another shade of green (the opposite sides of X or Y have a dot on the right upper corner for orientation).

Back Pressure: Delayed Color Change

diamond-hotend-sketch-with-filament-wkr

This issue is a bit more complex so let me explain in a few steps:

  • whenever a mix of filaments is pushed out, it pushes out of the nozzle, but also pushes partially back to the passive or non-printed filament(s)
  • eventually when the passive or non-printed filaments gets activated, a pushed back former mix comes out first, before the actual wanted filament(s) come out of the nozzle

Here the single layer mixing examples, where you can see it clearly:

20190430_103755

The width of the strip is 20mm, length is 150mm, making A/B – B – C – A/C transition (equals to Hue wheel to CMY 0..360 degrees transition) where A=white, B=black and C=red PLA, you can see how long the transition is, 2-3 lines equals to 40-60mm printed, which is about 2-3mm filament (ratio is 20x: 0.4mm nozzle vs 1.75mm filament, calculating ratio with circular areas).

Possible remedy is to extrude all filaments with a minimum, e.g. 0.5%, 1%, 1.25%, 1.5%, 2% and 5% as examples:

20190430_125351
Various Minimum Extrusion: 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.25%, 1.5%, 2% and 5%.

In essence you compromise the purity of the colors, but you gain cleaner color change.

So, if color change (without purge tower) is important for the print, and you don’t need pure colors, you may set the minimum for each involved filament to 0.5%, for example:

M165 A0.005 B1 C0.005

Note: If Marlin sees A+B+C > 1, and rescales all parameters to normalized sum of 1.0, I don’t know how other firmware behaves.

20190430_125620
0% vs 0.5% Minimum: Hue Range with CMY filaments: with 0.5% the color change is softer, and back pushed color change delayed (green strip after the blue)

CYW & CYK instead of CMY

Some more tests, using white (W) and black (K) (Netco, purchased via Ebay) on the 3-in-1 to have some idea how 5-in-1 Diamond Hotend will behave:

20190504_101945

White blends quite well to Yellow or Cyan, given the limitations of the Diamond Hotend as illustrated earlier in this post.

20190504_102007

Black dominates very strongly and doesn’t seem to mix well: Dark Yellow didn’t work well as it seems the limited mixing shows Yellow and Black aside of each other; where as Dark Blue worked better.

Magenta Alternatives

Using Rose filament (Noveste, purchased via Ebay) as “Magenta” gives very good transitions with Cyan and Yellow, yet, no classic Red from the mix, which magenta would or should provide:

20190503_104058
CMY transitions with Rose as “M”: 4 phases, Hue wheel, and Cyan/Yellow, Yellow/Magenta and Cyan/Magenta transition

Using Raspberry Rose filament (OWL Filament, Germany, purchased via Ebay) blended or mixed with Cyan and Yellow:

20190506_133103
CMY transitions with Raspberry Rose as “M”: 4 phases, Hue wheel, and Cyan/Yellow, Yellow/Magenta and Cyan/Magenta transition

Quite good results with this single layer strip: so far much closer to red than before, rather deep saturated Orange, not quite Red, and when I printed calibration cubes, I saw the Raspberry Rose filament dominates Yellow and doesn’t properly mix: the change between Yellow and “Magenta” is rather abrupt:

20190507_083237
Abrupt change between Yellow and Magenta (Raspberry Rose), due different pigment density.
20190415_142841
20mm XYZ Hollow Calibration Cube, CMY transition (C=Bright Blue, M=Glowing Magneta, Y=Yellow; from Sienoc)

I will try to acquire better “Magenta” filament, as I haven’t achieved proper Red color by mixing Magenta and Yellow. The Cyan/Yellow mixing works quite well, given both filaments come from the same supplier (Sienoc), one who doesn’t provide Magenta unfortunately, only Glowing Magenta which blends well, but lacks strong color, too translucent.

Comparison Dual/Multi Color/Material Extrusions

blue = relevant positive
red = relevant negative

Independent Dual Extrusions (IDEX)

  • complex setup
  • moderate cost
  • non-mixing
  • dual nozzles
  • dual heatblocks
  • dual heatsinks
  • normal retraction
  • no purge block 1)
  • no oozing over print
  • no inactive nozzle traveling
  • reliable 2)

★★★★★

Dual Hotends 2-in-2

  • simple setup
  • low cost
  • non-mixing
  • dual nozzles
  • dual heatblocks
  • dual heatsinks
  • normal retraction
  • no purge block
  • inactive nozzle oozing over prints
  • inactive nozzle travels over print
  • moderate reliability

★★★★★

Chimera 2-in-2

  • simple setup
  • clone: low cost
  • original: high cost
  • non-mixing
  • dual nozzles
  • dual heatblocks
  • single heatsink
  • normal retraction
  • no purge block
  • oozing of inactive material
  • inactive nozzle travels over print
  • moderate reliability

★★★★★

Cyclops 2-in-1

  • simple setup
  • clone: low cost
  • original: high cost
  • mixing
  • single nozzle
  • single heatblock
  • single heatsink
  • normal retraction
  • purge block required
  • no oozing of inactive material
  • clone: unreliable

★★★★ (clone)

Cyclops NF 2-in-1

  • simple setup
  • low cost
  • non-mixing
  • single nozzle
  • single heatblock
  • single heatsink
  • complex retraction
  • no oozing of inactive material
  • moderate reliability

★★★★★

Diamond Hotend 3-in-1

  • complex setup
  • clone: low cost
  • original: high cost
  • mixing
  • single nozzle
  • single heatblock
  • 3 heatsinks
  • tricky retraction
  • purge block required
  • no oozing of inactive material
  • moderate reliability

★★★★★

Multiple Switching Extrusions (MSE) 2-in-2, 3-in-3, 4-in-4

  • moderate complex setup
  • requires additional servo or motor
  • extendable 2, 3, or 4 colors/materials
  • low cost
  • non-mixing
  • multiple nozzles / heatblocks / heatsinks
  • normal retraction
  • no purge block 1)
  • no oozing of inactive material
  • no inactive nozzle touching print
  • reliable 2)

(rating comes later)

Y Splitter x-in-1

  • simple setup
  • extendable 2, 3, or 4 or more colors / materials
  • low cost
  • non-mixing
  • single nozzle
  • single heatblock
  • single heatsink
  • complex retraction
  • purge block required
  • no oozing of inactive material
  • moderate reliability

★★★★★

Tool Changer

  • complex setup
  • extendable to n-colors or materials
  • moderate cost
  • non-mixing
  • multiple nozzles / heatblocks / heatsinks
  • normal retraction
  • no oozing of inactive material
  • no inactive nozzle touching print
  • moderate reliability

(rating comes later)

Footnotes

  1. in theory no purge block, but if ooze shields are shared among switching extrusions (more than 2 extrusions) there may be cross-contamination between colors/materials
  2. the printheads individually are proven to be reliable

Hints:

  • single heatblock = same print temperature
  • dual heatblock = different print temperatures possible
  • dual nozzle = different nozzle sizes possible

That’s it.

3D Printing: Ashtar K #2 with Diamond Hotend (Multi-Color) with RAMPS 1.4

Updates:

  • 2019/04/17: more photos of examples incl. macro closeups
  • 2019/04/15: 16 palette mixed colors from cyan, yellow and glowing magenta (CMY) photo added, best result of mixing colors
  • 2019/04/12: added Firmware Retraction changes in Marlin, updated Trinary Color Palette
  • 2019/04/10: initial post

I print with Ashtar K #1 and #2 since a couple of months and since about 4 months with Ashtar C #1 successfully, and thought to convert Ashtar K #2 (300×300 build-plate) with a Diamond Hotend with 3 colors/extruders, renamed to “Ashtar K E3“:

20190411_063229

Producing stuff like this:

20190410_221650

20190415_174333

Cyan, Yellow, Glowing Magenta, Cyan Z-transition

Firmware (Marlin) & Hardware (RAMPS 1.4)

In the Marlin following settings are required:

Configuration.h

#define EXTRUDERS 1

Counter intuitively using 3 extruders with single nozzle in mixing operations, keep EXTRUDERS 1 and do not enable SINGLENOZZLE but leave is disabled.

Enable MIXING_EXTRUDER:

/**
 * "Mixing Extruder"
 *   - Adds a new code, M165, to set the current mix factors.
 *   - Extends the stepping routines to move multiple steppers in proportion to the mix.
 *   - Optional support for Repetier Firmware M163, M164, and virtual extruder.
 *   - This implementation supports only a single extruder.
 *   - Enable DIRECT_MIXING_IN_G1 for Pia Taubert's reference implementation
 */
#define MIXING_EXTRUDER
#if ENABLED(MIXING_EXTRUDER)
  #define MIXING_STEPPERS 3        // Number of steppers in your mixing extruder
  #define MIXING_VIRTUAL_TOOLS 32  // Use the Virtual Tool method with M163 and M164
  #define DIRECT_MIXING_IN_G1    // Allow ABCDHI mix factors in G1 movement commands
#endif

Use E0 for Extruder #1, E1 for Extruder #2, and use an Stepper Extender for Extruder #3:

diamond-hotend-ramps14

Configuration_adv.h

Enable FWRETRACT:

#define FWRETRACT // ONLY PARTIALLY TESTED
#if ENABLED(FWRETRACT)
#define MIN_AUTORETRACT 0.1 // When auto-retract is on, convert E moves of this length and over
#define MAX_AUTORETRACT 10.0 // Upper limit for auto-retract conversion
#define RETRACT_LENGTH 3 // Default retract length (positive mm)
#define RETRACT_LENGTH_SWAP 13 // Default swap retract length (positive mm), for extruder change
#define RETRACT_FEEDRATE 45 // Default feedrate for retracting (mm/s)
#define RETRACT_ZLIFT 0 // Default retract Z-lift
#define RETRACT_RECOVER_LENGTH 0 // Default additional recover length (mm, added to retract length when recovering)
#define RETRACT_RECOVER_LENGTH_SWAP 0 // Default additional swap recover length (mm, added to retract length when recovering from extruder change)
#define RETRACT_RECOVER_FEEDRATE 8 // Default feedrate for recovering from retraction (mm/s)
#define RETRACT_RECOVER_FEEDRATE_SWAP 8 // Default feedrate for recovering from swap retraction (mm/s)
#endif

​​pins_RAMPS.h

Add following lines below E1_CS_PIN:

#define E2_STEP_PIN 58
#define E2_DIR_PIN 57
#define E2_ENABLE_PIN 59
#define E2_CS_PIN -1

In case the Extruder #3 (E2) runs reverse, invert it in Configuration.h:

#define INVERT_E2_DIR true

Mixed Colors Prints

Two ways to print mixed colors:

  • M163/M164: define mixing ratio palette and define a virtual tool per mixing ratio which can be used as “T<n>” in Gcode later
  • M165: define mixing ratio right away

Virtual Tools Color Palette

Within ~/.config/print3r/printer/ashtar-k-2-e3.ini I added in start_gcode different palettes:

Trinary Palette

A general palette of 19 mixed colors using 3 colors defined in Gcode:

M163 S0 P1 
M163 S1 P0 
M163 S2 P0 
M164 S0

M163 S0 P0 
M163 S1 P1 
M163 S2 P0
M164 S1

M163 S0 P0 
M163 S1 P0 
M163 S2 P1
M164 S2

M163 S0 P1 
M163 S1 P1 
M163 S2 P0
M164 S3

M163 S0 P0 
M163 S1 P1 
M163 S2 P1
M164 S4

M163 S0 P1 
M163 S1 P0 
M163 S2 P1
M164 S5

M163 S0 P1 
M163 S1 P1 
M163 S2 P1
M164 S6

M163 S0 P2 
M163 S1 P1 
M163 S2 P0
M164 S7

M163 S0 P2 
M163 S1 P0 
M163 S2 P1
M164 S8

M163 S0 P2 
M163 S1 P1 
M163 S2 P1
M164 S9

M163 S0 P1 
M163 S1 P2 
M163 S2 P0
M164 S10

M163 S0 P0 
M163 S1 P2 
M163 S2 P1
M164 S11

M163 S0 P1 
M163 S1 P2 
M163 S2 P1
M164 S12

M163 S0 P1 
M163 S1 P0 
M163 S2 P2
M164 S13

M163 S0 P0 
M163 S1 P1 
M163 S2 P2
M164 S14

M163 S0 P1 
M163 S1 P1 
M163 S2 P2
M164 S15

M163 S0 P2 
M163 S1 P2 
M163 S2 P1
M164 S16

M163 S0 P2 
M163 S1 P1 
M163 S2 P2
M164 S17

M163 S0 P1 
M163 S1 P2 
M163 S2 P2
M164 S18

After that, the virtual tools T0 – T18 are available, printing different mix ratios.

Full Saturated True Color (Hue) Palette

The following (source) defines 16 different mix ratios of common colors with Cyan, Yellow and Magenta:

; Cyan
M163 S0 P1
M163 S1 P0
M163 S2 P0
M164 S0

; Ocean
M163 S0 P5
M163 S1 P1
M163 S2 P0
M164 S1

; Blue
M163 S0 P1
M163 S1 P1
M163 S2 P0
M164 S2

; Violet
M163 S0 P1
M163 S1 P5
M163 S2 P0
M164 S3

; Magenta
M163 S0 P0
M163 S1 P1
M163 S2 P0
M164 S4

; Raspberry
M163 S0 P0
M163 S1 P5
M163 S2 P1
M164 S5

; Red
M163 S0 P0
M163 S1 P5
M163 S2 P1
M164 S6

; Orange
M163 S0 P0
M163 S1 P1
M163 S2 P1
M164 S7

; Yellow
M163 S0 P0
M163 S1 P0
M163 S2 P1
M164 S8

; Spring Green
M163 S0 P1
M163 S1 P0
M163 S2 P5
M164 S9

; Green
M163 S0 P1
M163 S1 P0
M163 S2 P1
M164 S10

; Turquoise
M163 S0 P5
M163 S1 P0
M163 S2 P1
M164 S11

; Cyan-Brown
M163 S0 P2
M163 S1 P1
M163 S2 P1
M164 S12

; Magenta-Brown
M163 S0 P1
M163 S1 P2
M163 S2 P1
M164 S13

; Yellow-Brown
M163 S0 P1
M163 S1 P1
M163 S2 P2
M164 S14

; Brown
M163 S0 P1
M163 S1 P1
M163 S2 P1
M164 S15

After that, the virtual tools T0 – T15 are available, printing different mix ratios.

I used following code to purge 30mm (10+10+10mm) filament from all 3 colors at once at the very beginning (start_gcode):

M165 A0.33 B0.33 C0.33  ; 1/3 for each filament
G92 E0
G1 E30 F100     ; extrude 30mm
G92 E0

Additionally, define the firmware retraction:

M207 F3000 S4 Z0.3   ; set firmware retraction 50mm/s 4mm, 0.3mm zhop
M209               ; use firmware retraction

Printing

For test purpose I have:

  • Extruder 1 (E0 or A): glowing magenta PLA
  • Extruder 2 (E1 or B): violett PLA
  • Extruder 3 (E2 or C): white PLA

As such I prepared 16x 20×20 plates with 1 layer height:

print3r --printer=ashtar-k-2-e3 --slicer=cura --random-placement --scad --multiply-part=16 --output=plates-16.gcode slice 'cube([20,20,0.2])'

which gave me plates-16.gcode which I edited and inserted the “16 colors palette” Gcode, and after each “WALL-INNER” lines I added T0, T1 etc. T15 to switch to another tool (mixing colors ratios) for each plate:

There is no purge block, but I wanted to see how fast the switch is possible. Some issues are once the mix changes the first 10-20mm extrusion may come out under-extruded.

20190410_150238

16 mixed colors from 3 colors (Glowing Magenta, Violet, White)

20190415_110908

16 mixed colors from 3 colors (Light Blue/Cyan, Yellow and Glowing Magenta)

With light-blue/cyan, yellow and glowing magenta gave decent results: the green turned out well, the orange as well, even the violet and darker blue came out well.

And finally some cubes with 2- and 3-color transitions in the Z axis:

20190410_221650

where I used print3r directly, using --layer-gcode=... feature (I just added 2019/04/10):

2-color 2 phases: use variables a2 (fades 1..0), and b2(fades 0..1):

  • fade A->B: '--layer-gcode=M165 A${a2} B${b2}'
  • fade B->C: '--layer-gcode=M165 B${a2} C${b2}'
  • fade A->C: '--layer-gcode=M165 A${a2} C${b2}'

20190415_174447

Violet to White, Glowing Magenta to White Z-transition

3-color 3 phases: use variables a3 (fades 1..0 first half), b3 (fades 0..1..0), and c3 (fades 0..1 for second half):

  • fade A->B->C: '--layer-gcode=M165 A${a3} B${b3} C${c3}'
  • fade A->C->B: '--layer-gcode=M165 A${a3} B${c3} C${b3}'

20190415_174910

Glowing Magenta, White, Violet and Cyan, Yellow, Glowing Magenta Z-transition

3-color 4 phases: use variable a34 (1..0..0..1), b34 (fades 0..1..0..0) and c34 (fades 0..0..1..0)

  • fade A->B->C->A: '--layer-gcode=M165 A${a34} B${b34} C${c34}'
  • fade A->C->B->A: '--layer-gcode=M165 A${a34} B${c34} C${b34}'

20190415_174333

Cyan, Yellow, Glowing Magenta, Cyan Z-transition

20190415_192732

Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, Cyan Z-transition: Cyan, Green, Yellow, Orange, Pink/Magenta, Violet, Blue

Partial Mixing

20190410_200839At closer inspection, the Diamond Hotend doesn’t perfectly mix the filament:

  • left/back: white PLA
  • front/center: glowing magenta PLA
  • right/back: violet PLA

 

Now, let’s rotate the XYZ Hollow Cube around the Z axis:

In front with “X” the violet prominently comes soon, the “Y” (right-hand side) looks OK, whereas the back side the white/violet transition is not smooth, the same for the left-hand side.

Jamming

Quickly after trying more complex and longer prints, I experienced filament jamming:

20190411_150126

I chose Violet -> Magenta -> White Z-axis transition, and the jamming occured with the Magenta PLA about 5-6min after the start, not always the same height; I tried several things like feeding a minimum of 5% of each filament, but then lower the print temperature from 205C to 198C, and things worked:

20190411_151429

LowRes-Minecraft and LowRes-LowPoly Easter Eggs (35mm height, 0% infill, no support)

I print with first layer (layer 0) 210C usually on cold bed, and dropping to 195C for the rest usually let the nozzle temperature sink below 190C, sometimes even 185C before reaching 195C again due the thermal mass of the Diamond Hotend, and below 190C risk of under extrusion is high (layer 2-3), therefore I now use 195-198C to limit that risk.

It’s recommended to increase printing temperature with Diamond Hotend to achieve better mixing of the filament, yet, it seems also increases the risk of clogging/jamming of filament as in my case. Although, I currently use an 40mm fan on top of the Diamond Hotend instead of 50mm fan – the heatsinks left/back and right/back are warm, whereas the center/front (with magenta) is cooler. So, I might use a bigger fan and see how things behave then.

That’s it.