#ercfv3 — Public Fediverse posts

@MakersHour Frustrating? You mean like the automated filament changer on my #3dprinter which I spent 2 years trying to get it to work and endlessly misbehaves? How do I deal with it? I'm printing the parts for a completely different design which I plan to replace it with! Goodbye #ERCFv3 hello #BoxTurtle
#MakersHour

Did another multi-colour print on my #ERCFv3 and now I am printing the parts for a Box Turtle AMS. I’ve had enough of the ERCFs bullshit. The experience has been 10% working as intended, 90% interventions and adjustments. It does not meet minimum viable reliability.

Success! Hard won over 29 hours with my #ERCFv3 on my #Voron Trident AWD 350.
No false filament runouts triggered, so my redesign of the hot-end switch is working. Just a few clogs, the usual filament unload fails and a blocked nozzle which I dealt with by just putting a new nozzle on. Amazed I saved this after so long on the print bed.

I think my new hot-end rebuild has passed the test. Really happy with this result. #3dprinting #voron #ERCFv3

It's a good job I am doing this for a hobby. If I charged myself my hourly wage for building my #Voron Trident and #ERCFv3 auto filament changer and getting it working (mostly) then it would have cost me around £30,000 to date. #3dprinting

Printing the first real parts I designed myself in multi colour on the #ERCFv3
#3dprinting

They’re Otterly adorable! Magnets in their hands make them posable. #ERCFv3
(Model by McGybeer: https://www.printables.com/model/889097-magnetic-otter)

Otters down. It’s carnage on the build plate! So glad I managed to get object exclusion configured.
#ERCFv3 #3dprinting

No ooze in sight! My #ERCFv3 is starting to work well.

These required all day monitoring to deal with occasional misfeeds and more than a few false alarm filament run out triggers (I need to disassemble my print head to look at why the switch is not detecting the presence of filament during printing), but I ended the day with 3 armadillos! Design by McGybeer. Another successful from my #ERCFv3 #3dprinting

Today I hope to confirm my successful prints were not a one off fluke. Go armadillos! #ERCFv3 #3dprinting

Finally success with the #ERCFv3
A #3dprinted trio of the tiny owls by McGybeer in 4 colours. 199 layers and the first 98 printed without any problems before a colour change was halted due to filament not quite fully unloading and preventing the selector moving. Quickly resolved and a few layers later a filament clog paused the job again. This time the reason was the nozzle had come slightly unscrewed. Once that was cleared up the rest of the print completed with no manual interventions needed!

Now I have confirmed my design works in operation, I have published my custom mounting bracket design which I needed to enable the ERCT filament buffer to work with the #ERCFv3 #3dprinting #ercf
https://www.printables.com/model/1554025-erct-filament-buffer-mounting-bracket-for-2020-ext

After much problem solving I have completed a 4 colour print on the #ERCFv3 with just a single wrong colour (green layer on the blue X). I think that was me manually selecting the wrong gate when the printer paused due to a filament unload not fully completing. But no clogs (a first for a long print on this MMU), no filament tangles and no incorrectly selected colours where the printer continued without realising there was a problem.
#3dprinting #Voron

I have spent the evening tuning the flushing volumes to determine the minimum purge amounts needed to ensure clean colours. Here you can see the purge block transition from black to green (it gradually changes over several lines), and from green to red (happens more abruptly over just a few lines). I think I am nearly ready to attempt another full print to see it it can complete without interventions. #3dprinting #ERCFv3

Another big step forwards today. I learned how to configure the ERCF configuration to detect when the selector is blocked from moving by using the stallguard feature of the TMC2209 stepper driver. Now when filament fails to completely unload the selector detects the stall of the motor and the software attempts a recovery. It unloads the filament a little more then tries a home to the end stop. If this fails it pauses rather than loading the wrong colours as and printing on. #ERCFv3

It finally completed at 1:30AM. Many filament unload fails resulting in some layers being printed in the wrong colours as the selector failed to move due to filament not being retracted enough for it to clear the selector. Need to work on a solution for that, and detection so it can pause if it occurs. #ERCFv3 #3dprinting

After a break to play with my Christmas zigbee gadgets I am back to attempting to tame the ERCF v3 with a 4 colour 3Dbenchy. It has got further than ever before, but has still needed regular interventions. #ERCFv3

The ERCFv3 is printing! #ERCFv3 #3dprinting

I think the ERCFv3 is now functionally complete! This rebuild only drew blood 3 times. Calibration next. #ERCFv3 #Voron #3dprinting #ERCF

The ability to make custom leads is a maker superpower. #maker #ERCFv3

Some minor modifications and I have my Siboor ERCFv2 kit LED pcb working in the ERCFv3. I think I have solved the ERCT filament buffer mounting too. Just some wiring modifications to finish and I can do the final assembly. #ERCFv3 #ERCF #3dprinting

Filament blocks fully assembled and contact surfaces filed to ensure none of these stick down. A lot of work but as I learned with the v2 build, getting these moving cleanly is critical to successful operation. #ERCFv3

Building my ERCFv3 today, using my CrowView with Pi5 laptop to view the build manual. #3dprinting #ERCFv3 #MakerMonday <- well #MakerXmas all week really

Tapped my first threaded hole in some 2020 extrusion. Happy with how well this went. Finally got to use the tap set I bought from Pimoroni several years ago so that I would have them when I needed them. #Maker #ERCFv3 upgrade.

Now the ERCFv2 is in pieces, assembly of the ERCFv3 can commence. Most of the components apart from the 3D printed parts will be reused in this upgrade. #ERCF #ERCFv3 #3dprinting