Apogee Tool head - Beta 5
A tool-head design for Creality Ender 3 printer series. Supports the following models:
- Ender 3 v2
- Ender 3 Pro
This project was sponsored by LDO Motors!
The cool name was given by: Karls Vladimir Peña
Getting started
The design is made modular to support several hotend types as follows:
· Stock
Creality MK8
· Phaetus
Dragonfly BMS (6 and 7 fins version)
· Phaetus Rapido HF
· E3D Revo Voron edition
·
Slice Mosquito
· Microswiss MK8
Its composed out of four main parts:
Hotend baseplate
Fan shroud
CR/BL Touch arm
Wire cover
Bill of materials and components
· Orbiter
v2.0
· 2 x
4010 blower
· 1 x
3010 axial fan
· CR_Touch or BL_Touch bed level sensor
· LED
hotend lit – see dedicated section
· 11 x
M3 thin square nuts (1.8mm max thickness)
· 9 x M3 L10 Hex drive rounded head screw (button head screw)
· 2 x M3 L8 Hex drive rounded head screw (for BL_Touch bel level sensor only)
· 2 x M3 L15 Hex drive rounded head screw (for Phaetus Dragonfly BMS only)
· 2 x M3 L15 Hex drive rounded head screw (for Phaetus Dragonfly BMS only)
I recommend using good quality 4010 dual ball high flow (≥ 3.3CFM) blower fans like the ones from GDSTime.
For the hotend cooling, 3010 axial fan, I recommend either
GDSTime or Sunnon (preferred with maglev technology is much quieter). Ender 3 V2 requires
fans with 24V rating.
This design uses M3 square nuts instead of heat inserts which might cause some hassle for users not having tools to insert them. Its designed with M3 thin square nuts
Design parts & Print settings
All parts shall be printed out of ASA/ABS (preferred) or PETG.
Part 1 - Hotend base
First step is to print the hotend base, you need to
select the hotend base designed for the hotend you plan to use, as shown in the next section.
Hotend base for stock Creality MK8 hotend.
Print settings:
· 0.4mm nozzle – 0.4mm layer width and 0.25mm layer height
· Bottom
layers: 6
· Top
Layers: 6
· Walls: 4
· Infill: 75%
· No supports needed
Hotend base for Phaetus Dragonfly BMS
Note: Groove mount Dragonfly BMO is not compatible!
Hotend base for Phaetus Rapido HF
Hotend Base For Slice Mosquito
Hotend Base For E3D REVO VORON
Hotend Base For Microswiss CR10
Part 2 - Fan Shroud
Print settings:
· 0.4mm nozzle – 0.4mm layer width and 0.1 – 0.15mm layer height (I personally
printed with 0.15mm) for a nice finish of the sloped areas
· Bottom
layers: 4
· Top
Layers: 5
· Walls:
3
· Infill:
20%
· No supports
are needed
The fans shall simply slide and click in, no additional screws
are required.
Part 3 - CRTouch / BL_Touch bed level
Print settings:
· 0.4mm nozzle – 0.4mm layer width and 0.1 – 0.15mm layer height (I personally
printed with 0.15mm) for a nice finish of the sloped areas
· Bottom
layers: 4
· Top
Layers: 5
· Walls:
3
· Infill:
20%
· Supports
are needed
The wire of the sensor shall be inserted in the guide gap.
Part 4 - Wire cover
Print settings:
· 0.4mm nozzle – 0.4mm layer width and 0.1 – 0.15mm layer height (I personally
printed with 0.15mm) for a nice finish of the sloped areas
· Bottom
layers: 4
· Top
Layers: 5
· Walls:
3
· Infill: 20%
· Supports from build-plate are needed
Print orientation
No supports needed
No supports needed
Support only where its shown in this picture
Support from build-plate only
Assembly instructions
Step 1. Take apart the original hot-end assembly removing all the parts from the metallic carriage baseplate.
Remove the two M5 screws as shown in the picture, they
are used to fix the printed hotend base to the metallic carriage plate.
Step 2. Insert two square nuts on the back side of the hotend base, will be used to fix the hotend in place (not needed for Rapido hotend).
Fix the hotend base to the metal base plate using the two
M5 screws (the ones holding the top rollers in place).
Step 3. Insert the remaining
square nuts into the hotend base slots.
Remove the PTFE coupler from the MK8 hotend before installing!
Step 4. Mount the hotend using two M3 L20mm screws as shown in the picture. Note that the heater wire terminals shall come out of the heat-block on the left side. The stock heater wires of MK8 hotend are on the right side. Take out the heater and insert it from the other side.
For reasons unknown to me Creality do not practices heat transfer technology. When installing the heater carriage please use some good quality high
temperature silicone-based gap filler – thermal paste. You can add thermal
paste for the temperature sensor as well.
Step 5. Insert a PTFE tube between the hotend and the Orbiter. The length of the PTFE tube shall be adjusted for each hotend type so when inserted in the hotend about 6-6.5mm is left over the hotend base top.
PTFE tube lengths:
- MK8 : 64.5 mm
- MK8 with bimetal heat-break: 48mm
- Dragonfly BMS : 34mm
- Phaetus Rapido : 37mm
- E3D REVO : 35.5 mm
- Slice Mosquito : 31mm
Step 6. Insert the fans inside the fun shroud. First slide in from the
backside the left blower fan, please mind that the wire shall be routed inside
the fan shroud channel, between the shroud and the blower fan. Press it firmly
in until the fan is aligned with the front side of the shroud and you hear a
click sound. Slide in the second blower fan on the right side.
Press in the 3010 axial fan in the
middle with the fan wiring toward the left bottom side of the shroud (toward the wire guide part). The airflow direction shall be towards the hotend heatsink.
Insert the two square nuts in their slots
as shown in the picture. Make sure the square nut thread is aligned with the
screw hole on the top side.
Step 7. Insert the LED hotend lit board. Shall slide in from the hotend side with the LED’s facing the hotend direction. Press it in firmly until its aligned with the front side of the fun shroud and makes a klick sound at both sides. The PCB shall align with the two notches on the fan shroud. If you use the standard Creality silent board connect the LED wires in parallel with the hotend cooling fan. For other boards with more outputs you may connect it to any fan output. The LED board is designed for 24V supply voltage. It can be connected to the main power supply output as well.
For details how I constructed the Hotend lit board please read the Hotend Lit section.
Step 8. Slide the fan shroud assembly in the hotend base and secure it
in place using the two M3 L10 button head head screws. Route all the wires into the wire restrain channel.
Step 9. Mount the Orbiter v2.0 over the top of the assembly. First align the filament exit hole of the extruder
with the PTFE tube. Secure the Orbiter 2.0 is place using two
M3 L10 button head screws. You may use two small washers as well.
Step 10. Optional
for CRTouch bed level sensor
Insert the two
square nuts in the two slots from the sides of the CRTouch holder. Make sure
the threaded holes are aligned with the sensor mount holes. Fix the CRTouch holder on
the hotend base using two M3 L10 screws as shown in the figure. Mount the CRTouch sensor in place using two M3 L10 screws.
Connect the CRtoutch
sensor wire and insert it in the sensor holder slot. Route the wire on the back
side below the orbiter motor into the wire guide strain release path, there is
a small gap through which the wires can be inserted, you might need to lose the
Orbiter a little to make space for the wires to slide in place. After this
tighten back the Orbiter fixing screws.
Step 11. Carefully arrange all the wires into the wire guide. Ad the wire
cover over the guide slot and fix it in place using one M3 L10 screw as shown
in the figure.
Step 12. Connect the X belt according to Creality recommendation.
Congrats! You
are all set! Next step is firmware and slicer configuration.
Firmware & slicer Config recommendation - underConstruction
This section contains
specific information for configuring the original Creality silent mainboard. In
case your mainboard is changed to a different mainboard please consult the
Orbiter v2.0 webpage for firmware configuration.
Using Creality
silent board V4.2.7 or v4.2.2 we need to consider its limitations.
The major limitation is the hardwired stepper driver configuration.
This do not allow disabling of stealth chopping feature.
When using stealth chopping the maximum stepper
speed is limited. Trinamic suggests switching to spread cycle at high stepper speeds. You may think the extruder does not spin
fast…but actually the Trinamic driver limitation is not stepper speed, but minimum
step time. Having high step/mm ratio for the Orbiter v2.0, limits the
maximum extrusion speed the Trinamic driver can drive the Orbiter to about 40mm/s.
Therefore, retraction speed needs to be limited in the slicer to 40mm/s (Orbiter
would be capable of 120mm/s). Otherwise, higher speed will lead to fake overcurrent
detection and the driver will be disabled = extruder magically stops.
Motor current
is set on the Creality silent board via trimmer resistor. The default stock value is
1.4V which is equivalent to 0.8A RMS which is exactly what the Orbiter v2.0
need. If you want to reduce a bit the stepper driver and the Orbiter
temperature you may reduce the voltage to 1.2V with the method explained in the
Orbiter v2.0 webpage
Being direct
extruder, the nozzle pressure needs to be more precisely controlled, therefore good
result can only be achieved with pressure advance. Again,
for unknown reasons to me this feature is deactivated by stock firmware from Creality.
To activate it the printer firmware needs to be updated with the Apogee Orbiter Firmware.
Firmware and flashing instruction will follow soon. - I have it prepared & under testing I will release it soon!
The provided firmware is preconfigured with all the setting to run the Orbiter extruder correctly. If you decide not to reflash the microcontroller the following configuration commands must be sent via USB interface (using Pronterface as example).
Firmware configurations:
Send configuration commands via user interface and save them to EEPROM.
M350 E16 ;micro stepping set to 16*
M92 E690 ;steps/mm - you may need to finetune it
M201 E3000 ;acceleration mm/s2
M203 E40 ;max speed mm/s
M205 E5 ;E jerk mm/s
M900 T0 K0.22 L0.02 ;linear advance values to be calibrated*
M207 S1.5 F7200 Z0.2 ;firmware retraction*
M500 ;save settings to EEPROM
Slicer specific
configurations:
·
Retraction speed: 40mm/s
·
Retraction distance: 1.2-1.5mm
·
Retraction vertical lift: 0.2mm
Home offsets
configuration:
·
X Offset – TBD
·
Y Offset - TBD
CRTouch Setup
To use the
CR_Touch its detection pin coordinates relative to the hotend nozzle must be
configured.
Note the probe
position in this design is on the right side in contrast with the original Creality
setup where it’s on the left side of the hotend.
Probe offsets:
· Probe X Offset = 40.5mm - CR_Touch
· Probe X Offset = 37.5mm - BL_Touch
·
Probe Y Offset = 0.00 mm
· Z offset = -1.15 ÷ -2.0 – needs
to be calibrated
Klipper input shaper Acceleration sensor
A good input shaper calibration for Klipper requires the mounting of an acceleration sensor. One simple way to attach this sensor to the Apogee is to hook it up to the right fixing screw of the Orbiter like shown in the picture. Based on test I performed even if the sensor is not bolted down with both screws still gives very good, close to reality results.
Hotend Lit
I always liked
hotend lit features. This feature was among the first on the requirement list for this tool-head design. Unfortunately, I was not able to
find a good fitting ready-made solution therefore I decided to design one.
White LED Hotend LIT
The design is
very simple…is just four white LED’s connected in series plus two series current limiting resistors.
Schematic of
the white LED hotend lit board:
Bill of
materials:
·
1x Hotend Lit PCB
·
2x 560Ohm 1206 resistor
·
4x white LED – Refond - RF-50HI35DS
The hotend lit
is supplied by 24Vdc. It can be connected in parallel with the hotend cooler
fan or directly to the mains power supply.
RGB LED Hotend LIT - Alpha version
Per popular request from Klipper users I designed a second hotend LIT version using two Neopixel RGBW LED's.
Note: This version is not tested yet, I ordered the PCB's and waiting for them to arrive.
Bill of
materials:
·
1x Hotend LIT RGB PCB
·
2x 100Ohm 0603 resistor
·
1x 100kOhm 0603 resistor
·
2x 100nF 16V 0603 capacitor
·
2x BAW99 diodes with SOT23 package
· 2x SK6812 RGBW LEDs or
equivalent (WS2812 for RGB version only)
The hotend lit is supplied by 5Vdc. DIN shall be connected to an output of the main board configured as RGB driver output pin.
The DIN and DOUT pins of the board are protected against short circuits and misconnection. Should not connect the 5V and GND in reverse, there is no reverse supply protection on the board.
Using the Gerber
files I ordered the PCB’s from www.jlcpcb.com (2$ for five pieces plus shipping).
Ordered the rest of the components from www.tme.pl
and soldered them by hand.
Build Gallery
The story of the Apogee tool-head design
All started in
January 2022 when Jason from LDO asked me to design a tool head around the
Orbiter v2.0 for one of the world most popular printer, the Creality Ender 3.
LDO sponsored me with an Ender v2.0 to I have the means to test the design.
We imagined
this project in multiple steps, the Apogee tool-head design being step one.
Next steps will be upgrading all the axes to linear rails and belted Z axis.
LDO will provide kits with all the components needed for each update step. The kits shall be affordable with well established LDO quality. Upgrading the printer with the LDO kit shall not require any advanced mechanical skills, other than two hands and a screwdriver.
Since the
Orbiter v2.0 filament path is closer to the middle of the extruder, its
possible to mount the Orbiter v2.0 with the motor toward the backside and will
not collide with the printer frame (like the Orbiter 1.5).
As always
reaching a nice-looking design takes time and several iterations. Below you can see some of the early design variants.
All variants
where a working solution but somehow, I felt they are missing a wow factor.
They were looking nice but I was missing some cool-ness.
During my engineering studies I had to study marketing, being interested only in electronics designing this was somehow a pain for me. More over the professor taught us and acted like Marketing was more important than engineering which was at that point for me outrageous. But he was right…today most of people buy products because of their appearance rather than performance. The performance is a basic need but mostly not decisive.
People look for how nice the product is, how appealing is to the eyes and what cool features it has. Even if the cool features are useless in everyday life. Like RGB hotend lit...its useless but its cool, I mean its OK to have a white lit but RGB why? Still I love it as many because its cool :).
The first
versions used screws for plastic to keep the fans in place. Dave from LDO suggested
to remove them and design a slide in feature for the fans. Beside vibration
concerns I had in the beginning the idea came out pretty well, less screws less
hassle :). After several design variants one day I got the idea of using some stealth fighter theme and the Apogee came to life 🙂
Next step was
to repeat the airflow simulation and adjust direction where its needed. Next
pictures show the airflow simulation results. By purpose I aimed the airflow
about two millimeters below the nozzle. Done that because these basic simulations
are not very accurate since uses a perfect laminar and homogeneous airflow. In
reality the airflow is not that perfect aiming below the nozzle it reduces
airflow cooling the nozzle tip without influencing considerably the part cooling
efficiency.
Two aspects of a concern
First, the part cooling is done using 2x 4010 blower fans. There is a tradeoff between size and performance, these fans being very small we need to use a very high efficiency fans with highest possible CFM. I have had good results using GDSTime double bearing fans having 3.3CFM airflow.
You might
think this is not comparable with bigger fans performance, which is true but we
have to analyze the whole picture. In fact, many duct design have a long twisting tube
and a narrow opening using a big fan. I’ve been there done that it’s not an optimum idea...here
is why…there is a lot of turbulences forming inside a long twisting narrow exit
fun duct which creates lots of backpressures and the actual airflow is reduced
dramatically because the fan is not able counteract the backpressure. This is
worse when some designers use radial fans which on paper has much higher CFM
rate but pressure wise, they are even weaker ending up with an actual cooling
flow below 10% of what the fan is able to deliver.
Lastly narrow
airflow aimed at the tip of the nozzle…why? The hotend is moving around the
print with a fast speed. A narrow output cools the material just for a short amount
of time, making it wider increases the part cooling. Narrower output does not
make the airflow higher, in simulation yes…in reality creates more backpressure
and reduces actual airflow. When comes to fun duct design most efficient is to
design a duct with as less obstruction possible and air shortest path.
Second, the hotend cooling fan. This design uses a small 3010 radial
fan. I recommend Sunnon maglev or dual ball bearing GDSTime. Sunnon being much quieter
but hard to find 24V version.
You
might consider the fan is too small compared to what other design are using. It’s
a misbelief to think if you experience heat creep put a bigger fan. In fact,
hot-ends do not need much cooling, but they are requiring efficient cooling.
This mean there
has to be an unrestricted input airflow in path, an unrestricted path towards
the hotend cooler and a way out without generating much backpressure which will
reduce cooling airflow dramatically. Next picture demonstrated my point
This is just a
basic setup with ideal airflow. Red cylinder shows the air path. In this setup
we have a 4010 fan and dragon hotend. Because radial fans actually do not have airflow
in the middle of the blades you can see the airflow completely misses the heat break
cooler, causing heat creep. Sure, many design try to direct flow in the middle
but via this creating airpath restriction which creates lots of turbulences and
backpressure reducing the actual cooling airflow.
The best practice from my point of view is to use a smaller fan with unrestricted flow path, this way it will actually cool better compared to 4010 or 5015 fans.
Now wonder a bit how E3D hotends are cooled just fine with a 3010 fans.
Apogee
Toolhead Name
I have to
admit I had not found a good appealing name for this design. I thought there
will be a good idea to involve the Orbiter Facebook community to come up with a
cool name. Sure, the proposer of the winner’s name is mailed with a free Orbiter
v2.0 gift package.
This cool name
Apogee was given by Karls Vladimir Peña.
Last but not
least I express my true respect and appreciation for the support received from
LDO team, Ben Levy and Petrus Stefan from reprapmania.ro. Their feedbacks during the design phase is much appreciated!
Design change History
Beta 5 changes history
- Updated Phaetus dragonfly BMS base for versions with 6 and 7 fins heatsink
- Enlarged fan shroud blower wire guide by 3mm to fit other different blowers as well
- Added a wire guide for the hotend lit wires inside the fan shroud
Beta 4 changes history
- New Base for Microswiss MK8 hotend
- Adjusted the square nut hole size fixing the hotend to the baseplate. The nut is press-fitted reducing the possibility of rotating the nut during hotend dismount.
- Moved the Dragon BMS hotend downward by 1.5mm to increase the distance between the fan-ducts and the printer heated bed.
- Moved the BL_Touch downward by 2.2mm. Apparently the BL_Touch with plastic pin is shorter than the old version with metal pin.
Beta 3 changes history
- New mount for BL_Touch bed level sensor
- Tow holes in the back of the Fan Shroud for wire fixing using zip ties
- CR_Touch mount square fixing holes moved to the back, they are not visible from the from improved look
- New Neopixel RGB hotend lid PCB for Klipper and RRF users
Beta 2 changes history
- Hotend base design change to make space for the Orbiter sensor add-on for Klipper and RRF users
- Two new hoteds, E3D REVO Voron and Slice Mosquito
- Fan shroud fixing screw changed from flat head to button head, reduce BOM components diversity
- Improved mounting of the wire cover