@@hasserecht3678 Something about the shape of the tape produces a jet of air that doesn't hit the heater block. Think like an air curtain for automotive aerodynamics. Air is directing air instead of a physical wall directing air. I experimented with some other air duct designs and the kapton tape version still gets good layer adhesion while a couple designs I printed out did not.
Yes, I used one DC converter that runs all three 12v fans. Most videos I have seen use 3 separate fans, which isn't really necessary. The downside is that I can't control them independently through the main board, but Noctuas are quiet enough that it isn't a big deal. I also have a backup fan in the PSU. I considered adding a 12v relay that would automatically turn the machine off if there was a fault in the 12v line.
Thanks for posting this, mistakes and all. I've got the Ender 3 V2 as well. I'm taking very small steps to increase print speeds. First I've ordered 0.6mm and 0.4mm nickel plated copper MK8 nozzles. This should allow better heat transfer. The next upgrade will be a dual drive extruder, and upgrading both fans with a better part cooling duct. Looks like you've achieved some awesome print speeds while maintaining quality, well done.
Thank you! The hope is that you laugh at, then learn from my mistakes. I will have to look into copper nozzles, looks like a good way to increase heat transfer. In your quest for speed, here is some data to help you along: I put my first upgrades on when assembling the printer: Metal extruder (instead of the plastic one it ships with), Capricorn tubing, and yellow bed springs. With that setup I could get ~6mm/s with 0.4mm nozzle and ~13mm/s with 0.8mm nozzle. Now that I put the volcano on I'm getting 20mm/s with no issues yet on the 0.6mm nozzle. I may be able to push it to 40+mm/s since the kit I bought came with nozzles up to 1.2mm. But with each increase in speed, I have a decrease in fine details and quality. And an increase in filament expenses!
@@NathanBuildsRobots Not how it works... you SHOULD have removed the one inside the case first otherwise you are making the noctua do more work for almost no benefit
I have an Ender 3 and turning it into a v2 and also putting a NEO hot end on it and going to make it direct drive. This is costing me more than I could have bought a NEO used, but at hte moment with the upgraded main board to 4.2.7 and a V2 screen and quiet PSU upgrade fan, I only hear the fromt fan when it is printing. I have hte Ender 3 V3 SE and that is my main printer, but I start printing things and then think I want another thing printed and have to wait. Now I have 2 printers, I dont have to wait. I am 62 and I am learning a lot about printing, designing and also about the workings of the printers.
Thanks, I will remember to incorporate more close ups in the future. On the video I'm editing now I'm realizing I used to many static wide angle shots, doesn't look as nice and harder to see what's going on!
in my experience ive found that using a dual 5015 radial fan set up for part cooling on a low voltage is more than enough cooling for my prints ( i usually print functional stuff so not anything that demands insane quality) and it is dead silent. i only use an A4x20 noctua fan for the hot end fan
That is a good plan. I would prefer if fan throttling was don’t by voltage modulation rather than PWM, so you don’t end up with that start/stop noise at any throttle aside from 0 or 100%
@@NathanBuildsRobots you could use one of those buck converters and a little voltmeter in parallel so you know *vaguely* the percentage the fan is running at however those converters are a pain to change the output with that tiny little potentiometer knob
@@percival5771 yeah, it would be nice if there was a buck converter that throttled based on the PWM signal. I have devised a circuit using a capacitor, diode, and some resistors but I will have to test it out to see if it works.
I made similar mods to v2 but I made PETG housing for the motherboard fan and power supply fan, and the buck converter kept the original housings intact and replaced them, I also soldered and heatshrinked any connections, and all my wiring is hidden. No need to butcher parts when you can just make new ones with your 3D printer.
No, there are so many things that can go wrong it's hard to have a comprehensive troubleshooting guide. I might give it a shot. I usually explain the issues I have 1 at a time, as little nuggets of information as they come up in my videos and printing.
From what I can see, you didn't get your nozzle screwed all the way up to the heater block. I would have backed the heat break out a little so that I could get the nozzle butted all the way up to the heater block, as some thermal transfer to the nozzle will be lost otherwise.
So he did do this correctly. You leave that bit of space so that it in fact doesn't bottom out on the block, and it ensures that it's tightened against the heat break, which is critical. If there is a space between, or it's not tight enough, it can make a gap the filament will end up in, resulting in a horrible jam. Minimizing the amount that it is away from the block isn't going to hurt, but it should never butt up against the block.
Hey bro you got a huge warp best thing to do is make an enclosure or turn off the ac in the room the printer is in. I just put mine in a small closet on a table and blocked the draft under the door (important also) with a towel and all my prints come out perfectly flat.
My 9-year old grandson wants to print and design 3-D planes and rockets. Will this machine do that? Are there inexpensive programs or software to do this?
I would reccomend a voxelab Aquila, it's super cheap and just as good as the Ender 3 (I have a comparison video on my channel). Just take care when assembling and leveling the bed. amzn.to/3CsCXFe For printing out a plane or rocket I would start by looking at projects on thingiverse. You can download the models for things other people have made. www.thingiverse.com/tag:aircraft Once you know how to print and want to make your own designs, Fusion 360 is a free CAD software that is quite powerful, and can be downloaded for free. The modifications I did in this video prioritize speed over quality. For aircraft you usually want light, thin structures, so I'd just set the printer up and print some stuff with it as a stock build. If you want more speed you can start looking into mods like in this video. Good luck with your grandson!
A couple videos I watched said it's either 12v or 24v so I was a little confused. I just bypassed the confusion and put in a parallel system. Also I didn't want to open up the power supply.
Yeah you can wire 2 12v fans up in series and run it on 24v. I've done it before with good results. On my latest video I used a voltage regulator. That's the best solution but it's for low power fans only, like the noctuas. ua-cam.com/video/FHK-s3yqwek/v-deo.html
I thought it was just to help reduce backlash in the bowden tube for cleaner retracts, that's why I've always done it. But you're right, it's probably most useful in the stock setup where a gap can form and cause a clog where the PTFE tube enters the melt zone.
Whats the purpose of 12V fans, are they just for readily available than 24 V counterparts? I'm about to get a 3 V2 but I'm not too familiar with any form of soldering or more involved wiring, so the 12 V step down seems like quite a hurdle.
No reason to go with 12v other than availability. 24v fans will be much easier to install. Noctua is working on 24v versions specifically for the 3d printing market, but they won't be out for a while.
I want to exchange the fan on my power supply but the power supply is under the build plate so the fan would reach the floor, how did you get the power supply upright like that ?
I made a separate video on that topic: ua-cam.com/video/9e-2i5WE-gI/v-deo.html If you put the squash ball feet on you should get about 1.5" of ground clearance, which would be enough for a low profile fan. If you are feeling really crazy you can replace the Meanwell power supply with a laptop power supply like in the video, so it makes 0 noise. Only thing is you'll have to retune the PWM or upgrade your heater cartridge which is actually quite simple to do: ua-cam.com/video/uqCntWdLIvA/v-deo.html
I think these ideas are great and I don't mean to be negative, but the case is there for a reason, fire and overheating. Removing that layer of safety is questionable. Even with the way the case cover is made - there are no louvers, so it wouldn't pass UL from the get go... I wouldn't recommend removing a layer of metal between a fire source. Finding a Fire resistant PLA might be a better choice. And I am probably overthinking things again. Thanks for listening/reading :)
You really shouldn't double up on fans unless they are the same ones, I mean unless you want to keep buying frame because they soon at a different rate, your actually causing less airflow then what the single noctua can push.
I was under the impression that More fans = More better. I was thinking about jet engine where there are a ton of fans in series which increase static pressure. But without stator fins, (stationary blades and facing the opposite direction as the rotating blades), I think you are right and doubling up on fans doesn't help much or at all. It'd be interesting to do some testing to find out, but I don't know if enough people care.
if making an ender 3 quieter were as simple as swapping the fans then i could do that, but my ignorance of electronics keeps me from ever doing this since every quiet mod i've seen requires you to add some kind of power converter thing that i don't understand. i've heard you can fry your printer or even shock yourself if you don't know what you're doing, which i don't.
If you short something out it can fry the board easily, thats the only thing you really have to watch out for. There are actually a number of fans that are quieter and don't need a power converter. You just have to make sure to get 24v fans instead of 12v fans. Here are a couple examples: Motherboard Fan: amzn.to/2VHhzeM Hotend Fan: amzn.to/3lSKHL6 Except on the power supply, the power supply uses a 12v fan (you might be able to use a 24v if you short out a zener diode but it sounds like that is something you would want to avoid) But at the end of the day the easiest way to do it is to get a printer that comes stock with silent fans. I have heard the artillery sidewinder is pretty quiet since it uses a different kind of heated bed. Basically the bed uses AC power instead of DC, which takes a lot of load off of the power supply. amzn.to/2VPrBLb They just came out with an X2 version which I would probably get instead of the older one I linked to, but they are both good. The X2 has an optional bed leveler.
I am new to this with a Ender 3 V2 I bought for Christmas. Nice video and some great upgrades for me to look forward to. One question - why is your power supply on the vertical axis? Mine is a stock machine with the power supply below the bed. Is this because Creality changed the design and now mount the power supply below the bed? Or is this something that you did for some reason? TIA
The longer melt zone allows the plastic to fully melt before hitting the constriction in the nozzle, thus reducing resistance, allowing higher flow rates.
I would get a larger mk8 nozzle instead of the v6 clone, swap the old 4010 or the new 3010 to a noctua and try out klipper if you want to go faster. The biggest bottleneck you should have is the stock extruder and nozzle, not the hotend.
My biggest gripe with the stock hotend is the fan noise. The small heatsink with densely packed fins is optimized for a loud high static pressure fan. I used Noctuas on another one of my builds with the stock hotend and noticed a slight increase in operating temperate compared to the stock fan. I experimented with 0.6-1.0mm mk8 nozzles and I was running into issues with the plastic not melting fast enough. It would push through the hotend with ease, then hit a wall where the plastic wouldn't melt fast enough and it would start to underextrude. You can fix the issue with a stronger extruder, but it's only masking the fact that your hotend is not transferring enough heat to the plastic (in my opinion). That's where the volcano comes in. I definitely have Klipper on my radar if things to add next, and linear advance. I think implementing both of those on my printer would be time well spent.
There are quieter fans that run on 24v, I just don’t know if any that are as quiet and reliable as the Noctua fans. You can also use current limiting resistors in series with the fans
I used 14 awg which is way overkill, but guarantees the buck converter will never draw enough current to burn those wires, even if the 12v line is shorted. The overcurrent protection will kick in and it will be failsafe in that regard. Plus the power supply terminals are built for larger gage wires. So it makes it easier to plug into using crimp connectors like these amzn.to/2YtK0yI
The internal fan is thermistor controlled and only turns on when the PSU gets hot. If the fan I installed breaks down or is not keeping the PSU cool enough, the internal fan can turn on and provide additional cooling. It is an extra layer of safety.
@@NathanBuildsRobots The internal fan actually reduces the efficiency of the noctua fan when not in use, and if it cannot keep up with the noctua fan's airflow, it will still be a reduction in airflow when it's on as well. As far as i have read the psu fan is actually 12V so you could pull out the psu fan, and hook the noctua fan up to the psu fan port, and it would be thermostat controlled like the stock one is.
You might be right on this one. If I had a flow meter I could test this theory out. The is a cheap way for me to test fans against each other: put them on opposite ends of a sealed box blowing against each other, and use smoke to see which one prevails. This would be a test of static pressure, so I could test 2 stacked fans vs a single fan and see which one wins. I imagine the first fan boosts the pressure a little bit, then the 2nd fan boosts it a little more so I get better static pressure. Kind of like the compressor on a gas turbine, lots of fans in series to increase pressure.
@@NathanBuildsRobots thank you for coming back to me on this, i hopefully will get the v2 soon and will be installing some upgrades, keep up the great videos. Helped me with a lot of insight into 3d printing
This is the exact video I was looking for. I don't currently have an Ender 3 v2, but I'm looking at getting one sometime this year and I want to know what some of my options are for upgrades. Few questions, if you don't mind. 1. Is this just the V6 All-Metal hot end from E3D? I'm having trouble seeing what's compatible with Ender stuff. 2. Does the V6 hot end work with all of the E3D nozzles, or do you have to buy the volcano hot end to use volcano nozzles? 3. How high is the risk of damaging your printer / throwing calibrations unfixably out of whack when installing these things? I'm pretty handy with tools, and I'm fairly competent with installing things that have a somewhat decent manual. Thanks so much. You've earned another subscriber!
Just don't short anything out and you'll be fine. There isn't much to worry about with throwing off calibration. I'm making a2nd v2 video right now, should be out in a couple days. I would recommend just getting an all metal heatbreak and CHT nozzle as it will be easier than installing the whole new hotend, so you can get the same results in terms of print speed for less work
Every mod on this video should work on the voxelab. The only differences I've noticed that could affect mods are: Different fan shroud mounting hole pattern. Slightly different x axis limit switch positioning. The rest of the machine is so similar that most mods should be compatible. I'm working on modding my Aquila now, one video will be out in the next couple of days where I put on a direct drive extruder kit from microswiss, then another will be out in 2 weeks whew I put on a dragonfly HF hotend from Phaetus.. The hotend heatsink, hotend mounting, heater block, motherboard mounting, power supply, and fans are exactly the same. The glass bead thermistor was glued in on my aquila using some kind of thermal glue. It took some force to pull out and I could have damaged the thermistor if I wasn't being careful. Most hotend kits come with a replacement thermistor, but some want you to reuse the stock one, so just use caution.
can i ask you what setting you get in cura or in slicer you use each time you said you print faster but not tell me how , i love the fact that you tell me with what i can print faster , but that would be even more cool if you tell me how i can print faster , i want to learn to tweek perfectly and make cura profile that blast my printer ahah
Paul, can you join the Discord and ask for that? That way I can send you the print profile I use. Are you wanting the volcano profile or the standard 0.4mm profile that I normally use?
Hi, why did you decide to use PWM and not the FLX version of Noctua? I ordered both of them and want to use the 12V 2pin fan connector and I am not sure which one should I use.
Look up the "pinout" for the Noctua fans. I believe the standard is: Black = ground Yellow = 12V The other 2 wires are PWM signal line (which you don't need to wire up) and RPM signal line (which you also don't need).
For this video I believe I was using Prusaslicer with the default Ender 3 profile. All I did was update nozzle diameter and it changed all the extrusion widths automatically and worked great.
@@coreelite yes 0.6mm Had to rewatch my own video to see it at 4:26 0.6mm is the sweet spot for a mostly stock setup. It keeps a good amount of detail on your prints. 0.8mm and up will unlock much faster speeds but you will also want to upgrade to a copper heater block, copper nozzle, dual gear direct drive extruder, and 60 watt heater cartridge to get the most of it. You start losing fine detail at these larger sizes too.
Squash balls wont bounce untill heated up. Squash players stick them under their arm pits to heat them up before starting to use them and they heat up more with the energy of being hit by the racket and wall. Then they are very bouncy.
There are better alternatives. I’d reccomend going straight for a direct drive extruder upgrade. The Microswiss NG with a CHT nozzle and maybe a ceramic heater is pretty much the best setup around as an Ender 3 upgrade
Great vid, one thing tho if I were you I would change the hotend thermistor and heatcatridge because they still contain ptfe (you can see it if you look near the end of the cable) which would be harmful at high printing temperatures.
Good point, I didn't think about the material used on the thermistor. Is the translucent plastic covering the wires made of PTFE? Where is the PTFE on the heater cartridge? I thought it had a fiber/silicone wire covering I use cartridge style thermistors on all my new machines because they are safer in terms of not being able to short out, but now I can add your reason to the list of why to use the cartridge style ones.
@@NathanBuildsRobots Yeah that translucent tube is ptfe, a lot of heater cartridges have it too but inside the protected casing (so I don't know if that should be a problem, but the thermistor if like a glass one makes contact so its a no go for 250c+) Also you can see it here said by another UA-cam ua-cam.com/video/GCB-RhB7Q-c/v-deo.html (He explains it till 02.00 minutes By the way what hotted would you recommend for high temp?
@@studywithme8055 a cheap all metal v6 style hotend will work fine. I would upgrade to use better materials on the hotend to get more consistent temperatures (copper nozzle and heater block). Microswiss is also pretty good as a medium price option that bolts directly to the Ender 3 platform. Right now I'm working on 2 videos with phaetus hotends - dragon and dragonfly. Both are excellent but the dragonfly HF has a design flaw, not sure if the same problem exists on the standard dragonfly. I like to cobble things together, but if you want a better building experience I recommend buying a kit. It only ends up being slightly more expensive than when you spec everything out yourself, and you're much more likely to end up with a nice setup in the end.
Hey thanks for the video. The link for the hot end volcano kit is no longer available. Could you provide an alternative or maybe just list the parts necessary individually? Thanks
This one worked for me: amzn.to/3rHEPo6 You can also look up "v6 hotend kit" and that should bring up a bunch of other listings. Some only include a standard heater block though, so if you are interested in the volcano make sure to look for one with the longer brass nozzles and the volcano heater block.
@@NathanBuildsRobots instead of buying the clemco mount, could i print something like the "Petsfang Duct" mount, for this setup with a volcano, or would it be too hot and melt it? :)
@@ThePineTreesBand A printed mount will work. I would stay away from PLA as it has a low melting point and could drop your hotend, which would be bad. A metal mount will always be more failsafe, since it will never melt, and helps transfer heat out of the heatsink and into the frame of your printer, so you will end up running a little cooler. That said, Prusa printers, which are some of the best on the market, use a printed mount made of PETG and have great quality/reliability.
@@NathanBuildsRobots interesting. Yeah I have some petg. I'm pretty tempted to try it honestly. I won't try an hold you accountable if it fails 🤣 Thanks again for all the info and quick reply. I'm now believer in you're channel and subscribed
Check this video to see a Benchy produced by the volcano machine at the 13m23s mark. ua-cam.com/video/nUhcNrtGIIs/v-deo.html Fast settings: 0.6 mm nozzle, 0.7 mm extrusion width, 0.6 mm top layer solid infill, .73mm first layer Layer height: 0.3 mm, 2 perimeters, 4 solid layers top and bottom Speed: 30mm/s first layer, 50-60 mm/s depending on feature 20% rectilinear infill Detailed settings: 0.6 mm nozzle, 0.7 mm extrusion width, 0.6 mm top layer solid infill, .73mm first layer Layer height: 0.25 mm, 3 perimeters, 6 solid layers top and bottom Speed: 20mm/s first layer, 30-50 mm/s depending on feature 25% rectilinear infill I also have a profile I call "Fat mode" that puts down tons of filament fast for printing solid parts I plan on creating a website and uploading PrusaSlicer Profiles sometime in the next month.
@@NathanBuildsRobots both printer went with same settings on this video? And if that was, estimated print time is mostly unknown on your software that you used for the volcano? Thanks.
@@MMK-342 The black part was printed on 0.4mm nozzle on stock Ender 3 Pro The rainbow part was printed on Ender 3 V2 with upgraded 0.6mm volcano nozzle The large grey part was printed on Ender 3 V2 with upgraded 0.6mm volcano nozzle I used the "fast" profile I listed above, but layer height increased to 0.5mm, perimeters increased to 12, and top/bottom layers increased to 20.
That is a great fan, but I wanted to stick to the PSUs original fan size of 60mm, so I used the NF-A6x25 PWM. It's not the best fan for the job, as it's more optimized for volumetric flow rate than static pressure, but it's the only one in that size that Noctua makes that I know of.
Hi Nathan, I hope you are well and healthy, I have Ender 3 V2 Neo and I have upgraded with bimetal titanium and copper heatbreak and use MK8 hotend block with the size of 20x20x10 and use Bondtech CHT nozzle 0.4 my mainboard is allready silent one though I haven't upgraded to Marlins latest it is stock Creality software I have also replaced heatbed springs with plastic elastic springs and so far pretty happy with it. But I wonder what is your view about dragon hotend vs MK8 one? I mostly use PLA maybe PETG in future... But I will stick with PLA for now. Did you see real comparable results in print speed/quality with the Dragon Hotend upgrade? Should I consider to upgrade too? Thanks in advance I just subscribed your videos are really informative!
Anything with a longer meltzone will increase print speeds. Dragon with cht should be able to push 32-40 mm^3/s vs your current setup can probably only do 24. So yes there is a speed increase but you should also consider a direct drive setup as that really helps with high flow rates in my experience
@@NathanBuildsRobots I have also have double gear extruder with hardened steel gears I have Direct Drive Extruder plate for Ender 3 v2 on my upgrade list since I bought it. Thanks for your answers Nathan😊 I will upgrade to the dragon hotend too I guess 👍
Good question. 3 and 4 pin fans have lines for power, ground, and fan speed. The fan speed line alternates between a low and high voltage as the fan spins, which your PC interprets into fan speed. The 4 pin fans have an additional line that is a PWM speed control line. It basically a signal line that lets you set the throttle of your fan between 0% and 100%. Most 3d printers can throttle the part cooling fan, but this throttling is done on the motherboard by turning the power line on and off rapidly using PWM. For all 3d printers that I have worked on, you only use the power and ground lines (for Noctua fans this is normally the yellow and black wires, yellow is the ATX standard color for 12v). As 3d printing technology gets better we may see 3 or 4 pin connectors being used, but for now they should be the same.
Hey Nathan, I have an E3 V2 and I was never able to figure out how to maximize the print area over the stock 235x235mm size. I don't see the parameters in the firmware... How did you do it?
I think you need to compile a custom Marlin firmware, it's pretty easy as there's plenty of guides out there. I also think that custom firmware is much better than Creality's.
I didn't touch the firmware in this video, but this article covers how to flash your firmware: m.all3dp.com/2/ender-3-v2-firmware-update/ I'd check out Chris's Basement to learn how to install Visual Studio Code with PlatformIO, and configure Marlin for your Ender 3 V2. The specific parameter you want to change is "X_BED_SIZE" and "Y_BED_SIZE" If you're really lucky (and don't want to spend 10 hrs figuring out how to configure Marlin correctly) you might be able to find a precompiled firmware file that you can just download, put on a flash card, install into your V2, restart the printer, and your done.
www.thingiverse.com/thing:4644945 Supports took a couple minutes to remove and I had to hammer mine in, but they are working great at keeping noise down. There are a lot of other designs of you look up "squash ball feet Ender 3"
I've got some more crazy stuff going on with this machine now. Basically making this another 4X faster using a supervolcano nozzle. Should do a kg spool in maybe 2 hrs
When researching for this project I heard it could be 12 or 24, so I decided to play it safe and leave the original fan in there. I wonder if you could replace the thermistor in the PSU with a radiator so the fan is always on, then tap into that connecting to power the rest of the fans on the printer without using a separate step-down circuit? May have to try that in a future video.
Hi, when you changed the hotend did you need to change something in the code? I have an Ender 6 and I want to change the hotend. Thank you for your videos
For this mod I did not have to change any of the firmware. I had to update my slicer settings to account for the 0.6mm nozzle. Let me know if you need help with that. Here are the slicer settings I used: For PLA Nozzle 200 C Bed Temp 60 C Fast settings: 0.6 mm nozzle, 0.7 mm extrusion width, 0.6 mm top layer solid infill, .73mm first layer Layer height: 0.3 mm, 2 perimeters, 4 solid layers top and bottom Speed: 30mm/s first layer, 50-60 mm/s depending on feature 20% rectilinear infill Detailed settings: 0.6 mm nozzle, 0.7 mm extrusion width, 0.6 mm top layer solid infill, .73mm first layer Layer height: 0.25 mm, 3 perimeters, 6 solid layers top and bottom Speed: 20mm/s first layer, 30-50 mm/s depending on feature 25% rectilinear infill
I got a quick question. While my prints come out nice, there's tiny nicks in the prints (that is, tiny bits of PLA that juts out from the prints). How can I mitigate these issues? My hotend temps I use for 205C and my extruder step speed is 93 Steps/mm. And my print is with stock parts aside from a modified firmware to make leveling adjustments slightly easier.
Play with retraction settings, I set mine at 8 mm (in cura); the default value was 6 mm if i remember well; also make sure to clean the brass gear that pushes filament into the heat block and verify that the filament is well tightened between the brass gear and the metal wheel; you can achieve this by tightening the allen screw connected to the spring of the extruder mechanism, if you need more tightening, you can replace the stock screw for a larger one. Hope it helps
Mostly speed. It takes me 5 minutes to cut up the old cover and drill new holes into it vs 10 mins of looking on thingiverse, slicing, then 4-8 hrs printing. Plus, I try to stick to non-flammable materials when working near power electronics, especially jenkey ones that I wired myself! So whenever I'm working with heaters or 110v I use metal as an added layer of safety.
The main reason: this was my first mod where I changed parts on the hotend and I wanted to keep the old components so I didn't mess anything up. You only really need to upgrade the cartridge if you are sustaining very high flow rates or printing high temperature filaments. I haven't got there yet but I'll be testing out some high flow hotends soon that I'm super excited about. I have a couple from Phaetus and one from MicroSwiss. I'll use some 64 watt cartridges so I can push over 60 cubic mm/s, then eventually past 100 cubic mm/s with a crazy double heating cartridge setup that is currently in the works. I would really like an LED hooked up to the heater cartridge so I can see when it's on and off. That way i could easily see if the cartridge is working at its limit.
I though about doing this, but if one fan stalls I believe it sends 24V to one fan, since they are not a simple resistive load. I considered testing this out, but Noctuas are too expensive to risk damaging them. They are my precioussss!
@@NathanBuildsRobots i have used mine in series for 6 months and i haven’t had that problem when it have gotten filament in it. The other fan spins the same because the resistance is still the same true the fan(or else it would have shorted if it was a 24v fan)
Thanks for sharing your experience. I was googling this exact topic when i was putting this build together and could not find any good answers. My fans do this thing where they stop spinning for 2-3 seconds if I stop them by hand. I think it's a protective feature to prevent them from burning up the motor windings, but I have no idea what they are doing electrically. If you stop one fan does the one in series stop spinning as well? Maybe they are built well enough that they can handle the occasional 24v? I know it's a big no-no to wire RC brushless motor controllers in series, but maybe for brushless computer fans it's different.
I'm about to order a v2. Never printed before. Is there any reason why I shouldn't order and install all upgrades now to achieve a better overall machine? Shorter times same quality. Seems like a no brainer. Advice?
You should consider the voxelab aquila, it's pretty much the same machine at a lower price. I made a video where I compared the two. ua-cam.com/video/SMLL-16FQWk/v-deo.html The stock printer works great, it's worth trying it out so you have a baseline to know what the upgrades are doing. With the 0.6mm volcano nozzle I put on in this video you gain speed by lose some ability to print fine details. With an all metal hotend you can print higher temperature materials, but can increase the chance of jamming. With direct drive you get better control over extrusion and can print flexible plastics, but you have a heavier hotend and get slightly more ghosting because of it. So most upgrades are really trade-offs. The stock setup is a pretty good all rounder, and I've found that it outperforms my modded printers in some aspects. It's better (and cheaper) to identify a need first, then pick the right upgrade. But then again, I'm guilty of buying a bunch of upgrades and putting them on right away.
Probably, the issue is that you need to use a high temperature thermal compound. I don't think the normal computer stuff will survive 200C. I'm going to be switching my machines over to using cartridge thermistors from now on. Reason being, it's really easy to short your wires to the heater block or heatsink. When +24v from your heater cartridge meets your thermistor wires through the heater block the microprocessor to explodes and your out $30-$50, ask me how I know!
No. It's a simple thermistor that it is read by an ADC from an Atmega/Stm32. They are not accurate by far, just enough for this application. You are reading an absolute value not one with five digits after a comma. So you don't need to be exact.
The ones I printed looked like a modified version of this model www.thingiverse.com/thing:3044013 This one takes 4 bolts to install, different option www.thingiverse.com/thing:2742599
It came with one of the noctua fans. Check what comes in the box for some of those Noctua kits and they should show up there. But pretty much any connector will work, the fans draw something like 0.05A
@@NathanBuildsRobots I went ahead and bought what I think are the same ones at lowes, hoping they work. Doing the fan upgrades same as you but to an ender extender 400 xl
I take it you're not aware of the fact that original fan in Meanwell 24V PSU is actually 12V so you could have simply take it out and plugged Noctua 12V directly to PSU mother board and it would get 12V without step down board. All in all you're butchering a lot of stuff here that you could have simply printed new motherboard cover plate with hole for bigger fans. There are plenty on i.e. Thingiverse. Same thing with PSU cover. There are replacement mesh covers that you can print and install instead of original metal cover that will help with air flow. Sticking noctua fan on original fan that doesn't even spin all the time definitely doesn't help with air flow and cooling... I wouldn't recommend anyone do these mods/upgrades this way...
I like that, call me The Butcher. This was one of my first mod videos. In my more recent videos I've improved my metal-work, use of 3D printed parts, wiring. I took the power supply apart and have been considering alternate wiring for the fans. It looks like it has a 12v fan, with that lower voltage being produced by a zener diode. One could probably short out the diode with a wire to also be able to run a 24v fan, or short out the control transistor to have it run in always-on mode. But for now it works so I'm going to keep it how it is.
I added a part cooling fan. For the tall rainbow part it was spending about 25 seconds per layer, so the previous layer was still melted when the new layer was going down which caused a lot of issues.
Love your videos! Got my Ender 3 v2 the other day and I'm already wanting to upgrade it with new fans and hotend. But how did you get the 12v hotend to work on the 24v system?
You just need to convert 24v to 12v, there are a number of ways to do it - in this video I used a DC buck converter, but you can also use resistors or diodes to drop the voltage. I will be making a video on 3D printer electronics that will explain these concepts in more detail.
@@niclasnordqvist Oh wait, no! I reused the 24v heater cartridge that came with the printer. The 40w heater 12v cartridge will act like a 160w heater cartridge if you put it on 24v!
@@NathanBuildsRobots Also, those little Buck regulators are usually only good for around 3 amps, maybe five with a heat sink. I wouldn't trust one of those to reliably run a heater cartridge.
When I purchased my e3d v6 kit, I had to use the included thermistor. I couldn't reuse my old one :( So i cut it off and attached the new one. Kind of a pain but it had to be done.
There are better options out there now. If you are at all concerned about value I would skip the noctua fans. I just did another 3D printer build based on the FOKOOS ODIN this week, which I really liked. I will post a video about it soon. It is loaded with most of the features that I added to this machine and then some. But it too has some deficiencies that I solved through modding. Had to replace the heated bed, added quiet fans, and changed out the hotend/extruder but its printing so well now.
Yeahh, that PSU Idea with Fan over Fan wasn‘t that great. Mostly for Meanwell the Fans are 12V. Even if that PSU is Creality branded its worth while replacing with a Sunon Fan 60x60x15mm
I have heard elsewhere that it is sometimes 12v, sometimes 24v. I just looked inside my PSU, it has a 12v fan. I think they use a zener diode to reduce the voltage from 24V. I suppose I could short out the diode and use a 24v fan instead.
All of the fans are running in parallel on the 12V buck converter, which is powered by the power supply. The rest is pretty much stock. I'll describe wiring more thoroughly in future videos.
It currently has a 5015 fan on it and prints great. Could use 2 fans for even more cooling. I should have printed a Benchy for this video, but I made one later and included it at the 13m23s mark of my other video. ua-cam.com/video/nUhcNrtGIIs/v-deo.html
how can the fan work if the old fan is in the way blocking it though? there is no way that wouldnt work better without the old fan still there, but i'll take your word on whatever reason you did it for, but i'll just do mine differently and pretend i didnt see it, cuz i dont get it. also i dunno why them fan ppl make their colors so disgusting either, i dont even want it on my printer cuz i got this cool slime green theme going on, and then to stick a gross diarrhea shit brown and dead bone desert corpse tan on there i couldnt cope with it. it'll just be almost silent with some other fan lol, awesome video though, i enjoyed it :) also i just noticed youtube put this in my suggestions but it's two years old so i'm now writing all this for nobody to read, cuz i'm ill or something.
I like it. The squash balls are pretty much ideal for this application - amazing sound dampening and great grip, but they are a bit pricey. I've also considered suspending the printer in the air using cables, but it has to be done properly. After all, a lot of instruments use tensioned strings to transmit sound. But it might be pretty cool if certain tones were amplified so your printer would play random songs while printing.
I've seen so many people printing the duct for their blower. Your tape method is super lightweight, cheap, fast, & effective.
Love simplicity.
It was supposed to be a temporary fix, but now I'm keeping it there until it falls off of its own accord
Yeah and cools even the heaterblock...
@@hasserecht3678 Something about the shape of the tape produces a jet of air that doesn't hit the heater block. Think like an air curtain for automotive aerodynamics. Air is directing air instead of a physical wall directing air.
I experimented with some other air duct designs and the kapton tape version still gets good layer adhesion while a couple designs I printed out did not.
Dude, what a soild video. It is well edited, clear and organized. Great job.
I would consider creating a single 12v supply rail rather than several down convertors less points of failure on heat critical parts.
Yes, I used one DC converter that runs all three 12v fans. Most videos I have seen use 3 separate fans, which isn't really necessary. The downside is that I can't control them independently through the main board, but Noctuas are quiet enough that it isn't a big deal.
I also have a backup fan in the PSU.
I considered adding a 12v relay that would automatically turn the machine off if there was a fault in the 12v line.
Thanks for posting this, mistakes and all. I've got the Ender 3 V2 as well. I'm taking very small steps to increase print speeds. First I've ordered 0.6mm and 0.4mm nickel plated copper MK8 nozzles. This should allow better heat transfer. The next upgrade will be a dual drive extruder, and upgrading both fans with a better part cooling duct. Looks like you've achieved some awesome print speeds while maintaining quality, well done.
Thank you! The hope is that you laugh at, then learn from my mistakes. I will have to look into copper nozzles, looks like a good way to increase heat transfer.
In your quest for speed, here is some data to help you along:
I put my first upgrades on when assembling the printer: Metal extruder (instead of the plastic one it ships with), Capricorn tubing, and yellow bed springs. With that setup I could get ~6mm/s with 0.4mm nozzle and ~13mm/s with 0.8mm nozzle.
Now that I put the volcano on I'm getting 20mm/s with no issues yet on the 0.6mm nozzle. I may be able to push it to 40+mm/s since the kit I bought came with nozzles up to 1.2mm.
But with each increase in speed, I have a decrease in fine details and quality. And an increase in filament expenses!
@@NathanBuildsRobots Noted, thanks for the advice!
It is strange to put one fan on top of another. Your a more powerful fan has to overcome an air resistance of a weaker fan.
Only the strong will survive...
@@NathanBuildsRobots Not how it works... you SHOULD have removed the one inside the case first otherwise you are making the noctua do more work for almost no benefit
@Jonneh1991 you get higher pressure with 2 fans, less back-bleed. Ever seen a jet turbine?
@@azimuth9819Aren’t the stationary blades usually flipped in the opposite direction?
@xenontesla122 yes but on a low pressure scale this would still prevent back bleed, I use 2 120mm fans to push through a 3in duct with nice pressure
Subbed. I look forward to what's next.
I have an Ender 3 and turning it into a v2 and also putting a NEO hot end on it and going to make it direct drive. This is costing me more than I could have bought a NEO used, but at hte moment with the upgraded main board to 4.2.7 and a V2 screen and quiet PSU upgrade fan, I only hear the fromt fan when it is printing. I have hte Ender 3 V3 SE and that is my main printer, but I start printing things and then think I want another thing printed and have to wait. Now I have 2 printers, I dont have to wait. I am 62 and I am learning a lot about printing, designing and also about the workings of the printers.
11:16 you can see the thermal expansion in the hot end, pretty cool
Great job. Get a lot of inspiration. Thanks for sharing.
Very nice close ups and audio
Thanks, I will remember to incorporate more close ups in the future. On the video I'm editing now I'm realizing I used to many static wide angle shots, doesn't look as nice and harder to see what's going on!
in my experience ive found that using a dual 5015 radial fan set up for part cooling on a low voltage is more than enough cooling for my prints ( i usually print functional stuff so not anything that demands insane quality) and it is dead silent. i only use an A4x20 noctua fan for the hot end fan
That is a good plan. I would prefer if fan throttling was don’t by voltage modulation rather than PWM, so you don’t end up with that start/stop noise at any throttle aside from 0 or 100%
@@NathanBuildsRobots you could use one of those buck converters and a little voltmeter in parallel so you know *vaguely* the percentage the fan is running at however those converters are a pain to change the output with that tiny little potentiometer knob
@@percival5771 yeah, it would be nice if there was a buck converter that throttled based on the PWM signal. I have devised a circuit using a capacitor, diode, and some resistors but I will have to test it out to see if it works.
I made similar mods to v2 but I made PETG housing for the motherboard fan and power supply fan, and the buck converter kept the original housings intact and replaced them, I also soldered and heatshrinked any connections, and all my wiring is hidden. No need to butcher parts when you can just make new ones with your 3D printer.
"shit"
I subbed lmao
I couldn't not sub after those golden moments 😩🤌
I thought I lit it on fire :D
14:42 did you remove the part cooling fan? On your ender 3, the part cooling is on the right and still connnected?
Do you have a video how to solve bad prints / tune it ??
No, there are so many things that can go wrong it's hard to have a comprehensive troubleshooting guide. I might give it a shot. I usually explain the issues I have 1 at a time, as little nuggets of information as they come up in my videos and printing.
From what I can see, you didn't get your nozzle screwed all the way up to the heater block. I would have backed the heat break out a little so that I could get the nozzle butted all the way up to the heater block, as some thermal transfer to the nozzle will be lost otherwise.
So he did do this correctly. You leave that bit of space so that it in fact doesn't bottom out on the block, and it ensures that it's tightened against the heat break, which is critical. If there is a space between, or it's not tight enough, it can make a gap the filament will end up in, resulting in a horrible jam. Minimizing the amount that it is away from the block isn't going to hurt, but it should never butt up against the block.
Hey bro you got a huge warp best thing to do is make an enclosure or turn off the ac in the room the printer is in. I just put mine in a small closet on a table and blocked the draft under the door (important also) with a towel and all my prints come out perfectly flat.
I want to get an all metal enclosure. I wonder if an old oven off craigslist would work?
My 9-year old grandson wants to print and design 3-D planes and rockets. Will this machine do that? Are there inexpensive programs or software to do this?
I would reccomend a voxelab Aquila, it's super cheap and just as good as the Ender 3 (I have a comparison video on my channel). Just take care when assembling and leveling the bed.
amzn.to/3CsCXFe
For printing out a plane or rocket I would start by looking at projects on thingiverse. You can download the models for things other people have made.
www.thingiverse.com/tag:aircraft
Once you know how to print and want to make your own designs, Fusion 360 is a free CAD software that is quite powerful, and can be downloaded for free.
The modifications I did in this video prioritize speed over quality. For aircraft you usually want light, thin structures, so I'd just set the printer up and print some stuff with it as a stock build. If you want more speed you can start looking into mods like in this video. Good luck with your grandson!
The PSU fan is already 12V. Why a converter?
A couple videos I watched said it's either 12v or 24v so I was a little confused. I just bypassed the confusion and put in a parallel system.
Also I didn't want to open up the power supply.
Can I run 2x 12v fans on the 24v connection on the mainboard? Or 2 x 24v fans? Or rather a converter? Anyone have instructions?
Yeah you can wire 2 12v fans up in series and run it on 24v. I've done it before with good results.
On my latest video I used a voltage regulator. That's the best solution but it's for low power fans only, like the noctuas. ua-cam.com/video/FHK-s3yqwek/v-deo.html
Ok i Order 2 x 24 v now and Set it parallel, does this work too?
@@vielzuhighxD yes
Great video subbed 👍
great video i enjoyed it
6:20 loved that tip! It's not as useful with an all metal hotend or a PTFE lined heatbreak, though
I thought it was just to help reduce backlash in the bowden tube for cleaner retracts, that's why I've always done it.
But you're right, it's probably most useful in the stock setup where a gap can form and cause a clog where the PTFE tube enters the melt zone.
@@NathanBuildsRobots Indeed
DC-DC converter for a single 0.05A fan? Isn't that a bit of an overkill? Wouldn't a simple voltage divider be enough?
It is powering 4 different fans, which I feel like barely pushes it into buck converter territory.
Whats the purpose of 12V fans, are they just for readily available than 24 V counterparts? I'm about to get a 3 V2 but I'm not too familiar with any form of soldering or more involved wiring, so the 12 V step down seems like quite a hurdle.
No reason to go with 12v other than availability. 24v fans will be much easier to install.
Noctua is working on 24v versions specifically for the 3d printing market, but they won't be out for a while.
Before when I saw the PSU fan mounting I thought "You heathen," and now I get it.
I recently just received the squash balls. which file in thingiverse did you use? thanks
www.thingiverse.com/thing:3044013
I want to exchange the fan on my power supply but the power supply is under the build plate so the fan would reach the floor, how did you get the power supply upright like that ?
I made a separate video on that topic:
ua-cam.com/video/9e-2i5WE-gI/v-deo.html
If you put the squash ball feet on you should get about 1.5" of ground clearance, which would be enough for a low profile fan.
If you are feeling really crazy you can replace the Meanwell power supply with a laptop power supply like in the video, so it makes 0 noise. Only thing is you'll have to retune the PWM or upgrade your heater cartridge which is actually quite simple to do:
ua-cam.com/video/uqCntWdLIvA/v-deo.html
Very cool upgrade.
I think these ideas are great and I don't mean to be negative, but the case is there for a reason, fire and overheating. Removing that layer of safety is questionable. Even with the way the case cover is made - there are no louvers, so it wouldn't pass UL from the get go... I wouldn't recommend removing a layer of metal between a fire source. Finding a Fire resistant PLA might be a better choice. And I am probably overthinking things again. Thanks for listening/reading :)
You really shouldn't double up on fans unless they are the same ones, I mean unless you want to keep buying frame because they soon at a different rate, your actually causing less airflow then what the single noctua can push.
I was under the impression that More fans = More better. I was thinking about jet engine where there are a ton of fans in series which increase static pressure.
But without stator fins, (stationary blades and facing the opposite direction as the rotating blades), I think you are right and doubling up on fans doesn't help much or at all. It'd be interesting to do some testing to find out, but I don't know if enough people care.
if making an ender 3 quieter were as simple as swapping the fans then i could do that, but my ignorance of electronics keeps me from ever doing this since every quiet mod i've seen requires you to add some kind of power converter thing that i don't understand. i've heard you can fry your printer or even shock yourself if you don't know what you're doing, which i don't.
If you short something out it can fry the board easily, thats the only thing you really have to watch out for.
There are actually a number of fans that are quieter and don't need a power converter. You just have to make sure to get 24v fans instead of 12v fans.
Here are a couple examples:
Motherboard Fan: amzn.to/2VHhzeM
Hotend Fan: amzn.to/3lSKHL6
Except on the power supply, the power supply uses a 12v fan (you might be able to use a 24v if you short out a zener diode but it sounds like that is something you would want to avoid)
But at the end of the day the easiest way to do it is to get a printer that comes stock with silent fans. I have heard the artillery sidewinder is pretty quiet since it uses a different kind of heated bed. Basically the bed uses AC power instead of DC, which takes a lot of load off of the power supply.
amzn.to/2VPrBLb
They just came out with an X2 version which I would probably get instead of the older one I linked to, but they are both good. The X2 has an optional bed leveler.
Couldn't you power the buck converter using the stock 24v fan output on the PSU?
Yes, you just have to keep in mind that the output only turns on when the power supply is hot.
how fast do you think it can go without upgraded motors and belts?
Maybe 200mm/s reliably?
I am new to this with a Ender 3 V2 I bought for Christmas. Nice video and some great upgrades for me to look forward to. One question - why is your power supply on the vertical axis? Mine is a stock machine with the power supply below the bed. Is this because Creality changed the design and now mount the power supply below the bed? Or is this something that you did for some reason? TIA
I moved it in a previous video. I like it vertical so it stays cooler
I'm confused, what about the new hot end assembly enables it to print faster compared to stock besides changing speed or nozzle diameter?
The longer melt zone allows the plastic to fully melt before hitting the constriction in the nozzle, thus reducing resistance, allowing higher flow rates.
I would get a larger mk8 nozzle instead of the v6 clone, swap the old 4010 or the new 3010 to a noctua and try out klipper if you want to go faster. The biggest bottleneck you should have is the stock extruder and nozzle, not the hotend.
My biggest gripe with the stock hotend is the fan noise. The small heatsink with densely packed fins is optimized for a loud high static pressure fan. I used Noctuas on another one of my builds with the stock hotend and noticed a slight increase in operating temperate compared to the stock fan.
I experimented with 0.6-1.0mm mk8 nozzles and I was running into issues with the plastic not melting fast enough. It would push through the hotend with ease, then hit a wall where the plastic wouldn't melt fast enough and it would start to underextrude. You can fix the issue with a stronger extruder, but it's only masking the fact that your hotend is not transferring enough heat to the plastic (in my opinion). That's where the volcano comes in.
I definitely have Klipper on my radar if things to add next, and linear advance. I think implementing both of those on my printer would be time well spent.
Do you have any recommendations that dont include messing w voltage. Im fine w it being loud if i dont have to mess w voltages. Tx for video!
There are quieter fans that run on 24v, I just don’t know if any that are as quiet and reliable as the Noctua fans. You can also use current limiting resistors in series with the fans
Hi, thanks for the great video. Could you let me know why you chose fans that have a different voltage rather than staying with 24v fans?
What gauge cable are using to connect the buck converter to the 24v power supply??
I used 14 awg which is way overkill, but guarantees the buck converter will never draw enough current to burn those wires, even if the 12v line is shorted. The overcurrent protection will kick in and it will be failsafe in that regard.
Plus the power supply terminals are built for larger gage wires. So it makes it easier to plug into using crimp connectors like these
amzn.to/2YtK0yI
Why you left the power supply fan in?
The internal fan is thermistor controlled and only turns on when the PSU gets hot. If the fan I installed breaks down or is not keeping the PSU cool enough, the internal fan can turn on and provide additional cooling. It is an extra layer of safety.
@@NathanBuildsRobots The internal fan actually reduces the efficiency of the noctua fan when not in use, and if it cannot keep up with the noctua fan's airflow, it will still be a reduction in airflow when it's on as well. As far as i have read the psu fan is actually 12V so you could pull out the psu fan, and hook the noctua fan up to the psu fan port, and it would be thermostat controlled like the stock one is.
You might be right on this one. If I had a flow meter I could test this theory out.
The is a cheap way for me to test fans against each other: put them on opposite ends of a sealed box blowing against each other, and use smoke to see which one prevails. This would be a test of static pressure, so I could test 2 stacked fans vs a single fan and see which one wins.
I imagine the first fan boosts the pressure a little bit, then the 2nd fan boosts it a little more so I get better static pressure. Kind of like the compressor on a gas turbine, lots of fans in series to increase pressure.
can you link to the feet the squash balls go in?
www.thingiverse.com/thing:3044013
Thanks for asking, I'll add it to the description too
Is this an older v2 given I've seen some with the power supply located in the bottom assembly?
I moved the power supply to the side for better cooling.
@@NathanBuildsRobots thank you for coming back to me on this, i hopefully will get the v2 soon and will be installing some upgrades, keep up the great videos. Helped me with a lot of insight into 3d printing
Didn't you need to modify the y offset or limit switch to account for the klemco 0.315" thickness?
I just print in the middle of the bed 😆
What diameter shrink wrap did you use for the buck converter? 1inch?
It was some random stuff that came with another electric device I bought. It hard to fit into.
I would get 30mm or 1.25".
This is the exact video I was looking for. I don't currently have an Ender 3 v2, but I'm looking at getting one sometime this year and I want to know what some of my options are for upgrades.
Few questions, if you don't mind.
1. Is this just the V6 All-Metal hot end from E3D? I'm having trouble seeing what's compatible with Ender stuff.
2. Does the V6 hot end work with all of the E3D nozzles, or do you have to buy the volcano hot end to use volcano nozzles?
3. How high is the risk of damaging your printer / throwing calibrations unfixably out of whack when installing these things? I'm pretty handy with tools, and I'm fairly competent with installing things that have a somewhat decent manual.
Thanks so much. You've earned another subscriber!
Just don't short anything out and you'll be fine. There isn't much to worry about with throwing off calibration.
I'm making a2nd v2 video right now, should be out in a couple days.
I would recommend just getting an all metal heatbreak and CHT nozzle as it will be easier than installing the whole new hotend, so you can get the same results in terms of print speed for less work
Is hard to answer all of the questions in the comments, I think it works be best to ask on the discord!
So are the fans always on now then since you're just running straight from the PSU?
Anyone have any idea which of these mods will also work with the Voxelab Aquila (ender 3 clone)? Thanks!
Every mod on this video should work on the voxelab. The only differences I've noticed that could affect mods are:
Different fan shroud mounting hole pattern.
Slightly different x axis limit switch positioning.
The rest of the machine is so similar that most mods should be compatible. I'm working on modding my Aquila now, one video will be out in the next couple of days where I put on a direct drive extruder kit from microswiss, then another will be out in 2 weeks whew I put on a dragonfly HF hotend from Phaetus..
The hotend heatsink, hotend mounting, heater block, motherboard mounting, power supply, and fans are exactly the same.
The glass bead thermistor was glued in on my aquila using some kind of thermal glue. It took some force to pull out and I could have damaged the thermistor if I wasn't being careful. Most hotend kits come with a replacement thermistor, but some want you to reuse the stock one, so just use caution.
you helped me alot ... thank you.
Glad I could help!
can i ask you what setting you get in cura or in slicer you use each time you said you print faster but not tell me how , i love the fact that you tell me with what i can print faster , but that would be even more cool if you tell me how i can print faster , i want to learn to tweek perfectly and make cura profile that blast my printer ahah
I am planning on publishing some Cura/PrusaSlicer printer profiles, I haven't got there yet though.
Can you show us your print settings?
Paul, can you join the Discord and ask for that? That way I can send you the print profile I use. Are you wanting the volcano profile or the standard 0.4mm profile that I normally use?
@@NathanBuildsRobots hey i join the discord, just downloading the app. The standard 0,4mm
Hi, why did you decide to use PWM and not the FLX version of Noctua? I ordered both of them and want to use the 12V 2pin fan connector and I am not sure which one should I use.
Look up the "pinout" for the Noctua fans.
I believe the standard is:
Black = ground
Yellow = 12V
The other 2 wires are PWM signal line (which you don't need to wire up) and RPM signal line (which you also don't need).
What were your printer settings? About to the exact same upgrade.
For this video I believe I was using Prusaslicer with the default Ender 3 profile.
All I did was update nozzle diameter and it changed all the extrusion widths automatically and worked great.
@@NathanBuildsRobots 0.06 nozzle? Or bigger?
@@coreelite yes 0.6mm
Had to rewatch my own video to see it at 4:26
0.6mm is the sweet spot for a mostly stock setup. It keeps a good amount of detail on your prints.
0.8mm and up will unlock much faster speeds but you will also want to upgrade to a copper heater block, copper nozzle, dual gear direct drive extruder, and 60 watt heater cartridge to get the most of it. You start losing fine detail at these larger sizes too.
Squash balls wont bounce untill heated up. Squash players stick them under their arm pits to heat them up before starting to use them and they heat up more with the energy of being hit by the racket and wall. Then they are very bouncy.
That’s is cool to know
@@NathanBuildsRobots At least the printer will not be bouncing around. :).
is this still a good option or are there better alternatives today
There are better alternatives. I’d reccomend going straight for a direct drive extruder upgrade. The Microswiss NG with a CHT nozzle and maybe a ceramic heater is pretty much the best setup around as an Ender 3 upgrade
Great vid, one thing tho if I were you I would change the hotend thermistor and heatcatridge because they still contain ptfe (you can see it if you look near the end of the cable) which would be harmful at high printing temperatures.
Good point, I didn't think about the material used on the thermistor. Is the translucent plastic covering the wires made of PTFE?
Where is the PTFE on the heater cartridge? I thought it had a fiber/silicone wire covering
I use cartridge style thermistors on all my new machines because they are safer in terms of not being able to short out, but now I can add your reason to the list of why to use the cartridge style ones.
@@NathanBuildsRobots Yeah that translucent tube is ptfe, a lot of heater cartridges have it too but inside the protected casing (so I don't know if that should be a problem, but the thermistor if like a glass one makes contact so its a no go for 250c+)
Also you can see it here said by another UA-cam ua-cam.com/video/GCB-RhB7Q-c/v-deo.html (He explains it till 02.00 minutes
By the way what hotted would you recommend for high temp?
@@studywithme8055 a cheap all metal v6 style hotend will work fine. I would upgrade to use better materials on the hotend to get more consistent temperatures (copper nozzle and heater block). Microswiss is also pretty good as a medium price option that bolts directly to the Ender 3 platform.
Right now I'm working on 2 videos with phaetus hotends - dragon and dragonfly. Both are excellent but the dragonfly HF has a design flaw, not sure if the same problem exists on the standard dragonfly.
I like to cobble things together, but if you want a better building experience I recommend buying a kit. It only ends up being slightly more expensive than when you spec everything out yourself, and you're much more likely to end up with a nice setup in the end.
Hey thanks for the video. The link for the hot end volcano kit is no longer available. Could you provide an alternative or maybe just list the parts necessary individually? Thanks
This one worked for me:
amzn.to/3rHEPo6
You can also look up "v6 hotend kit" and that should bring up a bunch of other listings.
Some only include a standard heater block though, so if you are interested in the volcano make sure to look for one with the longer brass nozzles and the volcano heater block.
@@NathanBuildsRobots that's what I'm talking about! Thanks a bunch mayne
@@NathanBuildsRobots instead of buying the clemco mount, could i print something like the "Petsfang Duct" mount, for this setup with a volcano, or would it be too hot and melt it? :)
@@ThePineTreesBand A printed mount will work. I would stay away from PLA as it has a low melting point and could drop your hotend, which would be bad.
A metal mount will always be more failsafe, since it will never melt, and helps transfer heat out of the heatsink and into the frame of your printer, so you will end up running a little cooler.
That said, Prusa printers, which are some of the best on the market, use a printed mount made of PETG and have great quality/reliability.
@@NathanBuildsRobots interesting. Yeah I have some petg. I'm pretty tempted to try it honestly. I won't try an hold you accountable if it fails 🤣
Thanks again for all the info and quick reply. I'm now believer in you're channel and subscribed
What was the print settings? speeds, nozzle size infill etc. Thanks for the video
Check this video to see a Benchy produced by the volcano machine at the 13m23s mark.
ua-cam.com/video/nUhcNrtGIIs/v-deo.html
Fast settings:
0.6 mm nozzle, 0.7 mm extrusion width, 0.6 mm top layer solid infill, .73mm first layer
Layer height: 0.3 mm, 2 perimeters, 4 solid layers top and bottom
Speed: 30mm/s first layer, 50-60 mm/s depending on feature
20% rectilinear infill
Detailed settings:
0.6 mm nozzle, 0.7 mm extrusion width, 0.6 mm top layer solid infill, .73mm first layer
Layer height: 0.25 mm, 3 perimeters, 6 solid layers top and bottom
Speed: 20mm/s first layer, 30-50 mm/s depending on feature
25% rectilinear infill
I also have a profile I call "Fat mode" that puts down tons of filament fast for printing solid parts
I plan on creating a website and uploading PrusaSlicer Profiles sometime in the next month.
@@NathanBuildsRobots both printer went with same settings on this video? And if that was, estimated print time is mostly unknown on your software that you used for the volcano? Thanks.
@@MMK-342
The black part was printed on 0.4mm nozzle on stock Ender 3 Pro
The rainbow part was printed on Ender 3 V2 with upgraded 0.6mm volcano nozzle
The large grey part was printed on Ender 3 V2 with upgraded 0.6mm volcano nozzle
I used the "fast" profile I listed above, but layer height increased to 0.5mm, perimeters increased to 12, and top/bottom layers increased to 20.
Hello. Why do not use the Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM at the power supply?
That is a great fan, but I wanted to stick to the PSUs original fan size of 60mm, so I used the NF-A6x25 PWM.
It's not the best fan for the job, as it's more optimized for volumetric flow rate than static pressure, but it's the only one in that size that Noctua makes that I know of.
Hi Nathan, I hope you are well and healthy, I have Ender 3 V2 Neo and I have upgraded with bimetal titanium and copper heatbreak and use MK8 hotend block with the size of 20x20x10 and use Bondtech CHT nozzle 0.4 my mainboard is allready silent one though I haven't upgraded to Marlins latest it is stock Creality software I have also replaced heatbed springs with plastic elastic springs and so far pretty happy with it. But I wonder what is your view about dragon hotend vs MK8 one? I mostly use PLA maybe PETG in future... But I will stick with PLA for now. Did you see real comparable results in print speed/quality with the Dragon Hotend upgrade? Should I consider to upgrade too? Thanks in advance I just subscribed your videos are really informative!
Anything with a longer meltzone will increase print speeds. Dragon with cht should be able to push 32-40 mm^3/s vs your current setup can probably only do 24. So yes there is a speed increase but you should also consider a direct drive setup as that really helps with high flow rates in my experience
@@NathanBuildsRobots I have also have double gear extruder with hardened steel gears I have Direct Drive Extruder plate for Ender 3 v2 on my upgrade list since I bought it. Thanks for your answers Nathan😊 I will upgrade to the dragon hotend too I guess 👍
I got noctua fans as well but there is something different in mine, its a 3 pin instead of a 4 pin, would that affect the end result?
Good question.
3 and 4 pin fans have lines for power, ground, and fan speed.
The fan speed line alternates between a low and high voltage as the fan spins, which your PC interprets into fan speed.
The 4 pin fans have an additional line that is a PWM speed control line. It basically a signal line that lets you set the throttle of your fan between 0% and 100%.
Most 3d printers can throttle the part cooling fan, but this throttling is done on the motherboard by turning the power line on and off rapidly using PWM.
For all 3d printers that I have worked on, you only use the power and ground lines (for Noctua fans this is normally the yellow and black wires, yellow is the ATX standard color for 12v).
As 3d printing technology gets better we may see 3 or 4 pin connectors being used, but for now they should be the same.
Hey Nathan, I have an E3 V2 and I was never able to figure out how to maximize the print area over the stock 235x235mm size. I don't see the parameters in the firmware... How did you do it?
I think you need to compile a custom Marlin firmware, it's pretty easy as there's plenty of guides out there. I also think that custom firmware is much better than Creality's.
I didn't touch the firmware in this video, but this article covers how to flash your firmware:
m.all3dp.com/2/ender-3-v2-firmware-update/
I'd check out Chris's Basement to learn how to install Visual Studio Code with PlatformIO, and configure Marlin for your Ender 3 V2. The specific parameter you want to change is "X_BED_SIZE" and "Y_BED_SIZE"
If you're really lucky (and don't want to spend 10 hrs figuring out how to configure Marlin correctly)
you might be able to find a precompiled firmware file that you can just download, put on a flash card, install into your V2, restart the printer, and your done.
Is there a cheap alternative for hotend mount ? In my country, the dollar rate is quite high, I don't want to spend that much.
You might be able to find one if you look around. Not sure the quality will be the same but it should work in a pinch.
Curious? Great Vid! BTW!
Can these mods be done for Version 1?
Should be able to!
Could you provide a link for the feets?
www.thingiverse.com/thing:4644945
Supports took a couple minutes to remove and I had to hammer mine in, but they are working great at keeping noise down. There are a lot of other designs of you look up "squash ball feet Ender 3"
brother please suggest me which one is better Ender 3 pro or V2
It goes:
Ender 3
Ender 3 pro
Ender 3 V2
that was fucking awesome mate.............. I'm so so soooooooo doing this to my ender 3 v2............. thank you mate :)
I've got some more crazy stuff going on with this machine now. Basically making this another 4X faster using a supervolcano nozzle. Should do a kg spool in maybe 2 hrs
What was your retraction and what speed?
the original psu fan is 12v so you wouldent need the stepdow there
When researching for this project I heard it could be 12 or 24, so I decided to play it safe and leave the original fan in there.
I wonder if you could replace the thermistor in the PSU with a radiator so the fan is always on, then tap into that connecting to power the rest of the fans on the printer without using a separate step-down circuit? May have to try that in a future video.
Hi, when you changed the hotend did you need to change something in the code? I have an Ender 6 and I want to change the hotend. Thank you for your videos
For this mod I did not have to change any of the firmware.
I had to update my slicer settings to account for the 0.6mm nozzle. Let me know if you need help with that.
Here are the slicer settings I used:
For PLA
Nozzle 200 C
Bed Temp 60 C
Fast settings:
0.6 mm nozzle, 0.7 mm extrusion width, 0.6 mm top layer solid infill, .73mm first layer
Layer height: 0.3 mm, 2 perimeters, 4 solid layers top and bottom
Speed: 30mm/s first layer, 50-60 mm/s depending on feature
20% rectilinear infill
Detailed settings:
0.6 mm nozzle, 0.7 mm extrusion width, 0.6 mm top layer solid infill, .73mm first layer
Layer height: 0.25 mm, 3 perimeters, 6 solid layers top and bottom
Speed: 20mm/s first layer, 30-50 mm/s depending on feature
25% rectilinear infill
I got a quick question. While my prints come out nice, there's tiny nicks in the prints (that is, tiny bits of PLA that juts out from the prints). How can I mitigate these issues? My hotend temps I use for 205C and my extruder step speed is 93 Steps/mm. And my print is with stock parts aside from a modified firmware to make leveling adjustments slightly easier.
Play with retraction settings, I set mine at 8 mm (in cura); the default value was 6 mm if i remember well; also make sure to clean the brass gear that pushes filament into the heat block and verify that the filament is well tightened between the brass gear and the metal wheel; you can achieve this by tightening the allen screw connected to the spring of the extruder mechanism, if you need more tightening, you can replace the stock screw for a larger one. Hope it helps
Next time please show a before and after comparison in terms of noise in hz or something at least, good vid anyways
That's a good idea, up include it in the next one
Great video thanks 🙏 i
If you print only with PLA , 0.2 nozzle and very high resolution small items,do you need this upgrade?
It will print better and faster?
I don't think you would need it for low speed. Volcano nozzle is mostly for high speeds.
Great upgrades, but why not print new covers instead of cutting up the metal ones? That also takes care of the covered vent slots on the PSU.
Mostly speed. It takes me 5 minutes to cut up the old cover and drill new holes into it vs 10 mins of looking on thingiverse, slicing, then 4-8 hrs printing.
Plus, I try to stick to non-flammable materials when working near power electronics, especially jenkey ones that I wired myself! So whenever I'm working with heaters or 110v I use metal as an added layer of safety.
@@NathanBuildsRobots dude don't limit yourself to thingiverse. Do some cad.
@@sabaubogdan6997 doing some CAD for my next project, should be coming out next week 😀
just run the fans in series that will work 2*12 fans in series will work on 24v
I ended up doing that on another video and it worked. It suprised me because they are not simple resistive loads, but I guess its close enough!
Thanks for the video! Just wondering why you didn't upgrade the cartridge heater to 50W to get increased plastic flow.
The main reason: this was my first mod where I changed parts on the hotend and I wanted to keep the old components so I didn't mess anything up.
You only really need to upgrade the cartridge if you are sustaining very high flow rates or printing high temperature filaments. I haven't got there yet but I'll be testing out some high flow hotends soon that I'm super excited about. I have a couple from Phaetus and one from MicroSwiss. I'll use some 64 watt cartridges so I can push over 60 cubic mm/s, then eventually past 100 cubic mm/s with a crazy double heating cartridge setup that is currently in the works.
I would really like an LED hooked up to the heater cartridge so I can see when it's on and off. That way i could easily see if the cartridge is working at its limit.
You could have had 2 nocturnal fans(one for the hotend and one for the electronic box) and have them in series. Then you don’t need a step down
I though about doing this, but if one fan stalls I believe it sends 24V to one fan, since they are not a simple resistive load. I considered testing this out, but Noctuas are too expensive to risk damaging them. They are my precioussss!
@@NathanBuildsRobots i have used mine in series for 6 months and i haven’t had that problem when it have gotten filament in it. The other fan spins the same because the resistance is still the same true the fan(or else it would have shorted if it was a 24v fan)
Thanks for sharing your experience. I was googling this exact topic when i was putting this build together and could not find any good answers.
My fans do this thing where they stop spinning for 2-3 seconds if I stop them by hand. I think it's a protective feature to prevent them from burning up the motor windings, but I have no idea what they are doing electrically. If you stop one fan does the one in series stop spinning as well?
Maybe they are built well enough that they can handle the occasional 24v?
I know it's a big no-no to wire RC brushless motor controllers in series, but maybe for brushless computer fans it's different.
@@NathanBuildsRobots I use 2 40mm no ray fans and the other one just keep spinning. But the one that get jammed may be a bit work many after a will
I'm about to order a v2. Never printed before. Is there any reason why I shouldn't order and install all upgrades now to achieve a better overall machine? Shorter times same quality. Seems like a no brainer. Advice?
You should consider the voxelab aquila, it's pretty much the same machine at a lower price. I made a video where I compared the two.
ua-cam.com/video/SMLL-16FQWk/v-deo.html
The stock printer works great, it's worth trying it out so you have a baseline to know what the upgrades are doing.
With the 0.6mm volcano nozzle I put on in this video you gain speed by lose some ability to print fine details.
With an all metal hotend you can print higher temperature materials, but can increase the chance of jamming.
With direct drive you get better control over extrusion and can print flexible plastics, but you have a heavier hotend and get slightly more ghosting because of it.
So most upgrades are really trade-offs. The stock setup is a pretty good all rounder, and I've found that it outperforms my modded printers in some aspects. It's better (and cheaper) to identify a need first, then pick the right upgrade. But then again, I'm guilty of buying a bunch of upgrades and putting them on right away.
Can i use this method on regular ender 3,?
Yes, it will work the same on Ender 3, pro, and v2
would it be beneficial to use thermal compound with the thermistor to get more accurate readings?
Probably, the issue is that you need to use a high temperature thermal compound. I don't think the normal computer stuff will survive 200C.
I'm going to be switching my machines over to using cartridge thermistors from now on. Reason being, it's really easy to short your wires to the heater block or heatsink. When +24v from your heater cartridge meets your thermistor wires through the heater block the microprocessor to explodes and your out $30-$50, ask me how I know!
No. It's a simple thermistor that it is read by an ADC from an Atmega/Stm32. They are not accurate by far, just enough for this application.
You are reading an absolute value not one with five digits after a comma. So you don't need to be exact.
@@sabaubogdan6997 yeah, it technically increases accuracy, but in the real world it does not make a noticable difference.
Why is this so hard? All i want to do is replace my ender 3 v2 fans with less noise fans :(
I am going to make it easier with a little adapter thingy. Stay tuned, will be making a video about it in a month!
11:21 - "Oh shit" 🤣😂
At this point I've seen enough smoke to know not to worry about it. But always keep an eye on it until it stops smoking!
Nice video, really helpfull. Where can i found the stl for squash balls feet ? Thx
The ones I printed looked like a modified version of this model
www.thingiverse.com/thing:3044013
This one takes 4 bolts to install, different option
www.thingiverse.com/thing:2742599
Which phone splice connector did you use?
It came with one of the noctua fans. Check what comes in the box for some of those Noctua kits and they should show up there. But pretty much any connector will work, the fans draw something like 0.05A
@@NathanBuildsRobots I went ahead and bought what I think are the same ones at lowes, hoping they work. Doing the fan upgrades same as you but to an ender extender 400 xl
I take it you're not aware of the fact that original fan in Meanwell 24V PSU is actually 12V so you could have simply take it out and plugged Noctua 12V directly to PSU mother board and it would get 12V without step down board.
All in all you're butchering a lot of stuff here that you could have simply printed new motherboard cover plate with hole for bigger fans. There are plenty on i.e. Thingiverse. Same thing with PSU cover. There are replacement mesh covers that you can print and install instead of original metal cover that will help with air flow.
Sticking noctua fan on original fan that doesn't even spin all the time definitely doesn't help with air flow and cooling...
I wouldn't recommend anyone do these mods/upgrades this way...
I like that, call me The Butcher.
This was one of my first mod videos. In my more recent videos I've improved my metal-work, use of 3D printed parts, wiring.
I took the power supply apart and have been considering alternate wiring for the fans. It looks like it has a 12v fan, with that lower voltage being produced by a zener diode. One could probably short out the diode with a wire to also be able to run a 24v fan, or short out the control transistor to have it run in always-on mode. But for now it works so I'm going to keep it how it is.
Could You tell us what You did to improve the print quality on this nozzle?
I added a part cooling fan. For the tall rainbow part it was spending about 25 seconds per layer, so the previous layer was still melted when the new layer was going down which caused a lot of issues.
Love your videos! Got my Ender 3 v2 the other day and I'm already wanting to upgrade it with new fans and hotend. But how did you get the 12v hotend to work on the 24v system?
You just need to convert 24v to 12v, there are a number of ways to do it - in this video I used a DC buck converter, but you can also use resistors or diodes to drop the voltage.
I will be making a video on 3D printer electronics that will explain these concepts in more detail.
Ok, so you put the wiring on the same buck converter you used for the fans
@@niclasnordqvist Oh wait, no! I reused the 24v heater cartridge that came with the printer.
The 40w heater 12v cartridge will act like a 160w heater cartridge if you put it on 24v!
@@NathanBuildsRobots Also, those little Buck regulators are usually only good for around 3 amps, maybe five with a heat sink. I wouldn't trust one of those to reliably run a heater cartridge.
When I purchased my e3d v6 kit, I had to use the included thermistor. I couldn't reuse my old one :( So i cut it off and attached the new one. Kind of a pain but it had to be done.
Did you splice into the old one? Or did you cut off the pin connector on the new one and attach it to the board?
When you change half of the printer, it is not longer the same printer
This one's for you:
ua-cam.com/video/vmeG_fPpXD4h/v-deo.html
What is the total $ price? Is it still worth it considering the extra cost?
There are better options out there now. If you are at all concerned about value I would skip the noctua fans.
I just did another 3D printer build based on the FOKOOS ODIN this week, which I really liked. I will post a video about it soon. It is loaded with most of the features that I added to this machine and then some.
But it too has some deficiencies that I solved through modding. Had to replace the heated bed, added quiet fans, and changed out the hotend/extruder but its printing so well now.
Yeahh, that PSU Idea with Fan over Fan wasn‘t that great. Mostly for Meanwell the Fans are 12V. Even if that PSU is Creality branded its worth while replacing with a Sunon Fan 60x60x15mm
I have a bunch of 60x15 fans now, so next PSU I mod, I'll be ready!
Creality fit 12V fans to PSU but actually on the connector are 24V, dont get foul by labeling on the fan.l!!
I have heard elsewhere that it is sometimes 12v, sometimes 24v.
I just looked inside my PSU, it has a 12v fan. I think they use a zener diode to reduce the voltage from 24V.
I suppose I could short out the diode and use a 24v fan instead.
Wire schematic/diagram?? Thanks!
All of the fans are running in parallel on the 12V buck converter, which is powered by the power supply. The rest is pretty much stock.
I'll describe wiring more thoroughly in future videos.
@@NathanBuildsRobots thank you! I have them all set up and working! What a dream the silence is! Again, thank you fir this great MOD!
great video! thanks.
I think I'll cut my v2 apart!
Just make sure to put it back together when you're done!
@@NathanBuildsRobots that reminds me off a pile of wires and aluminum (or voxelab) that arrived doa to sort out lol.
Now that's a hot tighten my man, and ya don't that new printer smell all of them do that.
@@frankdank7439 I go into panic mode whenever I'm working with electronics and see smoke.
that sounds like weed burning lol great video
Crap, did I forget to turn my mic off?
Just kidding, I couldn't find the part that sounds like burning weed.
Need to do maybe a 5015 cooling fan setup maybe
It currently has a 5015 fan on it and prints great. Could use 2 fans for even more cooling.
I should have printed a Benchy for this video, but I made one later and included it at the 13m23s mark of my other video.
ua-cam.com/video/nUhcNrtGIIs/v-deo.html
how can the fan work if the old fan is in the way blocking it though? there is no way that wouldnt work better without the old fan still there, but i'll take your word on whatever reason you did it for, but i'll just do mine differently and pretend i didnt see it, cuz i dont get it. also i dunno why them fan ppl make their colors so disgusting either, i dont even want it on my printer cuz i got this cool slime green theme going on, and then to stick a gross diarrhea shit brown and dead bone desert corpse tan on there i couldnt cope with it. it'll just be almost silent with some other fan lol, awesome video though, i enjoyed it :) also i just noticed youtube put this in my suggestions but it's two years old so i'm now writing all this for nobody to read, cuz i'm ill or something.
I love your color descriptions
Ha! You've just invented a new word! Scalvage. When you combine salvage and scavenge. It's how the pros do it. LoLs
0:40 I made my own "squash balls" by folding up paper towels and wrapping them with electrical tape 😉 👌
I like it. The squash balls are pretty much ideal for this application - amazing sound dampening and great grip, but they are a bit pricey.
I've also considered suspending the printer in the air using cables, but it has to be done properly. After all, a lot of instruments use tensioned strings to transmit sound. But it might be pretty cool if certain tones were amplified so your printer would play random songs while printing.