E3D-v6 on Ultimaker 2

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A guide to upgrading your Ultimaker 2 3D printer to use the E3D-Extruder and range of hot ends.

This guide was originally written by Steve Wood of Gyrobot, many thanks for his contribution.

Introduction.

Please familiarise yourself with this guide and your printer before choosing to continue.

Example.jpg

You Will Need.

What Tools Are Required.

Disassembly.

  • Heat your hot end up and retract your filament as if you were going to change filament.
  • Turn the heat down and wait for the HotEnd to cool.
  • Unplug your Ultimaker 2 from the power supply.
  • Remove all of the black cable clips between the Bowden feed tube and the hot end wiring loom.
  • UM2 Black cable clips.

Removing the XY Carriage.

  • Fully unscrew all four long vertical thumbscrews at the top of the carriage.
  • Existing UM2 XY Carriage.
  • The upper and lower black layers in the plastic carriage should loosen easily so the bearings can be popped out sideways.
  • Once the bearings are removed the carriage can be removed, piece by piece from the printer to work separately.
  • The linear bearings will be left on the rails, we re-use them with the new XY Carriage.

Removing Part Fans.

  • Trace the wires from the two part fans back through the wiring loom about 150mm and disconnect at their plugs. The black net sleeving can be easily be peeled back.
  • Unscrew both fans from the metal fan ducts and put the fans and screws by for later.
  • Remove the 4 screws (or in my case only two) that hold the metal twin fan duct to the hot end heatsink block. The fan duct can now be removed.
  • UM2 part cooling fans.
  • UM2 Fan Ducts.

Disassembling the Hot End.

Why is this happening? Surely the whole head just goes in the bin? All we want is to get the fans off..?

  • Remove Bowden tube from carriage by pushing down on the release collar.
  • Unscrew the single fastener in the heater block with a phillips screwdriver.
  • Remove the PT100 temperature sensor(smaller diameter) and the heater cartridge (larger diameter) with some small pliers.
  • Remove the 4 screws that hold the end cooling fan onto the heat sink.
  • Unscrew the fastener in the heater block.
  • Pull out the PT100 thermocouple and heater cartridges
  • This should now be the carriage end of your loom
  • Trace the cooling fan wires back to through the loom and disconnect at the first plug (about 200mm away).

Remove the Hot End Heating Components.

In this guide we are using a fully assembled E3D HotEnd which already has the a heating element and higher performance PT100 sensor installed.

  • Turn the machine onto it's right side so that you can access the underside where you will see the white electronics board.
  • Unscrew the 4x screws of the board with a hex key with access from the inside of the machine.

We need a photo of the 4 screws that need to be removed.

  • Access electronics board mounting screws from inside.
  • Careful not to loose the black plastic board spacers, remove the screws and rotate the board so the USB/power switch etc come easily away from the rear of the machine.
  • Disconnect the PT100 temperature sensor plug and the heater cartridge wires. The heater wires are removed by pushing in the orange plungers on the green terminals with a flat screwdriver.
  • Remove the PT100 thermocouple plug.
  • Disconnect the two heater wires from the terminals.
  • Once the heating components are removed from the board, it's easier to pull the larger cartridge through the wiring loom from the extruder end of the loom, and the smaller PT100 cartridge through the loom from the electronics end.

Recap.

By now you should have these parts removed but saved for later :

  • Cable Clips.
  • 2 x part fans.
  • 8 x part fan screws.

And these parts removed and available as "spares" :

  • UM2 heater cartridge.
  • UM2 PT100 temperature sensor.
  • UM2 heat sink fan.
  • UM2 metal double fan ducts.
  • UM2 heat sink, heat block and nozzle.
  • UM2 XY Carriage in 3 pieces.
  • Some screws.
  • Parts removed at this stage
  • Parts removed at this stage

Assembly.

It is now time to work in reverse order, only you need to replace the UM2 parts with their E3D alternatives as well as using the 3D printed replacements.

Assembling the Hot End Heating Components.

  • Prepare the end of the heater wires by stripping back some cable insulation and the fibreglass sheathing.
  • Plug the heater wires into the electronics board in the same place as the previous UM2 version.
  • Plug in the PT100 thermocouple wires into the same place as the previous UM2 version.
  • While the rear of the board is exposed, move the hot end cooling fan wires from the 5V pins to the 24V source as shown to provide the correct voltage for the E3D HotEnd heatsink fan. The positive pin is the one nearest the main power plug input on the side.
  • Push the cartridges back though the wiring loom to the carriage end.
  • Heater wires stripped and prepared.
  • File:Plug-In-Heater-Wires.jpeg
    Re-position fan power from 5V to 24V and also connect heater wires.
  • Plug in the PT100 thermocouple.


Assembling the XY Carriage.

The new printed XY Carriage is in 4 layers, Layer 1 is the bottom and layer 4 is the top. Layers 1 and 2 are the same part however layer 2 is orientated upside down. The HotEnd should be positioned in the front left quadrant of the smooth rod's crossover.

  • Insert V6 HotEnd into hole in layer 1 and slide along groove mount first.
  • Layer 2 should slot over layer one and sandwich the bearing in place.
  • Layer 3 should fit under the upper bearing.
  • Layer 4 will sandwich the upper bearing onto layer 3.
  • Layers 1-2 can slide under layers 3-4 until the 4 long thumbscrews can be inserted down the corner holes.


  • Insert the four long thumbscrews down the corner holes making sure there are washers under the heads.
  • Install thumbscrews in the two front positions and one of the back positions. At the bottom of the screws use the M3 washers and Nuts.
    • The missing screw at the back will give us space to attach the E3D HotEnd cooling fan duct later.

HotEnd Cabling

Time to take the opportunity to feed some cabling through the carriage for the HotEnd heater, thermocouple, HotEnd cooling fan and part cooling fans. The cabling should be fed before the HotEnd fan duct is in place.

  • Feed the heater and PT100 cartridges down through the top hole.
  • Feed the part cooling fan wires and the Hotend cooling fan wires from underneath up out the top and connect to the same loom connectors as the original UM2 versions.
  • Clip the HotEnd fan and duct to the heatsink, carefully paying attention to not trap any wires. For this you will need to raise one of the rear thumb screws that you left un-nutted from above. Once clipped in, add this final washer and nut to the thumb screw.

Assembling the Fan Ducts.

  • Add another layer of nuts to the thumb screws until they sit around 5mm from the top of the threads to keep them out of the way. The will later be used to clamp the top of the printed fan ducts.
  • Add each fan duct in turn, using 2x M3 washers on the top of the hole on each side.
  • Finish off by adding the final layer of M3 washers and M3 nuts.
  • Adjust the height of the fan ducts by adjusting the nut positions.
  • Tighten up the nuts to hold the fan in position.
  • Screw the part cooling fans to the printed fan ducts. The sticker on the fan must point into the duct so that air flows over the print.
When finished, your fan ducts should be sandwiched with nuts on the thumb screws like this.


Moving the X Home Limit Switch.

Why does this need to happen? Can't we flip the assembly to move the HE to the right hand side and thus remove this step entirely?

Due to the modified geometry of the XY carriage it is necessary to reposition the X home limit switch by 10mm. It is found inside at the rear left top of the machine .

  • Remove the existing X home limit switch by unscrewing the two screws.
  • Placing the limit switch in the new printed holder.
  • Re-attach screws into new plastic holes in holder.
  • Unscrew X home limit switch.
  • Place limit switch in printed holder.
  • Screw into holes in new holder.


Switching out the Extruder.

  • Retract all of the filament from the extruder.
  • Push down on the collar to remove Bowden tube from extruder.
  • Remove the 4 screws which holds the extruder onto the body of the motor.
  • Remove the knurled drive from the motor shaft by unscrewing the set screw. If you cannot remove the knurled drive from the existing extruder motor then it will have to be swapped out with a new NEMA 17 motor
  • Pre-assemble the E3D-Extruder according to the official documentation. (Link).
  • Fit extruder to the motor and screw through the rear panel.
  • Remove the 4 screws.
  • Remove the knurled drive from the motor shaft.
  • Fitted E3D-Extruder.


Firmware Changes.

Edits are required to the Ultimaker 2 firmware after updating to the E3D HotEnd and Extruder combo.
These updates are built upon a download from the official firmware taken on 29th January 2016.
There are 3 options for uploading the necessary firmware changes into your Ultimaker 2:

  1. You can upload custom firmware via the Cura slicing software, if this is your preferred option then you can download a previously compiled custom firmware for this.
  2. Here are the modified Marlin source files. for compiling yourself using the Arduino software.
  3. If you are running your own modified firmware and want to know what lines to change in the "configuration.h" file then here are the edits:
// increase the maximum temperature for the E3D V6 HotEnd
#define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 400
// PID values for Ultimaker2 with E3D HotEnd
#define  DEFAULT_Kp 36.59
#define  DEFAULT_Ki 3.65
#define  DEFAULT_Kd 91.72
// travel extents have reduced slightly for E3D HotEnd
#define X_MAX_POS 215 // For E3D HotEnd
#define Y_MAX_POS 210 // For E3D HotEnd
#define INVERT_E0_DIR true   // for direct drive extruder v9 set to true, for geared extruder set to false
// default steps per unit for Ultimaker2 and E3D Extruder
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT   {80.0,80.0,200,456}
#define DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE          {300, 300, 40, 20}    // (mm/sec)
#define DEFAULT_MAX_ACCELERATION      {9000,9000,100,3000}    // X, Y, Z, E maximum start speed for accelerated moves. E default values are good for skeinforge 40+, for older versions raise them a lot.


I turned off EEPROM support by commenting out the following lines, otherwise you will not see the changes:

//#define EEPROM_SETTINGS
//#define EEPROM_CHITCHAT

A Warning : The later Ultimaker 2 firmware (after v14.09) has a temperature "safety feature" built in, which has been notoriously sensitive. It seems like it is overly sensitive and an E3D HotEnd doesn't conform to it's expected heat up and cool down cycles. The result is a common "ERROR - STOPPED Heater error" on the display panel and a failed print. The part cooling fans can often trigger this error because they can blow air onto the nozzle heater block and cause temperature fluctuations.

  • The fabled "ERROR - STOPPED Heater error".

The following lines in the "configuration.h" file control the parameters of this "safety feature". I have tried many combinations of these values with little effect.

#define MAX_HEATING_TEMPERATURE_INCREASE 10
#define MAX_HEATING_CHECK_MILLIS (30 * 1000)

If you want to disable this feature like it was back in v14.09 then you can comment out the following lines in the "temperature.cpp" file at your own risk:

// Commented out for UM2 because too sensitive for E3D HotEnd           
//            disable_heater();
//            Stop(STOP_REASON_HEATER_ERROR);

Gallery of Finished Conversion.

UM2-Gallery1.jpg
UM2-Gallery2.jpg
UM2-Gallery3.jpg
UM2-Gallery4.jpg
UM2-Gallery5.jpg
UM2-Gallery6.jpg
UM2-Gallery7.jpg
UM2-Gallery8.jpg