3D Printer Club

[silentbogo]

Today, I finished converting it from direct drive to a Bowden extruder setup.

Why?...

I think 99% of my problems on Ender3v2 were due to bowden (clogging, inconsistent extrusion etc.). On hi-temp PETG it was near impossible to print, cause the extruder would start skipping few minutes into the print. Had to convert it to direct, and replace that crappy stock extruder with cheap BMG clone.

Same on my first fully DIY Ender clone - it was a direct-drive from the very start, but that crappy MK8-style extruder(like yours) made my life a nightmare for a couple of weeks(skips, clogs, inconsistent wall thickness and print artifacts etc.etc.etc.).

Bowden only works for low-temp stuff like PLA, but not very good for anything else like PETG(at least without sacrificing print speed). I don't think that Anet will reap any benefits of a lighter headpiece and "lightning-fast speeds", but definitely negates all the good stuff from having a reliable direct drive. Get a BMG clone and make it a direct again - you'll see tons of improvements. I think you can find one under $10 nowadays... even seen some light aluminium versions of it for around $15-20(still heavier than orbiter, but good enough for cheap bedslinger for sure).

 

[sam_86314]

Why?...

I think 99% of my problems on Ender3v2 were due to bowden (clogging, inconsistent extrusion etc.). On hi-temp PETG it was near impossible to print, cause the extruder would start skipping few minutes into the print. Had to convert it to direct, and replace that crappy stock extruder with cheap BMG clone.

Same on my first fully DIY Ender clone - it was a direct-drive from the very start, but that crappy MK8-style extruder(like yours) made my life a nightmare for a couple of weeks(skips, clogs, inconsistent wall thickness and print artifacts etc.etc.etc.).

Bowden only works for low-temp stuff like PLA, but not very good for anything else like PETG(at least without sacrificing print speed). I don't think that Anet will reap any benefits of a lighter headpiece and "lightning-fast speeds", but definitely negates all the good stuff from having a reliable direct drive. Get a BMG clone and make it a direct again - you'll see tons of improvements. I think you can find one under $10 nowadays... even seen some light aluminium versions of it for around $15-20(still heavier than orbiter, but good enough for cheap bedslinger for sure).

I mainly want to try it out. At the moment, I exclusively print out of PLA anyway. Not gonna try PETG until I've done the MOSFET mod to my printer.

The stock direct-drive setup on the A8 sucks for changing filament and really likes to clog.

If the Bowden setup ends up sucking, I'll switch back to direct drive but with the E3D hotend instead.

 

[Fokker]

I mainly want to try it out. At the moment, I exclusively print out of PLA anyway. Not gonna try PETG until I've done the MOSFET mod to my printer.

The stock direct-drive setup on the A8 sucks for changing filament and really likes to clog.

If the Bowden setup ends up sucking, I'll switch back to direct drive but with the E3D extruder instead.

I'd argue upgrade printers. Competent direct drive is so much better than Bowden remote drives. $200 will get you a SV06 Plus or if you want to real fast out of the box, $280 will get you an SV06 ACE.

 

[silentbogo]

The stock direct-drive setup on the A8 sucks for changing filament and really likes to clog.

That's the problem with that crappy extruder. Bowden will only make it worse. If you want to keep that printer and just play around, I'd suggest the following:
1) Replace that crap with cheap BMG clone, regardless of whether you decide to stick with direct or bowden
2) Instead of adding mosfet modules to the stock board, I'd rather replace the motherboard (cause it's crap). Almost anything will do. Even the good-ole 8-bit MKS Gen L is wa-a-ay better than this one (I'd even give you one or two of those for free, if you were nearby). Though, I'd rather go for a cheap 32-bit board like MKS SGEN L or something similar with replaceable drivers. It can do both Marlin 2.0++ and Klipper, if you want to migrate later.
3) Get TMC2208 or TMC2209 for the new board
4) BLTouch for sure

That's pretty much what I did for my very first fully DIY printer. It ran Klipper on no-name Android TV box flashed w/ Armbian, SKR Pico was in charge of motion, and BLTouch for probing. After a couple of years it still works in my friend's print farm. The only time I came over to do something was some maintenance and klipper tweaking last year, and did a quick repair after he had a little "wiring mishap" a couple of months ago. We also modded a few other bedslingers for him (Kingroon, Ender3 etc), mostly the same - brains+klipper, BLTouch and mandatory Trinamic drivers.

 

[sam_86314]

That's the problem with that crappy extruder. Bowden will only make it worse. If you want to keep that printer and just play around, I'd suggest the following:
1) Replace that crap with cheap BMG clone, regardless of whether you decide to stick with direct or bowden
2) Instead of adding mosfet modules to the stock board, I'd rather replace the motherboard (cause it's crap). Almost anything will do. Even the good-ole 8-bit MKS Gen L is wa-a-ay better than this one (I'd even give you one or two of those for free, if you were nearby). Though, I'd rather go for a cheap 32-bit board like MKS SGEN L or something similar with replaceable drivers. It can do both Marlin 2.0++ and Klipper, if you want to migrate later.
3) Get TMC2208 or TMC2209 for the new board
4) BLTouch for sure

That's pretty much what I did for my very first fully DIY printer. It ran Klipper on no-name Android TV box flashed w/ Armbian, SKR Pico was in charge of motion, and BLTouch for probing. After a couple of years it still works in my friend's print farm. The only time I came over to do something was some maintenance and klipper tweaking last year, and did a quick repair after he had a little "wiring mishap" a couple of months ago. We also modded a few other bedslingers for him (Kingroon, Ender3 etc), mostly the same - brains+klipper, BLTouch and mandatory Trinamic drivers.

Looking at other boards, I'd probably go with an SKR 1.4, as I've found other A8 owners upgrading to that one. Looks like it'll need either a display upgrade or the current one to be modified.

I've found printable files for an E3D V6 printhead that supports BLTouch and had options for Bowden and the factory direct drive.

First impressions with the Bowden setup have actually been decent. With no tuning or adjustment, it can print at 60mm/s with okay quality. Only real issues are occasional underextrusion (my filament is old and probably needs drying) and wobble on the X and Y axes (likely from the acrylic frame?). It's easy to load filament into, I can see what the extruder is doing, and so far I haven't had any issues with it jamming or clogging.

 

[silentbogo]

Looks like it'll need either a display upgrade or the current one to be modified.

I think the stock one will work with some persuation. Just need to double-check the LCD pinout and maybe fix few lines in Marlin config. If anything goes wrong - you can always get a cheap-ass reprap controller with an encoder (same 20x4 LCD). Costs less than $10. And I have few of those laying around the house and workshop (I really like to use those for various Arduino gizmos, not just 3d printers, cause it's cheap and easy to work with).