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So... I'm looking to do an upgrade to my V2 (July of 2014) Frankenstein and I'm just curious what route would be best long term.
My current upgrades are as follows:
e3d v6 hotend
He280 accelerometer probe/board
e3d PT-100 Temp sensor (ugh... that was PITA to install! lol)
e3d Titan Extruder
Aluminum heat spread and flexible magnetic plate w/PEI
Injection molded carriages and 290mm arms
Tricklaser hotend j groove mounting plate
My WILL be done upgrades in the next 1-3 weeks:
SSR for running the onyx Heatbed at 24v with a separate dedicated PSU.
Longer arms (either These, These, or These) Any recommendations between these 3?) *Note* I'm only considering the mag arms based on what my my decision below ends up being.
Right now, I'm looking at two possible upgrade paths (cheap or spendy).
Upgrade Path 1:
(After adding the longer control arms)
Upgrading to an e3d Volcano copper block and some larger sized nozzles.
Reasoning: Can be done for less than $75 or less with the block, socks, and 2-3 nozzles. My goal is to get the full use out of my available bed area (right out to 304mm, which is the the max I can go before the control arms start brushing the tower belts.) the problem is, even after mechanically tweaking, calibrating and using the he280 probe/octoprint delta calibration plugin, I still have a bed height variance of +/- .15mm across the surface. this means with a .4mm nozzle at a first layer height of .2mm I have areas that won't extrude for being too close and areas that won't stick for being too far away. With bigger nozzles I can print a thicker first layer that sticks well across the bed, but doesn't block the nozzle. (.6mm at .35mm first layer works Extremely well.)
The Downside: Lose the ability to print higher detailed parts.
Upgrade Path 2:
Upgrade to Duet and take advantage of the bed leveling abilities and detail improvements of the DC42 Firmware branch.
To do this effectively I figure this is the minimum amount of parts I would need to achieve it (please correct me if I'm wrong)
Duet 2 WIFI board with the PT-100 daughter board
Duet Smart Effector Platform (can the SeeMeCNC ball cup arms work with this effector or does it need the mag arms?)
I also figure to get the most out of it I would need to upgrade the Tower Steppers to .9 degree motors?
What About the stock V2 display? Will it work with the Duet 2? I have a dedicated Shop PC sitting 5 feet away, which I do most of my stuff through octoprint. I really only ever use the onboard display for the purpose of it's SD card, which I trust a lot more to handle prints. Do I really need to got to one of DUET's touch screen controllers? Seems like a waste of $100 knowing how often I'd be likely to use it.
Assume I do those three things, I can probably get it done for around $300... which isn't too bad. If I have to go with the mag arms, I can figure another $20-30. If the Touch screen is required I can figure another $100. So what is the bare minimum hardware requirement for running duet with the mesh bed leveling ability? At what point am I throwing too much money at this particular printer in upgrades? Estimate $300 on the low end (duet boards, platform, and arms) and $500 on the high side (with the steppers, touch screen, and mag arms)
Any solid advice on which option I should pursue would be really appreciated! Thanks all!
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