Upgrading my V2?

[HaloJDawg]

Hey Everyone,
I bought a Rostock Max V2 close to 10 years ago and didn't use it as much as I wanted, then got put in storage.
I finally got it back. My question is what should I upgrade on it to make the best out of it. I plan on buying the injection molded cheapskate carriages and the Max ballcup delta arm set.
Is there anything else I should upgrade on it to improve the overall quality/durability of it?

Thanks,
Jeremy

[geneb]

There's a number of things you can do Jeremy. As with most things, it boils down to how much money you want to spend in the process.

For a start, you can upgrade to an HE280 hot end. Since it uses a heater cartridge instead of a pair of RTV-packed resistors, it's going to be more consistent and reliable. If/when the heater cartridge dies, it's very easy to replace. The most important benefit is that you get a basic auto-calibration feature with the HE280. The PCB that the hot end mounts to contains an accellerometer that can detect when the nozzle touches something. This is used as a z-probe in order to calibrate the printer. If SeeMeCNC doesn't have stock on the HE280 and the wiring whip for it, email them and see if they've got one stashed away somewhere.

If you want to go whole hog on the upgrade, I would recommend a Duet3D controller and an SE300 hot end. With those two components (and the wiring whip for the SE300), you've basically got a Rostock MAX v3.2 equipped with 1.8 degree stepper motors. The upgrade will get you wireless control of the printer via web browser and the SE300 hot end uses a strain gauge that the Duet3D's firmware can leverage for near-witchcraft levels of auto-calibration. If you upgrade to the Duet3D controller, you can also upgrade to 0.9 stepper motors.

The carriages & arm set will dramatically improve the print quality over the u-joints. If nothing else, see how it goes once you've done that update and then go from there.


Also, while it might seem like 10 years, SeeMeCNC as only been building delta printers since late 2012, early 2013.

g.

[HaloJDawg]

Yeah, definitely feels like 10 years. Haha, Found the email of when I was assembling it, I guess it was only 5 years ago.
I'm not terribly worried about price if it's worth it. I'd like to get into printing a lot, often. So I'll have to look up the duet3d and se300.

Thanks for the response!

[geneb]

You're welcome! Good luck with the upgrades.

g.

[HaloJDawg]

What's the main difference between the 1.3/1.4 and plastic/metal ball on the se300?
and where can I get a duet3d controller? I don't see them in the seemecnc store.
Thanks again.

There's a number of things you can do Jeremy. As with most things, it boils down to how much money you want to spend in the process.

For a start, you can upgrade to an HE280 hot end. Since it uses a heater cartridge instead of a pair of RTV-packed resistors, it's going to be more consistent and reliable. If/when the heater cartridge dies, it's very easy to replace. The most important benefit is that you get a basic auto-calibration feature with the HE280. The PCB that the hot end mounts to contains an accellerometer that can detect when the nozzle touches something. This is used as a z-probe in order to calibrate the printer. If SeeMeCNC doesn't have stock on the HE280 and the wiring whip for it, email them and see if they've got one stashed away somewhere.

If you want to go whole hog on the upgrade, I would recommend a Duet3D controller and an SE300 hot end. With those two components (and the wiring whip for the SE300), you've basically got a Rostock MAX v3.2 equipped with 1.8 degree stepper motors. The upgrade will get you wireless control of the printer via web browser and the SE300 hot end uses a strain gauge that the Duet3D's firmware can leverage for near-witchcraft levels of auto-calibration. If you upgrade to the Duet3D controller, you can also upgrade to 0.9 stepper motors.

The carriages & arm set will dramatically improve the print quality over the u-joints. If nothing else, see how it goes once you've done that update and then go from there.


Also, while it might seem like 10 years, SeeMeCNC as only been building delta printers since late 2012, early 2013.

g.

[geneb]

It's a small circuit difference - I'd order the 1.4. The steel balls require a small amount of lube, while the delrin ones don't.

You can get a Duet3D from Filastruder I think. They're the US distributor for Duet3D.
Here's a link to the Duet2 WiFi: https://www.filastruder.com/collections ... /duet-wifi

g.

[rdefrancisco2310]

I am in a similar situation as HaloJDawg. I bought my machine in 2016 (a Rostock V2 with the upgraded cheapskates) and stopped using it because life happened. After 4 years I got it back up and running and I want to put it to work again. I want to upgrade to the DUET controller and the SE300 hotend, but I don't see any guidance on how to do this. I have also seen quite a few other upgrades on the new v4 like the dual extruders. Any documentation available to be able to upgrade all these parts? Thank you!

[geneb]

You can order a Duet3D from Filastruder.com. The SE300 can be found here: https://www.seemecnc.com/products/se300 ... 4357213278

The whip you need can be found here: https://www.seemecnc.com/products/assem ... 5584&_ss=r

I would reach out to [email protected] to make sure that the whip linked above will be long enough for a v2 upgrade.

You can use the wiring instructions for the Rostock MAX v3.2 for hooking up the whip, bed, & power to the Duet3D.

Also, if you don't want to upgrade to the 0.9 step motors, you'll need to tweak the config.g file so that the steps/mm are (I /think/) 80, instead of whatever value they are now for the 0.9 motors.

g.

[rdefrancisco2310]

Thanks for the quick response and for the advice!

I am open to get anything that will improve print quality. Are those stepper motors more precise? Also open to any other upgrades that will help like the dual extruders on the v4. Those look great!

- Rob

[geneb]

The 0.9 degree stepper motors are and improvement, yes. You get smoother motion - they're twice the "resolution" of the 1.8 degree stepper motors.

I don't know if SeeMeCNC still sells the melamine parts needed to mount the 2nd extruder, but you might want to ask. You might also ask to see if they've got a "frame only, minus extrusions" part set for the Rostock MAX v3.2. You could just move over the bits you have (extrusions, cheapskates & arms, motors if you stick with 1.8 steppers) and then build out from there. The v3.2 uses a different power supply than the v2 does - it's a high-amperage 12v power supply and not a PC power supply.


Take a peek at http://seemecnc.dozuki.com and look at the v3.2 assembly instructions to get an idea as to how it would go together. However, keep in mind that they may not have those parts any longer, so don't get your hopes up.

g.

[CaduTwo]

Hello, thank you for the useful information.

I'm a new owner of a used(28hr print time) V2. Do you still recommend those upgrades that look to be about $400-500 for the SE300 hotend, injection molded skates, Duet 2 board?

I'm making respirator adapters due to the current shortage of couplers / filters where each brand has a different sized bayonet / thread connector. I am currently using PETG, Sainsmart, with ok success but a decent amount of post-processing to clean up internal overhangs inside of the couplers where gaskets sit. I would like less post processing and the ability to use Nylon and TPU. Concerns with TPU are the Bowden extractor and Nylon the temp reqs.
Prev. owner included an unused original E3d v6 hotend. Should I install that or sell it and use the funds for the other upgrades? Do people still pay a premium for the real deal or just use knockoffs?

Current Setup:
V2 - melamine frame, and skates
PEEK hotend 0.5mm nozzle, jammed with burnt PLA and ABS with internal overflow around nozzle, cleaned up but still getting occasional contamination.
0.91 firmware - twice now out of about 15 prints it's doubled the Z-axis height to near 800mm instead of 400mm after setting the zero and homing, resulting in it slamming into the buildplate when trying to start - I'm not sure what's causing that.

Also available is a Lulzbot Mini with Duet 2, BLTouch, and 5" Paneldue already installed but with a few hundred hours at least of use, within about $80 of the whole hog V2 upgrades. I'm considering that for the Nylon and TPU parts. It looks like Tricklaser is no longer around?

[geneb]

If it was ME, I'd do the upgrades. The SE300 will allow you to print nylon without any issue. The stock EZRStruder prints TPU without a problem - it's my understanding that the wiring boots that SeeMeCNC makes for the SE300 are printed on an Artemis using a SainSmart TPU filament.

g.

[CaduTwo]

Thanks for the quick response! It looks like they've sold out of the cf arms so I'd need to go with regular ball-cup arm kits and I can't find any info on tricklaser still existing. Are there important functional differences between the SE300 and a 713maker adaptor/e3v6/Duet Smart Effector combination or are they mostly the same thing but SeeMeCNC put it in a single piece to go with their kits while 713maker added the adaptors as the parts came into existence?

[geneb]

The SE300 has a touch probe built into the PCB that is required for auto-calibration. You could use a Duet Smart Effector and an E3D v6 if you wanted to, but the SE300 is basically a plug & play module if you also get the wiring whip kit from SeeMeCNC. The 713Maker effector components came into existence before the SE300 was a thing. (You should see his all metal Rostock MAX chassis..they're drool-worthy!)

g.

[CaduTwo]

Thanks again. I ended up going with the arms/carriage from here and the SE300, one with an OlssonRuby for fiber filaments but I'll probably need to figure out a specific process for calibrating that nozzle without smashing the ruby. I also have some spare pneumatic isolators to use as a base which should help if I can find the time to add extra rigidity.

I was tempted to go with the 713, after all they have Post Oak BBQ and Indiana has.......boiled burgers......but the plugnplay is suddenly dramatically more appealing with the emergence of toddler temper tantrum stage