I wanted to let everyone know that I am now the UK/Europe authorised reseller for Flymaker/Mellow products.
I will be starting by selling Flymakers printer boards. Stock will be with me on Friday (12/03/2021) and will be listed shortly after that on here. Once I am established, I will look to start expanding the product line to include Mellow hotends and extruders etc. Please post in the comments if there is anything in particular you would like me to stock.
Here, we have another board from Flymaker and Mellow, this time designed as a drop in replacement for the stock Ender 3 board. It has been designed with input from GloomyAndy and myself.
So why would this be a good candidate for replacing your Ender 3 board? Well there are a number of Pro’s
This board is hands down the most capable board on the market for the Ender 3. Did I also mention that it is Fully supported by the STM32 port of RepRapFirmware?
It can be purchased now from the Mellow Store on aliexpress. There are also full instructions for getting this board up and running with RepRapFirmware available here. As always, if you have any issues please join us on Discord and we will be happy to support you further.
This is the first board available that has been explicitly designed to use the LPC port of RepRapFirmware.
As can be seen in the image above, this board has an on-board ESP8266 wifi module, removing the need to install an adapter board. Below is a quick overview of some of the features available.
This is definitely a good mid-range board that would cover most single or dual extruder printers.
It can be purchased from the Mellow Store on aliexpress. Information about setting this board up with RepRapFirmware can be found here. As always, if any support is needed, just us on Discord and we’ll be happy to help.
I recently managed to get my hands on some Fly TMC2209 drivers. I can hear you asking though, why am I writing about them, there must be something special right?
I’m not going to go into specifications etc because everyone who comes here will know what a TMC2209 is and what its capable of.
What I really want to point out about these drivers is that, unlike other manufacturers 2209 drivers, when not using sensorless homing, there is no need to remove the diag pin when the motherboard being used has no means to do so. On the underside of the driver, there is a small switch used to enable the diag pin. Other than that bombshell, they are well designed and well made. Definitely recommended.
They can be purchased from the Mellow Store on aliexpress
I know I’ve been slightly quiet on here recently. You would’ve thought with all this lockdown going on that I’d have more time to get all my projects sorted but unfortunately that isn’t the case.
I just wanted to bring to people’s attention that it’s now possible to run an SKR v1.4 (or SKR v1.3 for that matter) with RepRapFirmware and an SBC attached. This setup emulates the newer duet 3 setup (minus the expandability of expansion and toolboards).
What do you get from running this setup? Well, firstly you get a faster connection to the DWC (RepRapFirmware web interface). Although the SKR with an ESP8266 attached is more than functional, if you’re uploading a large gcode file it can take a while. You also get the ability to connect to the setup using ethernet rather than wifi. Finally, as the platform matures, there will be the ability to use plugins.
As with adding an ESP8266 to the SKR v1.4, some resistors etc are required. All the information can be found on the LPC-RRF wiki.
Here’s the profile I use for Cura
I have shared it via google drive instead
I was asked to produce updated config files for the Anycubic Predator which has been upgraded to a duet 2 board running the latest RC of RRF3.
I have uploaded my files to github and they can be found here. This is for a setup where a smart effector has been fitted. There won’t be too much to change for a stock predator if you wanted to get it to work.
Just a quick short update about the corexy. The little motor I was planning to use for the toolchanging mechanism just didn’t have enough torque.
I have now moved to a mechanism inspired by the Jubilee printer. I’ve remixed it slightly and used bike brake cables instead and my own design of parts.
Above is just a short video showing it able to lock and unlock a tool.
I’m pretty much stuck now until my expansion board comes.
It lives …. kinda.
I have it moving in X and Y. The belts haven’t been tightened correctly yet and I had to add some additional strength to a couple of parts but all in all I am happy so far.
Still waiting on the following:
As part of my CoreXY Toolchanging build, I need a number of extruders. I wanted to explore the different options available. As great as the E3D Hemera looks, I can’t justify the £108 cost per extruder (and for my CoreXY I need 6) when I wouldn’t need all the added benefits for every extruder.
I had a look around on my favourite source of parts (Aliexpress) and found the Mellow BMG Extruder. I’ve had my eye on Mellow branded items for a while now as they seem to be up and coming in the cheap knockoff world. They have even cloned the Mosquito Hot End, which so far seems to be reviewing well and at some point I may well order one.
I ordered the Set 2, which comes with the extruder and the motor. Everything came nicely wrapped in a polystyrene box. The main body is injection moulded, as is the larger driving gear. The machining of the teeth on the gears look good and I am generally happy. The purple piece in the photo below held the gear which fits to the extruder in place which I thought was a nice little touch, and is not needed for every day use. The plastic gear has also been mounted centrally on the shaft so rotates correctly when installed. It looks as though Mellow have decent quality control.
In the kit you get all of the tools required to fit the extruder as well as the fitting to allow it to be used in bowden mode. I will be using this extruder in direct mode. There are also two lengths of screws to be used to fit it either directly to the motor or with a mount in between.
I only had one issue with the extruder in that the way I mount it on my machine. The BMG clone when assembled is slightly thicker due to the name badge and the “waves” that have been moulded into the plastic in the front. So I had to spend a little time sanding the front down to get it to fit in my custom mount.
I have yet to print with it (still assembling the printer) but at the moment, the Mellow BMG clone definitely looks like a very good purchase.