Over in the E3D forum we have put out a bounty for good guides and the like.
One of the submissions that we just got in from Jake Carter is a great guide for installing the E3D HotEnd on the Velleman K8200 and I wanted to share it with you guys:
forum.e3d-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=45
I know that a lot of people are swapping out the stock HotEnd so thought that this might be helpful.
Nice tutorial but I have some questions about this upgrade. Why is this hot end better then the stock one? I also read that people change their complete extruder to one that can use 1,75mm filament. Is that upgrade even better?
Hi KLucky,
Glad you enjoy the tutorial - credit to Jake…
There are a number of reasons that Velleman users switch to E3D HotEnds over the stock one. To list just a few;
[ul]
[li]The E3D HotEnd is all-metal, i.e. there is no PTFE which means that it can reach extremely high temperatures (~300 deg C) and enable you to extrude more exotic plastics like Nylon and Polycarbonate without risking melting the PTFE. [/li]
[li]Interchangeable nozzles with diameters from 0.25mm to 0.8mm enable you can to select the balance between printing speed and resolution to best suit your application. The nozzles just unscrew and a different size be swapped back in.[/li]
[li]The heatbreak has been carefully designed to ensure that there is a sharp thermal transition between solid and molten plastic. This reduces extrusion force, jamming events and nozzle oozing. This results in prints that have less blobbing, sharper corners and require less cleanup.[/li]
[li] The hotend is very robust in construction and being all metal it nearly impossible to cause a catastrophic failure where the hotend melts and the nozzle pops out.[/li][/ul]
I do not have any personal experience with installing an E3D HotEnd on the Velleman, however I have heard good things from all of our customers. I would invite anyone on this forum to share their feelings on the HotEnd for the benefit of those looking to make the switch.
Regarding switching between 1.75mm and 3mm - it down to preference and filament availability…
The particular product that you would need to make the upgrade can be found at: e3d-online.com/E3D-V5-3mm-Direct … tal-HotEnd
If anyone has any questions about the HotEnd please just reply below and Sanjay and I will do our best to answer your questions.
Regards,
Josh
I may be interested in this upgrade for my printer. Thanks for the explanation 
I thought 1.75 mm filament was better when retracting. What would it cost to ship this kit to Belgium?
Did order the E3D hotend & spare nozzles some weeks ago and I can confirm: the hotend is outstanding !
Shipping to Belgium was around 4 UK Pound, delivery time only 4 working days. Gummy bears included.
Ok, Nice. I’ll think about it. Im currently installing a second z-axis. I still have a question: if you have a 0.25mm nozzle or a 0.80mm nozzle. I think you wil have to change the extruded steps or something no? If so, how do you calculate/know what you have to change?
Depending on the need for precision or speed, I switch beween 0,25 - 0,40 - 0,60 mm.
Nozzle size must be set accordingly in Slicer / Cura.
[quote=“fitchie”]Depending on the need for precision or speed, I switch beween 0,25 - 0,40 - 0,60 mm.
Nozzle size must be set accordingly in Slicer / Cura.[/quote]
So only nozzle size has to be changed? Good to know. I thought pressing the same amount of filament through a smaller diameter would be a problem.
Hi Josh,
nice to know the printable mount is appreciated.
Since a few weeks, there’s a second printer here for printing and testing new materials, and it’s also equiped with the E3D which works great.
As for the mentioned document, I disagree with one statement (first page, No. 4, about the two long nuts):
If the v5 heat sink design has not changed, i.e. the OD is 25.0 mm, the following instruction from Thingiverse should still hold:
Some more on the “history” of this is here on the forum.
Cheers,
kuraasu
Hi Kenny,
[quote=“KLucky13”][quote=“fitchie”]Depending on the need for precision or speed, I switch beween 0,25 - 0,40 - 0,60 mm.
Nozzle size must be set accordingly in Slicer / Cura.[/quote]
So only nozzle size has to be changed? Good to know. I thought pressing the same amount of filament through a smaller diameter would be a problem.[/quote]
that’s why you don’t extrude the same amount of material.
In theory it only matters what (volume) you put in from above; the same volume you’ll get extruded below the nozzle. However, there are some constraints when it comes to the nozzle size. Firstly, the layer height should be lower than the nozzle diameter (ND), so the cross section of the extruded material is flat and not round. So, you shouldn’t use 0.25 mm layer height with a 0.25 mm nozzle. On the other hand, a very low layer height can produce errors in the print due to low material flow through the nozzle, so in general, large nozzles are for coarse (and thus, fast) printing and small nozzles for fine structures.
Secondly, also the extrusion width should be chosen with respect to the nozzle. Widths lower than the ND can work and are sometimes even beneficial (e.g. for getting a smooth top surface), but the material flow through the nozzle should not get too low. In other cases, it’s a good idea to set the extrusion width a bit larger than the ND. So you’ll need to take a look at those settings as well when changing the nozzle.
Cheers,
kuraasu
PS: keep in mind that when mounting a small nozzle, the pressure inside the hotend will be higher. This is a possible cause for (additional) slip on the hobbed bold, so the extrusion multiplier may have to be adjusted.
This is what I thought much more to it then just changing the nozzle diameter in the settings. It would be Nice that people who already have Some experience and setup/config files for different nozzles to post them here in this topic.
I will be experimenting some time with my z-axis upgrade, probably in a few weeks I’ll come back to this E3D nozzle, it looks promising
Printing parameters depend on the filament used, the printer itself, the environment, the printed object itself, just to name a few. Loading a set of parameters without knowing what’s in it can easily damage your printer. Speeds, accelerations, temperatures, etc. may work on one printer and fail on another, so you need to set those for yourself.
Getting some pointers is not a problem, of couse, but a full config is a bad idea.
I ordered my E3D hotend this week. I also ordered GT2 Pulleys and belt from E3D at the same time I think this will be a huge step in print quality. The only upgrade left on my list is the extra power supply for the heated bed, but i’m not that good with that stuff :-/
Received my hotend and GT2 belts/pulleys today. Let’s start building again
In these instructions (step 13):
files.e3d-online.com/Drawings/E3 … Manual.pdf
It says: select option 5 in marlin? Not a clue where I can find this… Can someone help me with this? It’s clear that it’s an important setting because the temperature control does not work properly with this new hot end. It heats up much faster then before and the temperature control is completely unstable
Here you can see I have set the temperature to different setpoints. You can see how the temperature overshoots the target temperature each time. So the PID parameters for this hotend are not Ok anymore
I have just downloaded the V2 Velleman firmware and can confirm that the default setting is 5 which is correct. My bet is that the PID parameters are out - Thomas Sanladerer has done a great youtube guide on this which may be useful to you 3D printing guides - Using Marlin’s PID autotune.
Let me know how you get on, and post another graph, it is very helpful for debugging!
Hi Kenny,
you “tested” your PID at low temperatures. The parameters have to be different depending on the target temperature (range), so it’s quite usual that the control loop produces large overshoots there.
Which heater cartridge did you mount? The one that came with the E3D, or the one from the Velleman hotend? Where did you connect it, directly on the board like the original?
Cheers,
kuraasu
[quote=“kuraasu”]Hi Kenny,
you “tested” your PID at low temperatures. The parameters have to be different depending on the target temperature (range), so it’s quite usual that the control loop produces large overshoots there.
Which heater cartridge did you mount? The one that came with the E3D, or the one from the Velleman hotend? Where did you connect it, directly on the board like the original?
Cheers,
kuraasu[/quote]
Yes, I tested the paramters on higher temperatures en there it was quite OK. I have mounted the cartridge that came with the E3D hotend and connected it like original
The original cartridge deliveres 30 W at 15 V. The E3D heater (at least the six ones I know) is a 12 V, 40 W cartridge, so 15 V will give you about 65 W heating power.
Although it is possible that this works without further problems, keep in mind that the hotend output on the board is only specified for 2 to 2.5 A (link). While the MOSFET itself is probably fine with the larger load (laserguy tested the heatbed MOSFET, it’s the same type), the circuit paths on the boad could be critical, especially if the heatbed is still connected to the board and draws current through those paths, too. The stock power supply is another question. Or do you have an upgrade running?
No I have not an MOSFET upgrade. Could I damage anything when I keep using the cartridge from E3D or is it better I use the stock one from velleman?
