I’m in the process of installing the k8203 and k8204 upgrades.
I’m planning on installing connectors on the wiring harness and the old and new extruders so that I can swap between the two. I have some 3mm filament left and I would like the flexibility to use both sizes of filament.
My questions are:
Will the old extruder work with the new driver (card)? I’m assuming it will as the stepper motor will remain the same.
Will the old hot end behave the same with the new firmware or will I have to re-upload the firmware each time I swap it?
Assuming that the old extruder works with the new firmware, can I just change the ‘profile’ that slic3r uses to calculate the layers or is there another reload/upload that needs to occur?
If I understood the installation instructions correctly, it recommends leaving the second square nut in the track in case you want to reinstall the original extruder. I wasn’t able to find any mention of what needs to happen if you do wish to reinstall the original extruder.
I am a two-week newb and any help would be greatly appreciated.
I would think the Stepper Driver would not be an issue.
As you said it’s driving the same motor.
The Firmware would need to be changed back to the original with the K8204 if you have installed that.
The original extruder is geared and the new one is direct drive (different speeds)
I have thought about doing the same thing but now I am holding off until I use all or most of my 3.0mm PLA.
The g-code just tells the machine to move a certain distance and it is up to the firmware to determine how many motor steps are necessary?
If that’s the case, then it makes sense that the firmware needs to be changed to match the extruder.
That leaves the question of the driver board. Does the k8203 firmware contain changes because of the new driver or is the driver logically identical but electrically more robust?
So many questions!
I may have to break down and compare the two sketches.
It’s a shame there isn’t a free gpio port on the board. I think we could easily add a switch to tell the sketch to choose between two extruder drive ratios.
Hopefully I’m not the first to have these questions and someone will already have the answers.
Yes, but you need to change extrusion quantity to 200%.
The hot end is not the Problem :). And do not forget to reverse extrusion direction if you mount the motor on left side.
No, it is the spare for the planed dual extruder extension. If you have a Board with two or three extrude support, you can buy 2x K8203 and a second stepper and expand the Printer now.