Quick Nozzle swap
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I am using two Delta-printers, both equipped with smart effectors. I would like to be able to (manually) switch Nozzles quickly.
The best thing I can think of at the moment is to have a full Hotend (Heatsink + heat break + heater block + heater + heat sensor) for each Nozzle. But it stilly bugs me a little to change the wiring every time. Especially the heater wiring with these terminals and stiff wires is not comforable to change.I do not really like my approach. Is there a good/common way to change Nozzles quickly?
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@justus2342 Do you have E3D hotends at the moment? I don't think there's a 'quick change' option for them, as far as I know, just the usual method of swapping the nozzle: https://e3d-online.dozuki.com/Guide/Changing+Nozzles/45
Are you changing filament at the same time as the nozzle? Are you planning on printing multi colour or material? If so, it might be worth going down the tool changer route. A forum member is building such a delta: https://forum.duet3d.com/topic/16082/d-patch
Or manually swapping the entire smart effector (assuming you've got magnetic arms and ball sockets on the smart effector), including hot end, filament feed and wiring. You'll need an extraIf that's a bit too much, perhaps something like the Ultimaker 'Print Core' https://3dgbire.com/products/print-core-bb?variant=27691712449 where the nozzle and heat break clip in, and heater and thermistor connections are friction pads (I think). Though I'm not sure how you'd get that to work with a smart effector!
Ian
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The easiest way to make wiring swappable is to add a connector between the terminals and the wired device. That way you leave a pig tail connected to the board and one to the tooling. Then you just disconnect that quick connector. There are lots of options for connectors out there but pick one that has all the needed pins which is probably just 4 in this case, 2 for the thermistor and two for the heater wires. That is one advantage of using the PT1000, PT100, or thermistors for temperature sensors, is that the wire type doesn't matter, unlike thermocouples where you need the connectors to be the correct metals or you will get cold junction transition errors in your measurement.
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Yes I am using e3d hotends, v6 (0.4mm nozzles and smaller) and volcano (nozzle larger than 0.4mm.
Having a own smart effector for every nozzle might be a little overkill, not to mention that it would be a little expensive. The ultimaker-printcore way would be perfect, but I am afraid I would have to design it myself for the smart effector. Probably it might become a little bulky.
But the option with the pigtail connector seems quite nice. I will give it a try.
