Qwik Swap

[Erminia Scharnberg]

ipurchased an mk4 as an upgrade to the prusa mini, and am disappointed by the quick swap nozzle process. First of all, the official instructions do not show a process that is quick at all, although it sounds like it is "okish" to keep the wiring in place while you swap nozzles. So I now have to instruct 6 users to not follow the official instructions...

Moreover, since you have to unload filament to perform a cold nozzle swap, the process flow makes no sense. Users finish a print, take their part off, and the machine cools. The next user arrives, and if they want to change nozzles, they first need to heat the nozzle to unload the filament, then wait for it to cool to "quick swap" nozzles?

There is apparently a g-code fix for this issue that some Revo hotend users have run, but i am not sure the right retraction distance to use for the mk4 to ensure the nozzle is detached from the filament, but without fully removing the filament from the extruder. Moreover, I do not at all like the prospect of asking all my users to run custom g-code, and it only takes 1 user not running the custom g-code to ruin the cold swap process for everyone else.

We are trying to understand why this isn't natively supported in the software, and why the mk4 is continually advertised with "quick swap" nozzles when the process is in fact far slower than the much cheaper Mini, particularly when you follow the official instructions.

Not disagreeing with anything you said, just confirming that swapping the nozzle without removing the wiring by holding the heater block in place with the universal wrench is I think at least as fast as and less like to lead to damage to the wires than the official instructions. And with the new hotend design and fan placement, getting the wrench in is in much easier than with the Mk3S and not slower than the Mini. I've tried the "official" way a few times but I found it to be more awkward, and on my XL I ended up with a broken thermistor wire trying to push it through the channel behind the hotend.

It's the best of both worlds with a copper body and a hardened tip, so you don't have to change out for CF. I just hold the block with a wrench, loosen the nozzle, remove and replace, hot torque the nozzle, double check the thumb screws and done. No messing with routing wires.

Hardened nozzles historically transfer heat a lot worse than brass. You usually needed to increase temps a bit to compensate. But then you run into problems when it's not extruding because the temps are a bit high. My old NozzleX was annoying. I'd planned to just leave it in all the time, 1 nozzle to rule them all. But it delivered inconsistent results compared to brass on plain PLA & PETG. I went back to brass & avoided abrasive filaments.

The new hardened nozzles have a brass tube for good heat conduction & only a hardened tip. Olsen Ruby, E3D ObXidian, & the Diamondback are all like this. The diamond tip on the DiamondBack is actually a lot more thermally conductive than the brass. I have a ObXidian coming for the XL & will see if I can just leave it in all the time. Finding a Nextruder ObXidian in stock on Prusa took a while, but they do come in & out of stock. I'm eyeing up the DiamondBack as a forever nozzle with no compromises, but $100 for a nozzle is hard to swallow, even worse if I think about equipping all 5 heads on the XL. Also they are a few months out from a Nextruder compatible DiamondBack unless you use a v6 adapter.

After my failed attempts to use tungsten carbide nozzles with the nozzle adaptor I now have obxidian nozzles on my XL and Mk4 printers. I leave them in all the time regardless of what material I'm printing. Still not a fan of the new design. Wish I could use the dragon hotends I have in my minis and mk3s.

I know of one potential failure mode would be that the WC nozzle gets loose over multiple (don't know how many) temperature cycles because of the aluminum heat block. I lucked out and had already upgraded my MK3 heat block to a plated copper one before I started using WC nozzles. But I haven't seen anyone offering a plated copper heat block for the Nextruder, and even if one did I wouldn't know how to re-tune input shaping for the heavier heat block. And this is the main reason why I haven't tried my WC nozzles on my MK4 yet.

Exactly what you wrote. On my Mk3s and Minis I run Dragon hotends that have plated copper heater blocks. Never had one leak with TC in years, with relatively frequent nozzle swaps. The Mk4 is aluminum, net result, arguably the most impressive blob of death on my XL I've ever seen on any machine...

I too have had a blob of death like I have never seen - and it damaged my hot end. It was so large that no amount of heat would set it free and it ruined the thermistor cable. Lack of stock anywhere means a down machine for who knows how long...

Cool. But I believe development of that was driven by the AMS system in an effort to make the Ankermake more competitive with the X1C. Neat idea with all of the filaments feeding into the head. Much less waste. But, holy cow the internals must be complex.

@Quietman

Most likely. The ams was probably driven by the mmu too. Or one of the other multi material printers of the past. I dont mind bed slingers personally though. Unless doing a speed benchy, I run the bambus at about the same speed I would run an anker. Exciting times for us enthusiasts though.

A small, silent, cheap and multicolour printer (what I understood from the leaks) seems to be for non-BL customers, i.e. just making it for everyone and not the ones already part of the team. I may be wrong, but this is what I understood.

When gm makes a new ls engine, the enthusiasts think about things like transmission mating and engine mount locations. The guy that doesnt know how to change his own oil, doesnt. Hes too worried about what the radio does now.

What maintenance are you talking about? Like cleaning rods n whatnot? the bambus need it also. more often even. Bambu is #1(in this price range for a prebuilt non kit) but if everybody jumps on the fan boy bandwagon, bambu will be the only option left soon. Im american, so enjoy options.

I get that alot of prusa and anker design is old but so is the bambu design. Everything thats being done in this price range has already been done. Lidar is the one standout but alot of people stop usingbit right away because of the added time of startup.

I agree. Not sure where i said technological advancements are bad. Sounds like you have buyers remorse with the anker stuff. I get it, but apparently others here dont. They would say be happy with what you have and definately dont try and keep it up to date with upgrades from the next gen. Throw it away and start fresh.

If the quick swap is automated - with maybe 3 or 4 spare hot ends being automatically hot swappable during prints that would be a real step forward - because it would eliminate a lot of the requirement for purging. A bit like they are try to achieve with the Swapper3d.

I did get my Anker M5, which was my 12th 3D printer and now it sits gathering dust while my two X1-Carbon units print merrily every day. After a while trying to make it print consistently well, is just a waste of filament and worse, of time. The P1P is the printer the M5 was supposed to be. And yes, I know the M5 has AI, except it does not, unless the acronym stands for Active Imagination, given how it is never right. Saying anyone would switch to that after trying an X1-Carbon is like threatening to get a disposable knife after trying a Benchmade.

I have tried different brands, including Anker and Bambu. Bambu is superior by a century. I hope they make a bigger X1-Carbon, I hope they continue innovating, but whatever they do, their next model is sure to continue the trend. If it is a multi-colour adapter, it will be a welcome upgrade for my ancient CR-10S Pro. The Palette is VERY finnicky.

I have said many times before open source for hardware limits inovation. You only need to look at other manufacturers using open source to see that. Software is a different matter as this works in certain areas.

He is using BB or his staff, reaches 100% peril and wants to swap to his melee weapon to block/push.

Weapon swap does not happen and instead of blocking with his sword, he charges his BB/staff, overheats and explodes (when ever the class ability is not ready to be wasted).

But I also do think there is a different flow to DT which is at the end of the day a different game with a different mechanical focus to VT2, since one of the bigger design changes is a greater focus on ranged combat (as jank as it can be).

I also do think there is a different flow to DT which is at the end of the day a different game with a different mechanical focus to VT2, since one of the bigger design changes is a greater focus on ranged combat

I have been told that there has already been a statement that there is no intention to add something similar to the D3 wardrobe which allowed you to store your characters current state (gear, skills, passives etc) and I think that is a really poor decision.

Sometimes I just want to mess around with a build for a couple runs and then swap back into my main one because I really enjoy it, but variety is fun too. I should not have to spend 10+ minutes making that transition because it just keeps me from doing it in the first place and potentially finding something that could actually be more fun then what I am doing or better suited to a particular monolith/boss. Min maxing within a build is great, but also being able to min max a farming route is awesome as well and sometimes that means using a different build with different strengths.

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