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Question: Print with more than five colors (MMU2S)  

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wieman01
(@wieman01)
Estimable Member
Question: Print with more than five colors (MMU2S)

Hello,

I do not own an MMU2S yet, but I am planning to get myself one.

My biggest question is if you can print with more than five colors by swapping colors during the print. Today I do so by manually invoking a M600 instruction and I can print with as many colors as I want. Is the same possible with the MMU2?

Being restricted to five colors would be a deal breaker for me.

Thank you.

3D Druck für Einsteiger leicht gemacht: www.3d-druck-lernen.de

Posted : 27/11/2019 9:19 am
vintagepc
(@vintagepc)
Member
RE: Question: Print with more than five colors (MMU2S)

Yes. You probably don't even need to interrupt the print to do it; the non-active slots are not under any sort of tension so it's easy enough to remove the current filament and insert a new one if you're careful to make sure it's loaded to the correct depth. Only caveat is you're limited to the same filament profile that was already in the slot, so no material or temperature changes (but M600 already has the same limitation, so you're familiar with it)

IIRC there's a "proper" change command available as well that lets you change the one that is currently printing too, and possibly more, but I have never used it.

Posted : 27/11/2019 12:57 pm
wieman01 liked
wieman01
(@wieman01)
Estimable Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Question: Print with more than five colors (MMU2S)

Thank you, vintagepc, for sharing your insight.

This makes sense. Then the MMU2S is indeed for me. I also looked at the Mosaic Palette 2 Pro, but for what I plan to do it makes no sense. The MK3S is my power horse and I would not want to print complex stuff on any other printer...

This post was modified 4 years ago by wieman01

3D Druck für Einsteiger leicht gemacht: www.3d-druck-lernen.de

Posted : 28/11/2019 10:33 am
vintagepc
(@vintagepc)
Member
RE: Question: Print with more than five colors (MMU2S)

Happy to help. 

Usual word of warning applies - Go slow and be prepared to spend some time fine-tuning your setup before jumping into complex prints. My own MMU prints I did recently have been more or less set-and-forget (maybe 1 interaction needed, probably because I haven't bothered to tune my filament profiles more and tips are bordering on stringy) after a handful of improvements to my setup. 

  • Skelestruder (optional, but has a better mechanism than the tower on the stock extruder, easier to service when there is a jam)
  • PC4-M10 or PC4-M6 passthrough coupler mod for the rear of the MMU
  • Auto-rewind spool holders; far less of a PITA than the buffer. 
  • 4mm o/d 3mm i/d PTFE from spools to MMU
  • Improved MMU idler with magnet and clear-out hole from thingiverse

Several points to check if you are experiencing general problems with the MMU, for comic relief and to drive the point home:

  • Friction in the feed tubes
  • Friction in the feed tubes
  • Friction in the feed tubes
  • Friction in the feed tubes
  • Friction in the feed tubes
  • IR tower/sensor positioning
  • Friction in the feed tubes
  • IR tower positioning.
  • See above
  • See previous

 

Posted : 28/11/2019 1:26 pm
wieman01 liked
wieman01
(@wieman01)
Estimable Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Question: Print with more than five colors (MMU2S)

Hello vintagepc,

Excellent, thank you. This will help a lot and spare me some of the teething troubles I expect. I will have to do some fine-tuning, that is for sure. I have a few projects in mind, but these are rather long term.

I am already printing multi-color, however, it's a manual and hence painful and lengthy process. My intention is to speed this up and make time for other, more value-added stuff. 🙂

One more question if you permit: Can you also "blend" colors the way the Mosaic Palette does? Not that I would mind too much, but it would be plus.

This post was modified 4 years ago by wieman01

3D Druck für Einsteiger leicht gemacht: www.3d-druck-lernen.de

Posted : 29/11/2019 9:58 am
vintagepc
(@vintagepc)
Member
RE: Question: Print with more than five colors (MMU2S)

Not explicitly, but since it's just gcode and parts, it probably wouldn't be hard to come up with a post-processing script that does a frequent filament change with minimal/no purge so you're constantly in a state of transition. But for mixing you really want a hot-end/ setup designed for that rather than "faking" it with constant transitions, the colour just won't be uniform. 
There are also tricks like "printing" some filament with two colours and then re-feeding that back into the printer for a blend.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3565827

Or, you can mess with your model a bit and do half-toning. I did a cursory experiment in it and posted some results here:

https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/english-forum-general-discussion-announcements-and-releases/an-experiment-in-half-tone/

Posted : 29/11/2019 1:06 pm
wieman01 liked
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