Prusa i3 Dual Extruder Setup Issues
I have a Folgertech Prusa i3, on a Ramps 1.4 with Marlin and I use Repetier-Host to control it. I am attempting to convert it to a dual extruder Bowden setup, and I can't seem to get the second extruder to work, although the first works just fine.
This is my problem:
I am not getting a reading in Repetier-Host for the thermistor of the second extruder. It is at a constant 100C.
When I turn on the cartridge heater for the second extruder in Repetier-Host, the cartridge heater does not heat up.This is what I have done:
For the second extruder, I connected the wires from the thermistor to the pins for T2 and the wires for the cartridge heater to D9.
I have not updated anything in the Marlin firmware.
In Repetier-Host, I selected that there are two extruders, and a second extruder is indicated under the 'manual controls' tab.This is what I have double checked:
I confirmed the second thermistor works because it indicates a proper temperature reading when plugging it in both T0 and T1.
I confirmed the second cartridge heater works because it heats up when connected to D10.I apologize in advance if this is an amateur question, but I can't seem to find an answer anywhere. If somebody could at least point me in the right direction, or let me know if there is something I did not include in my post, I would really appreciate it, and hopefully it would help somebody else coming across a similar problem.
Thanks
It sounds like you need to modify various settings for the 2nd extruder. They are in Marlin, mainly in Configuration.h and pins.h. It's a bit of a pain since there are many #ifdef switches for different boards, printers, etc. Be sure you keep spare copies as you work. Try to work out just which #defines are getting applied in your situation, or just change all of (for example) the TEMP_SENSOR_1 #defines. It's tedious but doable.
@TextGeek I appreciate the comment, and the direction to examine my firmware. That was indeed where my problem was. I now have it working.
@fukanchik I appreciate the comment, and the direction to examine my firmware. That was indeed where my problem was. I now have it working.
Thanks to the comments, I was able to narrow down the specific issues in the firmware. The firmware version was really out of date, so I recommend finding the latest stable version.
Therefore, I found the latest stable version of Marlin, downloaded it, and created my own edited version. I went line by line in
configuration.h
andconfiguration_adv.h
, with the old version I had side by side to the newer version, making any and all appropriate changes. Below are the lines I found most important to evaluate when setting up a second extruder.Make sure the you have the right board selected from
boards.h
:#define MOTHERBOARD 34
Make sure the # of extruders is specified:
#define EXTRUDERS 2
Make sure the sensor is active:
#define TEMP_SENSOR_0 6
#define TEMP_SENSOR_1 6
#define TEMP_SENSOR_2 0
#define TEMP_SENSOR_BED 6This should be considered:
#define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 240
#define HEATER_1_MAXTEMP 240
#define HEATER_2_MAXTEMP 240
#define BED_MAXTEMP 90Everything under this comment should be looked at:
// Preheat Constants
These would allocate the second extruder for other motors:
#define Z_DUAL_STEPPER_DRIVERS
#define Y_DUAL_STEPPER_DRIVERS
#define DUAL_X_CARRIAGEI'm sure there are other parameters I may have missed, and these are specific to my Prusa i3, but I hope this helps out anybody else in the future.
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Content dated before 7/24/2021 11:53 AM
fukanchik 6 years ago
i think you would need to recompile the firmware and set `#define EXTRUDERS 2` then `#define TEMP_SENSOR_1` etc etc. there are plenty of tutorials on the net