The chameleon will load the filament in the right place, but it won't let go of the filament and allow my extruder to do it's thing. Even manually pushing the filament through the chameleon is difficult. Is there a different mode or is it not working right?
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I've been working on geting my chameleon working for the better part of 5 months and almost the entire time, this has been my problem. I can't find the sweet spot between too tight where its leaving grooves on the filament which is causing significant drag in my line, and too loose where the filament slips feeding and the timing won't work (or it won't pull even the slightest tip head discrepancy through the Bowden tube back out of the extruder). Here's what I've learned so far, and these are important things. There are so many places of failure in this unit. You have your line to the chameleon, the chameleon itself, the line to the y splitter, the y splitter itself, and then the tube to your printer. YOU HAVE TO CHECK EVERY ONE OF THESE INDIVIDUALLY. God knows how many hours I wasted trying to get the chameleon extruder to feed better, only to find there were small kinks in my line that produced drag on its own and had absolutely nothing to do with the unit itself. In the end, I'm damn near completed now, without auto clippy (but I'm about to bounce into it I think). My current issue is the Y splitter. The inputs closest to the output turns too tight and it creates drag around the corner going on the way out to the print head Bowden tube (I do not have my y splitter mounted directly to the printer extruder itself). I've actually quit working with the base design because there are too many points of failure in there too (spring, bearing, and tension piece that Bill mentions above), and removed them for better consistency. I'll share that when done, but obviously it needs to work and work well before that's worth bothering anyone's time with, and I've yet to have three successful tool-changes in a single print due to tip shaping failing when going through the chameleon, despite working wonderful when its not. Because I have a K1 Max and its absolute shit ass extruder, I keep having to take it apart when it gets stuck in there and breaks off inside, which happens due to the weird tip shape that takes place when the line won't back out through the chameleon. I'm assuming other printers with better extruders don't have to deal with that crap. Anyhow, that was how I wound up sourcing the root of my problem. Working where the filament should move freely, I went through one piece at a time until I found out where it wasn't. It's the Y splitter. Consistently. I'm printing a new one now and if I find it works better, I'll share the link to that model as well.
If all else fails and you can't find the cause, there are printable bearing carriers that move the bearings .25 and .5 mm further away from the drive gears. Also, make sure the bearings are turning freely when no filament is loaded. The filament should be pressed against the bearing, but it should not be in contact with the center drive gear when the filament is selected, but has already been loaded. By using these optional bearing carriers (Tension Tuning Sliders) you can relax the pressure normally applied. The default are the top middle "red" sliders... you can print the far left red ones to increase the space from the drive gear to make sure they're free. (I might add, if this doesn't fix it, there is something blocking the paths, so make sure the PTFE tubes are not damaged or the plastic parts are not deformed withing the filament path.) See here: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/0JBXWmRAdxn-3dchameleon-mk3-tension-tuning-sliders Bill
Hello... I am having this same issue... Everything is working great but the filament is just a little too tight after it's loaded so the machine extruder can't pull it through. I've got all the software working, the unit loads great right to the extruder. When I pull it by hand it's just a little tight in the Chameleon. I'm wondering what the solution came about here? Nothing is loose, I have tried the adapter with the least amount of tension on the bearings... not sure what else to look for. Thanks for any advice. Orca 2.2 now has multple tool heads so anxious to give it a try. :-)
Mine is the same way. Gets better if I straighten the tubes but still a lot of resistance. My next step is shortening the tubes and maybe an A1 hub. My stock extruder doesn't seem to have the power to pull the filament so I'm getting underextrusion only when going through the chameleon.
Hello, I think I figured out that my extruder motor wasn't tight enough. This is a new MK4, I believe. Wife bought it for me last month. I've installed it on a Folgertech Ft5. I have modified the print head to voron with bowden tube feed. I do have questions about end gcode for unloading filaments etc.
Was there a fix to this, I think I may have the same issues.
When the 3DChameleon loads filament, it should switch to different filament once the button is let go. That allows the active filament to freely pass through the 3DChameleon.
Can you give me some more information about your setup and what mode you think you have it in?
Bill