I got tired of PLA leaking between the extension and the PEEK area on the stock Taz 4 hot end. I don’t need high temp ability right now so I thought I would try the E3D Light. That also means I am doing a conversion to 1.75mm. I printed a mount off thingiverse so it can bolt up to the extruder. I bought the Taz 5 harness and internal blower harness add on. So that would get my wiring up to Taz 5 standards.
The E3D I ordered was with 24v heater and fan. Do I need to get a replacement 5v fan to mount on the hot end shroud?
Will the harness changes and flashing the firmware as if upgrading to a Taz5 tool head keep me from going back to the old way if things don’t work out?
I want to keep some of the original tool head parts as is, so I am printing replacements. One thought I had was print the Flexystruder body. The E3D light has a PTFE tube that runs all the way though the hot end to the nozzle and extends out the top. Since I am needing that anyways it seems like it supporting the filament all the way through the extruder is a good way to go.
Or should I just print another standard extruder body and just run the PTFE to the bottom of the bolt and use a 1.75 guide on the top (from the adafruit 1.75 conversion parts)? Would using the standard bearings pressing the filament into the extruder bolt work better with normal filaments especially on retraction then the Flexystruder setup?
I decided to order the v2 extruder head from IT-Works and will just upgrade the fan on it and see how things goes. I expect I will also finish the E3D light project as a secondary tool head but will put that on the back burner. I did find I can use the 24v fan I just need to wire it to the 24v second extruder fan connection and add the gcode to turn it on when the print starts and off at the end.
I just upgraded my TAZ 5 to E3D-V6 and it was fairly easy. You will need to use the 24v fan (it’s much stronger than the piddly 5v ones) but to do so you just take the fan wire inside the control box and hook it to 24v supply (see link below).
I don’t know what the light kit is but here are some instructions from Matter Hackers website you might find useful.
You will need a new mount as the Hexagon one is too thin, if the “light” uses the same mount as the E3D-V6 you can print the one I designed here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1749234 but you should print it in ABS or other high temp plastics as PLA would likely sag or deform.
The hotend will likely be longer than the original as well which means you need to also print a new fan shroud (look on Thingiverse for one)
No need for firmware update but you should run Auto PID Calibration (sorry don’t have a link but you can search for it) as this will tell the board the heating characteristics of the new hotend.
The E3D Light Hot End uses the same mount as the v6 model. The only difference is that its limited to PLA/ABS temps since it has a PTFE tube that runs though the body of the hot end and the cooling fins are stainless steel not aluminum. E3D says the V6 is a direct replacement if I want to upgrade that later. I did print a nice mount (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:971339) that holds the hot end really well, or at least it seems like it. When I compare the length of mount plus E3D it seems to be about the same length as my Budaschozzle.
It seems like your mounting plate is for the Taz5 extruder body. The Taz4 extruder body is flat on the bottom and would not let that plate design sit flat to the extruder.
I did print it in PLA but high temp PLA that prints at 230c which is what the ABS I used way back also printed at.
I thought the firmware update was required for the Taz4 to use a Taz5 style tool head. I understand the E3D uses the same temp probe as the Taz5 so would match other then doing the PID Calibration so maybe if I had a Taz5 the update would not have been needed?