1 Week later - Was it worth it? A brief review.
I installed my 2.5 upgrade about a week ago. Instructions were excellent, While generally pleased, the results are a bit mixed.
The good -
The new bed with the removable build plate is great. Parts can be removed much more easily, it seems like there's no reason for the PEI to get damaged as was so frequent in the past due to various metal tools required to remove prints. I have now adopted a no metal tools policy. While flexing the plate causes most parts to come loose, very small parts, or the leftovers from Live Z testing, support first layer, or anything still very thin won't come off just from flexing. In order to stick with no metal, I purchased this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076BBW1WM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . These are great for cleaning debris from the bed without damage.
The bed alone makes me pleased to have upgraded.
The Pinda with temp sensor also seems to work well. I just switched from PLA to PETG and, for the first time ever, did not need to readjust Live Z. This was always required prior to the upgrade. While I'm not certain about this feature yet, it seems promising.
The new Rambo box holds the cables much better and is a big improvement. It appears that it would fit the MK2S and be a nice improvement even if you don't upgrade.
The neutral -
The new extruder may be technically superior but so far, I don't see the advantage. The extruder in the MK2S worked fine. This one is a bit harder to deal with for cold pulls, feels like the filament may get stuck when changing filament, and makes some odd noises. It does work.
I have not enabled or tested the filament sensor so can't comment on this.
The not so good -
NO LINEAR ADVANCE. Yes, I know it's coming but 3.1.0 on the MK2S worked flawlessly, Octopi worked flawlessly, and now my print quality is not as good as before. Linear Advance makes a big difference and I miss it. Hopefully it will be back soon. I should note that I used 3.1.0 since it was released with Octopi and never had a problem.
Other items of interest -
I used a modified Extruder cover to make X belt adjustments easier without disassembly. I remixed one for the MK3, works great. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2842080
I had to modify and reprint my filament holder and my light holders because they got in the way of the new extruder. Anything that attaches to the top of the frame may no longer fit.
Re: 1 Week later - Was it worth it? A brief review.
Thank you for your insights, it's very helpful. I do hope they bring back LA in the 2.5 upgrade soon, I constantly use it these days on my MK2S.
Re: 1 Week later - Was it worth it? A brief review.
"NO LINEAR ADVANCE"
I didn`t know about that.
Just upgraded, is there information on that anywhere ?
Re: 1 Week later - Was it worth it? A brief review.
Does anyone have more information about the linear advance? I didn't know it was missing from the MK2.5 upgrade either.
Personally linear advance threw me off when I upgraded my MK2S to 3.x.x firmware since my prints were coming out bad after upgrading. Turned out Linear Advance was a new feature and causing the problem because my print settings didn't account for it. After printing for a little while using new print settings, I've come to enjoy and that it is quieter and faster than before.
It would kinda suck if I was going to MK2.5 to only make it louder/slower again. But I like the magnetic heatbed a lot and soon (eventually) powder textured PEI sheet. I already had a noctua fan installed from the beginning, so the loudest parts of the printer for me are the frame, motors, and cooling fan.
Re: 1 Week later - Was it worth it? A brief review.
I haven't had any issues manually enabling linear advance for the Mk2.5 firmware (and I use Octoprint for everything). All you have to do is uncomment "#define LIN_ADVANCE" in Configuration_adv.h.
Re: 1 Week later - Was it worth it? A brief review.
I upgraded to 2.5 this week, just started some test prints. I didn't really notice much of a difference in linear advance with my 2S, so I'm not expecting to see much change with the 2.5. However, maybe once it's enabled in 2.5 I'll get even better prints than I currently do. 🙂
So far my thoughts are similar to tom.b6. The new extruder looks comprehensive, but I was fine with the 2S system. I haven't tried setting up a cold-pull with the new mechanism yet, so that might be my only complaint there. I rarely print with flexibles, so I won't know if that's better until I need it down the road a ways.
The removable bed is awesome! The flex is so much easier for part removal, and I'm happy to no longer need my pocket knife to gently pry corners for my spatula.
The lack of pinda temp compensation was a pain for me in the past as well. I move between PLA and PETG frequently, and kept forgetting to adjust for one or the other. Just moved from my PLA testing to PETG and din't have to do a thing!
Overall, I'm happy with the upgrade. I'm still early days, so I'm hopeful that I'll continue to be impressed. While I had the parts disassembled I was able to do some part maintenance as well, so I'm sure I've increased the functional life at the same time.
Now, to decide if it's worth putting together another printer from the spare parts I have left over from the 2 => 2S => 2.5 upgrades. 😉