Upgrade kit on the way, should I hold off with the upgrade?
Hello all,
I have been anxiously awaiting my upgrade kit since December last year, but now that it is on it's way I'm wondering should I hold off on the upgrade.
My MK2S is working remarkably well. I often print PLA, PETg, ABS, TPU, TPE, Nylon and even some CF on it with (for me) great results and practically no failed prints. The only MK2.5 upgrades I really lust for are the removable heatbed plate and to a lesser extent the new PINDA probe, so I don't have to adjust the Live Z between filament types.
So, my question is, should I go ahead with the upgrade? Has the MK2.5 extruder achieved (surpassed?) MK2S reliability levels. What about the flexible filaments, I remember reading there were some problems with printing them?
I see that the latest FW version 3.2.1 resolved the remaining issues with calibration and LA is enabled from 3.2.0, so the upgraded printer should be on par with the MK2S.
Any thoughts, experiences?
Re: Upgrade kit on the way, should I hold off with the upgrade?
I have done the 2.5 upgrade a while back.
The upgrade went really smooth and easy, no obsctacles at all, just take your time.
I cannot see any difference on the prints after the upgrade, it prints as beutiful as the MK2S did.
I started with firmware 3.1.13, 3.1.14, 3.2.0 now on 3.2.1 no issues with any of these.
Skipped all the RC versions.
Also, i mounted below for easier access to the X-belt in case i needed to tweek the thension.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2842080
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Gert
Re: Upgrade kit on the way, should I hold off with the upgrade?
Thank you for the encouraging reply. Hopefully my upgrade will go smoothly as well. I'll use the opportunity to do a little maintenance as well.
Re: Upgrade kit on the way, should I hold off with the upgrade?
can't say the same for mine..... there's a bug or rather optimization in prusa FW. some of my prints that moire as well that did not before. it's the same as the MK3 inconsistent extrusion issue... MK3 and 2.5 is the same codebase, same extruder. that being said, PETG is slightly better, and depends on layer height and extrusion multiplier and what not. it might be unnoticable to most, most new mK3 users that have posted images or video's on YT clearly have it but don't know it. they have nothing to compare against, which is why the lack of complaints.
Outside of that, i'm confident there will be a fix soon. Not from prusa, but the community. Given that, the features of the upgrade could be of benefit now which is worth the effort. The build plate is great, the auto-loading via filament sensor is nice touch, especially for kids where they just have to put the filament in a hole without messing with the menu. Once i had something stuck in my fan and caused a clog pre-2.5, having the fan monitor is great here too...
only thing is, the case needs to be bigger somehow.... the wires are getting a bit out of control...... i updated mine, too lazy to go back anyway but awaiting the FW fix....
Re: Upgrade kit on the way, should I hold off with the upgrade?
I just completed my upgrade and am running the first print. I already tested the filament sensor by cutting the feed mid print. The 2.5 detected this and immediately prompted for a refill.
There may be cheaper ways to add a filament sensor but this feature is the main reason I went for the upgrade.
The magnetic print bed is also a cool feature. My old bed was getting pretty beat up from use (and abuse). I was having to move the print around to avoid the damaged spots on the bed.
The new cooling fan is nearly silent. I actually thought I had failed to connect it when I ran the self test.
The new extruder assembly is more complex to build but clearly improved over the original. I may try out some flex filament now
Most of the other improvements are pretty subtle but as a package the upgrade is worth the effort.
My kit came with PETG filament for the printed parts. I could have downloaded the gcode and printed them in advance.
Re: Upgrade kit on the way, should I hold off with the upgrade?
My kit came with PETG filament for the printed parts. I could have downloaded the gcode and printed them in advance.
That was always the case. The kit was never offered with printed parts, only with filament to print your own. I'm just using my little spool of Prusa PET on other projects now. Seems like a good filament!
Re: Upgrade kit on the way, should I hold off with the upgrade?
Well, after a month with the 2.5 upgrade, I decided to write a few words and maybe help somebody with the same dilemma.
The upgrade went well, everything is well documented as usual, and with all the printed parts ready it can be done in one evening. I took my time and did a little bit of maintenance while everything was taken apart.
I printed the latest version of parts with only one part different, the back of extruder is modified to allow easy belt tightening even when fully assembled.
The biggest upgrade, as expected is the new heatbed. The flexible sheets are a godsend. It is so nice not to have to hack at the prints trying to get them off, but just flex the sheet and be done with it. The upgrade is worth it for that alone. Hopefully spare flexible sheets will be available in the store soon which will allow me to take out a print and let it cool down while starting another one immediately.
After about a month of printing, one of the magnets fell off the heatbed while I was printing PETg (heatbed temperature at 90C). I could not get any high temp glue quickly so I glued it back with a standard cyanoacrylate glue temporarily and it seems to hold well.
The second best thing about the upgrade is, unexpectedly for me, the new hot end cooling fan. It is so quiet that I keep checking if it works. It reduced printer noise by a large margin and I love it. I like it so much that I started looking around for a quieter part cooling fan, but haven't found anything that is a direct replacement yet.
The new P.I.N.D.A. probe is a welcome change as well, no more Live-Z adjustment when changing the filament type.
Filament sensor is fine, loading the filament is easier requiring fewer steps. I printed some transparent PETg in addition to a lot of differently colored PLA and it did not give any false alarms. It would be nice if it could eventually detect a filament jam as originally promised.
The new extruder seems a bit more finicky about the tightening adjustment than before. I also don't like that in the assembly manual there is no exact measurement on how much the screws should be tightened like for the MK2s, but more of a descriptive setting. With one PLA filament (Prusa black PLA) I had to increase the nozzle temperature by 5 degrees to prevent the extruder skipping. I keep reading about extrusion issues and Prusa even recently confirmed that the problem exists, but I haven't noticed a degradation in quality compared to MK2s with the parts that I usually print.
In the last month I printed with PLA, PETg, ABS, nGen, Nylon with CF and Flex 98A and 85A (NinjaFlex) without problems. Printing with NinjaFlex required loosening the tension screws by one turn. The PTFE tube coming from the hot end on my printer is almost touching the extruder gears, so the filament path is nicely constrained for the flexible filament. Other than having to increase the temperature for one PLA filament I did not have any of the dreaded extruder clicking/missing steps issues so far.
Other small quality of life improvements like the new RAMBO housing with the improved cable clamping system and additions in the 2.5 firmware are welcome additions to an already good printer.
Anyway, that is my experience. More than happy with the upgrade. The only issue could be the reported inconsistent extrusion a lot of owners of MK3's are reporting, but I did not see those problems yet thankfully. Upgrade is definitely recommended.