Sunlu S4 setup
Hi all,
I thought you might like to see my Sunlu S4 setup. It's a very useful dryer for the Prusa XL. I added shelves to the sides of the XL for the two S4s. I also printed new mounts for the filament sensors, made extensions for the filament sensor cable, and had to use longer Bowden tubes for tools 2 and 3. The whole setup rides on a sliding shelf since it's very useful to have access to the sides and back of the XL and it's sort of a beast to move around! The S4s are just the right size for the XL and so far everything is working very well.
RE: Sunlu S4 setup
Looks interesting. Do you have a picture of your filament's path inside the Filament dryer?
RE: Sunlu S4 setup
Any tips for the Sunlu S4 dryer actually drying? I got one but I am worried it does not actually do much. I am fighting stringing and blobbing issues and want to rule out wet filament. I was about to get a second one just like your setup.
The S4 box is completely closed, so there is nowhere for the moisture to go except for into the dessicant packs. If that is the case, it can only reach an equilibrium since the moisture isn't going out. The only way I see to remove moisture is through the top if you crack the lids.
Do you run it with the lids cracked open to dry and then close the top to store?
RE: Sunlu S4 setup
Hi Flowerpool,
I have found the S4 to work really well. I'm printing mostly in polycarbonate, which is very sensitive to moisture. I also live in Northern California, which is an extremely humid environment. So - pretty challenging from a wet filament perspective. If I don't dry the polycarbonate, it only takes about 24 hours for it to become unprintable. I don't get stringing and blobbing when the filament is wet, I just get very rough prints. You can also often see steam at the nozzle and hear sizzling/popping when the filament is too wet.
I leave the filament in the drier all the time and print directly from the drier. The filament is almost entirely sealed in the tube all the way to the nozzle. There is a small gap at the side filament sensor. If I haven't printed for more than a day, I'll run the drier for several hours (8 or so) at 70C. Then I just leave the drier running while I print. 70C is the right temp for polycarbonate - your temp will vary, of course, depending on your filament.
My results have been extremely good. I have zero wet filament issues. I just put the filament in, close the lid, and turn it on. I don't even have any desiccant in there since it's running the whole time.
Stringing and blobbing can be a lot of things - including the 0.6mm nozzle that I use which doesn't even ship with the XL anymore.
RE: Sunlu S4 setup
Hi @peter-larsen,
Sorry for the delay. Here are a couple photos. It's not complicated. The spools at the back feed a fitting that I added at the front. The spools in front feed into the original S4 fittings. From there they go to a new filament sensor attached to a simple bracket that I added.
RE: Sunlu S4 setup
I can see why you might think that - but it could not be farther from reality. "sealed", and "closed" are wildly different things, and when you have thermal buoyancy, that thing is going to move _plenty_ of air. It's actually not sealed enough to be optimal here. As a counter example from another dryer I've personally tested, consider the even-more-sealed PolyDryer.
The S4, like every consumer unit I am aware of has a "hot spot" problem, but it's manageable and critically the (300W? iir from a teardown) PTC element does actually achieve the desired temperature. It should have substantially larger fans to equalize airflow (and thus temp) around the whole enclosure. But again: every. single. one. of these consumer-level units suffers from this - at least the S4 has enough power to actually reach stated temps.
RE: Sunlu S4 setup
Have you had any issues with underextrusion or reports of filament jamming? I'd tried a DIY solution that caused both so trying to rework it into something more like this.
RE: Sunlu S4 setup
Hi,
Could you please post a picture of the inside of your Sunlu's with the extra PFTE holes, was thinking of doing the same to have all filament coming out on one side.
Thanks 🙂