Revo Micro for Prusa Mini+  

RE: Revo Micro for Prusa Mini+

I just made the switch. The biggest advantage IMHO is the ability to quickly and easily swap nozzles. It is an expensive ecosystem though, so keep that in mind.

You will need some settings changes. I put retraction to 2mm, extra on re-start at .05mm, and pressure equalizer set to 10 both positive and negative. I'm getting great results with it.

RE: Revo Micro for Prusa Mini+

Concur.  Great move and I will never look back unless we see the Nextruder for the Mini.  

Posted by: @rat_patrol

I just made the switch. The biggest advantage IMHO is the ability to quickly and easily swap nozzles. It is an expensive ecosystem though, so keep that in mind.

You will need some settings changes. I put retraction to 2mm, extra on re-start at .05mm, and pressure equalizer set to 10 both positive and negative. I'm getting great results with it.

RE:

The majority of the issues came from the initial design of the housing for the unit. It used a different fan in a different orientation, and it resulted in excessive heat soak and the issues mentioned with PLA.

The newer version of the housing is very good, and uses the stock fan so there's no change as far as what the firmware sees. Very easy to print/install, just make sure the heatsink is screwed all the way in, otherwise it has the potential to get knocked out of position and cause layer shifts. (ask me how I know...)

Definitely give this thread a full read-through, with the understanding that the original housing caused a lot of the issues that people were seeing with PLA. Here is a wonderful recap of the major findings and recommended settings changes (with the new housing):

Posted by: @pickworthi

@robee-shepherd and @sp4rkr4t - thank you so much. It can be a bit disheartening for a newbie to be faced with a problem like this. 

To re-cap: the issues I have been seeing and the solutions that worked for me are as follows:

1. Heat creep with PLA. This was solved for me by the E3D version 2 mount. My view is that an unobstructed side to side airflow is the key to this change - although the stock fan does provide a stronger airflow as well. Also, this helped my OCD problem with the Revo fan failing the self test 😉 
2. Hot end over reporting temperature when cooling flow is high - so PLA again. This was identified by Stefan of CNC Kitchen  I found that increasing the Prusament PLA print temperature from 210C to 220C gave me nice smooth surfaces. Given Stefan's findings, I think that means I am actually printing at 210C-215C, which is spot on for Prusament PLA (according to the side of the spool).
3. "Wonky" pillars on the 3D Benchy with PLA. @robee-shepherd hit the nail on the head here, and @sp4rkr4t provided the Prusa Slicer filament setting changes needed (from Prusament PLA profile). For me these were: a) "Min Print Speed" from 15 to 20 mm/s. b) "Slow down if layer time is below " from 15 to 5 seconds. and c) "Retraction length" from default (2.0) to 1.8 mm.
4. Not a problem, but a confusing factor: With any filament that does not have high cooling flow, so basically PETG, ASA and ABS for me, the standard Prusa Slicer provided defaults just work.

With the settings in 3), the head is moving noticeably faster on the small pillar areas of the benchy, and that appears to make the difference, I don't know why reducing the retraction length also helps, perhaps there is an explanation out there.

I now have a PLA benchy printed that is as good as the first benchy I did on a brand new machine with the Prusa provided gcode. A result 😊 

I'm hoping this thread can help others who try the Revo micro out on the Mini+. We are in early adopter territory with this system, so I would expect there to be issues. It's nice to have a community of helpful folk to reach out to. I, personally, have learned a lot.

 As a side note: in order to have the full convenience of nozzle swaps, you will have to update the start and end G-code in PrusaSlicer. Basically, adding extra retraction at the end of the print, and a bit of extra extrusion at the start of the print to compensate. Here is a starting point provided by E3D, I would recommend tweaking this to your liking/needs -- I ended up going with about 28mm of retraction and adding an extra purge/drop move on start to account for the fact that filament could either be retracted or loaded fully to the nozzle.

As a personal recommendation, if you do decide to get into the revo ecosystem, pick up an ObXidian 0.6mm nozzle. They're FINALLY available, and it's my main workhorse (good enough detail, able to print abrasives, minimal filament sticking).

RE: Revo Micro for Prusa Mini+

Recently installed the Revo Micro on my Mini+ but now having a slight issue where the Y-axis prints slightly ahead of where it should. The initial first intro line prints off the bed and onto the edge of the surface and whatever I see in Prusa slicer is slightly further forward than it should be.

Anyone had this issue? I think the Micro is in the right spot and the screws line up.

RE: Revo Micro for Prusa Mini+

I have that as well -- the nozzle is actually moved closer to the front by about 1-2mm.

I modified my purge line g-code in the printer profile to shift the Y-coordinate up by 1mm. Puts it right on the edge for easy peeling.

RE: Revo Micro for Prusa Mini+

So that's 'Printer Settings' > 'Custom G-code' then adjust the below line:

G1 Y-2 X179 F2400

to

G1 Y0 X179 F2400

Unfortunately I have the classic thermistor issue with the Revo Micro so its out of action for now.

RE: Revo Micro for Prusa Mini+

That's the one. Moving it all the way to 0 might interfere with any prints where you extend all the way down there, but as long as you take that into consideration for laying out your prints, you'll be back in business.

RE: Revo Micro for Prusa Mini+

Hey there @carlmmii, I was reading through your replies and noticed that you went through a situation I'm going through right now lol. I installed the revo micro on my mini+ with the stock .4mm brass nozzle and it was working great out of the box. However, I went to go swap it out for the big .8 nozzle and did not screw the heatsink in all the way. By the time I noticed it was too late. I noticed after a print started and now they keep failing. So, I was wondering what route you took... did it fix itself, or did you have to go in there? I want to believe that it's not a big deal and the problem will fix itself because there shouldn't be any room for errors inside that heatsink since its all metal and no Bowden, but that sounds wayyyyyy too ideal, and we all know that that can't exist. I did three 1st-layer calibrations and the third looked decent so I thought I was good to go, but then when I started a print, PLA kept getting stuck to the nozzle and it seems like the flow rate had been affected, so I just shut it down. Now, I am ready to take the Bowden tube out of the heat sink (upon swapping in the Revo, I also installed Capricorn) but it's all set up so neatly that I hate to undo it. You know how it is lol... In any case, I'll probably go ahead and investigate the heatsink's inner workings to ensure everything is okay unless I hear back with some pointers. Have a great one and happy printing everyone!

RE: Revo Micro for Prusa Mini+

[ UPDATE ]: Actually, I was wrong! I'm so glad I am too lol. The problem fixed itself after I inspected the inner heatsink and nozzle. I didn't just blindly keep printing... I did what I said and examined the inside, treating it like a clog on the stock heat block + PTFE combination, i.e., looking for debris, and found none. It was clean as a whistle, which made me appreciate the Revo micro. Then, after putting it back together, I found out that besides not screwing the heatsink in all the way the first time, more human errors were to blame for the initial messed-up prints. When I first installed the new .8mm nozzle, I blindly started printing with minimal configuration. Now, I've resolved that by fully configuring the print settings to account for the bigger nozzle, and she is printing flawlessly! I believe a bit more tuning is required because there are minor imperfections, but other than that, the Revo micro with the Diamondback nozzles are fire and I can't wait to get the Mini+ tuned to perfection to start printing carbon fiber mechanical parts. 🥂