How To Install the Creality Sprite Pro Extruder Upgrade

hello 3d printing friends today on the bv 3d channel we'll see how to install the creality sprite pro extruder stick around and we'll get into it right after this i'm brian and you are watching bv 3d this episode of the bv 3d channel is brought to you in part by these awesome channel members hi welcome back hey if you're new here and you're wanting to learn about 3d printing 3d modeling and other 3d printing related stuff start now by subscribing and clicking the bell so you don't miss anything okay so today we're going to install the creality sprite pro extruder on this ever so slightly modified ender 3 max so what is the sprite pro extruder it's a lightweight dual gear direct drive extruder that made its debut on the creality ender 3 s1 pro it differs from the original sprite extruder by having an all metal heat break instead of one lined with ptfe tubing on 3d printers with ptfe lined hot ends like the stock hot end on the inter 3 max as well as the original sprite extruder the firmware usually limits the maximum nozzle temperature to about 260 degrees celsius and i personally won't run a ptfe lined hot end higher than about 235 degrees celsius because at around 240 degrees the ptfe can start to degrade and release gases that are not the safest thing you could be breathing but by not having that ptfe liner down in the hot side of things the nozzle on the sprite pro can be heated up to 300 degrees celsius so the kit contains a small manual the sprite pro extruder a new x carriage a handful of screws a spare nozzle and a nice long ribbon cable to connect the extruder to the printer's main board now before i get into installing the sprite pro there are a couple of points to cover while the sprite pro can achieve a hot end temperature of 300 degrees celsius you may need to upgrade the firmware on your printer to enable the higher temperature also while the sprite pro has a mounting point for a cr touch bed probe one isn't included if you already have a bed probe installed and it's not a cr touch you may need to find and print or design and print a mount for it if you want to continue using it and depending on your printer you may need to buy a spool holder or print one before you start my frankenstein-esquinder3 max v2 pro that i cobbled together had the max's standard side mounted spool holder but having the spool mounted low and in the back was not going to work well for a direct drive extruder so i downloaded and printed one and bolted it up here on the top sorry this printer is kind of tall i could also have grabbed one from another printer or bought a really nice one for about 15 bucks on amazon but i chose the path of medium resistance i mean i have 3d printers why not 3d print a spool holder right and finally if your printer has a filament runout sensor you may need to come up with an alternate way to mount it or simply disable it on my printer installing the sprite pro means i'm converting from a bowden feed system to a direct drive extruder and the stock position for the filament runout sensor is right before the extruder stepper motor since this project involves removing the extruder stepper motor and the bowden tube there wasn't a convenient place for the filament sensor i think for now i'm going to remove the sensor and do without so with that out of the way here's how to install the sprite pro extruder turn off the printer and unplug its power cable unplug the extruder stepper motor and the filament sensor remove the bowden tube from the extruder assembly by pressing the ring toward the extruder while pulling the tubing out remove the screws securing the extruder assembly in place then remove the extruder and the extruder stepper motor remove the existing x carriage with the hot end assembly and set it aside it'll still be connected by its wiring but that's okay to do this loosen the x-axis belt's tension and disconnect the belt from the x-carriage then remove the screws holding the fan shroud to the x carriage this will allow you to access the nylock nut that secures the lower wheel to the x carriage loosen the screw that holds the lower wheel in place which loosens that wheel and then remove the x carriage from the x-axis arm now install the new x-carriage onto the x-axis arm to do this loosen the screw that holds the lower wheel in place just like you did when removing the original one then place the x carriage onto the arm and tighten the screw again to secure it adjust the eccentric nut to ensure smooth movement of the x-carriage with no play or wobble reattach the x-axis belt to the x-carriage and set its tension to your liking attach the sprite pro extruder to the new x carriage using the included screws now it's time to take care of the wiring open the electronics enclosure to access the printer's main board remove the top screw from the electronics enclosure then place the printer on its side and remove the three bottom screws securing the cover the cover has a fan attached so be aware of the fan's wires now it's time to unplug things but first make note of where everything is so you can plug things from the new wiring harness into the correct place just a quick note the manual that's included with the kit does show you a diagram of a creality v 4.2.2 board with the ports labeled but taking a picture or tin of the main board with your phone before you unplug things can be super helpful so with that said disconnect the heater cartridge this requires loosening the screws on the terminal block that clamp its wires in place then disconnect the hot end fan from the terminal block note where the red wire and the black wire go that'll be important when connecting the ribbon cable in a few minutes unplug the extruder stepper motor from the socket marked e this particular plug is part of a ribbon cable that also handles the x-axis stepper motor and the x-axis end-stop so it's going to stay here in the electronics enclosure but it does need to be unplugged unplug the parts cooling fans on this printer there are two unplug the hot end thermistor on this board it's in the socket marked th for thermistor hot end unplug the bed touch probe if you have one now that should do it for the unplugging phase you should now be able to remove the cable bundle that goes to the hot end now it's time to plug in the ribbon cables connectors connect to the heater cartridge and hot end fan these have wire ferrules on the ends insert the ferrules into the terminals where the old heater cartridge and fan were connected the heater cartridges wires are marked with plus and minus but since the heater cartridge isn't polarized it really doesn't care the fan however does care about positive and negative and on this board the fan minus connection goes here and the fan plus connection goes here next plug the extruder stepper motor into the socket marked e connect the parts cooling fans plug k fan into the socket marked k fan plug the hot end thermistor into the socket marked th and finally plug in the bed touch probe connector this printer's main board has a five pin socket here to accommodate the probe though i don't have a bed probe installed if i want to add one i can buy a cr touch mount it on the sprite and plug its cable into the probe socket on the sprite end of things there are a couple of connectors left over on the ribbon cable but the manual doesn't say what they are or where they go so just tuck them out of the way and we'll call it good ok that should be it for wiring carefully route the ribbon cable out of the enclosure close up the electronics box putting the screws back in place then bring the printer to its full upright and locked position plug the ribbon cable into the sprite pro extruder then move the carriage all the way to the right side of the printer and use a zip tie or two to secure the ribbon cable to the bracket where the old extruder stepper motor used to be this will ensure you've got enough slack in the ribbon cable when the nozzle is at the far right side and it should keep the cable from getting caught on your prints with everything connected now would be a great time to test a few things to make sure the wiring is connected properly plug in the printer and turn it on on this printer the hot end fan should be running full time so i want to be sure it's running and it is next i want to make sure the parts cooling fan is working so i'll turn that on from the screen and that's working too so far so good next i want to make sure the hot end thermistor is working so a quick glance at the screen should show me a temperature similar to what the bed is showing in other words room temperature and finally i want to make sure the heater cartridge is working so i'll set the nozzle temperature to about 200 degrees to make sure it's heating up i'll let that sit for a few minutes to let the nozzle heat up and then stabilize at the temperature that i set if any of these tests aren't giving you the results you expect turn the printer off unplug it and check your wiring to make sure everything's connected properly with that testing completed the next thing to do is adjust the e-steps or steps per millimeter for the extruder the manual says it needs to be set to 424.9 steps per millimeter so go into your printer settings and adjust it to the new value then save the configuration so the printer remembers it if for some reason your printer doesn't let you set it that high or if it feels like you're going to have to turn the knob a million times to make that adjustment you can instead create a simple g-code file to do it for you the guide has the full how-to on this but the tldr is that you create a text file with two lines of g-code in it one line sets the e-steps and the second line saves that setting but however you go about setting and saving the e-steps it would be a good idea to turn the printer off and on again then check the steps per millimeter setting to confirm that the e-steps are set to the correct value 424.9 with the sprite pro installed and the e-steps set the last thing to do is level the bed you can't skip this step because the entire extruder and hot end got replaced and it is extremely unlikely that the nozzle is going to be at the exact same height when the z-axis is homed as it was before this project now you can use the paper between the nozzle and bed method but i'm a fan of chuck helibuck's e-leveler tool so i used that and i've got a whole video here showing how to use this clever manual bed leveler so give that a look if you're interested but whatever method you use level the bed oh one thing to be aware of when switching from a bowden drive to a direct drive extruder you need a lot less retraction with the direct drive in fact with the sprite pro you should only need about 0.8 millimeters of retraction and your retraction speed should be about 30 millimeters per second i just wanted to put that out there so you're not trying to do five or six millimeters of retraction and then wondering why your prints aren't coming out so good so anyway after i got the bed leveled i ran a test print for this test i printed the cat model that came with the ender 3s1 pro and i chose it because it had been sliced to print with this extruder it took a little over three hours to finish printing and it turned out really good check it out okay so that's how to install the sprite pro extruder the installation process seemed easier than some of the other extruder upgrades i've done and i think that's because all the connections to the extruder were bundled in this one ribbon cable and the print quality i got on the test print was great now remember if your printer won't let you set the nozzle temperature up to 300 degrees you're probably going to have to edit and compile and install firmware for your printer unless your printer's manufacturer has firmware you can download that'll enable nozzle temperatures of up to 300 degrees well 3d printing friends that's about all the time we have for this episode and now that we're at the end let's go print something cool hey real quick before you go i wanted to say thanks for being one of the super awesome people who sticks around all the way to the end and thanks for all the likes comments and shares and especially big thanks to those who directly support what i do you're all wonderful for doing that and i really appreciate it if you liked this episode a thumbs up would be great and if you'd like to help support the channel check the description for ways you can do exactly that and hey if you haven't already subscribed please do it's absolutely free and it's an excellent way to help keep me making these videos for you well that's it for this one thanks again and i'll see you next time here on the bv3d channel

Channel: BV3D: Bryan Vines

Views: 186,320

Keywords: 3D Printing, 3D Printing Friends, creality sprite extruder, creality sprite pro, creality sprite direct drive extruder, creality sprite extruder pro kit, creality sprite install, creality sprite direct drive, creality sprite extruder pro upgrade kit, sprite extruder, sprite extruder pro kit, sprite extruder pro, sprite extruder on ender 3 v2, sprite extruder upgrade, official creality sprite direct drive extruder pro kit, ender 3, ender 3 s1 pro

Id: xtruh7RCOpg

Length: 14min 19sec (859 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 25 2022