This article describes how to install the Orbiter V2.0 feeder on the newer revisions of the Vyper, with the connector on the printhead with clamps.
Since Anycubic Plus and Anycubic Max basically have the same printhead as Vyper, these instructions will work for them as well. In fact, Orbiter V2.0 can be installed on any FDM printer, be it Creality or Modix.
Due to the fact that there is a popular opinion that a Bowden setup is not rational, I decided to install a direct extruder on my Vyper.
There are a lot of options online for how to install a desired feeder on the printhead, but all of them are bulky and clumsy, which I didn’t like. In the end, the choice fell on Orbiter V2.0, because it is relatively small and supports a filament sensor, which can be mounted directly on the extruder. As for the wires, they look quite decent next to the native loop.
Orbiter Extruder V2.0. www.orbiterprojects.com/orbiter-v2-0/
There are variants with Moon and LDO motors available. For some reason, the Moon version is not liked on the net, which is strange. If it is that bad, why do they put it on Creality K1? In tests on Vyper, Moon was quieter than LDO and heated less.
I ordered the Orbiter V2.0 with LDO from Trianglelab and a noname one with Moon. I won’t dwell much on the differences, as there are almost none. In the pictures, you can see some visual distinctions.
On the left is the noname, on the right — Trianglelab.
What I like is that the noname has a threaded hole in the center of the shaft meant for a screw with a convenient handle to turn the feed gear, which is handy for pushing filament. According to Trianglelab, they had such a hole at one time, but I haven’t come across one.
On the question of quality. The quality of Trianglelab was lower than expected. When disassembling, some parts of the casing are crooked and assembled with difficulty. If you don’t make adjustments for this, the satellites will start to rub against the casing. Also Trianglelab has burrs in the place of filament exit to the gears, which are absent in the noname. A trifle, but not nice.
Those who bought Trianglelab in late 2022 should be aware that there was a batch with defective shafts, which resulted in gear eccentricity. This issue could be solved by installing a new shaft. In 2023, the manufacturer fixed the problem.
As for the noname, there are almost no questions about its quality, except that it has damage on the casing, which looks like excessive hammering of a pin.
Filament sensor. www.orbiterprojects.com/orbiter-filament-sensor/
The sensor is installed on the feeder. It is designed to work with Klipper and other firmware. It has a light indication for filament runout as well as a button to which you can assign an action. However, these functions do not work on native Vyper. At most, you can make the indicator work, but not as it should: it glows red when there is no filament and doesn’t glow at all when there still is some material.
The cons of this device include the fact that as a sensor is an ordinary microswitch of button type. It is pressed by a ball, which shifts if there is filament. So this mechanism doesn’t work well with soft plastics. With ordinary filaments, there are no issues whatsoever. I had a flex filament to check it out, and it was a little problematic to insert. After pushing it through the ball, the filament successfully passed through the extruder and printed normally.
Another detail is that the sensor almost overlaps the filament tension lever that becomes difficult to bend when changing the filament, unless there is a knob on the shaft. So it’s difficult to call it a fault. Although I had no problem managing the lever even without the knob.
Connecting the motors:
LDO-36STH20-1004AHG
Moon CSE14HRA1L410A-01
Standard plug pinouts:
Moon: Blue — Red — Orange — Black
LDO: Blue — Yellow — Green — Red
Next to the extruder motor, the printer has a switch board that carries the wires from the filament sensor and the X-axis limit switch, as well as the extruder and X-axis motors. Disconnect the wire of the original extruder and connect that of the new extruder. Both motors have the same pinouts and there is no need to rewire the plugs.
In the photo is the connected LDO extruder.
Connecting the filament sensor: If you want to use a filament sensor for Orbiter, disconnect the wire of the native sensor from the printer switch board (next to the native extruder) and connect two wires shown in the photo.
«+» — Green, «S» — Blue
The other wires are better left disconnected. As you can see, the connectors and plugs do not match initially, so I recommend either changing to a normal plug or filling with liquid glue, otherwise the plug will fall out. Look for connector type XH pitch 2.54. With this connection, if there is no filament red light will be on, otherwise there will be no light.
I haven’t managed to arrange a full-fledged illumination, because the sensor circuitry is designed for S minus, and in Viper, to trigger the sensor the S pin must be plus. Perhaps, this issue can be solved through tampering with some sensor elements, but I didn’t read so deeply into it. For those who’d like to try: pinout +5, GND, S on the connector (switching board).
Mechanical installation: For installation, I printed this mount:
To install the feeder, one needs to remove one clamp ear from the connector on the printhead on the switch board. Don’t break it, just pry it off with a screwdriver.
Orbiter has a screw-in bushing at the bottom. Therefore, there are 2 options for installing the tube. In the first option, the tube is trimmed at the point of contact with the bushing (about 4 mm). In the second case, the bushing is unscrewed, while the tube is cut triangularly, so that when installing the feeder it almost touches the drive gears.
In the photo, the tube is cut off to fit the gears. Then it is glued to the mount (marked with yellow).
Since the hotend and radiator are not tightly connected to the feeder and the nozzle itself is loose due to the auto-leveling sensor, the nozzle will deviate from its normal position in the retracts, which will negatively affect the print quality. To fix this, the tube is glued to the feeder mount. The lower part is inserted up to the stop, with the auto-leveling sensor still operational. Next, the feeder is installed and tightened with 2 screws.
Software setup: Basically, the whole setup is to set the correct steps/mm and some other parameters. Connect the printer with a USB cord to the computer. Run a program with a command line to send commands to the printer (I use RepetierHost). Through the command line send the following: M350 E16; microstep set to 16*M92 E690; steps/mm — might need to fine tune M201 E3000; acceleration mm/s² M203 E120; max. speed mm/s M500; save settings to EEPROM. Overall, I have edited only steps/mm, as everything else is not so important, since the printer on Marlin is pretty slow.
If you have Klipper, you already know how to adjust the feeder (if you don’t, follow the link above to the official feeder page, it has settings). After entering the parameters, with the feeder removed, I recommend you to check extrusion steps/mm. There is a lot of information on how to do this online, so I will not go into detail. My coefficient coincided with the standard 690 for both feeders, with Moon and LDO (briefly about setting steps: the feeder should be removed, send commands M302 P1, G91, and then G1 E100 F500 to extrude 10 cm bar and measure it; if it doesn’t coincide, change the value M92 E690 to the desired one and memorize it with the command M500).
This article was originally written by Sel, published at 3dtoday.ru, translated by the Top 3D Shop team.