Bye bye BLTouch

I have had probe on my printer for years now and never had an issue, last year I built an enclosure out of lack tables and I found things with the original sensor going strange. I had to keep adjusting the offsets to the bed I was damaging nozzles and digging into the bed.

My suspicion was at the time the cheap 3D touch was worn out or the hats was affecting it, when I had some money I purchased an original antclabs bltouch v3 sensor 

It arrived in January and once the time arose the new sensor got fitted, and tested and for some reason it still didn't work as well as it could have so it was time to start looking at the code.

I downloaded marlin 2.0.5.3 and went through a lot of YouTube videos and wrote down notes on how to use the new marlin and in fact the vs code that I haven't used before

it was then I got into adjusting the code to work the to work for my ender3, I did struggle at points as things  have moved around in the files, it took many attempts to get the code to work and I still could not get it to work correctly.

At 9pm last night I decided for now to go back to a standard z stop switch and change the firmware to suit 

New Hotend

(left bigtreetech mk8 all metal and right is a stock mk8)

ok as part of my radio fun I also have a 3d printer, its and ender 3 that is modified in a few ways.

I have been trying out different all metal hot ends to find one that is a sensible price as there are some very good all metal hot ends that are very expensive and there are as i have found some very cheap all metal hot ends that are not worth entertaining.

The cheapest one I have found that works is the bigtreetech mk8 all metal hot end, it is what it says it is and it is a close comparison to an all metal hot end made by an American company that is twice the price of one of this one.

Here is the link and make sure you choose the mk8 version

It's a good quality hot end for the price that will fit directly to my carriage plate with no issues and works perfectly with my direct drive design.

The main thing that make this hot end different to a standard hot end is the heat sink only allows the ptfe tube to go in a short, as way then the bore is machined just wide enough to take a 1.75mm filament. compared to a stock mk8 hot end that the tube seats right on to the back of the nozzle.

Then the heat brake fits into a socket and a grub screw holds it into the heat sink, this allows little chance of the filament causing a blockage 

Why change to an all metal hot end you ask?

• I'm currently printing with a lot of petg filament that needs to have a temp of up to 250 degrees and I have found I'm getting issues with the filament blocking in the bottom of the ptfe tube, when removing it I find the bottom of the tube deformed and scorched, this is because I'm at or close to its maximum working temperature of ptfe tube. 
• When exceeding the max working temperature it can cause the ptfe tube to melt and give off poisonous fumes! (the thermistors are not 100 percent accurate)
• When refitting the ptfe tube end needs to be cut absolutely straight and clean or it to will cause more blockage and clog issues (trust me I have found out)

An alternative that I didn't try with the stock hot end was Capricorn tube, it can apparently cope with a bit more heat compared to the standard ptfe tube and some point in the future I  intend to push my printer to print other filaments that need to go up to temperatures above Capricorn tube.