I was thinking about adapting another printer for some time, and I wanted to support a popular printer, so Ender3 V2 came into my mind. The first version of Ender 3 is quite good and very popular, with a lot of community support and a lot of mods, but it doesn’t come with a silent motor driver. When looking into v2, it comes with a silent motor driver. Also for Z axis, it is very important for pick and place machine, as noise during movement usually means vibration, which causes component to shift or even drop off from the nozzle tip. Additionally, the price of it is reasonable (around $200), which makes it a good option for converting to pick and place machine.
The adaption process is quite straightforward: cut the two wires of the fan case. I used a new connector this time, which doesn’t need soldering. It makes it easy to switching between 3D printing and pick and place functionality.
A new adapter is needed for adapting the nozzle head, so I designed it, one consideration is – this time a clipping structure has been designed to let it hold the side of the hot end bed, so it will be more stable after mounting to the hot end bed. In order to make it easier to print, I also added an arrow to indicate the recommended print direction so that you can print it without adding support.
After assembling it all together, the pick and place machine works well, especially the low noise level makes it possible to place beside my computer for everyday use.
As for some findings, I do notice that Ender3 V2 motors are quite hot. I guess by default the driver current has been adjusted on the higher side, that is challenging when connecting the extruder motor driver to nozzle rotation motor because the high temperature could soften the nozzle head frame. Therefore, I have made a new design for the nozzle head frame to make it heat-proof. This is still under testing, I will update more when it is ready.
If you are interested in adapting Ender 3 V2, you can find the adapter at https://www.xpdiy.io/product/nozzle-head-adapter-for-ender3v2-design-file/. To see it in action, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp6X8M1qc7w
Enjoy! Feel free to leave a comment if you have any suggestions or thoughts!
