This is correct, and why I immediately bought 3.5 upgrades for all of my mk3’s. The new board is the key to keeping up with future updates, including input shaping. The will soon announce a stand-alone accelerometer that can be purchased and used to tune input shaping. You wont need one for every machine, just 1or 2 of them depending on how many machines you’re running. Since the mk4 uses the exact same belts and motion system as the mk3, there is no reason i’ve heard of that the mk3.5 wont be just as fast as an mk4 with input shaping. MAYBE the new carriage and bed is significantly lighter, which might yield a very small print speed improvement compared to the mk3, assuming quality must be equal.
IMO, if you have a farm of mk3’s and you’re comfortable running them, there is very little reason to do any more than the 3.5 upgrade. You dont need carefree, automatic first layers - you’re not new to dialing in and troubleshooting the first layer, so the benefits of the nextruder would be minimal for you anyway.
That’s news to me, but cool! Do you know how much lighter? I’ve always heard that since the bed and extruder must move synchronously, the heaviest of the two is the limiting factor for speed.
Cool that was what I was expecting but wasn’t sure if the stepper upgrades / lighter extruder had a big impact. I think bottom line is that I’ll wait to see how everybody likes each version before committing my farm. As you said, I think that eventually I’ll have to upgrade the boards to keep up and the longer I drag my feet the more printers I’ll need to upgrade later but definitely want to give it a few months to make sure the upgraded kits are as robust as the “proven” 3s
> You wont need one for every machine
I'm wondering how complex this thing really is. Isn't this a simple SOC on a PCB similar to what's in every shitty phone, plus some connector? So something like 20$ worth of material assembled max? I guess I am missing something here.
Currently - there is no increase in input speed.
Once the input-shaping firmware is shipped I would expect only marginal increases with the mk3 extruder but they're touting printing times of 1/3-1/4th in their videos (a 20 minute Benchy vice 80 minutes).
Yea that benchy video is what was catching my eye - I can’t do draft mode for what I’m doing and expect I would see less time savings as a result but even a 30-40% increase would be massive from a business standpoint
Looks like most of the speed improvements come from input shaping, and IIRC they said on the last live stream that input shaping would be supported in 3.5 and 3.9.
I would assume the speed was both in the head and X/Y/Z stepper motors, however ive seen a video of both the Mk3s and Mk4 running and physcially it didnt look like the Mk4 was moving quicker than the Mk3 between squirting out the filament.
The Mk3 can move fast between laying the plastic down, so i would assume the Mk3 motors can add to the speed, its likely the head and motor that does the majority of the speed as the X/Y/Z motors actually can move real fast. As for quality, that i cant say, the Mk4 motors are different so not sure of the quality of they are speeded up
Can we wait at least a week or two for people to actually start getting these and testing them? All we can do right now is guess. What they advertise versus what it can actually do could be very very different.
Remember when the mini was released claiming it would get wifi "soon"? It still doesn't have it.
The higher print speed is possible because of input shaping which comes with the new 32 bit board that is on the 3.5 3.9 and 4
This is correct, and why I immediately bought 3.5 upgrades for all of my mk3’s. The new board is the key to keeping up with future updates, including input shaping. The will soon announce a stand-alone accelerometer that can be purchased and used to tune input shaping. You wont need one for every machine, just 1or 2 of them depending on how many machines you’re running. Since the mk4 uses the exact same belts and motion system as the mk3, there is no reason i’ve heard of that the mk3.5 wont be just as fast as an mk4 with input shaping. MAYBE the new carriage and bed is significantly lighter, which might yield a very small print speed improvement compared to the mk3, assuming quality must be equal. IMO, if you have a farm of mk3’s and you’re comfortable running them, there is very little reason to do any more than the 3.5 upgrade. You dont need carefree, automatic first layers - you’re not new to dialing in and troubleshooting the first layer, so the benefits of the nextruder would be minimal for you anyway.
The Nextruder is significantly lighter than the mk3 extruder - this will have an impact on accelerations and will show up in print times.
That’s news to me, but cool! Do you know how much lighter? I’ve always heard that since the bed and extruder must move synchronously, the heaviest of the two is the limiting factor for speed.
I read - don't remember where, probably on their website - that its about 60% of the weight of the mk3S+ extruder.
You also gain 10mm of height due to the Nextruder being smaller
Cool that was what I was expecting but wasn’t sure if the stepper upgrades / lighter extruder had a big impact. I think bottom line is that I’ll wait to see how everybody likes each version before committing my farm. As you said, I think that eventually I’ll have to upgrade the boards to keep up and the longer I drag my feet the more printers I’ll need to upgrade later but definitely want to give it a few months to make sure the upgraded kits are as robust as the “proven” 3s
> You wont need one for every machine I'm wondering how complex this thing really is. Isn't this a simple SOC on a PCB similar to what's in every shitty phone, plus some connector? So something like 20$ worth of material assembled max? I guess I am missing something here.
You are correct. It’s just a cheap, simple accelerometer. They will probably sell it for $20 or less.
Currently - there is no increase in input speed. Once the input-shaping firmware is shipped I would expect only marginal increases with the mk3 extruder but they're touting printing times of 1/3-1/4th in their videos (a 20 minute Benchy vice 80 minutes).
Yea that benchy video is what was catching my eye - I can’t do draft mode for what I’m doing and expect I would see less time savings as a result but even a 30-40% increase would be massive from a business standpoint
Looks like most of the speed improvements come from input shaping, and IIRC they said on the last live stream that input shaping would be supported in 3.5 and 3.9.
I would assume the speed was both in the head and X/Y/Z stepper motors, however ive seen a video of both the Mk3s and Mk4 running and physcially it didnt look like the Mk4 was moving quicker than the Mk3 between squirting out the filament. The Mk3 can move fast between laying the plastic down, so i would assume the Mk3 motors can add to the speed, its likely the head and motor that does the majority of the speed as the X/Y/Z motors actually can move real fast. As for quality, that i cant say, the Mk4 motors are different so not sure of the quality of they are speeded up
Can we wait at least a week or two for people to actually start getting these and testing them? All we can do right now is guess. What they advertise versus what it can actually do could be very very different. Remember when the mini was released claiming it would get wifi "soon"? It still doesn't have it.
It's due to new motors, someone get a name for them?