There are a couple others that bitch and moan over the MMU2... I think Chris' exit statement nailed it: it is not without problems, but it's getting better.
Chris, this was VERY helpful... I went from almost not printable to 24 hours of non interruptions. Thank you for putting this together. I found a one more big item I wished you covered. If you get flashing RED and Green Lights during prints it means there are issues with the connection back to the prusa. I separated the wires, routed then along the Frame with e-tape. Solved the issues.. Will share this video with anyone having issues with their MMU. Thank you!
Thank you for your video. I was about to throw out the MMU2S because I was so frustrated with it and I normally don't quit. Your video helped me dial in the settings and I was able to create my first print.
Chris, thank you so very much. Excellent video, no-nonsense, to the point; love the way you run through this. I had my MMU2s set up yesterday for the first time and went through all the typical failures. Having had the i3MK3s for more than a year helped somewhat to figure out some of the issues myself, but your expert advice goes a long way to get me to successful operation of the MMU2 and I look forward to work myself through your advice step by step, particularly to the Secret Menu (I guess it will still be available in the MMU2*s*). One other thing I´ll be adding next week is a 5V LED to to the IR sensor, to verify it triggering without scrolling through the menu. Take care and stay safe! Chris
Chris, your channel is the gold standard for all things Prusa, especially the MMU2. I don't know if I will ever find the time to get mine going reliably enough to just leave it in place and stop switching back and forth from single to multi, as this thing is a real challenge. Your knowledge and the way you have of presenting it is outstanding. Chipping in a few bucks for your time and effort, hopefully will be able to throw a bit more in down the road, just to say thanks.
Hi Chris. Just a short note of thanks - this video more than any other informed my MMU2s build and setup. Filament quality, gear tension (in MMU and extruder) and fastidious attention to the tubes and build have resulted in a very solid unit for me - Thankyou for the pointers. R
Thanks for the easy to understand tips on getting your MMU2 to work successfully. I have been doing my head in with failed prints so I will go back to the beginning and check and recheck using your your advise. Hopefully I will have success and start enjoying my printing experience again. Cheers :)
Great video! Extremely informative about actually using the MMU. I have read the assembly manual, and I love that you've explained factors that will actually help in using the unit.
@@ChrisRiley What do you use for the filament buffer? Do you use the stock buffer, just let the filament coil between the MMU & spools, or something like a rewinder? Thanks again!
@@ChrisRiley personally don't like live streaming. Tutorials become too long and full of useless babble. I have never seen one of yours though. Just built my MMU2S. Yours is the most useful tutorial I have found. Thank you!
@@ChrisRiley I am having some serious loading issues with chimney they have you install for the IR sensor, I think I am going to try and go back to the older extruder
I also found out that a ruby nozzle is going to prevent you from getting a good tapered tip. The ruby nozzle is flat on the inside, not tapered like a brass nozzle. I fought my MMU2 for 3 weeks after I first got it until I put my stock brass nozzle back on. Once I did that my tips were a lot better. And when I made a change in the slicer settings, I noticed a change in the filament tips. Whereas before when I had the ruby nozzle on, I would make a change in the slicer settings, and I wouldn't see any changes to the filament tips. So if your having problems with filament tips, and using a ruby nozzle, try a brass nozzle and see if that helps.
New to your channel. Great job! Great tips! A solidly filmed, planned and executed instruction video. Thank you. I'm looking at the Prusa and possibly the mmu. High Five!
Hey Chris, Awesome advice and tips. Although I'm a big Prusa fan (sounds like a spare part lol) I only have a MK2 and obviously no MMU. For me it's not something I am particularly into. I definitely still enjoy all your videos though. I do have a Sigma if I want to do dual colour/material, but even that rarely get's used lately.
I also found out that a warping purge block can add to filament end stringing. I would have a print start out great, and have no filament strings on any of my tips. But an hour or two into the print I would start to get strings. I also noticed that my purge block was warping up in the back. I wouldn't think that these two issues would be related, but they are. If the purge block warps up, it's pressing up against the nozzle, when the nozzle goes through the ramming sequence and pulls the filament up to break the string, there is no vacuum break and filament from the purge block gets pulled up into the nozzle. I started using a glue stick on the purge block area of the bed, and now I no longer get warping on my purge block, and my filament tips are perfect throughout all my print.
Very interesting find...I haven't noticed the warping, but I have had some 2 color blocks fall over. I will have to keep an eye on that. Thanks for the comment.
@@ChrisRiley It was so frustrating, why would a print that only took a few hours to print come out fine, but prints that took over 10 hours or more would have MMU2 jams, and stringy tips? And there were times when I would have to use painters tape on my purge block just so it wouldn't come off the bed it was so bad. I think what causes the purge block to warp is that there is a very solid thick layer of filament on the back side of the block, and not much on the front side. The front you get all that open space when you have colors that don't come into play later on in the print. That back section that has a solid infill of filament cools, and shrinks, this pulls up on that side of the block, causing it to warp. I think it would be better if it alternated between the front and the back when laying down the solid infill, but I could be wrong. But in any case, since I started using glue stick in the area of the purge block, no more problems. I'm currently 17hrs into a 30hr multicolor print, and not once have I had to fix the MMU2, and I just looked at all my filament tips, they are as good as the first layer, with no strings. =)
Great video as always. Did you try TheZeroBeast mmu2 firmware? Also Slic3r ++ from supermerill added some nice features to the prusa Slic3rPE like automatic waste tower calculation based on the pigment/opacity. Saw the MK3S is coming with new IR sensor, steel ball and magnet... Guess this is the attempt to get more realible filament sensing at the extruder.
Before I bought the printer, I watched your video and was skeptical. I print now for 2 months with Prusa i3 Mk3s MMU2S, everything is going great for me. You do not need to set anything on the MMU2S. If you have set everything correctly according to instructions and assembled, the correct firmware has been updated, everything works perfectly. I print with ABS, nylon, carbon and PETG and have no problems with different materials when changing material. I think you can delete the part with "fumble around at the MUMU" because it causes confusion.
Hey Andreas... I too became skeptical. . . when I saw your posts everywhere MMU2 was being mentioned . . .reddit, google, grabcad, thingaverse, solidworks, autocad, inventor, you name it. . . your perfect prints are as fictional as who you say you are. . . Prusa plant. The bottom line is that the mmu2 needs a lot of attention. I've learned that Josef Prusa doesn't pay his babysitters.
I personally recommend filament within .03 or .02, prusa sells it, and many other brands (I found a local brand that had .02 .03 tolerances and we're cheap
Chris, awesome vid!! I noticed that you don't the filament tower on your extruder (8:15) and you use the mod directly onto the extruder. Did you change the internal parts as in the manual?
@@ChrisRiley yes, that's the rub. Many of us are having issues with the IR sensor in the extruder body miss triggering or not triggering, and that causing filament runout routine activation (or loading failures, or other things). So it'd be nice to see a video out there from someone as talented as yourself going through it. There's so many mmu2s it in the wild, but barely no YT channels have done anything on them. I think everyone puts them in the 'too hard' basket.
Great Video, I am getting ready to print the 5 color test soon with my MMU2S, giving this is 4 years old and they have since changed some design features, is there anything in this video that is not relevant anymore? Thanks for all your hard work and great videos!
Thanks! The only thing I can think of is the secret menu, that's really not relevant now. Check this video out as well, it might make things a little more clear. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LpoCYmSb7wo.html
If the two screws that hold the back cover on are under spring tension doesn't that mean that the filament is also under spring tension as opposed to being held by two fixed bars?
You are correct, but it adjusts for all 5 filaments at the same time, so if you have one that's even slightly off there is no compensation for that one.
@@ChrisRiley oh I figure since it was only hitting one roller at a time it would be able to compensate for it. Guess the tension system is pretty picky eh?
@@ChrisRiley Had watched a lot of videos where the uploaders just want hits and really don't say a lot. Your video is informative and helpful oh and you don't shout ;-)
Hi Chris , thanks for the detailed info abt MMU2. I concider to buy a MK3S with MMU or the Mosaic Palette Pro, I got 5 Printers and could use the Palette 2 for all my printers, while the MMU is only for Prusa :-) You have had both of them, which would be your favorite choice?
Thanks Chris...great tips and tricks......been wondering if you have vids on PVA or flex amterial issues/troubleshooting ? In particular......blobbing issues when using flex or PVA when initially starts extruding. I get no transversing happening and when the blobbing happens I have no alt but to cancel print. Your help would be greatly appreciated :-) I just recently purchased Prusa i3 MK3 + MMU2S Cheers
I really don't have a lot of tips on Flex or PVA. Most of the time when I run into an issue with those 2 it's because they have picked up some moisture.
@@ChrisRiley I'm still going through your steps but a big part of it was my being a dumb ass. I was running gcode on it that was for the MK3S and not the MMU2S flavor. I am trying to build one of those rewind spool holders to get ride of the buffer mess.
The tower is a concern for sure. The buckets are cool, but they have there draw backs as well. I am hoping more wipe into infill and waste objects get better utilized.
Hi Chris, still trying to get set up here, after 1st layer calibration the filament balls up and won't retract, I have to remove the fista and use pliers to get it out. You seemed to be changing cooling moves and ram using Slic3r, how were you able to "resume printing"? Did you have to upload the model again? How can I make those adjustments for first layer when there isn't a model?
That doesn't sounds right, for first layer calc, it might leave it loaded intentionally. The next print should pull it out I think. Yes, on any of those changes I have to resend a new file for them to take.
Awesome, I got it here. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EIH573K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s00?tag=chrisbasement-20&ie=UTF8&psc=1&geniuslink=true
Hey Chris, I have the MK3 with MMU 2.0 and I am trying to print some NinjaFlex for the first time today. I am having problems with the filament getting to the hotend, it loads and even gets the filament to the hotend when it first starts but after that it does not seem to be able to pull the filament enough to get it to print. I cant even see the spool turning once the actual print is started and that corresponds with lack of filament coming out of the hotend, the gears turn but nothing seems to happen past that. Have you been able to get any shore 85a flexible filament through your setup?
@@ChrisRiley I was actually able to get things working by slowing everything (all speed settings except acceleration) down to 15 mm/s and setting the hotend temp to 235 degrees. I ended up with a little stringing but I was able to finish a pretty good looking print. It still does not like unloading the filament but I will take what I can get. Thanks for the reply.
This is an excellent video. I too have an MMU 2.0 and I've got a few tips to share as well now that I've gotten mine to 100% reliability (seriously) and I've even got it working with flexible filament! Use this PTFE pass-through back plate: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3233579 Why: The stock back plate squishes the PTFE tubes resulting in too much friction. Bonus feature: This mod makes it *super* easy to disconnect the PTFE tubes to relocate your printer (e.g. for maintenance or just to take it somewhere). Just press the collet down and pull out the PTFE. Takes 2 seconds! Love it. Insertion afterwards is even easier. Use this "Large Bore" MMU 2.0 selector and print it at 0.1mm layer height: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3337120 Why: The stock selector's intake hole is far too small (and not even tapered!) and that part is printed at .2mm layer height... If you cut filament tips with nice, sharp flush cutters like me this means that the tip will have a *super* pointy end (like Prusa recommends) and that pointy end will often get stuck on the outside of the selector *or* it will be pushing up against those .2mm layer lines (which are *not* smooth--they're quite rough; I assume because Prusa is printing a zillion of these a day at rather high speeds) which causes far more friction than you'd think. By having a larger (tapered) opening and printing at 0.1mm layer height you'll have a selector that's *super smooth* and gently guides the filament the way it's supposed to with very little friction. Also, I highly recommend you print it with some *transparent* PETG which is much slicker (more slippery) than the black PETG Prusa gives you for printing the parts. Dark pigments can give printed PETG a considerably rougher surface! For reference, I printed mine in eSun Transparent Blue (www.thingiverse.com/make:596801) Use that tapering tool Chris recommended in his video to taper *both* ends of the "short" PTFE tubes in the front of the MMU 2.0 unit. The MMU 2.0 ships with just one side of those tubes being tapered and the manual says to insert them with the tapered end facing outwards (which doesn't *seem* to make sense but one of Prusa's engineers says it's to aid with retracting rammed filament tips). Having *both* sides of those short tubes tapered means there's less of a chance that a sharp (extra pointy) filament tip will get caught on the edge as it comes out of the hobbed gear and into the selector.
I love the Prusa Printers, but this thing is so badly constructed. In Terms of durability. Also the Printparts are printed way to fast with too much layer hights.
Chris love your videos! I printed that piece that you recommend for the top of the extruder but i cant seem to figure how to mount it on mine. will it still work with my printer? I have the i3 MK3S+. thanks!
Thanks for the video - very helpful getting things dialed in from the start. As of today, the current firmware on the MMU2s is 1.0.6. Does this secret menu still work the same way for calibrating length to the extruder? I am using the bear extruder, which may be part of the issue, but when I went through the process, it fed the filament quite a bit farther past the extruder, all the way to the nozzle it seemed like. I ran it back so it is setup as you show in the video, but the middle button wouldn't save settings at the end of the process with selector at the far right. More importantly, the mmu pushed the filament much too far for lane 2 on my first test print. Can you confirm 1.0.6 works the same way?
that is a great review, I am new to the 3dprinting thing and I never own or work on one of them. but I am so excited to buy my first 3dprinter with a budget of 1000 euro and I am really lost and confused. I was just about purchasing the Prusa MK3S DIY kit till I found something scared me a little bit. I am a communication engineer, so I can judge only on some electronic components. I am not a big fan of the EINSY RAMBo motherboard which based on "Arduino Mega". I believe all those boards are not designed for a pro user or heavy tasks/load which could generate unwanted heat that leads the board to produce un accurate printing. I like those boards just for small projects. I was excepting an advanced motherboard and this what scared me and push for watching more reviews. but maybe I am wrong about all of that and maybe this board is performing as it designed for. any advice would be appreciated
It is try the Ultimachine boards are based on the old 2650 chip, but I can tell you, they are great boards and really well made, the only use high end components and they last a long time. On the other side of things, if you are looking for other boards, check out Duet, it's a little more modern design, they are also high quailty and we are starting to see printer companies using them in there kits.
@@ChrisRileyI did not find any printer with Duet board, would you share any good brand that using the Duet please. waiting 6 weeks for Prusa is too much. if I find something in the same quality or better it would be great even if I will pay a little bit more.
Probably a dumb question but how quickly can you swap the MMU2 on and off the printer? Or I guess a better quesiton might be, is the MMU2 kinda permanent oince you install it or are you able to take it off and on as needed?
@@thomasgauthier5691 Yes, you can use it in single mode which I do on occasion. Really wanting to remove it only comes into play it you need to move the printer. Then it's a hassle.
Just a minor correction: You called the MMU 2.0's PTFE tubes "Bowden tubes". Not a single bit of the MMU 2.0 is Bowden. They're just PTFE "feeding" tubes. A Bowden tube is a very specific thing: PTFE going from the extruder to the hot end. That's it. Anything else is just a regular PTFE tube. The MMU 2.0 uses a direct-drive extruder so there's no Bowden to speak of.
Hey Chris, following your steps on the "Secret Menu". When I load the filament and hit the center button, why did my filament not go all the way to the extruder? What am I missing?
It's encoded for a certain amount. You can use the other button to bring it down. With the new firmware and a filament sensor you shouldn't need to do this unless you have a custom setup.
Man i’m having a hard time doing the MMU PTFE tube calibration. The menu isn’t doing what is supposed to. Boot up holding the centre button, left button then enter. But then when i press enter again it doesn’t respond and after a few seconds just resets...
Are you using the newest firmware on both the printer and the MMU2? Is it an MK3S? With the new IR sensor on the MK3S it should take care of that setting for you. I would set the MMU2 back to default and just try a print to see what happens.
Where can I find the stl files to print that clever gadget, attached to the wire spool holder included in the delivery to the PRUSA printer to prevent the wire from getting stuck during retraction? Thanks Marco from Switzerland
I'm sorry but I'm looking for the stl files for that gadget that avoids during the retraction that the wire gets stuck on the roll of wire and you can see it in one of its videos. I hope I made myself clear? If I had your email I can send you a photo. Thanks and greetings from Switzerland
This should be about the same. www.amazon.com/YOTINO-Straight-Pneumatic-Connector-Long-Distance/dp/B078SRBDS7/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_2_sspa?keywords=V6+Bowden+J-Head+Pneumatic+Straight+Connectors&qid=1549908957&s=industrial&sr=1-2-fkmrnull-spons&psc=1
@@ChrisRiley I can confirm that it fits (but only just). Routing isn't a big problem if you place your spools on top of the enclosure. I can fit all five with the provided spool-rollers. Maintenance is a nightmare, however.
I can't get the wipe tower to print properly at all. I have the hardware running great but every time I try the lizard, the wipe tower is waaaay too fast and just balls up on the nozzle.
@@HofsFinest Not sure man, only thing I can think of is try there newest firmware, but that's all I know to do. You could try to bump down your support material speed.
@@ChrisRiley I've got the latest firmware. Ill try to lower the support material speed. Its just at the back part of the tower where it seems like its using travel speed instead of print speeds. It seems like the MMU2 ignores the max print speed as well. Oh well ill keep trying. Its frustrating. I gave up for a few months and basically just use it in single mode to be able to use different colors without having to change spools.
bowden setup, five of them, five rolls of filament in cmykw, 5 into one nozzle, bam, REAL full range colour printing. tried building it myself, but nothing supports it.
The best trick I can tell you it to dry it out. Get a food dehydrator. It needs to be super dry. If it's stringy at all it's not dry enough. It should be almost as stiff as PLA when it is dry.
Thanks Chris. BTW the square nuts for the Mk3 printed parts: I have ordered these, and they are a perfect match. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XPFLNBS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You can cut these down. www.amazon.com/ELMERS-X-Acto-Blades-Carded-X244/dp/B007QYAJRC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ELMERS+X-Acto+Light+Duty+Blades%2CCarded+%28X244%29&qid=1565632195&s=gateway&sr=8-1