Small Lightweight Beast Of An Extruder (Orbiter V2.0) 

I purchased an Orbiver V2 to install in my Ender3 V2 and I would say it was one of the best upgrades for the printer. The extruder despite being so much smaller than the stock extruder motor manages to apply much greater force on the filament and while printing at high speeds(150 mm/s), the Orbiter extruder very reliably.

I've been using one for a few months now and it is so worth buying, the runout sensor with load/unload macros is awesome to use.

My first experience with the orbiter was an upgrade to my ender 3 v2. I changed it to direct drive but i hated the clunky large heavy motor. The orbiter worked perfectly and It has done hundreds of hours. My second experience with the orbiter was with my current ratrig vcore 3.1. I purchased the kit with a bondtech LGX lite since I was using that on my voron0 with great success. I found with the ratrig, my LGX lite wasn't really wanting to push filament out as fast as I wanted it to. I upgraded my pheatus rapido to the volcano CHT nozzle which helped a lot but, I got the usually quality artifacts using volcano nozzles. Inconsistent layer stacking, lines that looked like zbanding and I actually found the extruder would slip on the filament around 30mm3 on the middle setting. I decided to buy an orbiter v2.0 since the gearing in that allows it to push filament out harder at higher speeds. All my inconsistent extrusion artifacts went away. I could reliably print using 45mm3 as my limit in superslicer and it has been awesome. I also love the fact it's so easily mountable compared to a bondtech lgx lite.

Robert is so awesome. He responds to every comment on the official FB page. I LOVE my Orbiter 1.5. It's the best extruder I've ever used.

Thanks for the great video. Love it.

To think I would sit here and enjoy listening about history of a 3D printer part.... truly YT caters to every niche.

don't sleep on the Orbiter V2.0, it should be on every printer that can be modded to fit it

Excellent look at this great extruder! Now I gotta go get me a runout sensor for mine. Will probably go on my RatRig rebuild 😊

That’s my favorite for now but i’m looking forward to receive Simon’s extrudort in cnc from mellow.

I admit that I am most interested in prusa's giant filament driving wheel and I really want to see other extruder start to use that design. Frankly it's a great idea and to me something like it would be the best upgrade path because it would actually upgrade the printer's ability to feed filament. Most extruder designs just try to make the smallest or lightest extruder. Since I don't have a super fast printer and I don't want to spend that kind of money, the greater ability to use flexible filaments is more interesting to me. Also it's like the only way to actually prevent skipping. Any extruder using the same feed gear is equally prone to gouging filament. That's the biggest thing the new prusa extruder really fixes. It is a straight upgrade for kinking and gouging filaments

Great review, thank you!

I built 3D printers when that was the only alternative to commercial Stratosys systems and I enjoy hacking, but I wish more manufacturers licensed a good extruder like this and fully integrated it with their 3D printers. Currently, the Creality K1 would be a great value in high speed high quality 3D printing if it wasn't having teething problems with the extruder that Creality built in an effort to make a low mass high flow extruder.

i love my Orbiter 2 and filament sensor! Use it on my heavily modded, Klipperized Ender 3. I had to reprint the filament sensor cover though because the fitment was too loose in the original design and whenever the printer did fast motions, the ball would shake enough that it would falsely detect that no filament was present. On the other hand, my filament sensor cover now matches the colour of the rest of my printer, so win-win!

super helpful video , there are many things I did not knew about orbiter 2 and orbiter filament sensor.

Thanks! I've been looking for a good direct drive extruder to upgrade my mostly stock ender 3's will keep this in mind!

the runout sensor is really interesting. I use and Hemera and there is no runout sensor that looks neat like that. Great job on the videos

Still have one sitting in a box for my Orbiter 1.5 Having a hard time finding the right files to print for it

Have them both and love em. The latest version of the filament runout sensor is the correct one. The original one had a bit of slop with it and would sense have false “run outs”. Getting to the issue you had with Ali I don’t believe there an official retailer. The orbiter projects list the authentic sellers for future reference. Obviously more expensive but at least you know there real.

I basically had all of the popular lightweight extruders - sherpa mini, lgx lite, orbiter v2 and vz extruder. Neither of them are perfect, but have different specialities and some areas to improve: Sherpa: great package, but lacks grip and the release lever is unnecessary in my opinion, feels a bit too flimsy and the latch doesn't open enough, at least on mine it wasn't. Sadly lacks a bowden collet on top for the use of MMUs. Strength is definitely the low weight, pricing and the fact you can print it yourself. Lgx lite: great package, just a bit long; insane grip, best for tpu without any competition. Sadly a chonky boi and has not as much force as others. Mounts from the bottom, so keep that in mind. The ratchet lever is really nice as well as the gear you can turn. Orbiter: highest pushing force i have achieved yet, a good compromise between the grip of a lgx and weight of a sherpa. I personally had issues with tpu buckling right after the gears and the metal insert was sticking out a bit further than the flange. Tensioning lever was like the sherpa, didn't open enough to be usable without shaving some filament of. Vz extruder cnc: really short package, but the stepper is shifted to the side, so that can be awkward in certain situations. No bowden collet and no release lever. Otherwise really stiff assembly and has concentric gears like the lgx. Quite some more grip compared to the sherpa and skips steps rather than grinds, but performed not well with medium tpu (85a) the filament twirled due to the helical gears which led to under extrusion. Mounts from the bottom like the lgx. I should also mention that both the sherpa and vz accept either 8 or 10 teeth steppers while the others need 10t. As i previously said there is no perfect extruder, but there is a trend: for fast printing a sherpa due to its weight or the pricier vz extruder for its low weight and enhanced traction are the best candidates. The lgx is the best for difficult filaments and boasts an enhanced consistency in surface quality compared or other extruders. The orbiter exceeds in pushing for and is a jack of all trades, but master of none, yet will be the best choice for someone that doesn't know what they will be doing with it. Personally i have some longevity concerns on the orbiter as the primary drive shaft is aluminium and i already saw some where the bearings wore into the aluminium. From my knowledge it wasn't replaced by ldo

Orbiter 2 + Revo Voron is hte combo I have on my v0. Revo is low flow and orbiter is significantly heavier than sherpa or similar, so it's not the fastest setup, but I get better quality prints and better reliablity than any of my other printers.

Just ordered two orbiters with filament sensor after seeing this.I’m using cw2 on most of my printers, but I really liked the runout sensor with the feeding macro. I also seen that my cw2’s starts to wear out at the top of filament “input hole”. This metal intake seems like a great idea. Btw love your modbotarmy channel.

5:11 So it's another not that useful "filament sensor". I'd much rather have snag detection over filament run out. I've had FAR more failed prints from filament tangled on the spool!

I am using the "guts" of an Orbiter 1.5 in my Galileo extruder modded for 2.85mm filament. After some initial hickups it is a joy to run that extruder. I also use a Clockwork 1 on this printer and can switch that way from 1.75mm to 2.85mm. My other printers have the Pocketwatch, Clockwork1 and 2. I am looking forward to the Galileo2 extruder and wonder if that will be based on the Orbiter2 ;)

This is the first runout sensor that I would say actually works. Why make such a bold statement? Because every other runout sensor I can think of is located nowhere near the extruder itself, instead usually being bolted to the top crossbar (for printers with filament loaded from the top) or on the side of the gantry (for side-loading designs). Having the runout sensor inches away from the extruder really doesn't help when printing with leftover bits of spools or with samples - on my Sidewinder X1, I just stick a spare piece of filament in the sensor so it won't beep at me long before the print or sample is finished (this has only ended up in me disassembling the extruder to get the last bit of filament out twice). Having the runout sensor right next to the extruder minimizes waste and opportunities for failure by trying to squeeze out every millimeter of plastic you can get. But this sensor is more than just intelligently located - having macros to load and unload filament without the need to manually heat up the extrurder is really quite amazing. The X1 at least has a single button in the tools menu to change filament in and out, but that's still far less convenient than just sticking the filament into the extruder to load or pressing a single, highly-accessible button on the top of the extruder to unload. My only tiny concern there is that people who print with a wide variety of filaments would have to be careful with the minimum extruder temp they choose and when they still have to manually preheat before loading/unloading - someone who prints everything from wood-filled PLA to PC might struggle to choose a single minimum extrusion temperature that works for everything. Anyway, the Orbiter is a great design, the Orbiter sensor is a great design, and I can't say enough good things about what LDO Motors is doing for the 3D printing community.

You should do a new video on the Galileo 2.0 from LDO, none of the channels have done it yet

Meanwhile...Me, crying in old Greg's Wade extruder. I was lost looking for a suitable replacement and was going for the Bmg dual drive since it looked easy to assemble. But now I may wait a little longer to get one of those little devils. But will look for the right files for x carriage.

Now I kind of wish I would have gotten this instead of a BMG clone.... oh well, I guess it will be there if I ever need another replacement 🤷🏿‍♀️

I will stack an Orbiter V2 with sensor on my Megaklipper S Mk4. :D

Orbiter V3 is out!! It is fully smart and has Klipper support! Please revisit your review :)

I bought 2 and at first was great.. macros worked well and loading etc like you’ve shown was good. Shortly after with not many hours of use, mainly printing PLA, the movement of the tool head must have made the channel through past the ballbearing change, and shortly after starting printing it stops as if it’s run out of filament, if you catch it you can see the sensor flash red, this also continues to happen if you resume the print! Warning to most buying this, great idea but doesn’t have the legs you’d hope for! Love LDO and their products but this product has an annoying flaw. I mentioned this also on Teaching Tech’s video.

Can you make an update video for the orbiter v3 please 🙏🏼 there’s almost zero content on it for some reason??

Thats kinda cool! Ordered some rails to do the Merc1.1 conversion on my 5 Plus a few days ago. So you know, maybe next year I'll get to it lol

I use the Orbiter 2.0 with the Zorbiter 2.0 Hotend for the Prusa mk3s(+) with a Revo Six. It works perfectly well. Actually it uses the filament runout sensor from the mk3s, with quite simular functionality like the orbiter sensor (actually there is a special PCB with an extra button for unload available, but no LED). I can realy recomment this upgrade (but I do not know exactly which part of the improvement is due to the Orbiter and which due to the Revo). Luckly I have multiple mk3s+ (one original, 4 clones) and just changed 2 of them to Zorbiter- so I do not need to remove the zorbiter to try the mk4-upgrade ;-)

I have 4 orbiters and another extruder with the ldo motor and they are just the best. One has the filament sensor too and although it's good I think the software needs some tweaking like an option to choose the temperature when loading - unloading. If you only print with one type of filament setting of 180 is ok, but what happens when you want to print petg or asa ?

Can a orbiter v2 adapter be installed on more than one brand of 3D printer?

Hmm just ordered a mellow vz- extruder, perhaps I should have gone with the orbiter...

i have been running the orbiter for about 2 years and just upgraded to the 2.0 and the filament sensor. i was able to change the initial feed for my needs. i adjusted the initial legngh to feed almost to the hotend heat up and then purge legnth, but the rate or purge and unload is so slow if i leave it at the stock setting i get errors about the feedrate being unacheivable, not sure on what to do

Spent more time talking about the runout sensor than the Orbiter itself 🤔

hi, gramn nice video, I have a reborn 2 very similar to the one you have in the video... where can I find the support to print to attach it to the plate and replace both the extruder with the one you have, and also the hot edn which I haven't found yet, if you can advise me. Thank you

wouldn't you Y and Z axis on adxl swapped if you mounted like that? assuming you're using the adxl with ebb?

I need something like this for my ender 3 v2

Dr.Róbert Lőrincz A HUNGARIAN ENGINEER, just like me😁😀

Awesome video! 😁🤟

I have been asking for years why filament sensors are not part of the extruder and loads of people told me it cant be done as if the filament broke inside the extruder it would be a real pain to disassemble to get the filament out, I disagreed and now I have been proved correct and am currently wearing my smug face LOL

Does it work with TPU? Since it uses a ball mechanic?

Anybody printed AtomStack's 50A+ TPR without a Cambrian? Could do it like a piece of cake with a Lulzbot flexystruder😂❤👍

can you check out the haldis HGT lightweight extruder? seems to be a sub $30 (if you don't buy the motor with it) dual gear extruder that might fit many peoples budgets

Can anyone tell me, would this be a straight swap for the v1.0 orbital on a rat rig?

Phenomenal extruder, but getting a fan duct made for my ender 3 pros is a colossal pain in the ass

Sold out!! Where can i buy?

Hey! I know this is a bit out of the blue but i was wondering if you can tell me what current/voltage your running the extruder on? I know it may be klipper firmware but I'm trying to use the orbiter with marlin. Sorry if this is too much to ask.

So can you use this extruder with most any hot end.. slice engineering, rapido, magnum, etc? Also.. is it able to mount on pretty much any printer.. or do you have to have specific mounts for printers? Playing around with the BIQU Hermit Crab.. would love to be able to find an extruder and hot end that mounts to the removable plate.. for my S1 Pro which the base plate fits on my linear rail setup, but haven't yet wired it up.

I love the setup on my ender3. However, I keep getting an invalid pin error in Klipper that I can’t figure out .

ok but part of the point of the orbiter is that its so light, so why add mass to the printhead when you could design the sensor to be mounted on the frame?

I gotta know what that blue filament you were printing with is called.

What toolhead is that? Looks good, i would like that for my printer 😅

Hi what are you using for [firmware_retraction] for this setup?

Your design has a disadvantage - very long filament path from gears to nozzle. It's rather not direct, but short bowden. Filament path is critical for TPU`s. You will no be able to print tpu 70 or 60A. This orbiter must have aliminium body with screwed in short heatbreak. That's just in such version, it will be considered progressive and modern.

Any benefits of the orbiter vs the stock mini Stealth burner in the V0.2?

With the stainless steel filament path does that mean it can do abs/asa?

nice

I have two of them. Realy realy well made and works like horse!

What's disappointing is the lack of "evolution" when it comes to bed leveling. Just as much a nightmare today as it was 10 years ago.

Pretty late to the party.

1

A cnc'd vzhextrudort would also be a good contender if youre looking for something with a bit more consistent extrusion

The filament run out sensor integrated with the extruder is excellent. The sensor is usually mounted separately to minimize the extruder mass, but integration has many advantages and results in a very simple and compact design with a low hassle filament loading and unloading process, particularly with the automated load/unload macros. Modern 3D printers should have this intuitive and streamlined operation.

This is the best background on any 3D product video I've ever seen! Thanks for doing all the homework for us!!! GLORIOUS!!!

Been considering replacing my ZestyTech remote direct drive extruder for something like this. Have you had any experience to compare this against a cable-drive remote extruder?

Have you seen there's a V3?

Hi! Very useful video! Thank you! Where did you find CANBUS cable? Or connectors?

Hey Modbot, can you do a video on the Ender 3/V2 Apogee fanshroud that uses the Orbiter extruder? There aren't any videos on RU-vid on assembly and it would be nice to see someone test the capabilities of it when pushed to the limit with klipper.

I have this one on my TTB with custum hotend mount that i create with the original parts. Im very happy with this extruder. No problems at all.

hi, gramn nice video, I have a reborn 2 very similar to the one you have in the video... where can I find the support to print to attach it to the plate and replace both the extruder with the one you have, and also the hot edn which I haven't found yet, if you can advise me. Thank you

I've modified my filament sensor to have an M8 thread so I would have the pneumatic coupler installed for higher reliability with automatic filament changers like ERCF

Cool vid! This is the extruder I've planned to get if and when I go direct drive.

Wait its ooooonly 60 bucks!?!?😮

Wonder if you could stick this on the 100

Smaller motors are really heat more that bigger. Thats why I'm still using standard nema 14 for extruder!

top be honest, The orbiter sensor has been a god sent for my printer.... until it wasn't anymore. For some reasons, it started to fail, and detect false runout. This has ruined many print sadly. I have tried changing the housing, and the pcb, but I kept getting this issue. Maybe, with with a professionaly made housing from pcb way, it would solve the issue... But I'm too scared to try now

I'm actually looking at the Spitfire print head for my Max3 and it includes the Orbiter 2.0, so it's cool to see how much this little motor rocks!

I have one on my ender 5 pro with the sensor and it's really nice to work with. Installing in klipper was easy after i finally found what pins to use on the skr mini e3v3 board.

So sorry. But is there any possibility of a bit more info about this filament sensor for connection to the ebb36, I think I have understood that it is a port i2c, but can I get 3 volts there as I see that the sensor will have 3 volts. Thanks in advance for any information I can get. Roy

I use an Orbiter with a Rapido HF on my Voron 2.4 350 and it was the best purchase I have made... I am super happy with it

It only has one design flaw which is dual gear drive. This is an oxymoron since either the gears mesh perfectly with each other of the gears mesh with the filament but never both at the same time.

Im thinking of picking up a bontech lgx light today. Would you recommend this orbiter over the lgx light?

Can this be used with an original Ender 3 printer? Great video, great product.

I wonder how this stacks up against sherpa mini in real world use

It’s so hard to watch you because you show me stuff I want to spend money on. That’s a niiiice extruder, LDO is my favorite motor brand.

Great vid, thanks!

Ok, now I have to get this for my new ratrig build. Thank you !

I decided to go with the Sherpa Mini instead of the Orbiter V2...I'm kind of regretting that but the Sherpa Mini is no slouch.