Topic: Unleashing the kraken!
So I received my Kraken from E3D today from the batch of Beta units. I was worried the aforemention kraken had potentially escaped already based on the box condition:
But luckily it was all safely intact inside!
I got 4 x 1.7A short-stack NEMA17's (round shaft, i.e non flattened shaft, but no drama's - Have dremel, will travel
)
Silicone tubing for the water circuit, 4 x cartridge heaters, PTFE tubing and push-fits to fit (same as found on bowden e3d's).
Water block is largely as one would expect, and heater blocks are identical to the V5(b) E3D blocks and come with the new Semitec thermistors E3D has switched to.
Heater blocks join via an E3D-esque heat break and are retained in the water block via 2 grub screws.
Control wise, I've already butchered in Adrian Bowyers slave-controller mods to the mainline-modified Marlin we use. It allows you to specify "n" extruders, and have them connected via serial using multiple 'slave' boards - which is a novel way of saying you use another RAMPS/Sanguinololu/Rumba/Printrboard as a slave to steal its MOSFETs and MCU, and then run a very basic firmware on that second controller that just bangs pins on/off on command and reports the thermistor readings periodically. There is also the Axteeg X-3pro that can drive all 4 directly - but I have more RAMPS/Sang/Rumba's than I can poke a stick at so I may as well consume them - but if you are about to shell out for a solution perhaps consider the 'turn key' solution ![]()
Water pump I'll run off a small reservoir and see how it goes with passive cooling - alas the pump supplied only has a 3M head so I can't go with a deep-sump and bottom scavenge the water; meaning that if ambient don't cut it I'll have to resort to a small radiator with a fan..Or just get a better pump
. Tempted to consider this straight off the bat and then use a GPU water block on each NEMA motor as 2nd branch in the system after the extruder water block...
Heres a pic of what you get - rigging it up will wait till the weekend, I have a couple of other posts to get out and want to consider installation further before diving in.

More info as I get the chance to rig it up etc etc...
