Flow Sensor Cable

The Anycubic Kobra is one of five new 3D printers that Anycubic is launching in late March 2022.The new FDM printers come with a long list of interesting features.Starting with automatic web bed leveling, magnetic print beds and direct drive extruders, Kobra goes strong.
At first glance, the workmanship of each element appears top-notch.Unfortunately, a closer look reveals that some parts of the 3D printer could use some improvements here and there.However, these issues do not affect the functionality of Anycubic Kobra.
As the successor to the Anycubic Viper, the Kobra has a slightly different design but nearly the same range of features.Inductive sensors are used here, rather than the leveling of the mesh bed via a load cell also installed in the Kobra Max.The extruder is also directly above the hot end of the Anycubic Kobra.
Anycubic Kobra is quick to assemble.To do this, screw the archway to the base, then the screen and filament roll holder can be installed.After making some cable connections, this 3D printer is ready to use.
All tools for assembly are included in the package.Also included are handy items like scrapers, spare nozzles and other maintenance tools.
The included microSD card contains test files as well as some configuration files for Cura, which allow for quick integration and allow for a first try.During the review process, we noticed that some settings still need to be adapted to this 3D printer.
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At first glance, the cables under the base unit cover look neat.The control board is housed in a plastic housing.Almost all cables are combined into a thick cable loom.A cable clip is included to protect this cable harness that plugs into the V-slot aluminum extrusion.This is the first problem we encountered.
The cable clips are hard to connect and pinch the cables.Looking at the cables attached to the screw terminals also revealed something we didn't like to see.The screw terminals here have tinned stranded wires installed instead of wire ferrules.In the long run, the soft solder will start to flow, meaning there will no longer be a good electrical connection.Therefore, screw terminal connections must be checked regularly.
Anycubic Kobra uses the same board as the Kobra Max.The Trigorilla Pro A V1.0.4 board is an Anycubic development and unfortunately offers few upgrade options due to many proprietary connectors.
The HDSC hc32f460 is used as a microcontroller on the board.A 32-bit chip with a Cortex-M4 core operates at 200 MHz.Therefore, Anycubic Kobra has enough computing power.
The frame of the Anycubic Kobra is made of V-slot aluminium profiles.Here, the construction of the 3D printer is fairly basic.It can be noted that there are no adjustment options for the installation of the print bed, and the upper rail is made of plastic.
The Z axis is driven on one side.However, the resistance design is stable.There are hardly any downsides.Some plastic parts protect parts like pulleys or motors.
Anycubic Kobra can be controlled via touch screen or USB interface.The touchscreen is the same as the Kobra Max model.Therefore, only the basic control functions are available here as well.Aside from standard bed leveling, preheating and filament replacement, the concise menu doesn't offer many control options.During printing, only printing speed, temperature and fan speed can be controlled.
Anycubic Kobra provides solid performance, but it is not satisfactory in all respects.However, many of the print quality issues can be attributed to the somewhat poor Cura profile provided by Anycubic.Still, for a Prusa/Mendel-designed 3D printer, Anycubic's device is relatively fast.
The magnetically attached print base consists of PEI-coated spring steel sheet.PEI is a polymer to which other plastics adhere well when heated.Once the printed object and plate cool down, the object no longer sticks to the plate.Anycubic Kobra's print bed is securely mounted on the carriage.Therefore it is not possible to manually adjust the print bed.Instead, 3D printers exclusively use the mesh bed for leveling via inductive sensors.The advantage of this, especially for inexperienced users, is that all setup can be done in just a few steps.
After a two-minute warm-up, the temperature of the print bed was fairly uniform.At the set 60 °C (140 °F), the maximum surface temperature is 67 °C (~153 °F) and the minimum temperature is 58.4 °C (~137 °F).However, there are no large areas below the target temperature.
After printing, the fabricated object can be easily removed from the spring steel plate.Small bends in the spring steel sheet usually release the printed object.
The hot end and extruder are a Titan style direct drive combination.The contact pressure between the filament and the transfer wheel can be adjusted by means of a striking red dial.Below is a fairly standard hot end.It always has a PTFE liner in the heating zone and is therefore not suitable for higher temperatures above 250 °C (482 °F).Around this temperature, Teflon (also known as Teflon) begins to emit toxic vapors.For object cooling, a small radial fan is mounted at the rear, blowing air from the back towards the printed object through nozzles.There is also an inductive proximity sensor on the print head.This determines the distance to the print bed.It's good enough for self-leveling bed functionality.
Depending on the hardware used, the maximum flow rate for the hot end is relatively low, but it is sufficient for the specified print speed.The melting zone is very small due to the PTFE lining and short heating block.From the desired 12 mm³/s the flow rate decreases and beyond 16 mm³/s the filament flow collapses.At a flow rate of 16 mm³/s, the possible print speed (0.2 mm layer height and 0.44 mm extrusion width) is 182 mm/s.Therefore, Anycubic correctly specifies a maximum print speed of 180 mm/s.A 3D printer you can trust at this speed.In our actual tests up to 150 mm/s, there were only minor failures.Loss cannot be detected here.
Anycubic Kobra provides good print quality.However, the Cura profiles that come with 3D printers can be improved in some places.For example, the retraction settings seem to need improvement.The result is badly pulled lines, blotches, and printed parts stuck in place.Neither the door nor the knob can move.The resulting overhang is up to 50°.In addition to this, the object cooling of the 3D printer cannot cool the extruded plastic in time.
The dimensional accuracy of Kobra is very good.Deviations of more than 0.4 mm cannot be detected.In particular, it is worth affirming that the extrusion accuracy of the 3D printer is quite high.The surface layer does not show any gaps and there is no tolerance for thin walls.
In practice, none of the test prints failed.Anycubic Kobra reproduces organic structures well.Artifacts caused by vibrations are only faintly visible, if any.However, the wave pattern caused by the direct drive extruder is more pronounced.While the effects of the teeth of the drive wheels and gears in the Bowden extruder are suppressed by the flexible PTFE tubing, they are evident here.This produces a very distinct pattern on long straight lines.
The thermal shutdown of the Anycubic Kobra works fine.If the temperature develops differently than it should, both the hot end and the heated print bed shut down.This enables the 3D printer to detect shorts and damaged sensor cables, as well as incorrectly installed sensors or heating elements.We tested this by using hot air or a cold cloth to control the temperature of the print bed and filament nozzles, as well as shorting or disconnecting the thermistors on the hot end and heated bed from the motherboard.
On the other hand, protection of the planet cannot be tracked on all the components of the Anycubic Kobra, unfortunately.Neither the x-axis nor the hot end has a corresponding ground connection.However, the risk of supply voltage appearing on these two components is relatively low.
The Anycubic Kobra 3D printer works quietly.When the print speed is set below 60 mm/s, various fans drown out the motor noise.Then, the volume of the printer is about 40 dB(A).At higher print speeds, we measured up to 50 dB(A) from a meter (about 3.3 feet) away using a Voltcraft SL-10 sound level meter.
Corresponding to the open-plan building, the smell of molten plastic spreads throughout the room.Initially, we noticed that the magnetic foil on the print bed also had a strong smell when heated.However, after a while, the stench disappeared.
We use a Voltcraft SEM6000 to measure energy consumption during printing of 3DBenchy.In just two minutes of heating the print bed, the 3D printer produced a peak power of 272 watts.As the temperature increases, so does the resistance of the heating plate, which means it can convert less power.During the printing process, the Anycubic Kobra required an average of 118 watts.As a result, the power consumption is significantly higher than the results achieved with the Artillery Genius and Wizmaker P1 printers of the same size.
The energy consumption curve here shows the clear effect of increasing object height and cooling fan speed on energy demand.Once the fan in the printhead runs after the first layer, some heat is blown away from the print bed, which has to be reheated.Better print bed insulation could help reduce 3D printer energy requirements.In addition to this, self-adhesive insulating pads can be used for this purpose.
Considering the print quality, the reasonably affordable Anycubic Kobra is eye-catching.The existing Cura configuration file provides an easy start, but still needs some improvement.Only minor artifacts from direct drive can be annoying.
The real criticism of 3D printers has to do with the tinned wires in the screw terminals and the many plastic parts around the printer.Although there is no apparent disadvantage in terms of stability and stiffness due to the plastic top rail, there are still durability issues with the plastic components.However, the same problem occurs with cables with tinned stranded wires.Contact resistance at press-fit connections may increase over time due to cold flow of solder.This may cause damage to the device.Therefore, 3D printers should be serviced regularly.All screw terminals should be tightened and cables checked for damage.
The Anycubic Kobra's performance matches the price.Potentially high print speeds make the printer of interest to professionals as well.
What we especially like here is that the Anycubic Kobra can be set up quickly.The print bed is self-calibrating and requires little adjustment to the supplied Cura profile other than retraction.The 3D printer works after a brief set-up and also allows beginners to jump into 3D printing quickly.
Anycubic offers the Anycubic Kobra in its store, starting at €279 ($281), with shipping from European or US warehouses.If you subscribe to Anycubic's email newsletter, you can save an additional €20 ($20) with code POP20.

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  • Post time: Jun-30-2022