MICRO SWISS NG™ Direct Drive Extruder Instruction Manual

: June 9, 2024
: MICRO SWISS

Table of Contents

TOOLS NEEDED
WHAT’S IN THE BOX

MICRO SWISS NG™ Direct Drive Extruder Instruction Manual

TOOLS NEEDED

Gather the required tools before starting installation.

TOOLS NEEDED

Phillips-Head Screwdriver
Flat Head Screwdriver
3mm Allen wrench
2.5mm Allen wrench
2mm Allen wrench
1.5mm Allen wrench (included with the kit)
10mm spanner wrench
8mm spanner wrench
Flush cutters

WHAT’S IN THE BOX

1x Master Extruder Assembly
1x Ender 5 Adaptation plate
1x LDO Stepper motor
1x Fan Shroud
1x Custom Extension Cable
1x Hotend Assembly
1x Printed PTFE Tube bracket
1x Printed BLTouch bracket
1x Printed Endstop switch bracket
1x Eccentric nut
1x M5 x .8 x 30mm CAP SCREW
1x 5mm ID 10mm OD Washer
1x M5 x .8 Nylon Lock Nut
2x M5 x .8 x 20mm Nylon Patch CAP SCREWs
4x M2.2 x 8mm Thread Forming Screw for Plastic
4x M3 x 12mm Thread Forming Screw for Plastic
1x 7mm spanner wrench
1x 1.5mm Allen wrench

PREPARATION

If your printer has a bed leveling probe, print the required probe mounting bracket.
Download here

Remove the filament from your original hotend and allow it to cool down completely

Step 1 – SAFETY

⚠️ For your safety, turn off and unplug your printer.

Step 2 – REMOVE THE FAN SHROUD

Remove the fan shroud by unscrewing the two screws holding the shroud to the carriage plate
Cut the zip ties holding the Bowden Tube and cables together

Step 3 – REMOVE THE FANS

Remove the screws holding the hotend fan
Remove the fan duct to get access to the part cooling fan screws (some printers)
Remove the screws holding the part cooling fan

Step 4 – REMOVE THE SILICONE SOCK

Make sure the hotend is at room temperature!

Remove the silicone sock from the heater block

Step 5 – REMOVE THE HEATER CARTRIDGE AND THERMISTOR

Remove the heater cartridge set screw using 1.5mm Allen wrench
Remove the thermistor screw using the PhillipsHead Screwdriver
Gently pull the thermistor and heater cartridge out of the heater block

⚠️ Be careful not to damage the delicate wires

Step 6 – REMOVE THE HOTEND

Remove the two screws holding the hotend using a 2mm Allen wrench
Remove the retaining C-clip from the Bowden extruder
Press the plastic Bowden Coupler lip down and pull the PTFE tube out of the original extruder
Take the hotend and PTFE tube out of the printer together

Save the PTFE tube to be reused during the installation of the NG Extruder

Step 7 – UNCLIP THE BELT

Loosen the two screws holding the X-axis belt tensioner by unscrewing the two screws using a 3mm Allen wrench
Unclip the belt from both sides of the original carriage plate

Step 8 – REMOVE THE CARRIAGE PLATE

Unscrew the roller wheels using a 3mm Allen wrench on the screw head and an 8mm spanner wrench to turn the lock nut
Remove the original carriage plate

Save the V-roller wheels to be reused during the installation of the NG Extruder

Step 9 – REMOVE THE ORIGINAL EXTRUDER

Unplug the cable from the stepper motor
Use the 2.5mm Allen wrench to remove the tension screw and then the plastic extruder arm
Use the 2mm Allen wrench to unscrew the Bowden extruder from and stepper motor

Step 10 – PREPARE THE NG ASSEMBLY

Prepare the NG extruder for assembly by removing the fan shroud

Step 11 – INSTALL THE BOTTOM WHEEL AND ECCENTRIC NUT

Place one of the original V-Roller wheels onto the longer M5 screw provided with the kit
Place the eccentric nut onto that M5 screw, on top of the V-Roller Note the correct orientation of the eccentric nut – the longer lip facing away from the V-Roller
Insert the M5 screw/V-Roller assembly into the bottom hole of extruder main body
Install the washer and then secure the M5 screw/V-Roller assembly using the nylon lock nut
Verify that the V-Roller still spins after tightening the nylon lock nut.

Step 12 – INSTALL THE TOP TWO WHEELS

Insert the provided shorter M5 screws into the two remaining VRoller wheels
Be sure to use provided nylon patched screws!
Install the two M5 screw/V-rollers onto the carriage
If it is difficult to fit the last V-Roller wheel, adjust the bottom V-Roller position by rotating the eccentric nut using a 10mm wrench

Step 13 – ADJUST THE WHEEL TENSION

To eliminate any wobble from the carriage, adjust the tension of the VRoller wheels by rotating the eccentric nut using a 10mm wrench
While holding the carriage to prevent it from moving, try rotating one of V-Roller wheels to make it slip. Ideally you should feel some resistance, but not so much that you cannot make the wheel rotate on its own when turned by hand

Step 14 – CONNECT THE BELT

Insert the original X-axis belt into the slots on both sides of the extruder
Tighten the X-axis belt
Move the carriage side to side to verify the belt is seated properly and wheels are rotating smoothly

Step 15 – PREPARE THE HOTEND

Remove the silicone sock from the all metal hotend
The included hotend has already been preheated and the nozzle has been tightened to spec at the factory

There is no need to do the nozzle tightening procedure on the new hotend unless you are replacing the nozzle

When replacing nozzles in the future, the hotend will need to be preheated to exactly 220C and the new nozzle should be torqued to 30-inch pounds

The thermal break needs to be fully seated before the nozzle is tightened down.

Step 16 – INSTLL THE HOTEND

Insert the hotend assembly into the extruder
Verify the thermal break is seated as deep as possible in the extruder (compare with reference image on the left)
Tighten the grub screw using a 1.5mm Allen wrench

Step 17 – INSTALL THE THERMISTOR AND HEATER CARTRIDGE
INSTALL THERMISTOR

Install the heater cartridge and the thermistor
Secure the thermistor
Be careful not to overtighten the screw as this can damage delicate wires
Make sure the thermistor sits all the way inside the thermistor hole. The glass bead of the thermistor should not be visible from the outside
Tighten the two heater cartridge screws using the 1.5mm Allen wrench

Step 18 – INSTALL THE SILICONE SOCK

Install the silicone sock

Step 19 – ATTACH THE FANS TO THE FAN SHROUD

Install the part cooling fan onto the fan shroud using the smaller of the four provided self-tapping screws
Install the hotend cooling fan onto the fan shroud using the larger of the four provided self-tapping screws.

Step 20 – INSTALL THE FAN SHROUD

Install the assembled fan shroud back on the extruder.

Step 21 – INSTALL THE FILAMENT GUIDE BRACKET

Install the filament guide bracket where the original Bowden extruder used to sit, using provided M3 nuts and bolts

Step 22 – INSTALL THE FILAMENT GUIDE TUBE

The printers original Bowden tube will be reused to help guide filament from the spool into the Extruder

Insert the filament guide tube into the Filament Guide Bracket and secure it using one of the provided retaining clips
Insert the other end of the filament guide tube into the top of the Extruder and secure it using one of the provided retaining clips

Step 23 – INSTALL THE EXTENSION CABLE

⚠️ It is very important to use the provided extension cable.
This cable has a special pinout to use the NG Extruder’s LDO motor

Connect on end of the extension cable to the original E cable and the other end to the LDO stepper motor
Make sure to give the extension cable some slack near the stepper motor

ENDSTOP SWITCH (ENDER 5 PLUS ONLY)

The Ender 5 Plus requires the X-axis endstop switch to be installed onto the provided bracket. This will prevent the NG fan shroud from touching the gantry wheel when Auto Homing the printer.
(Only use this bracket on the Ender 5 Plus, it is not needed on the Ender 5 or Ender 5 Pro)

Unfasten the X-axis endstop switch
Remove the stock endstop bracket
Install provided endstop bracket
Reinstall the x-axis endstop switch

Step 24 – CABLE MANAGEMENT

Use provided zip ties to managed your cables neatly.

Step 25 – GEAR TENSION

Adjust the gear tension by rotating the brass knob

The gear tension can be gauged by measuring how much of the brass knob’s threads are exposed. (Distance from the head of the brass knob to the aluminum extruder arm)

The good starting point for stiff filaments such as PLA, PTEG, ABS is 1.75mm of exposed threads (use a piece of 1.75mm filament as a gauge as shown in the image on the left)
For flexible filaments such as TPU, loosen the knob until about 2.75mm of the threads are exposed. (Loosen the knob two full turns, if starting from 1.75mm)

Step 26 – POWER ON THE PRINTER

Plug the power cable in and turn the printer on.

Step 27 – UPDATE E-STEPS

The E-steps will need to be set to 400 in the printer settings

Download the Esteps G-code
Copy the Esteps G-code file onto your Micro CD card
“Print” the Esteps G-code using the printer menus, as you would with a regular G code that was made using a slicer

Some printers will save the printer settings to a file on the MicroSD card.
For those printers, the MicroSD card has to be inside of the printer when the printer is being turned on, otherwise the new settings will not be loaded.

Step 28 – CONFIGURE SLICER SETTINGS

Set the Retraction Distance to 1.0mm in your slicer software
Do not use any gcodes that were sliced with a Retraction Distance higher than 1.5mm.

Service Tips

Removing Filament

Preheat the hotend to printing temperature
Press the extruder arm to release the gear tension
Purge the nozzle by manually pushing the filament down about 10mm to extrude any melted plastic
Quickly pull the filament out of the extruder

Loading Filament

Preheat the hotend to printing temperature
Cut the tip of the filament at a 45-degree angle
Straighten the tip of the filament out
Using the printer menus issue an Extrude command
Insert the filament into the extruder as the gears are rotating

When loading filament initially do not press the extruder arm until after the filament has made it into the tube below the extruder gears. After that you can then either continue to issue more Extrude commands using the printer menu or press the extruder arm back and push the filament down manually until you see melted filament coming out of the hot nozzle.

Nozzle Replacement Procedure

Preheat the hotend to exactly 220C
Remove the filament from the hotend
Unscrew the old nozzle, while holding the heater block in position using an adjustable wrench
Screw in the new MK8 nozzle and torque it to 30-inch pounds, while holding the heater block in position using an adjustable wrench

Verify that the thermal break is still seated flush on top of the heater block after installation.