ZIM filament drive V3 with filament sensor, compatible to ZIM´s cartridge-bay

thingiverse

Ladies and gentlemen! I proudly present to you my ZIM filament driver V3. This time, I've added gap and mount for the original filament sensor, no problem at all. It's compatible with ZIM's standard-cartridge-bay, so if you don't want to use the standard-cartridges, just install this and feed the filament from the top or bore a hole in the base and feed from underneath. New Project coming soon! Instructions Removing the original parts isn't hard at all: Just remove the 4 screws that hold the cartridge bay from the base and take out the whole piece (alternatively, you can remove the whole baseplate for more free working space before removing the cartrige bay). Take a look at http://zimsupport.zeepro.com/support/solutions/articles/5000561391-how-to-replace-a-stepper-driver (first three pictures) In Pic 2, the four screws in the upper part of the picture that are arranged as a rectangle are the screws that hold the cartridge-bay. Take the whole cartridge bay out and remove the connectors and the teflon tube. Then, remove the motor-carrier which is mounted with four screws to the cartridge bay (two from the side and two from the bottom). Then, removing the stepper motor, the tube retainer and the microswitch is easy. When putting everything back together, have a close look at the microswitch. It may happen that if you fastened the tube retainer too much, the lever of the switch is pressed by mistake. So don't screw the retainer all the way in. I put it in only one and a half revolution - that's enough. You can also bend the small metal arm of the microswitch a bit down so you can place the switch a bit higher which also gives you a bit more space. But after all, calibrating the microswitch is a matter of patience and intuition. Keep listening for the click sound when you put a piece of filament in... If you have managed to install the stepper and the small parts, you can fix the device from the bottom with the original screws using the original holes. zeepro uses a lot of different screws with different lengths and head-shapes... Best is if you take photos of all the screws before removing them so you can always take a look which screw belongs to which hole... Put everything back together and test...