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Pebble Wiper V2 Changelog

After thousands of wipes, a new version of the Pebble Wiper has been created!

There are five major improvements in this version:

  1. PW V2 no longer deposits the pebbles onto a brass brad. Instead, filament is extruded onto a flat purging platform covered with a metallic strip. The primary advantage which drove this change is that the extruded filament cannot 'fall off' the extrusion zone, as it could with the brad. With the flat extrusion zone, a small, extremely consistent pebble can be created without fail.
  2. Although the bargain-bin servo preferred for V1, the Hextronik MG14, worked well, I strived for something even better. The speed of this class of cheap micro servo is sufficient, but there are much faster options on the market. For about $32 I purchased a KST DS215MG servo. Now this is a good sum of money for a tiny servo, but the specs justify it. The MG14 can travel 60° in 0.11sec, but the DS215MG can traverse 60° in a blistering 0.06sec. This best way to describe the difference this makes is the MG14 is like passing a soccer ball (yes, I'm American), and the DS215MG is like rocketing a penalty shot. The increase in speed proved to become a major factor in increasing the already stellar reliability of the Pebble Wiper. I would classify this change as the greatest performance improvement versus V1, and I am therefore only supporting the use of the KST servo for V2.
  3. Another experiment for V2 was the upgrade of the wiping arm. The washer glued on top of the servo arm was not a clean solution, and plastic would occasionally stick to this wiping mechanism. After some searching, I found a metal servo arm for the DS215MG. While the plastic servo arm which comes with the DS215MG proved to be a marked upgrade by itself when compared to the arm+washer used with the MG14, the metal servo arm takes the mechanism that one step further. Plastic does not like to stick to the anodized metal servo arm the same way it likes to stick to the plastic servo arms which come with the servos. In addition, the metal arm does not deform when wiping with even the highest temperature filaments, and will not melt when in contact with your nozzle, if that ever happens.
  4. Lastly, I moved the silicone wiping brush slightly into the path of the wiping arm. This ensures that even if filament becomes stuck to the arm during a wipe, it should not be dragged back onto the purging platform where it could become a booger on the nozzle, and then be deposited onto your model. This extension of the silicone brush keeps your wiping arm clean, and continues to serve the purpose of ensuring a clean nozzle is leaving the Pebble Wiper as it heads over to your print!
  5. Integrating with either René Jurack or Greg Holloway's Height Adjustable Brush systems, the Pebble Wiper can now be used on machines with tools of varying height offsets. For example, on a machine with an E3D V6 and an E3D Volcano, the position of the Pebble Wiper can remain at the proper heights in relation to the nozzle through a range of approximately 50mm.