The Ekocycle Cube Thread

[JohnTee]

This is intended be a thread to discuss/share information about the 3D Systems Ekocycle Cube -- the poor cousin of the Cube 3.

Apparently the Ekocube was developed for Coca-Cola under the direction of Will.I.Am, who was (is?) working for 3DS on recycling issus. My understanding is about 300 units were made.

The Ekocube and Cube 3 share the same hardware. The only difference is labeling, and firmware. The Ekocube is restricted by its firmware to using Ekocube (only) filament cartridges containing around 25% recycled pop bottles. Only PLA and ABS were available, in limited colors.

All the wonderful ideas, hacks and accessories discussed in the Cube3 forum can be applied to the Ekocube, but with some differences. Hence this separate thread.

[TommyDee]

Thanks for sharing the backstory John. I have never even seen these on sale.

I do like the red lights though

The one firmware difference is that the EkoCycle doesn't have the 70um resolution, correct?

[JohnTee]

Yes - you are correct. No 70um for the Eko.
Also, my comment above about PLA and ABS is wrong. The Eko cartridges are "PETG" - whatever that is!

Some other differences I've noticed:

- the Cube 3 is faster on setup actions.
Auto-level: Eko = 2 minutes; Cube = 40 seconds
Auto-gap: Eko = 1 minute; Cube = 36 seconds

- when I printed using the right side on the Eko, it never moved the printhead over the right side wiper. When it primed, instead of dumping into the catch bin, it dribbled out about a half inch to the left. When I print using the left cartridge, it wipes the printhead as it should.

I'll try to notice other differences as I play around with it.

I wonder if the Ekocycles were not offered to the public, since they were tied in with Coca-Cola trademarks and such.

[TommyDee]

Interesting. We have seen some odd motion behavior on some machines. Not sure what to attribute that too. You'd think that if the hardware was fine, any FW upgrade would overwrite a wrong bit or two. I once had a replacement Cube 3 take on an 8mm shift near the end of a very long print. It went back! It was a warrantee machine so I wanted nothing to do with a printer that was going to be unreliable after this much effort (filament and time expense). And the replacement is still my primary printer.

There were a lot of updates to the Cube 3 code over the year. Many were performance updates. I wonder if they quietly stopped supporting the EkoCycle before that. The little test print is certainly from an earlier version of the slicer. This may actually be a benefit on the EkoCycle because one update took out some "apparently random hesitations" ...
And I still have that 3D Builder variation on Marvin using ABS and an anomalous M$ provided slicer (authored by 3DS).
How is the EkoCycle in printing the loop on Marvin?

[MegaloDon]

The Eko cartridges are "PETG" - whatever that is!

Soda bottles are made from PETE. PETG is more appropriate for 3D printing. Both are derivatives of PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) with different additives to make them more suited to their purposes. So it looks like they are mixing approximately 25% recycled PETE with PETG. You can print PETG with the Cube 3 although it is not an option in Cube Print software. I posted about it elsewhere.

[TommyDee]

(worth linking here...)
https://www.matterhackers.com/news/h...-petg-filament

[JohnTee]

How is the EkoCycle in printing the loop on Marvin?

I have not yet printed Marvin, or Benchy for that matter. I did print one of MajorOCD's printhead from Thingverse. It came out ok after some manual cleanup.

Thanks, MegaloDon, for clarifying PET-G. My printer asks for PET-G sometimes when I try to print from a USB file. CubePrint really seems wonky to me, in the way it decides what material and extruder to use!

That's a quite informative article from matterhackers, TommyDee. They have several others I found to be helpful - such as the one about moisture, materials and drying.

I'm having a hard time finding out how to get ahold of a ReCube Pro... Any hints? (I have the files for the ReCube Lite.)

[TommyDee]

You would contact Tomura on his site... http://www.haxtom.com/

I'm just curious about Marvin because neither ABS or PLA works from the Cubify app. In 3D Builder, the PLA version is also cr@p, but the ABS version is nearly pristine. This makes me curious as to which slicer the EkoCycle uses and compare that to other "marvins".

[JohnTee]

I will try Marvin. Is he on ThingVerse?

BTW - I'll bet you could load the Eko firmware into your Cube if you wanted to test it for something else....
Of course, you would need to borrow one of my Eko cartridges to be able to print something!

[TommyDee]

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:215703

Marvin ^

Interesting thought about converting my Cube 3 to EkoCycle.
Certainly an option when I get one of these ReCube's together and working.
Then I won't have to worry about the printer's firmware anymore.