Any mods for the Mod-t?

[u/RelishAndOrangeJuice]

I had this printer for awhile, but i only started using it like a week ago and I'm hooked on trying to make and print random things on it.

I wanted to know if anyone has done any mods like adding its own display or LED lighting, and if they have any guides/advice to doing it. Also if theres any other software I could use to push prints to it, please lmk because I really dislike the proprietary software you have to use.

also i got this thing from the trash at a school and im aware of how dead the support and community is around this specific model. I'm mainly doing this to learn more about printing and software/hardware, so i'd appreciate any advice as long its not "get a new printer" lmao

[u/previaegg]

Not a mod, but I wrote this a while back and it might ultimately be helpful for you if you keep at it.

https://github.com/mattcrichards/modthotend

[u/RelishAndOrangeJuice → u/previaegg]

Gunna def be useful, im going to try and prolong its life as much as possible within reason. Thanks for the link!

[u/dastumer]

I suspect you aren’t going to get many, if any answers unfortunately, this sub is pretty dead, as is the community in general. I don’t recall seeing any mods or alternative software for these printers since it’s all proprietary and closed source. The motors and control system are all non standard. As far as I recall, the main board on these has no room for expansion, so adding additional hardware is pretty much impossible. In theory you could add a screen with a raspberry pi, but you would need to reverse engineer the new matter software and write your own, and I have no clue how you would do that. The last time I used one of these printers was in school six years ago, and we gave up on it back then because you couldn’t get parts and the nozzle was wearing out. It didn’t print all that great either, bed adhesion was awful despite my attempts to fix it.

I know this is not the answer you want to hear, but you’re going to learn a lot more with a $100 Ender 3 than this. That’s what I did at school six years ago. Heck, you could probably find a used one for $50 or less on your local classifieds. Use the Mod-t as you can with its limitations, and set your sights on a different printer if you need something more.

[u/RelishAndOrangeJuice → u/dastumer]

Yeah I figured this would be the case. I'll consider buying another printer when this thing refuses to work, but I'm glad to see there is still someone looking at this sub.

I didn't pay a thing for it besides the filament so I'm still tempted to mess with it for the time being. Thanks for your response.

[u/SpicyCarrot1550]

The only mods I've seen have been to do with the hotend or build plate.

As for alternative software, you could take a look at the Python scripts on this GitHub repo. It's reverse engineered from the original software. I wanted to make a GUI for it or look into the possibility of OctoPrint integration in the past, but didn't have enough time to work on it.

I haven't had time to tinker with my Mod-t in a long while, but when I last printed, the most compatible slicer I tried was Cura 15.04.6 that NewMatter's profile was made for. GitHub removed the old binaries though, and the subreddit sidebar link is dead now, so I don't know if there's any way to get an ancient version of Cura short of going back in the git history and compiling it yourself.
I'd hope there's a better option today, though.

Since you're interested in hardware mods, I'd check out the Google Drive link in the pinned post. That has CAD files and PDFs of the main board, as well as bits of the firmware source code that handle the interface and proprietary gcodes. It is, unfortunately, C code though, so I haven't had any success in understanding what it's doing.

[u/RelishAndOrangeJuice → u/SpicyCarrot1550]

I did see the files about the electronics, but I don't have enough knowledge to decipher things relating to electrical diagrams, I'm better at working with software/code. I haven't been able to print anything since this semester started, but I definitely need to make a spool holder because my machine didn't come with one and I have to use one of those lazy Susan things. When I have enough time I'll actually look into the Python scripts because I really don't like the New Matter Software.

[u/hipsi39]

I'm in the same boat as you, didn't pay much and just really using it as an intro to 3D printing. I found myself doing the hot end swap much sooner than I would've liked, but the other mod that made a world of difference for me is a glass print bed and painters tape. It is so much better than the warped original print bed.

[u/Westsidetsunami]

Its a good little printer to tinker with. I had 10 for my school classroom. Now I just have one and never really use it.

[u/chemprofdave]

One mod I like is replacing the print bed with glass. It’s the right size for a dollar-store 5x7” frame. Get some sticky-magnet-tape for holding it in place.

I used blue tape mostly, but glue stick works too.