Hi Everyone, I have a tank which has been used with one cartridge of V4 tough resin. I understand that the tank can generally be used for 1 or 2 cartridges before it needs to be replaced. The V4 cartridge is close to empty and I’d like to replace it either before my next print or during the print when the printer senses that the cartridge is empty. The new cartridge is V5 tough resin. I can’t seem to find much information about V5 online. I tried simply inserting the V5 cartridge, the desktop software gave a warning but I could still attempt to submit the print to the printer; however, the printer complained that the tray and cartridge were different resins and it would not allow me to print. So, my questions are: 1) Is V4 Tough compatible with V5 Tough resin? Ie, can they be used in the same tank? 2) Is there a way to force the printer to start the print with the v5 tough resin in the v4 tank and 3) Can I start the print with my almost empty V4 tank, let the printer tell me when the tank is fully empty and then swap in the V5 tank at that time. What will I need to do to accomplish this? Right now the printer seems to refuse using the V5 cartridge with the V4 tank.
Some resin versions are mixable, other aren’t see this topic for more :
When you launch a print with your V5 resin and your V4 tank, the printer will indeed warn you but you can override this warning and continue printing. The tank will then be registered with V5 resin and you won’t see the warning again.
Don’t try to switch version in the middle of a print as it will not work.
Thanks John. I see that I can override the V5 V4 warning on the desktop software but I wasn’t able to see how to do that on the printer screen itself. It only gave me the option to abort (I will look again – I am running the latest firmware, perhaps it doesn’t allow you to do this anymore?) Are there any tricks to doing the override? Thanks for your help! Ryan
The latest version of the firmware should still allow this manipulation, as it is intended for users who don’t want to dedicate a tank to a certain resin and this is totally supported by formlabs, I don’t see why they would have removed this option.
It states that you have to empty and clean the tank but if you know the two resins are compatible, you can just hit ignore. You don’t have to worry that it will overfill the tank because the filling mechanic is a closed-loop system so it will check the level before adding any resin.
That’s another issue entirely. Your printer is expecting Tough V4 because that’ what was set in Preform before sending the file to the printer, which is why it’s trying to make you change the cartridge instead of the tank.
You should change the resin type to V5 in preform, then send the file to the printer and launch the print.
Thanks John. That fixed it for me! One last question as it might help others. If the resins are not compatible would it still let you ignore and override? That is, can you ever get in trouble by overriding? Are there any resins that are incompatible?
Yes the printer will let you override anything since it’s assuming that you have emptied and cleaned the tank, not that you are mixing resins. By default you should not be mixing resin versions, but Formlabs had to make minor changes to some resins and as such they were transparent enough to inform us that some new versions were chemically compatible with older ones, but this is supposed to be a fringe case and most of the time you should only override the warning when you have put an empty & clean tank in the machine.
See the post I linked in my first answer for a compatibility list.
