*Before you continue with this setup guide, please refer to Chroma's built-in setup walkthrough wizard.
Get Chroma here.
Welcome to your new Palette™/Palette+™! Let's get started.
Palette/Palette+ can enable your printer to do two kinds of prints: layered prints and prints with precise color changes.
 A layered print
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 Prints with precise color changes
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The Quick Start Guide included with your Palette explains how to start a layered print, and these steps will help you get started with your first print with precise color changes:
This part is really important! Positioning Palette or the Scroll Wheel incorrectly can result in weak splices and failed prints.
Here's how your printer works with Palette and the Scroll Wheel:
Palette makes the filament. The filament goes through the Teflon tube with the magnet and into the Scroll Wheel. The filament comes out of the Scroll Wheel's other Teflon tube and feeds into your printer's extruder.
Positioning will vary depending on the type of printer you are using. Click your printer type:
Position the Scroll Wheel on your Direct-Drive printer
The Scroll Wheel comes pre-assembled for Direct-Drive printers, and uses a longer Teflon tube to connect to your printer's extruder:
Clip your Scroll Wheel's long Teflon tube into the Teflon tube clip on your printer's extruder. If the included Teflon tube clip does not securely attach to your extruder, click here.
Positioning the Teflon tube clip includes a few steps:
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Align the Teflon tube clip and Velcro square and press together. |
Examine your extruder's filament path for a clean passage. |
Carefully Peel the back cover off the Velcro square, revealing an adhesive. |
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Align the Teflon tube clip (adhesive side down) with the extruder's filament path. |
Apply the clip to the extruder by pressing down lightly and carefully. |
Your Teflon tube clip is secure! Filament should feed easily into your extruder. |
Here's an example of how we positioned the Teflon tube clip on our printer:
Keep the tube clipped in. Find a spot for the Scroll Wheel that allows your extruder to move freely to each corner of the bed without excessively bending the Teflon tube.
Here are examples of optimal Scroll Wheel positioning on 4 different kinds of printers:
Printrbot & similar (print bed moves in the X-axis or Y-axis, extruder moves in the other two axes). The drive that moves the extruder in the Z-axis also moves in the Z-axis with the extruder.
Series 1 Pro from Type A Machines (and other printers with square beds). Extruder moves in X-axis and Y-axis, and the bed moves in the Z-axis.
Above: Wanhao Duplicator i3, Prusa i3, and similar (bed moves in Y-axis). Extruder moves in X-axis and Z-axis.
Above: MakerBot Replicator 2 and similar (bed moves in the Z-axis). Extruder moves in X-axis and Y-axis. The optimal Scroll Wheel position is often on the back side of the printer near the top/center.
Once you've found the right spot, find a square of Velcro in your Palette Tool Kit. Use this Velcro to secure the Scroll Wheel in place and proceed to positioning your Palette.
Position the Scroll Wheel on your Bowden printer
If you are using a Bowden printer, you will need to make a slight adjustment to your Scroll Wheel. First, unscrew the top three screws fastening the acrylic plate.
Once the screws and acrylic plate have been removed, you'll be able to lift the left Teflon tube (with no magnet) out of the Scroll Wheel:
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You can now install the shorter Teflon tube into the Scroll Wheel. Once this is complete, replace the three screws and acrylic plate. Your Scroll Wheel should look like this:
Positioning your Scroll Wheel is relatively straightforward for Bowden printers. Secure the Scroll Wheel in a position that allows the small Teflon tube to feed filament into your printer. Leave about 1-2 cm of space between the tube and your filament loading area:
Once you've found the right spot, find a square of Velcro in your Palette Tool Kit. Use this Velcro to secure the Scroll Wheel in place and click below to proceed to the next step.
Now, it's time to place your Palette next to your Scroll Wheel.
Palette and the Scroll Wheel must be positioned close enough together so that the tube with the magnet can touch Palette, but far enough apart so that the magnet can travel at least 15 centimeters.
During prints, the buffer will expand and contract; the magnet will move back and forth. The magnet will hover around 15 cm away from Palette, and will periodically return to Palette before being pushed back out again.
This is really important for successful prints - Make sure filament does not bend too much when coming out of Palette and when travelling through the Teflon tubes. To do this, you may consider re-positioning or slightly rotating the Scroll Wheel or Palette. This will help ensure that the splices are strong. Bending the tubes too much can weaken (and in some cases, break) them.
Here are some examples of Palette-printer setups:
Palette with Craftbot
Palette with a Type A, Series 1
Once your Palette and Scroll Wheel are set up, click below to proceed to Step 3.
Chroma will help you through Steps 3 to 5, but continue on with the Online Setup Guide if you need additional assistance.
First, download Mosaic Chroma Software. Install it on your computer, and start the program.
Begin by creating a new printer profile. From here, select your printer brand and model. You'll be brought to the Printer-to-Palette Calibration Walkthrough. This step-by-step process is easy to follow, and will help you find the values to input into Chroma to complete calibration. Make sure to keep note of the Loading Offset value and the Print Value!
Calibration File: Download
Once you've installed Chroma and calibrated your Palette, click below and proceed to Step 4.
To get started, you'll need something to slice! You can model your own, or you can find multi-filament prints at the Multi-Filament Thingiverse group or the Ideas section of our website. Each different color/filament requires a different body.
Then, you'll slice your object. Currently, Chroma is compatible with G-Code from Simplify3D and Cura. We also have videos explaining how to slice with your preferred slicer:
Slicing 3D Models in Cura: Link
Slicing 3D Models in Simplify3D: Link
Once you've sliced your model, click below proceed to Step 5.
Once your slicer is set, slice your model and save the GCode file. Import this GCode into Chroma™ by clicking "Open GCode" on the main window. This will create a preview of your model within Chroma. From here, click the "Save for Printer" button, and Chroma will then create two files:
1. A .MSF file to be loaded into an SD card for your Palette™
2. A new GCode (or .X3G) file to be loaded into an SD card for your printer
Once you have the SD cards placed inside your Palette™ and printer, you can begin the printing process! Ensure that your Palette is not connected via USB, and plug in the power supply to turn on your Palette.
- Ensure Palette is not connected via USB. Turn Palette on by plugging in its power supply.
- Select "Multi-Color" on the Palette menu, which will then ask for you to load your filament. Select your .MSF file. Palette will begin to make filament.
- After a short time, Palette will ask for you to push the magnet towards your Palette. You'll notice that this action causes filament to move through your Teflon tube towards your Scroll Wheel.
- Once you press the magnet against your Palette, release, and Palette will continue to produce filament.
- Continue steps 3 & 4 until the filament has passed through your Scroll Wheel and reached your extruder. You can now begin to carefully load the filament into your extruder and carefully lock the feeding tube in your Teflon tube clip.
- On Palette's screen, you'll see a countdown, which advises you how many mm should be fed into your extruder. Depending on your printer, extrude enough filament to be as close to 0 mm as possible. For example, with Type A printers, you can extrude a specific amount of filament using their online interface. Makerbot Rep 2's allow for manual loading on the printer's screen. Don't worry, even if you're a few mm off, your print should be fine!
- Once this is done, Palette will beep, meaning that it is ready to print! Once you've reached this step, it's as simple as starting your print as you normally would, and Palette will continue to create filament as the print progresses.
Comments
11 comments
Please feel free to share suggestions on how we can make this guide more useful!
You can post here or email us at support@mosaicmanufacturing.com.
I would like to see a STEP by STEP guide. One for the absolute beginner.
I agree that I would like a step by step guide with clear pics and possibly a YouTube video. I've been searching YouTube but it's always an unboxing that goes into too much detail with opening the box and talk about nothing. Something that gets to the point would be most helpful (please with no music). I am new to 3D printing and bought a Mosaic Pallet+ yesterday that's being shipped to me so I'm hoping since I am a customer you listen to me.
Yes, we do have a step by step setup guide in our Chroma software. Simply download Chroma (http://mm3d.co/chroma), create a new Printer Profile, and select "Guided Setup". This Setup wizard will then walk you through the setup process with pictures and explanations. If you have any further concerns, please send us a message at support@mosaicmanufacturing.com and we'll answer any questions you may have!
Cmysquano & Vampy, thanks for your feedback! We strayed away from making YouTube videos for setup and walkthroughs because we are constantly tuning and tweaking things based on customer feedback, and the videos very quickly become outdated.
As Jonny mentioned, Chroma has pretty comprehensive instructions! We've spent a lot of time building resources to be as clear as possible. You can browse through what these instructions look like for yourself at http://mm3d.co/chroma-gifs. If you have any questions at all, we're here for you on the forums and support@mosaicmanufacturing.com. The Palette user group at http://mm3d.co/fb is helpful too!
OK got it goin // Had to run through it a few times, to get it right Thanks!
Sweet! Let us know if you run into any issues!
Doing the first test calibration print right now and then to find out how to have the new Cura do multi-color prints. Directions were good for me, straightforward step by step. Good job!
Thanks, Josh! Great to hear. These links will be helpful to setup Cura for your Palette+:
http://mm3d.co/cura
http://mm3d.co/cura-extruders
I have followed the guide on Craftbot XL. But I'm not able to feed the filament into the extruder. Palette won't produce more filament when the magnet hit the shell. Is there any hints?
Is there a different between using the longer tube which came with the box?
Also, do i need to reset Palette after trying on a different printer?
Hi Vincent, when the magnet hits Palette+'s shell, it sets off the hall sensor, which prompts Palette+ to create more filament. Palette+ will also wait for a signal from your scroll wheel saying that filament has passed through, and this will begin to create a buffer of filament, which causes the magnet to move away from Palette+ and restart the entire cycle.
If Palette+ is unable to produce more filament, I would suggest checking these two areas:
For the Craftbot XL, we should have included a longer Teflon tube to help optimize your printing experience as the height of your printer is over 300 mm. I would recommend switching this longer Teflon tube with the standard tube on your scroll wheel.
There's no need to reset Palette+ after using it on a different printer, but it would be a good idea to calibrate and save printer profiles on Chroma if you'd like to use multiple printers. Once this is done, simply select the proper printer profile in Chroma, attach the scroll wheel to the printer, and you're ready to print!
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