What's New with V6 Color Engine

Hey fellow makers,

We're pleased with the development of AnkerMake V6 Color Engine so far.

This month, we started trial production of the redesigned parts, and production will continue through June. Once that's done, we'll do some final tweaks for a second round of trial production, withmass production beginning in September. Here's the full timeline:

• March - April: Redesigned parts remolded (Complete)

• May - June: Redesigned parts continue 1st round of trial production

• July: Redesigned parts enter 2nd round of trial production

• August: Material preparation starts

• September:Mass production begins

• September - October: 5,000+ units are produced and shipped

Development Images

Don't just take our word for it. Take a look at these pictures showing production in action!

V6 High-Precision and Large Mold Production Line

First Batch Assembled V6 Samples

AnkerMake Community AMA

We've been active on Discord talking with all of the AnkerMake fans about3D printing, and we hosted anAMA. We've collected the top questions about V6 for you all to see:

Q: What changes will be made to the extruder?

A:We're adding a filament-switching module to the V6 extruder, and to ensure better fusing of different filaments, we've added independent heating modules for each filament.

Q: How can we configure the colors for the prints? Does V6 support other slicers?

A:TheAnkerMakeSlicer will be updated to include model coloring and be able to support importing models in3MF with color information. Inthe AnkerMake Slicer, you will be able to select specificparts of the model and assign your desired colors to those areas. You can also visitthe AnkerMakeCommunity in Discord andModelLibrary on the AnkerMakeApp, to see how other users color the same model.

Currently, V6 only supports setting or editing model colors intheAnkerMakeSlicer. We will open-sourcesoftwarefiles to the community.

Q: Can we use non-Anker filament brands and set temperatures for each spool in V6?

A:As mentioned above, we've given each of the six filament spools an independent heating module. That allows you to set filaments at different temperatures in a single print. To set temperatures, use the AnkerMake Slicer or automatically apply these settings via the NFC tags on AnkerMake official filaments.

We support other filament brands, but they might not have NFC tags. You'll need to manually set the color, temperatures for printing, storage, and drying, and other relevant information. There may also be slight color differences when the model renders.

Q: Will we have to switch back and forth between the extruders to use the V6? What's involved in hooking up V6 to M5, and how quick and easy is it to convert M5 back to normal operation?

A:V6 comes with a separate extruder and supports high-speed multi-color printing. If you want to print multi-color models, you need to replace the original extruder on your printer with the V6 extruder.

As for switching extruders, that's easy.TheV6 and M5extruders use the same backplane, so they connect to the X-axis in the same way.The M5 structure is also designed to be taken apart quickly for easier switching. Finally, V6 is designed to connect and be ready to use. You can switch back to an M5 extruder anytime for higher speed with a single filament.

Q: Can I still feed filament from V6 to M5 if I refit the standard M5 extruder?

A: Currently, it is not possiblebecause the feeding process for V6differs from M5.

Q: Can we get a better description of Anker's solution for V6 to print multi-colored prints without a purge tower? No other company has been able to accomplish this yet.

A:We're sorry, but we can't share this information yet because it's a confidential trade secret. We do plan to announce how it works in the future. In the meantime, just know we've put in a lot of effort to achieve this, and you won't regret using it.

We hope you found these questions and answers helpful. If you haven't joined the AnkerMake Community on Discord, you can do sohere!

Thanks again for your continued support. We look forward to bringing V6 Color Engine to you soon.

Keep Making,

The AnkerMake Team