Technologies

Supercharge Your 3D Printer With This Must-Have Upgrade

The new Revo Six hot end from E3D is an easy way to swap in different nozzles on your 3D printer.

Almost all the best 3D Printers can be upgraded in some way with new parts and accessories. One of the most important potential upgrades is to the machine’s hot end assembly, which controls the temperature your printer prints at, and houses the nozzle that helps determine the filament flow.

The Rapidchange Revo Six is a replacement hot end for your 3D printer. It’s from E3D, a company that’s been making parts for 3D printers for years and is one of the gold standards, especially for nozzles and hot ends. This new model has really changed how I use my 3D printers and how I think about the models I’m making.

With the Revo Six, you can swap out the nozzle part of a printer’s hot end easily, which allows for lots of variation in the materials and line thickness for your project. Normally you need to remove the filament from your nozzle, heat the nozzle to loosen the threads, undo it with a socket wrench while it’s hot, then let it cool. After that, you can install your new nozzle, but you need to install it cold, then retighten it once it’s hot.

The $93 Revo Six (£77 GBP) takes out a lot of steps by making the nozzle and other parts of the printing assembly one piece and fully removable by hand. Take out your filament, immediately unscrew the nozzle, and swap it out. This saves a lot of time when replacing nozzles that’ve worn out, but the real magic is swapping different-sized nozzles for different models.

Why you want different nozzle sizes

Often the purpose of your 3D model dictates the settings you’ll use to print it. When printing something delicate with a lot of details, you need a smaller nozzle diameter. With something structural that requires strength, you need a larger diameter. Most 3D printers come with a 0.4mm nozzle as standard, which is fine as a happy medium but won’t always be enough in either direction.

The genius of the Revo Six is the ability to change nozzle sizes almost on the fly. Each nozzle size is color-coded and available from 0.15mm all the way up to 0.8mm and can be replaced in less than a minute. The $89 kit comes with a 0.4mm nozzle but the $139 fully loaded kit has four nozzles ranging from 0.25 to 0.8mm.

I’ve printed a set of brackets for a machine I needed to mount to the wall. The mount is completely hidden and layer lines don’t matter, so I used the 0.8mm nozzle to print extra thick, extra strong parts as quickly as possible (larger layer lines mean faster printing too). As soon as I’d finished the brackets, I immediately swapped the nozzles on the Revo Six to the 0.25mm one and started printing a Flower Dragon with tiny details from Fotis Mint. Having that flexibility in a single machine is fantastic. It saves money on different printers and, more importantly, saves me time, something I have very little of day-to-day.

Upgrade the upgrade with the E3D Obxidian

Like all good 3D printing accessories, even the Rapidchange Revo V6 can be upgraded. Not only did E3D produce low-cost replacement nozzles for all the different sizes you might want, they made a specialty nozzle for the exotic filaments too.

The Obxidian (pronounced obsidian, like the rock) is a nozzle from E3D that’s specially designed to help combat the wear and tear you get from using abrasive materials infused with other mediums, such as wood or carbon fiber. It’s made from copper, rather than a brass alloy, and has a special coating that helps move the fibers through the nozzle without sticking. It’s also designed to work with the Revo system for quick changing.

Buzz phrases like «the last nozzle you’ll ever need» feel hyperbolic, but at the same time, the longevity of the $59 Obxidian compared with standard nozzles — it can last indefinitely as long as you aren’t using glow-in-the-dark filament at high speed — makes me wonder if it’s even worth buying a standard Revo nozzle again. Actually, the Obxidian comes only in 0.4mm and 0.6mm diameters, so it’s worth having the other nozzle sizes around for other print jobs. Filaments with other materials in them — wood or carbon-infused PLA for example — benefit from a high flow rate, so larger nozzle sizes work better for the Obxidan. For standard prints, though, the Obxidian has everything covered.

An accessory that elevates your entire machine

E3D Revo Six Obxidian Nozzle

$59 at Matterhackers

All the best 3D printing accessories improve your experience in some way, but the Revo Six coupled with an Obxidian nozzle will fundamentally change how you print. Because so many manufacturers have used the E3D V6 hot end in some fashion, the company was able to create Revo Six systems that are easy to replace on a huge variety of 3D printers. From Creality to Prusa, E3D has Revo to help you convert.

I’m convinced that the Rapidchange Revo Six is the next big change to hot ends moving forward, and though I haven’t managed to convert all my 3D printers, if you have just one or two, then investing in a fully loaded kit is well worth it.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 23 #599

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 599.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be Halloween-themed, as the answers are all rather dangerous. Some of them are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Please don’t eat me!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Remember Mr. Yuk?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

POND, NOON, NODE, BALE, SOCK, LOVE, LOCK, MOCK, LEER, REEL, GLOVE, DAIS, LEAN, LEAD, REEL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

AZALEA, HEMLOCK, FOXGLOVE, OLEANDER, BELLADONNA

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is POISONOUS. To find it, look for the P that is the first letter on the far left of the top row, and wind down and across.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Oct. 23, #395

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 395.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has one of those crazy purple categories, where you wonder if anyone saw the connection, or if people just put that grouping together because only those four words were left. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Fan noise.

Green group hint: Strategies for hoops.

Blue group hint: Minor league.

Purple group hint: Look for a connection to hoops.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Sounds from the crowd.

Green group: Basketball offenses.

Blue group: Triple-A baseball teams.

Purple group: Ends with a basketball stat.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is sounds from the crowd. The four answers are boo, cheer, clap and whistle.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is basketball offenses. The four answers are motion, pick and roll, Princeton and triangle.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is triple-A baseball teams. The four answers are Aces, Jumbo Shrimp, Sounds and Storm Chasers.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends with a basketball stat. The four answers are afoul, bassist, counterpoint and sunblock.

Technologies

Amazon’s Delivery Drivers Will Soon Wear AI Smart Glasses to Work

The goal is to streamline the delivery process while keeping drivers safe.

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it is developing new AI-powered smart glasses to simplify the delivery experience for its drivers. CNET smart glasses expert Scott Stein mentioned this wearable rollout last month, and now the plan is in its final testing stages.

The goal is to simplify package delivery by reducing the need for drivers to look at their phones, the label on the package they’re delivering and their surroundings to find the correct address.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

A heads-up display will activate as soon as the driver parks, pointing out potential hazards and tasks that must be completed. From there, drivers can locate and scan packages, follow turn-by-turn directions and snap a photograph to prove delivery completion without needing to take out their phone.

The company is testing the glasses in select North American markets.

Watch: See our Instagram post with a video showing the glasses

A representative for Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

To fight battery drain, the glasses pair with a controller attached to the employee’s delivery vest, allowing them to replace depleted batteries and access operational controls. The glasses will support an employee’s eyeglass prescription. An emergency button will be within reach to ensure the driver’s safety.

Amazon is already planning future versions of the glasses, which will feature «real-time defect detection,» notifying the driver if a package was delivered to the incorrect address. They plan to add features to the glasses to detect if pets are in the yard and adjust to low light.