I had a Blob of Death on my Sparkx i7 last week so had to take it apart more than ever before. A few observations:
-
The Toolhead cable is actually a USB-C cable instead of a proprietary bundle of wires. This should make it a lot easier to replace in the event of an issue or accidental damage.
-
The back cover pulls off easily with no screws and reveals all the connections on the PCB board. There was no glue on the connectors at least not in my beta release unit. The printhead has 4 wires in a single 4 pin connector which is so much easier to remove than other printers I’ve worked on (cough Elegoo Centauri Carbon cough)
-
The back shroud which the back cover attaches to is removed with 4 screws: 2 on either side of the toolhead cable and 1 on either side of the cover. It then slides up. When replacing it, be certain it is properly in place - if not, the toolhead cable will NOT plug all the way in and you will get a BM0111 Communications Error. Make sure the fan wire it has is pushed over the top of the pcb board - this was what prevented mine from sliding down all the way - even being a hair too high will trigger the error.
-
Removing the hotend requires removing the shroud in 3) along with 2 screws on the hotend you can reach from the back (no need to remove the model fan shroud at the bottom). This cable along with the fan cable runs neatly thru a channel on the left side of the print head (looking at it from the front). Free it from the channel and then slide the connector cable for the hotend down thru the hole at the bottom. Pretty easy actually! I used the tip of my finger to gently push the new cable back into the channel and it goes it pretty easily.
All in all, it is a pretty easy operation once you know what you have to remove (and not the extra stuff I did though I didn’t need to).