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Why did my extruder motor stopped working? | I have found an answer. So dumb♂️♂️. It need to heat up nozzle before use extrude or retract command |
Strange layer separation issues on Ender 3 | Well, you have several problems with your print. One that could be affecting your print is the nozzle temperature. The print looks wavy and has a lack of adhesion, so the filament is not flowing properly, causing under extrusion and will provoke a clogged nozzle.
Try to increase the temperature by 5°C and do a small test, don't wait to waste material and try another 2-3°C more.
Try to reduce the printing sped; try reducing the feed rate on your printer to 90% or less. While printing you can reduce the feed rate to see which speed works better at your printing temperature. I prefer to do this first rather than change the temperature; If you notice that your print gets better at lower feed rate then change your temperature higher to print a higher speed. |
Offset in X or Y axis | There are two things which shouldn't be mixed.
Position of the object relative to its own coordinate system.
In general object doesn't have specific position stored inside. Which is obvious as structure of the object should store construction of an object but not its position. So position is relation-to-something so to speak and because object itself doesn't contain any information about object environment then there is no position stored.
But there is one hack. All coordinates stored inside object are in fact a realtion to some starting point. Let's say it's a zero-point or starting point of the coordinate system of the object. This is sometimes anoying because it's usually bottom left corner or center of the object. Unfortunately some applications store this starting point out of the object. This means that object has starting point in some point but this point is outside of the object itself.
This cause the situation when user loads an object in another application then object is translated in "strange" position.
Position of the object in printing application.
When user loads an object into printing application then object is usualy set in the center of build plate. This also sounds obvious but if inner coordinate system of the object is translated then object can be repositioned even out of the build plate.
So what is the solution for such situation.
There are two options.
Manage object coordinate system in the application which create STL file or convert object into STL format or
Manage (switch off) option called "center on build plate" or "center on the bed" or "center object" or "auto-center parts" in printing application.
Then it will be possible (or easier) to position object according to user needs.
Another issue is STL object which is in fact kinda assembly of separate objects. If you encounter such situation. See here for example
These two guys are stored in one STL file so they have common coordinate system and common starting point. All above applies to such assembly.
Applications allows user to split such assembly into separate objects so each one can be repositioned separately. But be careful - split can disassemble parts of the object itself. In the example the tounge of the trex is 3rd object in the assembly.
In terms of mentioned aps:
Reptier: go to object placement "tab" and set position manually
Slic3r: go to Printer settings and set "print center", also you can switch off File > Preferences > Auto-center parts
MetterControl: go to printer > print area and set print center |
What motherboard ID is appropriate for MKS BASE V1.5 in Marlin Firmware? | Marlin appears to support older versions of the board (and possibly this one) according to this line
#define BOARD_MKS_13 47 // MKS v1.3 or 1.4 (maybe higher)
in boards.h which can be found here.
The company also has a guide and looks to provide pre-configured (but not fully configured?) downloads of Marlin. They have different links for different displays but then ask you to change lines manually but don't mention changing the board so I have no idea what they are doing or what is different between the downloads.
It appears either way you go (Marlin from Github or from Osoyoo) you will need to change some lines to get each axis to behave correctly. |
Configuration of the Anet A6 full graphic LCD 12864 on an Anet A8 | To downsize the firmware you can manually disable a lot of less useful stuff. E.g. why have 2 pre-heating profiles for PLA and ABS while you can set hotend and heated bed manually.
One of the largest memory savers is disabling arc support, G2/G3 commands aren't used by most slicer programs. From Configuration_adv.h can be found that you can save more than 3000 bytes:
//
// G2/G3 Arc Support
//
#define ARC_SUPPORT // Disable this feature to save ~3226 bytes
You can probably find more features to disable to save memory, e.g. look into question "What can be removed from Marlin 1.1.9 to fit on 128K controller? I'm currently 318 bytes over", quoting:
//#define SHOW_BOOTSCREEN // enabled
//#define SHOW_CUSTOM_BOOTSCREEN // enabled
//#define CUSTOM_STATUS_SCREEN_IMAGE // enabled
//#define LCD_INFO_MENU // enabled, shows useless 'about printer' menu
//#define STATUS_MESSAGE_SCROLLING // enabled, saves some flash space
//#define DOGM_SD_PERCENT // disabled, show print % bar graph
//#define NO_WORKSPACE_OFFSETS // Disables M206 and M428
//#define ARC_SUPPORT // enabled, used for CNC toolpaths
#define NO_VOLUMETRICS // disabled, not used without width sensor?
//#define SCROLL_LONG_FILENAMES
#define SLIM_LCD_MENUS // Disable 'extraneous' menu items
//#define SPEAKER // Disable beeper if you don't want it.
//#define LEVEL_BED_CORNERS |
How to enlarge a Sketchup Model | Use Cura middle button in bottom |
How to fix bulging first layers of print? | You specify that 1 to 6 layers are expanded.
Does that match with the number of bottom perimeters you ask for? If so, then I would suspect over-extrusion.
If not, it could be a combination of two problems:
The head is too close to the bed, and
The head has too much vertical compliance or springiness.
In this scenario, the head being too close puts additional upward pressure on the head. The springiness allows the head to displace upward, but it is still too close. Being too close, the extruded bead is spread out too far. With each additional layer, the head is relatively less close, and the effect reduces until eventually the head is not displaced by the extruded bead, and the object prints normally. |
Filament not feeding then eventually blocked | From my experience with mk8 extruders lower than optimal nozzle temperature or clogged nozzle can lead to an extruder's stepper motor overheating and partial burning out of a stepper
It looks like “Achilles' heel” of mk8 extruders. I had to change 4 stepper motors for 2 3d printers with mk8 due to that
First symptoms – skipped steps. You could also check a temperature of your stepper – next symptom is a high temperature of stepper motor after several hours of printing
My fix for this issue – adding cooling fans to stepper sides and top (3 fans). It significantly reduced overheating and hopefully a life of stepper
Another solution of this issue can be in using of a stepper motor with gearbox to increase torque on a filament gear, so no high torque needed from stepper itself
About printing temperature, it depends on plastic which you are using
I’m using ABS plastic with an optimal printing temperature from 230-260 Celsius degree. For my current plastic supplier optimal temp is about 255 Celsius degree
To check the optimal temperature for your plastic you can print one box in different temperatures depending on Z position and found the optimal temperature by the z position of surface with the best quality. You can find code samples how doing it here
If a temperature is too high then this part of the box will be bloated, if it's too low - you can see the gaps. Here is the video, which illustrating this for PLA
UPDATE:
The issue was in the low temperature of printing. After calibration and setting temperature by calibration outcomes to 200 Celsius degree printer started working well
However, please be aware of the fact that wrong printing temperature can not only decrease the quality of printed things, but also can lead to wear of your printer parts and even can break it |
What is the 3D printer filament (or pellet) most resistant to bending at high heats? | Your expected operating temperature exceeds the glass transition temperature by 3 °C. This implies that the structure will become weak and can deform under load.
Note that you cannot simply print PEI on a normal machine, it requires a special high temperature capable printer with hot end temperatures up to 400 °C and heated bed over 120 °C up to 160 °C, furthermore it will need a heated chamber (up to about 80 °C) which requires special care to cooling and placement of electronics and motors.
Not having specified what kind of structure you require, you could look into steel. |
Replace X axis motor with different model | Since they have the same rotation angle per step, I shouldn't have to calibrate the new model, right? (I'll use the original wheel)
Yes, you do not have to change anything, other than the Vref of the stepper driver.
Did the vendor send me a motor with inferior performances?
Yes, the one you received has a lower height, so smaller coils and smaller permanent magnets; basically lower torque.
Will my performances degrade if I use the new motor?
That depends on the loading of the carriage of the X-axis, it could if it is heavy; you now have less torque available to move the carriage. But, this type is frequently found in 3D printer kits and should work. |
Running costs of 3D printing | I have a Prusa I3M3+MMU2, which I have had for a year.
During the first year, the display failed under warranty and replaced for free. The power supply also failed, and although Prusa replaced it, I was in a hurry and bought another supply to use as a backup for about \$60.00.
I have used two rolls of paper towels, a bottle of acetone, and a quart of isopropanol, for maybe \$5.00.
I have bought a spare thermister for about \$10.00, but haven't installed it yet.
I bought a couple of new nozzles for specialized materials for \$35.00, but the nozzle I got with the machine isn't worn.
I bought the textured build plate (when it was finally available) for about $30.00.
So, my running cost, exclusive of electricity, is about \$140.00, including buying accessories which haven't been consumed.
I have also bought way too much filament, which you aren't counting. Filament cost has dwarfed my other expenses. |
Can I print and sell 3D models licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | I am not an attorney, so this isn't legal advice. Like any legal question, you should consult with an actual attorney, who can consider all the gory details.
That said, it seems like you've got the BY and SA parts covered. "Non-commercial" is more difficult: does a sale that's not for profit count as "commercial"?
The Creative Commons site (https://creativecommons.org/faq/#does-my-use-violate-the-noncommercial-clause-of-the-licenses) explains it a bit more, as pasted below. But perhaps the best thing is to just drop an email to the originator and ask. Probably you'll get an email back saying it's fine; and who knows, maybe you'll make a new friend, too. I've been on both ends of exchanges like that, and it's generally worked just fine.
Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?
CC's NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are "primarily
intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary
compensation." This is intended to capture the intention of the
NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are
either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC's definition does
not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable
organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of
the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an
NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term.
Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the
situation and the intentions of the user.
In CC's experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether
a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering
the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses
that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC
cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are
unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification,
or search for works that permit commercial uses.
CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes
into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key
points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons
published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and
noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are
not intended to serve as CC's official interpretation of what is and
is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not
be relied upon as such. |
How does the sizes of nozzle diameter and the Z-axis layer resolution work? | Yes, they do reduce the speed. Basically, the speed at which you feed filament determines how large of a volume comes out, and the distance you move the extruder means this volume gets distributed over this distance. However, this is not the whole story.
The size of your nozzle determines only two things: the maximum layer height and the minimum feature size. It does not affect minimum layer height (and obviously doesn't affect maximum feature size) although there are some practical constraints (you wouldn't want to print 0.1 mm layers with a 5 mm nozzle).
The nozzle squishes the filament down as it is extruded; the filament is basically forced into the gap between the nozzle and the previous layer. There's no limit to how thin of a layer you can print (the 60 micron figure is just something the marketing department made up, you can likely print even thinner layers). So long as you can position your Z-axis with sufficient accuracy (which is usually no problem) you can print arbitrarily thin layers.
On the other hand, the nozzle size does determine the maximum layer height. Your need the filament to be squished a bit, or else it won't stick to the previous layer properly. You can't print layers thicker than your nozzle size, and it is generally recommended to print with a layer size that is at most 80 % of your nozzle size (e.g. with a 0.4 mm nozzle you shouldn't attempt to print layers thicker than 0.32 mm) but this is just a guideline.
Your extrusion width is the width of the line deposited by your nozzle. This is generally (due to the mentioned squishing) a bit larger than your nozzle size. With a 0.4 mm nozzle you should set your extrusion width to something slightly larger, like 0.5 mm. It is technically possible to print with an extrusion width that is the same as (or even smaller) than your nozzle size, but this results in very weak prints: as mentioned before, you want the plastic to get squished slightly.
They claim an accuracy up to 100 micron. This doesn't mean that you can print features as small as 100 micron (since you can't, due to the extrusion width being much larger). What this means, is for example, that if you print a 10 mm cube, you should expect its real size to be between 9.9 mm and 10.1 mm. Such a cube does not have any features that are smaller than your minimum feature size, but its outer walls can be positioned with greater precision than this minimum feature size.
I should caution you that the 100 micron figure is "up to" and in practice you will have a hard time achieving this. |
Anet A8 display on MKS Gen L board | Ok guys I got it! It really was just what is the answer in the other question (Connecting (Anet A8) 2004 display to MKS GEN L)!
My problem was: I used jumper cables and some duct tape to hold them together ... and the only issue was, that I didn't insert it enough. I got mad today and just pushed them really hard more into the AUX2 connector and it suddenly works! |
How do I compute the surface & volume of a large amount of STL files? | You could use the Python console of FreeCAD. Issuing the following commands
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.ActiveObject.Shape.Area
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.ActiveObject.Shape.Volume
will output the area and the volume of the object, respectively.
I don't know how to access the console output from outside FreeCAD, but there is an option in FreeCAD called Redirect internal Python output to report view which I think is what you are looking for.
You might want to look into the Scripting documentation of FreeCAD for further instructions. |
Need help to only print one small part | Alright so I asked in my facebook group and a friendly fellow game me the tip to use Meshmixer from AutoCAD and then check a video on Plane cut. I only needed 3 simple cuts and the piece I needed was all ready to print. :) 40 Minutes to print and only 3g of PLA to spend :) |
stable FDM materials | Tough set of requirements and definately pushing into the professional domain. I would recommend checking out ULTEM 1010 Resin which is similar to PEEK but has a higher glass transition temp of 215 °C. Check out the spec sheet from Stratsys.
I hope this helps. :-) |
Proper settings for printing rubber and rubber-like materials? | First off, you need the right extruder design. Specifically, the filament path between the drive gear or hob and hot end must be extremely well-constrained. 1.75mm TPE filaments (thermoplastic elastomers) will buckle in an instant if given the chance. That means they will try to squeeze out of any little opening in the filament drive path rather than being forced through the nozzle.
Is there a gap >1mm anywhere between your extruder drive gear and hot end? Including the groove in the drive gear itself. If so, either change extruders or print something to fill the gap. Many popular extruders already have Ninjaflex conversion parts uploaded on Thingiverse or Youmagine.
Are you using a 1.75mm bowden drive? You probably shouldn't bother with the softer TPEs like Ninaflex. Harder TPEs like Semiflex may be ok, but it's still difficult. 3mm bowden drives may perform ok. Direct drive extruders are highly recommend.
TPUs (thermoplastic urethanes) in particular can be sticky in the filament feed path between the spool and extruder. Try to minimize corners and turns (even inside PTFE tubes) between the extruder and spool. As a general rule of thumb, don't exceed 180 degrees of cumulative tube curvature in the entire path from the spool to the nozzle.
Once your filament feed path is fully enclosed, the filament will be constrained and unable to squeeze out the side or wrap around your drive gear. That's the most important step.
The next problem is simply loading the filament. Purging out PLA or ABS with a soft TPE can be challenging because of the force required to purge the old material. Many default loading routines are actually too fast for TPEs and will cause the TPE filament to bunch up rather than purging the previous material. It tends to extrude better when there is nothing else in the way. Some tips:
Do some cold-pulls to clear out the hot end as much as possible before loading the TPE. (Nylon is ideal for this. Preheat to nylon temps, run through some nylon, let the extruder cool to ~180C, and then forcefully pull out the nylon. If you can't pull it out, pull hotter. If it leaves nylon behind, pull colder.)
If you have a high-melting plastic like PET or nylon in the hot end, purge with a lower-melting solid filament like PLA first. This will reduce the viscosity of the old material when inserting the TPE.
If your printer has a fixed loading speed, consider making a gcode file with nothing but a preheat and very slow extruder move as a custom loading script.
If you fail to load and jam up the TPE, try again! Sometimes it takes a few load/unload cycles to get the old material purged and a clean feed going.
The final issue is print settings. You ever hear the saying, "you can't push a rope"? That's kind of what you're fighting with TPEs. With a properly constrained feed path, you can push rubber, but not very hard. So minimizing extrusion force is the name of the game.
Print SLOW to start. Like 10mm/s. You can dial it up once you're getting good results. This will minimize nozzle back-pressure and reduce the amount of "pushing a rope" that the extruder drive must do.
Retract as little as possible. Turn off "optional" retractions in your slicer, such as during layer changes. Some people even print with no retraction at all, and use high travel speeds and coast/wipe features to minimize stringing. That's overkill, but it can help with marginal extruders. I personally add about 50% to my normal ABS/PLA retraction distance.
Print on the hotter side of the recommended range to start, then dial down the temp as needed to reduce stringing and oozing. Printing hot will reduce nozzle back-pressure.
With all that, it should be possible to print the softest TPEs with reasonable success. But if you really can't get it working right, plenty of higher-durometer TPEs are available now that are significantly easier to extrude. |
Understanding water soluble support structures | Owning the Ultimaker 3 Extended and having printed kilometers of filament on this printer I can tell you that printing with PVA, apart from the slicing problems you mention, is not easy as it looks. PVA clogs up very fast and is very hygroscopic. Moist PVA will make popping sounds on extrusion and is prone to failing. PVA is not my preferred solution. An alternative solution is to use break-away filament, my colleagues have some reasonable good experience with that.
Why didn't the slicing algorithm place PVA support structures inside the overhang, in the same way as it placed the PLA support structures?
The difference you report could be caused by the slicer settings. I get exactly the same results if you set the slicing parameter Support Placement to Touching Buildplate (first image), or Everywhere (second image).
vs.
What is the reason for the external scaffolding, and how does it help support the internal overhang, which now has no internal support at all?
To answer the scaffolding part of your question, that can only be explained by being the decision of the developers. There must be very good reasons for doing it like this as a similar support structure is generated in other slicers, e.g. Slic3r (actually this is caused by a slicer setting, see this answer explaining why the scaffolding is caused). Some slicers do have options to change the support type, e.g. Slic3r has the option pillars, which creates pillars without external scaffolding:
vs.
Is the behaviour I expected possible, advisable or configurable in Cura? If so, what options should I be looking at, if not is there other software that does support this?
Playing with the settings to reduce the amount of PVA as suggested in the comments by enabling the type of extruder for specific parts of the extruder I was able to create a solution without scaffolding. This solution only uses PVA for the bottom and top layer of the support structure.
The shown settings1) produce a support structure with PVA top and bottom layers:
or
Where the latter image is in material color; black PLA and natural colored PVA
1) It might be worth mentioning that by default, the Support section doesn't show the Support interface extruder options and you have to go into Preferences and check the Setting Visibility option for those to appear. |
How to configure Cura to run the Z probe before heating | In Cura (and Slic3r), you can 100% customize what the printer does before printing your actual model through custom start/end g-code.
If you navigate to the Start/End-GCode tab in Cura, then select start.gcode, you can see what operations are run before each print begins. Lines prefixed with ; are comments, and does not affect the printing in any way.
Basically, we want to manually tell the printer to do the auto leveling before heating up the nozzle by editing the g-code in start.gcode.
G-Code generated with the default start.gcode:
If you try to slice some model with the default code found in start.gcode, you will get something like the following (depending on your printer):
; CURA AUTOMATICALLY INSERTS THESE TEMPERATURE CODES
M190 S70.000000 ; Set bed temperature to 70 degrees
M109 S210.000000 ; Set nozzle temperature to 210 degrees
; THESE ARE THE CODES FROM START.GCODE (for a ROBO 3D R1)
G28 ;move printer to endstops (the home position)
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded filament length
M565 Z-1 ;set z-probe offset
G1 Z5 F5000 ;move the printer 5mm above the bed
G29 ;run auto-leveling
; THE ACTUAL MODEL BEGINS HERE
;Layer count: 168
;LAYER:0
.
.
Analyzing the g-code output
At the top of this code snippet, we can see that Cura automatically inserts g-code for heating up the bed and nozzle to their respective temperatures with the M190 and M109 g-codes. This means the printer always will heat up the nozzle before reading the start.gcodes that we set. However, if we manually override M109 code in start.gcode, the M109 at the top will automagically disappear from the generated g-code output! (Thanks, @TomvanderZanden!)
We could therefore use the auto-leveling command G29 before manually setting the nozzle temperature with M109; specifically, we want to add M109 S{print_temperature}, which reads the Basic -> Print Temperature-setting in Cura, and replace {print_temperature} with it automatically.
Manipulating start.gcode:
In order to postpone heating the hotend till after probing, start.gcode could be something like:
G28 ;move printer to endstops (the home position)
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded filament length
M565 Z-1 ;set z-probe offset <----- ( YOU HAVE TO ADJUST THIS, READ BELOW)
G1 Z5 F5000 ;move the printer 5mm above the bed
G29 ;run auto-leveling
M109 S{print_temperature} ;set nozzle temperature, and wait for it heat up
And that's about it! You can then use these codes in your start.gcode. However, you probably will have to recalibrate your z-prove offset.
Adjust z-probe offset:
Normally, auto-leveling is done with the nozzle heated for a reason: when the nozzle is warm, it expands slightly, moving closer to the bed. You might therefore have to adjust your Z-probe offset with the M565 command (as demonstrated in the snippet) to account for the increase in nozzle length when warm.
Remember:
Remember that when editing g-code in this manner, you will take full control of how the printer operates. You could therefore very well do something unintended, so keep the power switch close! |
What kind of silicone glue should I use to attach my thermsistors? | The main requirement here is temperature resistance. A 3D printer extruder is very, very hot, and will easily exceed the ratings of many typical silicone glues in normal service or during a runaway event. (You should always plan for an eventual thermal runaway. They're alarmingly common with cheap kit printers.) Even high-temp glues will not survive the temperatures an extruder can reach at full power if the firmware locks up.
Muffler putty is popular for fixing thermistors because it's one of the few widely-available ways of attaching a thermistor that will easily withstand the heat. In fact, it will survive after the aluminum hot block melts. (Yes, that can happen.) But muffler putty is fairly brittle, and has a different coefficient of thermal expansion from aluminum, so there is some risk of the thermistor detaching over time. I really don't recommend puttying thermistors used in extruders -- many people do, but it's less robust and less secure for long-term use than the proper hardware fixing methods found in modern hot block designs like the E3Dv6. The temperature sensing is sufficiently fast and accurate simply by putting the thermistor into a pocket in the hot block, without any kind of potting around the glass bead.
High-temp RTV glues are very suitable for heated build plates. Pretty much any RTV (such as from your local automotive repair store) is fine if you just want to attach a thermistor to a plate. However, silicone heaters will require silicone adhesives. I've had good success with Dow Corning 736. |
Is it safe to print a rotor insert for a centrifuge using a makerbot? | It's difficult to determine if the buckets are fully enclosed, but I suspect that they are. The enclosure into which the inserts are placed will provide some structural support.
3D printed objects have relatively low torsion strength, but a reasonable compression strength, especially with high infill levels. One could consider that the item placed into the insert will transmit force to the bucket, but likely not compress to the point of destruction.
Allowing also that the forces on a swinging bucket centrifuge are "downward" or when in use, "outward," the primary location of force will be the bottom of the insert you create. It appears that the main function of the insert is to keep the tubes separated, rather than to keep them supported.
Create your inserts, but leave an open bottom. Attach a suitably strong panel to the bottom of your created model with epoxy.
Another thing to consider in this project is the mode of failure. What can go wrong? The tubes in the insert should not explode, but if they do, is it merely cleaning up that follows? I suppose one aspect of the inserts is to keep the tube walls in column, to keep all forces linear to the tube cylinder, rather than out of line. It's easy to keep pennies in a stack under pressure, but don't push on them edgewise.
You can and should perform a test on a 3D printed insert. Make one that is relatively flimsy, say a six-tube unit and spin it without tubes in place. Test it prior to the spin for tube fit, then test it after the spin. If there is deformation, you would not be able to insert the tubes after the spin. |
I can't install plugins on OctoPrint? | This is a known issue (WIFI fine, but no internet connection to install plugins) and could well be related to firewall or blocking of certain ports by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
I quote from the provided link (OctoPrint issue tracker):
Disabling the connectivity check did fix the repository access. The check was configure to use google (8.8.8.8) on port various ports (22, 53, 5000, etc. Not sure the default). I do not have any firewall set up outgoing, unless it is buried in the Raspberian install that I am not aware of.
I stumbled across this issue with the same problem, and I fixed the connectivity check by changing the IP to OpenDNS with 1.1.1.1 instead of the Google DNS 8.8.8.8 set by default.
For me this issue was resolved when I update Date+Time on the raspberry... |
Marlin customization; additional output after G0/G1 move | Which section handles G-code processing?
In Marlin Firmware, G-code is processed by procedure void process_parsed_command() in file Marlin_main.cpp
I need to generate an additional digital output
A G-code that is able to set a port value is M42.
You could write a procedure that schedules certain port after a G0 or G1 move, recompile and upload the firmware. |
Tevo Tarantula extruder motor clinking sounds | I'd advise against adjusting the driver's potentiometer without also taking a voltage reading and doing the math to find out what current is being driven through the stepper. Having the current too high can damage your driver or stepper. But having the current too low can cause that clicking as the stepper internally skips.
The filament may also be too cold, and is providing too much resistance to being forced out the extrusion nozzle.
Or the filament may be getting stuck in the area just above the heating element in your hotend. This is called heat creep, and can cause jams. Based on your description it looks like this is happening to your hotend.
Or your nozzle may be clogged with dust and contaminants. Check the diameter spec for your hotend and look up an appropriate cleaning method (for ABS you can soak in acetone, for PLA there are tiny drill bits to clear out debris).
Or you may be trying to print too fast. Lowering the print speed means plastic is extruded slower and there's less pressure built up in the hotend. I would check on the other options before adjusting print speed, because it can fix the symptoms but may not be the root cause. |
Why do my prints have such a rough surface? (Taz Lulzbot Pro) | This looks like Z axis offset is set incorrectly. That should come with an appropriate setting from the factory (for my printer it's -.85mm), but that setting can get lost a few ways; you can either reenter the factory setting (if your print head hasn't been opened up), or recalibrate -- but if doing the latter, be sure the nozzle is clean, or the calibration routine can cause the problem you're trying to solve!
If You've Never Reassembled Your Toolhead
Check that the settings from the QA record are still installed.
Your printer came with a sheet of paper including all the measurements that were taken when the calibration prints that came with it were created. If you updated firmware with several versions of Cura LE between the Pro's release and the fix for the relevant bug, the update would have cleared the EEPROM with those settings. A good place to start is to put them back in.
The full set of settings isn't just Z axis offset, but also offset between the two heads, and backlash measurements -- but if you lost Z axis offset, you're likely to have lost all of them, so it's worth going over the full set.
If You Have Reassembled Your Toolhead
Clean the nozzle, and rerun automatic calibration.
"Clean the nozzle", that is, by bringing it up to temperature and using the brillo pad that came in the little toolkit with the printer.
When I say "automatic calibration", I'm not referring to the leveling routine that runs with every print, but the longer routine that's accessed under "Measure automatically" button in the backlash or nozzle offset "Advanced Settings" LCD menu.
The automatic calibration routines determine when the head is in contact with the calibration cube via electrical conductivity. If there's anything on the head that can stop a circuit from being created the moment it touches the cube, that's going to throw off the calculated locations.
(BTW, if your printer doesn't warn you on the LCD display that the head should be clean and unloaded when running this operation, you're probably on old firmware; update Cura LE, and let it upload new firmware for you).
The test print at https://download.lulzbot.com/TAZ/TAZ_Pro/v1.0.3/sample_prints/calibration/vernier_dim-test.gcode (which is perhaps more compact than the one that came with your printer, if you got one of the very first units off the assembly line) pairs with the instructions/documentation in steps 15-19 at https://ohai.lulzbot.com/project/calibration-taz-pro/quiver/. That said, the Z-axis measurements are mostly pertinent for the very beginning of step 15, measuring the height of the skirt around the print before it starts. (You'll want to either pause or cancel the print to remove the skirt for measurement in your calipers; the sample gcode delay isn't long enough to do it carefully otherwise!).
And Don't Be Afraid To Call Support
Customer service from folks who know their stuff and are around evenings and weekends are part of what you're paying for when you buy a Lulzbot. The above is taken from my experience diagnosing quality issues on a TAZ Pro, but support knows what they're doing much better than I do; don't be shy about taking advantage! |
Can I use photoelectric sensors to make auto bed leveling on a glass bed? | 3D printers like the German Reprap (see image) already uses a photosensor for homing the axes. The trick will be leveling the leveling sensors.
However, if you use an optical sensor measuring distance, you could mount it on the hotend like we do digital indicators (drop gauge). See Bed leveling method?
You would want a resolution of about 0.01 mm. That method will keep you planer to the movement of the hotend. For automatic leveling the photosensor needs to input to your software.
If you want to permanently connect the photosensor to the hotend, probably the most practical communication method would be USB, which could supply power as well as communication to eliminate batteries. The USB cable could run in the path of the other hotend cables. Less weight on the hot end is if you could remote the laser and detector from the electronics.
If only attached during leveling, batteries and wireless connection is better.
I'm finding more digital drop gauges (second image below, data in cable is USB) with computer interfaces than photosensors. Many of the photosensors would need to interface with a meter first. Because a drop meter makes physical contact, it's not practical to leave on the hotend during printing. |
Issues with my print | You are experiencing layer shifting, please check the tension of the X-axis belt, driver current.
A more elaborated answer is found here. |
My endstops have 4 female plugs, but the examples on the RepRap Prusa i3 Site have 3; what are each of them for? | The website shows exactly what each wire is for. Both middle wires are ground, the wire on the same side as the lever is the signal wire and the last wire is the power wire. |
Increase Z-homing probe number | Homing and mesh probing are 2 separate actions, by setting #define MULTIPLE_PROBING to 3, you inherently create 3 slow probing points for the mesh probing (not the homing probing), with 2 you get a fast/slow probing action.
Everything is possible, but, that means that you need to dig into the sources; not changing the configuration constants. That is not for the faint hearted.
I've seen the responses of fast and slow probing in action, usually the difference is not existent or very very small, like one or two hundredths of a millimeter, I seriously wonder if it makes sense to use more than 2 probing points.
Please note that a damaged bed may benefit more from increasing the probing array amount (from 3 x 3 to 4 x 4 / 5 x 5). The number of probing points discussed earlier only dictates the amount of probing actions in a single point; if the sensor hits the bed the probe measurement is done, if it hits again, the value should more or less be the same (give or take the accuracy of the sensor), I do not see what damage to a bed would imply more probing measurements in a single spot. The only rationale would be if the sensor itself has a large inaccuracy with an error that is not systematic, but random. My BLTouch (original) is pretty accurate and repeatable, I've had more issues with all those cheap knock-offs. |
Turn off OctoPrint server after starting print from SD card | Your printer will stop printing. So no. |
Show generated support structures in Cura | Select the View Modes Button in the upper right hand corner, and select Layers. |
Extruder temperature failure | The first extruder unit appears to have an error the firmware can't detect, which is why TEVO thinks the issue with that extruder is the heat sensor. If the sensor's reading hot relative to actual temp, the block will be too cool to reliably extrude, while the printer won't think anything's wrong and won't try to heat the block more.
However, I'm surprised the extruder can push any amount of any type of fil through the nozzle at room temp, which makes me think there's also some user error here. Non-contact temp gauges like IR guns can be bad at accurately checking very localized temperature; I'd recheck the extruder at what the printer thinks is working temp, but use a contact thermometer like a multimeter with a thermocouple (the Extech MN35 is inexpensive and works well for most hobbyist uses).
The second extruder has a detectable error. Either the sensor is again faulty, but this time reading 0 V (which usually equates to 0 °C), or the heating element is faulty and can't warm the block. Either way, the printer can command as much extruder heat as it wants, the sensor never gets above room temp much less to operating temp, so the printer eventually gives up and tells you there's an extruder heating problem.
This printer-detected heating error is a little easier to troubleshoot because the printer can help you. If the hotend gets to working temp as measured externally, but the sensor reads well below it, the sensor is the problem. If the hotend does not heat, or heats very poorly (like only getting into the 150-ish range when trying to heat to 200), it's the heating element. Both the heater and sensor could be faulty, but the combination of two failures is less likely by simple probability, and it's easier to diagnose the sensor issue with a working heater, so if the heater's not heating, fix that first.
It's possible, even probable, that a combination of parts from the two extruders will give you a working hotend, however you have to know which parts are working, and those parts have to be separable (as in you can remove the needed part from one assembly and put it in the other without destroying the part or either assembly), which at this pricepoint is honestly not a guarantee. The info provided in the question isn't quite enough to say which pieces of each assembly should be combined to give you a working extruder head, but the above tests will tell you. |
Which 3D printer to print heat-resistant material? | Using an Ender 3 for high temperature materials is possible but you need to enclose it to be able to heat the air up to 100 °C.
It's quite involved and it would be much better, if it's something you do seldomly, to have the parts printed professionally.
Many thing start warping or breaking at 100 °C. |
BLTouch Fails & Scraping at the Left Side of the Table | This left bed side issue could be caused by the poor design of the Ender 3 (portal printer single side Z lead screw and counter rolling guide post) in conjunction with the way the bed is probed and the hysteresis of the gantry. The second photo issue could well a result of an imperfection of the bed, a local bump, which cannot be filtered out with insufficient probing points or the firmware bed leveling option. |
How thin can I make the wall of a pipe? | The thinnest wall your printer can print is determined by its nozzle size, and will be a little thicker than that nozzle size.
A great challenge when dealing with thin, hollow cylinders is that the cross-section has very little surface area and it can delaminate easily, especially if the tube is long.
You could try printing the tube with a very thick extrusion with, and using only a single perimeter. That would give better gas-tightness and layer adhesion than two, thinner perimeters, but it may turn out too fragile for your application. In that case, you'll need to print additional perimeters. Sticking to thicker extrusion widths would still be beneficial.
At a two centimeter diameter I'd say the single perimeter has a decent chance of working if you handle them gingerly. |
Prusa i3 - First layer does not stick and looks jagged | Your nozzle is too far from the build plate. You should make some changes to bring the nozzle closer to the build plate for the first layer. There are a number of possibilities for doing this:
Adjust the Z-axis endstop
Loosen the bed leveling screws
Add an offset in G-code
This will squish the plastic down more, enabling it to stick to the build plate.
With solution (3), you have to be careful that you don't crash into the endstop. This solution works best if your printer homes towards max (and not min) or if you have non-mechanical (hall or optical) endstops. |
What is the difference between tuning the speed on the Ender 3 panel, and the Cura Print Speed setting? | You can look under Cura setting to set ' Initial Layer Print Speed ' and ' Initial Layer Travel speed ', you may appropriately set you print speed as you required |
How to fix bad extrusion on my printer | It appears that at a certain point, you're running into issues with the extrusion being a bit too viscous / melted causing it to over-deposit or string (fail to retract completely). It also looks like this issue gradually gets worse as you go. This really feels like nozzle over-heating to me.
My troubleshooting steps would go like this:
Make sure my cooling it set correctly and fan is working properly. The nozzle doesn't adjust its temp for changes in extrusion speed. At times the printer has to rely on the cooling to get the extrusion leaving the nozzle to an ideal deposition temp, which is far lower than the temperate of the nozzle.
Check my tool paths to make sure I'm not starting to return to the same X/Y position too immediately when I reach certain layers, not allowing the previous layer to fully solidify. Consider tweaking the slicer or printing at a lower temperate.
Check if there's a lot of variance in print speeds for different tasks (shell, infill, etc). It can be hard for some printers to maintain the right temp for the extrusion about to be deposited if the speed changes too rapidly. If your printer has been heating extrusion rapidly for quick movements and then the speed slows way down, it can struggle to keep the subsequent slow filament from getting overcooked, as it can't instantly cool the nozzle even with proper cooling. Bring the various extrusion speeds closer together. |
What can cause the build plate to slip? | Before two month ago I tested double-sided tape between bed and glass plate. It's awesome and really works perfectly. No more clips, so I'm able to print to the complete area. And no more slipping. Don't use that much tape, just a little bit at the edges should be totally fine. |
Lower Layers are messy | Referring to the scratching, this could indicate that the nozzle is a little too close to the bed. This can be caused by a non-uniform bed, but that is unlikely in your case as you have tried printing on different areas of the build plate, this implies that the bed is correctly levelled. Still, the nozzle may be too close while having a perfect level bed (easily checked by using a metal ruler on its side over the bed). You could print an adjustable Z endstop trigger mechanism, there can be a few found on Thingiverse, e.g. this one or this one, it should enable you to fine-tune the nozzle to bed distance by turning the adjustment screw; the following image shows an example:
Note that a recent question has a solution that describes that the rollers had too much play on the profile. |
BL-Touch bed leveling seems to produce tilted bed level around Y-axis | The problem with the Tevo Tornado design is that the design is as such that the Z-axis is powered by a single stepper (under the assumption that you have not added a second Z stepper).
This means that the level relies on the rigidity of the X-axis assembly, more specific the play on the guide wheels. Apparently the BL-Touch level determination suffers (the up and down movement while probing) from this design as can be seen from the tilt around the Y-axis direction. This effect causing the tilted level plane is called hysteresis. Now that the Z-axis moves up and down you experience much more problems than using a mechanical switch. The effect is more pronounced when the mass of the hot end carriage is furthest from the Z-axis lead screw.
Note that an extra stepper can also cause tilted level when the second stepper does not move in sync (e.g. missing steps). In such designs, a single stepper (geared) belt driven 2 lead screw has better performance in that respect. |
How can I make this model? | Without any restrictions to your methodology, your objective is easily accomplished. Thingiverse has a truncated icosahedron model available for download and printing.
Because the creator has included in the download the OpenSCAD source files, you could edit it to meet your bed limitations. I've downloaded the source, opened it and found the model is a single hexagon, until you change a parameter from 6 to 5 to get a pentagon. I suspect the assembly is up to the builder to figure out.
It appears that the default is for a 50 mm diameter sphere. Change the 50 in the code to 300 or so to reach your 12" desired diameter.
An alternative to friction welding would be just about any decent epoxy or even a 3D printing pen such as the 3Doodler. |
Creating positives for a food-safe silicone mold: safe? | In principle, ABS is safe for contact with (cold or room-temperature) food. The two main concerns specific to 3D printing are, assuming you start with a filament that is not itself contaminated:
Pores and holes in the printed part which may harbor bacteria
Impurities introduced into the plastic during the printing process
I doubt that the silicone mold will capture the pores and holes with sufficient detail to be of any concern (it certainly won't capture the internal structure, only the surface).
That leaves us with 2. It has been noted that brass nozzles contain trace amounts of lead. This lead can contaminate the printed part, which may in turn contaminate your mold, which may in turn contaminate your food. I don't think this is of realistic concern, since we're looking at trace amounts of trace amounts of lead. The nozzle might also have burnt plastic stuck to it (which might be carcinogenic) so you should make sure to do the print with a very clean nozzle and at a temperature that is not too high.
ABS is food safe for contact with cold or room-temperature food. It is however not food safe for contact with hot food, because at higher temperatures the food may leach certain chemicals out of the plastic. Your application is one of low temperature, but silicone is not food and might perhaps leach some contaminants out of the plastic, regardless of temperature. However, this concern is not specific to 3D printing, as it applies to the method of making moulds out of Lego bricks as well. Therefore, making moulds from 3D printed positives does not appear to be different in a food safety perspective from making them out of LEGO blocks. |
Bed heating stops when paused by filament runout sensor | There is no easy way to keep the bed heated during pause
Looking at the sourcecode, I am pretty sure that the current version (10/29/2019) keeps the heated bed at the right temperature.
Features are built into the firmware. You need an Arduino and some wires to write new firmware to the built-in SOC. Adjusting the code should be as simple as commenting a single line.
That is some serious shortcoming of the CR-10 S5! I can't imagine a reason why not to leave the heated bed on.
The command that keeps the heated bed at temperature is in Marlin_main.cpp:5664:
Source code link |
RetinaCreate Optimal Rotation | Optimal rotation can be considered from different perspectives. For example
as little support as possible. This way app tries to orient object so as much surface as possible doesn't overhang and doesn't need support
bed only support. App tries to orient object so all overhanging parts can be supported directly from the heatbed (not from the object itself)
But have a look on Meshmixer as Ryan Carlyle suggested. In this app you can see 3 kinds of auto orientation procedures. Additionally Meshmixer can create angle support and tree-like support.
In terms of mathematics.
I cannot suggest any sources but you can imagine the way it calculates such optimal rotation. Let's say it will be dead simple explanation of the second approach:
Let's get all faces (facets) and let's project their center points on the "floor" (heatbed) or "ceiling". If imagined projection line slices any other faces then rotation is not optimal. App can calculate "a weight" of such orientation and then try to find the smallest weight of all possible orientations.
Of course it's not that simple. App has to manage concavity, which face requires support at all, and many other aspects but in general you can imagine the algorithm.
edit
"as little support as possible" could be considered as easier to imagine "as little shaddow as possible" and the problem can be simplified to projection and ray tracing
similarly "bed only support" could be simplified to "cast shaddows but not on itself" |
Bed size and nozzle homing offset in Marlin 1.1.9 firmware | The original Anet A8 has:
// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 220
#define Y_BED_SIZE 220
// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS -33
#define Y_MIN_POS -10
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS X_BED_SIZE
#define Y_MAX_POS Y_BED_SIZE
#define Z_MAX_POS 240
So in your case it would be:
// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 220
#define Y_BED_SIZE 220
// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS -16
#define Y_MIN_POS -5
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS X_BED_SIZE
#define Y_MAX_POS Y_BED_SIZE
#define Z_MAX_POS 240
Tuning the bed to print exactly in the middle so that large prints fit on the build plate is described in question: "How to center my prints on the build platform? (Re-calibrate homing offset)". |
How do I find the best settings for a resin? | Since every printer is slightly different (light intensity, for example), you probably want to run one of those 12-spot test patterns where each "spot" gets a different exposure time, then see what time works best.
I found a more general test pattern at Amerilabs Calibration File which may be useful. Not to mention a zillion other test patterns |
What's the advantage of two z motors? | There are three main options here for Mendel style ZX gantries:
One Z screw and motor, which is similar to a cantilevered design but somewhat more stable because of the opposite smooth rod
Two Z screws and two motors
Two Z screws and one motor, with belt synchronization of the two sides
Of all of these, running two screws off one motor is clearly superior in reliability and user-friendliness. There is no risk of the two sides of the Z stage going out of sync. One motor running at higher current will generally out-perform two motors splitting one driver's current via parallel wiring, because one motor with twice the torque can push much harder when one side of the gantry binds up or hits a rough spot.
The only real downside to the single motor, double screw approach is that it requires more engineering and parts. A closed-loop timing belt must be run between the two screws, with associated pulleys, tensioner, and support bearings. In comparison, using a separate motor for each screw is very simple. It adds a stepper and a shaft coupler, but saves a lot of vitamins and design complexity.
Two-motor, two-screw solutions are lower-cost and simpler to design. That's why they're used. End of story.
One-motor, one-screw Mendel style printers are quite rare. The passive side of the Z mechanism does add a little bit of stability to the X stage, but not a lot. It's possible to rack the X stage out of square with the bed and bind up the gantry. In order to work at all, they require a very wide/tall bearing footprint on the driven side to resist torque exerted on the driven side by the weight of the X stage and extruder carriage. So it's true that they don't have synchronization issues, but additional design challenges and undesirable flexure modes are introduced. It's much more common for one-screw designs to simply cantilever out the X stage, like a SmartRap or Printrbot Simple. |
How may I identify the firmware in use on my 3D printer? | Send M115 to the printer. This command is
Request the Firmware Version and Capabilities of the current microcontroller.
Response example:
ok PROTOCOL_VERSION:0.1 FIRMWARE_NAME:FiveD FIRMWARE_URL:http%3A//reprap.org MACHINE_TYPE:Mendel EXTRUDER_COUNT:1
For more info see here, RepRapWiki- G-code - M115: Get Firmware Version and Capabilities.
Of course, this isn't guaranteed to tell the truth, just whatever your generic clone firmware had in its source code. |
Palette 2 with an Ender 3 Printer | On this thread, Does anyone tried Palette 2.0 on Creality Ender 3 or Ender 3 Pro?, there are a couple of useful links:
There is a video, albeit for the CR-101, but that should be of help: YouTube - Setup Guide: Creality CR-10 with Palette 2;
In addition, this Facebook group, Mosaic Palette, Palette+, Palette 2 (Pro) Users, apparently has some users who have paired their Ender 3 with the Palette 2.
However, with respect to your question about the flow rate and steps/mm, there isn't much info out there about that, and no one seems to have experienced similar issues, but your issue might have something to do with profiles - which, as you haven't mentioned them in your question, it is hard to know if that might be the issue or not.
In the same thread, this post, states:
I use it with the Ender 3. There is a profile in Canvas and Chroma for it also.
This link here, Chroma for Palette 2, states that after using Cura, you then need to load the G-code file into Chroma v3.1, after having selected the appropriate profile. However, if you use Canvas, then there is no need for Cura nor Chroma, as Canvas can slice. This link goes through the whole process for Benchy.
At the risk of repetition, the process for preparing the print, post-slicing, is also given here, from Multicolor 3D Printing How To: Using the Mosaic Palette+ with the Creality Ender 3, albeit slightly different from the link above:
Setting Up Chroma:
When you load up Chroma, you’ll be presented with a blank canvas ready
to be filled with your 3D creations. In the top left corner, make
sure that you have the Ender 3 selected from the drop down menu.
After this you can click Load Print. From there you’ll be presented
with your gcode files that you have on your computer.
In this example we will be selecting the butterfly-1.gcode file, and
clicking Open. From here Chroma will be compiling and arranging the
settings for the gcode file to be displayed. This might take a minute
or more.
Selecting Your Colors:
Once the loading is completed, you will be presented with the 3D
rendering of our butterfly! This butterfly will be in 4 randomly
selected colors by default, but we will be changing this next! To
change the colors, navigate to the top of the screen where you will
see 4 colored circles, and drop down arrows along with each circle.
These circles represent the colors of each tool head.
To change the color, click on the Tool Head Colored Circle, and your
options for color will appear, we’re going to select Black for our
first color. After this, you will want to select the Default PLA
Settings by clicking the Drop Down Arrow to the right of the first
Tool Head Colored Circle.
As we make these changes you will notice that the 3D rendering of our
butterfly will change to our corresponding colors. Repeat this
process for the remaining 3 Tool Heads, remember to use the Default
PLA Settings for each Tool Head.
Saving Your Project:
After you have selected all your colors, you will click Save for
Printer in the top right corner of Chroma. From there, name your
file, and click Save. You will be then presented with a loading bar
as Chroma prepares our 2 output files. One of the files will be an
adjusted gcode file that has added the purge tower we just modified,
and the other file will be a file that goes straight to the Mosaic
Palette+.
Printing Your Project:
Once the files are ready, you will be presented with a screen that
says “Ready to Print!”. On this screen you will be presented with the
files you have created for your project, which for us are the
butterfly-1.msf which goes to the Mosaic Palette+ and the
butterfly-1.msf.gcode file which is your newly created gcode file.
You will also be presented with “Materials Used” for the project,
“Number of Splices” for the project, and “Number of Pings” for the
project.
After this, you will need to turn your Creality Ender 3 on if it isn’t
already. After making sure that you have all your components set up
and assembled correctly, then it is safe to begin the printing
process.
Depending on your specific project will determine how long the
printing process takes. But once your printing process is complete
you will be presented with your beautiful multicolored 3D butterfly
(or whatever your project was)! After printing is finished, you
should let the project cool before you attempt to remove it from the
tray. Once it has cooled you can now gently pry the project off of the
tray.
Footnotes
1 The CR-10 is, on a broader level, an Ender-3 with 2 lead screws and a slightly different board. |
What do I need to do to recalibrate my printer after updating the firmware? | If it is Marlin based or RepRap based, many parameters are stored in EEPROM memory. A G-code command M502: Read parameters from "configuration.h" would reset all parameters that can be changed to their default value as defined in your configuration file. Don't forget to follow the M502 command with a M500 command to store the loaded parameters to EEPROM. This would overwrite all previous settings.
From the linked source, M502:
This command resets all tunable parameters to their default values, as set in the firmware. This doesn't reset any parameters stored in the EEPROM, so it must be followed with M500 if you want to do that.
You can send these commands over a terminal interface to the printer using applications such as Pronterface, OctoPrint, Repetier-Host, and probably many more, or store the commands in a G-code file (e.g. a text file with a .g extension) and print the file using an SD card. |
How do I know if my BLTouch is faulty or firmware is faulty? | Try calibrating your Z offset
Based on this answer it sounds like the flashing red means there isn't enough clearance between your bed and your probe for it to operate.
You might try raising your Z axis up a bit to let the probe achieve the minimum clearance necessary for deploying the probe. My guess is that your Z-offset isn't quite right and it isn't raising up enough to allow that minimum clearance.
I recommend calibrating your Z offset and see if that resolves the issue. |
Lack of smoothness / homogeneity in several first layers of print | There are several solution you should check in this order :
1"
The part is printed too close to bed: measure the first layer with a digital caliper to mach your first layer thikness, usualy 0.35 mm like so:
2"
Verify that there is no bevel on the first layer if the part looks like this : U make it look like this ■ and see if it changes something.
3"
Maybe it is a cooling / temperature problem. the bed should be at max 70 °C for PLA and check the cooling of the noozle.
4"
Check for an over extrusion problem! When you ask for 100 mm of filament, does it push 500 mm through? If so change this soon. |
Thermal degradation of 3D printed ABS (and other plastics) | To answer your question briefly: No, ABS will not survive for a duration of at least one year at 80-100°C.
If you look at the chart above (from Tiganis/Burn), you'll notice, that the blue line (ABS 90°C) is decreasing. I did an eyeball calculation of the graph and arrived at the equation (J for break energy, h for hours):
J = -0.002h + 14
Based on that, a break energy of 0 Joule will be reached after 7056 hours or 294 days.
If you roam around internet forums on 3D printing, you'll find that that value is in the ballpark of people's experiences. I remember one case, where someone put out a piece of ABS in the sun and it broke down after a year.
Tiganis; Burn: The Effects of Heat Aging on Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) Blends. In: Lacasse; Vanier (1999): Durability of Building Materials and Components 8, pp. 912-922. |
How to make a steel mold from a 3D print in high detailed resin? | Unless you have proven demand, you should start with aluminum tooling. It's much cheaper than steel, and (I'm assuming you want this for injection molding) you can produce quite a decent amount of parts from aluminum tooling if you handle it carefully.
Why do you want your tooling to be based on a 3D print model? Typically, for greatest accuracy, the tool and die company works from your original CAD work that you printed the 3D model from.
In terms of companies, Protolabs does plastic injection molding: https://www.protolabs.com/injection-molding/plastic-injection-molding/ |
Does CuraEngine get some advantage slicing cylinders to move the head back to the center twice on each layer? | I have seen this behavior a lot in CuraEngine slices. Mostly older versions of the slicer. Not sure if they actually improved it.
You could see this a lot in long and complicated forms. I also don't like this. Not only for unnecessary moves, but also for imperfections due the start in the middle. Sometimes you can tell where the filling started and which segments were printed separately.
I think it comes down to several issues here:
1.) Starting from the middle saves a move at the beginning of the fill. It probably starts the fill where is stopped printing the perimeter. If the change you want would be implemented, a move after the fill printing would become necessary to start at the right position. So therefore the benefit of faster printing might be gone already.
2.) For the sclicer implementation it is hard to do. The algorithm that computes the print moves for the fill just knows the start point (end position of last perimeter line) and the points that define the area. It does not know if the area is round or square or shaped like a "C" or like a "Y". Usually the slicers have a preferred direction that changes with every layer. This way the fill lines of different layers cross each other and that probably increases stability.
I have seen slices where the fill started several times in "C" shaped prints.
Also if you think about the "Y" shape. If you start at the bottom then you can print horizontal lines and fill the form until you reach the split. Now you have to decide which arm to print fist. And then you have to do the other arm separately.
As you can see a perfect way to fill all possible shapes in one go is impossible.
And defining an algorithm that can fill any shape with only knowing the outline is already hard. I assume the solution has to do with splitting a form into segments and to then fill each segment after the other. Even your example form has probably more sections than only the two obvious ones.
What could be done would be to "optimize" the sequence used to fill the segments. Basically adding a computing step that checks if by introducing a move to the best starting point the fill of the segments could be done in one move.
Again that is probably rather hard to do, but CuraEngine and other slicers are open source, so if you or somebody else would like to invest some time to get this feature that would be great! |
Screen stays black on new Ender 3 V2 after power-on | I had the same issue. I think I flipped my display cable around and it worked. Maybe I got lucky and it was simply reseating the cable. |
How to heat up a Printrbot's hotend using an SD card | Sure there is. As you use Cura, you can grab any G-code file (you already have) and use it to set hotend temperature (delete the actual printing part from the file) to get something like this:
;FLAVOR:Marlin
;TIME:102
;Filament used: 0.0573674m
;Layer height: 0.2
;Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 3.3.1
; M190 S60 ;-> this sets the bed temperature so we can comment it out
; the next line sets the hotend to 200 degrees Celsius
M104 S200
As every line that starts with a semi-colon is a comment and is ignored by the printer, M104 S200, would be the only line you need in the printout file.
If you're interested in knowing more - look here: G-codes on reprap wiki |
What type 3D printer is? | In the video, there is this still from 0:32:
The labeling is iPro 8000, which is a 3dSystems resin printer using SLA technology. |
Empty space in model is getting filled | I suspect, as I am wont to do, that your problem lies in the STL created by SketchUp. It's an unfortunate aspect of that program that it creates non-manifold models which creates troubles such as this.
Consider to load your STL file into a program suitable for showing flaws (and repairing them) to determine where the failure points lie. I'm fond of Meshmixer, but there are many others such as Netfabb with which I am less familiar.
If you don't want to check your STL file, attach it to your post and I'll take a shot at it.
You would also want to consider to learn a new program if you intend to perform such 3D modeling. Fusion 360 has a popular following. I'm a fan of OpenScad, but use Fusion 360, Meshmixer, Blender (only a tiny amount) and anything else I can utilize for model repair, creation and editing. Build a large repetoire of different programs and get the best of all worlds.
SketchUp has a strong following primarily because it's rather easy to use. The same can be said of a few other programs, but SketchUp really generates trouble when it comes to 3D models.
TinkerCAD is very much like SketchUp and will give you better final results. OnShape is another popular modeling program, but I have zero exposure to that one.
It's not out of the question that there's a bug in Cura that's causing this problem. You are not limited to one slicer program, and you can check the results of another slicer such as Slic3r, Craftware or others. |
Adding custom M Codes to Marlin | In the file Marlin_main.cpp on line 7131 there is a switch case:
(To turn on line numbers go to File>Preferences and click Display line numbers.)
case 'M': switch (codenum) {
#if ENABLED(ULTIPANEL)
case 0: // M0 - Unconditional stop - Wait for user button press on LCD
case 1: // M1 - Conditional stop - Wait for user button press on LCD
gcode_M0_M1();
break;
#endif // ULTIPANEL
case 17:
gcode_M17();
break;
etc.....
Adding another case with an unused number such as 5 and then the code you want followed by a break should do the trick. Ex:
case 5:
doABunchofCoolStuff();
myservo.write(thebestposition);
break;
-AC |
How is the E argument calculated for a given G1 command? | Basically, all movements are (small) straight lines, the volume of a straight line is easily calculated as you already guessed.
To calculate the volume to be extruded you multiply the following parameters:
the layer height (h)
flow modifier (e.g. as pertectage) (SF)
extruder nozzle diameter (d)
distance of the straight line (l)
With this volume you can calculate how much filament you need to extrude. To get the length (thus the length defined by the E parameter), divide the obtained volume by surface area of your used filament by:
π * (filament radius)2 or alternatively π /4 * (filament diameter)2
To sum up, the value of E is given by: |
How do you make sure you have the right voltage on the trimpots on an A4988 stepper driver? | I want to add some points and clarifications to the answer that @darthpixel already has given. Most information you need is in there, I want to give some more practical advice, since that is what I understand you're question is asking for. I'll start with some points on the more theoretical side, though:
notice that the Vref is not a voltage that is passed on to your motor. The described pipe analogy is very good, but the Vref is outside of this analogy. The reference voltage Vref is only used to set the current limit. This seems confusing, but has electronic reasons. One can understand the major (side-)benefit easily: Voltages are very easy to measure externally, because you connect your voltmeter in parallel. If you wouldd want to measure the current, you would need to get your ammeter in series with the circuit.
The stepsticks work by supplying the needed current for movement of the motor (current, because it works by creating magnetic fields), the voltage the stepstick supplies is 'just' supplied as high as needed to feed the desired current through your motor (determined by its resistivity/impedance). This just as an add-on.
Now to the practical side and the application of darthpixel's answer and the above:
You want to measure the reference voltage to limit the current that produces the torque, but also heats up the motor - let darthpixel's advice be your guide: if you can't touch it because it is too hot, then there is too much current, i.e. Vref is too high). To do so:
Set your multimeter to volts, range can be autorange or something bigger than 2V.
Connect one lead of your multimeter to the ground of your Prusa i3 controller board's power input (I use the screw that fastens the ground input of the RAMPS). The other lead goes directly to the center of the trimpot on the Stepstick. I took the best of my paint skills to create an image showing the process:
Note the value you read (12V power has to be on)
Use an insulated screwdriver and turn the trimpot slightly.
Get a new reading by repeating the measurement process.
Repeat the whole process until you get the desired Vref.
Warning: While I've had no problems turning the trimpot while everything was switched on (with my DRV8825 drivers), you should switch the power supply off when doing so.
The described process allows only for a stepwise and rather slow setting of the Vref, but this is the easiest way I've found. I have read of people that use a crocodile clamp to attach the multimeter to the screwdriver for a readout while turning.
If you don't have any idea whether you need more or less current on the motor at the moment, check your resistors on the board and calculate the Vref you should need (see darthpixel's answer for the formula). I would however just do what darthpixel already suggested: figure out the trimpot position by ears and touch: klicking motor: go to higher Vref. Can't touch the motor for more than some seconds: go to lower Vref. It might be a lengthy process, but in the end you'd need to do it anyway to get the best out of the printer! |
Resources on getting horus/ciclop scanners to work? | I don't know if this will work but BQ commercializes a Ciclops scanner and have some downloads in their webpage (https://www.bq.com/en/support/ciclop/support-sheet).
There are different Horus and driver versions, maybe some will work for you(?).
Hope it helps! |
What defines the speed at which a motor is retracting and how can it be changed? | You instruct the printer to move from a certain X-Y position instructed by the previous move, to X=50 and Y=50. While moving at a feedrate of 100 mm/min, it will also retract 10 mm of filament (if the previous extruder distance was 0) during that move. If the movement distance is large, the retraction is slow. If you started from X,Y = 49.99,49.99 it would be very fast.
If you want a fast retraction, first move to a position, and than retract fast, so in separate commands. Do note that we usually do it the other way around: first retract fast and then move, this way there is less oozing of the nozzle.
To sum up, in your G-code command, the speed of retraction depends on the path of travel (the length and speed defined by the feed rate F). If it is fast retraction you are after, you should split the command into two separate commands. |
Ender 3 extrudes plastic whilst at standstill, and while moving to start of print | basics first
The viscosity of plastic is temperature dependent: the warmer it is, the lower it gets and thus the more "runny". The lower the viscosity is, the less force is needed to move it.
In printing, a pressure is applied to the filament from the extruder. Pressure is the force by area, thus for our look pretty much the same: the extruder exerts a force on the filament, to overcome the viscosity keeping it in the nozzle.
A secondary effect is, that heated material expands, depending on what kind of material is in the nozzle.
what happens
The whole problem starts with shutting off the printer after the print: as the filament cools it shrinks. As the motors are turned off, the solidifying and shrinking plastic pulls at the filament. The filament can change its location or be pulled a little through the extruder, keeping the space quite well filled without cavities. Bowden style can change the mere filament path a little to compensate some of the shrinkings by shifting its path from hugging the outer wall to doing the same on the inner wall.
As you start to heat up the printer, there is no force applied on the filament from the extruder to push it out of the nozzle. But when you shut it down, there was some filament in the nozzle.
The filament melts and its viscosity drops, but at the same time, it expands. The extruder does not yet apply force, but as the material expands, it pushes against the filament stuck above it. Newton's 3rd law is the iconic Actioni contrariam semper et æqualem esse reactionem or as we know it short: Actio = Reactio, the force you exert in one direction equals a force applied in the reverse direction. Thus, the expanding filament pressing back against the extruder also exerts a force against itself down against the nozzle. The same is true for the nozzle, but the nozzle has one difference: it has a hole, where the forces are bundled to force filament out.
At some point, the force from the expanding filament is big enough to overcome the viscosity keeping the filament in the nozzle and it oozes out.
fixes
There are several ways to fix this in slicing, but I prefer the end-code method.
Modify your end code to provide space in the nozzle while it is still hot. Simply add G1 E-3 F1800 to retract quickly at the end of print. F1800 is rather fast.
Modify your start code could help in preventing very runny filaments from oozing, but you usually need to zero the extruder first with G92 E0 and you might also need to allow negative values with G1 S1. This isn't usable in all firmware versions, but one can use G92 E3 to set it to 3, then extrude, then 0.
Example End Code
Watch line 2. This is what prevents my Ender 3 from oozing in the first place
G91 ;relative position set
G1 F1800 E-3 ; Retract 3 mm to prevent oozing on startup
G1 F3000 Z10 ; Move up 10 mm to clear the print
G90 ;absolute position set
G28 X0 Y0 ; home x and y axis to clear the print
M106 S0 ; turn off part cooling fan
M104 S0 ; turn off extruder
M140 S0 ; turn off bed
M84 ; disable motors
Example Start Code addition
This is just a snippet that forces retraction at the start, once the filament is hot. it WILL though make the first three millimeters of push come empty, thus should be combined with a cleaning that uses more than this - check out Writing G-code : swiping at start of print for better nozzle priming.
G92 E3
G1 E-3 F1000
G92 E0 |
Adjusting the Z end stop? | Typically a machine will rapid to find its software stop(s), retract and slowly find its mechanical end stop. Please regard the RepRap Wiki for general troubleshooting and basic technical information. |
Sketchup designed "Block with hole" printed solid in Cura | Problem Statement
SketchUp does not always create STLs in ways that are closed, watertight manifolds - a block with a bore is, if created as a block first and then bored out, actually 2 surfaces if made with SketchUp:
a cylinder with its normals facing inside and no top and bottom
a block that has 2 holes in opposite surfaces
The two surfaces are not connected. As a result, Cura sees two non-manifolds and tries to fix each of them - the cylinder with the normals facing inside is considered an artifact that can't be fixed, the holes in the block are stitched and thus turned into a solid block.
Fixing
To repair the issue, you could load the item into for example MeshMixer, which allows to separate and show the different surfaces (shells) and run a rather good auto-fix.
Another program that, with a little handiwork could help is blender. In blender you can first import the STL, then merge the vertices at the edge of the bore and cut cube and thus turn the two shells into one neatly, then re-export it as an STL. I strongly suggest to just add it to your Steam library if you want to keep it up to date. |
Pushing Text into surface - Google Sketchup | Definitely you have to perform substract operation.
Take a look here
Extrude text and then substract it from the object to etch in. |
How to compensate for bad quality filament? | I am only going to answer the part of the question about how to improve the results from low-quality filament:
There have already been projects going on dealing with the issue of varying filament diameter. A sensor that detects the filament's diameter and sends its value to the printers firmware can compensate for the varying volume of the filament pushed into the hotend by simply changing the extrusion speed. You could think of an extrusion multiplier or a change in the steps/mm value. Of course this has to be calibrated for the distance the filament needs to travel from measurement to hotend.
A good first read can be found in the following project:
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?13,222517
And the corresponding Thing page:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:454584 |
Design connection to motor shaft for printed gear | Design a different connection to the shaft, however I don't know of any
Use a shaft/flange coupler to be fastened to your shaft and to your printed part.
Without knowing the length of the shaft, you could connect a flange/coupler to design this into your gear. This is a good solution if you have to transmit larger torques. See e.g. this pulley that incorporates that concept.
Shaft flange couplers can be connected to your printed part and to the flat part of the shaft.
Metal flange couplers are available in many sizes:
A recess in the printed part houses the flange:
When assembled you can mount the pulley/gear onto the shaft, provided you have enough length on the shaft. |
3d scan matting spray | There are many variations of a product generically known as chalk spray. Some of them should be considered permanent or semi-permanent, while the Montana brand product explicitly states "temporary" in the description. There is a caveat in that it has to be a non-porous surface to be considered temporary.
The product is primarily directed at outside/sidewalk art which can be washed away or will wear away under normal traffic. As such, it is suited for matting shiny surfaces for scanning purposes. White is the best color for scanning as it will accept light and shadows better than the other choices.
I have a can of white and can attest that it will wash off. Some of the product will wipe off dry but the small crevices require washing, which should be considered when spraying your item.
The product is available at many online outlets and may be found at local art supply retailers. |
Conversion of DICOM files to STL files | The marching cubes algorithm can convert voxel data into a surface mesh. A global threshold to determine the surface in the greyvalues is used.
This article might be helpful. |
PRUSA likes the bed to be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. What else should I use? | Ethanol (Ethyl Alcohol) should work just fine as long as it's around 80% or more. It's very similar to isopropanol as a cleaning solvent. What you're basically doing is removing any stray grease from the bed with a solvent that evaporates quickly.
Methanol would also probably work. It's very poisonous though, and shouldn't come into contact with your skin, so it requires a bit more careful handling. Methanol also has the benefit that it can't be used for hand sanitizer (since it's absorbed through the skin), so supplies shouldn't run out.
Look for alternative sources, for example, methanol is often sold as de-icing agent for pneumatic brakes on trucks. Just make sure it's pure alcohol without anything funky added. |
Upgrade Ender 3 with Diamond Hotend | The RUMBA boards run up to 36 V, so reusing the (24 V) power supply from your printer should be fine. As the 2 extra steppers do not take much extra power (note you are ordering only 1!), your supply should be sufficient. Note that a 12 V heater cartridge is not going to work on a 24 V board (you'll get a massive overshoot and probably over-temperature warnings and printer shutdowns). |
Retraction Causing Skipping | Fighting stringing will not work by increasing the temperature of the hotend.
There could be 2 possible causes for your problem,
the first is that you still have a too high retraction speed, too high for your stepper to follow (do note that the default value in Ultimaker Cura is 25 mm/s),
the second is that you retract too far and the cooled "hot" filament tip is deformed and causes extra tension/friction in the extruded liner. |
3D850 stuck in the nozzle | My guess is that particular brand of PLA is changing state inside the nozzle as it cools. Quoting from the manufacturer's page,
Materio3D PLA uses the NatureWorks Ingeo 3D850 polymer, specially
engineered for 3D printing. It is tougher and stronger than standard
PLA and can be annealed for improved heat resistance and toughness!
If the residual material in the nozzle cools slowly enough (at the end of a print) to anneal, then by design it won't re-melt at the same temperature as the raw filament material. I would recommend changing your gcode so that the extruder hotend is held at temperature after a print completes, and making sure to clear the nozzle with an alternate type of filament before allowing the nozzle to cool.
quoting from another page,
To achieve a heat treat on a printed part, submerge in water (or bake
in oven) at 200F for up to 30 minutes.
notice that's Fahrenheit, well below extruder temperatures. |
Ridges and stepping in my prints | From the picture, this doesn't look like an X or Y axis problem. I wonder if it is a problem with the Z-axis positioning?
I don't have any specific suggestions, but I would start by, with the printer off and cold, manually turning the Z-axis motor(s) to assure that the movements are smooth and without any binding. If the movement is smooth, then with the printer powered on, try some Z-axis movements, up and down, both listening and feeling for excessive vibration or jerkiness.
What may be happening is that the Z movement is binding for several layers and causing the flexure in the Z-axis to bend upward, permitting some plastic to extrude but forcing it into a wide bulge. When the Z axis finally snaps upward, the build layer is too far below the nozzle, so the plastic does not bulge outward and necks down until it builds a base again. This repeats.
It could be an electrical problem with the Z-axis drive rather than a mechanical sticking or interference, but you will feel that, too, by doing slow Z-axis movements and watching carefully, listening for irregularity, and feeling for any jerk or stutter. |
Can any filament be used in with any 3D printer? | Is it possible to feed a TPU filament into the same machine built for ABS/PLA? Or is there no difference? Assume the diameters of the filaments are the same.
The question is not what the machine is built for but how it is built. Let's break stuff down some into why some filaments work better than others and the challenges with them.
Temperature range
The first obstacle is the temperature range of the printer. For example, if your printer's Extruder can't get over 220 °C, you can't print ABS. You need to make sure your printer can match your intended filament's temperature range.
TPU usually prints around between the same temperatures for PLA and ABS, so it should work from that range.
Heated Bed
Most Filaments work better with a heated bed, but some are almost impossible to be printed without. For TPU, a heated bed should be used but is not absolutely mandatory.
Heated Chamber
Some filaments can't be printed without a heated chamber, others like ABS highly benefit from it. TPU is ambivalent on this as far as I know.
Extruder Setup
There's basically 3 extruder setups. Pellet extruders are super rare, so we don't concern about them. The other two are Direct Drive and Bowden. In a Direct Drive, the extruder motor is right over the hotend, and pushes the filament directly into it. In a Bowden setup, the hotend and the extruder motor are connected via a Bowden tube. Both have benefits and drawbacks:
A Bowden makes for a lighter carriage, leading to faster printing speeds. A Direct Drive has much less trouble with elastic filaments and can do much better with retraction.
TPU is one of the filaments that works much better with Direct Drive.
Other considerations
Some Print services do print in machines set up for one filament type and that only, because it prevents cross-contamination of the nozzles, especially when a high-temperature print material remains in it when a low-temperature print comes next. Having for example a little bit of ABS left in a printer that runs PLA next can lead to very very extreme clogging. |
TMC2208 drivers - Microsteps configured incorrectly | I don't have these controllers, but I read that with default settings the TMC2208 will interpolate the microsteps set by the I/O configuration pins to
256 microsteps. Please look into how you set up the dip switches / jumper caps on your board, it seems that only 2 are used (MS1 and MS2). Furthermore, can't you just decrease the count of the array DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT for the Z entry in your configuration file? |
AnyCubic D (aka Predator) - Z-zeroing and first layer issues | I recently corrected a similar problem on a Robo3D R1+ printer. It is described as the z-offset setting.
An entry in the Thingiverse forum appears to reference this problem as well. The sensor provides reference information to the board, but the compensation is not always as it should be.
For the Robo, the command sequence was M565 Z0.7 in this specific instance, followed by M500 to store the value.
I'm not certain this is the answer for the Predator as the above is specific to the Robo3d.
An answer in this SE suggests that one can use M206 Zxx followed by the M500 storage command.
Further research regarding the z-offset for your particular board is warranted. |
Can I use Bowden hotend instead of Wade for a direct extrusion? | You can use any of them, however the adaptor will be different to make it fit on your printer. I´m using the J-head on direct drive by removing the pneumatic connector; the distance from top to filament hole is close to 4mm, but does not affect the feeding. If the cylinder hasn't the pneumatic connector is possible to print a cap to mount the connector and make it remote drive |
Ender 3 first layer of ESD PLA printing on raft fails | The gap between the raft and the first layer is too large (you need to switch to expert mode in Ultimaker Cura to see the values of the option before you can change them) and the hotend is too hot (normal PLA generally prints at 190 °C, ESD PLA prints at higher temperatures; you could aim for 210 °C as a start), This makes it difficult to precisely deposition the first layer on the raft as the nozzle drags the hot filament causing inaccurate first layer deposition.
Furthermore, PLA generally doesn't require a raft to print the part. The Creality Ender 3 has a rough bed (like a BuildTak surface), you could print directly onto the bed surface.
Source states:
Extruder Temp: Typically 210-220°C. ESD PLA is a filled product and
has a higher melt viscosity vs. unfilled PLA. Therefore, it is
sometimes necessary to print at higher temperatures than your standard
PLA to allow the resin to flow properly.
This implies that a hotend of 220 °C mot not be hot enough, in that case the filament is too cold and viscous and gets dragged because the gap is too large. |
Herringbone timing belt? | At a nearly microscopic level, the herringbone belt/gear combination will reduce the whoosh effect of a square profile cogged belt forcing itself into a matching profile pulley. Consider a well-sealed drawer or similar shape. Push it into the cabinet at maximum speed and force and the air is going to have a difficult time exiting.
By the design of the herringbone belt, the teeth on the belt are eased into the groove in what amounts to a diagonal motion. This permits the air to be exhausted in a less-abrupt manner.
This is part of the concept of Goodyear Eagle belt systems.
Part of the sales pitch is quiet, another part is precision, which I expect falls into the self-centering aspect of the design. Yet another described characteristic is reduced vibration, certainly valuable in the 3D printer world.
I've had no luck getting email communications from the manufacturers regarding this type of drive system, but found that commercially available belts and pulleys do not go below a rather large diameter, making that aspect unsuitable for 3D printing. The belts are also high-load capable, very stiff and also quite wide.
You would not want to use TPU or other flexible filament (perhaps obc?)* unless you could be assured of minimal stretch. Any stretching of the belt would inject too many problems into the printer to compensate in practical terms.
*From MatterHackers web site:
OBC (Olefin Block Copolymer) 3D printing filament from Dow Chemical is
a breakthrough material that is both flexible when printed thin and
rigid when printed.
As an anecdote, I desired to replace the x-axis belt on my laser cutter with a Silent Sync system. It is believed on at least one laser-cutter forum that the GT style belts cause oscillation which appears when engraving. I had hoped to discover that the Silent Sync belts and pulleys would solve this problem, but the lack of communications with the manufacturer threw a wrench in the works. It's unlikely that I can 3D print a 2.5 meter long segment of belt, as I don't own a White Knight printer, but it's interesting to think that OBC filament might do the job well enough. Too much experimentation, however. |
How to improve printing over 100 mm/s with 0.8 mm nozzle? | There are no ready solutions. Check on Klipper Github to see if someone requested that, but I doubt it has been implemented.
100 mm/s with 0.8 line width and something like 0.3 mm layer height results in 24 mm^3/s. It's quite high already, since the Volcano is rated at about 20 mm^3/s.
What you could try to do is to take the GCODE you have, calculate the layer time and the total path length for each layer to get the average extrusion rate, and introduce at the beginning of each layer a M104 command with a temperature dependent on said rate.
For example, you could add 1 °C for each mm^3/s of extrusion rate starting at 15 mm^3/s.
If you want, you could also calculate the average extrusion rate not every layer but every 50 mm of extrusion. In this case, better anticipate the temperature command by one stretch, since it takes time to adapt.
Otherwise you need a Supervolcano, or a slight overvoltage of the hotend (remember that power goes with the square of voltage, so do not go above 10% overvoltage). |
Ender 3 - X Axis Cannot Reach True Home | You do have hit the true home. You will have to physically move the endstop to alter that position. Your problem is, that the endstop-home is on the build area - and that is printer dependant. My Ender 3 has about 4 mm diagonal distance from the bed in its physical home, for which I accounted via a firmware swap, including a "virtual" firmware home. |
A4988 driver cooling specifications | A4988 become hot when a lot of current draw from them . If it is more than 1.5 Amp. Also you will notice missing steps, missing layers, abnormal print and Stepper motor become hot .It automatically shutdown at max temp. |
Z axis not moving on Prusa i3v 8" | If you are using Repetier the code to test the endstops is m119 I think. If your z stop is triggered, you may have to invert it in the config.h file. I had this same issue for days before i figured out the control board was reading the switch as normal close instead of normal open. Hope that helps! |
Temp Tower Setup Troubles -- Slic3r (How do you format G-Code {if} statements?) | So I think I figured this one out. I was looking at it a bit wrong. And here's my code:
; Note to self: layer_z = [layer_z]
; T tower floor 1
{if [layer_z]==1.6} M104 S225 T0
; T tower floor 2
{if [layer_z]==11.6} M104 S220 T0
; T tower floor 3
{if [layer_z]==21.6} M104 S215 T0
; T tower floor 4
{if [layer_z]==31.6} M104 S210 T0
; T tower floor 5
{if [layer_z]==41.6} M104 S205 T0
; T tower floor 6
{if [layer_z]==51.6} M104 S200 T0
; T tower floor 7
{if [layer_z]==61.6} M104 S195 T0
; T tower floor 8
{if [layer_z]==71.6} M104 S190 T0
; T tower floor 9
{if [layer_z]==81.6} M104 S185 T0
; T tower floor 10
{if [layer_z]==91.6} M104 S180 T0
The key to understanding what is going on is the ; Note to self: layer_z = [layer_z] line. The whole block of code above gets repeated for every layer of the print in the G-code, but it gets evaluated. And when I search for "layer z =" and scan thru the code.. I eventually see this...
; Note to self: layer_z = 1.6
; T tower floor 1
M104 S225 T0 <---- Yowza. Nice.
; T tower floor 2
; T tower floor 3
; T tower floor 4
; T tower floor 5
; T tower floor 6
; T tower floor 7
; T tower floor 8
; T tower floor 9
; T tower floor 10
and then again:
; Note to self: layer_z = 11.6
; T tower floor 1
; T tower floor 2
M104 S220 T0 <---- Yes!
; T tower floor 3
...
All good. You have to have {} and [] within the code statements...
Addendum: So it turns out things are not quite perfect. I'm noticing at the upper floors, where things should be cooler, the temperature isn't changing. Its locked at 215C. I see this in the code:
; Note to self: layer_z = 31.5999999999999 <--- not sure how that happened.
; T tower floor 1
; T tower floor 2
; T tower floor 3
; T tower floor 4
; T tower floor 5
; T tower floor 6
; T tower floor 7
; T tower floor 8
; T tower floor 9
; T tower floor 10
31.6 would have triggered a temperature change. 31.5999999999999 won't do it. I need to modify the {if... == } to a complex test between two values... Just wanted to share that observation here.
I do see from this reference that
Expressions may be chained for an implicit AND:
{if [layer_num] == 10}{if [temperature_1] != 210}M104 S210
And this seems to fix it:
; Note to self: layer_z = [layer_z]
; T tower floor 1
{if [layer_z]<=1.65}{if [layer_z]>1.55} M104 S225 T0
; T tower floor 2
{if [layer_z]<=11.65}{if [layer_z]>11.55} M104 S220 T0
; T tower floor 3
{if [layer_z]<=21.65}{if [layer_z]>21.55} M104 S215 T0
; T tower floor 4
{if [layer_z]<=31.65}{if [layer_z]>31.55} M104 S210 T0
; T tower floor 5
{if [layer_z]<=41.65}{if [layer_z]>41.55} M104 S205 T0
; T tower floor 6
{if [layer_z]<=51.65}{if [layer_z]>51.55} M104 S200 T0
; T tower floor 7
{if [layer_z]<=61.65}{if [layer_z]>61.55} M104 S195 T0
; T tower floor 8
{if [layer_z]<=71.65}{if [layer_z]>71.55} M104 S190 T0
; T tower floor 9
{if [layer_z]<=81.65}{if [layer_z]>81.55} M104 S185 T0
; T tower floor 10
{if [layer_z]<=91.65}{if [layer_z]>91.55} M104 S180 T0 |
Understand what CR-10S fans are cooling | The function of the front fan is keeping the cold end well... cold. :) It should be spinning as long as the printer is turned on.
The right fan is known as "part fan" and its function is to cool down the plastic that has been just extruded, the idea being to solidify it as soon as possible. As you noticed it is controlled by the gcode and it can be turned on, off and even made spin at any speed in-between still and full throttle. It normally stops spinning at the end of the print (with some plastic like ABS it may be set not to spin at all even during the print).
If you take a closer look at your CR-10, you will see that the receptacle the air is blown into by the part fan has no bottom: that slit is where the air passes through, before being deflected 90° towards the nozzle.
On the CR-10 the standard deflector for the part fan does not do a good job (the air is not blown where it should) and replacing it with a custom part is one of the most common upgrades performed on the printer.
Personally on my CR-10 I used a custom mount with an integrated "fang" that blew the air from both sides and worked really well. It also had the advantage of reusing the hardware from the original assembly (= you don't need to buy anything, just print the part). |
Print Nozzle Dragging and Smearing Filament while Printing | You stated your print of a 20mm cube came out spot on so I will rule out any z-axis configuration issues. It clearly seems like you are extruding too much plastic.
I use slic3r myself with repetier so I am familiar with the settings.
Print Settings - Advanced
All the values should be 0 except first layer sometimes is 100%-200% depending on your personal setup. Increasing these values may cause more filament to leave the extruder.
Filament Settings - Diameter
This should be set to 1.75 or 3 depending on your filament size. If you accidentally have it set to 1.75 when your filament is 3mm, it would probably be over-extruding since it pushing almost double the plastic with the same length.
Filament Settings - Extrusion multiplier
This should be set to 1 or slowly adjust it 0.05 increments to reduce overall amount of plastic leaving the nozzle.
Printer Settings - Nozzle diameter
This should be set to 0.5 since your nozzle is 0.5mm. Make sure your nozzle truly is this value.
EDITED 10/19/17 - OP has solved problem and his own answer made me realize I made mistake on how to measure and correct extrusion steps/mm. Ignore this below and see what OP wrote in their edit.
If all these Slic3r configurations fail or are correct and do not solve your problem, I think you may want to look into your motor step settings for the extruder. It may be too high pushing more filament than it should. To correct this, you need to do the length test where you will extrude 10mm or 50mm and measure the string of plastic. There might be some stretch so a 10mm may measure as 11mm but as long as your close it should be good. If you extrude 10mm and you measure 25mm, you need to recalculate your steps per mm.
Also for your first layer, make sure it is not being smushed to the build plate. You want it to be flattened a little to provide good adhesion but not too close to the build plate where it would constrict the nozzle.
Hope this helps, and good luck on your prints. May you never have to deal with thermal runaway error :) |
3D printing bed size and selecting models | Yes, objects in thingiverse usually doesn't include their size and this can require extra effort to obtain.
There are several options to scale objects to fit your printer. You can often do that in the slicer or using a separate program like meshmixer.
The bed size is not the only (or maybe even primary) limitation you will need to consider when printing an object. You also need to think of your max height, nozzle size and for your choice of material your will need to consider things like you max extruder and bed temperatures (or even have a heated bed), nozzle type, etc.
You should be able to print just about anything on thingiverse; but, the limitations of your printer will affect HOW you will have to print it and whether you will be happy with the final product.
I have heard of plenty of people the have smaller printers and it was the right place for them to start. Having a smaller printer that performs well for you will be a much better experience than a larger printer that performs poorly.
Whether the Monoprice Mini 3D v2 printer is the best printer is something only you can decide. Read and watch the reviews, they can be a great source of "perspective". I know we all have limited budgets and there are certainly way more things you can print with a printer than you can without one. |
Anet A8 with 3DTouch does not home X in the center | Your sensor offset for the X direction is incorrect.
#define X_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER -28 // X offset: -left +right [of the nozzle]
should be
#define X_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER 28 // X offset: -left +right [of the nozzle]
The hints in the comment already suggest that (left is negative, right is positive), your touch sensor clearly is located on the right side, hence +28 mm.
See also this hint in the configuration file:
* +-- BACK ---+
* | |
* L | (+) P | R -- probe (20,20)
* E | | I
* F | (-) N (+) | G -- nozzle (10,10)
* T | | H
* | (-) | T
* | |
* O-- FRONT --+
* (0,0)
Also, #define Z_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER -1.05 is not really necessary. Many prefer this to be 0 and set the value later by using M815 Z-1.05 (sent over USB or "printed" from .gcode file over SD card)
You also have not set the boundaries for the sensor to reach, I quote:
// Set the boundaries for probing (where the probe can reach).
//#define LEFT_PROBE_BED_POSITION MIN_PROBE_EDGE
//#define RIGHT_PROBE_BED_POSITION (X_BED_SIZE - MIN_PROBE_EDGE)
//#define FRONT_PROBE_BED_POSITION MIN_PROBE_EDGE
//#define BACK_PROBE_BED_POSITION (Y_BED_SIZE - MIN_PROBE_EDGE)
This can be found in How to set the boundaries for BLTouch probing.
After a G29, the head is raised as instructed by the configuration file to employ clearance.
An M851 will report the actual value it is set to, if you have not set it (by using M851 Z-x.xx, or set it through the display using the menu) then it will report 0, that is correct. |
Density of GEL-LAY and LAYWOO 3D print material? | I can't provide the end answer, but if you already have the material, you should be able to measure this yourself quite simply.
Measure and cut a sample of filament, and weigh it. For example, a 10 meter length with a 1.75 mm diameter will have a volume of:
v = pi * r2 * l
v = pi * (0.175 cm/2)2 * 1000 cm
v = 24.05 cm3
Density is mass divided by volume. If your sample weighs 18 g, this would be
d = m / v
d = 18.0 g / 24.05 cm3
d = 0.748 g/cm3
Note that the accuracy of this measurement will depend on the accuracy and precision of your measurements. A household kitchen scale might not be good enough for such small weights. In order to get a good weight measurement, you may need to use a much longer (and heavier) sample of filament. |
What prints can I do to test/calibrate my printer for precision? | Any print you make can be considered a test print! But, specific test prints are easily found on the internet and lend themselves better for specific tasks. In order to improve your printer / print quality, you need to follow a meticulous series of tests and record the parameters you use to slice the model. Each test should be broken down into several print process parameters (and recorded) and tested for their effects (e.g. speed and temperature).
A general accepted strategy is to calibrate the extrusion process first and that look into the general accuracy.
Filament deposition calibration
An important aspect of printing is deposition of just enough filament (if you deposit too much the lines become wider, and so are the dimensions). To calibrate the extruder deposition of filament you can easily heat up the hot end, mark the filament with respect to a certain reference point and extrude e.g. 100 mm. Now measure the filament mark again with respect to the reference point to verify you actually extruded that same demanded amount.
Accuracy
For general accuracy printing of 20x20x20 mm cubes is usually fine. Note that the print accuracy is generally determined by the printer (construction) itself, but can be influenced by print speed. Large speeds in combination with a large mass of the printer head can lead to positioning inaccuracies (like overshoot). That said, you should also look into the printer itself. Does it have play? Are the belts tight enough, but not over-tightened? Is the bed skew, or are XYZ perpendicular?
This cube is frequently used to calibrate the dimensions:
Please do note that the poster of this picture probably produced a dimensional accurate print, but still faces under extrusion (as seen from the gaps between the lines)
If dimensions seem to be off reasonably, e.g. more than 0.2 mm (depending on the printer construction) you could change the amount of steps per mm in the firmware. Do note that the steps per mm is mechanically determined by the belt and pulleys.
More tests?
Even more tests can done to make specific filament adjustments. E.g. "temperature towers" can be printed to test the optimal parameters for filament flow and / or bridging (printing in air between two parts), or overhang (unsupported parts of the print). But, these last tests are not specifically designed for the issues you mentioned.
Tolerance test
Once you have calibrated the printer to the ability of yourself and to the capacity of the printer itself you could try to print a dimensional printing tolerance test. Such tests are usually constructed by cylinder shaped (or diabolic shaped) objects in a housing that is slightly larger that the shape. |
What is the best way in SketchUp to align the bottoms of all objects to the x-y origin plane? | I would like a better answer involving automatic alignment, but this was my solution.
Make the object a single component.
Make sure the guide points are accurately located.
Cut and copy the first component to the origin.
Copy the component to the guide points.
What also worked better was to break the grouping of components into building blocks that could be put together to make the whole. Once the building block sliced correctly, it could be made into a component.
Note: the more complex the first layer, the more this accuracy seems to be an issue. |
Methods for smoothing 3D objects | Abrasive blasting is the only other method I can think of which you haven't said you don't want to try.
It is certainly the easiest method provided you have access to one.
Different forms of abrasive blasting include:
shot blasting (metal shot) - I suspect it would be far to abrasive but I've never tried it.
sandblasting - you have to be careful but this is basically sandpaper attached to a wand. I've used it with great success.
bead blasting - using plastic beads. It might actually be the best option but I've never tried it.
media blasting - usually uses ground up shells. Might work but I've never tried it. |
Auto Bed Levelling - Printer not detecting, but sensor is triggering | Perhaps the culprit is a pull-up resistor on the board. Normally, endstops on 3D printers use the microcontroller's internal pullups. These have a resistance of around 50kΩ, which is far too high to be a problem. However, if lower value pull up resistors are used on your main board, this could cause a problem.
The resistor of your voltage divider form, when the output of the sensor is low, a parallel pair of resistors to ground, with an effective resistance equal to 1/(1/10+1/15) = 6kΩ. If there was (let's say) a 4.7k pull-up resistor on the board, you'd expect to see around 2.8V on the output (because the pull-up resistor, together with the two resistors of your voltage divider, forms another voltage divider).
I don't have the Anet A8 main board myself, but on pictures I do see a set of 6 resistors suspiciously close to the thermistor and endstop connectors.
You could verify my suspicions by unplugging the endstop, powering down the electronics and then measuring the resistance between the endstop signal and 5V pins.
Possible solutions:
Desolder the offending resistor. This is pretty easy with SMD parts: you just alternate between heating up both sides until it slides off.
Use a diode in place of a voltage divider. Anode goes to the endstop connector, cathode to the signal of the probe. This prevents the high voltage of the probe from being seen by the electronics, while allowing the probe to drain the current from the pull-up resistor.
With this last solution, make sure the reverse leakage current of the diode is not too high. If it has a reverse current of (let's say) 50uA, then 50uA flowing through the (supposed 4.7k) pull-up to ground would raise the voltage at the signal pin to 5.002V. This is unlikely to be a problem, but with higher value resistors or higher leakage you'd see the voltage raise higher above 5V (which the microcontroller won't like). |
How to change E0 to E1 on Marlin 1.1? | Another posting already discusses how you can change the pins to use spare stepper controllers for broken controllers by changing the pin layout. Assuming you are using a RAMPS board and using Marlin firmware, you should look at the pins_RAMPS.h file.
This file requires changes to address E1 to E0 and vice versa, please edit the file so that:
#define E0_STEP_PIN 26
#define E0_DIR_PIN 28
#define E0_ENABLE_PIN 24
#define E0_CS_PIN 42
is changed to:
#define E0_STEP_PIN 36
#define E0_DIR_PIN 34
#define E0_ENABLE_PIN 30
#define E0_CS_PIN 44
and also change:
#define E1_STEP_PIN 36
#define E1_DIR_PIN 34
#define E1_ENABLE_PIN 30
#define E1_CS_PIN 44
to:
#define E1_STEP_PIN 26
#define E1_DIR_PIN 28
#define E1_ENABLE_PIN 24
#define E1_CS_PIN 42
When the file is changed an saved, build and upload code to your board and plug the connector of the E0 stepper into the E1 header. |
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