gr5

If you like the quality at lower print speeds versus 100mm/sec then maybe you should print the entire part at the lower print speed. If you only want to improve quality on the top portion of the part then consider using "TweakAtZ" which allows you to slow down the speed at a given layer height (Z). The "minimal layer time" feature is only to improve *cooling*.

I haven't used the new cura print window so thanks for clarifying. duty cycle/percentage power applied = pconst*P+iconst*I+dconst*D Where P,I,D are the current error, integral (sum) of all past error and derivative (slope or rate of change) of error respectively. So definitely reducing all 3 by power capability is a good first guess. Oh and error is (goal temp - current temp). But, yes, it's true that it matters how long it takes for a change in power to reflect in the sensor readings. This delay is very important for setting D setting particularly but also P and I. They are all interrelated - it's hard to adjust one parameter without messing up the other 2. In general if you are overshooting, reduce P or I or increase D. I'm told E3D tends to overshoot/oscillate massively. Also you might have to reduce the "max power" setting but that requires a firmware change. This has helped other's in the past. Because by the time the PID feature kicks in often it's already too late - it's going to overshoot (I don't understand why PID only kicks in within 10 or 20C of the goal temp - this seems wrong).

If you do use pronterface it will tell you the current PID values when you connect to the printer and you can see the results after tuning. And I think after doing autotune you still have to issue another command to save the values. Maybe. So doing it through pronterface might be better than cura print window (not sure). Also through pronterface you can then power cycle the printer and see if the PID values were changed properly. pronterface is here: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/

Many people have had trouble tuning other hot ends. You might want to learn the wattage of the UM2 hot end versus the E3D and scale all the values accordingly. For example if your hotend is double the wattage (at 19V) then cut all 3 PID values by half. Also PID doesn't kick in until around 10 or 20C from the goal voltage. Some people had better luck tuning if they started with a higher temperature when they started tuning. Or tuning to a lower temperature (because it can error out if it gets over 250C). I don't know if that makes sense. There is a fantastic article on PID, how it works and how to do manual tuning on wikipedia.

I would also love this feature.

The printer prints pretty much identically whether it is upside-down or on it's side or whatever. The oozing will not stop - it is created by expansion due to heating. Cold(er) filament is always entering the nozzle. If you stop extruding the heat moves up a bit. More filament heats, more filament expands.

That's a very common problem - as robert said - lower bed temperature.

Also in quality mode it would do all islands clockwise instead of doing the next layer up anti-clockwise and retracing over hot PLA.

The problem with that is if it sits there for a whole second then it will start to ooze and that string will then get joined/welded back onto the part. The 2 tower method works great however. I want a cura feature such that you can choose quality versus speed Z moves. In speed mode it does the z move and continues with same part. In quality mode it jumps to a new part after doing the Z move.

Okay - now who is making fun??? I don't have a touch screen. Or a laptop. I get pain in my arms if I use a normal mouse. I can only use track balls. My mouse looks like this:

You will be better off if the filament isn't on a reel. You can put it on a turntable flat on the floor (costs like 5 pounds) or you can build something out of kinex maybe? It's not that bad. I am very jealous that you live in the same country as faberdashery.

I agree. Backlasy aka play. Caused by either friction too high or much more likely belts too loose. Especially the short belts on the motor which are also the easiest to tighten.

You should really start a new topic. Also better to post 3 images instead of 1 album - when you click my media brows images (not galleries). I think you simply need to slide the Z endstop switch. It's in two very long tall grooves so that you can slide the Z endstop switch up or down as needed.

Regarding the internal stringing - that's normal. And from the video I can see that many of the travel moves are right towards the spot where you are underextruding. You can reduce this by keeping the travel speed fast (it's at 150mm/sec right now - you can safely go even faster to 200mm/sec) but more importantly print slower and colder. This way the nozzle will leak less during the travel moves so that there will still be plenty of plastic in the nozzle for the outer shell. Try 25mm/sec print speed and 190C temperature. I'm not sure that will work but I think it will. That's what I would do to try to get rid of those underextrusion holes in the side related to non-extruding moves.

That's a very very good bottom layer. I think you can do better. I don't think I've done better - well actuall I know I have in special case (call me gr5, not "moderator". There are other moderators). First of all to get leveling better you can't do it with leveling procedure - you have to do it by printing bottom layer and then adjusting screws. However you might already have it perfect. Anyway the trick to getting the bottom even better is to print it thinner. By default the bottom layer is .3mm because that makes it easier to get the bottom really good. But if you want to eliminate the lines even more then make the bottom layer .1mm. But now the leveling will have to be even better. While the printer is printing the skirt consider adjusting the 3 screws a little bit - I think you want it slightly closer. Alternatively you can adjust the flow. Maybe set it to 110% for the fist layer and then back to 100% some time during second layer.

Wait for the heated bed upgrade. It's worth the wait.

Check the 8 endcaps on the 4 XY rods in the upper corners of the machine. Often the rod is too long by a tiny bit. There are lots of solutions on thingiverse. Or you can use shims such as washers.

That's shift+right drag for me. A bit of a pain - that one. I rotate to look down, then zoom in, then rotate back. But - you can't rotate - so out of luck. Well I don't have a scroll wheel so I can't zoom easily in many many cad packages. Worse, I don't have a third "middle mouse" and all my favorite cad software wants that. I might go out and buy one and use that mouse just for DesignSparkMechanical.

I don't think you had a clogged nozzle. I think the filament was stuck on something inside the print head. This happens a lot and I just move the filament up a few mm and then back down and it suddenly goes much farther. Moving the print head to another corner can also help. When I put pla into my machine I always cut off the tip to get some fresh pla and to let the feeder grip a new spot on the pla. I always cut at an angle twice to make a chisel/pointy tip. If you ever do get a clogged nozzle, do the atomic cleaning method but no need to remove the bowden - just set the nozzle to 90C and pull hard. The feeder stepper offers almost no resistance. Also let the filament cool in the bowden for 10 seconds before pulling through the feeder or it might break off inside and then you have to take it apart. :(

Hmm. Just a coincidence? That's very strange. Maybe there is a slicing issue - I've seen many slicing related bugs but this isn't one I'm familiar with. It's really hard to believe this is a slicing bug but still, knowing the path the head takes can be informative. I'm guessing these spots are where the outer shell starts? Maybe? Seems unlikely though. Go back to Cura and look at this region of the part in layer view - half way through this "bad" region. Are there movements related to this area? Blue movements? Could you post a screen shot? I still think if you simply lower the speed to 35mm/sec it will look much better and those tiny holes will disappear. And regarding leveling - yes you probably need to tighten all 3 screws by about the same amount and do the leveling procedure one last time. Then adjust without the procedure afterwards (just turn screws a little if it's a little low or high while printing skirt - that's half the purpose of a skirt). Once you get leveling perfect you can leave it alone for weeks at a time.

That's fine. I usually print 220C/60C for nozzle/bed. You can probably leave the bed at 60C for a year and never touch that. But the nozzle temp varies a lot. If you are in a rush and want to print something low quality you can print much faster if you print at 240C. But if you want to avoid stringing (not an issue for your knob) you have to lower the temperature to prevent the nozzle from leaking when it is spanning a gap to print some tower or something. But if you lower the temperature now you have to print slower.

How do you even "hold" a button down and drag at the same time with a mouse pad? That's what you need to do. Anyway on a mac "ctrl" while clicking is the same as right mouse button on a PC. So if you can hold down CTRL key while you click and drag does that work? Also try arrow keys as suggested above.

He means if you lower the temperature without lowering the speed you might get underextrusion due to the toothpaste nature of colder PLA. We call them "strings" or "stringing". Now you know what to google. Here are some hints - first photo: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/

Be gentle - the traces built into the board are very thin and it's easy to damage/rip them off. The snip method is superior. Remember - even if you can't get the old pins out you can solder the new pins to the old pins. But don't - just pull them out gently rocking them back and forth after the solder is hot from the other side. Apply liberal amounts of solder to let the heat flow nicely.

What is this? feedrate percent on controller? flow rate?