GregValiant

I've printed a lot of silky PLA. My normal temp is 210 but for copper it's 215 because the layer adhesion is really poor with copper. I like Matter Hackers filaments. If you keep the outer wall speed at 30 to 35 you will see a lot nicer finish. You might want to shorten your retract distance as well. I run silkies at 5mm retract at 35mm/sec on the E motor. With combing enabled and setting the infill and support infill layer heights to 2X the print layer height the infill and support goes down every other layer. That helps limit the retractions as well. Another thing to limit the retractions is to enable "connect infill lines" and "Connect support lines". Cleaning out the hot end every 30 hours or so of printing time helps, along with trimming back the bowden tube by 5 or 6mm when you do that. It falls under "Can't Hurt". I always take the time to do hot end maintenance before a long print. Experience can be a harsh master. Expensive too.

There are a couple of lines in your End Gcode that shut off the fan, the bed, the hot end, and disable the steppers. You can set "hard" numbers or you can set Cura keywords. Go to "Settings | Printer | Manage Printers | Machine Settings" and in the bottom right of the dialog is your End Gcode. There will be lines: M104 S0 (shut off the hot end) M140 S0 (shut off the bed) M107 (or M106 S0. Either will turn off the layer cooling fan) M84 X Y E (disable all steppers but Z) This command will cause X Y E to lose their location information. As long as there is a G28 at the start of the next file it shouldn't matter. Not disabling Z keeps be X beam (or the bed) from drifting downward into the print. Adding a semi-colon in front changes a line from a command into a comment that the printer will ignore. You can change them to: ;M104 S0 (Cura will ignore the line since it is now a comment.) M140 S60 (hard number that the printer will respond to and set the bed to 60°) M106 S0 (turn off the layer cooling fan) M84 X Y E (disable stepper motors. If you put in M84 S1800 then the steppers will remain active for 1800 seconds (30 minutes) The line for the bed could also be: M140 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} That would maintain the bed temperature at whatever it was for the print. A semi-colon would just comment it out. Understand that doing it that way means it will stay on forever unless you physically turn the machine off. Don't forget.

Trying to synchronize one slicer to another so you can compare the results is tough to do. It always ends up like this problem where you know something is wrong but it can be really tough to find. Congrats.

You can try installing a program called "Pronterface / Printrun". You can slice in Cura, save the gcode file, and print over the USB using Pronterface. (At least that is how it is supposed to work.)

@gr5 could it be that "Fill gaps between walls" is set to "Everywhere" in Cura but to "Nowhere" in the Creality slicer (if it even has such a setting)?

The "Slice" button has different functions depending on...stuff. If the memory card is plugged into the computer then the default is "save to removeable drive removeable drive :X". At the right end of the button is an arrow. Click on the arrow and you can select from other options. One is "Save to Disc" which is your hard drive. That will bring up a regular "SaveAs" dialog. After saving, a popup will appear in Cura and ask if you want to open the folder. With the folder open you can copy and paste the file to the memory card. If the above doesn't work then I think it might be an operating system problem talking to the card slot.

It's a good hobby when things work. When the printer is in tune and the particular model is a good one for printing (not all are) then it's fine. The problem with these printers is that the "tune" is on a knife edge and when it falls out of tune, it can be tough to sort out exactly what went wrong and how to fix it. If you took care to insure that all 3 axes are exactly perpendicular to each other, and that all the trolley wheels are adjusted so that you can just turn each one with your fingers, and your E-steps are calibrated, the printer can turn out very nice and extremely accurate prints. On the other hand, people who just bolt them together without regard to alignment, or who assume that because some parts came pre-assembled from the manufacturer that they were actually assembled correctly, those folks always have trouble. The weakest point on the machine is the extruder assembly that sits on top of the E motor. If your printer came with a plastic one then that needs to be changed to an aluminum one at the first chance. The plastic ones crack and the machine will start to under-extrude. Those plastic arms have a 100% failure rate. There are cases where they were cracked right out of the box. The second weak point is the hot end assembly. It is the nature of the Creality hot ends on the Enders and CR-10's (same model hot ends) to clog at the bottom of the bowden tube. Personally, I don't know that I've ever seen a "clogged nozzle". It has always been a partial plug that develops between the bottom of the bowden and the back end of the nozzle. At some point - moving to a Micro-Swiss all-metal hot end will become necessary. They don't clog anywhere near as often.

I have seen this problem but it has been a rare occurrence (and hasn't happened lately). I chalked it up to the material I was printing with but I have no idea if that was true, or if it was something Cura was doing to cause it, or my printer was just having a bad day. This same issue has been commented on here, Github and over on Reddit. I'm sure the developers have seen it discussed. I know I can't duplicate it on purpose (and I have tried) and if the Cura team can't duplicate it then it's near impossible to figure out where in the code there might be a problem. I can do a close analysis of a gcode file that has the problem. If you would post a gcode file and a photo or screen shot showing where on the model the problem is occurring - I have some tricks to check things like the distance between the extrusions and the amount of flow of those extrusions. If it is a small model and has a single hole in it that would be best. I would bother to throw some filament at it to see if I can duplicate the issue.

"And: Cura does print 57mm from 1mm filement and creality prints 37mm" I think that calls into question the competence of the software there. There is no way that Cura would put down a flow rate of 50%. Something is wonky and it might have to do with 2X the retractions in the Cura file. I think that gcode analyzer has an addition error in it and it appears to involve the retractions and primes. There should be exactly the same distance in retracts as there is in primes so the net difference should be zero.

1.75 filament is 2.405mm³/1mm of length. The extrusions are .2 Layer Height x .4 Line Width = .08mm³/mm of extrusion. 2.405/.08 = 30.06mm of extrusion/mm of filament. 1.2meters is 1200mm of filament x 30.06 = 36,072mm of extrusion so 36.072meters of extrusion are going someplace. I think that's why there is so much more movement in one file than in the other.

"I understand that there is also a safety aspect involved." The original Ender 3 came with as small a power supply as Creality could get away with. The Ender 3 Pro came with the 350 watt Meanwell power supply. (The frame was beefier and it had better trolley wheels as well.) So the issue wasn't so much "safety" per se, it was "can the power supply handle the load" without popping its internal fuse. I think the newer models of the Ender 3 (v2 and max) now share power supplies with the 3 Pro. It is no longer stressing the power supply to heat both the hot end and bed at the same time. It took much less power when both were up to temperature and were cycling on and off to maintain temperature than it did if they started together from room temperature. What Creality has changed in regards to the power supply on the CR10's I have no idea. The power connection on a lot of Ender mainboards are really poor. Passing the amperage of the bed heater and hot end through those poor connections will in time result in a high resistance condition that will melt the screw connector. If left alone it can (and has been known to) catch fire. If they had used brass ferrules on the wire ends instead of just tinning them with solder it would have been much better.

There are some things that stick out to me. Total Movement: Cura = 1046 meters Creality = 496 meters Lines of Code: Cura = 1,389,549 Creality = 650,014 Filament Used (these are from my slices): Cura = 11.11m Creality = 9.91m File Size (also from my slices): Cura = 23,481kb Creality = 17,730kb Looking at those numbers, I think the comparison is between apples and oranges. The Cura file has twice as many lines of gcode as the Creality file and is moving twice as far. What I'm really curious about is where the extra 1.2m of filament went? That's an additional 36 METERS of extrusion distance. The slug just doesn't seem that big.

I had that issue with some drink coasters I was printing. I did end up with two separate models but not two gcode files. These are fairly fancy for a single extruder printer. There was no need to splice gcode files together. I did change filament lot. These are just a base model and the top model with the words and rings. In the case of the Happy Camper coasters I used the Per Model settings and the words were printed with no bottom layers. I wrote myself a little program to splice gcode files. After thinking a bit more it became apparent that all it was doing was configuring about 4 lines of gcode for the transition. Lately I've been using the Pause at Height post-processor since that's what it does anyway. You just need to consider if the top file needs a Z adjustment of the Home Offset, or if just using G92 will suffice. By using the pauses in two files as the "end one and begin the next" location it works very well.

From the Matter Hacker site: "Currently, the Pulse is only supported with the use of our MatterControl software, since other slicers do not apply any leveling data to exported gcode. While it is possible to setup the Marlin UBL firmware leveling on this machine for use with alternate slicers, we do not have a guide for this process, nor is it officially supported. I hope this helps!" If you look through a gcode file that was created using the Matter Control software, you may be able to create a profile in Cura. Much would depend on the firmware flavor of the printer (reading around the edges it appears to be proprietary) and if Cura can be set up to give instructions that will be understood by the printer. I have the basic Matter Control software installed but I never played with it very much. I can create gcode for my Ender using Matter Control, but not for the virtual Pulse XE I installed. I get a message that it has not been "setup". Matter Control will generate gcode for Creality and Ultimaker machines. To get the Pulse XE to work with Cura might be easy, or they may have made it impossible if their firmware relies on proprietary Gcode commands. Some companies do that so you must rely on their provided software. I don't know what this part means: "...since other slicers do not apply any leveling data to exported gcode." On the surface that sounds like BS but since the printer seems to rely on a USB connection maybe it sends leveling data back to the software and adds additional Z data that is used for the first layer or three. A feedback loop sort of thing.

Windows? Mac? Linux? Is the memory card new? Are you able to copy files to it using your normal method (not going through Cura)? What I mean is, can you copy a file from a folder and paste it onto the memory card? Have you tried re-formatting the memory card?

I tell you what. Bring a model into Cura (like a calibration cube or benchy or something small). Set Cura up the way you like and then use the "File | Save Project" command and then post the resulting 3mf file here. A Project file contains your printer, all the Cura settings, and the model so it is a complete package. I'll take a look at half-time in the 49ers v Packers game. Cura allows me to run my Ender at up to 500mm/sec while printing. The machine won't take it mnd you, but I conceivably could print that fast. Your CR10 is bigger and the bed is heavier but print time should not be any different than with any other slicer. I have 19 slicers installed (I should get a life!) and there is no speed problem with any of them.

If you don't have the Keywords in your start gcode then Cura assumes it must heat the bed and hot end to avoid cold extruding. In that snippet - your startup gcode consists of all the lines with comments (the comments are green in your snippet). You can see that there is no mention of temperature in there and so Cura adds the heating lines before the startup gcode goes in. What you have up there is the stock CR-10, Ender 3, Ender 3 Pro, Ender 5, CR6, etc., StartUp Gcode. It is the policy of Creality to NOT heat the bed and hot end at the same time. I think they were worried about the current draw when both were starting out cold. I have not had a problem heating both at once. Essentially it is used for all the Creality printers. I have three Ender 3 Pro printers installed because I print PETG slow, and TPU very slow, and the speed settings of the purge lines needed to be adjusted. Rather than do that every time; I just installed additional printers and each has a slightly different StartUp Gcode. This is from my PLA version and is mostly the stock E3Pro stuff but I added the lines with the keywords. You can see that I don't have it waiting for the bed to hit full temperature because for PLA I don't care if I start with a cool bed. The PETG version does have an M190 because if the bed isn't hot I have adhesion problems. ; ; Ender 3 Custom Start G-code ; M140 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} M109 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} G92 E0 ; Reset G28 X Y ; Home all axes G1 Z12.0 F3000 ; Move Z G1 X1.0 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move G1 X1.0 Y200.0 Z0.3 F1500.0 E15 ; Draw the first line G1 X3.0 Y200.0 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move G1 X3.0 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 ; Draw the second line G1 E28 F1800 ;retract 2mm G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder G1 Z12.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed G1 X5 Y20 Z10.3 F5000.0 ; Move over ; ;End of StartUp ; The line you show at the end (G1 F1500 E-6.5) is always added by Cura if you are using retractions. Since I already retract 2mm, any additional retraction kept my skirt from printing until the nozzle had traveled a bit. I found that annoying so I added a "Search and Replace" post process and it searches for that line and replaces it with G92 E-3.0. That works for me. So 2mm takes up the slack and the third mm brings up the pressure in the nozzle and printing starts when it should. That might possibly (probably) be a bit anal, but it works.

Those keywords and the use of square brackets I believe would work with PrusaSlicer. Cura uses the keywords I put in my previous post and curly brackets. Install a new instance of your printer in Cura. Copy and paste my suggested Start and End gcodes into the new printer's Machine Settings in Cura. That will allow you to keep your current setup.

You still may find that the speed is limited by the printer itself. From looking in the definition files the Max Feedrate in Cura for the X and Y is set at either 100mm/sec or 150mm/sec depending on the model. What the Max Feedrate is in the printer is listed in M203. You might be able to view it on the LCD or my sending M503 and looking at the printer response. If you add M203 X500 Y500 followed by an M500 to the start of a gcode file you can pretty much insure that you won't bump up against the speed limit. (I doubt that TronXY would have limited the speed without a good reason.)

There seems to be multiple things going on here. The mainboards of the Creality Ender line have a screw-in connection for the main power leads coming from the power supply. Creality didn't bother to put ferrules on the ends of the 24v wires. They opted just to tin the wires with solder. The constant heat-up/cool-down cycling of the wire ends causes them to deform and they don't go back to their original shape. The end result of that is they self-loosen causing a high resistance connection and fire hazard. That isn't covered under any firmware setting. It's a well known mechanical defect on at least the Ender 3 and 3 Pro. Here is mine. It was a time bomb. Fortunately for me, it simply quit working before it could ignite the plastic of the connector. @heszar - What version of Cura and what printer are we talking about here? Was the line "M190 S{material_print_temperature}" present in the definition file for that printer? I can only go back as far as 3.2.1 but as far as I am aware Creality has never used keywords (replacement patterns) in their StartUp G-Code in the definition file (the End Gcode will often include {machine_depth}). In 3.2.1 the Ender series wasn't present as an option. The Cura 3.2.1version CR10 definition file did not use replacement patterns. I am wondering if that typo was made by a user who was personalizing their StartUp G-Code. It could be passed along if someone loaded a project file that contained that typo in the StartUp G-Code.

Yessir. "If you open a 3mf file and it is set to "on"..." That's what I was trying to infer. I guess I missed it.

The default is "off". Every once in a while though it gets turned on. If you open a 3mf file and it is set to "on", and you don't notice then it can become your default. Another setting that can cause unwanted effects that are hard to figure out is "Remove All Holes". It has it's uses to fix some specific model problems, but not very often.

In the Experimental section of the settings there is "Make Overhangs Printable". You need to de-select that. It adds a chamfer to horizontal surfaces (when possible) so they don't require support. I haven't seen many models that need it.

Here is my slice. This might be the new winner of the "longest slice that completed" award. This with Cura 4.12.1 and Windows 10. At 86 hours it's one of the longest prints as well. With my standard profile it's still 40 hours.

OK @geert_2. Here is my effort on your model. And this is how I cheated...this time. I did miss a trick on the "Retraction minimum travel". There was some webbing between the small cones.