GregValiant
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Posts posted by GregValiant
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I read the Gcode file using a macro in MSExcel. It found 59,878 Z moves and none went down by more than .2mm. That isn't enough to crash the head.
Since you sent the file via Octoprint as well as by SD, that eliminates the possibility of a bad SD card. I'm not sure what to look at next. Sometimes a piece of infill or the edge of an overhang will stick up. When the print head comes by again later it catches the part sticking up and pushes the model over. I suppose it could get cocked and catch on the nozzle to leave a mark. I increased my Z-hop height to .5 because of things like that (but it never got caught on the nozzle).
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In Cura, check your machine settings. "Origin at Center" should NOT be checked. The bed size and height must be entered correctly (a square is a special kind of rectangle). In the printer itself, your Home Offsets must be correct. Typically X and Y will be small negative numbers and Z will be 0.
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There are no Z moves in that file larger than your Z-hop height of .2mm. Whenever it goes up .2mm for a Z-hop, it comes back down .2mm to the working height.
According to the settings listed at the end of the gcode file, Adaptive Layers is turned on.
[metadata]
position=0
type=quality_changes
quality_type=adaptive
setting_version=16Varying the layer heights to the model geometry is what Adaptive Layers is supposed to do.
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I looked into M118 a bit. It appears that it is meant to send a message back to the print server. The response should be "echo:blah blah blah" in Marlin. My firmware is Marlin 1.1.8:
Sending M118 Hello World results in the printer responding:
echo:HELLO WORLD
okThat appears to be the expected result per the Marlin site.
Sending M118 X51.00 Y48.00 Z15.80 T1 the response is:
À
okSo the response sent from the printer back to the server is the single ASCII character 192 instead of "echo:X51.00 Y48.00 Z15.80 T1".
Sending M118 X51.00 Y48.00 Z15.80 T1 HELLO the response is
echo:HELLO
okSending M118 with anything that looks like an XYZ position results in a character 192 response.
Good Luck!
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If you use cooking type "parchment paper" or a thin store receipt you can get a better feel for leveling.
Here is gr5's THE_VIDEO.
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The STL file doesn't help because it doesn't have any settings in it. Please provide a "Project File" so people can tell how you set up Cura to slice the model.
As with many "character" models, this model has problems. It is not "watertight" and that model file is HUGE. Try printing something simpler, but that needs some support.
You still haven't mentioned what printer it is.
You might need to calibrate your E-steps.
There are numerous "Flow" settings in Cura. Search the settings for "Flow" and make sure they are at 100%. Make sure you have "Retraction" set. Start at 5mm.
No clogs in the nozzle? No blockage in the hot end?
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There are a lot of flow settings in Cura. One of them is Initial Layer Flow. Set it at 110%. You didn't mention your print speed but make the Initial Layer Speed 35.
Make no mistake, that is a crutch and not a fix, but slow and heavy can make up for problems until you get the routine down. @gr5 has a good video on bed leveling / adhesion that he will share when he gets out of bed. It will teach you the right way so you can throw away the crutches.
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Good job picking that up. Trying to diagnose things from far away ain't easy.
(On the other hand, I think we did a fair job of surrounding it. Another month or two and we'd have nailed it down!)
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There is a search bar above the settings. To the right is a drop down menu where you can select "All" to show all settings.
Or you can just Search for "Coasting".
You had Coasting enabled when the 3mf file was generated. The model will print fine (provided all your other settings are good).
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If you could post a gcode file showing the behavior that would be good.
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Next to the "search" box at the top of the settings is an icon. Click on it and select "all" so unhide all the Cura settings.
There are a lot of settings under "Support". One of them is an option called Support Placement. If "Touching Buildplate" is enabled then those gaps won't be supported. Change it to "everywhere" and the supports will show up.
That is a fussy model. The small features on the ends of the legs would print best as your second photo shows. If the sides were parallel instead of at a small angle it would print best laying down with a support blocker over the horizontal holes. This looks like a case where the part is designed to release from a mold, rather than be FDM printed.
I like it like this. When you open a 3mf file it will have all the settings and the printer (Ender 3 Pro in my case). You will need to switch back to your printer and look carefully at the settings to assure that they will work for you. There is one support blocker to keep support from the small horizontal holes.
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That was odd. The 3mf file crashes my Cura 4.8.
I have to guess then, and I'm guessing you have "Coasting" enabled and your preview is set to show extrusions. There isn't any extrusion during that portion of a move that is the coast, and so you get a blank spot.
It doesn't crash 4.7. Yep, coasting is enabled.
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One of the reasons I have chosen not to move to Auto Bed Leveling is the complexity. It isn't just a sensor that gets mounted near the nozzle, it's a whole set of motions controlled (and saved to memory) in the printer. The board in the Ender prints well but there isn't enough memory for anything else. I'm not changing boards either. Reddit is full of people who bought printers "upgraded" from a board designed for their printer to some random board they heard about, and now their prints suck or more often, the printer no longer does anything. Mine works, I understand it, it's as simple as I can get a machine with 4 motors, 4 fans, two computers, a bunch of wheels and pulleys, and a 250 degree piece of aluminum right in the middle. I love my parchment paper. A piece will last weeks and when it finally does tear, I don't have to load a bootloader and re-flash it. I just walk into the kitchen and grab another little piece off the 50 foot roll.
Anyway, that was my ABL rant. I could go on about calibration too but I'll keep it simple...it's a machine, parts wear, belts stretch, it doesn't always get the exact same filament. It needs tune-ups from time to time to keep it at the top of it's game.
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This is your CFFP Spiral...gcode file printed on my Ender in PLA. I changed the Bed and Printing temps and put in an M221 S125 to push the Flow to 125% because I'm too lazy to change nozzles. There was still extreme under-extrusion after the raft finished so I used the LCD and tuned flow to 150% and it was better. All the layers are there.
The problem is with your printer. I am guessing it's in the ABL settings, but I advise going over the whole thing and calibrating it. There is no good reason to have to run flow down to 70%.
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Auto Bed Leveling
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You are aware that your extruder is set up in Cura with a 0.3 nozzle? Just checking. Because your second extruder has a 0.4 nozzle.
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Leave the nozzle loose by 1/2 turn. Cut the bowden end exactly square. Shove the bowden in down to the nozzle. Put the lock clip on. Heat up the hot end. Tighten the nozzle the rest of the way so it seals the bowden end. Do an internet search for an all metal hot end.
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PITA. It was at about this point in my own adventures (3rd stock hot end) that I went with an all metal hot end. It isn't perfect but it's much better.
I went back and read where I was betting on a hot end clog. Right now that bet is looking much better than it was a couple of posts ago.
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The extrusion got very thin mid-print. That isn't the same as stopping altogether.
The E motor doesn't get hot = not a Vref problem or softening of the filament as it goes through the extruder.
A clog at the end of the bowden tube would not clear itself and extrusion would remain poor.
A partial clog in the nozzle got cleared when you pulled the filament. The down side of that is there isn't any preventative maintenance you can do. If it clogs, it clogs. If it would have been the bowden tube blockage there are some things you can do to prevent it, but a clogged nozzle, I don't think there is.
90% of the problems I had with my Ender were from the hot end of the bowden tube clogging. I may have had a nozzle clog once, but I probably blamed it on the hot end and fixing one fixed the other.
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Does the filament between the nozzle and the extruder gear look "bunched up" like it wasn't going out as fast as it was coming in?
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I did it in Cura. It's one of 12 slicers I have installed but it is my preference for my personal work.
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It doesn't work that way. There are special commands (G90 and G91) to set the printer to relative mode. There are none in the gcode file.
Within the setup for the ABL is a z offset I think it's in the M851 line as M851 X28.84 Y2.70 Z0.20. Your home offset is in the M206 line as X0 Y0 Z4.65.
Cura doesn't know those numbers. They are in the printer. I don't have an ABL and now officially am out of my depth. I would think that the ABL needs to be calibrated along with your E motor. You can keep putting band-aids on it but at some point it's going to need to be adjusted.
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In the video, all the moves are there. I can see it move for the bottom of the part, then move over and do the draft shield, it just isn't pushing plastic.
Let's go back. #1 is to calibrate your E-steps. In almost all cases the flow should be 100%. Anything over 105 or under 95 indicates the calibration is off.
When you send the printer M503, what are the numbers in the M206 line? If you can't send M503 then with the LCD, Auto-Home the print head and check the numbers for XYZ on the LCD display. What are they?
LABISTS et4 and Cura
in UltiMaker Cura
Posted
Very good.
If your home offsets are correct in the printer, then a centered print in the Cura virtual build plate should print in the center of the printer's real build plate.
At the start of a Cura gcode file there will be some dimensions.
;MINX:37.377
;MINY:80.504
;MINZ:0.2
;MAXX:192.628
;MAXY:149.496
;MAXZ:44.9
(MAXX + MINX) / 2= 115 and (MAXY + MINY) / 2 = 115. My build plate is 230 x 230 and by checking those numbers I know that the print will be centered on the build plate.