GregValiant
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Posts posted by GregValiant
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The Gcode file doesn't have anything odd in it and it prints on my Ender. Looking back at the first post where you say it goes up against a switch and just stays there making noise with the switch light on...maybe you should take a closer look at the switch and it's wiring. If the switch doesn't work then the printer never gets the signal that the axis is home.
This is a terrible pun but "The lights are on but the printer ain't home."
Move the carriage all the way to the other side and then send it Home then quickly hit the switch with a pencil eraser or something similar. If the switch works the carriage should stop moving towards the switch. If it doesn't then get out of the way really fast.
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Line 21 is M141 S28 and sets the temperature for the heated chamber. Do you in fact have a heated chamber? If you don't then the printer may be hanging up on that line. You would need to un-tick the Heated Build Volume box in the machine settings of Cura. You could put a semicolon in front of that line and then try to print the file.
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Here's it's mate. Two pieces with the hex in the collar part. I just threaded the horseshoe so no nut there.
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Yes...you're right in that you're wrong. 3d printing is nothing if not confusing. Here's what I learned in 3D 101.
The line width is related to the inside diameter of the nozzle and becomes the index distance between one nozzle pass across a part, and the next pass coming back the other way. It effects the XY movement. Any size nozzle works best at a line width that is near it's own size so a .4mm nozzle will generally need a line width near .4mm.
The "super quality" profile provides (among other things) a LAYER HEIGHT of .12mm and that is the distance between one layer and the next (the Z index). You can possibly get down to .08 layer height (a human hair width) on a really finally tuned printer.
The printer always needs to have sufficient material coming out so that the nozzle smears it against whatever is below (be it the bed or a previous layer). Feed rate IS the speed that the head moves. It's "flow" that you're thinking of in regards to how much material comes out.
Consider an example of a .4 nozzle and a .2 layer height making an extrusion 50mm long at a print speed of 40mm/sec...
In a general sense (general because slicing software plays with the numbers) - Line Width coupled with Layer Height determine the area under the nozzle to fill with plastic (.4mm line width x .2mm layer height = .08mm²).
The length of an extrusion gives the volume required for our line (how MUCH plastic to flow) (.08mm² x 50mm long = 4mm³)
The Print Speed (mm/second) brings time into the equation and gives that amount of flow its "rate" or how FAST that volume needs to come out of the nozzle. (50mm extrusion length/ 40mm/sec = 1.25seconds) and so (4mm³/1.25sec = 3.2mm³/sec).
Any slicing software MUST assume that the printer is calibrated in the X, Y, Z, and E. If it isn't calibrated then the prints can not be correct. If our first layer is set in the software at .2mm and we don't level the bed right then it isn't really .2mm and there is a struggle to get a good first layer.
Mechanically - if the X, Y, and Z are not square to each other then the prints cannot be correct. They will be skewed even though that might be really hard to measure.
In the real world, if it looks good it's good. If it looks like crap, it's crap. All cut and dry. Getting from crap to good is what tuning is all about and that my friend is where all the confusion jumps up.
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There should be 6-7mm between the aluminum uprights and the bed.
1. You could try completely loosening the leveling screws, push the bed to the left, and then tighten it back up and re-level.
2. Drill additional holes in the uprights and move the power supply outboard where Creality should have put it.
3. Put a finger full of grease on the area where it's scraping and say "Good Enough!".
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Your still under-extruding. What printer is it? If it's a Bowden tube printer the clog may have been (and still is) up above the nozzle.
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In the Cura preview you should be able to see that the first layer is smaller than the second layer (especially with it set to -1).
I haven't had any problem getting it to work (same printer as yours). I keep it at -.25. If there is another setting that could interfere with Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion I'm not aware of it (but there are a lot of things about Cura I'm not aware of).
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Your welcome.
I hate it when something fixes itself for no apparent reason. If the same problem recurs I'm just as clueless as the first time it happened.
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Do you happen to have Coasting turned on? It will leave gaps in the preview (but not in the print).
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I don't know how he could decide that it's "not an issue anymore" after only 12 hours and with no explanation.
Have you tried using the Pause at Height with the earlier versions of Cura?
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Not sure what you mean by "stuck on". Does it just keep moving the filament backward?
If you could post one of your gcode files and save and post a project file from Cura that would be good.
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If you go to the MarketPlace and check under "Installed" then USB Printing should be down the list. Make sure the box is ticked.
If it isn't there you could install an earlier version of Cura that includes USB printing. As Smithy says, it isn't used or recommended for Ultimaker machines and hasn't been maintained or updated. Pronterface/Printrun is an option as is Octoprint/Raspberrry Pi.
For me, the SD card is simple and easy to understand.
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3d printing can make anybody sick.
If you'll post that newest Gcode file I'll take another look. Glad you're feeling better.
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I'm still using the 4.7 beta and I won't be moving on until the furor over 4.7.1 settles down.
I think you should leave an "issue" on the GitHub site regarding the new Pause at Height problem. Not altering the Gcode file means it isn't working at all.
If you still have the 4.6.x version installed you could try copying PauseAtHeight.py from the scripts folder there, into the scripts folder in 4.7.1. If there is an issue with the new 4.7.1 PauseAtHeight (I should think it would be the same) it may resolve itself.
Maybe one of the Cura team folks will drop by and address this. Without 4.7.1 I'm flying in the dark.
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Did you switch plastic in the printer? Doing a hot pull may have pulled a partial blockage out and now it's running normal again.
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I was at Fisher Body at the Tech Center in Warren, Michigan while I attended GMI (now Kettering U.). I learned a little bit of analog programming at GMI too. Now that took some thought!!
I did some of work later on getting lab machines to write their data to MSExcel via serial ports. I've written an application in Visual Basic for Apps to talk to my printer. It works well but it requires Excel, so as a project I'm attempting to port it to VB using Visual Studio. What I'm learning now is to really hate Visual Studio.
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I won't comment on any skill deficiencies you may or may not have. I have trouble enough with my own. I remember COBOL. I cut my teeth on an IBM360 and Fortran while at GM Fisher Body.
The finer the model, the smoother the print. I think that's how some of the machine manufacturers spoil their new customers. They provide them some Gcode files that were sliced by extremely competent people using extremely fine models and the prints come out superb. Then the user can't duplicate the superb model because the files downloaded from a website aren't near the resolution of the canned files. No amount of fiddling with settings can get a rough model to look like a fine model.
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I used LB_SPIRAL_BOT to check.
Model rotated so the bottom is down
Eraser size = 100,100,100
Eraser location = 0,0,3
Eraser cube settings - Wall Thickness = 0 and Top Bottom Thickness = 0, and Infill Density = 0.
My settings were .2 layer and .2 initial layer. I got 7:46 print time and 23.85 meters.
Without the eraser and at 10% infill it was 8:33 print time and 28.35 meters.
If you "remove" the Wall and Top/Bottom settings from the eraser - it will go to the "Infill Mesh Only" default and add additional walls inside the regular walls. That might be where the confusion is because that does add material.
That's an interesting box. I might print one up.
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Yes, tree support. It would be broader based and that second one wouldn't grow on the part but come around from the side.
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Holes like to come out undersized. The plastic is viscous enough that it gets dragged towards the center as it extrudes. @gr5 calls it the "Snot Factor" and the smaller the hole the worse it is.
Under "Shell" you'll find "Hole Horizontal Expansion" and it will get you much closer. It is an offset setting and so it acts on the radius. Your diameters are off by about .8 so set the Hole Horizontal Expansion to .4mm.
Another thing - is that image of the part accurate as to the resolution of the STL file? Check in TinkerCad and see if there is an option for a higher resolution when it generates the STL file. A part with so few facets around the diameter will have it's own issues as the plastic gets dragged across the facet angles effectively making the hole smaller.
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Are you printing over the USB? If so then put the file on an SD card and print that way.
Essentially, there is only 1 layer (a really long one) with Spiralize so it shouldn't retract once it's above the base. You could try setting your line width to .6 to make the walls a bit stronger.
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I sliced your model (4.7beta) and it looked fine. Here's the project file.
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I think Cura is laying in the base of the letters as they are a "top surface". Generally those would cover the area of all the lettering but there must be a couple points in the model where the letters are cut a bit deeper. The next layer up should show those smears around all of the lettering.
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It looks like the cube is sitting on the build plate correctly. That other vertical shape is a definite oddity. In the second image it almost looks like a shadow of the cube and the Z axis. Does it slice OK?
If worse comes to worst you could mount the printer on a wall to keep the Z axis aligned with the software. Drywall screws would probably be OK. They should be the store-bought kind though. Printed ones just don't last.
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3D Mask
in UltiMaker Cura
Posted
You might have to do it manually. A little non-nerdy grade school math says 20/50 = .4 or 40%. At the start of the first TPU layer in the Gcode file add a line M220 S40 to run the feedrate at 40%. At the very end of the file just before "End of Gcode" add a line M220 S100 to set the feed rate back to full. If you don't add the end line the printer will stay at 40% until you shut it off and re-start it.
If you're using Cura 4.7 and it's PauseAtHeight plugin you get to add M220 S40 right there in the pause at height dialog where it says "GCODE after pause".
You can get by without the last M220 S100 so long as you don't start another print without re-booting the printer first.
Are you sure you'll get good adhesion between the PETG and the TPU?
I hope that's non-nerdy enough for ya since it's from a guy that still uses a flip-phone.