GregValiant

Whether the printer understands the codes or not (dependent on the firmware) the pause code should show up in the gcode file. The pause plugin named "Pause at Height (BQ printers)" only adds an M24 to the file. The others add short routines with more flexibility like maintaining the temperature and parking the head. I'm using 4.6.1 also and the code shows up in the files.

"The first lines around the component" - In Cura under Bed Adhesion check which option you have. A brim helps hold the part down. A skirt gets the nozzle flowing before the part starts to print. Either one has an option for distance to the part. If your part has enough area touching the build plate you probably don't need either. Also in Cura, go to Monitor/Manage Printers/Machine Settings and check that your bed size and height are correct for your printer. While in there, check the "Start Gcode" window and see if there are any extrusions (lines with Exxx). That is the area where additional priming lines may be and they would show up in every gcode file (usually as verticle lines on the left side of the bed). I had to translate to English. I think the software got it right.

That last M104 may be there as a safety to insure that the hot end is indeed off. In Cura you can use the plugin "Search and Replace". Have the search term "M104 S0" and the replace term "M104 S190". That will change those last two shut-offs and keep the hot end on. Be aware that as long as the plugin is active, ALL your gcode files would leave the hot end on.

It isn't very difficult and there are a lot of youtubes on calibration. You will want to do it anyway. It's a basic tool for setting up the machine. A google search should turn up the filament drivers, gears, rotary gizmos...whatever they're called. (A 2 second search turned up Gulfcoast robotics. They have my gear for $1.99)

It's not really a gear so it's the diameter that's important. Hard to believe that it got deformed though. Maybe you can take a micro file to it and fix the teeth. If you find one that fits the motor shaft but the outer diameter is a little different you can probably get it to work so long as you calibrate the steps/mm of the E motor.

I'm old. I started with analog computers, and punch cards. The g-code went on 1" wide paper tape with 1/8" holes punched in it. The paper tape was fed into the CNC machines and they moved and worked all by themselves. It was magic. (No...they were not steam powered.) Over the course of time I came up with some observations that have worked for me. I call them rules, but they're more like guidelines. #1. When you're dumb ya' suffer. #2. Never upgrade an operating system. #3. Everything affects everything. #4. Never blindly trust a Gcode file that was created by someone else. There are a few more (yes, some involve the opposite sex) but I won't waste anymore of your time with them.

That was it. Thank you. (if I had searched for serial instead of com it probably would have come up)

I believe there is something wrong with the model file. The end cubes are OK but the handle is not. All I get are the 4 lines at the edges and it won't open at all in Print3d.

Is it possible to disable the automatic com port connection in Cura? An alternative - can I close the port connection from within Cura? I have my own program I use for printer communication and I have to close Cura to make the port available for my program and then re-start cura and reload the model. It's a bit annoying.

It might be time (maybe past time) for some maintenance. Take apart the nozzle and hot end, check the extruder drive, the belts, clean the dust and fibers out of the fans and off the wheels and tracks. If they have them, check the bowden tube fittings and see if the tube is sloppy and can be pushed in and out. These machines work pretty hard and it sounds like you've had them running for a while.

It would be odd for the printer to be making things up by itself. Really odd for multiple printers to making up the same stuff. That top image looks under-extruded and the layers don't look bonded together. Is that what you mean by "not solid"(?) or is it more like vase mode and missing infill? You have tried checking with a Gcode file you know is OK (like one of the bench models)?

Those are pretty generic commands. Your "End Gcode" area should probably have an M107 in it to turn the fan off in case it was on. I actually stole some code from the start of one of the Benchmark pieces (the klein bottle). I liked the fact that it put down some lines before printing actually started. A heavier flow at the start makes sure that the plastic is getting pushed into the build surface, and that the lines are welded together. It's a crutch, but it worked to get me started with successful first layers every time. Consistent bed leveling and just practice with the machine will get you going. This FDM stuff is not a fast manufacturing process anyway so going slow at first (20-25mm/sec) isn't a bad idea either. We all need something to get the confidence up. I had problems at first with what I thought were clogs in the nozzle. It turned out (after a bunch of youtubes and articles) that my hot end had been put together with a slant cut on the end of the bowden tube. It just wasn't sealing when the nozzle was tightened and plastic was escaping and jamming the hot end. It was a pain to chase down, but I have to say I learned a lot. The machine still tries to fool me, but I'm much better now at figuring out its tricks. Good Luck. Here's my main project. I think there's 55 separate printed pieces on it.

I have an Ender 3 Pro. I'll stand by my remarks.

It isn't easy to explain. I wrote my own program to count characters in gcode files using the "Byte Offset" to find the line where a print stopped. Cura does not have a window that shows printer responses to Gcode commands so you need to use something like Pronterface. The code snippet below (for Marlin firmware) is to re-start a file at a point 11500750 bytes into the file. Notice that there is a G28 line in the code. If the print is tall or at the front of the bed this can cause a crash. If the steppers have timed out and become disabled there must be a "Home" move before a restart can occur. Send M27 to return the Byte location of the printing file. This IS SUPPOSED to be where the printer stopped. Send M114 to return the XYZE locations for a restart. Send M20 to list the files on the SD card in DOS 8.3 format (as the printer sees them) M21 ;Initialize the SD card M23 LWRROD~1.GCO ;File name in DOS 8.3 M26 S11500750 ;Byte Offset location to start at (from response to M27) M140 S50 ; Bed temp M190 S50 ;Wait for bed temp M104 S215 ;Hot end temp M109 S215 ;Wait for hot end M105 ;Report temperature M220 S90 ; Feed rate at 90% M221 S105 ; Flow rate at 105% G28 ;Home all axis M106 S255 ;Fan on 100% G0 F1200 Z94.8 ; This is the resume Z +10. The head has to move up above the print so it doesn't crash. G0 F2400 X92.442 Y137.203 ; XY resume location G92 E2484.26551 ;E resume location as a retraction G0 F300 Z84.8 ;Drop down to the Z where printing will re-start G0 F1200 E2492.26551 ;Un-retract to the real E location to prime the nozzle M24 ;Print

OK, I will not say "Now before you stay bed leveling, temperature heating or bed adhesive." Check your 1st layer height. I like .2mm but sometimes Cura will default to .28mm. I think that's a bit too much gap to fill. Just before the line ";Layer:0" in your gcode file, add a line "M221 S115" to set the flow rate at 115%. You want to guarantee that the plastic gets smashed into the nice warm plumb build surface that has hair spray on it. Search the gcode file for "Layer:1" and just before it, insert "M221 S100" to set the flow back to 100%. I like to level the bed with parchment paper. It's only .06mm thick and nothing sticks to it. It's used to line oven baking pans. I find that I'm much more consistent than I was using printer paper.

You may need to review bed leveling process. There are a lot of youtube videos on it. When the nozzle is too close to the bed on the first layer, the hole is effectively closed by the bed and the plastic can't get out. The nozzle should not be leaving marks on the bed (it should be "1st layer height" above the bed.) When your second layer starts the head has moved up and flow starts.

Your initial layer height is .2mm and the "Initial Layer Line Width: 150". Notice that most of the rest of the line widths are the same as the nozzle diameter at .4mm. (The other odd one is skirt line width at .2.) The flow at 100% and E-steps near 100 make good sense. I think the machine may be trying to compensate for that big line width number on the first layer and putting down too much plastic. Then with the very small layer height of .08mm, there is nowhere for the plastic to go and the 2nd (and probably a few more) layers look like they are over-extruding. What they are really doing is dealing with the heavy first layer. I suggest you change the Initial Layer Line Width to .4 and the Skirt Line Width to .4. Then try printing it again.

You might try changing the line width also. It's usually set to the nozzle diameter but can be different. Try .6 line width and bump the flow rate % a bit. If the top cone had steeper sides the individual lines might bond instead of falling into the center.

I've been intrigued with saving a print-gone-wrong since I started using the Ender last December. Right away I came across M27 and M26 that use the Byte Offset of the print position in a file. I got Micorsoft Excel to talk to the printer and by crunching a gcode file with some Visual Basic macros, I figured it out. I started printing Mrs. Rabbit as a conventional slice with infill and wondered what would happen in Vase mode. So I aborted the print and had Excel send an M27 to get the byte offset and then the XYZE locations, sliced the Jessica file in vase mode and was able to justify the byte location within the new file, used M26 to jump to the byte offset in the new file and used a G92 to synchronize the extruder, and regular G moves to get the XYZ synced in and it worked very well. Off course she has some.......interesting.......horizontal parts that don't do well in vase mode, but what the heck. An experiment is an experiment. She would be impossible to print completely in vase mode since the model is standing on a flat raised dais. The file with infill handled the platform (and part of her feet) as you can see in the second image. The last image shows the area of the seam from the other side and not backlit. Even with the print in my hand I can't tell exactly where one file stops and the other starts. I am officially pleased with myself for figuring this out (even if I do feel a bit like Igor). Mrs. Rabbit appears courtesy of Thing-i-verse and she will be on a pedestal that proclaims "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."

Unless you are using vase mode (spiralize outer contour), there is always a Z seam. Take a look at "Z Seam Alignment" and "Z Corner Preference".

Rule #1: When you're dumb - you suffer.

Since it's a gcode file it was sliced with something, and that something may have had a different "bed size" setting or "Center 0" that isn't matching up well to your machine. If you're comfortable with it you can make a one-time change to the Home Offset X value and bring the print back to the center. As a matter of fact, you should check your home offset numbers just to make sure. They should be something like X-10 Y-10 Z0. The beginning of the Gcode file may have something like this: ;MINX:65.158 ;MINY:92.5 ;MINZ:0.2 ;MAXX:159.865 ;MAXY:131.117 ;MAXZ:59 If any of those numbers are negative numbers then the model was sliced for a machine with a Center 0. By default Cura always plops down a model with the center of geometry in the center of the bed (provided nobody slid it around). If you take the average of the MinX and MaxX shown above, it comes out to 112.51. My bed (Ender 3 Pro) is set up in Cura at 225 x 225 so the center is 112.5. The math shows that the model is in the center of the bed. Rule #4: Never blindly trust a Gcode file that somebody else created.

You don't have to check the entire file. Just the last few lines. They should show the heaters shutting off and the steppers disabling. My gcode files have a lot of comments after the ";End of Gcode" line. A quick glance will let you know if the file is fit to print. You can open the file in your text editor and do a "Find" for "End of Gcode". If it's in the file then the file is complete. Just above that line you should see M106, M104, and M140 all set to zero. The end of the file should look something like this: M203 X900.00 Y900.00 Z50.00 E50.00; Last move of the actual print G1 X0 Y225 ;Present print M106 S0 ;Turn-off fan M104 S0 ;Turn-off hotend M140 S0 ;Turn-off bed M84 X Y E ;Disable all steppers but Z M82 ;absolute extrusion mode M104 S0 ;End of Gcode I'm still thinking it was corruption of the card. Hard to chase down. Cura seems very stable and not prone to doing stupid things. You may want to re-install for piece of mind though.

The file got corrupted somehow. That looks like machine talk (maybe hexidecimal, maybe garbage) that the text program is trying to decipher. Could be that some of the file ended up in a bad sector on the memory card. Try re-formatting that card. Some of the Creality card readers don't seem to like really large capacity SD cards either. I don't see the printer writing to a file though. The garbage in that file starts in "mid-line". The end if the file is missing. Did you make a copy to your hard drive right out of the slicer so you can compare the two?

I hope we are not talking apples and oranges here. Minimalfort sliced with 4.6.1 and got the seam. You sliced it and there was no seam. I sliced it with 4.6.1 and there was no seam. The Torgeir and Greg gcode files are extremely similar. Minimalfort's gcode file is very different. It must have been a settings thing. Time to move on.