GregValiant

I envisioned a "pick-and-place". Bed-slinger printers would require Z movement by the removal machine. Doors open. Slide in and pick up the used build plate. Set it aside. Pick up a new build plate. Put it in the printer. Close the door. Print. Fancier would be a small industrial robot with multiple printers in a circle around it. The "Gold Plated" version would be a gantry mounted robot on a seventh axis. It could slide down between 2 rows of 100 printers on each side, pull off a plate, put in another, then park itself at ceiling height to get out of the way. If the filled plates were set on an indexing conveyor they could move to a "removal" station, then a "washing" station, and then back in line for re-use. Or you can go "Quick and Dirty" with a "bulldozer" script and just knock the parts off the plate into a basket. So...how much money ya got?

"...to the log (aka by bucket of scrap parts doesn't have that color white until a good foot deep" I always find it heartening when I come across other people who use the same filing system I use. This is further proof that it works. Thank You @whoneyc for validating my claim. (I'm going to show this to my wife who thinks I'm just a lazy slob.)

I think your questions would be better placed over on Reddit. People over there change their firmware more often than they change their socks. Understand that I'm not being flip, but the problem on this forum is that many folks would have to answer your questions with: Possibly, Maybe, Dunno. Personally, I've never seen a LottMax printer and yours is now custom. Since you are going with this customization have you considered a Duet or other mainboard? You could probably get a more capable mainboard. Maybe the answer would be Geeetech firmware for one of their dual-extruder M models that is the same physical size as your LottMax. Might possibly work, maybe not. Dunno.

It has the advantage of being simple and direct. Some printers will home to "max" using commands other than the G28 command. The G28 works for probably 95% of all printers. You could try splitting the G28 line into: G28 X Y G28 Z and see if it makes a difference. I think the best bet is to get over to Reddit and see if there is a group of owners there. There might be a Facebook group as well.

This is the Ultimaker forum. I'll take a stab at this as I have a bit of knowledge of "those other printers" but take this with a grain of salt. (I also could use a "multi-in-1-out extruder" debugger.) If you can get a look at the Geeetech firmware for one of their multi-in-one-out printers, it may give an excellent clue as to what you need to see in your "custom" firmware for the LottMax. Your firmware needs to have M163 and M164 enabled. As it happens, I finished this post-processor this morning. It is written for printers with 2-in-1-out or 3-in-1-out hot ends. It's a Mixing Script and does indeed use M163 and M164. The "ColorMix" post processor supports 2 extruders. This "Multi-Extruder Color Mixer" post processor supports 3 extruders. There are options for Constant Mix ratio and Gradient Mix Ratios and across a range of layers or the entire gcode file. The way I've written this post-processor (and what I see in the "ColorMix" post processor) you have to slice a print for a single extruder. It doesn't matter which extruder starts a print as the color mix won't kick in until there is a proper tool change to the virtual extruder. There should be no prime tower. On a Windows computer the script would go in the Cura Configuration folder such as "C:\Users\......\AppData\Roaming\cura\5.3\scripts". If you open it in a text editor there are some rules and instructions at the beginning. gv_MultiExtColorMix.zip BTW You can't hurt a printer if it doesn't understand a command as the printer will simply skip over it. ( @ahoeben - was this great timing or what??)

Just to settle this thread...your "shadow setting" works. I have once again successfully crossed the highway.

That has been talked about. @Cuq has written some plugins and he might have one that will increase the skirt height. I have a putty knife I use to knock it loose.

It's a big printer. This is your project file with no changes.

This has been reported over on GitHub so the Cura team is aware of it. A bad side effect is that when the Support Brim is missing nothing takes it's place and so the support structure doesn't start until the second layer. Use @Torgeir's workaround and you should get back to printing.

A gcode file has sections. The first section is usually statistics about the print. The second is the StartUp Gcode and explains to the printer what temperature to work at, when to auto-home, how much to purge, etc. After the main body of the print is the Ending Gcode that shuts the printer down in an orderly fashion. In Cura go to Settings, Printers, Manage Printers, Machine Settings. The two big text boxes are the StartUp and Ending Gcodes. Copy the StartUp Gcode and paste it here. Does the printer have an Auto Bed Leveler? What printer definition did you use to install the printer in Cura (Monoprice Select Mini V2 was used for some Easyyhreeds).

I measured the walls at 0.40 in 3D Builder. That's why I had to lower the line width in 4.13.1. Using "Surface" mode results in a double wall and that does get rid of the travels as it is almost like spiralize. Dimensionally I wonder how the actual wall thickness would turn out with the double extrusion. I was able to get rid of the travel by dropping the Minimum Line Width to .20 which also forced a double wall. I think setting the Combing should work though. Regardless of the number of extrusion passes the nozzle should comb over the part rather than just jumping across.

Github is the place. I think there is some flaky/buggy behavior here. This is from 4.13.1 (I've attached a 4.13.1 project file). I set the Line Width to 0.39. This is the same project in 5.3.1. The Z seam can't really be moved from the end of that leg. Whether Combing is the problem or the Zseam location is the problem, I can't tell. Something is the problem for sure. GV Open_box_wall.3mf

Ok @ahoeben I'm trying to get back across the autobahn. I'm working on a post-processor and I want to use the extruder_count to enable/disable a setting upon load. This requires getting the extruder_count before the settings load and then something like: "enabled": extruder_count >1 ". I have made numerous tries. I believe am now familiar with every error code that Python and QML can throw. What I have not been able to do is to disable the @#$% checkbox if there is only 1 extruder. Any help would be appreciated.

When I install an A10T it's fine. In Manage Printers/Machine Settings what does it have in the Z(height) box?

The log files are in the user folder under AppData\Roaming. You can get to it by using the "Help | Show Configuration Folder" command in Cura. There is a plugin in the MarketPlace for Extensive Support Logging. It will provide a little more information in the log file.

This is with an Ender 3 Pro active that I have configured to dual extruders. Combing is "All" and those point-to-point moves are gone. This is in 5.3.1. When I switched to a regular Ender 3 Pro those travel moves showed up. Sine then I've been unable to get rid of the travel moves. In 4.13.1 it was all good so I created a project in 4.13.1 and opened it in 5.3.1. Still no good. I can't get rid of those travel moves. This is looking like there is something buggy in combing. I know "C" shapes are tough but I haven't noticed this problem before.

The reason M117 doesn't work is the same reason that M0 doesn't work. The mainboard firmware refuses to play nice with the LCD firmware. If you will be standing there waiting on the pause then you can use PauseAtHeight to get the pause into the gcode and then follow it with a Search and Replace. Search for M25 and replace it with G4 S??? where "S" is in seconds. If you were to put in G4 S300 then you would have 5 minutes to change the filament, insert a magnet, etc.. That is also the downside. There is no way to either shorten or lengthen a G4 that has started the clock in the printer. If you finish changing filament in 30 seconds you will be waiting 4 1/2 minutes for the printer to restart. If you take 6 minutes to change filament then the printer is going to take off again before you finish. I never figured out if a firmware change would fix the problem. Since the problem seems to be between the mainboard and TFT style LCD displays then it's possible that the LCD firmware is what needs to change. Reddit has a large Ender 3 following. Maybe someone over there has figured out a way to fix this.

In the post by @guyzly he posted a 3mf project file. Download that and try opening it in Cura. It may help you get started. This is the Ultimaker Forum. You might do better over on Reddit or somewhere else where there is a Kodak printer group.

"...imperfections add to the character," That's what I've been telling my wife for 40 years. She's still not buying it.

There are a couple of things... The print quality is not good. What printer are you using? Putting the letters onto the bridge piece means you will need support. When I do things like this I make the letters thicker so I can inset the bridge into the letters. That allows everything to print flat and no support is required. This would print without any scarring.

Certain model file formats (3mf and OBJ for sure) may have location data within the model file. If there is location data, then that will affect where the model is located when imported into Cura. It could be anywhere. If there is no location data then Cura will use the XY of the model's "Center of Geometry" and the Z of the lowest point of the model "bounding box". When you select the model and activate the Move Tool (on the top of the left toolbar) it will show the model location including the Z. When you right-click on the Cura build plate and select "Reset All Model Positions" the model will move to X0, Y0 with the lowest Z point touching the build plate. There is no "popup" that will tell you the current model location upon load.

I handle the retractions by setting everything to "0" in Pause at Height. After I shove enough of the new material through the nozzle to complete the color change, I do a 3mm hand retraction. I get really good restarts like that. It's still best if the restart is within support or infill but that just isn't always possible. Another thing that happened at Creality at that time was they ran out of mainboards for the Ender line. They started throwing whatever mainboard they had into them so some Ender 5's and Ender 3's shipped with CR10 mainboards and firmware. Not good. Since it's possible that your firmware has M0 enabled but won't talk to your LCD then upgrading/changing the mainboard firmware may not fix the problem. I have no idea if the video system firmware can be changed but I have a gut feeling that the problem lies there.

Some history... About 2 years ago Creality made a switch from regular LCD displays to TFT LCD displays. When they did that the mainboard no longer talked correctly with the TFT video board. All commands that send messages to the display quit working. M0, M1, M117 and a couple of others were simply ignored during a print. The "10 second delay" you are experiencing is because the PauseAtHeight script inserts an M109 temperature command right after the pause command. It's the M109 "wait for temperature" that is the delay. It really isn't pausing at all. Workaround #1 is to use the "(BQ) M25" command. With some firmware it works OK...the print pauses and you select Resume on the LCD. With other firmware (no way to tell because Creality never said anything) the print will pause but you have to select "Pause" on the LCD and then select Resume. You will have to test to find out. When using the M25 command you may find the following necessary: In the "Gcode Before Pause" box in the PauseAtHeight settings but "M400". In the "Gcode" After Pause" box put "M117,M117,M117,M117,M117,M117" (six M117's separated by commas). Some of the Creality firmwares are configured to pause after clearing the print buffer and that can cause problems with the Z not returning to the correct resume height. Adding the six M117 fills the printer input buffer with commands that don't do anything but they do push the Z moves further down the Gcode so the M25 won't clear them.

I'll leave the kudos off the the side until we see if it works. There are 1 or 2 other things you can try as well.

This is further proof that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. Cura 5.x is different than previous versions. There are new settings (particularly in Walls) that we have to get used to.