paoletto

when calculating the amount of extra prime amount, would it be correct to count 6mm³ = 1mm of filament ?

Last episode of the series: i found the project file from March and gave that one a go after cleaning everything once again. With this one the TPU started failing later, approximately where it failed last time i used this project (i still don't know why). And the extruder wasn't extruding anything anymore. At this point i tried the improbable: decreasing flow to 99%. Well, it restarted printing TPU. The print was sent out with flow at 106% on TPU extruder. Idk if this was the issue. I wonder how to achieve higher flow if higher flow is causing lower flow..

So i tried to reduce the nozzle switch retraction distance, add extra prime amount, increase prime tower minimum volume, but it lasted just few more layers. I also noticed that it starts failing when the "resting temperature" cranks up from 100 degrees (that is standby temperature setting) to 160, presumably due to smaller layers and therefore less time between one material and another. In any case, right after aborting the print, i went to Material 2 -> Move, and there i had to feed a lot of filament (maybe 2cm or even more, by the feel of it.. i kept a finger just below the feeder to sense how much it was pulling) before something started to come out of the TPU extruder. So the TPU extruder starts failing because it gradually loses pressure.. This tells me the filament is retracted more than its pushed during those initial 3-4 layers.

Thanks for your feedback. I have it already at 8mm/s and when it works, it works pretty good (aka the first 2-3 layers, right now). For some reason i almost found a setup "fire and forget" that does not seem to work anymore. But perhaps i should go back to that one, because my subsequent tuning might be the issue here. I feel i might have exaggerated with nozzle switch retraction distance in the last failed attempts..

After more failures i have noticed something interesting, related to the setting nozzle switch retraction distance. It seems that, when combined with flow > 100%, this distance is scaled up. In particular, if i manually increase flow during the print, this retraction goes so far to pull the filament out of the printcore (!). It seems something firmware-related, since the retraction changes at runtime depending on what i change in the tune menu. Can someone confirm?

IIRC UM3 doesn't have a flow sensor, does it? Btw i'm facing this issue again.. Projects that i managed to tune to print dual PLA/TPU just fine, pretty much in fire and forget mode now started to underextrude the TPU and stop extruding at all after few layers. I cleaned all the printcores repeatedly, also the cool-ends cooling fan that usually gets clogged with thin plastic, but no luck.. The spool is still the same, so i don't think it's a material fault. Could be the heat (it got hotter these days) but i cranked the AC up.. so really not sure what could be going on.. Right now i'm stuck.. Can try one more go with printcore cleaning, but honestly doubt it's going to do magic-.

I found 209M ./lib/connman/wifi_000e8e8a1fa9_554d486f7374_managed_psk full of settings.xxxxx files. Can they be removed? And how to reset the state "print present"? Edit: I removed them, printer seems to still work. One more round of reset cura connect and now im finally in with cura. Hopefully at the end of the print i'll be able to reset the build plate status

Ended up checking logs because cura (and web ui) can't cura-connect anymore. How do i do some purge? Edit: tried to activate developer mode to ssh in. Apparently after reboot the printer thinks there's a failed print to remove, and dev mode not on :( It must be in some broken state, and i'm afraid i have to factory reset it, losing all the settings :( Edit: after resetting cura connect i managed to enable dev mode. Printer still in loop at every reboot, thinking there's a failed print Edit: after dev mode enable, trying to get in via ssh does this: ssh root@192.168.250.148 Unable to negotiate with 192.168.250.148 port 22: no matching host key type found. Their offer: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss How to work around? Edit: apparently workaround is ssh -oHostKeyAlgorithms=+ssh-dss

@Dadkitess thanks for your feedback. I use an Ultimaker3 which afaik does not have a flow sensor. And still cura 4.13 (as long as it does what i need, i'd rather not change. Maybe at some point i'll try 5.x on another machine not to wreck settings and such). If i remember correctly i ended up disabling retraction for second extruder (by setting it to 0mm though), increasing flow for the same, and enabling/increasing retraction on second extruder on extruder change. After i did this, i managed to print pretty decently PLA+TPU, and also the oozing and the tpu mess left around decreased substantially. Not entirely sure how i managed to print it just fine some 6 months ago without doing this, but alas..

Seems like i overlooked the settings under "Dual Extrusion" that become available once "enable retraction" is enabled. I managed to use them to improve the quality. Still not great but a lot better than before. I think extra prime amount might also help, except that i'm not 100% sure what that does

I think the problem might be lying in the fact that TPU filament compresses a lot, and therefore oozes a lot during the print. Typically the first couple of layers are fine, that is, right after the second extruder, at some point during the print (15th layer or so) is activated, primed, and start with its first layer. After that, once is kept warm, tpu keeps oozing out because of the pressure built inside. I have done this disabling retraction all the way (also in successful prints months ago). I now tried to re-enable retraction, but the problem is that the filament gets also retracted multiple times during the layer and that fucks everything up, even worse than with no retraction. So i wonder: is there a way to enable retraction only *between* first and second extruder stints?

Hi, so i'm sort of troubled with a dual extrusion print PLA/TPU. I had the cura project set up and somewhat successfully printed on UM3 back in 2022.12. Then i had to leave, and i picked it up now. However, somehow now printing the tpu topping is pretty terrible, underextruding A LOT.. The only difference i can think of is that ambient temperature is now some 10 degrees higher, and the tpu roll isn't sealed anymore. I read mr5 suggesting that tpu is hygroscopic? If that's the issue, how do i dry it? In the owen at 50 degrees? If not, what can i try? slowing down more? I cleaned the printcore, for the records (somehow it was half clogged not even sure how lol)

Hi, so a question from a first timer in dual extrusions here: I tried to print a model of mine setting a cutting mesh for using the second extruder. First extruder is PLA, second extruder is TPU. The final result is pretty good, however i feel a misalignment between the two extruders: Cura shows perfect alignment in the preview, yet in the final model there seems to be a shift in the TPU part, leaving some sort of step on one side, and spilling out on the other. Is this a known problem of any sort? I thought of maybe printing it in another orientation, to see if that shift is also present in a different direction.. The printer is configured to do calibration before every print. Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/6WBm8OC (somehow ffox/linux messes up with images uploaded directly to the forum) Edit: should i perhaps do XY calibration? (never done..) Edit2: I see that the calibration submenu has a "change xy offset" where i have +14 xoffset and +0 yoffset. Not sure if these are factory default or what. I will try to change the xoffset and try again. I assume these values in millimeters?

@MariMakes Thank you so much for your support! I did finally manage to check: i had it at 50%. I tried a 90% (blind shot) and apparently that fixed it! thank you again!

uploaded the video here https://thumbsnap.com/HPu4XNvH

with Cura v4.13, i tried to print bridges without support. It seems to work pretty good, except that in half of the model, the first bridge layer is treated as second layer! I don't seem to find any way to control it. In the attached video i removed "bridge has multiple layers" and that shows that the missing bridges are treated as bottom layer. these missing part lie at slightly different height than previous ones, so should be treated as a separate set of bridges. Instead Cura is trying to unify it all, with the result of missing the first bridge layer, that inevitably cause the second layer to be along the model instead of across, with all the consequent problems. Is there any way to fix this? I would be happy if i could simply disable the alternating pattern, and only have one direction for those lines Video also here https://thumbsnap.com/HPu4XNvH video.zip

Is it a good idea to use 3rd party compatible bowden tubes and fans? if yes, where to source them? 189€ for the maintenance kit (2 tubes, 3 fans mostly) seems a bit much.. also 45 for a piece of glass..

Hi, no it's not silky, it's "metallic" looking PLA, like the one i had best results with (gold, and also white and to some extent black). However it seems to behave quite differently (other colors also gave me issues, such as orange with which UM3 was consistently underextruding). I tried to lower temp from 196 i used for gold to 188, but i still got the jamming. Recommended temp seems to be the same for all other PLAs of this kind (metallic or not): 170-210 I also feel like tower won't help because it seems jamming starts to happen after a while (like an hour into the print). As if the cold end needs to warm up properly too. So i suppose no way to change that cold end temp threshold?

Hi, so i have a problem with one filament: somehow it's the same brand of PLA i always used and that always worked well with the UM3, this time with a different dye (bronze). Somehow it prints different, and it's visible already in the initial pooping (print blob), where the blob with this one looks very melted together, while with other filaments it becomes a small cone with all layers. Well anyway, the problem with this one seems to be that is very heat conductive, and it expands up until the bowden tube, inevitably causing jamming. i tried to reduce retraction up to 1.5mm that somehow seems to work with not too long prints, but i would like to know if there is a more robust solution. Is there any way to increase the cold end cooling so that the heat doesn't get all the way back along the cold end and make the filament eventually expand? Thanks

Answering myself here: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/issues/9219 I'm on 4.13, so i guess i just have to wait for 5.0

So i have 2 models and one mesh that modifies settings for overlaps (adds walls). All good so long i keep them as "all at once". As soon as i select "one at a time" in print sequence, the modified settings in overlaps are gone. Is there a way to do this, or do i have to really print one model at a time to achieve this? Thanks

Hi, I have a specific print, actually a setup i have already successfully printed before to which i changed the model to a modified version, that keep failing (4th time) always around the same time. The problem seems to be retraction settings (i think) and the filament end up ground like in the picture https://imgur.com/a/0ikNras I tried to modify the Travel settings, reducing retraction count to 5, increasing minimum distance to 10mm and reducing retraction distance to 4.5mm. I also verified the filament puller to be clean inside, and tried to increase spring tension a bit. I believe it might have had some effect since all previous failures ended up with one single ground point along the filament, after the change in the last print i have 6 ground points. I also see and hear that in the beginning of the print retraction works fine, with the characteristic standard sound. Then at some point grinding begins Any quick tip?

i can try to reproduce and send the log, thanks

Hi, This one started some time ago, maybe a month or two, i updated Cura thinking that was it but apparently not (so i'm afraid maybe some of the plugins i installed?) When i click slice, the software hangs for over a minute, maybe two, before starting to slice. I noticed that disabling the connection to the internet (not to the printer) fixes the issue. Should i worry that maybe some of the plugins i installed are phoning home? I only installed plugins via the "Marketplace" button in cura itself

Hi, i wonder if there's any way to explain to cura that one face of a cutting mesh should be "continuous" or it should not introduce a boundary in the model Ex: (the grey cube is a cutting mesh where i increased the number of walls)