jetfire158

Ohhhh, dang! That's right! I did....Qidi told me to update it. Ugh, now I really regret that! I can't believe i didn't think of that. Now I'm really annoyed that their after service support didn't bring that up when I asked them for help about this. In fact it was the same person who told me to update the firmware. Wow....never again. Never again. Umm...is it a part for something? Another machine? A cosplay? Something for a photo shoot since you mentioned a macro lens and being into photography? You're welcome. Glad you benefited from this too! In spite of my ugly photo. XD Also, did just try the print again and it worked just fine. So yeah, just a fluke or maybe I accidentally bumped the extruder a little bit. Added 2 more top layers, and the pillows are completely gone. So yay. Problem solved. Thanks for your help!

Prop coins? XD Well, I changed back to the newer extruder that I used earlier to produce that print I was telling you about in the photo. The stringing went away and so did the under-extrusion. However it now seems to be having trouble going back to the same spot again. Though that did happen intermittently last year printing a couple hundred of these. So it could just be a fluke. You can still very barely see little pillows with this one though. Going to try increasing top surface layers and see if that does anything if not I guess I could just increase the infill to 70%.

Anyway, thanks a ton for your help. What you said above really helped me get this figured out.

Well I increased the flow rate to 105% and that seemed to help quite a bit actually. Still getting some stringing and stuff that I wasn't getting yesterday. But I also remembered that I used a different (newer) extruder for the print I referenced in the photo. So I think tomorrow I'll try switching the extruder again and using the new infill settings on that one instead.

Heh....it's funny the way you see how almost every printer manufacturer, even though they have their own slicer software and always want you to use theirs, they all seem to just accept that Cura is the most widely accepted/used and just suck it up and make their stuff compatible. XD

Okay, well...I unchecked the option to let the printer firmware override Cura's retraction settings during the filament change, and instead allowed Cura's default retraction settings to override the printer's---that seemed to solve the issue. I did notice if I just press the pause button and then press resume it does not go back to the same spot so I think it's just faulty printer firmware. As per usual, Cura is superior. 😉

Well that just made it ignore the pause script. 😞

No, it is a different file because that other thread is for a different printer. I uploaded the one I'm using for this in the original post. Well, the odd thing is that if you look at the print on the right in the photo at the beginning of the thread, the top design looked great. But the base had pillows. That was with 20% infill and grid pattern. But now changing to 60% and quarter cubic makes the top design under extrude? What's going on here?

Okay. 60% infill with 10 top surface layers and quarter cubic pattern seems to have eliminated the pillowing issue. However, now the top design seems to be under-extruding or something. Scan - 2023-10-06 23_37_59.pdf

Okay, I used the "Filament Change" script instead of the pause at height. That solved the resume print problem. However, the extruder did not go back to the right position on the model, leading to the design being misaligned. WT_XP_Jedi_PLA_34mmx1_original2022_2S_filament change.gcode

WT_XP_Jedi_PLA_34mmx1_original2022_2S.gcode

Yep I already did that. If you check my 3mf file I already have a script there. The problem is that the Tina won't resume again after the pause. Note, it resumes fine I pause it manually on the printer itself. But it's just a bother having to watch for the right place to pause and would be pretty impossible to do on more complex multi-color designs.

Not idle for the entire year, no. But it had been while since the last time I printed something. Maybe several months. What would you recommend? I think I can rule this out because the printer is still located in the same spot it was last time I used these gcodes. In the process of giving quarter cubic a try at 25% see what it does.

Anyone have recommendations for what kind of pause script I should use on the Tina 2S? This pause is for a filament change. I tried to use the default Marlin, and it pauses just fine. I am able to change the filament; however, it won't do anything when I press resume on the printer. XP_Jedi_PLA_34mmx1_original2022_2S.3mf

I did try using concentric, and that made it marginally better...but still not as perfect as they were before. I could try quarter cubic. I did consider that...it's just that, I would really rather not. Because I want to mass produce these, and making the infill 100% would vastly increase the amount of material and time required. Any ideas on how the same gcodes, material, and equipment a year later wouldn't work as well any more?

I used the same gcodes last year to print these 2-color pins with a single extruder (Qidi X-Plus). They turned out great then. But now, with the same printer, same PLA spools, same slicer (Cura), same extruder I'm getting all these pillowing issues. I've tried all the usual fixes: increasing top layers, adding top surface skin layers, slowing the print down, increasing infill density, even increasing layer height doesn't get it as smooth as it was last year (top right in the picture, you can see it's less lumpy but still not completely smooth). I tried using a brand new spool in case the filament was the issue. Nothing works. The only thing I can think of is maybe the build platform is warped? But how would that cause this? Anyone have any ideas? Please help! XP_Jedi_PLA_34mmx1_original2022.3mf

The jam wasn't happening until the model was updated to make the design in the middle slightly larger. I didn't change any of the settings, but now suddenly the printer is jamming. It jammed 2 times at the same spot; about halfway through the first layer, and a third time later on like maybe a few layers later. When I disassembled the extruder, it looked like heat creep, because there was filament stuck in the gears. But if I print a completely different model, it doesn't jam and is fine. See attached 3mf file, that's the one that's causing the jam. The printer is a Qidi X-Plus. XP_fo.3mf

Thanks! Great advice. You were absolutely right, setting the disarm timeout to 1800 fixed the misalignment problem. Just have to be very careful when switching filaments not to bump the extruder and touch it as little as possible. As for the rest of it, thanks to advice from someone on the Qidi Discord server I got it work to a satisfactory level. For the sake of anyone else who might come here searching for answers, when printing a model like the one pictured (base with color 1 + design with color 2) you can't put the pause right after finishing the base layers. The design will not stick, because when you pause to switch filament, the model will cool, reducing adhesion. Layers that are similar in structure adhere better than layers that are not similar in structure, so in my case printing the first layer of the design before the switch fixed the issue. If you reduce the layer height to a low value, this small discrepancy in the color pattern will not really be visible. This is easiest done in Cura by using the "Pause at Layer" option in the "Pause at Height" dialog. Slice your model and use Layer view to count the number of layers in the design, and select the number of the first design layer to pause at. E.g. if your "base" is 30 layers and your design starts at layer 31, instruct the printer to pause after layer 31. When it's time to perform the switch, do it as quickly and carefully as possible as well, to avoid the model cooling too much as that will cause poor adhesion and subsequent layer separation.

Ah, the disarm timer could be the source of the misalignment, then. I wonder what the default disarm timer is on the X-Plus...

Hi I am trying to print 2 colors on a model using a Pause at Height script in Cura. However, I seem to be having a problem with poor layer adhesion after the switch, and the printer also seems to be misaligning the layers (see attached picture). I checked "redo layer" in the Pause at Layer settings, and I am extruding all of the old filament out of the nozzle before resuming the print. I'm using a Qidi X-Plus printer. Can anyone help? XP_Jedi.3mf

Oh wow, nice! Thanks. Could you tell me step by step what you did using Mesh Tools to fix the model? I tried clicking 'fix model normals' on the original file but that didn't seem to do anything.

Hi I am having a problem with Cura slicing extra layers in spaces where aren't supposed to be any: The other spaces are fine. Could it a problem with the model? I am not sure how to fix it. Any help is appreciated. XP_喜喜.3mf