Jump to content
UltiMaker Community of 3D Printing Experts

Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing


inventabuild

Recommended Posts

Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

For dual extrusion prints please implement the feature to turn off an extruder when it's done w/ its layers so it won't ooze onto the print while the other extruder continues its build.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    I guess you can just look for the last tool change in your Gcode and manually ad a line to turn it off, If I'm not mistaken;

    M104 S0 T0 (or M104 S0 T1 depending on which nozzle to turn off...)

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    The tricky thing is to switch it on at the right time when it's needed again. This has to be done before the swap gcode is executed. Otherwise you would have to wait for an eternity until your print is finished.

    And you don't have to switch it off completely; just reduce temperature as much that it stops oozing.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    Thank you for the answers. If I'm using the Ooze Shield then Cura will use both extruders to build the shield till the end of the print so I can never completely turn off the not-needed-anymore extruder.

    I created gcode to lower the heat of the non-printing hot end using the pre/postSwitchExtruder sections; however sometimes strings are left on the part when a hot end prints and travels away from the Ooze shield. When one of the extruders is no longer needed to finish a print then unnecessary strings are being created due to just printing the Ooze sheild.

    It would be nice if Cura was smart enough to realize when one extruder is no longer needed and just finish the Ooze shield with only the extruder needed to finish the part. Then I could turn off the not-needed-anymore extruder when its layers are completed and eliminate its strings on the part.

    Allowing us to build our own n-layer skirt walls with each respective extruder would solve this problem for me because I could just build the skirt walls as high as needed and stop building the skirt wall for the not-needed-anymore extruder when it's completely done printing its share of the part.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    @inventabuild there's indeed a lot to wish for in dual extrusion Cura, maybe someone will add some improvements... there's currently a "cura plugin contest" ..

    for now I'm using prime towers I add in CAD, using Simplify3D to slice. Here's more on how I do it:

    http://ultimaker.com/en/community/view/10657-a-different-multi-extrusion-approach-um-tool-printhead-changer?page=27#reply-107302

    Obviously when you make towers in CAD (to the needed height only) you can turn of the nozzle you don't need anymore completely.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    It would be nice if Cura was smart enough to realize when one extruder is no longer needed and just finish the Ooze shield with only the extruder needed to finish the part.  Then I could turn off the not-needed-anymore extruder when its layers are completed and eliminate its strings on the part.

    Allowing us to build our own n-layer skirt walls with each respective extruder would solve this problem for me because I could just build the skirt walls as high as needed and stop building the skirt wall for the not-needed-anymore extruder when it's completely done printing its share of the part.

    You mean something like this:

    Raw_Swiss_Ultirobot.thumb.jpg.95440f1f4ccdf2ff28e0ae5ce1584e31.jpg

    Raw_Swiss_Ultirobot.thumb.jpg.95440f1f4ccdf2ff28e0ae5ce1584e31.jpg

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    dim3nsioneer,

    Yes, exactly like that.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    It was done with a plugin...

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    Are you referring to "Tweak At Z 3.2" ?

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    Making custom towers in CAD also has it's benefits.

    Here for example i combined low wipe towers, with a larger cooling tower, to get cooling time for the arm...

    I also turned of the 2th nozzle after the blue was not needed anymore, but manually in the Gcode.

    coolingtower.thumb.jpg.87bd73610b43fd0500d9d8985c61fa69.jpg

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    Making custom towers in CAD also has it's benefits.

    Here for example i combined low wipe towers, with a larger cooling tower, to get cooling time for the arm...

    I also turned of the 2th nozzle after the blue was not needed anymore, but manually in the Gcode.

    coolingtower.thumb.jpg.87bd73610b43fd0500d9d8985c61fa69.jpg

    How did you manually turn off the 2nd nozzle after the blue was not needed anymore in the g-code? Did you open the gcode, find the layer and enter the line M104 T1 S0?

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    Indeed, and make sure to turn off the correct one :)

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted (edited) · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    My Cura preExtruderSwitch and postExtruderSwitch windows have warm up and cool down g-code in them.  I cool down the retiring extruder and warm up the active extruder for the next layer.  This eliminates oozing from the retired extruer.

    So I'm guessing this preExtruderSwitch and postExtruderSwitch code will kick in whether I turn off the 2nd extruder with the plug-in as suggested earlier or if I enter it manually as you did.

    I can settle for the 2nd (no longer needed) extruder staying at it's cool down temp for the duration of the print; however if I use the Cura's Ooze shield it will turn on the no-longer-needed extruder to create its Ooze shield layer and along w/ it comes some strings of the no-longer-needed color on the top layers of my print.

    KISSlicer recognizes when the 2nd extruder is no longer needed.  It's sets its temp to "0" and no longer builds a "Wall" / Ooze shield w/ it.

    I'd rather not have to create my own Walls / Ooze shields in a CAD program every time I want to print something.  I design some of my own stuff, but sometimes I want to / need to print out other people's stl files and it creates an extra time consuming step to have to model my own Ooze shield in a CAD program every time I want to print something.

    I wish Daid would modify Cura to stop printing the Ooze shield w/ the no-longer-needed extruder as it takes extra time, wastes filament(?) and creates strings of the wrong color in the print.

    Edited by Guest
  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    Also, the ability to define how far away the Ooze shield is from the part would be helpful.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    Are you referring to "Tweak At Z 3.2" ?

    No, it's a different (unpublished) one.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

     

    Are you referring to "Tweak At Z 3.2" ?

     

    No, it's a different (unpublished) one.

     

    How do I acquire it for testing?

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    That's extremely difficult atm. I would have suggested you hack my computer but as my ISP managed to kill my internet connection since Yesterday morning you have no chance... ;)

    Seriously: I cannot publish it like the other plugins as it is extremely experimental and certainly does not work with some Cura settings. But I will think about a good way to share it.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    Cool, will it kill the Ooze Shield too? I run the Ooze Shield and Cura will turn on the no-longer-needed extruder to print the Ooze Shield if you can't kill it.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    The plugin does actually not kill anything except the second ooze shield line on the same height (a Cura bug that might be eliminated by now).

    The plugin works such that it checks if an extruder swap is necessary or not and supresses it if not.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    Cool, please let me know when it's ready to try out. Thank you.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted (edited) · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    I put two experimental plugins into my development branch. They are called 'DualSkipping' and 'ExtruderIdle' and are to be executed in that order. I put them there for testing; I cannot provide support or bugfixes for them.

    Edited by Guest
  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    I put two experimental plugins into my development branch. They are called 'DualSkipping' and 'ExtruderIdle' and are to be executed in that order. I put them there for testing; I cannot provide support or bugfixes for them.

     

    Awesome, are the the Dual Skipping fields for Layer no., Z height or ? Lastly, is Extruder Idle to be used only when the extruder is no longer needed for the build?

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    The two fields in DualSkipping are for 1 (on) or 0 (off) as this plugin was written at a time when there were no checkboxes possible in legacy Cura.

    ExtruderIdle reduces the temperature of the idle extruder and re-heats it before next use.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    The two fields in DualSkipping are for 1 (on) or 0 (off) as this plugin was written at a time when there were no checkboxes possible in legacy Cura.

    ExtruderIdle reduces the temperature of the idle extruder and re-heats it before next use.

     

    Hello dim3nsioneer,

    Both fields in Dual Skipping 1.0.1 have a 1, but the Plugin did not suppress the printing of the Ooze Shield. Both extruders are printing the Ooze Shield, including the extruder that is no longer needed for the print.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

    This is unfortunately the point where I have to stress the term 'experimental'. These two plugins might be buggy. But I am not able to give support for them atm.

    Btw.: at least one of them only works with G10/11 for retraction and ultigcode.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
    • Our picks

      • UltiMaker Cura 5.3 stable released
        In this stable release, Cura 5.3 achieves yet another huge leap forward in 3D printing thanks to material interlocking! As well as introducing an expanded recommended print settings menu and lots of print quality improvements. Not to mention, a whole bunch of new printer profiles for non-UltiMaker printers!
          • Thanks
        • 21 replies
      • Here it is. The new UltiMaker S7
        The UltiMaker S7 is built on the success of the UltiMaker S5 and its design decisions were heavily based on feedback from customers.
         
         
        So what’s new?
        The obvious change is the S7’s height. It now includes an integrated Air Manager. This filters the exhaust air of every print and also improves build temperature stability. To further enclose the build chamber the S7 only has one magnetically latched door.
         
        The build stack has also been completely redesigned. A PEI-coated flexible steel build plate makes a big difference to productivity. Not only do you not need tools to pop a printed part off. But we also don’t recommend using or adhesion structures for UltiMaker materials (except PC, because...it’s PC). Along with that, 4 pins and 25 magnets make it easy to replace the flex plate perfectly – even with one hand.
         
        The re-engineered print head has an inductive sensor which reduces noise when probing the build plate. This effectively makes it much harder to not achieve a perfect first layer, improving overall print success. We also reversed the front fan direction (fewer plastic hairs, less maintenance), made the print core door magnets stronger, and add a sensor that helps avoid flooding.
         

         
        The UltiMaker S7 also includes quality of life improvements:
        Reliable bed tilt compensation (no more thumbscrews) 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi A 1080p camera (mounted higher for a better view) Compatibility with 280+ Marketplace materials Compatibility with S5 project files (no reslicing needed) And a whole lot more  
        Curious to see the S7 in action?
        We’re hosting a free tech demo on February 7.
        It will be live and you can ask any questions to our CTO, Miguel Calvo.
        Register here for the Webinar
          • Like
        • 18 replies
      • UltiMaker Cura Alpha 🎄 Tree Support Spotlight 🎄
        Are you a fan of tree support, but dislike the removal process and the amount of filament it uses? Then we would like to invite you to try this special release of UltiMaker Cura. Brought to you by our special community contributor @thomasrahm
         
        We generated a special version of Cura 5.2 called 5.3.0 Alpha + Xmas. The only changes we introduced compared to UltiMaker Cura 5.2.1 are those which are needed for the new supports. So keep in mind, this is not a sneak peek for Cura 5.3 (there are some really cool new features coming up) but a spotlight release highlighting this new version of tree supports.  
          • Like
        • 21 replies
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...