Turning Off 2nd Extruder When It's Done Printing

[inventabuild 4]

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.

[ultiarjan 1,136]

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...)

[Dim3nsioneer 451]

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.

[inventabuild 4]

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.

[ultiarjan 1,136]

@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.

[Dim3nsioneer 451]

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:

[inventabuild 4]

dim3nsioneer,

Yes, exactly like that.

[Dim3nsioneer 451]

It was done with a plugin...

[inventabuild 4]

Are you referring to "Tweak At Z 3.2" ?

[ultiarjan 1,136]

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.

[inventabuild 4]

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.

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?

[ultiarjan 1,136]

Indeed, and make sure to turn off the correct one

[inventabuild 4]

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 June 7, 2015 by Guest

[inventabuild 4]

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

[Dim3nsioneer 451]

Are you referring to "Tweak At Z 3.2" ?

No, it's a different (unpublished) one.

[inventabuild 4]

 

Are you referring to "Tweak At Z 3.2" ?

 

No, it's a different (unpublished) one.

 

How do I acquire it for testing?

[Dim3nsioneer 451]

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.

[inventabuild 4]

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.

[Dim3nsioneer 451]

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.

[inventabuild 4]

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

[Dim3nsioneer 451]

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 June 16, 2015 by Guest

[inventabuild 4]

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?

[Dim3nsioneer 451]

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.

[inventabuild 4]

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.

[Dim3nsioneer 451]

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.