Control the Blob?

[mike-truly 3]

Is there a setting in Cura to control the initial blob?  Like 'squirt the blob for N seconds' or something?

 

I would like to control the squirt so that the blob is only extruded for half the current amount of time/blob.

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

[kmanstudios 1,120]

There is no controlling The Blob!

 

Because it's The Blob!

it creeps And leaps and glides and slides

Across the floor Right through the door

And all around the wall

A splotch, a blotch

Be careful of The Blob

 

[cjs 34]

hahah @kmanstudios you are funny 

11 hours ago, kmanstudios said:

it creeps And leaps and glides and slides

Across the floor Right through the door

Actually a really good description of the current implementation 

 

13 hours ago, mike-truly said:

s there a setting in Cura to control the initial blob?  Like 'squirt the blob for N seconds' or something?

There is no setting in Cura at the moment. Only the option to enable or disable it. 

What you can do is change the python script on your ultimaker 3 to do as you like. More information regarding the blob and how to change this can be found here: Prime blob knocked down

[mike-truly 3]

Thanks very much for the ideas.

 

Bummer.  Well, hopefully in the future... man will have options to control the blob!

 

More specifically, I hope Cura enables more options to control the blob in the future (like squirt for N seconds, etc.).

 

I will have to try without the blob to see what it does.

 

 

Thanks again.

 

[kmanstudios 1,120]

If you go without the blob, then make sure you are either doing brims or skirts to prime the nozzle and get a good flow going.

[essentia 2]

I am having the same problems with the blob being too big (the squirting lasts too long), it getting stuck to the hot end, and being dragged over into the print.  This happens every time I print using dual extruders and PVA in Extruder 2 of my Ultimaker 3.  There really needs to be a setting for how long the blob squirt lasts.

 

Another solution would be for the hot end to move up the entire time the blob is being created.  Right now it only moves up at the end of the squirt.

[Smithy 1,144]

Just an idea, but if you use some kind of glue for bed adhesion you could check if you have the glue also in the corner where the blob will be placed. Maybe the blob sticks then better to the glass and will not be carried away with the print head.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

21 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Just an idea, but if you use some kind of glue for bed adhesion you could check if you have the glue also in the corner where the blob will be placed. Maybe the blob sticks then better to the glass and will not be carried away with the print head.

I use a PVA slutty and rarely have this happen. And when it does happen, I find I did not get that area cleaned and primed with the slurry.

[essentia 2]

Doing something to get the blob to stick to the plate sounds like a good idea.  I'll try these ideas.

 

Unfortunately it does not solve the issue with PVA getting stuck all over the hot end and building up if I don't clean the head.

[CarloK 203]

I just stumbled upon the option to enable/disable the blob per extruder. Not sure when it was introduced but it is present in Cura v3.6

You can use a skirt or brim instead of the blob.

[Smithy 1,144]

And I think for the S5 the prime blob is disabled by default. 

When I slice for the UM3 then I get the blob, but not on the S5, where the blob is not enabled per default.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

22 minutes ago, CarloK said:

I just stumbled upon the option to enable/disable the blob per extruder. Not sure when it was introduced but it is present in Cura v3.6

You can use a skirt or brim instead of the blob.

I know for sure since 2.x

[P3D 46]

10 minutes ago, Smithy said:

And I think for the S5 the prime blob is disabled by default. 

When I slice for the UM3 then I get the blob, but not on the S5, where the blob is not enabled per default.

 

Interesting, on our S5 the blob is enabled by default...

[Smithy 1,144]

Hmm, ok then I have to check it. I haven't checked the setting, I just have seen with the last prints that there is no prime blob. 

[Rharrison 2]

So the blob can be turned on or off per extruded which is good and I had missed this setting for the second extruder, which for me is the PVA support material. The real issue for me when using the PVA is that the blob is huge and the way the extruder moves means that the Bob is often dragged into the print or knocked about during the first few levels. The solution to this is to do a head lift before moving away from the PVA blob as this would prevent dragging the blob about, at the moment the extruded just moves to initiate the print and which a lift of the extruded by a few mm first, would significantly improve the situation. 

 

If if anyone knows how I can go about implementing this in the code please let me know. Do I download it on git hub and make the change and push it back for possible inclusion. I haven’t looked at the source for cura before.

 

I will attach a short video of this tomorrow.

 

can the community add / make changes to cura for inclusion?

Edited December 25, 2018 by Rharrison

[Smithy 1,144]

31 minutes ago, Rharrison said:

If if anyone knows how I can go about implementing this in the code please let me know. Do I download it on git hub and make the change and push it back for possible inclusion. I haven’t looked at the source for cura before.

 

As far as I know, it is not a function of Cura, the firmware itself is doing the prime blob. In Cura/Gcode you just say if you want a prime blob or not, but not how.

 

On 12/4/2018 at 4:59 PM, P3D said:

Interesting, on our S5 the blob is enabled by default...

 

Checked it again, on the S5 the prime blob is disabled for me in the default profiles. On the UM3 the prime blob is enabled per default.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

Checked it again, on the S5 the prime blob is disabled for me in the default profiles. On the UM3 the prime blob is enabled per default.

For those of us who bounce from one to another, it would be nice to have it be the same.

 

1 hour ago, Rharrison said:

The real issue for me when using the PVA is that the blob is huge and the way the extruder moves means that the Bob is often dragged into the print or knocked about during the first few levels.

I just make sure when I put my PVA slurry down, I put it that area as well.

[Smithy 1,144]

16 hours ago, kmanstudios said:

For those of us who bounce from one to another, it would be nice to have it be the same.

 

Is your prime blob disabled per default too? It is curious that P3D has it enabled per default on his S5, so it seems it differs from printer to printer or Cura installation to Cura installation. Very strange 🙂

 

Or P3D has a saved custom profile with this setting?

[kmanstudios 1,120]

I just changed profiles for a print and it was there by default on the UM3E.

 

As for printers, if it is a 3rd party printer, then it may be the way the def file is written as they seem to be mostly by interested third parties.

[Smithy 1,144]

8 hours ago, kmanstudios said:

I just changed profiles for a print and it was there by default on the UM3E.

For me too, and when you switch to the S5 the prime blob is disabled per default. (at least for me)

[kmanstudios 1,120]

Consistency would be great. ;)

 

[Smithy 1,144]

2 minutes ago, kmanstudios said:

Consistency would be great. 😉

If it is only the prime blob, then everything is good 🙂 

[kmanstudios 1,120]

22 minutes ago, Smithy said:

If it is only the prime blob, then everything is good 🙂 

I disagree. Think of it this way, how many times do users forget which printer has which controls on by default? Then multiply that by bazillions of slices. That is a lot of lost time.

 

I know it is not fashionable to think of things like increased or decreased clicks and corrections that can just be avoided and streamline operations. Or, just make the choice and the slicer remembers the settings, but that would be sucked away by the change in materials or layers, etc.

 

Even better, throw in an option for users to make that choice so they do not have to turn things on or off like that. This will not work for many operations, but for things like brim vs. skirt, etc.

 

Though they say "Make a profile,' how many times do profiles get nuked in the upgrades?

[Smithy 1,144]

That's right, but I meant that it doesn't matter if blob is on or off, I don't miss it on the S5 and if the blob would be disabled per default on the UM3 too, then I probably would not miss it there too. 

 

11 minutes ago, kmanstudios said:

Even better, throw in an option for users to make that choice so they do not have to turn things on or off like that. This will not work for many operations, but for things like brim vs. skirt, etc.

 

That would be indeed great, I always hate me, when I start a print and have forgotten to disable, the default brim, which I rarely use.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

2 minutes ago, Smithy said:

That's right, but I meant that it doesn't matter if blob is on or off,

I would. I like the blob. Because it leaps and creeps and slides and glides......ok...off on a tangent.....

 

But, I like the blob because I have come to gauge the flow of my materials by it.

 

And THAT illustrates why an option to turn it on or off and leave it that way would be good. :)

 

And, so, we can ride off into the sunset, knowing that betwixt us two, we have saved the slicing world together!! 🤣