M92 E14 instruction lacking in set-up pages for new users

[mastory 44]

This single issue has caused me a lot of trouble. There is no mention of this step on the netfabb set-up page found here: http://wiki.ultimaker.com/NetFabb_Setup_Guide_and_Quick_Introduction

Is there a place in Netfabb where I can have this automatically inserted into the Gcode?

[owen 19]

Yep

Click on 'Ultimaker'

Click on 'Machine'

Click on '...'

Click on 'Ultimaker specific'

Put M92 E14 into 'GCode Header'

Click OK

[didero 0]

Hi everyone !

Could you tell me what this "M92 E14" code is for and what does it mean ?

I'm quite new in 3d printing and switched very recently to Netfabb !

Thanks for any reply !

Didier

[didero 0]

Another question !

When I get to the GCode Header, I can see that there are already some lines in there :

M106

M109

Should I remove these lines and replace them by :

M92

E14

Or should I insert these lines before or after the existing lines ?

Thanks in advance for any help !

Didier

[Daid 306]

The M92 E14 tells the printer to have 14 step motor steps per "E" value. The "E" value controls the amount of extrusion.

This is needed for the Marlin or Sprinter firmware, which default to a much larger value, causing massive amounts of extrusion if you do not add a M92 E14.

It is also possible to make a Marlin Firmware with a default of E14, but that's not what is supplied right now and used by most users.

As for your other question. Leave those lines in there. And the "M92 E14" needs to be on a single line.

M106 tells your printer to turn the fan on for cooling.

M109 sets the temperature, and waits.

For a large list of commands:

http://www.reprap.org/wiki/G-code

(not all these commands are supported, and not all commands are listed)

[didero 0]

Thank you Daid for your quick and precise answer !

I'm going to try this and I will compare the result to my first(and only) print with netfab original Gcode header !

(My first print : "Yoda", went out pretty good with the original GCode header, but I think the issue may occur more or less depending on the design of the object)

Have a nice day !

Didier

[Daid 306]

If you print was "pretty good" then you don't need the M92 E14. If you would have needed it, then your print would have... not looked at all, because you would have stopped your printer very quickly. The other possible E value is in the 800-1000 range, which is about 60x higher. And that value would have given you 60x to much extrusion.

[didero 0]

Hello again Daid !

So if I understood you well, the M92 E14 may be needed for some users and not for some others ? Have you an idea about what it is depending on (Ultimaker revision for instance) ? (Mine is Rev 3, I print with the last netfabb for Ultimaker software and last update of ReplicatorG, and my Ultimaker is runing under marlin firmware ) !

There is so much skills and knowledge to get in order to become a "good printer" and I'm quite at the beginning of this process. I already have some success I'm happy with, while some others attempts failed mysteriously ! I'm trying to get better amount of good results !

Hoping I'm not boring with my questions !

Didier

[Daid 306]

It does not really depend on the machine (well, very old rev machines need a slightly different E value, because they have a different extruder drive bolt)

But if the "M92 E14" is needed depends on your Marlin build really. There is a default in the Marlin build, which can be 14, or another value. For example, my build tool, which builds latest and hotest marlin for you, you can configure it:

http://daid.eu/~daid/marlin_build/

And the default is "865.888". ("Steps per unit" under "Hardware") So if you use that default you can change it in the build tool. Or update the NetFabb start code to use M92 E14, which overrides the default in the firmware.

Now, why it's E14 always the default? That's because newer versions of Skeinforge, and the brand new Slic3r use a different (smarter) calibration method. Instead of printing a bunch of calibration prints as with netfabb. You actually use 2 values. One is the diameter of your filament (around 2.98mm) and the other is how much step motor steps the extruder needs to take for 1 mm of filament. Take these 2 values, add some math, and you can exactly control the amount of extrusion without calibrating anything else. And calibrating the "steps per E" is also quite easy and doesn't waste filament. This also solves "recalibration" issues when you switch filament, which can be thinner or thicker.

The advantage of using M92 in NetFabb is that you can still use Skeinforge/Slic3r next to it. As they will have their own M92, or use the right default value.

[didero 0]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and tool ! You're seem to be a great contributor !

I'll try to use the firmware I got from your tool (I used Marlin experimental build3 by Bernhard Kubicek so far !)

Thanks again !

Didier.

[Daid 306]

What's the use of knowledge if you don't share it? :-)

The experimental builds by Bernhard work, but they are a bit outdated. The newer Marlin has a temperature PID, which does an very good job at keeping your temperature stable. Which results in even better prints. There have also been various bug fixes. And Marlin does a great job on the Ultimaker. (RepRap people are less happy with it, as it seems to crash on some versions their hardware )

Most of the effort of Marlin is the hard work of ErikZalm and Bernard tough.

The build tool is a result of various problems people had with various builds and various settings. This way you don't need to download the Arduino software yourself, and compile your own firmware, while hacking configuration files. It's part of "making stuff easy to use", which is important IMHO.

[Daid 306]

It's not because you are French (and it would be too easy to make jokes about this)

It's because the baudrate does not match what ReplicatorG is expecting. Depending on which version/configuration of ReplicatorG you have the baudrate needs to be 57600 or 115200 instead of 250000. You can also edit the "ReplicatorG/machines/ultimaker.xml" file, which contains a setting, this is the baudrate. You can compile a different baudrate, or adjust the ReplicatorG settings. But ReplicatorG might not like 250000.

[Daid 306]

When did you build this firmware? Because there was a bug in the builder yesterday that caused no settings to be updated.

Also, RepG26 gives 2 machine options for the Ultimaker, a normal and an experimental, the experimental uses a different baudrate.

[didero 0]

Hi Daid,

Well I have built the firmware yesterday !

So because you said that there was a bug yesterday, I gave it a try today, and this time it worked perfectly !

Thanks for your efficient help !

Didier.

[baphi 0]

I'm struggling with the latest NetFabb (4.9) release to create the correct gcode which can then be printed with RepG (35RC1).

- In Netfabb I did a reset machine settings

- I added the M92 E14 code to the Gcode header (in the Ultimaker specific tab in NetFabb)

- I load the gcode into Repg 35RC1 on a different machine, connected to the UM.

- When I hit build (after preheating) I get the following error message prior to the print:

- I tried to solve it by building and uploading a custom firmware with the build-tool by changing the E-value to 14, see below:

- I still get the error message in RepG.

What am I doing wrong?

[mr_seeker 0]

repG is just warning you that the feedrate goes faster than 150mm/s, which is set as a recommended speed limit for the machine. It just warns you, you can easely bypass this error and print without problems.

[baphi 0]

thx! I never tried to build the project... sorry ;-)