Strange purging behavior with a prime tower

[NMe 0]

I've got a dual extruder/single nozzle printer (a CR-X Pro, if that makes a difference) and today I tried printing my first dual color test print, the usual traffic cone. I picked the two STLs that would require the fewest tool changes, which would be the ones that only need one color per layer.

I started printing and kept an eye on it because I wanted to make sure the tool change went well and then I noticed some weird behavior. Up to the first tool change the prime tower was just being made with extruder 1 only. Then after the first tool switch I would have expected it to do the same with extruder 2, but instead what it did was it printed what it needed to print with extruder 2, parked the print head near the edge of the bed, did a tool change to reselect the other color, do a layer of the prime tower, park the print head again, do a tool change, print some more on the prime tower and finally go back to the model to print the same color that it had used there exclusively on the previous layer. And it did that for every single layer until it got back to the first layer that needed the color from extruder 1 again.

Now obviously this isn't costing me more filament overall, but it is wasting a lot of time and it also means that there is more risk of colors bleeding into each other. Am I missing some obvious setting with which I can tell Cura to raise the prime tower with whichever filament is currently loaded if the next layer is going to be using the same filament?

 

I'm using Cura 4.4.1 and these settings:

• Enable Prime Tower: on

• Prime Tower Size: 20mm

• Prime Tower Minimum Volume: 6mm³ (default setting but seems a bit low as my colors kept bleeding into one another)

• Wipe Inactive Nozzle on Prime Tower: off (didn't seem to make sense for a single-nozzle printer)

• Prime Tower Brim: on

• Enable Ooze Shield: off

[NMe 0]

Finally had some time to play with it some more and the behavior is even weirder than I thought. I tried the traffic cone again, so never more than one color per layer. It would start with red PLA at the bottom, prime tower first, then the actual layer. Layer 2, same story. Right up to the point where the first white layer begins. That's when it would first deposit red filament on the prime tower, then swap tools, then print the next layer. It's not purging the nozzle at the critical time when it should...

 

And even just that wouldn't be an issue, that would just mean a single pink layer between a red and a white one, would probably not even be noticeable. But it keeps doing this: it will print that "white" (pink) layer, swap to red, deposit a layer on the purge tower, swap back to white and print the next layer...in muddy pink.

 

I have no idea what's going on here but this seems to very much defeat the entire purpose of the prime tower.

[NMe 0]

No one?

 

Is Cura just incapable of doing dual extrusion right?

[stu_hutch 1]

WOW !! I could have written this same post word for word. I've just been googling the very same question, I'm even printing the traffic cone :D

Did you get anywhere with the issue? It does seem stupid behaviour to purge the inactive extruder, causing risk of colour bleed when it's totally unnecessary 

[NMe 0]

Let's say that I don't really agree with the developers' views on how to "save filament." They're doing all of this to allow for more than two extruders but it just means more wasted filament the way it is now. They will consider adding a feature that optionally uses the currently active extruder to build the outer perimeter of the prime tower though, which helps a little I guess.

 

https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/issues/5282#issuecomment-594646291

[marcottt 0]

same issue...  i think this is a very stupid thing....  i do not understand how anyone can cosiderer this a good way to create a prime tower....
this is the cura stupid prime tower (the obj is only orange in this layer but cura use also lot of orange material)

 

this is a normal prime tower from a less stupid application...: (this layer is only red... in prime tower a bit of red material only need to continue vertical path of prime tower).
 

 

 

sorry, very difficult to undestand this...  developer say in this https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/issues/5282#issuecomment-594646291 "this is to have a strong prime tower with different material" ... if the tower is weak also my obj is weak and is this is a problem... not the prime tower...
 

[JimF2023 0]

Hi I can see that this has been an issue since these post in 2020.

I have the same issue in 2023, I have Geeetech A10M which has 2 extruders in 1 hot end out.

The print adheasion is set for extruder 2 and the first part is with exruder 2. After laying the first layer there was a 2-3 second pause over the part first layer then moved to the prime tower and swiched to extruder 1 then moved to the part and switched to extruder 2, this proccess continues.

Extruder 1 has no reason to do any thin till 1.5mm

The other issue is the temperature settings are changed at line 30844;

T0
G92 E0
M104 T1 S0 <-- line 30844
G1 F600 Z1.511
;MESH:NOMESH

 

The final layer ends at line 44399;

G1 X66.592 Y134.814 E68.91875
;TIME_ELAPSED:3184.966974
G1 F6000 E63.91875 <-- line 44399
M107
G91
G1 E-5

 

I have add the gcode and 3mf files and hope to find out why this is happening

GA_12_Lucida Handwriting_01.gcode GA_12_Lucida Handwriting_01.3mf

[Slashee_the_Cow 479]

1 hour ago, JimF2023 said:

T0
G92 E0
M104 T1 S0 <-- line 30844

Don't have a machine with multiple extruders myself (🙁) so I have no idea how it's supposed to work, but in the gcode it's using the second extruder to print all of BackPlate_25mm.STL then using the first extruder to print all of 12_Lucida Handwriting.STL

 

That explains the temperature change (M104 (set hotend temperature) T1 (second extruder) S0 (0 degrees) - it's finished using the second extruder (T1, because it's zero based) so there's no sense keeping it hot. The T0 before that switches to doing everything with the first extruder (except lines that include a T1 in them, but that only appears in the temperature set).

[JimF2023 0]

The Geeetech A10M user a 2 in 1 out hotend which means that if T1 S0 is set so is T0 and the printer stops when the temperature drops to low and waits for the temperature to reach the requires temperature.

For machins that have 2 hotends this is not an issue

[GregValiant 1,408]

@JimF2023  Do you have the "Printer Settings" plugin loaded (it's available in the MarketPlace) and do you have "Extruders Share Heater" and "Extruders Share Nozzle" enabled?