Can I manually extrude a certain amount of filament and change the extrusion steps/mm for each nozzle on an Ultimaker s5 printer?

[andrewtg161 0]

I am trying to calibrate the extrusion rate for a kind of TPU that is not made by Ultimaker to use on an Ultimaker s5 printer. In order to do this I need to be able to control extrusion manually to tell it to extrude a certain amount. In addition to this I need to be able to send a command to change the extrusion steps/mm for each nozzle using something like pronterface. Is this possible for the Ultimaker s5? If so how would I go about doing this?

[gr5 2,167]

Short answer is yes.

 

Are you familiar with ssh?  Put your printer into "developer" mode in the menus - probably under "settings"?  This will reboot it and turn on ssh daemon.  It will also show the printer ip address.  Then you can ssh into the printer.  If you want to look at the firmware (it's all uncompiled and visible - mostly python) log into root/ultimaker but for what you want, log into ultimaker/ultimaker (second word is password).

 

that second account starts a nice linux utility automatically.  now you can send gcodes with "sendgcode".  For example:

sendgcode T0    <-- select left core.  T1 is right core

sendgcode G92 E0    <-- this resets E position to tell that the extruder is at position zero.

sendgcode G1 E10  <-- extrude 10mm

 

You can also set steps/mm but that will get overridden.  Once you know how much extra or less to extrude you can set this value in the "flow" fields in cura.  e.g. set flow to 105%.

 

if you google using the "site:" feature you can learn A LOT MORE about this:

"site:ultimaker.com sendgcode"

or maybe

"site:ultimaker.com ultimaker 3 moving extruder" (UM3 is almost identical firmware and exact same gcodes and sendgcode utility - a lot more people "hack" the UM3 than the S5 or S3 so there is more discussion)

 

It's possible that the extruders will not move when cold.  If so there is a gcode for that:

sendgcode M302     <-- allow extruder to move when nozzle is cold

 

 

[andrewtg161 0]

When I am in developer mode is there a chance that I could damage the firmware or printer? If so what do I need to avoid / is there a way to fix it if I do? Also do you know the original setting for the extruder steps/mm?

Edited September 14, 2020 by andrewtg161

[gr5 2,167]

If you use the printer normally, through menus and such there is no difference in developer mode.  You are fine.

 

But if you ssh into the printer and start editing files then all bets are off.

 

As far as sendgcode breaking something - it's almost impossible.  But I suppose if you are clever enough you *might* be able to break something.  I can't think of anything though.  The printer has temp limits to keep you from going too hot and the steppers are not strong enough to break anything.

 

A bigger issue for some people - if your printer is out on the internet then developer mode is very dangerous as hackers can connect.  But these days, nothing is exposed directly on the internet without paying a lot of extra money or creating holes in your router.  The router of your home, office, school should keep your printer from having a public IP address.

 

Even if you purposely started deleting operating system files at random until it would not longer boot, there is an unbricking procedure that reloads all the firmware (fresh version) back into the printer.  It's involved though - you have to remove the bottom of the printer and you have to be careful about the high voltages in there (in other words unplug the power while the cover is off).  You also have to obtain a microSD card and use special software to load the boot software onto the microSD card.

 

But as far as sendgcode is concerned - it's relatively safe.