New settings for two extruders, one nozzle

[deonholt 0]

Hello all and thank you so long for your help & advice.

Cura 4.8 Beta

I get my upgraded printer later today. Upgrades involves moving to a 2-in-1-out configuration. I have absolutely NO experience in printing with dual extruders.

Can you please advise on what settings I need to change. I had a look at the printer settings and when I hover over "Number of Extruders", the pop-up says: "... An extruder train is the combination of a feeder, bowden tube, and nozzle". What makes me doubt if I should change the number of extruders from 1 to 2, is the fact that I only have 1 nozzle but 2 extruders. My logic says I need to change it to 2, but I just want to confirm.

What other settings do I need to change or add?

Any tips will also be very welcome.😉

Thanks very much.

[GregValiant 1,260]

Everything runs in streaks and this topic has come up a lot lately.

If you haven't done so already - go to the Marketplace and install the "Printer Settings" plugin.  Restart Cura.  Make the Printer Settings visible and then check the "Extruders Share Heater" box.

[deonholt 0]

Thanks. I installed it. 👍

[deonholt 0]

1 hour ago, GregValiant said:

Everything runs in streaks and this topic has come up a lot lately.

If you haven't done so already - go to the Marketplace and install the "Printer Settings" plugin.  Restart Cura.  Make the Printer Settings visible and then check the "Extruders Share Heater" box.

Is this the only place I tell Cura that I have 2 extruders? From what I have understood, it is possible to adjust the settings of the Prime Tower but I cannot find it. I only managed to find "Prime Tower Flow" but nothing more. (4.8.0 beta)

I don't find these settings:

https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012518780-Dual-extrusion-settings

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by deonholt

[GregValiant 1,260]

Under "Dual Extrusion" click on the "invisible" gear icon.  It's just to the left of the down arrow on the Dual Extrusion bar.  Ticking a setting will make it visible in the main settings window.

 

in the Machine Settings for your printer, you need to tell Cura how many extruders there are.  The other setting (Extruders share heater) doesn't tell Cura how many extruders, just that all extruders use Heater 0.

Edited November 10, 2020 by GregValiant
punctuation

[deonholt 0]

3 hours ago, GregValiant said:

Under "Dual Extrusion" click on the "invisible" gear icon.  It's just to the left of the down arrow on the Dual Extrusion bar.  Ticking a setting will make it visible in the main settings window.

 

in the Machine Settings for your printer, you need to tell Cura how many extruders there are.  The other setting (Extruders share heater) doesn't tell Cura how many extruders, just that all extruders use Heater 0.

Thanks again for the reply.

Yes, did click the gear and checked all for the different settings.

In my printer's (Ender 5 Pro) machine settings, it does not allow me to change the "Number of Extruders" from 1 to 2. It is a dropdown list and does not contain 2.

I think I am stuck and need to choose another printer with 2 extruders ,,, hope not.

[tinkergnome 927]

11 hours ago, deonholt said:

In my printer's (Ender 5 Pro) machine settings, it does not allow me to change the "Number of Extruders" from 1 to 2. It is a dropdown list and does not contain 2

 

You can probably use this definition as a base and add a second extruder definition (file) as described in the wiki:

https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/wiki/Adding-new-machine-profiles-to-Cura

 

[gauthier 0]

This guide refers to paths such as "resources/definitions/ultimaker_original_dual.def.json". I believe these are for the source code of Cura. 

 

How can I add a virtual extra extruder, without rebuilding Cura?

 

On Linux, I have found ~/.local/share/cura/4.12/definitions (empty) and ~/.config/cura/4.12/cura.cfg. But from there I'm not sure what to do.

Edited February 2, 2022 by gauthier

[GregValiant 1,260]

@gauthier - What printer are you trying to add the extruder to?

[gauthier 0]

@GregValiant Ultimaker 2+

[GregValiant 1,260]

@Torgeir and @gr5 are good with those.  Maybe one has a dual extruder definition file you can borrow.

I added extruders to my Creality definitions so I could at least play with a "virtual multi-extruder" printer in Cura.  It required changes to the definition file and the addition of extruder files.  I doubt that I'll ever add another 3 extruders to my printer, but things are ready if I do.  The Creality firmware is simple and doesn't care about added extruders.  Ultimaker firmware may require some tweaks?  @tinkergnome didn't mention that but he would likely know.

Edited February 3, 2022 by GregValiant