Was printing perfectly, did a firmware update...now printing horribly

[Slashee_the_Cow 357]

2 hours ago, Dragon41673 said:

I have a Gcode file from before the firmware update which was printing perfectly, but not a *3mf file...would that help at all?

They might help, definitely better than nothing.

 

2 hours ago, Dragon41673 said:

They were done on Creality Cura 4.8 (4.8.2 if I recall correctly).

I feel for you. I tried Creality's version of Cura for two different prints before I realised half the settings were missing and the prints it was producing were $@&! anyway and switched to regular Cura.

[Dragon41673 0]

Surface only print done, oddly it did not print the top section of the print, that was spaghetti in the open area when I woke up this morning. I don't know if it's supposed to look like this or not, but it is what it is, and yeah I see there was some lifting from the bed on one corner but I expected that since it's just printing 1 wall it seems...

[Dragon41673 0]

Now attached is an original Gcode file that printed just fine before the firmware update

B1-1.03e.gcode

[Dragon41673 0]

SUCCESS!!! At least like 95% anyways...

So I've gotten majorly frustrated with this issue...been going on since August 10th roughly. I decided to go back to basics. As such, I wiped my profiles in Cura 4.13.1, and copied over BASE profile settings from Creality Cura 4.8.2. Edited little things, like temp, speed, retraction...and started printing. 

Below are pics of a successful print on Cura 4.13.1...but there's an issue I cannot resolve & 1 I'd like recommendations for.

I have top layer issues in the below pics. This is not replicating on the TOP most part of the print except in 1 picture. This is just above what could be considered a door on one side and a simple detail outcropping on the other side. It's as if the top layer just isn't printing. I went from 0.8 for Top/Bottom Thickness with 4 layers, which was the default in 4.8.2...to 1.2 Top/Bottom Thickness with 6 layers...and both were about the same results.

I even tried changing from 0 to 1 for Top Surface Skin Layers...and that didn't really do much of anything either. Issue is in the red "boxed" areas in the below pictures. I'm currently printing one with 1 Top Surface Skin Layer and 1 for Top/Bottom Thickness with 5 layers. I'll post pics when it's done in the morning.
 

Edited September 2, 2023 by Dragon41673

[Dragon41673 0]

This is the issue I need some recommendations for. I have 200 temp, 0.8 retraction at 45mm with eSun Grey filament (tried 205 and 210 but no change). I'm still getting "cotton" like stringing. Any thoughts? Default was 5mm which I am of the understanding is nuts for the S1. 0.8 is what I was running previously and only had a little stringing.

[Slashee_the_Cow 357]

Slashee's Settings Suggestions:

(I don't know how many of these you're already using, and some of these go into the "paranoia" category)

Enable Coasting: Off (just so it doesn't underextrude somewhere)

Combing Mode: Within Infill (in case it oozes at all during a move operation, this will make it retract if it would hit a wall or skin layer, causes a lot more retractions but also helps prevent any visible scarring). Slightly less paranoid option: Not in Skin, which will prevent it moving inside a skin layer without retractions.

Printing Temperature: Setting it higher would probably cause more problems like stringing because it gives the filament less of a chance to cool and more of a chance to hold on to the hot end, causing a string.

Outer Wall Wipe Distance: I'd try setting it to 1-2mm just so it empties the nozzle before a move.

Top Surface Skin Layers: I'd say "however many top layers you have" but over 3 is probably too paranoid even for me. More than one should definitely make a difference though.

Top Surface Skin Line Width: Whatever the narrowest line width you can do with your nozzle is. Narrower lines generally hide things better and feel nicer. It will add a bit to your printing time though, depending on how many skin layers you have.

Speed: This one's a tough nut to crack. Faster increases chance of stringing and such, so you don't want that. Slower and you have to mess around with the temperature to make sure you don't clog your nozzle or something, but it gives the plastic more time to set. Personally I set it to a bit slower than default for the bottom couple of layers (to help adhesion) but leave the rest at defaults.

[Dragon41673 0]

9 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

Slashee's Settings Suggestions:

(I don't know how many of these you're already using, and some of these go into the "paranoia" category)

Enable Coasting: Off (just so it doesn't underextrude somewhere)

Combing Mode: Within Infill (in case it oozes at all during a move operation, this will make it retract if it would hit a wall or skin layer, causes a lot more retractions but also helps prevent any visible scarring). Slightly less paranoid option: Not in Skin, which will prevent it moving inside a skin layer without retractions.

Printing Temperature: Setting it higher would probably cause more problems like stringing because it gives the filament less of a chance to cool and more of a chance to hold on to the hot end, causing a string.

Outer Wall Wipe Distance: I'd try setting it to 1-2mm just so it empties the nozzle before a move.

Top Surface Skin Layers: I'd say "however many top layers you have" but over 3 is probably too paranoid even for me. More than one should definitely make a difference though.

Top Surface Skin Line Width: Whatever the narrowest line width you can do with your nozzle is. Narrower lines generally hide things better and feel nicer. It will add a bit to your printing time though, depending on how many skin layers you have.

Speed: This one's a tough nut to crack. Faster increases chance of stringing and such, so you don't want that. Slower and you have to mess around with the temperature to make sure you don't clog your nozzle or something, but it gives the plastic more time to set. Personally I set it to a bit slower than default for the bottom couple of layers (to help adhesion) but leave the rest at defaults.

Enable Coasting - Is off already

Combing Mode - Already set as Not in Skin

Printing Temperature - Did a temp tower when I first got the printers, with eSun it was good between 200-210 which I was printing 205. Now with the new firmware on the printers, I did another one, and 195-205 was good. Replicated those same results on another S1 so I stuck with 200 for the temp as it was in the middle and there was almost zero difference between 195/205 so 200 felt good for a margin of difference either way.
Outer Wall Wipe Distance - Was set at 0...I will try another print later with 1 just to see.

Top Surface Skin Layers - As mentioned, I was doing 0, tried 1, didn't make much of a difference at all...but willing to try 2 for giggles on a cut down test portion of the same file so I'm not wasting more filament (I'm at 6 rolls wasted at this point).

Top Surface Skin Line Width - Default is 0.4, but I could probably knock that down to 0.2 as I'm using a 0.4mm nozzle...right?

Speed - Default was 50, I was printing at 60 prior to all these issues, but I can easily try a 50 and/or a 55.

 

[Slashee_the_Cow 357]

10 hours ago, Dragon41673 said:

Top Surface Skin Layers - As mentioned, I was doing 0, tried 1, didn't make much of a difference at all...but willing to try 2 for giggles on a cut down test portion of the same file so I'm not wasting more filament (I'm at 6 rolls wasted at this point).

Top Surface Skin Line Width - Default is 0.4, but I could probably knock that down to 0.2 as I'm using a 0.4mm nozzle...right?

Remember, top surface skin layers only really makes a difference if you change any of the top surface skin settings. More layers printed with better quality settings will do better to cover up any holes that might exist. One probably isn't enough unless you're using a fat nozzle and printing really thick layers (which you're not).

 

As for line width: what I've read generally says 60-150% and on a 0.4mm nozzle Cura gives me a warning (setting box turns yellow) if I enter anything below 0.26mm. You could try thinner, but I would just do it on a small test print (like, you know, a tiny cylinder or something) before I tried it on anything big.

[Dragon41673 0]

1 hour ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

Remember, top surface skin layers only really makes a difference if you change any of the top surface skin settings. More layers printed with better quality settings will do better to cover up any holes that might exist. One probably isn't enough unless you're using a fat nozzle and printing really thick layers (which you're not).

 

As for line width: what I've read generally says 60-150% and on a 0.4mm nozzle Cura gives me a warning (setting box turns yellow) if I enter anything below 0.26mm. You could try thinner, but I would just do it on a small test print (like, you know, a tiny cylinder or something) before I tried it on anything big.

Awesome thank you!

[Dragon41673 0]

Ok...I'm about to just give up. After going to the base profile, and adjusting temps, I got better prints but not perfect as I was before.

Using Slashee_the_Cow's suggestions did not make much of a difference, but someone else that also was helping me did...however, on "taller" prints, I'm AGAIN getting separation lines. Out of curiosity, I switched the following Z-Seam setting...

Sharpest Corner - Smart Hiding to Sharpest Corner - Hide Seam...it did not change anything (this is good because before one or the other would basically make things MUCH worse).

Now...interestingly, this separation line, is right at the top layer of the detail behind the perimeter as shown in the 2nd picture. What could be causing that?
 

 

Any more thoughts on this? I'm well past a deadline now and everyone including myself isn't happy...all due to a frigging firmware update.

[Slashee_the_Cow 357]

My guess for the last shot: If it's printed the roof in finer detail (like a narrower line width) then moved straight to a regular line, the flow rate probably didn't catch up quickly enough, resulting in underextrusion.

 

All I can think of that might help with if that's the case is that Cura has an experimental setting called Flow Rate Compensation Factor, which increases/decreases the extrusion based on what it will need in the next second, not what it's printing right then. I haven't tried it, and I don't know what you'd want to set it to (100% is the default which I think makes it disabled, you'd want to increase but I have no idea by how much), but it's still in experimental because it can create blobs sometimes.

 

Could be worth a small test print but I certainly wouldn't bet the farm on it.

[Slashee_the_Cow 357]

Second, less experimental thought: How many wall lines are you printing? If you have a couple of inner walls (would bring the wall total line count up to 3) it will help hide any imperfections in the outer wall.

 

It'll also increase your print time and material used, but if anybody said life was fair, they were lying.

[Dragon41673 0]

Sadly...that didn't work, but I got a slightly...very slightly...improved print by turning off "Retract at layer change" and "Retract before outer wall".

 

It didn't completely fix it, but it's slightly better. I'm just screwed at this point. I'm a month behind on a project and the owner is likely going to yank this from me.

[Slashee_the_Cow 357]

33 minutes ago, Dragon41673 said:

I got a slightly...very slightly...improved print by turning off "Retract at layer change" and "Retract before outer wall"

Could mean there's a (potentially hardware) problem with your extruder, or that you just need to spend three months playing with settings to dial it in (probably easier just to buy a new a printer).

 

Two settings you could test with (probably small prints as a proof of concept, unless you need to do a "whole spool of filament" sort of print to end up with problems):

 

1) For this you'll need the Printer Settings plugin by @ahoeben (who seems to have way too much free time based on all the awesome plugins they've made), click "Marketplace" at the top right, scroll down until you get to it, then install it. Restart Cura and your print profile at the top right will have a new "Printer Settings" section. In that there's a setting called Firmware Retraction. I honestly have no idea whether your firmware supports this (I'm just running Creality's firmware on my Ender-3 v2 Neo... and I have no idea if my firmware supports it) but it's worth trying if changes to other retraction settings you made have an effect.

2) Travel > Enable Retraction (turn it off). Will result in strings anywhere it does a travel move (so not a usable end product), but if that's the only problem, then that's definitely more signs pointing to the extruder being at fault.

[Torgeir 248]

Hi @Dragon41673,

 

I'll think the the surface print of you model looks quite normal, the wall is super thin at some places where it split and sure some part of the model did not stick well to the bed.

 

Well, any 3mf file you have helps esp. the latest.

A picture say more than a thousands of words, -but a 3mf file say more than a million of pictures....

 

The *3mf file hold the stl file, all of you printer setting you've made in Cura plus filament and printer type.. etc.

 

We normally save the project (*.3mf) file after saving the gcode file -as this hold all of our valuable settings.

 

So sure it helps

 

Thanks

Torgeir

[ahoeben 1,965]

On 9/5/2023 at 4:00 PM, Slashee_the_Cow said:

plugin by @ahoeben (who seems to have way too much free time based on all the awesome plugins they've made)