Post processing scripts not working on Neptune 3 max

[josephla 0]

I am trying to use post processing scripts for a timelapse specifically, but no matter what plugin I use or how I inject the g-code, Cura does not apply it to the printing process. I can even see the g-code commands in the file. I would know if it was working, because I would see my travels to a specific location at each layer change, increase in print time, etc. but shows nothing. It seems to work on every other machine on Youtube but not the Neptune 3 Max. I'm so frustrated. Is there something I'm missing? 

My machine is running firmware 1.3.5.3a, UI version 1.5beta02   &

Cura 5.4.0 

 

[Slashee_the_Cow 409]

Possibly related: someone else having trouble with their Elegoo Neptune 3 printer

Could maybe be a Cura thing? Try uninstalling it and downloading an earlier version like 5.3, from what I've read 5.4 has some issues in a few different places.

[josephla 0]

13 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

Possibly related: someone else having trouble with their Elegoo Neptune 3 printer

Could maybe be a Cura thing? Try uninstalling it and downloading an earlier version like 5.3, from what I've read 5.4 has some issues in a few different places.

I tried 5.3 and it makes no difference.

[ahoeben 1,981]

18 hours ago, josephla said:

I can even see the g-code commands in the file.

 

Just to be sure: you can see the g-code commands or you cannot see the g-code commands?

 

If you can see the g-code commands, then that's where the responsibility of Cura ends. If the gcode commands are there, but your printer ignores them, then that is up to your printer (firmware).

[Gigabeast 0]

I've got an Elegoo Neptune3 Pro which I understand is fundamentally the same as the Plus/Max apart from build capacity and extra bits to support the larger sizes.

I ran into what I think is the same issue, I was trying to print a temperature tower and use post-processing scripts in Cura to set the levels for the temperature changes. As a newbie I was using the stock method for file transfer, which is to "Save as TFT File" (which contains a lovely thumbnail to admire on your printer screen while it's printing!), copy it to the SD card on the PC, put the SD card into the printer, select from the print menu and print it. NO TEMP CHANGES HAPPENED! 

Weird, so I thought I'd better set up direct USB printing as I'd worked out that my UPS can handle having the printer as well as my PC connected to the battery-backed output without overloading it. Sending the Cura file direct via USB *DID* print the temperature changes! So what's going on here, I wondered. In the end I looked up what the gcode is for changing temperature (it's "M104 Sxxx.x T0" if you do it from Cura with the ChangeAtZ script) and then used NotePad++ to examine the codes. There's another option when saving files in Cura, and it's just called "Save to File" (NOT "Save as TFT File") available via a dropdown arrow to the right of the Save button. If you use "Save to File" then Cura sadly strips out the lovely thumbnail graphics codes but inserts a ;POSTPROCESSED remark near the beginning and then DOES include all your carefully curated temperature change commands! 

So, certainly in my case the answer to getting the post-processing script code to appear in the final printer gcode file was to avoid using the TFT file type and stick to "Save as File" for SD card transfer OR send the file direct via USB. 

I'm reporting this to Elegoo, as it might be a bug, although it could be a restriction of the TFT file format to have no post-processing codes in it.

Finally, on another forum (Github) regarding Cura, there is a bug where if you have Z-hop enabled at all, Cura will detect the temperature change height AS SOON AS the Z reaches that height for the first time. Of course this is going to happen when it processes the Z-hop. So say you want the temp to change at 5.0mm and Cura is processing the 4.8mm layer and it sees a Z-hop to say 5.0mm, it will spot that the temp change needs to be inserted so it does that, but then the Z has to go back down to carry on printing the rest of the 4.8mm layer so Cura sends codes to revert the temperature back to what it was before (or something like that, I haven't tried it, just seen the comments about it). And then when it reaches the true 5.0mm layer it has already processed the script so it ignores this repeat arrival at 5.0mm and doesn't change the temperature again.

Make of this what you will, but I hope it helps someone else avoid the 24 hours of proper head-scratching I had to go through to work out how to get my temperature towers to work properly! 

Best wishes and happy printing.

Tony.

[ahoeben 1,981]

The "Save as TFT File" functionality is provided by a 3rd party plugin, and it seems that that plugin does not let Cura apply its postprocessing to the output.