Need help with SFACT!

Hello! I switched from Skeinforge to SFACT recently and I am getting a much better print quality! The only problem is that it won't go further than the first layer...

It doesn't stop, but the extruder start extruding reaaalllllyyyy slow from the second layer to the end. Looks to me like the flow rate drop from the first layer to the other, but I really can't find in SFACT where I could adjust this.

If this problem ever happened to you, or not, any help would be appreciated!

Thank you and may the year 2012 be a good one for the 3D printing community

i have not had any issues like that, what software are you using to send the gcode, i am still using repsnapper, i have gotten a few bugs when i have triede to print the same thing a few times, all i had to do was just restart repsnapper.

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SFACT generate my gcode and then I load it in Pronterface.

And I know that there is an option in the raft tab to adjust the flow/feed rate for the first layer and that the main an perimeter feed/flow rate are adjusted in the speed option. Every feed/flow rate have the same value : 15 for the feed rate and 1 (scaler) for the flow. There is probably another option that I don't understand or haven't seen.

Thanks again

are you sure your extruder is not slipping?, usually the first layer goes down slower. i use 3mm feedstock still and the settings of sfact and the sprinter firmware seem to be for 1.75mm feedstock, after a little investigation i slowed down e steps in firmware to around 70 from 700, then adjusted the rest using dimensions tab in sfact settings and lower extrusion filament pack density until flow rate is about right. lowering the density increases the flow, as it assumes that less of what you extrude becomes filiment. i would guess that could go above 1 if too much goes down, but i do not know for sure about that. other than that i leave all the sfact settings to default.

one thing that took some getting use to the extrusion tab, if it says 5mm, then it is 5mm of feedstock going into extruder, not what comes out the nozzle end. a good feed rate for that is 100mm/minute for 3mm stock, that pushes quite a bit of filament out for me.


one way you could know if your extruder is running too quickly to catch the filament is run at 100mm/minute 50mm/minute, if it goes faster when it is a slower speed, then it is catching the filament better

anywho this is just from my first experience using sfact.... ymmv

Thanks for your answer, but I've already checked if it was slipping, but that's not the problem. I've spent some time adjusting everything in SFACT and the flow rate is no perfect but good. The problem really is that from the second layer, it start extruding verry slowly.

I tryed and made a new installation of SFACT and only modified these parameter :

1- The filament diameter to 1.6 (I use 1,75 filament wit 0,35mm nozzle)
2- Layer height and Extrusion width values to 0,30 and 0,40
3- In the speed tap, I change the main feed rate to 15 and the perimeter feedrate to 15.

I must also say that this problem doesn't exist while using skeinforge (not SFACT).

I'll start working on a good configuration of skeinforge since SFACT doesn't seem to like me

Time to move to Slic3r!

slic3r.org

There was a major change in how the extrusion rate was implemented in Skeinforge 040 onwards. If you changed from an old version of skeinforge to a new one of SFACT the firmware extrusion variables may need resetting.

See here for a discussion on the subject.