Slic3r Gcode not starting print

Hi there,

I have been using skeinforge with mixed results and wanted to try slic3r. I export the gcode and load it up in repsnapper. The preview looks fine. When it starts the print it goes to home and does nothing. It won't take any action to move to the print starting point or anything.

I cannot figure out what could be wrong so I am hoping that it is an easy fix or something I have over-looked. thanks for any help you can give!

just to note

i just installed a panel max (LCD and encoder) but since then when i print from my computer i press print and it all heats up then homes.

I then have to press on the encoder to start the print.

if you have an encoder set up give that a try if not make sure you dont have ultipanel enabled in your firmware

i have experienced something similar, but it has been a little flaky, when it starts up it homes and then sits and it really seems to wait for the hot end and the board to get to the right temperature, but never does start (Even when it sitting right there at the right temp.) -

Well im not really sure how it all works, but if that ever happens to me then i just manually set the temperature, and then go into the GCode file and delete the line that waits for the temperature to get to the right place.

after i do that then it homes and then imediately starts to print (so its important that the hot end was hot when you start).

someone else with more experience can probably correct me but that what has been my workaround

also - it hasnt happened recently. i rebooted and came back a few days later and Slic3r stopped doing that, so i dont know if it was the board, or the slicing settings or what.

The firmware has settings for how accurately and how long the temperature must be maintained for it to count as "at temperature".
If what your seeing is it pausing waiting to get to temperature, you may just have these set badly, or you PID settings could need to corrected.
All Slic3r or any GCode provider does is request the temperature.
You're probably not generating the Wait for temperature M Code in Skeinforge if it's working for you.

Thanks for the replys. I was able to delete that line of gcode that makes it wait and it worked. Now, however, the extruder is not being activated. (I am using all default settings, plus the change mentioned.)

Any ideas on that?

The easiest way to debug any of this is to compare the GCode between Slic3r and Skeinforge.
At least attach the first few lines of actual GCode for people to go on.

kwdelre,
i have the same problem. using slic3r. If i try to use 210 instead of 200 it will not start. The temp seem to jump around 210 so I think it
is waiting (forever) for it to settle down.
only happens when i go to 210 - works fine at 200.
roger.

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

Here is the beginning portion of code that get from slic3r:
Any idea why the extruder motor is being used?

; layer_height = 0.4
; perimeters = 3
; top_solid_layers = 3
; bottom_solid_layers = 3
; fill_density = 0.4
; perimeter_speed = 30
; infill_speed = 60
; travel_speed = 130
; scale = 1
; nozzle_diameter = 0.5
; filament_diameter = 3
; extrusion_multiplier = 1
; perimeters extrusion width = 0.53mm
; infill extrusion width = 0.53mm
; first layer extrusion width = 0.80mm

M104 S200 ; set temperature
G28 ; home all axes
M109 S200 ; wait for temperature to be reached <----I deleted this line and it fixes my original issue
G90 ; use absolute coordinates
G21 ; set units to millimeters
G92 E0
M82 ; use absolute distances for extrusion
G1 F1800.000 E-1.00000
G92 E0
G1 Z0.400 F7800.000
G1 X90.967 Y88.051
G1 F1800.000 E1.00000

lots of "deprecated" talk in [reprap.org] about M104 and M109

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

I did notice that as well when researching. I have the latest version of Slic3r released recently......

kwdelre,
will have a look at my gcode generated when i get home. will also remove that line and see if my extrude goes or not.
(why does the extrude go back 1mm - its probablly a normal thing that someone who knows gcode can explain) .
your prob seems to be at 200 degrees whereas mine kicks in at 210. (have you tried 195 to see if it is any better?)
will look at how much the temp varies when at 200 as apposed to when at 210. (haven't really taken much noticed at 200 but
have seen mine jumping around a lot when waiting (forever) for it to start at 210).
perhaps the bigger issue is that the nozzle can't get to and hold the specified temp?? (got no idea what sort of nozzle i have)
roger

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

I have tried setting the temp to as low as 190 in Slic3r and then have it heated up in RepSnapper to 200 prior to starting the print. Any other reliable slice programs out there? Even if I have to buy it....

This isn't a slicer issue, the slicer is just telling the firmware to wait until it hits the requested temperature, it's a firmware issue, when you use M109, the temperature has to be stable within some threshold for a fixed period of time, that threshold and the time are defined in configuration.h.
But the defaults are usually good if you've adjusted the PID values to match your Hotend, the default PID values can have sufficient variation at some temperatures that the firmware never thinks the temperature has been reached.
If you're running Marlin use the PID auto tune, and see if that fixes it.

yeah i think slic3r is good when i use it at 200.
i only wanted to go to 210 to see if my part will stick to the bed better.
polygonhell - could you please point me to a post that describes working with the firmware, what PIDs are, etc. My unit came
with all the firmware level stuff done.
regards, roger.
ps. is there a way to tell what hotend you have apart from going back to the supplier?

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

PID settings dictate how the hotend modulates the power to maintain the temperature, this blog has a section on using the autotune feature in marlin.

[blog.lincomatic.com]

kwdelre,
i had a go at this just now.
mine seems to be going now too (bad for you) but
i did let the nozzle heat up for 5min before attempting the run each time.
did it 3 times.
the first time i had to wait 2 min before it would go after pushing 'run' (the temp was varying from 206-213)
second time again after waiting 5min it went straight away when hit 'run' (varying in temp 209-2120.
thrid time i took out the M109 and it ran straight away and the extrduer extruded.

did a final run where i had the temp at 200. then changed it to 210. i started the job as soon as the blue msg changed from "heating extrduer" to "idle"it then took 2mins again to start running.

have you tried waiting a long time to see if it starts?
is still a pain in the neck i know? (esp when changing firmware stuff is on the scary side). must be the firmware thiing discussed above.
not sure why it takes that long as the temp variation doesn't seem that bad - was similar at 200 (i assume that others don't wait this long - do they??).


sorry i wasn't of more help
regards,
roger.

later... did another took 5min to go from press 'run'

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2012 06:17AM by rogerw.

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

Roger,

Are you using RepSnapper for printing? It doesn't sound like the same program I am using.

If the PID values are set correctly you should get less than 1 degree of temperature variation once the hotend reaches temperature. I don't know off the top of my head what the Marlin default for how accurately and how long a temperature must be held for before it counts it as being reached.

If you follow the procedure in the link I posted, assuming that Marlin isn't configured for bang/bang and it has the EPROM enabled, you don't even have to upload new firmware, just enter a couple of MCode commands with a 5 to 10 minute wait in the middle.

Quote

I don't know off the top of my head what the Marlin default for how accurately and how long a temperature must be held for before it counts it as being reached.

It's something ridiculously long like 60 seconds. I don't understand why this is the default.

hi all
kwdelre i use repitier but as polygonhell says it is at the firmware level then it makes sense that we still have the same prob viewed at the higher application program level.
i had a different problems last night (seem to have different probs every night) so i had to print at 210 a lot - ended up taking the M109 out each time.
polygonhell, thanks for that update. that sounds good to be able to do it with the M commands - will try that. so many problems with this printing capper not sure where to start
roger

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

I would set all the temperatures in Slic3r to zero and let the printing program (repetier-host, pronterface, or whatever) handle them instead. Just activate the heaters, watch the temperatures rise and start the print when the printer is hot enough.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I started using Repitier and I like it much better than RepSnapper.
I tried some of the suggestions in that blog article but nothing worked. Now the z axis even lifts before starting the print. I have no idea why it is doing that. There must be something else wrong and not the program. It's just one problem after another with slic3r.

Would anyone be willing to post a screen shot of their Slic3r settings?

I have tried everything suggested. Now that I lowered the temp to 0, it starts right away, but it lifts the Z-axis by a layer at least right before it starts printing. (why in the world would they program it to do so??) And I cannot find any setting that alleviates this.

And the extruder will still not extrude.....guess i have to stick with skeinforge....at least that works.

ttsalo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would set all the temperatures in Slic3r to zero
> and let the printing program (repetier-host,
> pronterface, or whatever) handle them instead.
> Just activate the heaters, watch the temperatures
> rise and start the print when the printer is hot
> enough.

Wouldn’t the g-code override the host program? I think if you set the temp to 0 in slicer, then set it to 220 (or whatever temp you use) in the host that all would be fine until the printer receives the g-code to go to 0. I suppose you could manually delete the line in the g-code for temp.

kwdelre, will post my settings tonight for you

can you type the g code is manually - which one makes the z go up

roger

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2012 08:57PM by rogerw.

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

0 is a special case in slic3r when you set temperature to 0 it doesn't output any temperature control commands at all, so the print just runs at whatever you manually set it to in your host software.

tmorris9 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ttsalo Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I would set all the temperatures in Slic3r to
> zero
> > and let the printing program (repetier-host,
> > pronterface, or whatever) handle them instead.
> > Just activate the heaters, watch the
> temperatures
> > rise and start the print when the printer is
> hot
> > enough.
>
> Wouldn’t the g-code override the host program? I
> think if you set the temp to 0 in slicer, then set
> it to 220 (or whatever temp you use) in the host
> that all would be fine until the printer receives
> the g-code to go to 0. I suppose you could
> manually delete the line in the g-code for temp.

my slic3r settings

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

and ....

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

Thanks a lot!!!!
I let you know how I come out when I can try adjusting to some of yours. Thanks again!

kwdelre Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have tried everything suggested. Now that I
> lowered the temp to 0, it starts right away, but
> it lifts the Z-axis by a layer at least right
> before it starts printing. (why in the world would
> they program it to do so??) And I cannot find any
> setting that alleviates this.

It's common to set the Z-axis so that at 0.0 it's actually touching the print bed (or is really, really close to it) and when you start the print, the Z lifts up to top of the first layer. This is what Slic3r does by default. If you set the Z=0.0 to the top of the first layer, you can't easily use different layer heights without adjusting the Z positioning.

> And the extruder will still not extrude.....guess
> i have to stick with skeinforge....at least that
> works.

Oddly enough, I have read this exact complaint many times from Skeinforge users (the problem is almost always not activating the Dimension module) but never from a Slic3r user... The file fragment you posted shows normal E-values, so it should extrude just fine. The only explanation I can think of is the firmware's cold extrusion limiter (or the hot extrusion limiter) activating because of noise in the temperature measurement - this would fit with the M109 waiting for a long time, it could do that if the temperature measurement is not stable enough...