I need a little tool chain advice

Hey all.
I seem to need a little tool chain advice.
Most likely its my settings in skeinforge that is throwing things of but let me get out the basics.
I have a Prusa, RAMPS 1.3 and Sprinter firmware.
I am using a Windows XP comp, pronterface with SFACT.

I can control the printer just fine with the control panel of Pronterface.
I can home all axis, and all know where to go and what to do.

My issue seems to be the GCODE.
Here is the first few lines
"G90
G21
;M103
;M105
M106
M140 S60.0
M141 S30.0
M142 S0.0
M113 S1.0
;M108 S16.0
M104 S200.0
M104 S199.715
;M108 S13.72
G1 X-8.64 Y-7.27 Z0.72 F60.0
G1 F798.0
G1 E0.0
G1 F60.0
;M101
G1 X-8.64 Y13.03 Z0.72 F205.776 E4.4695
G1 X-5.76 Y13.03 Z0.72 F205.776 E0.634
G1 X-5.76 Y-7.27 Z0.72 F205.776 E4.4695
G1 X-2.88 Y-7.27 Z0.72 F205.776 E0.634
G1 X-2.88 Y13.03 Z0.72 F205.776 E4.4695
G1 X0.0 Y13.03 Z0.72 F205.776 E0.634"

So lets bring in the first questions:
1. Is the position to start the print (ie: X,Y,Z origin of the print) set in these first few lines?
from what i can see they are, in the first G1 command.
2. Is there a way in skeinforge settings to force the start of the print to somewhere else? like on the print surface.

3. Whats up with the seemingly random ; before the M commands? are these OK?

and finally cause it late and my brain is mush,
but a link or some settings for me to check.
I have spent the better part of my evenings the past few nights and have gone round and round.
From Teacup, to kliment, and now sprinter as far as firmwares go.
and ReplicatorG, Repsnapper and now i have settled with Pronterface
but unless someone has some better tool chain and some settings for me to try i will.
I am exhausted.
Thanks All.
-E

Hi 420e,

1 The is no set origin command in your gcodes

Skeinforge will center the part around the origin in default config.
That is why you have negative values for X and Y.

If you want your part in the center of your bed use the multiply tab in skeinforge and set center X and center Y to 100 mm (assuming you working area is 200mm)

For explanation of Gcodes see [www.reprap.org]

Regards,

Jan

; (semicolon) in front of a line is to comment it out, ie tells the firmware to ignore the line. For those M-codes that is fine. It is set by the 'replace.csv' file in the 'amendments' folder of Skeinforge/SFACT. You should set this so it comments out M101, M103, M108 and M113 (M113 is probably missing from yours at the moment, though M105 is in). Use this thread to help change replace.csv:[forums.reprap.org]

As Jand said, use the gcode dictionary to check what your gcodes are doing: [reprap.org]
This is an older version of the dictionary and shows the codes that are deprecated: [reprap.org]

Your code:

G90     Set to Absolute Positioning - okay
G21     Set Units to Millimeters - okay
;M103     Deprecated - Turns the extruder off. (DC motor only)
;M105     Get Extruder Temperature
M106     Fan on - okay if you have one attached to your electronics
M140 S60.0     Set Bed Temperature (Fast) - okay if you have one attached to your electronics
M141 S30.0     Chamber Temperature (Fast)
M142 S0.0     Holding Pressure - I think this is just for 
M113 S1.0     Set Extruder PWM (DC extruder only)
;M108 S16.0    Deprecated - Sets the Extruder Feed Motor Speed (DC extruder only)
M104 S200.0    Set Extruder Temperature (Fast)
M104 S199.715    Set Extruder Temperature (Fast) - not sure why this is in twice?
;M108 S13.72    Deprecated - Sets the Extruder Feed Motor Speed (DC extruder only)
G1 X-8.64 Y-7.27 Z0.72 F60.0
G1 F798.0
G1 E0.0
G1 F60.0
;M101     Deprecated - Extruder on, forward (DC extruder only)
G1 X-8.64 Y13.03 Z0.72 F205.776 E4.4695
etc...

MOST OF THE FOLLOWING IS FOR SKEINFORGE 41, BUT SHOULD BE SIMILAR IN SFACT!

In 'Dimension' tab, set 'Absolute extrusion distance'.

Like Jand also says, use the 'Multiply tab' to get Skeinforge to print in the middle of the bed and avoid all the negative numbers in the Gcode. You can set the center anywhere you want, bearing in mind the origin is where the X and Y axis home to. Usually best to set it to half your printable area in each axis, and prints will be in the middle of the bed.

Do you have a heated bed controlled by your electronics? If so, M140 is okay. If not, turn off 'chamber', which will also remove M141.

To save gcode length (which can lead to missed steps), in 'Export' tab set 'gcode small'. This will remove all the extra unneeded Z height moves and F feedrate settings.

To change what the printer does at the start, you need to change the start.gcode which is in the alterations directory with replace.csv. You may want to add "G28 X0 Y0" to it to home the X and Y axis. You can also add "Z0" to home the Z axis as well, but I tend to set this up each time for each new print. My start.gcode file looks like this:

G21              ;metric is good!
G90              ;absolute positioning
G92 E0           ;set extruder home
G1 E10           ;extrude a bit to overcome hysterisis
G92 E0           ;reset extruder home
G28 X0 Y0        ;Set X and Y home

You can also specify what happens at the end of the gcode. I've altered mine to make sure the hot end moves to home rather than resting on the print and destroying it! My end.gcode file looks like this:

G1 X0 Y0 F4000.0       ;move to home
G92 E10                      ;set extruder home to 10mm
G1 E0                     ;retract 10mm
M104 S0.0              ;Heater off

Phew! Hope that helps.

Cool guys thanks so much,

I felt i had a handle on most of what this would entail as i started building.
But all these different settings and tweaks in firmware and everything sounds similiar,
i thought i head was going to explode!!!!
But this all helps and should move me closer to what i need.

My plan for tonight is look at the firmware more indepth and also cross reference the Gcode dictionary.

I just think a few more tweaks to the Gcode creator, be that skeinforge or SFACT, should be all i need.
I know the printer knows what to do cause manual control is no issue with Pronterface's control panel.

Now for the heated bed, I dont have.
What is the easiest comment out all the heated bed stuff so it doesnt throw anything off?
Oh wait i see it up above.
Gotta turn off chamber.

One thing i was noticing was that me extruder(with no filiment) in a test run would have pulled more filament out of the hot end then in.
In other words, the extruder seemed to retract a greater amount and at a higher speed than it would try to extrude.

But i think me problem here will be fixed by changing Skein from Relative to Absolute positioning.

Some where on these forms i read Relative is better, and i think me Gcode was outputing Relative but my start.gcode was setting the firmware to Absolute, and thus creating a problem.

Ill try tonight and hopefully have a 15mm cude at the end.(thats what the gcode above is for)
Again many thanks to those above and (hopefully) a thanks in advance to those below!
-E

Gcodes for SFACT are exactly the same. All start and end files can be used in SFACT..
SFACT has extruder reset built in PREFACE as option...

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Manufacturer of low tolerance Filaments PLA, ABS, ASA, PETG, TPU, PA, PVA,
[www.miafilament.com]
[github.com]

Guys...
I did it,
Printed a cube.
Then another,
now im getting the hang of the settings.

They were daunting at first but, now when i make a change and see the outcome its making more sense.
The multiply code was it.
Boom Came to life,
pronterface finally calculated the amount of filament instead of saying 0 and it printed.

too hot and slow at first.
Ended that print.
changed temp in skeinforge
Printed another all the way through and it looked better.

My belts have a little lash but that is about to be tended to.
Also need some small changes to start and end gcode.
But yay.

A month after getting all the parts, i printed a cube.
Today is a great day.

Thanks to all that helped.

Happy prints!

420e: I guess you mean DIMENSION,
MULTIPLY centers the piece and mutliplies the amount only. Has nothing to do with E codes...

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Manufacturer of low tolerance Filaments PLA, ABS, ASA, PETG, TPU, PA, PVA,
[www.miafilament.com]
[github.com]

No ahmet, i mean multiply.
At first dimension was not set like you were saying but i still was not getting good numbers for anything until i activated multiply.
Skein was setting negative numbers for x and y and the firmware and host software were arguing and nothing worth any value came out.
But multiply set to the set of the bed, wam, everything is alive.
The numbers looked good.
So it was a bit of both.
-E

Here's my start and end, which I've spent a while tuning:

remove the comments, those are for reading pleasure only

note lack of temperature stuff in start- I set that manually in pronterface before each print, different plastics need different temperatures! eg my green PLA prints fine at 205 but my orange PLA needs 213...

start.gcode:

G92 E0 ;reset extruder
G1 X180 F9000
G1 Y100
G1 X205 Z0.2  ;X205 is beyond the edge of my bed, this basically sets the nozzle up to be wiped before printing skirt
G1 E10 F300 ;prime extruder
G92 E2
G4 P2000 ;wait for user to wipe dribbles, or flow to settle down or whatever
G1 E-5 F1800 ;retract before starting print. turn OFF 'reset E' in sfact with this, so that start of skirt is properly preloaded!
G1 F12000

end.gcode:

G92 E0.5
G1 E-5 F1800 ;retract
G1 X180 Y200 F6000 ;orbit the bed to break strings and signal end-of-print
G1 X35
G1 Y0
G1 X180
G1 Y200 ;finish with bed sticking out the front
G91
G1 Z10 F300 ; raise Z
G90
G1 X0
M104 S140 ;set nozzle to 'idle' temperature where it doesn't dribble but doesn't take long to reach printing temperature
M140 S40 ; set bed to idle temperature where parts are easy to remove, but doesn't take long to reach printing temperature
M84

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Wooden Mendel
Teacup Firmware