Show all posts by user
Printing issues ...
To be honest I fail to fully undesrstand it myself.
It is just that during tuning my laser I noticed that low jerk and acceleration settings can have a very negative effect on longer moves at high speeds.
Some people seem to think the jerk and acceleration work totally different from reality
The acceleration defines how fast an axis can go from 0 to full speed without loosing steps due to the ma
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Ok, if you claim your stepping and extrusion multiplicator is really good then try my way of getting the final levelling done:
Basic calibration like I do involves creating a box close the max print size (x-y) that the machine will support.
Only needs to be a few layers thick.
Start the print and as soon as the nozzle reaches the bed you puase the print and shut down the heating.
The nozzle is no
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
You said you changed the stepper drivers - same type or different type?
Asking as I use the A4988 drivers with no issues on the printer and laser cutter.
You changed and checked basically everything there is, only the actual firmware is left.
But as said I would again try the jerk and acceleration.
Try around the 2000 for accelleration and start with 40 for the jerk, set the print speed to just 2
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Sounds like your extruder is not getting enough current to push the filament or if it has a teflon liner that it might be dislocated causing a bottle neck.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
You either test the mosfets or follow the traces on the circuit board from the heater connection to the offending mosfet.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
You can check if the 3.3V for SD are present and the 5V connection should be on pin1 and two of the first cable.
I guess you already tried switching the cables as some manuals give wrong info on this.
If you have the 5V to the controller check the display in different angles against the light, in most cases you can make something out if the text or graphic made it up there.
In that case you could
by
Downunder35m
-
Laser Cutter Working Group
The LED is on the heated bed, usually it is placed right where the wires connect to it.
If you see the correct room temp and it changes when you heat the sensor than that part should be fine.
Leaves the question if you actually get power to the heated bed at all.
You could simply connect it directly to power, this should make it heat up fast and the LED on the bed should go on as well.
Other way
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
If your measurements differ from the model it simply means you need to calibrate your machine, should be the first thing before using it for actual prints.
There are several good guides available for this, you just need some calipers.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Although not really possible but with nothing to loose:
Get your copy of your firmware ready, note all settings you might have change through the EEPROM values.
Use the EEPROM Clear sketch from the examples to clean out the memory.
Flash the firmware again and give it try.
Sometimes a simple typo with no visual effects or error codes will mess up the entire EEPROM section.
Had this happening a fe
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
That can be anything really, is the print quality better at lower speeds?
What board are you using Mega, Duo, something else?
The Mega is pretty much limited to 10000 steps/s, with your high stepping rate you might need a faster CPU for decent speed.
What is your stepping per mm?
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Nylon like some other plastics has a great shrinkage.
Keeping an easy nozzle pressure simply gives better results as the flow of plastic is even.
And yes if set up correctly you will see that your extruder keeps and almost completely steady speed instead of changing the speed all the time.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Well I did not do any code diging on the matter all I know is that Nylon prints much better using the volumetric extrusion settings.
And if set correctly the extruder really runs at an almost constant speed throughout the print.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
To give my 5 cents on volumetric extrusion:
I did not care at all about it as I thought with no filament sensor, always using 3mm filament and no obvious difference there would be no benefit at all.
A long time later I started with Nylon and copt all the problems that come with it.
Here I found an article about volumetric extrusion that got me thinking again as the explanations used there made mu
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Print a solid cude of fixed dimensions and to save me time writing read on here.
If in doubt you can do it with a fixed lenth of filament as well but I guess a printed object is better it includes all the air pockets and imperfections.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
MarlinKimbra is here!
I implemented my changes into this great new firmware and it is now all aup an running what I need.
Time to get going and include more relays, sensors and switches.
If you just want the hex file for your K40 based on my mods then check the Instructable please.
by
Downunder35m
-
Laser Cutter Working Group
No sure, for teflon I would only use silicone oil.
But before I finally changed to a more direct system I replaced the teflon bowden tube with blue, 5mm air hose.
Was a perfect fit for my 3mm filament and caused far less friction.
But that might be due to the fact the the teflon tube was 4mm inner diameter while the airtube was only 3.3mm.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
They come with liners if not genuine and some originals too to get down from 3mm to 1.75mm, not an expert though, so if in doubt check
Have you tried to pull the hot filament out by hand?
If that shows a much bigger "lump" at the end it could indicate that there is a cooling issue in the cold end/heat break.
Or, that the tolerances are too high, it should be one snug fit till the hole for the mel
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
I found a nice new Marlin release - Marlin Kimba.
My initial search was for people working on porting laser functions into a newer Marlin release.
But this firmware is jam packed full of features, not only for CO2 and laser printers but all 3D filament printer types you can think of.
Multiple extruders, mixing extruders, single nozzle extruders, various sensors - why you ever wanted from a 3D pri
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Well, if other filament is fine then you might had a bit of contamination or the plastic was too long on heat without printing.
If you have a teflon liner and do a lot retractions it pays off to check the liner when changing filament or cleaning the extruder.
Once they start to go soft from either heat or just usage they can slip into the neck of the nozlle causing a bottleneck.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Big lump?
If a lump forms in the hotend it usually means your heatbreak has a problem.
Could also explain your pimples if retraction is used.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Are you sre that the current to the stepper motors is high enough?
It looks like you are loosing a few steps every time the x-axis is active.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
It is supposed to get the nozzle pressure back to normal after retractions for example.
This shall ensure even extrusions.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
That is implemented into the firmware.
I increased the input range from 0-100 to 0-10000, giving the same resolution as if you could use decimal values.
The rest was an adjustment of the range setting to match the 255 shades of grey.
I can print with the full range mapped to new power values at any given speed - within the hardware restrictions of course.
Before there was less than 100 different
by
Downunder35m
-
Laser Cutter Working Group
Not that simple sadly.
In slic3r you can basically select it as standard but in S3D you need to use the M200 command and mess around with the extrusion settings.
You literally need to work your way towards multiplicator and extrusion width settings until you get it right.
Downside is that there is no direct support for it which makes it a hit and miss when changing filament.
Check it first with S
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Not sure if it helps you but I fixed all these related issues by switching to volumetric extrusion.
Takes a bit of testing to get the settings right but after that the flow through the nozzle stays almost at constant pressure bringing much cleaner results.
For some reason S3D is often over or under extruding in these critical parts when printing normal.
Finding the right settings to prevent this
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Looks like one of the many Mega2560 based combo boards china is throwing out all the time.
They are quite good in terms of speed and such but without documentation it is next to impossible to figure the pin assignments out.
Unless of course you have the time, will and tools to follow the traces on the circuitboard to the porcessor to make your own pin mapping.
If you do a Google image search usin
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
My I ask why removing the retraction in a part that does not need it is a bad thing?
I made the suggestion to rule out your pimples are caused by incorrect retraction/wipe settings...
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Slicer doesn't your firmware does.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
Let me guess:
The print goes fine for a while, then you see some unwanted movement and either with that movement or right after the extruder goes nuts?
If that is the case I would suspect comnnunication problems.
Baud rate not high enough or not matching firmware settings, USB cable too long, too many other USB devices in use....
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing
For this model you should be fine without retraction.
Give it a try without retraction (maybe one size smaller?).
So no extras, just printing, no wipe, clean or anything.
Just make sure that you have relative high speeds for non print moves.
by
Downunder35m
-
Printing