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Help to reconcile nozzle diameter, deposited line width, and wall thickness in Cura I need help resolving some conflicting logic between the nozzle width and shell thickness--parameters in Cura 16.021--and the physical deposited line width (width on x-y plane).
DEFINITIONS
For clarity, let me define a few terms I'm using:
Nozzle size - nominal diameter of the nozzle / Cura parameter
Nozzle diameter - true diameter of the nozzle
Extrusion diameter - diameter of circular cross-section extrusion upon leaving the nozzle
Deposited line width - width of the rectilinear layer deposited on the build surface in the x-y plane (not the z-layer height).
Shell thickness - Cura parameter for part wall thickness
Cura - Cura version 16.021
PROBLEM 1
Physics suggests that for regular continuous flow out of the nozzle the extrusion diameter (cylindrical material extrusion) would be slightly larger than the nozzle diameter, and the deposited line width (rectangular prismatic extrusion) on the x-y plane should be even wider than the extrusion diameter. I'm assuming the deposited line width is equal to the shell thickness as set in Cura. However, I am finding conflicting advice as to whether one should set the shell thickness slightly greater than or slightly less than the nozzle diameter.
In this post on the Ultimaker forum, the moderator seems to suggest that the nozzle size and deposited line width are one and the same.
In this post on StackExchange, the discussion seems to agree with my understanding.
PROBLEM 2
A commonly referenced procedure for calibrating extrusion suggests printing a 25mm cube with an open top and bottom. My understanding is that by printing four walls of a single shell thickness, we should correct the extrusion rate to achieve a deposited line width equal to nozzle diameter (Cura requires the shell thickness to be a multiple of nozzle diameter) . The problem I have with this is, as stated above, I don't understand a physical basis for targeting nozzle size = shell thickness (deposited line width). I'd expect to calibrate the extrusion to something slightly wider than the nozzle diameter.
My printing experience seems to confirm my intuition. If I reduce extrusion rate to achieve shell thickness = nozzle diameter my prints appear visually under-extruded with poor layer adhesion. Calibrating to about 110% of the nozzle size looks about right.
PROBLEM 3
Although Cura constrains shell thickness to be a multiple of nozzle size, it will not slice thin shapes on the x-y plane equal to nozzle size, they need to be slightly wider. I have verified this multiple times by designing a part in SolidWorks with a 0.4mm wall, exporting it to Cura as an STL, and previewing the slices (using a 0.4 mm nozzle size). If I increase the wall thickness in the model to 0.41mm, Cura will slice the wall. This seems to suggest to me that Cura does account for a deposited line width > nozzle diameter. It calls to question whether the shell thickness is actually a physical dimension for the 3D print or just a parameter for the slicer engine. I have taken it to mean the number of passes around the perimeter in units of nozzle size, similar to other slicers that ask for a shell count.
Thanks in advance to anyone who has put in the time to read this post and kindly share some knowledge.
EDIT 1: My interchanging of terms "width" and "thickness" made it sound like I'm referring to z-layer height. Also, Trish pointed out that "line width" is the better term rather than "layer width" so I have updated this. My post is only concerned with the deposited layer width in the x-y plane--"line width". | So, I think I may have found a satisfactory answer. Cura 3.6 includes separate parameters for line width and shell count:
This seems to decouple the line width from the specified nozzle size and target what I believe is a more optimal width (~110% the nozzle diameter). It was the other version of Cura that was driving a lot of confusion with the line width being defined by the nozzle size. This also removes the weirdness of not being able slice lines equal to the line width.
Thanks to all who responded. |
How does G-code for belt bed printers work? Are there any good resources on understanding how G-code/slicing for belt bed printers works? I'm told the upcoming Creality 3DPrintMill is being used with Blackbelt Cura, which seems to be a fork of a really old Cura modified in some way for belt bed printers, but I didn't find much information on how it actually works.
In particular, do these printers use normal gcode? What is the coordinate system like? Conceptually the axes are not orthogonal but skew (e.g. 45°) to the belt axis, and part of my question is whether the coordinate system is in this skew basis, or somehow transformed in firmware to an orthogonal basis.
In asking this, I'm partly aiming to determine how hard it would be to use existing/unmodified software (e.g. upstream Cura) to slice for such a machine, possibly with postprocessing of the gcode. | Belt printers use existing 3d printer hardware, including controllers and steppers. The Z axis is tilted at 45 degrees (usually). So to answer the first part of your question: yes, you can use G-Code to control the printer, just as you would with an upright printer.
I don't know a good resource that describes everything, but I will try my best here: it's not enough to just skew everything. Basically, you need to rotate all you models at 45 degrees along the x axis, using an imaginary 45 degree plane as the "build plate". Then, the model needs to be skewed, so that everything that would otherwise be on the build plate is now at y=0. Z needs to be scaled by sqrt(2) to make up for the diagonal belt. The result should be a working G-Code.
But if that's not enough, the issues are in the details. Supports will not work as expected at all. Supports in positive y need to start at 0 degrees, whereas in negative y, you need no support at all. Rafts need to be placed quite counterintuitively on zero y instead of zero x. And giving the build plate/belt a different extrusion temperature is also difficult, because every build plane touches the belt at some point unless it is a bridge. Oh, yeah, and bridges work perpendicular to the build plate instead of parallel to it.
So, yeah, it's not easy at all to generate good G-Code for a belt printer. |
Filament gets coiled inside the extruder A while ago bought a Bowden extruder to replace the old built-in one (It was malfunctioning or something that I cannot remember well). This one in particular has been acquired:
The thing is, that almost a year has passed since the printer did something rather than getting jammed and not work properly. The extruder itself seems to work properly, when I heats up and push the filament by hand seems to pass properly.
When assembled and start to print, the printer at first seems to work, but after a minute or so, it stops extruding (gets jammed or something).
The last time that I removed the filament and I've found out that it was coiled inside (Very strange):
My first thought was that the filament was thinner than the extruder's specs, but the seller says that is for 1.75mm, and all my filaments have that diameter.
What I am missing? Something maybe that is not properly mounted?
The product is not official, bought on Amazon (I didn't know about e3d v6).
Printing temperature should be 180ºC but I've seen now that Cura sets the first layers to print at 200ºC. Material: PLA
My printer is a BQ Prusa i3 Hephestos. | As long as there is no more information about the printer itself (I searched a bit and around half of buyers were severely unhappy with the result), I'd advise you to make a full check of all of the important parts that make up a 3D printer making ok prints:
Are motors moving as they should?
Is the extruder actually extrude filament when told so (do the check "2cm" = 2cm extruded)?
Is the Z calibration ok (<- VERY important, will make tons of weird problems if extruder is too close to the bed, believe me, don't skip out on this one. A blue tape or not a blue tape makes a world of difference).
Also of course check your filament (no variations too big of the diameter).
For the temperature, IMO go for the higher for starters (maybe no, see "heat creep" below), you won't be able to bridge / less good quality etc. but you'll get pieces done.
NOW, the image you posted shows a twisted (I don't know how to handle that) or a grinded filament.
When I say 'grinded' I mean that the filament got stuck somewhere (see below) and the (cogged) wheel pushing the filament is so strong that is grinds off plastic from it, forming waves on the filament. Eating away parts so it looks like your photo.
If that's the case, then you should check out "heat creep", it's basically the heat in the lowest part of the extruder (the thing you call a bowden extruder) will heat up the filament and make it melt Above the heat block, making a blob of half melt plastic stopping the forward movement of the filament.
This is usually mitigated by two things, that lacks more or less in cheap chinese knock offs:
* The fan and it's cooling efficiency (the fan must blow when the heat block is hot, even if there is no printing going on. Even if the heat block is no longer heating. I shut the fan off at around 60°C).
* The Heat break: if it's heavy it will conduct too much heat, if it's thin it might work but will break easily.
3D Printing is not obvious or easy, but spend some time and it'll start to work well!
Cheers |
Anycubic i3 MEGA not heating past 140 ºC [SOLVED] on [EDIT 3]
I just finished changing my i3 Mega's PTFE tube and brass nozzle, reassembled it, always taking care not to damage the heating element and thermistor wires.
Then I check the temperature and it was cooling down, despite the set temperature being higher (210 ºC). I turned it off, let it cool down and turned it back on. I set it again to 210 ºC and it only reaches about 135 ºC-140 ºC, not going over it.
So I change the heating element and thermistor for fresh new ones (original ones, that came with the printer) and the same behavior takes place: not heating up beyond 140 ºC.
Any ideas on why this is happening or how to fix it? I checked the connectors and they all seem to be fine. Cooling fans run normally as well.
Printer: Anycubic i3 MEGA. All stock parts, except the new nozzle (standard brass nozzle) and the PTFE tube (a blue one with 1.9 mm internal diameter). I'm setting the temperatures through the printer's interface, as I have always done.
[EDIT]
I did check some stuff with the multimeter and what I got is that:
The cables leading to the print head are fine;
The heating element's voltage is correct and the MOSFET seems to be
working fine both by checking the voltage and from the LED that
lights up when it is sending current to the HE;
The resistance of the HE is correct as well;
Form that, I am guessing the problem is the current fed to the HE. Later today I will try to heat both the nozzle and the bed to the (safe) max temperatures and see if the bed heating is problematic too. If so, the problem should be related to current.
If anyone has any other ideas, they are appreciated! :)
[EDIT2]
Heating up the print bed and the hotend at the same time didn't affect the bed at all. It heated up at the same pace as usual. Since the cables are fine, it shouldn't be a problem related to the power supply.
So I'm gessing the problem is the motherboard (Trigorilla 1.1). It didn't seem to have any burned components at a glance but I'm gonna check with a multimeter.
[EDIT3]
Turns out I messed up the heatbreaker, so the heatsink was cooling the hotend way too much... This is one way of learning I need to be careful with the heatbreaker, I guess. I'll leave a solution here for the newbies like me that end up in a similar situation. | I recently had similar problem with my Prusa i3 MK2.5. It was not able to maintain the set tempereature. I measured the heater catridge (which was new) and its resistance was correct (about 4 ohms). So I changed the hotend MOSFET on the stock board with no result. So I changed the heater catridge for the older one and the issue was gone.
Since you have changed the heater, it is unlikely that you have multiple bad ones. Thus the only thing that remains is the MOSFET and the power supply. Make sure your power supply is stable under load and can deliver enough current.
More likely it is the MOSFET. It behaves like a resistor in the path for the current. If it is swithced off, it is like a large resistor (units or tens of megaohms) in series therefore no or very little current can flow. If it is switched on (units or tens of milliohms) the resistance is very small allowing the current to flow through the heater. If a MOSFET is bad, when it is switched on it can have higher resistance (units of ohms) and thus limiting the current and creating a voltage divider. Which you can measure.
You have to get to the bare wires that lead to the heater. Turn on the heater. Place your voltmeter lead on one wire and the other lead on the otehr wire. The voltemeter should show voltage close to your power supply voltage. If it is showing less, the MOSFET is bad and needs replacing.
For that you will need soldering tools and skills. You probably have an SMD MOSFET soldered directly to the board. I suggest removing it and replacing it with a THT MOSFET that you would place separately from the board with its own heatsink. When on the board, the board acts as a heatsink.
If you cannot do that yourself, ask someone to do it for you.
Before replacing the MOSFET, find whether it is a n-channel or p-channel MOSFET. It will most likely be an n-channel MOSFET but make sure it is.
If you replace it with THT MOSFET I would suggest these two: IRFZ44N (n-channel) or IRF4905 (p-channel). They are general purpose MOSFETs and should work well enough for drop-in replacement.
If it is not the MOSFET, power supply or the heater, then I have no idea.
You should be able to trace one of these loops:
power supply -> (fuse ->) heater -> n-channel MOSFET -> power supply
power supply -> (fuse ->) p-channel MOSFET -> heater -> power supply
Most likely will be the first loop.
NOTE: Checking the heater resistance might help but does not have to. At room temperature the resistance might be within limits (as with mine example) and when heated up the resistance increases with temperature and thus limiting the current. You would have to measure the resistance when heated up and disconnected from all circuits. (Heat up -> disconnect heater -> measure -> cooldown).
Hope that helps and good luck. |
Printing straight from the browser Are there any browser extensions or printers with OctoPrint built in that would allow me to print straight from the browser?
Thinking of a workflow like this:
Make something with Tinkercad (or other online service)
download stl or obj
select print from bookmark or dropdown menu
print is sent to printer and starts printing | There was the CuraEngine plugin, but it's not really maintained anymore. It should still work though |
What's so special about cleaning filament? What is different about cleaning filament to make it effective? What is it made out of? How does it work? | You may discover that "cleaning filament" is also described as nylon filament. Nylon requires higher temperatures than most commonly used filaments. As you raise the hot end to the required temperature to melt the nylon (typically 250°C, all of the other debris has either carbonized or melted.
The hot end is allowed to cool (30-50°C) at which point the nylon filament is pulled out in the reverse direction. Some 'net references suggest a hard pull, but I disagree with violent mechanical forces being applied to delicate mechanical devices. Perhaps that's why my cleaning process takes two to four attempts. Some net references also suggest to start the nozzle heating after reaching the cooling point and to begin applying force upward during the re-heating.
My Sigma 16 uses the above method and also suggests a "strong pull" which is a translation from "sharp yank," in my opinion.
This will collect the debris from the nozzle and heat break and may completely clean the filament path.
I use "natural" clear nylon for cleaning and perform the sequence two to three times, until the heated portion of the nylon no longer has contamination visible.
Even nylon filament that is not dry enough for printing works for cleaning. The moisture bubbles turn the filament into flimsy punctured nylon thread, but it causes no problem with the cleaning process.
FilamentOne website references most of what I've posted.
The above image resembles my experience, although the severely "dirty" image is much more excessive than my cleanings. The worst is to have PVA support material that has been "cooked" at ABS temperatures or higher for long periods. An almost guaranteed nozzle clog is the result of those conditions. |
A free simulation program With some of the items I am designing I would love to put them through a simulation. Like crushing, for example. I want to know how well my object can handle any situation I put it through so I can make changes before I print out the object, only to find out there was a weak spot.
I have been trying to learn ParaView but it is a little complicated off the bat, I would like something easy to use.
If anybody knows of a program that would be fantastic! | Fusion 360 will do finite element analysis (simulation), although I haven't used it. Whether it will perform the type of analysis that you are looking for, I do not know. Check Autodesk's tutorials.
One problem that you will encounter is that items printed using FDM technology are highly anisotropic. In other words, they have a grain, and are stronger/weaker in some directions than in others. I do not think that Fusion 360 can take account of that in its analysis.
Autodesk: Fusion 360 |
Combining multiple STL files I have a collection of STL files, each containing a separate moving part of an object I want to print. (Imagine a set of gears, or similar, that prints as a single object with multiple moving parts.)
My plan was to import them all into Cura, then hit print, then take my fully assembled object off the build plate. However, Cura ignores the coordinate system in the STL files and automatically separates the components from each other on the build plate. This is usually helpful, but it isn't what I want in this case.
So I'm looking for a quick and simple way to combine my multiple STL files into a single STL file. I know that the objects don't overlap, so I don't need to do a CSG union operation - it's enough just to concatenate the objects.
I tried OpenSCAD, which works, but it takes a really long time, because the meshes are fairly complex and it does the full Boolean operation. Is there another quick and simple way to perform this task?
I'd prefer a command line utility, but I'd also be happy if there's a quick and simple way to do it in some free graphical software. (However, I don't want to spend time manually positioning the objects - they're already in the right places in the STL files, so I just want to import them and go.)
Edit I've accepted Trish's answer (use Blender), but I'd still appreciate a command-line option if anyone knows one. | The operation you want is almost just cat'ing the files together. However you need to remove the 80 byte header from all but the first, and add up the 32-bit triangle count from each file immediately after that. Output should be:
Copy of first 80 bytes of file 1
Sum of int32 from offset 80 of each file.
Bytes 84-end from each file.
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STL_(file_format) |
I am getting bubbles and a bulge at the bottom layer of my 3D print I am printing ABS on an Ender 3 printer at a temperature of 240 °C on the nozzle and 110 °C on the bed. I am getting the following result:
Is there any way I can fix this? | I think that your bed is too hot because the bubbling is only on the bottom layer, if it was through out the entire print, I would say that it is your nozzle temp and you should do a temp tower, but because that isn't the case try lowering your bed temp |
Prusa i3 - First layer does not stick and looks jagged My first layer is suddenly not sticking for every new print I'm trying. When it lays down the first layer it has this weird jaggedness to it, doesn't firmly stick to the plate, and gets dragged by the nozzle. I've printed previously successful prints without an issue, but any new print I export from Cura is having this issue. I'm using the same profile that I do for the previously successful ones.
My relevant print settings are:
Material: PLA
Layer height: .2mm
Hotend: 205c
Plate: 60c
Fan cooling: 50%
Speed: 60mm/s | Your nozzle is too far from the build plate. You should make some changes to bring the nozzle closer to the build plate for the first layer. There are a number of possibilities for doing this:
Adjust the Z-axis endstop
Loosen the bed leveling screws
Add an offset in G-code
This will squish the plastic down more, enabling it to stick to the build plate.
With solution (3), you have to be careful that you don't crash into the endstop. This solution works best if your printer homes towards max (and not min) or if you have non-mechanical (hall or optical) endstops. |
how to control fine details from overhanging part to not build upwards I noticed that when printing small teeth on a pulley that the angle is not matching the design angle. I am printing without any support structure.
Overview:
Detail:
Printed:
The printed overhang incline angle under the tooth looks good (maybe not quite steep enough;) but the top angle of the reclining section looks too flat. It is as if the tooth is too perky.
(I have observed a similar behavior when printing overhanging corners. They build upward more quickly.)
What is causing this, and how to prevent it?
I reduced the speed for the outer layer to 30 mm/s, the infill is set to 40 mm/s. Layer (Z) is set to 0.1 mm. Material PLA 1.75 mm, nozzle 0.4 mm.
Cura layer detail:
Cura Prepare
Cura Preview | I think the issue is unsupported overhangs. There is not enough material to support the first layer of each small tooth. Have a look at how your slicer slices the first couple layers at the bottom. It might be that it tries to reduce the angle to 45°, so that it can print overhangs, or the overhangs are drooping before the next layer can assist with support.
Looking at your first two images, I think the printed top part of the tooth is actually quite similar to your 3D design.
You can fix this by making the tooth profile from the side have a 45° slope to maximum height, and the same on the top if you want the teeth to appear symmetrical. |
How to Make Use of 3mm Filaments? I'm not really sure if I'm asking the right question here, but I just made a noob mistake of buying 3 mm filaments instead of 1.75 mm. I have a Makerbot Replicator 2 which I've been using and so far it is pulling in 1.75 mm quite well.
Is there any way I can still make use the 3mm filaments, or do I need to use the filaments on different models? If it is the latter, which particular model is able to pull in 3 mm filament well? | This is not a definitive answer (and has turned into a ramble), as I have not yet had to change my filament size.
However, initially, I would have thought that only the hotend and the hotend's nozzle would need to be changed, from one that can handle the 1.75 mm filament to 3 mm. If the extruder is spring loaded, then it should adjust itself to the thicker filament, without a problem. If not, then you may have to do a slight manual adjustment.
However, after doing some further reading, there may be other factors that need to be considered, such as:
Extruder gearing;
Melt time (which would imply a different feed rate)
It could be worth having a close look at the aperture of your hotend. If, in the unlikely situation, it looks as if the hotend would accept 3 mm (or if you could remove the lining so that it can), you may not need to actually change any hardware, but instead just try tweeking the feedrate in the software, because as your nozzle is less than the width of the filament anyway, then it will be fine for both 1.75 mm and 3 mm. A 3 mm filament would require more heating, and therefore a slower feedrate than a 1.75 mm feedrate. Once the filament has melted, so long as the pressure from the extruder is sufficient, then the molten filament should come out of the nozzle. However, this may be a less than satisafctory method and result in some dubious prints.
There is an interesting thread on the RepRap wiki, 1.75mm Filament vs 3mm Filament, that discusses most of the points above.
It should be noted that the advantages of 3 mm filament has over 1.75 mm are that it is:
cheaper
stiffer (less flexible) and thus "easier" to push through the hotend.
As an aside, one interesting point raised in the thread, is that maybe a smaller extruder can be used, for the narrower 1.75 mm filament, thus resulting in a lighter print head. I am not sure how true that is.
This article, Converting a 3D printer from 3mm to 1.75mm, does the reverse of what you want, and comes with a video. It states that, as you have already found, that the hotend needs to be changed:
The printer [Thomas] is changing out to accept 1.75mm is the Lulzbot
Mini, one of the most popular printers that would ever need this
modification. The only required materials is a new hot end suitable
for 1.75mm filament, a 4mm drill, and a few wrenches and allen keys.
It would be a smart idea to get a hot end that uses the same
thermistor as the old one, but that’s not a deal-breaker as the
problem can be fixed in the firmware.
Alternatively, you could leave your printer as it is and use a 3mm to 1.75mm filament converter, which may be a bit of overkill for just one reel of filament1.
The bottomline
To be honest, is it worth the hassle, time and expense of having to modify and re-calibrate your printer (or worst case, change the model of the printer), just for the price of a reel of filament (assuming that you did not bulk purchase a bunch of reels)? It may be better to stick to one filament size (i.e. your original size) for all of your projects, and so resell the reel of 3 mm and stick with the 1.75 mm printer and buy the correct filament2.
1 See also Conversion of 3mm ABS filament to 1.75mm
2 See also Tom's answer to Conversion of 3mm ABS filament to 1.75mm
See also Can 1.75mm filament be used in a printer that takes 3mm filament? |
Steppers stuck with Klipper but work with Marlin I replaced the fans of my ender 3v2 with Noctuas & Buck converters. During the replacement, I made a mistake and burnt the motherboard (shorted one of the fans). I replaced the motherboard, finished the wiring. The new motherboard is the Creality Ender 3 V2 V4.2.7 Silent Motherboard 32 Bit Mainboard with TMC 2225 Drivers from amazon. The old board with the exact same, but in version 4.2.2
The printer works and auto-home runs normally with marlin (all options by default). Name of the binary: Ender-3 V2_32bit_4.2.7_BLTouch_Marlin_2.0.1_V1.1.1_TMC2225
Klipper version: FIRMWARE_VERSION:v0.9.1-160-g8a6619d1 FIRMWARE_NAME:Klipper
When the printer is running Klipper, controlled by an Octoprint, the steppers dont spin. I can hear the gentle "thud" of the motors being energized when I send a "auto-home" command, they rotate for like a baby step (feels like a single vibration more than a spin, like they're "trying" but don't have the power to actually move) and stay stuck there until the auto-home times-out.
I tried running STEPPER_BUZZ STEPPER=stepper_x and the same for the Y axis, but it doesn't look like anything is happening.
I am more or less sure this is a software problem, since the printer works just fine with Marlin but I never had this problem with Klipper before I replaced the motherboard.
I have put aside my custom config and am using the "default" printer.cfg config that I found here (copy/pasted below)
# This file contains pin mappings for the stock 2020 Creality Ender 3
# V2. To use this config, during "make menuconfig" select the
# STM32F103 with a "28KiB bootloader" and serial (on USART1 PA10/PA9)
# communication.
# If you prefer a direct serial connection, in "make menuconfig"
# select "Enable extra low-level configuration options" and select
# serial (on USART3 PB11/PB10), which is broken out on the 10 pin IDC
# cable used for the LCD module as follows:
# 3: Tx, 4: Rx, 9: GND, 10: VCC
# Flash this firmware by copying "out/klipper.bin" to a SD card and
# turning on the printer with the card inserted. The firmware
# filename must end in ".bin" and must not match the last filename
# that was flashed.
# See docs/Config_Reference.md for a description of parameters.
[stepper_x]
step_pin: PC2
dir_pin: PB9
enable_pin: !PC3
microsteps: 16
rotation_distance: 40
endstop_pin: ^PA5
position_endstop: 0
position_max: 235
homing_speed: 50
[stepper_y]
step_pin: PB8
dir_pin: PB7
enable_pin: !PC3
microsteps: 16
rotation_distance: 40
endstop_pin: ^PA6
position_endstop: 0
position_max: 235
homing_speed: 50
[stepper_z]
step_pin: PB6
dir_pin: !PB5
enable_pin: !PC3
microsteps: 16
rotation_distance: 8
endstop_pin: ^PA7
position_endstop: 0.0
position_max: 250
[extruder]
max_extrude_only_distance: 100.0
step_pin: PB4
dir_pin: PB3
enable_pin: !PC3
microsteps: 16
rotation_distance: 34.406
nozzle_diameter: 0.400
filament_diameter: 1.750
heater_pin: PA1
sensor_type: EPCOS 100K B57560G104F
sensor_pin: PC5
control: pid
# tuned for stock hardware with 200 degree Celsius target
pid_Kp: 21.527
pid_Ki: 1.063
pid_Kd: 108.982
min_temp: 0
max_temp: 250
[heater_bed]
heater_pin: PA2
sensor_type: EPCOS 100K B57560G104F
sensor_pin: PC4
control: pid
# tuned for stock hardware with 50 degree Celsius target
pid_Kp: 54.027
pid_Ki: 0.770
pid_Kd: 948.182
min_temp: 0
max_temp: 130
[fan]
pin: PA0
[mcu]
serial: /dev/serial/by-id/usb-1a86_USB_Serial-if00-port0
restart_method: command
[printer]
kinematics: cartesian
max_velocity: 300
max_accel: 3000
max_z_velocity: 5
max_z_accel: 100
What could be causing the steppers to be stuck with Klipper, but work with Marlin ?
What I tried, with no success (as advised by the internet):
Untighten the belts
Remove the ! from enable_pin: !PC3 in the config
Re-build & flash the firmware instead of reusing the old bin I had kept | It seems the pinout scheme changed on the Creality board between the versions V4.2.2 and 4.2.8. For example, PB9 & PC2 were inverted between step_pin and dir_pin.
Using the following Klipper config (found here) allows the motors to do their job again.
[stepper_x]
step_pin: PB9
dir_pin: PC2
enable_pin: !PC3
step_distance: .0125
endstop_pin: ^PA5
position_endstop: 0
position_max: 235
homing_speed: 50
[stepper_y]
step_pin: PB7
dir_pin: PB8
enable_pin: !PC3
step_distance: .0125
endstop_pin: ^PA6
position_endstop: 0
position_max: 235
homing_speed: 50
[stepper_z]
step_pin: PB5
dir_pin: !PB6
enable_pin: !PC3
step_distance: .0025
endstop_pin: ^PA7
position_endstop: 0.0
position_max: 250
[extruder]
max_extrude_only_distance: 100.0
step_pin: PB3
dir_pin: PB4
enable_pin: !PC3
step_distance: 0.010752
nozzle_diameter: 0.400
filament_diameter: 1.750
heater_pin: PA1
sensor_type: EPCOS 100K B57560G104F
sensor_pin: PC5
control: pid
# tuned for stock hardware with 200 degree Celsius target
pid_Kp: 21.527
pid_Ki: 1.063
pid_Kd: 108.982
min_temp: 0
max_temp: 250
[heater_bed]
heater_pin: PA2
sensor_type: EPCOS 100K B57560G104F
sensor_pin: PC4
control: pid
# tuned for stock hardware with 50 degree Celsius target
pid_Kp: 54.027
pid_Ki: 0.770
pid_Kd: 948.182
min_temp: 0
max_temp: 130
[fan]
pin: PA0
[mcu]
serial: /dev/serial/by-id/usb-1a86_USB_Serial-if00-port0
[printer]
kinematics: cartesian
max_velocity: 300
max_accel: 3000
max_z_velocity: 5
max_z_accel: 100
[display]
lcd_type: st7920
cs_pin: PB12
sclk_pin: PB13
sid_pin: PB15
encoder_pins: ^PB14, ^PB10
click_pin: ^!PB2
``` |
How to build this part using 3d printing I am completely new to 3D printing. I need to build a calibration plate, which I was told can be built using vero back plastic and a 3d printer. But I am afraid I need to know more if I give this to someone for fabrication. In particular, I am wondering how to get the white dots on the surfaces. My question is probably ill-posed, but I am trying to get as much info as I can before I consult any 3d printing vendors. Thanks | The photo is too small to be clear about the entire objective and there are no dimensions provided. A quick google search returns nothing 3d printer related to "black vera plastics" other than a reference to vera bradley, vera wang and an obscure reference to a woven black carpet with white spots of increasing size.
Even within those limitations, one can certainly print a strip of black with white dots. One method involves a dual extruder printer, enabling two colors to be printed, one layer at a time. The black layer would be extruded with suitable holes and the white layer would be place within those holes.
Another method involves printing the black layer with holes, swapping out the filament with white and creating white plugs of appropriate sizes for the necessary fit.
You've used the term calibration plate, which implies some level of precision. Is the precision related to spacing, dot size, dot color, or a combination of the above?
Such requirements may make the cost slightly higher, but not excessively. I can print up to to 290 mm long strip, possibly longer by going diagonal on my 290 mm print bed, with or without the two colors done simultaneously.
If you require crisp edges to the white/black transition, the holes-and-plugs method will give best results and require a bit of post processing. It may be necessary to ream the holes to correct diameter and sand the plugs to fit. Dual extrusion rarely provides sharp delineation from one color to the next. |
Is there a slicer that can set the print speed for each layer as a function of the layer area? Is there a slicer that can set the print speed for each layer as a function of the layer area? Larger areas give the layer a longer time to cool off before the next print layer. When the layer areas start to get small (usually at toward the end of a print if so) the layer may need a slower speed to cool off. | Most slicers have a feature in their cooling settings to "slow down if layer print time is below xxx".
Setting this to a higher value should ensure that small / short layers aren't printed too fast, so that cooling is still reliable.
Shorter layers are slowed down linearly to reach the specified minimum time - unless a "minimum print speed" is also set. |
Differences between moving build plate vs. extruder What are the differences, and pros & cons, between 3D printers with varying layouts for moving head vs. moving build plate?
Example layouts would include:
X Head; YZ Bed;
XY Head; Z Bed;
XYZ Head;
etc.
In particular, what are their respective strengths, weaknesses, specializations, maintenance considerations, etc.? | Without going into too much detail, since this is a very exhaustive topic, I'll write some pro's of each down from the top of my head:
Cartesian XZ hotend, Y bed (eg. Prusa Mendel):
easy to build (relatively)
easy to maintain
easy to modify
understandable kinematics
with the right frame, no x-y-z orthogonality (90 degree angles) needs to be adjusted
affordable
bad for timelapse recordings
print quality will theoretically always be inferior at the same speeds and accelerations to kinematics that have less mass to move (heavy printbeds will lead to ghosting)
z-wobble is only existent in this approach
big build-plates are no option for this design (last feasible size might be 20x30 cm)
Cartesian XY hotend, Z bed (core-XY, sparkcube, Ultimaker, Makerbot)
less mass to be moved -> faster print speeds possible
almost no size limitaions
construction is easy to enclose in most models due to the cubic frame
looks almost always professional
enclosure can be hard to modify due to constraints in space
XYZ hotend (Delta bots)
master of circles
less mass to be moved -> faster print speeds possible
impressive to watch
more load on the processing unit due to more complicated kinematics (32 bit needed for fast print speeds and responsive control with display)
kinematics not easily understandable
error-cause search can be very complicated
more accurate in the center than on the outer limits due to the kinematic approach
The list is for sure not complete, and as a major disclaimer: print quality will always, with every approach, depend more on the setup and calibration of the printer than on the model. There are people around that produce great prints from an acrylic frame cartesian printer and lots of people that produce mediocre results with expensive printers in fancy designs.
I will add some links to the list items when I find the time, for now you have to believe me. I am highly appreciating corrections and additions! |
My Hatchbox PLA filament only allows me to use rafts When I first got my 3D printer (a FlashForge Adventurer 3), it came with a sample pack of filament. With this filament, I was able to use skirts for my first layer. When the sample filament ran out, I switched to Hatchbox PLA filament. For some reason, I cannot use skirts with the Hatchbox filament. Now, whenever I try to print something with a skirt, the print moves around, ruining it. The only first-layer that works now are rafts, which I do not like, as they use up more filament and are more of a pain to remove. Is anyone else having this problem? If so, what are some workarounds to this issue?
Here are the failed prints. I terminated them mid-way, as they started
to shift on the build plate. | It is unlikely this is a filament material issue since many of us have used Hatchbox PLA without this issue. This is a first layer adhesion issue.
Your bed may not be clean, or the bed may have had an adhesion layer you cleaned off.
Your nozzle may be too high on the first layer.
Your bed my not be level.
Glue sticks can help adhesion. Glue sticks usually don't post the composition on the packaging, but Elmer's glue sticks work. Elmer's washable makes it easy to remove the old layer before adding a new one. There are also glue sticks specified for 3D-printing.
Here's a discussion on glue sticks: Are all glue sticks PVA-based? How to find out? |
Make smooth curves in GCode I am getting started with GCode, and I don't know all the commands. Is there a way to smooth a path between two points? I wrote a program which makes GCode from a silhouette. Problem is, when it looks at the individual pixels, its path becomes a bit choppy. Is there a command that will make a more natural path. Attached is a close up picture of the path simulation. | Curves are normally approximated with straight-line segments. However, some firmwares (e.g. Marlin) support arc commands. See:
Marlin: Controlled Arc Move
RepRap: Controlled Arc Move
Note that the RepRap Wiki is not always accurate in its list of supported commands. |
Infill failure at the far corner of two different prints I am a complete newbie at 3D printing (although learning fast). I switched from the default Qidi slicer to the Cura slicer on a Qidi X-Pro machine (which is wonderful). Using: plate 50 °C, 0.4 mm nozzle 200 °C, 1.75 mm PLA, print speed 20 mm/s outer wall, 40 mm/s inner wall, travel speed 100 mm/s (the cura default, I think).
On two different prints, the same far corner (front left) had initial infill problems. Does anyone know why, or how I can solve it? My working theory is that the nozzle shoots across the whole print at high speed to start again at that corner and sometimes the infill filament doesn't bite enough to stick.
Eventually one of the infill layers gets a bite and the rest of the print is fine. But it's disturbing that it occurs on different prints. (I carefully level the plate before every print, so I don't think that's the issue.)
UPDATE
In another question here, turning the Cura combing setting off solved an issue. It probably solved the issue described here, too, or at least contributed to solving the problem described here.
My theory is that with combing on (as it was for that question), the oozing pulls filament out of the nozzle during the travel, so there's not enough filament at the destination corner to bite and bond to the corner wall. Turning the combing setting off seems to have solved the missing infills in the corner. It also greatly improved the quality of the infill walls, too, which relates to the problem described in this question.
UPDATE: Here's a paragraph from a forum posting here that explains how oozing caused by combing can result in "underextrusion effects." That's what I think is happening in this post - the nozzle gets to the corner, but it has no filament to bite and bond with the wall. Credit to @0scar for giving me the forum link. Quote from the link:
Even on interior layers, combing as implemented in Cura is a bad idea,
as it doesn't perform retraction, and that can result in the head
oozing as it moves, especially as each time the head crosses a line of
infill it can tend to pull our some plastic. You can also get some
long moves (e.g., all the way around the curve of a 'C' shaped object
when moving from one side of the opening to the other). This can
result in the head being empty when it starts printing the perimeter
again, with resultant under-extrusion effects. | Now that you are using Ultimaker Cura, the default (probably hidden) parameter Z Seam Alignment is set at Sharpest Corner, so it will always start in a sharp corner. The default retraction settings are pretty high in Ultimaker Cura (I think about 6.5 mm as default Retraction Distance). What happens here is that the filament is not available for printing in time (this is dependent on the extruder type), so the distance should be less than the current value.
It is highly recommended to print a retraction test to find what is best for your setup. For me the 6.5 mm works very well on my Ultimaker 3 Extended and my large custom CoreXY printer as they both use a Bowden extruder setup using 2.85 mm filament, this can be different for your printer. Choosing a different Z Seam Alignment option, e.g. random prevents the use of the same location at every height, but could result in a less aesthetic print.
Furthermore, you could try to visualize the G-code in a viewer, this can be done in the Ultimaker Cura slicer itself, but online viewers are available. After slicing your product, change the combo drop down box from Solid view to Layer view to show the sliced object. Nowadays there are 2 sliders to interface with the model; the vertical sets the layer, the horizontal the progress of the layer. It is advised to play with this to understand how your print is actually printed.
About your settings, print speeds are not high (could be increased), travel speed is fine (is only for non-printing moves). The brim is looking good and the level of your bed is also good. |
stable FDM materials What materials, available as filaments for use in FDM printing, are known to be the most physically and chemically inert? In particular, stability (not necessarily simultaneously) in the presence of the following should be assumed:
pH 0-14
oxidizing agents (ozone, permanganates, dichromates, acidic hydrogen
peroxide)
organic solvents (particularly acetone, methanol, toluene, formamide)
temperature up to 160 degrees Celsius
pressures between ~10^-7 torr and ~2 bar
oxygen or argon plasma | Tough set of requirements and definately pushing into the professional domain. I would recommend checking out ULTEM 1010 Resin which is similar to PEEK but has a higher glass transition temp of 215 °C. Check out the spec sheet from Stratsys.
I hope this helps. :-) |
Conversion of DICOM files to STL files Good morning everyone,
I am developing a consulting job in a clinic of dental CT scans.
This work involves the development of administrative software, and preparing a routine for conversion of tomographic files in DICOM format to STL format. The files in STL format will be used for both visualization and analysis of 3D models, such as printing in 3D printers.
Our problem is just the conversion DICOM to STL.
Has anyone come across this kind of situation? We did not find any documentation or tool for this purpose in our searches and we are really with a gande urgency in the solution.
Advance grateful for any assistance. | The marching cubes algorithm can convert voxel data into a surface mesh. A global threshold to determine the surface in the greyvalues is used.
This article might be helpful. |
What is this part and does it have to do with my my z-position is messed up? I recently bought my first 3d printer, a monoprice maker select v2.
After a couple of print jobs, this piece fell out.
I have no idea where it came from.
But afterwards, I notice that my Z-positioning is all screwed up.
When I select "Home All" to reset all positions to do bed leveling, the extruder tries to push down pass the build-platform, puncturing a hole into the plastic bed cover.
There was a lot of clicking from the motor so I immediately turned it off.
I turned it back on and then tried to move the z-position back up. But it moves only about an inch up before the motor starts clicking again.
I was reading some other posts about a "Z-axis limiter switch". Could that be what the little metal fork-like piece is?
Where does it go and how do I put it back?
And how do I reset my z-position?
Any help appreciated. | Limiter Switch/Endstop
That is the lever that is meant to trigger your Z-Endstop. The variant used in your case is on the cheaper end and is meant to look similar to this QIAOH KN12-1 limit switch:
You will either exchange the endstop as a whole, somehow reattach the/a lever or change the physical position of the endstop so that the moving X-axis is triggering it (again).
Replacement & Wiring advice
Pretty much any switch that can have both an NC/NO (normally closed/normally open) state will function in its state, but it is usually a good idea to have all safety switches (like limit switches) be NC types and have the firmware detect the loss of signal as a safety feature. In case of a broken cable, this will automatically force the machine to halt, instead of keeping the machine moving despite having reached the maximum position.
Normally Open/Closed
It is even possible to wire up a number of redundant switches into one circuit. For NC setup, all the switches need to go in series, so that any switch getting toggled cuts the signal at that point. On the other hand, if only NO switches are used, they have to be wired in parallel: the signal passes when any number of switches is closed.
NO switches, because they are parallel, do cost us in the security department, as a broken lead does not halt the machine's use, but they are easier to troubleshoot as a broken component only takes out its specific arm of the parallel circuit. On the other hand, the NC-series does give us the broken lead security, but a single broken component that stays switched to open disables the whole series and identifying the broken component can take more time.
NOT-Gates
As you can imagine, some clever electronics allow us to use us to turn an NO into an NC and vice versa. This clever piece is a NOT-gate, sometimes also called inverter. They take a logic signal and a supply voltage lead, and only allow the supply voltage to pass into their output if there is no signal in their input side. So, they allow using a NO switch as an NC switch or vice versa. In any case, the NOT-gate needs to be on the output side the switch(es) it shall invert as it only inverts the signal that happens before it in the circuit.
With this clever piece, one can use a combination of NO and NC switches, if one so desires: The NO and NC parts are to be wired separately in groups (the NC group in series, the NO group(s) in parallel). To combine the two signals, there are two ways: Either run the NO output through the NOT-gate into the NC circuit's input, putting it into the series (and making it technically function as a single NC-element), or put the NC group output signal into the NOT-gate and put both groups in parallel. In either case, the NOT-gate 'flips' the function of the switches to behave as if they were the other type: from NC to NO and vice versa. |
Is it an issue when X-axis rods are able to slide in their mounting bracket? While disassembling my printer, I found that the X-axis rods were able to be slide back and forth within their mounting bracket. This seems like it could lead to this axis shifting from vibration alone.
But, it might not matter, I think, because the extruder carriage is tensioned by a belt and it simply uses the rails as a guide to slide across. Even if the rods were to move, it wouldn't take the carriage along with it.
Will the X-axis rods sliding in their mounting bracket have an affect in print quality?
Here is a video: | If the x-axis rods only move in the x axis then there’s no problem, but if they aren’t firmly secured in the other axes then there could be issues. If they’re able to move then presumably they aren’t secured that well. Given the relatively small forces involved in 3D printing though, you may well be fine. |
How can I best clean the print bed after a print? I've occasionally had issues with excess filament residue getting stuck to the print bed. There are ways to prevent this, but sometimes even these precautions aren't enough. Over time, residue can build up. I've observed this in some printers, though not others.
Are there any techniques to best clean print beds? In the past, I've used various typical cleaning supplies, with different degrees of success. However, I don't know if this will lead to damage to the printer over time.
The printer I'm using has a glass print bed, which I occasionally partially cover with blue painter's tape during printing. | If you are printing with ABS (or PLA), acetone will dissolve it. Simply pour
some on the bed and wipe it off (beware, acetone can damage beds that have a coating or a plastic sheet over them, be sure to test this first).
Heating the bed back up may make the plastic softer and easier to
remove.
If you are using tape on the bed, you could remove the tape to remove
the plastic stuck to the tape. |
How to setup Marlin to use a moving bed (up-down)? I am building a 3D printer from scratch, the bed will only move on Z and the head will stay at the top of the printer and move X and Y.
How do I modify the Marlin firmware to have the bed lower as it prints instead of lift like most printers. | You can control in Marlin what the direction of the stepper motor is, e.g. my Hypercube CoreXY printer (which has a similar setup like you described) has the following set (in the Marlin Configuration.h file) to ensure the platform raises when it has to decrease height:
// Invert the stepper direction. Change (or reverse the motor connector)
// if an axis goes the wrong way.
#define INVERT_Z_DIR true
Furthermore, it matters where the Z endstop is located, e.g. using a bed probe sensor or a min Z endstop, you need to home towards a decreasing height (in the direction of your probe/endstop):
// Direction of endstops when homing; 1=MAX, -1=MIN
#define Z_HOME_DIR -1
Don't forget to set a max Z height that falls within the printer volume, e.g.:
#define Z_MAX_POS 345
If the bed is heavy, you should also prevent the steppers to lose power when not being used, so at least set Z to false:
// Disables axis stepper immediately when it's not being used.
// WARNING: When motors turn off there is a chance of losing position accuracy!
#define DISABLE_Z false |
Can you help me improve my Renkforce RF1000 print quality? I've got a Renkforce RF1000 which should be a good 3D printer. I got it second-hand for my birthday one year ago. I've got no way of contacting the old owner.
I spend a good amount of hours fine-tuning the slicer settings last year but at best got mediocre prints. Between September and a week ago I lived somewhere else and didn't touch my printer.
Now here's what I don't know:
I don't know what parts are replaced
I don't know what my nozzle size is
I don't know if the limit switches are calibrated correctly
Though I think they are. This doesn't seem to be a problem. I did re-calibrate the Z-axis
Here are some important details:
I use 3 mm Renkforce PLA filament which I print at 190 °C on a bed heated at 60 °C. The PLA is over one year old now.
There's a fan on the motor on top that isn't connected to anything.
Here are some of the problems I've got:
I've had multiple prints failing due to the extruder not working properly. The motor keeps on spinning but the "feed knurl" remains stationary
I can't seem to get the right extraction settings
I can't seem to get my prints to consistently stick. It tends to work when I heat the bed to 60 °C and use glue and get lucky.
Feel free to give any thoughts you've got. These are the most important questions I've got:
Should I replace the nozzle with this one so that I know what nozzle I've got and so I'm sure this isn't a problem?
Should I replace the filament with new 1.75 mm PLA? If so, why?
How do I fix the extruder?
I tried getting the "feed knurl" off but can't seem to do this easily. I've got some super glue I could try to put in there but something's telling me this might be a very bad idea...
Is the unconnected fan important and if so: what do I do with it? There's no remaining wire to connect it to.
How tight should the 4 screws that hold the filament between the extruder and the rolling disk be?
For now, these are all hardware problems. I can post my Slic3r settings too but I believe the hardware should be fixed before going into slicer settings.
Here are some pictures showing the problems:
This is the extruder. The feeding mechanism can be seen in front. It shows the "feed knurl" of which the inside spins while the outside remains stationary (question 3). Next to it are 4 screws which determine how tight the filament is held against the extruder (question 5). On the back it shows a black fan, this got placed by the previous owner but isn't connected (question 4).
This image shows the unconnected fan (question 4) to the right. Behind it is the motor that's connected to the extruder. The motor works but the extruder doesn't spin with it. The extruder has a little black hole on top.
This shows the extruder from the front. The inner layer spins, the outer layer doesn't (question 3)
These are some of the prints when the extruder was still working.
Nozzle and print bed (question 1) | Should I replace the nozzle with this one so that I know what nozzle I've got and so I'm sure this isn't a problem?
That is not really necessary. The exact nozzle size does not really matter.
Should I replace the filament with new 1.75 mm PLA? If so, why?
No, there's no reason to do that. Going from 3 mm to 1.75 mm filament usually requires replacing the entire extruder.
How do I fix the extruder?
Tighten the grub screw (the "black hole") with a hex key.
Is the unconnected fan important and if so: what do I do with it? There's no remaining wire to connect it to.
The fan appears to be cooling the stepper motor. This shouldn't really be necessary, the stepper should be fine without any additional cooling. People tend to "upgrade" their printers by adding unnecessary bells and whistles so it is possible the original owner added this fan just because they wanted to, and not because it is necessary.
How tight should the 4 screws that hold the filament between the extruder and the rolling disk be?
Tight enough that the extruder grips the filament and is able to extrude it consistently. If it is too tight it might deform the filament too much which could cause printing problems but it should be obvious if this is the case. There is a wide margin here so don't worry about this too much. |
Wanhao Duplicator 6 / Monoprice Maker Ultimate thread pitch or number of steps? Does anyone know the the thread pitch or number of steps for the Wanhao Duplicator 6 / Monoprice Maker Ultimate? | If you navigate to e.g. the Marlin printer firmware configuration file for the Wanhao Duplicator 6 you will find that the steps per mm are defined as:
/**
* Default Axis Steps Per Unit (steps/mm)
* Override with M92
* X, Y, Z, E0 [, E1[, E2...]]
*/
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT { 80.0395, 80.0395, 400.48, 99.1 }
Sidenote, somebody who posted this has diligently tried to tune their machine, this should read:
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT { 80., 80., 400., 100. }
From these values you can tune your own if needed.
Now we do the math with the following assumptions:
400 steps per mm,
standard 200 steps per revolution stepper motor (1.8°) and
assuming that your board uses 1/16 µ-steps
Dividing the physical stepper steps per revolution by the firmware steps per millimeter we can calculate how much the nut advanced in a single revolution, i.e. 200/(400/16) = 200/25 = 8 millimeter. The nut therefor advanced 8 mm per complete revolution of the stepper. This means you will most probably have Tr8x8(P2) lead screws.
Do note that there are online calculators that can help you out doing the math for you, e.g. this RepRap calculator page. |
Increasing hotend temperature to compensate for increased filament throughput It seems that when filament throughput is increased (by increasing movement speed or extrusion width/height), printing temperature also has to be increased to compensate, because the filament will have less time to spend in the melting zone. That much seems clear from practical experience. But I have two questions (or to be more precise, one question on two levels):
Is there a good rule of thumb for this, to help people calibrate their settings?
How much do we know about the formula governing this behavior? Can we calculate the required hotend temperature precisely based on the increased throughput?
For anyone who has studied physics / thermodynamics, this is probably simple stuff. But has the work been done for 3D printing specifically, in a way that is practically applicable?
I share the following train of thought to start off with. Let me know if I make any errors in reasoning.
Presumably, every material has an optimal printing temperature just above its melting point.
But the thermistor doesn't read filament temperature. It reads the heat block temperature.
Below a certain throughput, the temperature of the filament will have time to equalize with the temperature of the heat block before it leaves the nozzle.
For those slow speeds, heat block temperature should be set exactly to the material's optimal printing temperature.
For greater speeds, however, heat block temperature will always have to be higher than the mark, because the filament doesn't have time to equalize.
At that point, it becomes a balancing act. Find the best heat block temperature (°C) given a rate of throughput (mm³/s), the optimal printing temperature for a given material (°C), the volume of the melting zone (mm³) and < some other property of the material >, which determines how fast it heats up. I don't know what that last property is, nor can I come up with the proper unit. The material probably approaches the temperature of the environment asymptotically. This is where thermodynamics comes in, I guess.
Theoretically, running filament also cools down the heat block, but we can ignore this. If this effect is significant at all (is it?), this is already compensated for by the PID controller.
I'm almost certainly missing some key insights. I'm curious to know what work has been done. | I think I see what you're asking, but I think you may be thinking about it incorrectly. It's really all about heat being added to the system at the same rate that it's leaving. The heat block is there as a heat reservoir from which the filament draws heat for the glass transition. The heat in that reservoir is maintained by cycling the heating coil to add energy (more heat) to the systems as it's lost.
In the very local vicinity of the nozzle, the temperature will decrease slightly as it's being transferred to the filament, but because the heat block is massive in comparison to that drain, and because the heat block is a good thermal conductor that temperature reduction is very small.
I do not know what tolerance and hysteresis are built into the temp controller, but think the variation is likely small. The difference in additional heat required (more energy into the system) for any practical difference in feed rates (40 instead of 60) is thus likely to be very small compared to the filament cooling experienced immediately after it leaves the nozzle.
Bottom line: the adjustment you would want to make is not to increase the temp, but increase the duty cycle of the heating element to maintain the desired temperature. |
Why not use GT2 en lieu of a Z-axis threaded rod or leadscrew? Having just re-read Tom's excellent answer to my question Advantages of GT2 over a rack, as my comment ponders1:
Why is a threaded rod, or lead screw, used for the Z-axis movement in a Prusa (and its derivatives) given the inherent problems relating to backlash?
Indeed the majority of, if not all, delta printers generally use GT2 for the three vertical movements, presumably for this reason (of reduced backlash). Maybe cost and simplicity also play a part? I am purely speculating on these three reasons. The mass of the three vertical carriages and the associated carbon rods, would certainly seem to be a lot less than the mass of a cartesian X-axis gantry.
Is it purely for reason of the mass of the X-axis gantry (especially if the extruder is mounted upon it - in a non-Bowden solution) that mechanical rods are used, as GT2 would not be able to lift the weight, without stretching (both over time and flexing slight upon each movement)? If so, then surely wire reinforced GT2 could be used?
As a potential aside, would another consideration be to compare the inertia of a GT2 solution to that of a threaded rod, leadscrew solution2?
1 I have a nagging worry that I have already asked this somewhere else, but after having spent the best part of a day looking for it and failing, I am asking here.
2 Although I am not entirely sure how that would be measured/compared, as one solution (leadscrew) is rotational, with a translation to linearal via the screw thread, and the other (GT2) is (effectively) fully rotational? I am going to ask about this particular point on SE.Mechanical Engineering, and will update this question as necessary. | A lead screw can be fitted with a anti-backlash nut to get past your concern about backlash. Generally, backlash is not that of a problem considering the weight of the carriage (e.g. Prusa), or whole bed (e.g. CoreXY or Ultimaker). Certainly if you're not using Z-hop, the Z screw will only advance in a single direction!
GT2 belts are always reinforced with fibres either glass, steel or some other fibre, all with their own (dis)advantages.
As far as I have learned is that lead screws are far better capable of transporting higher loads at the cost of speed. Also, a leadscrew will have more resistance so that if you unpower the steppers, the gantry will not plummet to the bed. |
Which filaments actually do need to be stored in a drybox? As I started to learn about 3D printing, the gist I learned was "it's better to store the filaments in a drybox." As I rechecked these notes, they were to a good degree from an era when PLA was rather new to the market and ABS was the goTo.
Then I learned "PLA is not really hygroscopic and can be stored freely."1
Now, I know some materials are pretty hygroscopic, but not all. So, let's try to pin it down:
Which materials are hygroscopic enough to demand a drybox?
I know that it is good practice to store all filament in a somewhat dehumidified or airtight box, but there are some materials out there that become unprintable and need drying before printing if improperly stored. This question is to point out these "special storage mandatory" filaments only. If a material can't be printed without dry storage it belongs here. If it is a nice to have, it doesn't.
This is a Back It Up question: answers need to provide one of two:
explain personal experience, marked as such.
provide an authoritative source (scientific paper/videos, manufacturer papers, quote from an experienced maker).
1 - For some time (month?). I do store my PLA in a closed but unsealed IKEA container with all the desiccant bags I can find as it is clearly benefitial. | PVA
From experience I can tell that PVA filaments need to be stored with silica beads in a plastic bag or in a specific dry-box. PVA is soluble in water and is very hygroscopic. With moisture it gets soft and swells. My Ultimaker came with an open spool of PVA which popped when heated (steam bubbles popping) resulting in very poor quality supports and clogging of the nozzle. A newly bought spool which was properly packed did not have these issues.
Nylon
Some Nylon filament brands require to be stored dry or need to be dried before printing. I have a spool of Nylon that has taken up some moisture although carefully packed, the only time it was out is when it was being printed. This experience applies to Ultimaker Nylon; I've learned now that not all Nylon filaments are behaving the same, it is suggested to look-up the specifics from the manufacturer or from reviews prior to buying. |
I want to use my 2 extruders simultaneously I am using 2 extruders. Is it possible to use them both at the same time.
Now I can use one at a time but not both at the same time.
Is there a gcode that supports this action? | To print with 2 extruders simultaneously you need a firmware that supports that. Luckily, there is a firmware called Sailfish that is able to do that. The feature you are looking for is called Ditto printing.
Sailfish firmware is found here |
Ultimaker Original temperature sensor replacement? The title almost says it all.
I was searching on websites like amazon.com and ebay.com for a replacement of the temperature sensor of my Ultimaker 1, but could only find replacements for Ultimaker 2 (PT100), but I know those aren't compatible.
What specifications have replacement temperature sensors that work with the tc2 signal amplifier of the Ultimaker Original? | You need a thermocouple, not a thermistor. Also, as you say the Ultimaker Original+, and the Ultimaker 2, (which both use version 2.x.x boards) use a PT1001.
According to this post, on E3D Thermocouple mount on UMO+, a k-type thermocouple will do:
I am changing over to E3D V6 on my UMO, and have elected to used the k-type thermocouples sold by e3d with the standard/original UMO amplifier board.
Or to be more precise, from this post, on
THERMOCOUPLE SENSOR REPLACEMENT, it is a 3 mm k-type thermocouple:
I would ask the reseller to measure the thermocouple to be really 3mm. I never bough a thermocoupler so no idea. I know that some aliexpress sellers did sell me a pt100 with 3.05mm (it doesn't fit in) so is good idea to ask for a photo with a caliper before paying.
The thermocouple in question, on AliExpress was this, SWMAKER Thermoelement Typ K (TC) für Ultimaker Original 3D drucker 3mm K thermoelement typ für Ultimaker Original 3D drucker, ~$10
Or this, considerably more expensive at €33, Ultimaker Original - Thermocouple Sensor (out of stock):
With respect to the firmware, from this post, on E3D Thermocouple mount on UMO+
Normally you won't have any modifications to do cause your UMO already works with a thermocouple.
So, assuming that you have an AD595 amplifier and not a MAX6675, ensure that you have
#define TEMP_SENSOR_0 -1
set in Configuration.h
//===========================================================================
//=============================Thermal Settings ============================
//===========================================================================
//
//--NORMAL IS 4.7kohm PULLUP!-- 1kohm pullup can be used on hotend sensor, using correct resistor and table
//
//// Temperature sensor settings:
// -2 is thermocouple with MAX6675 (only for sensor 0)
// -1 is thermocouple with AD595
// 0 is not used
// 1 is 100k thermistor - best choice for EPCOS 100k (4.7k pullup)
// 2 is 200k thermistor - ATC Semitec 204GT-2 (4.7k pullup)
// 3 is Mendel-parts thermistor (4.7k pullup)
// 4 is 10k thermistor !! do not use it for a hotend. It gives bad resolution at high temp. !!
// 5 is 100K thermistor - ATC Semitec 104GT-2 (Used in ParCan & J-Head) (4.7k pullup)
// 6 is 100k EPCOS - Not as accurate as table 1 (created using a fluke thermocouple) (4.7k pullup)
// 7 is 100k Honeywell thermistor 135-104LAG-J01 (4.7k pullup)
// 71 is 100k Honeywell thermistor 135-104LAF-J01 (4.7k pullup)
// 8 is 100k 0603 SMD Vishay NTCS0603E3104FXT (4.7k pullup)
// 9 is 100k GE Sensing AL03006-58.2K-97-G1 (4.7k pullup)
// 10 is 100k RS thermistor 198-961 (4.7k pullup)
// 11 is 100k beta 3950 1% thermistor (4.7k pullup)
// 12 is 100k 0603 SMD Vishay NTCS0603E3104FXT (4.7k pullup) (calibrated for Makibox hot bed)
// 13 is 100k Hisens 3950 1% up to 300°C for hotend "Simple ONE " & "Hotend "All In ONE"
// 20 is the PT100 circuit found in the Ultimainboard V2.x
// 60 is 100k Maker's Tool Works Kapton Bed Thermistor beta=3950
//
// 1k ohm pullup tables - This is not normal, you would have to have changed out your 4.7k for 1k
// (but gives greater accuracy and more stable PID)
// 51 is 100k thermistor - EPCOS (1k pullup)
// 52 is 200k thermistor - ATC Semitec 204GT-2 (1k pullup)
// 55 is 100k thermistor - ATC Semitec 104GT-2 (Used in ParCan & J-Head) (1k pullup)
//
// 1047 is Pt1000 with 4k7 pullup
// 1010 is Pt1000 with 1k pullup (non standard)
// 147 is Pt100 with 4k7 pullup
// 110 is Pt100 with 1k pullup (non standard)
#define TEMP_SENSOR_0 -1
However, according to
Questions about thermocouple and thermistor, the UMO board is 1.5.7, and can use NTC100K thermistors and (maybe - but it isn't clear) a 4.7K pullup resistor:
Firstly we have to do the Challenge with a Sainsmart UM Kit with that UM 1.5.7 Board.
We also have bought the print heads by E3D model V6 which have including ntc 100k thermistors which have already tables in marlin. As the V1.5.7. Board works with thermocouple, there was the question how to connect this. I got already an answere to just connect Signal and GND, to the board but I'd have to look for the resistors behind the connectors. Is it true, that I need a different resistor for each type of thermistor?
However, it is probably advisable to stick with the 3 mm k-type thermocouple, for simplicity's sake.
Footnote
1 Apparently for these reasons, from this post, on
THERMOCOUPLE SENSOR REPLACEMENT:
The UMO has the 'old' UltiBoard 1.5x which is a shield for an Arduino Mega, with the Pololu / Allegro stepper drivers plugged on it (Like the RAMPS controllers).
At that time RTDs where not very popular, and most printers came with thermistors. To improve the temperature feedback loop Ultimaker decided to use a thermocouple with an amplifier on top of the print head, which gives better results in particular at higher temperatures.
If you want to use a thermsitor instead of the thermcopule, you just have to swap the connections, and add a resistor on the board (the place for the resistor is foreseen on the board).
You can even go for an RTD using E3D's adapter plate.
The UMO+ is using the UltiBoard 2.x which is the same as in the Ultimaker 2, so it is PT100...
Note: RTD = Resistance Temperature Detector (such as a Pt100). A thermistor is similar to an RTD, but contains a ceramic or polymer resistor en lieu of metal. |
Marlin "Tune->Bed Z" vs "Tune->Babystep Z" vs Z Offset? What is the difference between:
Tune -> Bed Z
Tune -> Babystep Z
Control -> Motion -> Z Offset
And when are you supposed to use "Bed Z"? | Tune -> Bed Z
http://marlinfw.org/docs/features/lcd_menu.html#tune
Per description in this table, this refers to the Mesh Bed Leveling process. It allows to modify all saved mesh z-offsets by the given amount.
Tune -> Babystep Z
http://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M290.html
This just instructs the motor to move the given amount, once, without changing any parameters.
Control -> Motion -> Z Offset
http://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M851.html
Here we are talking about the offset of a z probe (e.g. BL-Touch) from the nozzle. |
Anet A8 & BLTouch not homing Z I have an Anet A8 with Marlin Firmware 1.1.9 and I installed a BLTouch sensor. When I start the system the BLTouch does its self test (extend and retract the probe twice) and then lights up red. When I "Auto Home", it homes X, then Y and then extends and retracts the probe and moves up a few millimeters. Then with the probe retracted it moves down until the nozzle crashes into the table. The same happens when I select "Level bed".
Safe Homing is active.
What am I doing wrong?
My current Configuration.h can be found here. | You must invert the logic of the endstop Z_min.
define Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_INVERTING true
To
define Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_INVERTING False |
Is the Prometheus system compatible with Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus? I'm trying to figure out whether the Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus can easily be extended to print with two separate filaments using the Prometheus System by DisTech Automation using a single hotend (NOT with two separate hot ends/nozzles).
According to DisTech, the Prometheus System is compatible with 3D printers that support the following:
Dual extruder stepper motors on the controller board
CURA slicer engine (Simplify3D support is in development)
Marlin/Repetier based firmware (this includes almost all desktop 3D printers)
As I'm not an expert on 3D printing and don't own the Duplicator yet (making up purchase decision right now), I'd appreciate if you could help me with your past experience with Duplicator and/or Prometheus. | The Prometheus system is pretty much a Y-coupler and two extruders. So, you need your Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus to have the connection points for two extruders and the axis, which means you need one free, 4 wire connection slot from a stepper driver. So, let's look what kind of board is in there...
This Melzi Hypbrid is the mainboard the Duplicator uses, similar to a lot of other Melzi derivates (itself as it seems a Sanguino Derivate). The green 4-pin terminal is the extruder. There is only one of these. So it is not useable with Prometheus. You would need to get a mainboard that is able to run dual extruders. |
X and Y homing issues I get an error: printer halted. (kill() called! Any time I home my machine's X or Y axis. I have just installed a 3D touch auto bed level sensor, ironically it works fine. I was using Sprinter firmware but it doesn't support auto bed level, so thus I'm using Marlin. I am using the latest version of Marlin and it gave me nothing but issues, printer wouldn't move or home at all. I used the latest Marlin 1.1.x bug fix edition (1.1.9) and now everything is working correctly except X and Y homing, the machine throws the error: printer halted. (kill() called! on Repetier-Host.
When I use the M119 command all endstops (optical, not mechanical) show as open unless triggered, the endstops are working correctly. When I home the X and or Y it will do as it should and stop when it hits the endstop but that is when the errors pop up and the printer freezes/no longer to gives commands without disconnecting and reconnecting to the printer again.
If I home my Z axis it will deploy the probe and come down and touch the bed 2x and no error code and I can still manually move the printer around with the program movements after homing Z axis. I'm not sure what would cause this to happen only on X and Y but any help would be appreciated.
I use Repetier-Host but I downloaded Printrun just to see what would happen and it shows the exact same effect/errors. I also tried the Marlin bugfix 2.0 and it gave the same errors too. | Without the images of how you connected the endstops, the best guess for your problem is that the endstops cause a short circuit, once pressed, the microprocessor trips and shuts down. If you provide more information, other people may even add better answers based on your added information.
E.g. how is everything connected at both sides of the cable (board and endstop), does the message occur when you press an endstop, maybe it is even wise to add a link to your configuration files. |
What can I do to remove the rounded corners using Junction Deviation? I recently upgraded my Creality Ender 5 with an SKR Mini E3 V2.0 running Marlin 2.0.7.2. The printer has also been modified with an all-metal hotend and a direct drive conversion kit that uses the extruder stepper motor. In test prints of the XYZ calibration cube, I have found that the edges of the cube are rounded over. After some research, it appears this is due to either the acceleration/jerk settings or the junction deviation settings.
The issue now comes in that no matter what setting I change, the prints do not change. Currently in the Marlin firmware, I found that the Classic Jerk is disabled in Configuration.h line ~786. The default JUNCTION_DEVIATION_MM is 0.013. Since Classic Jerk is disabled, Junction Deviation shows up in the menu under Menu --> Configuration --> Advanced Settings. I printed 4 cubes for 4 different Junction Deviation settings: 0.013, 0.075, 0.130, 0.300. All cubes have the same characteristic over-corrected corner with no visible changes (Picture below)
My questions are:
Why aren't the prints being affected by changing the Junction Deviation setting via the menu? The Junction Deviation setting is stored in memory using Menu --> Configuration --> Store Settings and I have confirmed the values remain in memory after cycling the printer.
If Classic Jerk is disabled in Marlin firmware, would an M205 X[Jerk] Y[Jerk] Z[Jerk] command before a print enable Classic Jerk for that print?
What happens if an M205 command is sent that sets XYZ as well as J? (e.g. M205 X[Jerk] Y[Jerk] Z[Jerk] J[Dev]). Would it ignore Classic Jerk values if Classic Jerk is disabled in firmware?
I have read through the following posts already
Setting Junction Deviation in firmware has no effect
https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,739819
https://blog.kyneticcnc.com/2018/10/computing-junction-deviation-for-marlin.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/dx8bd/here_is_why_you_should_disable_junction_deviation/
My next steps:
Re-enable Classic Jerk in Marlin and see if the print behavior changes
Other? | Contrary to what's implied by its name, junction deviation does not produce rounded corners. It merely allows violations of the acceleration profile at corners that would be allowed if the corner were rounded by the deviation. So you should not expect changes to it to create or eliminate unwanted "rounded corners".
However I don't think what you're seeing are rounded corners. They're bulging corners, likely produced as a consequence of the toolhead moving slower just before and after the corner in order to honor the acceleration profile. My guess is that your acceleration limits in Marlin 2.0 (500 mm/s² if I recall correctly) are a lot lower than on the original Creality firmware.
You can and probably should increase the acceleration limits. The machine should handle 1000 mm/s² easily and up to 3000 mm/s² or even higher with some ringing; I use lower acceleration for the outer walls and let it run wild for inner walls and infill. But the real solution to your bulging corners problem is to enable and calibrate Linear Advance to get a consistent extrusion rate with varing speed. For my Ender 3, the right constant is around 0.5-0.6 s (yes the units are seconds - it's mm/(mm/s)) for PLA. You can use the calibration pattern generator to run the calibration yourself, but I would expect the same results.
This will significantly impact your print speed, since Marlin applies E-axis speed, acceleration, and jerk limits to the advance offsets. You can get a lot of it back though by increasing those limits though; the defaults are a whole lot lower than what the machine can handle. 200 mm/s speed limit and 10000-15000 mm/s² acceleration limit (vs 25 and 5000 defaults in Marlin, respectively) are within reason. |
Using dollar-store picture glass for print bed on top of original heated aluminum bed? I'm having a really hard time printing on my aluminum heated bed... Cleaning it just results in it being scratched (trying to scrape dried hairspray/glue/etc off) and I don't think it is particularly flat either.
I was thinking of stopping by the dollar store on my way home and getting several picture frames and using the glass from them as interchangeable glass beds - this would also make it easier to take them off the printer to clean without needing to re-level the bed every time as the aluminum base would stay-put.
Do you guys think the quality of it would be okay to print on? (withstand the heat, be flat enough, etc) I'm planning to coat it in purple-glue-stick as I have heard that works well for adhesion purposes.
For reference: Printing PLA, Prusia i3 printer. | Picture frame glass (generally float glass) will work well enough, but count on it eventually cracking/getting chipped. It's always very flat (due to the way the production process works).
Taking it up to 100-110C for printing ABS should not be a problem, but you'll want to avoid sharp changes in temperature, and should be careful that your prints don't adhere too well: I've had PLA/PETG prints take out pieces of glass with them due to the force required to remove them from the build plate. You might want to try without any (or very little) adhesive first, and make sure your nozzle isn't too close to the build plate. |
Printing .stl file using ObJetPro 3D Printer I am trying to 3D print some shells for a project, and would like them to be about 5 cm long.
I created the shells in Blender and converted them to .stl files which the printer requires, but it tries to print them as 0.02 mm long. I am not printing them myself, so I have to rescale the files without access to the actual printer. I have tried scaling the object both in Blender, and when exporting them to .stl files, but can't figure out how to tell what size the printer will interpret the shells as.
Is there a way to make sure I have the objects scaled properly before printing them? | the best way is to install slicer on your pc and open the .stl file.
Most slicers will tell you the size of an object and there is an option to rescale resize.
Using Slic3r you will have object details in the corner
Using CURA you will have a detailed view in scale mode
Also you can use online services CLICK |
How to level bed after applying glue stick for bed adhesion I'm pretty new to printing PETG, and my Creality Ender 3 now has a glass print bed. I've done some research, and it looks like a pretty bad idea to try and print PETG on a pure glass surface for fear of the print pulling chinks of glass along with it.
So, I've looked into various bed adhesion options. I've already used blue tape, but I'll need to purchase some wide stuff, and in the meantime, I want to investigate using PVA-based glue stick. However, one question does come to mind: how can I set the bed-nozzle distance after applying the glue stick layer?
Do I even need to? Will the extruded plastic just crush it into the build plate without a problem, saving me the trouble of lowering the build plate? My normal method of sliding a paper sheet under the nozzle at Z = 0 mm would take the glue stick layer along with it if I tried that. | How much glue do you put on it? I use PVA based spray, barely visible, very evenly spread and no problem whatsoever of sticking paper to the glue layer.
Just level the bed as you normally would and apply a sparsely coat of glue, preferably from a spray can.
Having printed literally kilometers of PETG on various build platforms (various glass sheets with or without PVA based glue, Aluminium and PEI), chipping of glass is not something I have seen happening. Perhaps is very low quality glass is used, chipping may occur. Whether your glass is of decent quality can be tested, just print on one side, and if it chips you always have the other side. Printing on PEI with PETG is another chapter, PETG just fuses to PEI and is very difficult to remove, a PVA based glue helps, but still prints were very hard to remove.
Invest in a can of build plate adhesion spray, it lasts long, never gives you problems with adhesion and probably is even cheaper than glue sticks (per mass unit). |
Scanning 3D with a Kinect v2 on AMD Ryzen 7? My processor is running at 4.70 GHz and has 8 cores. I also have 32GB RAM. I have a USB 3.0 and a USB 3.1 xHCI hub, and Nvidia 1700 graphics card.
Can I use the Kinect v2 and the adapter to scan rooms, and objects, quickly, without trouble with the USB? | In short with the hardware you have it should be no problem. In actuality your specific setup, how you move the scanner, how stable is the scanner, what software you are using, and how you've calibrated the kinect will most likely have the largest impact on the quality, and speed in which you can scan. |
Can photopolymer resin colors be mixed? Can different resin colors be mixed to generate new colors? I use eSun water washable resins, but I am happy to switch if this is a different vendor's capability. | Yes and No at the same time
First of all, yes, you can mix resins. However, you should only mix resins that are of the same makeup, as in one brand and type. Why? because different types of resin have different compositions and different polymerization types. Mixing different types can result in unpredictable behavior, and not working at all!
To test, use a tiny amount of your brand and type matched resins and apply to the vat, then print something really tiny, like just 2 or 3 layers of a 20x20x20 mm cube. |
Anet A8 Marlin BLtouch moves up instead of down during homing I have a previously working Anet A8 that I just flashed to Marlin 1.1.9 (bugfix) and installed a real BLtouch sensor. I followed setup instructions and believe my wiring is correct. When I try to do a G28, the extruder moves to the front left corner properly, then moved to center the BLtouch over the bed. Then, it moves up instead of down, the BLtouch drops the probe, the extruder moves up again, the BLtouch drops the probe again and the extruder moves up again until the carriage is near the top. Using Pronterface I can move the carriage back down, but have to use M211 S0 to let me get it close to the table. X, Y and Z move properly in Pronterface. I have changed the relevant settings in Marlin and recompiled with no success. The BLtouch does it's self test correctly and I can control the probe with commands. | SOLVED -- The problem turned out to be that the BLtouch was set up for 3.3 V and my Anet board is 5 V. The docs were not clear on what the BL defaulted to and I mistakenly thought 5 V. After I did a M280 P0 S140 command, the carriage would home properly with G28. Why it was going up instead of down was a Red Herring. I changed the settings in configuration_adv.h to force 5 V and did the EEPROM one time write. Now the A8 works correctly. Thank you for your help Oscar. |
Anet board - MOSFET replacement? To learn about printing, and to print the parts for a printer of my own design later on, I've ordered an Anet A8.
I just saw this video, Anet A8 3D printer Review. all you need to know. This guy recommends using an external MOSFET. I was wondering if using a relay instead would also make it safe? | There are two areas of this design which seem to pose a risk of connectors overheating, the hot end and the heated bed. The heated bed runs at about 6 amps, 12 Volts. The hot end runs at a lower current, but can itself overheat if the thermistor stops providing feedback.
The problem in this design with the heated bed is mainly the connectors - they work OK when they are good, but can easily come a bit loose. This has two side effects. The bed heats less well, and the connector itself heats instead. Replacing the 2mm plug connector, and 2mm molex with direct soldered connections will help (the on-board mosfet seems OK with the current, unless you increase the power rail voltage).
A mosfet is a good solution for high current switching, the modules available have good screw terminals which should be OK for maybe 25A (well in excess of what you need). Mosfets are efficient when switched fully on, so there won't be much heating.
You would also use a relay (rated for at least 10A), but this will be noisy since the heater is switched repeatedly to maintain the target temperature. A relay also takes more power itself and will ear out if repeatedly switched under load.
Bottom line, if you have a good relay already, it is OK as a temporary (safe) solution. Longer-term a mosfet is better. Pay attention to the connectors at power supply, board (in and out) and heated bed. Using an additional mosfet for the hotend is maybe overkill. |
Lines of PLA not sticking to the bed When I am printing objects that have a lot of surface area on the first layer parts of that layer will rise up causing there to be gaps in the first layer. Here are two pictures. The first one was printing with a raft and the second one was without a raft. I am printing on 3M Painters tape, extruder temperature at 200, bed temperature at 60. I am using Hatchbox PLA Filiment. | You got a few things happening. First that temp seems low. I am printing PLA at 215.. but there are a lot of factors. Start with a simple calibration thin wall test. Which is just a wall, no body.
From there your bed could be closer. Maybe. I don't think that's really the issue. Slower speed and heat will make more of a difference. That said. I take a piece of paper and calibrate it so there just a little, but not too much, friction.
Make sure you are printing at 30% speed for first layer.
Last use a glue stick. |
Filament Guides Drag Backstory
I've had issues in the past with my drive gear "eating" my filament. It seemed that the filament quit extruding for one reason or another and the drive gear would slowly eat away at the side of the filament.
I eventually assumed it was the plastic filament guides causing unnecessary tension that the drive gear couldn't compete with, ultimately keeping the filament from moving forward. Thusly, allowing the drive gear to continue "trying".
My solution was to hang my spools above the machine to avoid using the filament guides feeding from the back of the machine up through the top.
Question
Can the plastic filament guides really cause that much drag? What other variables can I expect to look out for?
Machine: MakerBot Replicator Dual (1st Generation) | For an easy test, try manually pulling the filament through the U-loop of guide tube. How hard is it to pull through? It should only take 1-2 lbs of tension at most.
Then do a "tug test" on the extruder. Start it loading and grab the filament by hand to try to stop it from extruding. The Replicator 1/2/2x extruder style can typically pull ~8-10 lbs of tension and it should be fairly difficult to stop the filament. When you do stop the filament, you should hear clicking/thumping from the stepper stalling, NOT quiet grinding as the drive gear chews through the filament. If the grip slips rather than stalls, your extruder hardware needs to be tuned or replaced.
There are three common causes of excessive feed tube drag:
Use of polyethylene tubing instead of PTFE -- this makes a shockingly large difference in drag friction. You can use a heat gun or torch (outside!!) to tell the difference between PE and PTFE. PE will soften quickly and then melt fairly easily, whereas PTFE will simply go clear and eventually char without melting. Nylon is also sometimes used for feed tubes with acceptable results, but if you have any suspicion about the tube material, just buy new PTFE tubes from a reputable vendor like McMaster.
Too many loops/curves in the tube. Total drag friction is an exponential function of the total amount of curvature in the tube. You should have one good U-loop, no spirals or floppy zig-zags.
Excessive friction on the spool rotation. Any spool back-tension gets greatly magnified through the feed tube per the capstan equation. This can be caused by a bad spool holder, or if the filament is knotted on the spool due to letting the end of the spool loose during handling. |
Long Print with Lotmaxx SC-10 I am trying to print something that might take 15 hours. I don't want to risk my printer so if I print for 15 hours, what is the worst that can happen? So far, I haven't printed anything for more than 5 hours. | I've printed jobs taking as long as 50 hours over a weekend using a German Reprap x400.
Used a large enough UPS to support the printer and the computer.
Printed the gcode file from a USB card instead of the computer, so that a computer update or reboot doesn't interfere with the print. [If you can't print from media independent of the computer, you can disconnect your computer from the network and/or internet.]
Overnight prints still fail sometimes, probably from power issues the UPS doesn't filter out. Often this means the filament material melts all over the hot end instead of sticking to the print on the bed and leaves a mess to clean up.
Other than that, I'm not sure of the risk for your particular printer model. |
How to combine difference with concatinate object The following creates an object with two slots:
translate([-40,-40,0]) difference() {
cube ([90,28,12]);
translate([12,-.01,5]) cube([12.7,28.02,14.02]);
translate([65,-.01,5]) cube([12.7,28.02,14.02]);
How can the first main cube be extended to be a complex object of the syntax:
cube([60,20,10],center=true);translate([0,0,5])cube([30,20,10],center=true);
and then use difference to create holes? | The union syntax addresses this:
translate([-40,-40,0])
difference() {
union() {
cube ([90,28,12]);
translate([20,0,20])
cube([12,12,12]);
}
translate([12,-.01,5])
cube([12.7,28.02,14.02]);
translate([65,-.01,5])
cube([12.7,28.02,14.02]);
}
It supports creating an object before the difference syntax is applied. |
Why does my Ender 5 Pro bed stops heating 10 °C below the set point After a long battle with SKR Mini v2, TFT35 and BLTouch and creating the right firmware. I thought I was through it all and ready to start printing again after finally being able to set the Z offset and auto level the bed. My printer has other thoughts. Now my bed temperature will only heat up to 10 °C below the set point temperature and after a few minutes it starts beeping and says this on the screen "Heating Failed: Bed Printer Halted, Please Reset". As an example, set it to 60 °C, it will get up to 50 °C normally and stop at 50 °C.
Anyone gone through this? I'm sure there is some setting in the firmware that I have missed up. I'm hoping someone can educate me on my mistake. | Searching the error message "Heating Failed: Bed Printer Halted, Please Reset" seems to indicate that the bed heater is timing out from not reaching temperature.
If you measure the voltage applied to the bed heater before the error message, does the voltage stay at Max.; i.e. 12V for a 12V bed heater? Or, does the voltage stay constant?
If you raise the target bed temperature, does is still error out at stop at 50 °C?
Since you only indicate changing firmware, we would assume the bed heater is the same as when previously working. Is this true?
Is the resistance of the bed heater a few ohms and not megaohms? |
How to prepare bed for printing ABS filament? I have never used ABS filament before, so my question is, how do I prepare my glass build plate for printing ABS filament?
My second question, is, after you have prepared it, and have finished printing, can you 3d print with other plastics, such as PLA after? | ABS can be a problem to print, but there are generally a couple well established methods to prepare your glass bed, which might be combined for best results:
Heated bed. A heated bed is almost a must for ABS and would be set to about 75 to 90 °C for most printers. Often this can suffice on its own, but keep the bed running for the whole print!
ABS-Slurry. One of the best functioning adhesive helpers is ABS-Slurry, which is made by mixing a little acetone with as much ABS filament as it will solve, then applying a thin layer of this compound to the glass bed right before the print. It will stink a lot, but it most certainly will offer one of the best adhesions you can get and might even prevent Warping due to the stronger bond to the bed.
Rafts. You might want to add a raft of at least 2 layers under the print. The Raft can be removed in the end, but it increases the surface area and can often help to reduce the chance of warping.
Now comes the good part: you just need to remove all the ABS residue and the bed is ready for the next preparation for any other material. This can be done with a scraper blade quite easily, maybe some Acetone and then alcohol if there are some really nasty bits. |
CTC Formaker Air Printing I have a CTC Formaker 4 in 1 3D Printer. It has worked great for a long while but now it is messing up. It will print fine for awhile and then the filament will stop coming out but the printer keeps moving like it thinks it is still printing. If I clear the print job and start over, it again prints fine at first but then I get the same end results. Please help me fix this problem. I have not been able to find a solution on Google. Also I am using the latest version of MatterControl. | This sounds like a clogged nozzle. Try driving the filament into the hot end manually to verify that the plastic is flowing correctly. If there is a clog or other impediment in the nozzle, the filament will become curly as it is exiting the nozzle. A clear nozzle will always result in the filament extruding as one straight piece. |
Poor adhesion only for first couple of inches I have a QIDI Tech 1. It has a heated bed, and a cooling fan attachment. Whenever I print without a raft, the first inch or two of material laid down does not adhere to the bed, but the rest of the first layer is flawless.
I have tried speeding up and slowing down the first layer walls, but the problem remains. It also seemed to get a little worse when slower. I also tried not turning on the cooling fan for a bit to see if maybe the material was cooling too quickly, but that had zero effect on it.
I'd like to avoid using tape and other methods since the rest of the print is perfect, and the bed already has a material on it to aid adhesion.
What else can I try to prevent the dragging for the start of the print? | I'd recommend using the "skirt" function if you're not already.
The idea is to print a few perimeter layers around where your part will be, but not actually touching your part.
Most slicers support this and you can choose how much skirt you want to print. This addresses the issue you mention, and it purges old filament that has spent too much time in the nozzle. As an added bonus, it gives you a good indication that your print location, print height, and first layer adhesion are all good. |
TEVO Tarantula under extrusion I've built and done some simple tests on a TEVO Tarantula but I've noticed some pretty dramatic under extrusions.
My equipment:
TEVO Tarantula;
Jim Brown's easy config fork of Marlin;
Titan extruder (came with printer).
I've updated the firmware with the 400 steps as advised and calibrated the extrusion with the 100 mm method:
When I run the calibration with the Titan extruder, only the 400 steps is fine and works as expected;
When I connect the Bowden tube to the hotend and calibrate (at 200, 225 and 250°C), I see only ~50 mm of extrusion.
I've disassemble the hot end, changed filament and I can't see any signs of blockage. The Bowden tube in the hotend is not showing any signs of melting etc. and it is pushed all the way down to the hotend, as per the instructions.
So, what's going with this? | Summarizing for correct understanding: you measured 100 mm without the hotend heated and attached and about 50mm attached and at temperature but not hearing any clicks using a pretty long Bowden tube?
Bowden setups require a little more torque to push the filament all the way to the hotend. I've experienced this with my own 2.85 mm setup when I converted a 1.75 mm BullDog extruder to accept 2.85 mm filament. Your problem is most probably caused by filament not being gripped by the extruder gear and causing slipping on the filament (this does not necessarily mean that you hear clicking!). The Titan is a geared extruder so you should get more torque than a direct setup; this is exactly why you don't hear clicking, the gear turns but does not move the filament. Please inspect your filament after the extruder by removing the Bowden tube; ideally this should show you a regular pattern of the extruder gear.
What you can do to prevent this is to put more pressure on the filament by adjusting the pressure of the spring. In my setup I use some screws to get the spring out of the equation and clamp it directly only tightening the screws by hand (when switching filament I need to unscrew these).
You should also PID tune your hotend to be sure that the heater is optimally tuned to keep the hotend at a certain temperature level. |
How does an H-bot printer work? I’m thinking of building a diy H-bot printer but I have some questions...
How can I tell the firmware that the printer is an H-bot one? I just need to uncomment the CoreXY option? Is it the same?
Does the print bed need to be square (for example 300x300) or it can be also a rectangle?
Are the steps/mm the same of the ones on a Cartesian 3D printer?
How can I recognize which motor goes on which connector on the motherboard? (The X and Y connectors I mean). | The CoreXY kinematics can be seen as an evolution of the H-bot kinematics. In Marlin, you both need to configure the printer as a CoreXY machine. Note that your steps are determined by the pulleys in the steppers and need to be the same for the steppers. With testing you will find out if you have the correct value.
There are many popular designs out there; e.g. the Hypercube and the Hypercube Evolution (I have built the latter myself).
I would not recommend building an H-bot, these have an inherent design flaw in that the load is asymmetrical causing the carriage to be stressed by a torque causing racking. To minimize this racking, you would require more expensive tight tolerance hardware like proper linear rails (usually not the kind that you find on typical auction or Asian vending sites, but actual pricy Japanese or German hardware). The CoreXY kinematics stress the carriage symmetrically. Note that the difference between an H-bot and a CoreXY printer is only the length of the belts, nowadays good quality belts can be bought for any length you need.
Note that a square or rectangular bed is a non-issue, just specify the dimensions in the configuration. The only thing you need to find out is how to wire the steppers. I connect one stepper to one driver and the other stepper to the other driver. I then did some tests and found out I had to flip one stepper motors connector to get the correct movement. I could have reversed this in firmware as well. |
Why is it conventional to set line width > nozzle diameter? I recently became curious about the Line Width setting in Cura and why one might change it if they aren't using different size nozzle.
Since I've gotten my Ender 3, I've always kept the line width equal to my nozzle size (0.4 mm). I've looked around a bit, and it seems like most people actually set their line widths to be higher, depending upon who you ask anywhere from 120 - 150 % nozzle diameter.
Why is this? They mention that it helps with print adhesion, but why? Shouldn't a 0.4 mm nozzle create a line of plastic 0.4 mm wide, necessitating a line spacing of 0.4 mm? | There are several things at play that can make a wider line nice to have:
First layer adhesion
Due to some filaments having serious struggle to get the first line or layer stuck to the bed, it can be an easy fix to just increase the line width, generating a bigger Adhesive Force $F_a\propto A(l,w)$, where A is the area covered by the line, and thus simply $A=l*w$ with length l and width w of the line. So, a wider line means better initial adhesion and can lead to less failed prints in layer 1.
Plastic Goo
Plastics under heat behave in certain ways: they turn into a gooey substance that expands. This is also the reason why prints shrink a little as they cool. Now, if we press the plastic onto the bed with more force (as we force more plastic through than before to go from 0.4 mm to 0.5 mm) for the first time, we have a roughly flat area. The extra filament will make a wider line. The slicher can account for that, and does.
Now, next layer up: Where does the extra material go now? Plastic goo has one property that is very interesting: it tries to shrink its surface as much as possible. Heat a short piece with an airgun and it gets a little beady. But on the other hand, it comes hot enough from the nozzle to melt a tiny surface area of the already built layers, which is how layer bonding works in the first place. But our goopy plastic finds the layer below not exactly flat like the first layer found its lower surface, it finds a shape of ridges and valley. Taking into account that it wants to have the least surface to non-plastic (=air) and slightly cross bonds with the print, it will fill these nooks and crevices inside the print a tiny little better, as the increased force we use to push it out also increased the speed at which it expands to them: we reduce the time a tiny bit to reach there. How does it matter?
Well, heat transfer bases, roughly speaking, on a formula like this: $Q = mc\Delta T$ Q is the thermal energy of the object, m the mass of the object, c its specific heat capacity and T the temperature, ΔT the temperature change. But we don't have a homogenous object, we got pretty much a heat distribution with touching zones of different heat. The actual formula for the heat transfer inside the object is a long mess containing stuff like the gradient $\text{grad}T$, thermal conductivities, and integrals, but what matters is the result: The faster-expanding line of filament loses a little less thermal energy to its surroundings than the less forceful extruded line, which can increase the bonding between the two as the temperature on several fronts:
it enters the crevices further before reverting from goo to solid, leading to better adhesion for more surface.
it contains more thermal energy that can and will get transmitted to the layer below and has a bigger surface area, so it can increase the zone thickness that gets remelted a tiny bit, increasing the layer bonding strength a little.
This can result in a problem though: if you don't give the printed lines enough time to cool, it can lead to the material to accumulate heat more and more, leading to the whole thing to melt and turn into goop. An easy fix to this side problem is minimum layer time. But that would be only tangential to the original question, so look for example at the question here or the video the thermal picture above is taken from here. |
Seemingly random lines on the surface I'm getting seemingly random lines scattered across the top surface of my prints:
Printer: Anycubic i3 mega
Slicer: Cura 3.2.1
Printer chosen in Cura: Prusa i3, Gcode flavor changed to RepRap
Cura Profile: Fine, "Outer before inner walls" enabled
What might be the reason? | This is the result of travel moves passing through/over the top surface. The combing setting can prevent this type of move (for walls, infill or top), and z-hop can avoid making any mark during these travels.
Both settings will affect speed. Z-hop will be active on every layer, for example. |
PLA bubbling in the first layer of a print I am using a Prusa i3 printer and just recently I have been having problems with the first layer. Here is a picture of what it looks like.
I have tried levelling the bed and it seems to be level. I was using a glue stick before but it started bubbling on that, so I switched to tape and that worked once but it is not working now. I wiped the tape with rubbing alcohol and it happened again.
What else can I do to get the first layer right? | Oh wow. You are way over cooking your PLA. It is bubbling because it is BOILING. I can tell you have it too hot because the lines are all blurred as if they are liquid and pooled together.
That said I can't give you details because you didn't post settings. I would start by turning the temps to 170 °C for hotend and 60 °C for plate. Also the gluestick it self should never bubble. It is unclear if that is an issue.. |
Post processing FDM for strength I'm looking for a post processing method for increasing the functional strength of a 3d printed part originally made by FDM. I've tried printing my part with solid infill but the layer separation is still the primary failure point. I'm looking for a way to get something closer to a cast or injection molded part. Obviously less strength but there is a pretty big gap in material properties.
The only method I've thought of that might work is drilling a small hole, or series of holes in my part to inject an epoxy into the part. Haven't tried it.
I'm open to any possible ideas or advice if someone has tried something like this. Not sure if this is necessarily the best place but thought it's a good place to start. | Recognizing that the posting party feels that FDM constructed parts are of insufficient strength for his purpose and allowing for proper layer bonding, one can understand that the model can be perfectly constructed and not reach the strength objective.
Filling a model with an epoxy or a casting resin will provide additional strength. Testing smaller, non-critical models is recommended to determine the level of increase. The design has to be re-engineered to provide for resin/epoxy flow within the model. Some epoxy and resin formulations generate heat when curing and may soften the model. The solution in such cases is to mix and pour small amounts, allowing for a pause between pours.
An alternative to filling a model is to reduce the perimeter (if applicable) and apply a reinforcing layer. I've constructed satisfactorily printed models with insufficient strength for my purposes, but then applied fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin to the outside. A single layer provided the necessary strength in my case.
One could apply sufficient layers to provide all the necessary strength, effectively turning the model into a positive mold. This is commonly done with amateur-built aircraft of the Burt Rutan design style. More recently, an article appeared on the internet of a model being printed with wash-away support material only, covered in carbon fiber. The wash-away was washed away and the wing structure became the product. For your application, it may not be necessary or practical to remove the inner model.
Just as with the injection concept, one must re-engineer the model to allow for this type of reinforcement. Edges will have to be radiused or the sharp termination of reinforcement layer will become a weak point. Tight inside angles will have a similar problem.
Fiberglass cloth comes in various weights, measured in ounces per square foot (US). The lighter cloth is more capable of "turning corners" and fitting into tight angles. |
Does this microstepping test result indicate need for TL smoothers? Note: The "TL smoothers" referred to in the question title are an arrangement of 8 diodes that presumably both provide a voltage drop to address the minimum current output issue of some stepper drivers described in How Accurate Is Microstepping Really, and provide flyback protection and protection of the driver from currents induced by moving the motor in the unpowered state.
Now, on to the question:
I put together a simple test part to test Y (or X) axis microstepping accuracy:
Every 1mm in the Z direction, the face steps inward 1/80 mm (corresponding to my printer's [micro]steps per mm setting) in the Y direction and 1 mm in the X direction (to clearly show where the steps happen).
Here are the results (two runs, near-identical output):
Several of the steps are missing entirely, and it's the middle vertical surface, rather than the side two stepped-vertical surfaces, that shows a step-like texture.
Note that layers have been printed counter-clockwise, but the design with steps on both sides is to try to reduce the impact of print orientation so as not to depend on what the slicer decides to do. Print speed was 30 mm/s for outer walls, with outer walls set to be printed first so they're not affected by already-printed inner ones.
This looks to me like an indication that microstepping is not working accurately, and seems to agree partly with this article: https://hackaday.com/2016/08/29/how-accurate-is-microstepping-really/
Would TL smoothers improve this? My printer is an Ender 3, seemingly the latest revision at the time it was sold (December 2018) based on the bed and other aspects. Some threads I found suggested that this was a problem with older Ender 3s that was fixed in later revisions and that TL smoothers won't help, but it looks to me like it's not fixed.
Update: With settings adjusted for 0 jerk and 50 mm/s² acceleration in the outer walls, I got a somewhat improved result:
All steps are clearly visible, but at the reduced and more varying speed, artifacts of the extruder motor accuracy (or maybe just bowden latency) are much worse, and at the steps the "overshoot and bounce back" effect is still happening. Is this consistent with a situation where the TL smoothers I asked about could benefit?
Update 2: I've further tested with leaving acceleration at default (500 mm/s²) and just disabling "jerk", i.e. "instantaneous" change in speed. The results are at least as good as the above with slow acceleration. What strikes me most is that the "overshoot then bounce back" happens outward from the model on both edges, rather than inward on the righthand side where the (CCW moving) nozzle is turning inward. Could this indicate that there's no microstepping accuracy problem at all, and that the artifact is purely from excess extrusion as the corner is turned?
Updated pic (new one below): | It's worth remembering that the smaller the fraction of the step, the less torque is going to be available at that step. here is one link but there are many others that explain it as well. it looks to me like you have inconsistent friction in your system, or possibly some flex/warping of the frame. it might also be easier to see with a smaller nozzle
edit because i forgot to actually answer the question: no, by itself it does not indicate that smoothers would help. this does not mean that they wont, just that this does not look definitive to me |
Using maximum width when slicing in Ultimaker Cura I am trying to slice a model that is half a mm less than max width, but not successful.
What am I missing? Is there some minimum value less than maximum allowed, or something?
Edit: after changing the width to 220 in machine settings, slicing works. This is a dangerous thing to do, as it could damage the printer. | Take a look at this post: https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/15588-cura-23-not-using-full-print-area/. As the raft/skirt/brim will fall outside of the build volume, Cura is not able to slice it. Look at the the answer by @ahouben. He suggests that if you want to use the maximum build volume :
adhesion type = brim
brim line count = 0
travel avoid distance = 0
horizontal expansion = 0
support horizontal expansion = 0 (if support is enabled)
draft shield disabled
ooze shield disabled
infill wipe distance = 0
Note that in most cases brim with brim line count=0 will get you most of the way there
Try this and see if it makes a difference. |
Botched firmware upgrade - did I destroy the stepper drivers? I attempted upgrading my Ender 3 firmware to Marlin 1.1.9, and due to inability to find the directions about the Sanguino variant pin layout file, stupidly built with the "standard" (Arduino) file. Various stuff didn't work, and I figured out my mistake and rebuilt, but the extruder motor does not respond even after flashing back to the original firmware.
Did I destroy the stepper driver with incorrect pin mapping? (Aside: if so, why just the extruder and not the others?) Is this fixable or should I just order a new motherboard? | About 15 minutes after posting this, it started working again. Either the driver had badly overheated and recovered after cooling down, or was never messed up and the firmware was just refusing to operate it with the nozzle cold. For the latter possibility, the stock firmware never had that behavior before, but maybe it's possible that some saved configuration to ignore nozzle-cold got lost in the flashing? |
How to prevent model from peeling off of resin printer buildplate during print? Recently I have started using a fairly large LCD resin printer. (Yidimu Falcon Pro)
It has a fairly large 260x160mm perforated and coated steel build plate and a decent dual rail Z axis with a ballscrew. It has a 10" LCD. It prints ChiTuBox files from a USB stick.
I have been having a mostly successful print, at good quality, but the bed adhesion keeps haunting me. The best print on this machine had parts curling up from the build plate, however most of the print succeeded.
Two times I have had a very well adhering raft, however delamination occured directly after the raft.
Usually the left side lifts from the bed while the model stays on the build plate.
I have tried:
Changing resin (tried Druckwerk Pro D Black and Anycubic Black)
Decreasing lift speed
Increasing lift distance
Increasing bottom layer exposure time (from 60 to 180, as suggested by Druckwerck supplier)
Increasing bottom layer count to 9
Using a large raft
Using a very large raft
Using a very small raft
Leveling build plate without vat in place, using paper
Leveling build plate while keeping vat in place
What would be a good next troubleshooting step? | looks like you have done a lot of work to try to get it working.
considering you are having issues on one side of the build plate my thought is that it is a levelling issue or an issue with the plate itself. Try levelling it using the video "Getting Started: Leveling the Build Plate" it's for a different printer but pay attention to the part where he goes over making sure the left and right sides are level and how to check that. I had a problem like yours, and the issue was that as I tightened the screw to keep the build plate in the levelled position I ended up causing it to move. I made the same mistake a few times before realizing that I was messing it up the same way every time because I'm right-handed. after realizing that it was easier to fix.
If the issue is the build plate it's self it may be a matter of it not being flat (unlikely), Or not providing a good bonding surface. if the latter I suggest you do some research and decide for yourself as there are a lot of dividing views on how to fix that issue.
It also looks like you are having issues with the print after the bottom layers. It could be caused but the separation issue but it could be that you just need to increase your exposure time for your non-bottom layers |
I'm searching for a tool to generate 2D PDF of one side of my model I've created a model in OpenSCAD, mainly some cubes (not really cubes, but lengthy braces using cube()) and cylinders with cylindrical holes in them, to hold several PCBs.
The barrels will accept a 3 mm PCB standoff, which will then hold the PCB.
I would like to print the top view in the exact measurements on paper, to check for alignment before printing the bracing on my 3D printer.
The tool I'm searching for should be able to generate a drawing of all edges seen from one side, like a technical drawing.
I've used FreeCAD and OpenSCAD for now, but any tool running on Ubuntu should be fine. | OpenSCAD has a great feature called projection which allows you to select a vertical location and effectively "cast a shadow" of the part. The projection becomes a 2D object scaled to the original model.
One can rotate, translate or otherwise transform the model prior to performing the projection function, in order to get the appropriate 2D drawing.
The resulting "model" is rendered using F6 and can be output as .DXF or .SVG as well as a number of other formats that might not be as useful to you.
EDIT: I've been recently using Onshape to create drawings from 3D models. It's also a free program, browser based which allows you to import your STL model (or other acceptable formats). Once imported, a drawing can be created with three-view and isometric, or you can edit to create only a single view. This can then be exported/downloaded as a PDF.
The screen capture image below is from a project I've recently created. The original STL file was imported and the result is quite clean. |
How to have double extruder and double Z motor on a 5-driver board? We are using the Board SKR 1.3 with the following pins:
/**
* Trinamic Stallguard pins
*/
#define X_DIAG_PIN P1_29 // X-
#define Y_DIAG_PIN P1_27 // Y-
#define Z_DIAG_PIN P1_25 // Z-
#define E0_DIAG_PIN P1_28 // X+
#define E1_DIAG_PIN P1_26 // Y+
We need a double Z motor, so We have defined the number of stepper drivers to 2 and it works like a charm:
#define NUM_Z_STEPPER_DRIVERS 2
Here is the problem, We need to have a single extruder with two heating zones, not a real second extruder. We have defined the number of extruders to 2:
#define EXTRUDERS 2
We want to reinforce that the second extruder does not exist, we only need the second heating zone. It's a big hotend with two different heating cartridges, that is, two different temperatures. So we do not need the stepper driver, only the temperature.
Then we get the following error messages:
We have thought of enabling the chamber and use it's pin, but we got stuck with all the structure for it:
#define TEMP_SENSOR_CHAMBER 5
#define CHAMBER_MAXTEMP 250 // Extruder first temperature zone
#define HEATER_CHAMBER_PIN 24 | I second the previous answer if running second Z motor in parallel, just split wires or buy adapter consisting of two females to one male, Z motor on most printers don't draw huge current (or at least in smaller less frequent intervals to give things time to cool).
Erm I extruder with two temperature zones, hmmm buy a larger heating element, like a E3D Volcano or I believe they have an extreme version now, mine is rated for 40 W+.
Or you could use external MOSFET with separate Arduino PID. |
Can a single line of Gcode have variable extrusion rate? Fairly long winded, but hopefully makes sense;
I understand that G-code is executed line-by-line, and in the main printing phase each instruction is effectively go to location XY (assuming staying within the layer) at a set speed with a set extrusion amount (not rate, as far as I can tell).
Imagine you were printing a single road width, say 10 mm long. If the single instruction says to move that 10 mm at a set speed and extrude 10mm of material (which is, I guess, not 10mm of filament), with infinite acceleration and deceleration of the nozzle and extruder gears, then a linear amount of material would be extruded per unit length along the 10 mm. However, given that there is some acceleration and deceleration, that extrusion must be non-linear.
My questions are as follows;
- Is it possible to counteract this within a single line of Gcode by having a variable extrusion rate?
- Can the machine do so regardless of the instructions given to it?
- Is this effect embraced somehow?
- Does the need to accelerate both the nozzle position and filament effectively cancel out?
-Would/could you aim instead to split a single straight line of filament into multiple lines of G-code, some extruding (say in the middle), and some not (say at each end)? | My understanding is that the printer firmware will define the maximum acceleration and speeds for each axis (X, Y, Z, and E). When executing a line of g-code that involves more than one axis, the acceleration for each will be limited such that they all begin and end, including acceleration together.
During the start and end of a line, when the print nozzle is moving more slowly, the extruder will also move slowly. In the middle of the line, the extruder will move faster. The amount of material extruded per distance will be constant over the length of the line.
Another way to look at it - suppose you could accelerate quickly on X with a high top speed, but slowly on Y. A move only in the X direction could happen quickly. A move only in the Y direction would be slower. If you want to move at a 45-degree angle, you will need to slow down X so that it doesn't get ahead of Y.
If you did want to intentionally vary the amount of extrusion per distance during a line, you would need to break it into multiple segments with individual lines of g-code. |
commandline remeshing and simplifying tools I'm currently trying to remesh and simplify some protein structure models (very large) to reduce the file size of the STLs I need to print from.
The raw file before manipulation is ~4.9GB.
I'm currently attempting this on my home PC (16GB Ram, AMD FX9590, dual RX480s - so no slouch by any stretch) but I'm currently watching the progress (which isn't fast), and the RAM usage is worryingly close to 16GB now, with about 40% of the calculation still to go.
I'm using MeshLab's Quadratic Edge Collapse Decimation, to drop down by about 60% since there are a lot of redundance internal vertices etc and the print will already be quite difficult even with a small number of faces.
If my PC ends up not being able to handle this, does anyone know of any good commandline tools for Unix that I could use on one of my servers to handle remeshing and simplification, where I have considerably more ram and CPU power available.
First post on this SE, so apologies if this belongs somewhere different. | Netfabb came up in a number of suggestions that I found. Take a look at 3D Printing Under Arch Linux, which offers a number of solutions for Linux, including:
OpenSCAD
FreeCAD
Blender
NetFabb
Slic3r
Netfabb
Taking the section on Netfabb:
netfabb Private will provide you with a fully-loaded tool-box to do all this and much more:
fix complicated file errors
make late design changes
combine parts into one
hollow out solid parts into a shell
smooth the mesh to improve surfaces
reduce file size
Installing it:
netfabb is not at official repository so you must install it from AUR
using yaourt
$ yaourt netfabb-basic
$ netfabb-basic
However, it is unclear as to whether there is a cmd line interface. It could be worth reading Problem in Netfabb Command Line execution and in particular the documentation on Automating Netfabb - although this seems to suggest that command line functionality is only available to users with Ultimate subscription and not Basic:
From Reducing Size of STL file to upload to shapeways, this post (#10) states:
You can also decimate the model in Netfabb easily - Right click > Level of Detail > Choose something like 50%... or more or less depending on the level of detail needed.
Although, this isn't available in Basic subscription, or so says post #12.
Meshmixer
I also came across this, non-command line option.
From How to Reduce the File Size of .STL and .OBJ 3D Models
For example, you can give the free 3D modeling program Meshmixer a try. Choose the ‘Select’ tool from the menu on the right, then double-click on your model (this will select your entire mesh). Then click on the ‘Edit…’ option and select ‘Reduce’.
You can now reduce the polygon count using several options. The best working choice is to use the percentage tool. It will immediately tell you by how much percent your file size (and polygon count) has been reduced.
Available for Windows and OSX.
From Reducing Size of STL file to upload to shapeways, this post (#8) states:
The meshlab tutorial is exactly what you want to do - the options described help preserve the overall geometry of the model while reducing the poly count. Start with a target of 150,000 polys and work up until the desired detail is retained, bearing in mind the printability I mentioned above.
Also, by way of Quora, How do I reduce the size of an STL file? Does it affect the CAD coordinates for 3D printing?, I also found this Meshmixer tutorial: Easy Guide on How to Repair Your .STL Files. Under the section Problem 4: File Size is too Large for 3D Printing are the following steps:
The last problem that you may stumble upon, particularly as your
objects get larger and their complexity increases, is that the
resulting .stl file size is too large for your 3D printer or 3D
printing service of choice. Third party printing services like
i.materialise or Shapeways have upload limits so you may have to
change the size of your file (100 MB limit at imaterialise and 64 MB for
Shapeways). It’s important to reduce the mesh without sacrificing the
quality, which I should say at the outset is best done at the initial
export from your CAD software to minimise any distortion. My number one quick
tip is to make sure in the export settings that your saving in
‘Binary’ format, not ‘ASCII’ – it’s a significantly more compact file
format for .stl’s without losing quality). However if it’s not an
option, Meshmixer can be really useful to quickly reduce file size and
visualise how this will affect the quality of your surfaces.
For this example I’m going to return to the leaf from Problem 1, which
as a .stl file is 30.757 MB – pretty large for such a small design and
definitely over the limit for someone’s email if I wanted to send it.
So let’s look at how we can get this under 10 MB.
Select the entire model by pressing Ctrl + A on your keyboard to select all.
Go to Edit>Reduce to bring up the options to reduce the mesh. Essentially the file size of a .stl is directly related to the number
of polygons (triangles) that make up all of the surfaces. We will use
the Reduce tool to reduce the quantity of polygons, therefore reducing
file size.
The menu will give you a range of options to reduce the size of your file. The simplest is to use the default Percentage option,
allowing you to determine the final file size you want rather than
needing to know exactly how many triangles will be used to make up the
file. In this case I have calculated that in order to get my original
.stl file below 10 MB, I need a reduction of 70 % or more. As you
adjust the values, you will get a preview of what your model will look
like, allowing you to control how much reduction you employ before the
model becomes too distorted and ‘pixelated.’
Once you’re happy and have accepted the changes, you can click on the Export button or go to File>Export to save this new reduced .stl
file. As you can see in the comparison below, there is almost no
perceptible difference in the quality of the 30.757 MB file compared
with the final reduced version at 9.362 MB. I have simply increased the
size of the triangles, minimising the quantity needed to create the
same volume. Your regular 3D printer, or even a highly accurate SLS
printer will never even know the difference in a change like this.
It’s only if you really go crazy with the file reduction that you
might start to notice them in your final print (and in fact many of
the low-poly models which are popular on Pinshape can be produced
using this technique – start with a detailed .stl of the object you
want, and then just keep reducing the number of triangles!).
Blender
From Reducing Size of STL file to upload to shapeways, this post (#8) states:
Another option is to import the model into Blender, then use the Remesh or Decimate modifiers. Blender can be tough to get into initially but there are plenty of introduction tutorials on YouTube to help.
Blender does offer a Command Line Interface (CLI), see Command Line Arguments:
Usage: blender [args …] [file] [args …]
However, there doesn't appear to be an option for Remesh or Decimate. Although take a look at Is it possible to decimate or remesh via the CLI?:
You can specify a Python script to run, see the Python Options section of the documentation you linked. In this script, you can import the model, add the modifiers, apply them and export the result.
Related - Is it possible to automatically simplify geometry in blender without losing object shape?, which has this comment:
Is there a way to execute this modifier from command line and export the result?
which then leads to Can modifiers be computed and applied from the command line?
You'd have to use bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply, e.g.
import bpy
for obj in bpy.context.scene.objects:
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = obj
count = 1
length = len(obj.modifiers)
while obj.modifiers:
name = obj.modifiers[0].name
print("%s: Applying %s (%d/%d)" % (obj, name, count, length))
bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(modifier=name)
count += 1
print("All done.")
For info on how to to run the above, see here.
Meshlab
Seeing as you are already using Meshlab, it might be worth reading Executing meshlab from commandline reduce faces of a mesh iteratively (awesomebytes/reduce_faces.py)
#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
import os
import subprocess
# Script taken from doing the needed operation
# (Filters > Remeshing, Simplification and Reconstruction >
# Quadric Edge Collapse Decimation, with parameters:
# 0.9 percentage reduction (10%), 0.3 Quality threshold (70%)
# Target number of faces is ignored with those parameters
# conserving face normals, planar simplification and
# post-simplimfication cleaning)
# And going to Filter > Show current filter script
filter_script_mlx = """<!DOCTYPE FilterScript>
<FilterScript>
<filter name="Quadric Edge Collapse Decimation">
<Param type="RichInt" value="1448" name="TargetFaceNum"/>
<Param type="RichFloat" value="0.9" name="TargetPerc"/>
<Param type="RichFloat" value="0.3" name="QualityThr"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="PreserveBoundary"/>
<Param type="RichFloat" value="1" name="BoundaryWeight"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="true" name="PreserveNormal"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="PreserveTopology"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="OptimalPlacement"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="true" name="PlanarQuadric"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="QualityWeight"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="true" name="AutoClean"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="Selected"/>
</filter>
</FilterScript>
"""
def create_tmp_filter_file(filename='filter_file_tmp.mlx'):
with open('/tmp/' + filename, 'w') as f:
f.write(filter_script_mlx)
return '/tmp/' + filename
def reduce_faces(in_file, out_file,
filter_script_path=create_tmp_filter_file()):
# Add input mesh
command = "meshlabserver -i " + in_file
# Add the filter script
command += " -s " + filter_script_path
# Add the output filename and output flags
command += " -o " + out_file + " -om vn fn"
# Execute command
print "Going to execute: " + command
output = subprocess.check_output(command, shell=True)
last_line = output.splitlines()[-1]
print
print "Done:"
print in_file + " > " + out_file + ": " + last_line
if __name__ == '__main__':
if len(sys.argv) < 3:
print "Usage:"
print sys.argv[0] + " /path/to/input_mesh num_iterations"
print "For example, reduce 10 times:"
print sys.argv[0] + " /home/myuser/mymesh.dae 10"
exit(0)
in_mesh = sys.argv[1]
filename = in_mesh.split('/')[-1]
num_iterations = int(sys.argv[2])
folder_name = filename.replace('.', '_')
tmp_folder_name = '/tmp/' + folder_name + '_meshes/'
print "Input mesh: " + in_mesh + " (filename: " + filename + ")"
print "Num iterations: " + str(num_iterations)
print "Output folder: " + tmp_folder_name
try:
os.mkdir(tmp_folder_name)
except OSError as e:
print >> sys.stderr, "Exception creating folder for meshes: " + str(e)
exit(0)
for it in range(1, num_iterations):
if it == 1:
out_mesh = tmp_folder_name + folder_name + "_it" + str(it) + ".dae"
reduce_faces(in_mesh, out_mesh)
else:
out_mesh = tmp_folder_name + folder_name + "_it" + str(it) + ".dae"
reduce_faces(last_out_mesh, out_mesh)
last_out_mesh = out_mesh
print
print "Done reducing, find the files at: " + tmp_folder_name
Also
here are some updates for python 3.6.2: https://gist.github.com/tylerlindell/7435ca2261e7c404ccc1241f18e483aa |
How to debond cyanoacrylate glue from pla I have used cyanoacrylate glue aka superglue to bond PLA. I have created several electronics enclosures. (Definitely the most time-consuming part of the project.)
Now my question is which debonder/solvent can I use to separate the pieces again without destroying the PLA parts?
Wikipedia proposes the following:
nitromethane
dimethyl sulfoxide,
methylene chloride,
gamma-Butyrolactone. | Acetone
Acetone will dissolve cynoacrylate (superglue) and should weaken it enough to be able to separate the parts.
A readily available cheap source of acetone is nail varnish remover (just make sure you don't buy the acetone free version!).
Give the pieces a soak in nail varnish remover for 10-20 minutes and they should come apart with some prying.
Acetone does not dissolve PLA, so the PLA parts should be undamaged. If you were to try this on ABS parts however, they would begin to dissolve. |
Marlin error Rx_buffer not declared in scope After one successful preview of compile, the upload returns error
rx_buffer not defined in this scope.
How do I fix this? | The line defining SERIAL_PORT in MarlinSerial.h should read:
#define SERIAL_PORT 0
To [mis-]quote this answer from RepRap:'rx_buffer' was not declared in this scope (the emphasis is mine):
#define SERIAL_PORT 4
This is the serial port on the controller, not the serial port on your
computer. 0 through 3 are valid options on a controller with a atmel
2560.
Unless you are doing something like serial over bluetooth or
deliberately not using the USB port you should not change this from 0
The same error is reported on the Arduino forums, 'rx_buffer' was not declared in this scope:
Have redone over 5 times and always getting " 'rx_buffer' was not
declared in this scope ".
Now I tried Factory marlin and same "
'rx_buffer' was not declared in this scope " . Dont know what to do - I'm
so lost.
...
#define SERIAL_PORT 4 //before was 0
Nothing else |
Upgrade Ender 3 with Diamond Hotend As I want to print with multiple colors I plan to upgrade my Ender 3 with the diamond hotend.
So far I found all information I need, except what power supply I need for my RUMBA board.
Can I use the default Ender 3 power supply or do I need an additional power supply or wires?
Parts I am going to order:
1x Lite6 Heatsink
3x Diamond Universal mount
1x 12 V 40 W 6 mm x 20 mm Cartridge Heater Reprap For 3D Printer
1x Thermistor 100K 1 % NTC Temperature Sensor Line for 3D Printer
1x Fan 50x50x15 mm 12 V 125 mA
1x Diamond Hotend Insulator
1x Nema17 stepper motor 48 mm 1.8° 42BYGHW804 1.2 A 5.5 kg•cm
3x MK8/9 Dual Extruder Feed Device Part For 3D Printer 1.75 mm Filament
3x Bowden tube 1 m with fitting 4/2 mm (for 1.75 mm filament)
1x RUMBA 3D printer controller board
6x StepStick DRV8825 Stepper Motor Driver | The RUMBA boards run up to 36 V, so reusing the (24 V) power supply from your printer should be fine. As the 2 extra steppers do not take much extra power (note you are ordering only 1!), your supply should be sufficient. Note that a 12 V heater cartridge is not going to work on a 24 V board (you'll get a massive overshoot and probably over-temperature warnings and printer shutdowns). |
Paper as build surface - how will that work? I have a Creality Ender 3 that needs a build surface (both the build-tak sticker and the removable stiff backer). My dad has been pestering me to try using paper as a disposable surface. I am hesitant to do so for concerns regarding fires and degrading the bottom of the print. Has anyone here tried this and what were the results? | Blue masking tape is a common bed surface, especially for unheated beds. It is effectively an adhesive applied to a paper, although I suspect the paper is treated in some manner to serve as a barrier to paint, as the blue tape is sold as paint masking tape.
A sheet of ordinary paper isn't likely to catch fire, as the bed temperature will not reach combustion temperature for paper (more than 230 °C), but you still have to have the means of providing adhesion of the paper to the bed.
A thick enough weight of paper may provide sufficient rigidity to provide for a stable print surface, if the perimeter is well secured and uniformly (smoothly) attached.
You'll have to experiment with various types of paper surfaces as well, as some may be treated (calendared) during manufacturing, which could affect the results.
Blue tape is your best bet if you want disposable. Also if you use care in removal, it is not a single use bed covering. |
Where or who could I hire to assemble a 3d printer that came in a kit for me? I planning on getting a resin 3d printer kit, and I don't want to take any risks building it myself. Where, or who, could I hire a professional capable of constructing a 3D printer kit? They don't necessarily have to specialize in constructing 3d printers, I just need someone qualified with the mechanical and technical skills for the job. | If you have a makerspace in your area, you'll likely find individuals with reasonable mechanical skills suitable for simple kit assembly. Most kits are engineered to be reasonable assembly, not rocket surgery. Makers are by nature capable of construction, often from raw materials, and kits are typically not particularly challenging comparatively speaking.
Resin 3D printers are also simple in construction, as the component count is less than that of an FDM printer, or quite close in count. SLA designs involve laser modules, mirrors and alignment, while DLP designs involve light projection and light masking. Both designs involve vats and movement mechanics.
Even if you do not have a makerspace local to you, consider to contact one that might be nearer than farther away, as those spaces may have leads for you to locate a suitable victim/candidate.
Our local library makerspace often farms out contacts to me or other makers with the necessary skills to meet a patron's requirements. |
How to set Home Offsets and Manual Home definitions in Marlin correctly? I am using an Ender 3 and I have just upgraded to the Hero Me Gen 5 fan duct adapter. This has shifted the nozzle position. I also flashed some new Marlin 2 firmware and in the Hero Me manual it says to uncomment and change #define MANUAL_Y_HOME_POS -9 to suit this change in nozzle position.
This has, however, not given me the right results. It did not center my prints but actually let the Y-axis grind upon going to Y235. Additionally, I noticed, that my printer must have been off-center from the beginning, because the X position of the nozzle has not changed due to the installation, but the printer homes to a point 5 mm inside the bed perimeters.
So, if my printers endstops dictate an original home position of 3 mm inside the bed area for X and 15 mm outside the bed area for Y, how do I set this up correctly in Marlin 2?
I think the relevant parts are
// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 235
#define Y_BED_SIZE 235
// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS 5
#define Y_MIN_POS -15
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS 250
#define Y_MAX_POS 240
#define Z_MAX_POS 230
...
// Manually set the home position. Leave these undefined for automatic settings.
// For DELTA this is the top-center of the Cartesian print volume.
//#define MANUAL_X_HOME_POS 0
//#define MANUAL_Y_HOME_POS -9
//#define MANUAL_Z_HOME_POS 0
This is my idea, I would let the manual home pos be commented out as I do not know what it does. However, I also want the software endstops to correcly work as to not let the printer destroy it aaaaand my BLTouch to probe the bed and not the air or my bed clips using UBL when doing 3-point probing. Would this be correct? Where do I have to look to let the printer consider my bed clips(only 10 mm on both ends of the y-axis side of the bed)? | Normally you wouldn't use the MANUAL_xyz_HOME_POS at all.
Home your machine.
Use a caliper or ruler to measure the distance between the nozzle and the edges of the print bed in both the X and Y direction.
If the nozzle was off the bed in both directions, input these measurements as negative X_MIN_POS and Y_MIN_POS values.
If it was over the bed in either of those directions, you'll need to input them as positive positions.
That should result in your nozzle to be exactly on the edge of the bed after a
G28 X Y
G1 X0 Y0
movement. |
File from Blender is different in Shapeways's preview I am trying to print a model I designed in Blender on Shapeways.
The object has a hole in it:
But when I upload it to Shapeways as a STL file, fixed the sizes, but the hole is filled up in the preview window for the object in Shapeways:
What could cause this? Will the model print properly?
(I cannot share the model here). | Double-check that your model is solid (i.e. watertight). Holes in the mesh, or (as other's mentioned in the comments) or problems with thickness can cause those issues. You can use Netfabb's Cloud Services, or download the free version of their app. There are other model repair services, too. |
What is a good strategy for removing 3d prints from an UNheated Glass bed? I have a LARGE piece of glass (36"x26") that I will soon be printing on using my newly build MPCNC machine. It is capable of printing about 34"x34"x10".
Anyway, I have had GREAT success printing on heated glass that is sprayed lightly with hairspray using PLA and being able to EASILY remove my prints after the glass has cooled. I attribute this to the slight expansion and contraction that occurs when glass is heated and cooled. This would weaken the cohesion of the PLA print to the glass.
I have another posting where I asked how to heat this LARGE glass bed. However, there weren't any feasable (inexpensive and easy) solutions to heat the glass. So, now with cold glass, what are some good strategies for removing large 3d printed objects without breaking them or the glass? | Because you will be printing on unheated glass, you will be using some form of adhesive material. If you use an off-the-shelf glue stick, you will likely find it is water soluble. If the bed is removable, immersing it in warm water for a relaxing soak will provide easier model removal.
I don't have experience with various tapes, so will avoid recommendations regarding masking tapes or similar material.
Thermal cycling will also provide release. Not a heat gun, as that will break the glass, but a hair dryer applied to the underside near the model, then cooling. Repeat until it releases.
I have used the Fleks3D print plate on my Flux Delta printer in the past, and it releases "like magic" but I don't think they make monster sheets of your printer size. I had also purchased a pair of 20" square Fleks3D plates for a similarly sized printer that never materialized. I'd be happy to sell you the pair, but I think they are too small for your full plate.
It has been said that one can use sand-blasted acrylic, which I believe is the construction of the aforementioned Fleks3D plates. If you have access to 1/8" or 3mm acrylic and can apply a uniform blast of abrasive, you may be able to construct your own easy-release build plate.
It is practical to consider to use a raft for your large builds. Rafts are useful for small items, to provide a greater bonding surface and avoid release, but it also provides a "wedging" location for your release tool. You can more easily slice away the middle of the raft and deal with a thinner layer after the model is completely freed.
EDIT ADD: If the bed is not removable, one can build a dam around the model with clay to hold the water for dissolving the glue. |
Monoprice Select IIIP Plus - Best speed settings and speeding up prints How do I speed up prints for the Monoprice Select IIIP Plus printer?
The manual shows [Cura] examples of:
Print speed: 50mm/s
Travel Speed: 80mm/s
Bottom Layer Speed: 20mm/s
Infill Speed: 50mm/s
Outer shell speed: 15mm/s
Inner shell speed: 30mm/s
However, this doesn’t line up with their advertisements online of a 150mm/s printing speed.
Are there better settings to use, especially ones which can speed up printing time? Or are there any other measures which I can take in order to reduce printing time in general? | In my experience a print speed of 50-70mm/s is ideal. Even if you set the speed to 150mm/s the print head still changes directions often and rarely will have enough time to accelerate from 0->150 before changing direction again.
Some more effective ways of speeding up prints is to adjust
Layer height
Infill percentage (15-25% for regular prints, more if they need to be more sound)
Supports
Number of shells, etc |
What setting is this defect caused by? I am attempting to print the Benchy boat but every attempt so far has been unsuccessful. The print has a sort of slope/blob on the nose of the boat, which emerges after the first 30 layers.
Here you can see the front of the boat already arching up:
I have tried decreasing speed to 40 mm/s but the issue remains.
Printer: Geetech Prusa I3 Pro B
XY Accelleration: 1000 mm/s2
XY Jerk: 20 mm/s
Retraction Accelleration: 2000 mm/s2
Extruder Jerk: 5 mm/s
Printing Speed: 50 mm/s
Travel Speed: 120 mm/s
Layer Height: 0.1 mm
Infill: 60% (Lines)
Material: PLA, 200 °C, 1.75mm filament, retraction enabled. | Looks like curling from to much being extruded and no cooling I had the same problem added part cooling and problem was gone |
Is it possible extrude faces along normals individually in OpenSCAD? For the geometry I am making, I want to extrude each face individually along its normal.
This is a standard procedure in 3D modeling software like Blender; see Example 3 here.
Is this possible in OpenSCAD? | Extruding faces is only possible on 2D polygons. From a 3D object you cannot capture the face and extrude it. To extrude "faces" you would need to define the shape of the face and extend it in the third dimension of your choice. This way a 3D shape is created that could be concatenated (joined using e.g. union) to the original shape. For the extrusion, the function linear_extrude is available:
linear_extrude(height = fanwidth, center = true, convexity = 10, twist = -fanrot, slices = 20, scale = 1.0, $fn = 16) {...} |
Marlin 1.1.x on Ender 3 changing PREHEAT_1_FAN_SPEED has no effect? I dont want the part cooling fan on during preheat, especially when I'm only heating the bed, it is just unnecessarily loud and serves no purpose at that time.
However when I set PREHEAT_1_FAN_SPEED to 0 it has no effect, the fan still spins at full speed as soon as I preheat either the hotend or the bed.
So why is this setting not working and how do I fix this?
I am using the latest version of Marlin.
The only one that is defined is the one that I am editing and it is the one that appears on line ~1260 of the stock configuration.h
#define PREHEAT_1_FAN_SPEED 0 // Value from 0 to 255
And this is the grep result of searching the entire firmware folder: | Apparently, I forgot a critical step:
While I have completely reconfigured the LCD menus, setup custom 25-point mesh leveling, changed a bunch of other numerical values, and flashed the firmware dozens of times, certain values will never be updated unless you remember to initialize the EEPROM after the flash!
Honestly I kinda wish they would make it all or nothing but I guess there is limited space so particular things take priority. |
Opening .STL to scale in Print Studio (Dremel) New to 3D printing so sorry if this is a simple/basic question. I've done a ton of Googling but can't seem to find the answer...
When I download a .STL file and open it in Print Studio, it opens as a HUGE object - much larger than you would ever want it. How to I get the file to open at scale to how the designer wanted it. For instance the following file from Thingaverse has specific size but I'm unsure of how to print it at that exact size. I'm assuming that the info is able to be stored somewhere in the .STL file.
http://www.thingiverse.com/make:181631 | The STL file format does not provide any way to provide the units of measurement for an object. The majority of FDM printers use millimeters so most people export objects with the assumption the values in the STL file are in millimeters.
As you found out that's not always true. The second most common assumption is to export in inches.
Most of the slicers I've used provide a scaling option if you can't edit the STL file yourself. Some will even offer to do the inches to mm conversion for you. Scale to suit when you print or use a 3d editor. I've gotten specific sizes by creating a temporary cube the size I wanted and scaling the object using the cube as a reference. |
How do I wire an AC SSR with RAMPs 1.4? I was advised that it would be possible to use an AC SSR to wire up a Mains Based heat bed. Any idea how one would do this with a RAMPs 1.4 board; Also, what do I hook a heated bed of this sort into? | If you take a kettle lead with a wall plug and cut off the other end, it will expose 3 wires: earth, live and neutral. These are color coded depending on your country, usually earth is green (possibly with yellow stripes), neutral is blue, black, grey or white and live is brown, red or black.
The SSR should have 4 terminals: 2 terminals for the switched load (which are interchangeable) and 2 terminals that connect to your electronics, which should be marked negative and positive. These terminals should connect to the negative/positive heated bed output of your electronics. The terminals of the SSR should be clearly marked, and you can verify which terminal is what from the SSR's datasheet.
Typically, your heated bed will have two wires for power (which are interchangeable). One of the wires should be connected to neutral. The other wire should go to one of the load terminals of the SSR, while the other load terminal of the SSR should connect to the live wire. It is also acceptable to do it the other way around (neutral to the SSR and live directly to the bed) but this is slightly less neat.
Finally, and this step is extremely important, the earth wire of the plug has a protective function: should something fail, metal parts of your printer may become electrified, and shock you when you touch them. To prevent it, you should electrically connect exposed metal parts of your printer (such as the frame, heated bed plate, power supply case, etc...) to earth. This provides a path for the current to flow (and trip the protective RCD breaker) should something go wrong.
I would further recommend that you protect your heated bed (particularly if it is a high power model) with a bimetallic thermal switch. These are available in a variety of ratings, and will switch the power to your heated bed off when it goes over a certain temperature. This switch should be wired between the relay and the heated bed, and be mounted on the heated bed so it makes good thermal contact. If you plan to print with the heated bed at 110C, you might get a 120C or 130C thermal switch.
As mains voltage can be deadly, you should take appropriate precautions: never work on the printer while it is plugged in, cover any connections (in particular, make sure you buy or print a cover for the SSR's terminals and wrap solder joints in heat shrink or electrical tape) and always treat wires coming out of the SSR as live (even if it is switched off, some current can still flow). |
Does CuraEngine get some advantage slicing cylinders to move the head back to the center twice on each layer? To date I have used RepG and Repetier with CuraEngine to do my slicing. In various instances when printing a layer of a cylinder it will start in the middle and head out toward either side. Then it moves the nozzle back to the center and prints toward the other side.
Knowledge of TSP suggests the print would go a lot quicker if the travel operation back to the middle were omitted. Here is an example.
By that I mean that to fill the layer of a cylinder from one edge, across the middle to the edge on the right.
My question is why is this done? What advantage does printing it in two passes have over printing it in one pass? | I have seen this behavior a lot in CuraEngine slices. Mostly older versions of the slicer. Not sure if they actually improved it.
You could see this a lot in long and complicated forms. I also don't like this. Not only for unnecessary moves, but also for imperfections due the start in the middle. Sometimes you can tell where the filling started and which segments were printed separately.
I think it comes down to several issues here:
1.) Starting from the middle saves a move at the beginning of the fill. It probably starts the fill where is stopped printing the perimeter. If the change you want would be implemented, a move after the fill printing would become necessary to start at the right position. So therefore the benefit of faster printing might be gone already.
2.) For the sclicer implementation it is hard to do. The algorithm that computes the print moves for the fill just knows the start point (end position of last perimeter line) and the points that define the area. It does not know if the area is round or square or shaped like a "C" or like a "Y". Usually the slicers have a preferred direction that changes with every layer. This way the fill lines of different layers cross each other and that probably increases stability.
I have seen slices where the fill started several times in "C" shaped prints.
Also if you think about the "Y" shape. If you start at the bottom then you can print horizontal lines and fill the form until you reach the split. Now you have to decide which arm to print fist. And then you have to do the other arm separately.
As you can see a perfect way to fill all possible shapes in one go is impossible.
And defining an algorithm that can fill any shape with only knowing the outline is already hard. I assume the solution has to do with splitting a form into segments and to then fill each segment after the other. Even your example form has probably more sections than only the two obvious ones.
What could be done would be to "optimize" the sequence used to fill the segments. Basically adding a computing step that checks if by introducing a move to the best starting point the fill of the segments could be done in one move.
Again that is probably rather hard to do, but CuraEngine and other slicers are open source, so if you or somebody else would like to invest some time to get this feature that would be great! |
Creality v1.1.5 board replacement UP1 Chip While I was having fun with my ender I burn out UP1 Chip.
Does anyone know which chip is that (I can't see because of burnt) and where can I order it?
Image: Damaged chip | It's an MP1584 chip.
Guys on Reddit helped me out.
link |
How to build a metal-based 3D printer? I have a hypothetical question. From which parts can I build a metal-based 3D printer and can I buy those parts somewhere? | I think this depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the 3D printer.
I have seen people online build metal 3D printers from a robot arm and a welder this would probably be the simplest design and build but robot arms that can weld are expensive.
I have also seen that someone at MIT build a glass 3D printer by building a small kiln with a hole at the bottom and moving it around like a normal extrusion printer. This method might work for a metal printer as well if you could get the temperatures right. This might be cheap enough a hobbyist could do it as well because you just need the same parts as a normal FDM 3d printer just able to more more weight.
But with the same parts you could also do lost pla casting and that would be a simpler approach with a better end product.
But probably what you would be really interested in building would be a laser sintering 3D printer. Where a layer of powder is put down and then a laser melts part of the powered to join it to the model. For this the main thing you need would be the laser. I don't know a lot about how these printer work but the laser would need to be able to melt metal so I would think it would need to be very powerful and that would make it very expensive. |
Prusa i3 mk3 step skipping and layer shifting After approx. a year of more or less problem-free printing (40 days print time) with Prusa i3 mk3 kit, we started to suffer the random layer shifting on Y axis.
We inspected all the motor connectors are properly inserted in the mainboard and the wires are intact.
We ensured all the pulleys' screws on the x/y motor shafts are very tight and secure to be sure the pulleys don't slip.
We inspected the belts and pulleys, there is no mechanical problem like dust blobs, filament residues, etc.
We tightened the belts to be hard enough to show the expected support|belt status value (under 280) after self test is performed.
We switched off the crash detection feature.
We fully cleaned/re-lubricated the Y axis linear bearings and the rods to be sure there is no dirt causing any friction.
We tightened the nuts on the U holders fixing the bearings to the bed (hard enough not to squeeze the bearings so they can freely move on the rods).
We bought Japan PNY LM8UU bearings and replaced the original ones on Y axis (suspecting they are worn out).
Nothing of these helped fully:
Some steps improved the quality (like only one random skip in print).
Some steps degraded the quality (like additional step skips in previously flawless X axis).
Since the issues started, we had 4 hour reference design to be printed again and again using the same setup/filament etc. It became reference because its print started to exhibit the skips. We refused to slow down the print or perform any other workarounds, because we wanted to make the printer great again ;-)
What else should have been done to revert back to flawless prints without random X/Y step skipping and thus layer shifting? | Long story short: Try to replace the stock power supply.
We connected UPS between the printer supply and the wall outlet and the skips reduced to one/two per print.
We replaced the supply with random old used Mean Well SP-320 (zero care about the power panic feature, just plain 24V connected) and voilà: reference design passed.
Also few more complex designs after supply switch are still flawless, so we hope that was the problem and it's fixed now.
This Q&A post is to help others to skip the major frustration and save some time. |
Can a model change size when using a different filament type? I printed a case for my phone, a Motorola G4 Plus. I found the model of the casing on Thingiverse
I just downloaded the model, used Meshmixer to check for issues, after that, opened Simplify3d and saved it for printing using an SD Card. The printed size of the model was smaller than expected.
The model designer, says in the description that he used flexible filament. Is it possible than if I change to that filament, the model result is completely different?
Print result - phone casing: | No, choosing a different filament type will not result in a different size (unless you use PLA that foams on extrusion, it increases size but then again all other dimensions would not fit either as it expands uniformly). The overall dimensions are defined by the coordinates in the G-code file which is based on the geometry of the model. If the printed model has dimensions that differ in the region of centimeters (like shown in your images) a different filament type will not change the size. Differences in the order of fractions of a millimeter are possible.
Probably the size has accidentally changed while loading the model in one of the tools prior to slicing to G-code.
Sidenote; there are techniques to anneal PLA after printing, you will then observe changes in the size of the part you printed, but I don't think you have annealed the print. From the link above:
On average, you’ll see PLA shrinkage of about 5% and growth of about 2% along the relevant axes. If this shrinkage and growth is going to be a problem, you can compensate for it beforehand during the design and printing processes. |
Repetier Host stops sending commands to printer when switching Windows user I'm running Repetier Host v1.6.1 with Repetier Firmware v0.92.9. My computer is running Windows 7 Pro SP1, 64-bit.
If I set a print going via USB then switch to another user (note: I do not log out), then the pinter's display shows that the command buffer drops from 16 to 0 until it stops printing altogether. If I switch back to the user that is running Repetier Host then the buffer fills up again and the print job resumes.
Before I updated Repetier Host this didn't happen, I could leave it running while I switched users and the job would run just fine. I'm not sure why this behaviour has changed, but is there any way to get it to run properly under a background user? | Is it possible that in updating Repetier you inadvertently installed it for a single user rather than for everyone? If so, that might account for its stopping when the user is changed. |
How much work would be converting Prusa firmware/software for CNC use? I have an option to purchase a hobby multi-purpose device (lathe/mill/drill/grinder/cutter) which is manually controlled, but easily converted for driving by stepper motors (all 3 axis are controlled by turning knobs that can be replaced by gears, with convenient mount to couple each to a stepper motor). I have the right motors and can easily obtain drivers for them.
That is the way to overcome the worst problem of converting Prusa to CNC: the flimsy mechanics not able to withstand stress and vibrations of machining. Then I can connect the drivers to the 3 axis of Prusa's electronics, optionally connect some driver of the spindle to the extruder output (or just control it manually), and it seems the hardware side of the device is done.
The problem is the rest - adapting the software. RepRap family of 3D printers being open source means their software and hardware can be adapted. It's only a matter of how hard it is.
Does anyone have any experience in that direction? What would such conversion involve? Just recalibration to the new gear/leadscrew ratios, or something more involved, like editing the sources to get rid of all the temperature safeguards and the likes? | Disclaimer
Questions about other machines is still in kind of a grey area right now 06/2016 and your question is, in my opinion, a bit too broad. However, I think it's a great topic to perhaps help direct the scope of this community.
The lowdown
3D printers, CNC Mills, CNC Lathes, CNC Routers, and Lasers are all very different! There are certainly areas where each of these may overlap, but the methodology is very different overall.
Software is not always interchangeable across machines (even within the same machine type) due to hardware requirements/communication.
Hardware is not always interchangeable across machines (even within the same machine type) due to design/scope of the purpose of the machine.
Things to consider
(In a nut-shell)
3D Printers
Hardware
Minimal speed/torque requirements compared to subtractive machine tools.
Good designs focus on temperature control via enclosures and/or electronics.
(Typically) uses heat block/nozzle/stepper motor to control material size/flow.
Software
Emphasis on "plug-n-play" UI/UX
Conceptually easier to generate tool paths. STL's provide outlines and software fills in the blanks like a coloring book.
Focus is on understanding material properties and temperature variability.
Common Variability
Material quality/shape
Environment temperature
CNC Mills/Routers/Lathes
Hardware
Maximum speed/torque requirements.
Good designs focus on rigid designs and handling harmonics.
Tighter tolerance components to ensure mechanical repeatability.
Relies on cutting tool size/shape to control material size/flow.
Software
Requires more manual input (typically) to account for where its tool is located. The mathematics heavily depend on accurate dimensions for the cutting tools, otherwise you could damage your part or the machine.
Good software allows many different "canned" tool paths for efficiency, tool types, and achieving desired surface finish.
Focus is on variability in cutting tool and speeds/feeds (as recommended by cutting tool suppliers for materials)
Common Variability
Material shape/hardness
Cutting tool shape/hardness
Cutting tool path
Lasers
Hardware
Minimal speed/torque requirements.
Good designs focus on consistent beam quality and spot focus, which is relative to constant power.
Uses focusing lens (sets spot size) to control material size.
Software
Emphasis on "plug-n-play" UI/UX and interoperability.
Dimensions are easier to achieve as less variability in the process compared to 3D printing/machining.
Focus is on laser power (typically for material type and depth).
Common Variability
Laser type
Spot size
Power supply
Summary
Overall there are many, very different variables to consider between these technologies. I only focused on variables you might see out of a hobbyist-style machine and if you've operated any of these you'll know that there are many more variables that pop up for any of these machines.
So, do not expect such a plug-n-play solution as each machine requires quality construction of its hardware, the ability to handle the variability of the process in its software, and, above all, an operator that understands the correlation and balance of these components.
All of that being said, there are some machines that seem to be tailored to this such as the machine by Diyouware and ZMorph (No affiliation, just examples). However, notice that they have created their own software to meet a lot of these communication requirements.
Update
I forgot to mention the fact that a kink in creating a interchangeable machine is the control interface. The controller converts the "software speak" into an easily parsed series of functions (typically G-Code) for the small computer to process its predetermined hardware processes. Ie, The slicer or CAM software determines that a layer of a circle be 3D printed, milled, routered, or lasered, so the controller should G02I2 which could parse to (For all intents and purposes in javascript, not a practical language) CWCircularInterpolation(2,null,null,null,null,null) and run as:
function CWCircularInterpolation(i,j,k,x,y,z){
//Some code to take current position and command to create a canned circle path
}
The point is that the software needs to handle the conditions and constraints of a different machining process and provide a well-equipped machine with the right commands. There are a lot of different things to consider in attempting to combine these machining techniques into a single machine and get quality results. |
Handing OpenSCAD module parameters derived from other variables I'm new to OpenSCAD, but I can only get default parameters working for simple values.
I'm wondering if there is any way to achieve the following, where I have some parameters available to the module caller but by default they are derived from other parameters.
I had expected this to work - I thought the compiler to be able to resolve these variables in-scope during compilation since everything here is deterministic - so perhaps I'm just missing some syntax? If not, is there some better way to achieve this?
module clasp(length=20,
pin_radius=5,
mouth = pin_radius * 0.9,
inner_radius = pin_radius + 0.25,
outer_radius = inner_radius * 1.4,
) {
... do the work ...
}
Unfortunately this approach leaves mount/inner/outer all undef. | This seems to be a limitation of the language. One workaround that's only moderately ugly is, in the body of the module:
mouth = is_undef(mouth) ? pin_radius * 0.9 : mouth;
etc. If you'll only be using the file via a use directive in other files, another approach is file-scope variables. These can be overridden when the module is called, just like module parameters, and they do not provide or take values for/from the calling file's file-scope variable namespace. |
Filament is not stuck That's my first 3d printer. I'm using Repetier Host as the brand recomends, and set all the configuration as the recommended one. I decided to print one STL file but the result is not the best one.
That's what I was trying to print:
and that's what I've got.
Here you have a video of the impression. it is a G2S pro rostock mini | From the video it is very clear there is a major problem with bed adhesion.
It also looks like you are printing on bare metal (aluminium?) which I never saw anybody doing. I must admit I don't know it is impossible or simply very rare, but the first thing I would try in your case is covering the bed in painter's tape and wipe it with some alcohol. This is a surefire method to get good adhesion with PLA, which - from the temperatures shown in the video I assume is what you are using.
If you haven't tried this before, you should know that:
some brands of tape work well even without being wiped with alcohol
you may need to readjust your nozzle height after having applied the tape
Unless you have already done this, I would also suggest to print some test cubes and possibly some stress tests as your first prints, in order to check that the basics (extrusion rate, dimensional accuracy...) are working correctly, as well as getting familiar with the limitats of your printer. |
How can I export a Materialise Magics Project as a STL file? I created a new project in Materialise Magics, added a few parts (different STLs), moved them around in certain positions and now I want to export this project into another STL, containing my recent work.
The export menu seems to be all grey, like this function is not available. Do I have to do some repairing first or something similar? Or Magics needs other software in order to export a Magics Project to a STL file? | Instead of using save project as or export click save part as, this defaults to an STL file. |
First layer Z-offset in G-code In slicer G-code is it possible to set the probe Z offset for the first layer only?
For my stock E3 plate I find -4.125 mm best however for glass I need to go to -4.175 mm for the first layer to get better adhesion. So it's a manual process every time. Any way to tell the slicer do the first layer at -4.175 mm and next ones at -4.125 mm? | I don't understand the reasoning behind a first layer having a different offset from the following layers, but, You can manually add a re-definition of the current height after the first layer, suppose your first layer is 0.2 mm, you just need to tell the printer to move to a slightly higher next layer to redefine this as a different Z-offset.
From a G-code file find the start of the second layer:G0 F600 X141.541 Y109.467 Z0.37
Modify this to:G0 F600 X141.541 Y109.467 Z0.42
Now insert the following command:G92 X0.37
Now it is like you have changed the Z-offset.
The reason for not using M206 is that is applied onto current offsets, if you accidentally save setting to memory after printing, it stores this offset. You can use M206, but use it carefully. A re-definition of the Z level is never stored, the next G28 erases the effect, so does repowering the motors. |
Lines appearing during ironing I'm new to 3D printing, but have been having relative success with the Ender 5 Pro and Cura.
I'm making some coasters and using the ironing feature to smooth out the top layer. This is mostly working great, but there are lines left on the surface, consistent between identical prints. They appear to be seams between different ironed areas. They form when one continuously ironed area finishes, the nozzle leaves that area, then an adjacent area is ironed later, forming a seam between them.
I'm using the default ironing settings, on only the top layer. I have no clue what settings might be causing this, or if this is an avoidable issue.
Any ideas from more experienced printers? | There's a couple of Cura settings that can help, that I know of:
In the 'Travel' section, change "Combing Mode" to "not in skin". Combing means it tries to move the head over areas that have already been printed. This is a good thing most of the time, but if it does it while it's ironing, it will make an annoying line. (I am not sure why this isn't automatically turned off for the ironing pass, but it seems it isn't.)
After enabling ironing, an option "Ironing Pattern" appears. Try changing this to "concentric." This produces a different pattern, which you may or may not like, but it seems less susceptible to those kinds of lines appearing.
Here are some other settings that might help. I'm suggesting these on the assumption that some of the lines are caused by the print head travelling over the ironed surface, which is what it looks like to me from your photo. I got them from this Cura documentation page, but it doesn't mention ironing, so I can't be completely sure whether they will affect the ironing step.
"Avoid printed parts when travelling" - this might help a bit more than just turning off combing, since it will try to go around the printed areas instead of just cutting across them. Apparently you have to enable combing for this to work.
"Z hop when retracted" and "Z hop only over printed parts." This should make it lift the print head up when it can't avoid crossing the printed part. It may be that you have to enable retraction, combing, and/or "Avoid printed parts when travelling" for these to appear. |
How do I give 3D-printed parts in ABS a shiny smooth finish? The surfaces of my printed parts using ABS plastic look rough and uneven.
What methods can I use to achieve a smoother finish for my for 3D-printed objects? | Acetone can be used to smooth ABS.
The left has been smoothed by an acetone bath and the right is the original model. (Image credit: Andrew Sink)
Take note: acetone is dangerous to breathe in, so work in a well ventilated area. It is also flammable.
Warm acetone vapour bath using stove
This method involves suspending the model in a glass jar of boiling acetone that is heated up by a pot of boiling water.
Attach the model to the lid of the jar with some string, keep the string short, so the model is close to the lid.
Put a few centimetres of water in a pot
Place a rag at the bottom of the pot (to keep the jar stable).
Place the glass jar in the pot, on top of the rag.
Place the pot on the stove and heat to 110°C.
When the acetone is boiling place the dangling model into the jar.
After a few seconds, remove the model.
See here for a step-by-step guide with pictures.
Warm acetone vapour bath using printer bed
This method elevating the model in a glass jar of acetone that is heated up by the printer's heatbed.
Find a non-soluble object that the 3D model can stand on.
Put a teaspoon of acetone in jar.
Place the jar on the heatbed and heat to 110°C.
Place the stand into the jar.
Place the model on the stand, the stand should not let the acetone touch the model.
After a few minutes, remove the model.
See here for an example. |
How to interpret various thermal-related filament properties? When picking filament for specialty, high temperature applications, multiple parameters are provided, but it is not clear to me when which to use.
The most common parameters provided are:
Vicat softening temperature
heat deflection temperature
Assuming I'm designing a part to be used in high temperature environments, when should I use each parameter?
For example, Polymaker has
Material
Vicat soft. temp. (°C)
HDT (1.8 Mpa) (°C)
PolyLite PC
119.5
106.6
PC-ABS
135
106.4
PolyLite ABS
103.9
98.2
PA6-CF
N/A
173
CoPA
180
69
https://eu.polymaker.com/Downloads/TDS/PolyLite_PC_TDS_V5.pdf
https://polymaker.com/Downloads/TDS/Polymaker_PC_ABS_TDS_V5.pdf
https://polymaker.com/Downloads/TDS/PolyMide_PA6_CF_TDS_V5.pdf
https://eu.polymaker.com/Downloads/TDS/PolyLite_ABS_TDS_V5.pdf
https://eu.polymaker.com/Downloads/TDS/PolyMide_CoPA_TDS_V5.pdf | This depends on application.
Definitions:
Vicat softening point. Vicat softening temperature or Vicat hardness is the determination of the softening point for materials that have no definite melting point, such as plastics. It is taken as the temperature at which the specimen is penetrated to a depth of 1 mm by a flat-ended needle with a 1 mm² circular or square cross-section. [However, it seems force on needle should be included.]
The heat deflection temperature (HDT) or heat distortion temperature (HDT, HDTUL, or DTUL) is the temperature at which a polymer or plastic sample deforms under a specified load. This property of a given plastic material is applied in many aspects of product design, engineering and manufacture of products using thermoplastic components. [Again, to be meaningful, the forces need to be specified.]
Basically, Vicat softening temperature involves ability to be cut, while heat deflection temperature involves distortion from an evenly distributed force. Thus, use the parameters based on whether sharp uneven forces or a distributed force is most important to your application. This can also be worded Vicat is for maintaining shape, HDT is for maintaining load bearing properties. In other words, Vicat is for uneven loading on the print, which can change the shape. The most extreme is a sharp load. HDT is for the print to support an evenly distributed load. Many applications may be in between the two. What complicates the issue is 3D prints are ususally printed with a fill rather than being printed solid.
Appendix
Standards to determine Vicat softening point include ASTM D 1525 and ISO 306, which are largely equivalent.
The heat distortion temperature is determined by the following test procedure outlined in ASTM D648. The test specimen is loaded in three-point bending in the edgewise direction. The outer fiber stress used for testing is either 0.455 MPa or 1.82 MPa, and the temperature is increased at 2 °C/min until the specimen deflects 0.25 mm. This is similar to the test procedure defined in the ISO 75 standard.
Limitations that are associated with the determination of the HDT is that the sample is not thermally isotropic and, in thick samples in particular, will contain a temperature gradient. The HDT of a particular material can also be very sensitive to stress experienced by the component which is dependent on the component’s dimensions. The selected deflection of 0.25 mm (which is 0.2 % additional strain) is selected arbitrarily and has no particular physical significance. |
Auto bed leveling with BL Touch sensor crashing to bed I'm new to 3d printing and I recently bought a Geeetech Prusa i3 Pro B along with a BL Touch (3D touch) sensor to do auto bed leveling.
I printed the sensor holder, mounted it and the sensor to the extruder carriage and uploaded a configured Marlin firmware to the printer. It worked great for about 6 times and now, it crashes on the bed on the two points on the right of the bed.
I tried manually leveling the bed thinking that the nozzle was touching the bed plate before the sensor's needle could, but that's not the case. Even with the bed manually leveled, when using G29 (Auto Bed Leveling code), the Z-axis carriage crashes into the bed.
What can I do/check? | As it turns out, my Z-axis carriage mount to the X-axis was bent, causing the nozzle to touch the bed before the proble could get a chance to detect anything. Manually bending it back to the correct angle solved the problem. |
Real life stepper speed I am wondering about the speed that my steppers should achieve in regular operation and what the determining factors are, from theoretical hardware facts/limits to software limitations that can influence performance.
I do know about the basic properties of stepper motors such as the torque relation with speed, which I read some while ago from this source (for anyont stumbling into this question later):
https://www.geckodrive.com/gecko/images/cms_files/Step%20Motor%20Basics%20Guide.pdf
So far Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepper_motor) easily turns up the following statements with regard to my question:
Thus when controlled by an L/R drive, the maximum speed of a stepper
motor is limited by its inductance since at some speed, the voltage U
will be changing faster than the current I can keep up.
and for chopper drivers:
This requires additional electronics to sense winding currents, and
control the switching, but it allows stepper motors to be driven with
higher torque at higher speeds than L/R drives
Obviously the amount of steps/revelation will change the speed, too
However, all this does not help me to determine what the real life speed of my stepper should be. Additional firmware parameters clutter up my (beginner's) brain even more (and I haven't had a too deep dive into that yet).
In general I understand that the frequency we use to send the steps to the stepper is the main determining factor, also 'reduced' by microstepping, if applied. We cannot keep the current up as much as needed due to timing/inductive/electronic properties of the motors, so we lose torque or finally steps. A higher voltage helps to bring the current up faster, so the steepness of the current increase can also limit the maximum applicable frequency. The frequency itself is given from the controller board to the motor driver, hence is set in firmware.
All in all, apart from what makes sense to utilize in a 3D printer setup, what are the determining factors of the stepper speeds that can be realized and how to they transform into real life values for our printers? Also I'd be interested in how the determining factors influence the reliability and print quality regardless of the mechanical difficulties that arise with print-speed.
/edit:
I found these to exist on electroncs SE:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/71270/maximum-speed-of-stepper-motor
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/129064/slow-down-stepper-motors-speed-using-stepper-driver-drv-8825
However, I think the question here is relevant and specific enough for 3D printing to exist here alongside. | The four main motor speed limits in a 3d printer are:
Firmware step generation frequency limits
Firmware motion planner effects
Loss of torque and precision due to motor coil inductance and back-EMF effects
Mid-band resonance
Step generation rate limits will depend on the firmware and controller board used. There is a significant range, particularly when 32bit firmwares and RTOS-based platforms like MachineKit are compared to 8bit firmwares running on Atmega AVRs. Some examples:
Marlin on a 16 MHz 8bit Atmega can only run the stepper interrupt at 10,000 hz without bogging down the processor and blocking other critical algorithms (like motion planning). It can fire step rates up to 40,000 hz by pulsing the step line two or four times per interrupt, which effectively drops the microstep level in software and runs the motors rougher/louder.
Repetier on the same Atmega can run the stepper interrupt at 12,000 hz, because it is optimized more for execution speed than Marlin.
Repetier on an 84 MHz 32bit ARM Cortex-M3 can run the stepper interrupt at 80,000 Hz.
These limits typically only affect actual stepper speed when relatively fine microstepping is used. Consider an example based on a very typical Marlin printer configuration. Microstepping of at least 1/4 is strongly recommended to avoid resonance issues, so let's start with 1/16 stepping. This allows quad-stepping to effectively output 1/4-steps. Starting with finer microstepping will drop our top speed, and coarser microstepping will be louder and may encounter resonance, so this is a good starting point. Then asssume a typical 32mm-per-rev pulley on a 1.8 degree (200 steps/rev) stepper motor. This system has a resolution of 200*16/32= 100 steps/mm. At 40,000 Hz total stepping rate (quad-stepping at 10,000 Hz) we can theoretically travel at 400 mm/s before hitting Marlin's hard cap. That's probably going to be a higher RPM than we want to run the motor anyway, so it's not a very impactful limit.
In comparison, if we started at 1/128 stepping (such as with the THB6128 driver chip) our top speed with 8bit Marlin would be 50 mm/s. That's quite slow.
Firmware motion planners can further limits motor speed by ramping up and down to traverse turns and corners. If the model geometry has lots of sharp turns, the target speeds commanded by the gcode are likely to never actually be reached. Only long, straight line paths will have enough ramping time to hit the speed target. You can see this yourself by printing a very small model at a variety of feedrates and timing the actual print duration: at a certain point, increases in the commanded speed will make no difference on actual print times.
Another constraint some firmwares enforce is requiring the ability to safely decelerate to a stop within the length of all the motion commands in the planner queue. This allows the printer to gracefully handle a sudden loss of input, such as as if the host computer stops transmitting USB commands, or if the SD card experiences a series of read errors. If the printer just abruptly stops from full speed when it runs out of commands, it is likely to lose position and ruin the print. Whereas if it can decelerate to a safe stopping speed, it may be able to resume after the command stream resumes.
In terms of actual motor behavior, the inductance and back-EMF introduce significant limits because they decrease motor torque at higher RPMs. This produces a torque/RPM curve that drops off at higher speeds:
http://www.geckodrive.com/support/step-motor-basics.html
Note in the picture that there is a flat "constant current" region on the left side at low speeds. This is the range where the chopping driver is limiting coil current. On the right side of the curve, current is not able to reach the target before it must be switched back off for the next step. That reduces field strength and thus torque.
There are two separate effects to consider here:
Motor coils are inductors, which means there is a first-order lag between applied voltage and coil current. A standard bipolar stepper motor with a microstepping driver must raise the coil current from zero to max or from max to zero every full step (eg every sixteen 1/16th microsteps). At high step rates, there is not enough time to fully charge the coil to its max current before the next step requires dropping the current back down. Without developing full coil current on each step, torque is lost.
Every motor is also a generator, and spinning the rotor generates back-EMF voltage within the motor coils. That voltage waveform gets overlaid on top of the drive voltage waveform with a phase shift dependent on the rotor position relative to the coil energization position. In simple terms, this voltage attempts to brake the motor: it always does whatever will slow the motor down. This means it opposes the applied drive voltage when the motor is applying forward torque, or assists the applied drive voltage when the motor is applying brake torque.
For a practical discussion of speed limits, we can simplify the situation by assuming back-EMF voltage opposes the drive voltage applied to the coils. This means there is less effective voltage raising/lowering coil current, and it takes longer for the current to change, and less coil current is developed than would be the case without back-emf. This further depresses the torque/RPM curve of the motor. And when the back-EMF voltage is around the same magnitude as the drive voltage, significant motor instability can result because of complex feedback effects between rotor position and effective coil voltage.
You can play with these effects using different motor configurations and speeds for a few popular 3D printer stepper drivers using my stepper driver simulator: https://github.com/rcarlyle/StepperSim
In closed-loop applications with position feedback and high-end drivers that can damp various instability modes, it may be ok to run the stepper all the way down the torque curve at very high RPMs. In more typical open-loop 3D printer applications, it's generally best to stick to the low-RPM part of the torque curve before inductance and back-EMF really take over the motor behavior. Losing too much torque can easily mean skipping steps and losing position, ruining the print.
Another important effect for steppers is mid-band resonance. This is not a normal mechanical resonance, but actually an electromechanical resonance effect. It's quite complicated, but the short explanation is that a stepper has an intrinsic 90-degree phase shift between position and torque, and when speeds rise to a point where coil inductance introduces an additional 90-degree phase shift between coil current and applied voltage, the electromechanical system has a highly-unstable 180-degree phase lag and thus creates a negative feedback loop. This can rapidly drop motor torque until the motor loses synchronicity with the driver's applied voltage and stalls.
Mid-band resonance only occurs when coil current is limited by inductance. It cannot occur in the constant-current drive range because there is not enough phase lag between applied voltage and coil current.
http://www.geckodrive.com/support/step-motor-basics.html
Unfortunately, measured torque curves available from manufacturers almost never show resonance zones, because the curves are produced by loading motors with friction-brakes that damp any kind of resonance effect from building. Whereas a 3D printer drivetrain load is almost entirely inertial (accelerating a mass) which is much more prone to resonance.
High-end drivers can automatically detect and damp mid-band resonance, but typical low-cost 3D printer drivers do not have this capability.
It is generally prudent to avoid entering an RPM range where mid-band resonance may occur. This is easily accomplished by sticking to the left side of the torque curve, in the constant-current operating region. This ensures high torque and good stability.
For a concrete example, consider the popular Kysan 1124090 stepper with a 24v power supply.
https://ultimachine.com/content/kysan-1124090-nema-17-stepper-motor
To maintain high torque and avoid mid-band resonance, we would want to keep the RPM to about 400 or less. For the same 32mm-per-rev pulley mentioned above, that would limit speeds to around 200-240 mm/s. Higher speeds are possible, but may encounter reliability issues.
This speed, of course, assumes a 24v PSU is used, to match the measured torque curve: a 12v PSU would have a significantly lower top speed before inductance starts to limit coil current, around half as fast. Higher supply voltage greatly increases the top effective speed for the motor.
Again, you can easily simulate this effect (using https://github.com/rcarlyle/StepperSim). This simulator output chart shows how inductance and back-EMF are keeping coil current from reaching the target:
For practical drivetrain design, a motor/driver simulator is really the best tool in the toolbox for finding the point where performance will start to degrade due to inability to hit current targets. It's simply too complex to apply simple equations or rules of thumb with any accuracy. These electrical effects and the firmware step generation limits are likely to be the two main restrictions on motor speed for most printers.
Of course, how fast you can melt plastic will tend to limit printing speeds significantly below the true motor speed limits, but that's a different discussion. For the moment, we can simply say that top motor speed tends to be unimportant for print moves in typical Cartesian printers. However, there are a few instances where they are likely to drive printer performance:
Linear Deltas, where carriages may need to run several times faster than the effector for certain move directions
Geared extruders with high reduction ratio (eg much over 5:1) for high retraction speeds
Short-pitch lead screws (or all-thread) that need high rotation speeds to achieve moderate linear speeds |
Three-phase stepper motors? Can I use three-phase stepper motors with pololu style stepper drivers? If not, what kind of drivers support three-phase motors? | Three phase stepper motors are superior in several ways: see this advertising literature. Unfortunately for using this with simple stepper drivers, they have an extra coil of wire that simple drivers have no way to control. Two phase motors have two isolated coils, while three phase motors have three coils connected in a star configuration.
Texas Instruments offers this design suggestion for using three-phase motors: TI White Paper. Ultimately, it is driven by three synchronized PWM signals connected to three H-bridges, each driving one of the three motor wires. One could build a board with a micro-controller that accepted step and direction pulses and output the three-phase drive. At that level, you could substitute the micro-control-plus-H-bridge board for the Pololu-style driver in an existing 3D printer framework. You would need to configure the steps-per-mm correctly for the new drive system.
If you did this, and the sales literature is correct, you should get quieter operation with higher torque. How that would affect operation would depend on the torque of the motor, the rotating mass of the motor, and the gearing or belt drive you use.
Like two-phase motors, high torque at high speed requires driving the motor with a voltage much higher than the "specified" steady-state motor voltage. |
Extruding a (wall?) in Fusion 360? I have a model that has walls with a volume of 0.00mm that I want to extrude so I can 3D Print it.
I was unable to convert it into a normal body in order to extrude it.
In addition I was unable to figure out what kind of body type this is, here a picture.
And here a Picture of the Model.
How can I extrude these walls? | I think the command you're looking for is "Thicken". Recent versions of Fusion360 have moved this around, but now it should appear under the Create Panel when you're in the the Model mode (see the image below for details). A detailed description and short screencast on the Autodesk website here. |
How can I insulate my thermistor? I have had many problems with my heat shrink for the thermostat on my Anet A8 melting from the heat block.
Is there a way I can insulate my wires from heat but still have enough room to put the thermistor into the block? | You can use kapton tape, small PTFE tube, or silicone tape. I use PTFE on my delta printer (I do have a silicone tape wrapped around my heat block, but that's to help with keeping the heat in the block, not for eletrical insulation (although it would work for that)). These will all handle the temperatures of your heat block fairly well. |
How to easily get rid of rafts and support structures? My printed parts consist rafts, supports and other extraneous filament when printing with ABS or PLA.
What are efficient general techniques of removing them? | The best way to get rid of them is to change the design of the printed object to make them unnecessary.
Instead of printing the one part with support material, the piece can be split into two or more parts which can be printed without support material and assembled after the printing.
Given that this is not always fully possible, a convenient way to get rid of additional structures is to use a different fillament for them that can be removed easily. This list of printing materials includes Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA), which is water soluble. You can wash the support material away given that your actual printign material is not water soluble. Here's a quote from the website (emphasize mine):
PVA (Polyvinyl Acetate) filament prints translucent with a slightly yellow tint and is primarily used as a 3D printing support material because it is water-soluble, meaning that it will dissolve when exposed to water (and so MUST be kept dry prior to use). PVA is most often used with 3D printers capable of dual extrusion: one extruder printing a primary material (such as ABS or PLA) and the other printing this dissolvable filament to provide support for overhanging features. PVA 3D printer filament is available in 1.75mm and 3mm. |
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