I just re-read part of your last post. When you say you “will go through this each time I see a new stl file” do you mean you will have to change the Start GCode each time, cause that’s not true. Once you set the Start or End GCode it stays that way until you change it again.
No, what I meant was I will look over all the cura configuring settings, example would be to see what the temp was for nozzle and plate, check to see what the nozzle speed was. Most of the time nothing changes but I really want to be sure since I am new and uncertain about things, and sometimes, just change something because I didn’t like what I saw on the last print. A question, on the current print I am doing, I thought I has the nozzle rise to miss scratching the build, but it is not. What is the setting and which tab.
There is an addon for Cura, called Z Offset Setting, that you can find in the Marketplace. It gets added to the Build Plate Adhesion section of the Print Settings pane. You can use positive values to lift the nozzle and negative ones to lower the nozzle.
Thanks! I will check it out. One thing, I downloaded about a dozen test off a site the other night and checked the test in cura and found a nice leveling file. And the bad part I had used this before for the cubes.
I find this surprising. I’ve not heard of this being an issue with 3D printer beds. Can you please explain the mechanism involved?
Back to the issues under discussion.
@Lowteck Have you tried a raft for bed adhesion in Cura? Will the plate glass be sitting on top of the aluminum plate or replacing it?
Those M-codes take their temperatures from the slicer (Cura).
Don’t forget materials usually expand (even glass beds) when heated, so it is generally a good idea to let the print bed stabilize thermally before starting a print.
Are you saying that the print temperatures that you are using are higher than the manufacturer’s recommended print temperature range? What materials & manufacturer are you using? What temperatures are we taking about here? For example, Hatchbox recommends 180-220C for its white PLA, while IC3D recommends 215-240C for its white PLA.
What are you doing for bed adhesion? Strategically placing painters tape and a raft?
Fingers crossed. Good luck!
Cheers
I just want @Lowteck to keep an eye on it, to not just assume the glass bed is truly flat. I think the risk of glass beds sagging depends on the kind of glass: e.g. borosilicate glass may be more resistant than regular glass.
@Alan The temp I am using is 70 for the bed and 230 for the nozzle. Oh, I am using PETG. Nozzle 1 is PLA. I have not used black too much. Just the pieces of one side of a chess set. Nozzle 3 is red. That is the other half of the chess set. That is the color which caused the queens to break lose from the bed and just make a mess. That is the reason for the higher temp. Red and blue were marketed by Amazon and the black by Geeetech.
It took me 3 hours last night to get the glass plate in and leveled. I had to move the Z axis limit switch for the bed screws to be able to respond properly the the added glass plate thickness of .3 mm. I just dripped it of top of the ?? whatever the plate that fit on top of the metal plate. I printed with blue a circular storage box with a screw on top. Except for the nagging strings which the blue seems to have. It came out fine. I was pleased with it. Today and now I am printing squares in red for a chess board. I have only done the red two corner squares and I did both on one print. I had them offset at left rear and right front. They came out ok. Not examined closely. Letting them cool. But, on the second layer, and fourth layer in one direction of print on the front square, it had a lot of bumps or picks on it but the left rear was smooth and shinny, layers 1 3 were shinny and smooth on both print levels. What is the cause of this. Is that corner too high or too low. But it is that way in one direction and the cover up layer seems to smooth it our. Oh and the squares are appx 3 inches in both directions. Have to waite to measure. I thought the print was through but it is not. Oh and the speed I am using is 50. I have used both slower and faster but not slower than 45 or faster than 60. Maybe the first print at 70. That was before I did some reading and watching videos. Not done any test prints to see best speed. — The reason I have to edit is the forum times out on me before my slow fingers gets so much typed.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t recall seeing where you posted that you’ve calibrated all 3 extruders.
Yes, you are correct, I have not calibrated the extruders, I really not sure how to. I saw a brief video on how to feed the filament, but I don’t think they got into it good enough to teach someone how. So far, I have been satisfied that they are close. I did find and download the software you mentioned. On thing, my computer is in one room and the printer is in another. I have used most of my extension usb cables, but I may be able to put a couple together to do the tests, will get further information when I am able to tie them together. I printed six red squares to create the chess board. They are apx 3 x 3 inches and it took about 10 hours. I do still have the speed very slow and so far the squares look great except the z lift when it goes over the squares. It scores the surface several times and it shows up. I did raise the right front after the first pass and the rest do not show the picking appearance. There is very little stringing with the red. Only over open space when switching from one square to another. The first two were done as one print, the two corners. I have printed 4 squares together and they are on an end, and started 4 more. Got to print a total of 12. I cannot, or do not want to change things in cura until I do one of the other patterns, that one I do 18, if I remember correctly. Then I will start on the black squares. Then I will see about the T0 or E1, whichever.
Have any information on the software you mentioned to talk to the printer directly. I keep getting a message to update USB drivers. Haven’t done that yet either, wasn’t sure until now I really needed to do that.
I do recall something about Pronterface sometimes needing to have updated USB drivers. I’ve attached a copy to this post. Run the setup.exe and that should install them.
Honestly, you really won’t be able to print reliably until you calibrate your extruders.
Here’s a video on downloading and installing Pronterface: [U]Download, Install, and Connect Pronterface to Ender 3 V2 3D Printer - YouTube
And an overview on using Pronterface: [U]Pronterface Interface Overview - How to enter G-Code directly into your 3D Printer and more! - YouTube
@Irv_Shapiro has several E-step calibration videos, but he doesn’t use Pronterface. Nevertheless, you might want to check them out.
That said, you may benefit from watching Michael Laws videos on Teaching Tech. He has a special website and videos all about calibration: [U]3D printer calibration revolutionised - Step by step to better print quality - YouTube
I can’t stress enough how important calibration is to successful printing. If you can afford a $5,000+ printer you can find units that do a lot of it automatically, but not in the sub $1,000 hobby printers.
Oh, BTW, I forgot to mention that you need to be careful about how long a USB cable you try to use. Anything over 16 feet is getting dicey. I’ve done it myself, but I’m always aware that I may have communication errors.
CH341SER.zip (180 KB)
Ok, let’s see if I have this correct.
Nozzle 1 - Geeetech black PLA
Nozzle 2 - Amazon (Basics or Overture?) blue PETG
Nozzle 3 - Amazon (Basics or Overature?) red PETG
Is this correct? I wouldn’t mix PLA and PETG initially until oyu have everything else sorted out.
Please note that:
Overature specifications:
Recommended Extrusion/Nozzle Temp: 230°C - 250°C
Heated Bed Temp: 80°C - 90°C
Amazon Basics specifications:
Recommended Extrusion/Nozzle Temp: 230°C - 250°C
Heated Bed Temp: 60°C - 80°C
So your print temperature is on the low side.
Do you have any pictures of the failed parts?
You might want to consider setting up a Raspberry Pit with OctoPrint if your printer is in another room.
Cheers!
See my first post in this thread. Agreed 100% on the importance of extruder calibration.
Cheers
Took several hours the other day scanning Geeetech’s forum for filament calibration and found several posts on people wanting help, everyone was told to download their special software to do this. I have not downloaded this software because I am concerned about having software without community support like the one recommended here. Just now I ordered a 10 foot UPS to printer cable. I have a 10+ years old printer in the room with the 3d printer and has not been turned on in at least 4 years. I will see what I can do about transferring all the files to that printer.
I am satisfied just at this point with the bed plate leveling. Seems the new glass plate with the purple glue is doing fine, but then the only thing I am printing is chess board squares 4 at a time and they are just under 3 inches.
It might be good to have a link to the software Geeetech is recommending.
I assume by “UPS” you actually meant “USB” (maybe it’s being delivered by UPS? ?)
Sounds like you need to take that old printer to Best Buy for recycle.
By “transfer all the files to that printer” do you mean to the 3D printer?
Good thinking about the simplicity of the squares you’re printing. They might not really test out how good the bed level is.
@Ender5r Yes to the “USB” and yes to the" simplicity of squares", they are only 20 slices high, but I did have a problem last night. With less than 6 slices the nozzle, I assume, garbed one of the 4 squares that I was printing and caused the x motor to get out of sync and mess the 4 up. With the supply of the red petg filament getting low I changed to two squares per print. I am not sure pla and petg red would be the same. When I re-sliced I raised the z offset from 3 to 5. It made no change. I assume that is where I make the change where the print head is moving to new location to not score the print. As of now I only have 6 more squares to print in red.
The URL for the calibration tool that Geeetech says to use is : GitHub - Geeetech3D/Smartto-Tool: Collection contains firmware tool, motor tool etc.
I have not downloaded the software yet.
Another problem, the computer I had planned to use, the display is defective and I will have to go to a new plan.
I had a quick look at that tool on github. Have to admit, I don’t really get what it’s supposed to do. The best I can figure is it’s just a newer version of the firmware. Maybe it contains a menu item to calibrate the extruders??
PLA and PETG print at quite different temperatures. Also, I really don’t recommend mixing different temperature filaments through the same nozzle. I know people do it but, for me, it just led to clogging, jamming issues. I recommend you pick a filament type and stick with it. I chose PETG.
That might change with my new JG Maker Artist D. It has drop out, pop in nozzles, so I could change them quickly and easily. I would just have to keep track which nozzles are being use for which filament type.
After I posted the link, I took a look at the gif’s and readmes, I became more confused than before. After your just posted statement, I am more convinced that I will not use it. One: because there is no real support on the Geeetech Forum. and Two: There is a forum which seems/has good support and it was recommended to use another piece of software. At least I can have a place to answer questions on the software. I looked at the software, and I know I will have a lot of questions, but not as much as the other software. I will eventually get to the point where I will be asking questions on the subject, be aware
The 3d printer you mentioned sounds interesting!.
The Artist D printer was a KickStarter project. @Irv_Shapiro and I both bought the Pro version. Irv has already posted some video of his experience with it, and I have thread in this forum about my experience. It’s an IDEX printer with a large bed.
I looked at the non pro and I liked what I saw, and it would also be great that two people has this printer. I would like to purchase one but it cannot be, at least until after Christmas. I will be curious to hear what you and Shapiro have to say about this printer.
@Irv_Shapiro and I have both had issues with our printers, but my recent experience with disassembling the right extruder have alleviated many of my concerns. You can find out what we’ve already posted about them at [U]http://forum.makewithtech.com/forum/idex-multi-material-3d-printers-aa[/U] and [U]http://forum.makewithtech.com/forum/3d-printer-reviews/9809-jg-maker-artist-d[/U].