Also check out the Jadelabo J1, another IDEX printer that should be available early 2022.
Cheers
@Alan I checked out the Jadelabo printer, looks good but not released yet and way overpriced for me.
@Ender5r or anyone, I need help. I figured how to tell the Pronterface software I have 3 extruders, but how do I tell it to start extruding 100 mm on extruder (T2) for example.
@Lowteck, ah, a simple 1. In the terminal window (on the far right) simply type T1 and hit enter. The reason for typing T1 rather than T2 is because the extruders are numbered from 0. So, your extruders are numbered T0, T1, and T2. Once you enter T1, for example, all commands from then on will work on the middle extruder (until you enter a different Tx command).
After you set the extruder, you can then use the Extrude button on the left. Set the nozzle temp using the Heat data box and click on Set to the right.
Enter 100 in the Length box and I would enter 50 in the Speed box. Then, once the temp is up, click the Extrude button. It should take 2 minutes to extrude 100mm. Oh, don’t forget to mark the filament at 120mm from the point it enters the extruder, so you can measure exactly how much was extruded.
First off, I found this video to watch. The person went so fast at a single watch, I learned nothing of the commands to use. Another question, in the video, he pushed the filament through the nozzle. Is this required or can I just take the Teflon tube lose from the extruder? Now that I can address the different extruders, I will play the video again and again, taking notes of the different commands to use until I feel I can do this procedure. I got my 15 ft cable today. So, tomorrow I will try to do one of the extruders. I feel E3 (T2) is spot on. E2 (T1) is over extruding, and E1 (T0) is under extruding. I got all the red chess board squares printed and next the black which is on E1. I discovered something about glue and glass plate. I can do two layers or prints before washing the glass but 3 layers of glue and 3 prints cause the print to stick very hard to the glass. I am sure there are other variables but one thing at a time. But, go ahead and mention them while they are fresh on your mind. I just want to solve one thing at a time. I do not, at this time need too many “irons in the fire.”
I am not sure what you mean by “he pushed the filament through the nozzle”. Are you asking if you can just push filament through the extruder when trying to calibrate the extruder? If so, I would say “no”. You could do that to get an approximate value for steps/mm but, in the end, you have to heat the nozzle to the temp you plan to use when printing, then put a mark on the filament 120mm ahead of where it enters the extruder, then extrude 100mm (I’ve been extruding at 50mm/min). You may need to do this for each brand, type, or even color of filament. Also, don’t remove the tubing from the extruder to try to save filament. It’s not worth it.
1 thing I will say: once you have the Bowden tube inserted into the connector on the extruder, you should not remove it unless really necessary. These connectors, and the tubing, are only good for so many insertions and removals.
Here is a handy G-code reference: Marlin firmware. This might be what you need:
G1 E100 F60
Cheers
P.S. – Take a look at your Start G-Code.
@Alan yeah, that will extrude 100mm of filament, provided relative positioning is turned on (G91) each time you send the G1 E100 F60 command. That’s why I like Pronterface. It takes care of that behind the scenes stuff when you click the Extrude button. Not essential, but really handy.
Well, you did post
Personally, I believe in the old adage “you get what you pay for.” There is a Youtube video of a guy who runs a 3D printer farm … some 50 Prusa’s. In the past 5 years of 24/7 printing, he’s only had to service one or two. Cheers
I’m impressed he has enough business to keep 50 printers busy 24/7.
Thanks for the heads up, somewhere in all the videos I have watched, someone did remove and use a short piece of filament and ran it through several times. So much different information out there. I just want to get it right.
Is the G1 E100 F60 the F60 the speed? The reason I ask is because in the video he used F100.
Yes. If you look up G1 in the web page document @Alan linked to (this 1: [U]https://marlinfw.org/meta/gcode/[/U]), you will find all the parameters and it will show that Fxxx is the feed rate.
There is no hard and fast rule about how fast to feed when calibrating an extruder. I think most resources will suggest F100. I recently started using F50. The main point, to get it right, is to pick a speed that’s slow enough to ensure the extruder will not skip.
You should bookmark the Marlin document webpage. It’s a great resource.
And, again yes, there is a great deal of information out there. Some of it seems contradictory, but most is not. Pick the things that are the same in resource after resource and you should be good to go. Often, when things differ, it simply means it’s not all that important. For example, the feed rate (Fxxx). You see rates of F50, F60, and F100. But notice what you don’t see: feed rates of F200, F500, F1000. That tells you something. In this case, it says those rates can be problematic because they may ask the extruder to pump filament through at speeds it can’t handle. There are videos of people testing just how fast their extruder can feed filament through a neated nozzle. I saw 1 where the guy found his extruder could handle a max of F187. That is more than 3 times the rate typically used during actual printing.
Thanks guys for all your information, I had intended to run the extruder tests today, but I watched several videos on duel nozzle printers. I then got invited to eat with friends and then they came over to watch a movie. I hope to try tomorrow, or today by the time on the clock.
Well I tried to communicate through the serial port of the printer. The computer said that the drivers were per-installed, but could not get software to recognize the printer. Tried three times and then tried to communicate with cura. That was a real disaster. That is all I can say about that. I do not know what to do from here.
With Pronterface you have to pay attention to 2 things in order to connect to the printer: COM port, and BAUD rate. For most printers the BAUD rate is 115,200 (but some are different). For the COM port, click the drop down list and try each port (COM1, COM3, COM9, etc.) in your list. If you try each port without success, start over with a different BAUD rate. Eventually you’ll hit the right combo. After that, you will always know the BAUD rate, so only need to worry about the COM port in the future.
I coppied what I got after it connected. Port is not listed. I downloaded from Acer the serial drivers.
Connecting…
start
Printer is now online.
echo:Marlin 1.1.8
echo: Last Updated: 2017-12-25 12:00 | Author: (none, default config)
echo:Compiled: Jul 28 2020
echo: Free Memory: 2344 PlannerBufferBytes: 1424
echo:V402open stored settings retrieved (614 bytes; crc 62042)
echo:poweroff stored settings retrieved (58 bytes; crc 12981)
read file dir:
read file name:
echo: G21 ; Units in mm
echo: M149 C ; Units in Celsius
echo:Filament settings: Disabled
echo: M200 D1.75
echo: M200 D0
echo:Steps per unit:
echo: M92 X80.00 Y80.00 Z400.00 E395.00
echo:Maximum feedrates (units/s):
echo: M203 X500.00 Y500.00 Z5.00 E25.00
echo:Maximum Acceleration (units/s2):
echo: M201 X500 Y500 Z100 E1000
echo:Acceleration (units/s2): P<print_accel> R<retract_accel> T<travel_accel>
echo: M204 P500.00 R500.00 T1000.00
echo:Advanced: S<min_feedrate> T<min_travel_feedrate> B<min_segment_time_us> X<max_xy_jerk> Z<max_z_jerk> E<max_e_jerk>
echo: M205 S0.00 T0.00 B20000 X10.00 Y10.00 Z0.40 E5.00
echo:Material heatup parameters:
echo: M145 S0 H190 B60 F0
echo: M145 S1 H240 B90 F0
echo:PID settings:
echo: M301 P45.80 I3.61 D145.39
echo: M304 P182.46 I35.92 D231.70
hardware version:2.20echo:Fixed parameter (6 bytes; crc 54301)
echo:SD card ok
>>> T1
SENDING:T1
Setting hotend temperature to 230 degrees Celsius.
>>> T2
SENDING:T2
I do not know what it is at this time. Will read, but first I am going to try to feed the
T2 filament.
There was 27 mm not extruded.
.
I got all three extruders calibrated. E3 (T2) I used 120 mm and it had 27 mm left. Using 395 that corrected 424.73. E2 (T1) had the same variable, but I marked at 150 mm and used a folder clamp to mark the distance. It equaled the same thing. I did the same 150 mm for E1 (T0) and it over extruded by 1 mm. There was 49.23 mm remaining. The reason I used 150 was because I did not have any marker for dark blue and black. I hope I did everything correctly.
An interesting idea to go 150 and use a folder clamp (not sure what that is but if it works…).
You know how you’ve done it correctly? When you command the printer to extrude 100mm, it actually extrudes 100mm, simple as that.
Now, you move on to Flow Rate/Extruder Multiplication, depending on which slicer you’re using. This fine tunes the extruder calibration so your prints are more dimensionally accurate. To do this print a small cube (e.g. 25mm square) in Vase Mode. In Cura it’s call Spiralize Outer Contour. In vase mode the printer will print the cube hollow with no top and the walls will be only 1 line thick. Then, you can measure the thickness of the walls to get an average. You then adjust the Flow Rate to make the walls thicker or thinner: i.e. to make them as close to the width of your nozzle (e.g. 0.4mm) as possible.
Here’s a webpage about it: [U]https://3dprintbeginner.com/flow-rate-calibration/[/U]
Ok, I did the flow rate, but I did it wrong, even though I had the instructions in front of me. I only did one layer instead of two layers in the walls. With the single layer they were about .42 and a couple .39. On the E3 extruder it did something I had never seen before. It would make two laps around and then the nozzle would lift and go to the left side of the print and shake back and fourth a half dozen times, go back and make two more layers and do it again. I do not know what setting caused it to do that but I will look closely between the settings and correct I hope. I will do it again with the correct settings and see what happens. If you have seen and know what setting caused the printer to do this let me know. It caused a lot of stringing and blobs. Why would there be a setting to do this?
So it would seem you are slightly underextruding, but that can be confirmed after you complete the tests. Sure looks like you’re getting the printer dialed in though. Things are looking up.