text:
Problems with elephant's foot
I recently got an Ender 3 Pro for my birthday, and I am having some problems with elephant's foot (as the title suggests). I have tried several fixes; lowering the print speed, changing the print micron size (quality) in my slicer, and I have also tried the masking tape trick (it definitely does not work). I want to know if there are any other ways to prevent elephant's foot on my prints. I first noticed it on a game-cartridge holder. It was four and a half millimeters thick on the bottom. I think that it could be an issue with the design, but I'm not entirely sure. I can send the specs for the design if you want to look at them.

If you are using Cura, have you tried adjusting the Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion under your Shell settings?

Happy Birthday!!!! Enjoy the hobby

Elephant's foot can be caused by different causes.

Incorrect leveling or incorrect nozzle to bed distanceThis answer describes that it can be caused by a too low nozzle to bed distance.
Bed temperatureA too high bed temperature and weight of the print can cause bulging out of the bottom layers. This also frequently occurs as the result of an uncooled/too less cooled first layer.

Improved cooling, lowering bed temperature or adjusting nozzle to bed distance and proper leveling are the most obvious solutions to fight this problem. Other solution can be found in using chamfers on the bottom of the print (requires modifying the model) or printing on a raft, this latter solution does lead to losing the nice bottom layer finish.

Elephant foot on an FDM machine is typically caused by more material (filament) being present in that layer than it has space for.
The most common cause of this is your z-zero is too low, so for the first layer the nozzle starts too close to the bed and the filament gets "squeezed" laterally. You can try adjusting your z-zero or z-stop to allow slightly more space, fractions of a millimeter, between the nozzle and bed for your first layer.
If you don't want to try that, or you'd like to try a different solution first, consider printing the part on a raft so that it starts raised up off the bed and away from that elephant-footing.
There are a handful of other potential causes and factors which can make this better or worse, things like having a large footprint on the bed, but I hope the above is a quick and easy place to start.

If bed temperature is the cause, but you need that temperature for the first layer to stick, Use that bed temperature for the firsts layer, then set the bed temperature lower for subsequent layers.


text:
Ender 3 - Tiny strings in print
Suddenly my prints start having small strings and I'm not sure what to do to eliminate them.
I have already tried to clean the filament tube, cleaned up the nozzle, and played with various retraction settings. Nothing seems to work and I still see these small strings.

Any idea how I can eliminate it?

Does this answer your question? How to avoid stringing?

@Rykara unfortunately it doesn't

These artifacts can be either moisture, as explored by this answer or problems with temperature/speed control or the Z-Axis:
If the temperature is not hot enough, the filament might not get melted enough to squish down to the next layer nicely at the speed the head moves at, resulting in the cooling filament getting dragged behind the printhead and forming a line in the air. Due to such errors I generally tend to print PLA more in the upper temperatures than where it barely liquifies.
This also can happen if the printhead is not on the right Z-height and the gap is larger than expected. Usually, this happens only at the lowest layer when you are unlevel (bad bed adhesion is the result), but if you bump the printer or it hooks on something, during Z-travel, it can result in such a mechanical problem. Other reasons that show the same pattern are uneven Z-Axis movement. For example, a loose gantry or a defective Z-rod can lead to it, as could bad firmware or a worn-out motor that lost a coil or two.

The Z problem could also happen if Z steps are uneven, for example due to flat spots on V rollers (hate those things).

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE that too. Or of course massive miss-calibration, a loose gantry that doesn't stay level or actually any problem of the Z-control

What you're seeing does not look like stringing, which I would characterize as material that exited the nozzle after extrusion was supposed to have stopped, usually due to missing or insufficient retraction, but like the extrusions along the concave contours failed to bond to the previous layer and got drawn across to a point on the other side of the contour where some degree of adhesion resumed. This happens when the lateral acceleration force of going around the curve overcomes the bonding of the new material to the existing material it's being laid down against, and in my experience it's always the result of moisture-contaminated filament. This matches your description of the problem has something that "suddenly" started happening.
To fix it, dry your filament. If your bed is big enough, the easiest way to do this is to lay the whole spool on the heated bed covered by a cardboard filament box with one side cut out to make a heat chamber, and running the bed heater at around 60-70°C (for PLA) for several hours, flipping the spool a few times during it. You can also use an oven but I would not trust the temperature control not to shoot up high enough to ruin the filament. If you want a less hackish solution, all sorts of specialized filament drying systems are available but I don't have experience with any to recommend. I just use my bed for PLA and oven for materials that can withstand higher temperatures.

it can also be too low print temperature or too fast head movement (e.g. printing with normal speeds at 180°C or at 120mm/s with 190°C or something similar)

@Trish: Yeah, and in fact that's what I expected the first or second time it happened, but I couldn't explain why it started happening with no change in settings, and wasted a lot of time trying to figure out if I did something stupid with my slicing config that I forgot.

Which is why I don't touch speed and temperatures unless necessary

I would say that it IS stringing. If you have a Bowden setup, AND you have a different filament, your retraction may need to be tuned!  If this is not a Vase Mode (no separate layers, but a continuous stream, these could be because the start/stop point of the layer change is not "fixed"...Check that setting in the slicer!   While it looks like missed layer adhesion, it is probably a movement from one stop point of a layer to the start point of the next layer.

This doesn't match with OP's description of the problem as starting suddenly (I took that to mean with no change in settings) and the locations do not look plausible for stringing unless there's missing retraction during travel at layer change and the Z seam location is set to random. This would require a very specific combination of broken, non-default slicing settings (turning off both combing and travel retraction, among other things).

Maybe the change was the model?  Curves where layer changed vs. straight lines?  That happened to me after playing with the settings on Prusaslicer...  So either might be possibe!

I would say that this is stringing, but not from oozing but from pulling a thread on a move. I've seen this a lot especially with PETG. This passage is to the point a movement from one stop point of a layer to the start point of the next layer, the OP could check this in the G-code preview of the slicer.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


text:
Could anyone please provode me settings for Custom FFF for Zonestar Z6FB printer
Recently I bought a printer and failed to find Cura 4.8 settings for it (both in application both myself). My printer Zonestar Z6FB
Currently I doubt in:

G-code flavor
All printhead settings excluding extruder number (which is obviously 1 in my case)
Start/End G-code

Add printer image to eye trap someone who also interested

Your printer looks like a clone of the Creality Ender 2. Have you tried using a printer definition for the Ender 2?

@Mick believe me it is not a clone. It is the cheapest device you can imagine.

Well... it is very similar to the Ender 2, and also the Tronxy X2. Both are cantilever printers. I have a Tronxy X1 -- also a cantilever printer but no heated bed. I suspect that settings for either the Ender 2 or the Tronxy X2 will also work with Zonestar Z6. Of the two printers, Cura is more likely to have definitions for the Ender 2.

I've just checked. Cura does have a definition for the Ender 2.

After some pain, I figured out that if you are a poor Ubuntu/Linux user you should only use the AppImage version of Cura which you can download from official website
Next, make the file you downloaded executable chmod +x *.AppImage
Next, start it from terminal or by clicking in navigator
Ok, proceed as is and then Help ▶ Show Configuration Folder.
It will show 2 folders we need ~/.local/share/cura/4.8
Ok now download ZONESTAR_Cura_Resources.zip from here.
Then copy all files from ZONESTAR_Cura_Resources TO ~/.local/share/cura/4.8 but remember that directory structure is messed up but can be figured out.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
How to convert .obj file to .stl so I can slice to G-code?
I am a beginning maker using an Ender 3. Someone sent me a .obj file from Thingiverse to print for them. I use an online slicer called IceSL as a slicer.
As experts on here know, I cannot use my slicer to slice .obj to G-code. How do I convert this .obj file to a .stl file so I can slice and then print it?

Both Cura and PrusaSlicer can open/import .obj files.

One can import an OBJ file into free program Meshmixer, then export it to STL format. There are other programs that are free and paid (such as Fusion 360) that will perform similar tasks.
As noted by user agarza, Prusa Slicer will import an OBJ and will also export to STL format. PrusaSlicer is also free.


text:
What could cause these slight waves on the print?
The model of the test part is perfectly smooth and exported/sliced in very high resolution, yet there are slight waves on both axis. These waves are not visible in simulation. Converting to arcs via Arc-Welder does not change anything. No stuttering due to the high resolution of G-code (as it's a 32-bit board).
As there are no stops, and speed is uniform - I expect no ringing. What could be the cause?
Ghost4 printer, SKR-PRO board with Marlin bugfix-2.0.x.

What are your printer's esteps per mm?

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE X160.00 Y160.00 Z400.00 E1660.00

Ok, 1660 is high enough that extrusion shouldn't be quantized enough to cause this.

This looks like an issue which repeats EXACTLY layer after layer. I already explained how to solve it in https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/18835/2338 but I answer it again, limiting to this case.
Waves which are exactly aligned vertically, and everywhere, not only after changes of direction, like in

are NOT ringing or "ghosting", they are rather caused by

too tight belt (almost always!)
poor quality belt
poor bearings or idlers (not common)

I also had the issue and it was the belt, too tight. Loosen it, since it can be much looser than you think!
Check How to fix evenly spaced vertical print pattern to get more information.

From my reading it also looks like it might be stepper motor non-uniform steps / resonances.

@BarsMonster it's highly unlikely, if you try to calculate how much such non-uniformities can impact a print. Like 1/8 of a step (12% is already big, it is in fact less than that) would translate in 25 microns for a 20T pulley, and would repeat with 40 mm periodicity. If it repeats with about 2 mm period, it's likely belt related. Have you tried loosening the belt?


text:
G-code wait for extrude command to finish
I have following G-code to prime the nozzle before start of the print.
G28 ; home all axes
G0 Z5 F5000 ; lift nozzle
G0 X30; move to X30
G28 Y; home Y
M420 S1; turn on bed leveling
M109 S220; wait for hotend temperature
G1 E20 F1800; extrude filament 20mm

The idea is to extrude a strand of filament outside of the bed and then start the print. The strand catches on the bed a tears off. So the ooze does not mess up the first layer.
The problem is that the G1 E20 F1800 does not wait for the move to finish and the controller goes to next move immediately. This means the nozzle is going to start the first layer, while spewing filament along the way.
Is there a way to wait for the move to finish?
I have tried M400 which seems not to help. I'm using Marlin Firmware.

Try to add a small rise e.g. of Z to the last command. I use similar script printing "big dot" on the side, while going up at the same time. (And then prints the initial line with the seperate command.) This works well for me. Btw. Marlin docs says for G0-G1: "These commands yield control back to the command parser as soon as the move is queued, but they may delay the command parser while awaiting a slot in the queue." ...whatever it means.

Are you sure the move didn't finish? Attempting to extrude that much at that speed will not actually do so unless you have a really powerful hotend. Instead it'll build up the max pressure the extruder can give prior to slipping and continue to ooze for a long time after the move. This is not a workable way to prime.

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE I was about to write an answer in this line, please post an answer. Note the a retraction prior to move may help, alongside slower extrusion. Please post an answer!

OK, will do that.

Are you sure the move didn't finish? That would be very unusual, not the way 3D printer firmware normally operates. A new G0/G1 move command does not execute until the previous one finishes, whether it's extrude-only, travel-only, or a print move (mix of extrusion and travel).
What's probably happening for you is that the amount of material you're trying to extrude cannot melt and pass through the extruder at the speed you requested. At 1800 mm/min, assuming 1.75 mm diameter filament, you're requesting over 72 mm³ of material (nearly a whole cubic centimeter!) of material to be extruded per second. According to some back-of-the-envelope calculations I just did, It would take more than 300 Watts to continuously raise PLA from room temperature to extrusion temperature at that rate, which is not happening without an extreme hotend and power supply.
So, what you're getting is pressure building up between the extruder gear and the hotend (until it starts slipping), causing the material to continue to ooze for some time after the E-axis move finishes, until all the pressure subsides. If your goal is to prime the nozzle for printing, this is not how to do it. It will just end up oozing material all over the start of your print.
You can somewhat fix this by just reducing the feedrate in your command, but that's still not necessarily going to give you great results. The right way to prime is to extrude at nearly the maximum rate your hotend can handle, then retract and wipe before traveling to where the print will begin.

Excellent answer. OP should figure out their max extrusion rate for a given temperature/material. For me, with 1.75 mm PLA, my maximum extrusion rate before skipping steps is about 11.25 mm/s at 250 °C.

@Rykara: Even 11.25 sounds very high, like it would need a volcano or something. The 250 °C temp should help if you're not trying to sustain that rate continuously, but that's still over 40 mm³/s which is double what I see frequently cited as the max "normal" printers can handle which is still significantly more than they can handle well, without skipping.

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE Thank you! That's totally the problem I have. I found the start code online, so I was not really questioning it. But your explanation makes perfect sense, and it is exactly what is happening! Thank you.

Correction to my previous comment: 11.25 mm/s is 27 mm³/s which is high but not as high as I was estimating. It may be on the very high end of what's plausible with a "normal" printer/hotend and very high temp setting like 250°C. Note: a useful rule of thumb shortcut to remember is that you can multiply by 2.4 to get from mm/s (at 1.75 mm diameter) to mm³/s.


text:
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?

Are you running stock firmware/Marlin firmware?

TH3D firmware, latest version.

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.

Hm I cannot find G0 in PrusaSlicer printer settings G-code. Mine goes M420 than G1 Z2 F240.. Also is this just changing the layer heigh or actual Z offset ? I just found out about M206 documentation says it can set the Z offset for the first layer but what is used after the setting on the printer or ?

@SterlingDuchess G1 is identical to G0 for e.g. Marlin and RepRap firmware. I wouldn't recommend using M206.

Trying to change the Z level (NOT the offset) during a print isn't a good idea UNLESS you know that all future moves will be "relative".
The M206 (if you use Marlin) is the right way to set it!  Depending on the slicer, just create TWO "different" printer definitions and add them to the startup G-codes.
If you don't save it, a reset will return the z-offset to the "saved" value. Or consider resetting to a "standard" value in the ending G-code.
Also, consider using "baby-stepping" (if you can), and manually adjusting things at the start of a print with a different surface.

Welcome to 3D Printing SE and thank you for your contribution. When you get a chance, please take the Tour to understand how the site works and how it is different than others.


text:
What to do if filament spool won't fit in 3D printer
My sample filament has just ran out. Luckilly, I've already bought more filament. The only problem I have is that the spool for the new filament won't fit inside my 3D printer. The filament itself works with my printer; it's just the spool that is the problem. Does anyone have any solutions for what to do if a filament spool won't fit in your 3D printer? For reference, I have the FlashForge Adventurer 3.

Keep your old empty rolls !  They're like screwtop jars, always useful for something.

A spool does not need to be inside a printer. Or on. Or even next to.
My Ender 3 pulls his filament in from the rack above it, my TronXY X1 pulls it from about 80 cm to the left of it, where it hangs from a shelf.
When making a solution that pulls in filament from afar, it is necessary to make sure the path is unobstructed and works for the whole movement range of the printer without getting bent sharply, as that can snap or kink the filament.
In the case of the small printer you have, leave open or remove the door to the filament chamber and make sure to place the spool holder so it drags in the filament straight. There are even spool holders designed specifically for this printer.
There are many designs of spool holders out there, many of them free and with minimal assembly.
RE-spooling
Some printers, especially ones that only take marked rolls, might need their spool cores re-filled. In that case, you need to take utmost care: re-filling a spool needs to be without any twist to the filament or you risk entangling, and you need to make sure to not kink or bend the filament in doing so, or risk breaking at those spots.
Due to the risks involved, this should be avoided whenever possible!

Had to look up the printer the OP mentioned. That one has a closed compartment in the side of the printer for the spool (max 0.5 kg spools). Your answer is still valid, but could perhaps be improved by mentioning that an outside spool can be used by leaving open the side cover (e.g. see https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3163417).

I have never seen a 0.5 kg spool.

@AndreKR, they're common for specialty filaments, but I've never seen one for ordinary PLA.

How about winding some filament onto the empty spool?

@Frog that's risking mis-winding and entanglement.

@Trish agreed, should be done properly or not at all

Thanks for the tips. I am now using a broom placed on a box as a temporary rack for my 3D printer. I am also planning to 3D print  the extension piece for my printer's spool holder.


text:
3D print retouch with soldering iron
Does anyone have any information about using a soldering iron to fix and retouch 3D prints?
On the market, for example, we can find Modifi3D pen. Why has nobody created a simple soldering tip for this use?
I have a TS100 soldering iron which has great temperature control and I think it would be perfect for this use.
Does anyone think it's a bad idea?

I have used a standard soldering iron to modify and fix 3D prints in the past. You have to keep some things in mind when doing so:

Don't overheat your material. PLA can take a soldering iron of about 230 °C before charring.
Don't use a tip with solder, or you will get grey deposits in the plastic.
Round tips or flat tips both work fine, but you want to not dump too much heat into the model or you start to deform the print as it needs to cool again.
Using snippets from the end of the spool for soldering is a good way to recycle the "waste".

Cutting materials with a 'hot knife' isn't anything new.  There should be a fairly established toolset for working foam.  For 3D prints, I prefer to add coatings rather than modify surfaces with a hand held tool after.  I do run a drill bit through printed holes though.


text:
Unable to load new filament FlashForge Adventurer 3
I have a FlashForge Adventurer 3. I have just finished my sample filament today and tried to replace it with a new spool of filament. This new filament is by Hatchbox, instead of FlashForge. Besides that, the new filament is 1.75 mm PLA filament, like the sample spool. However, when I tried to insert the new filament, it doesn't feed in. I get a loud, thumping sound from the printer, but the filament doesn't get fed through. Does anyone know why this is happening or what I should do?

First thing I'd try is making sure the nozzle is hot enough and carefully try to feed the new filament where it will be pushed - sometimes there's melted filament that just isn't hot enough to flow out and the new filament is pushing on it, jamming and making your motor make that sound.  Usually getting it hot to the point where the old filament is practically dripping out before attempting to insert the new filament will work.
If that doesn't work I might let the thing cool, disassemble the nozzle, and remove the jam mechanically (and reassemble it).


text:
Recommendation for free, intuitive offline 3D modeling software for 3D printing
I've used TinkerCAD (https://www.tinkercad.com/) and was able to easily model objects for 3D printing, despite having no prior experience in 3D modeling.
However it needs to be connected to the internet to work, which is not always available at my location.
At minimum, I need an ability to create solid shapes and holes, and with resize, align and rotate options.
Is there an equivalent program that's free, with a similar intuitive interface as TinkerCAD, and works completely offline?

According to our on-topic "Recommendation-based questions really are off-topic, unless very specific indeed - and even then they may still end up being closed."

For software recommendations, consider to move or repost to the Software Recommendations SE. Other 3D printer forums are suitable as well, but be prepared to be deluged with a suggestion for every program out there!

You could start with some of the recommendations from all3dp.com.

Without a very specific niche requirement such as 2018-20 Slicer running on a 32 bis OS or similar narrow band, this is highly opinion based and will never have a "best" answer.

Thanks @agarza. I'll try out a bunch of 3D CAD software.If this question doesn't get shut down, I'll at least post which one worked best from the point of view of someone with limited experience.

From trying out several alternatives (Fusion 360, Wings 3D, Blender, and others), the closest free offline equivalent to TinkerCAD turned out to be OpenSCAD.
It has nowhere near the same level of intuition,
but based on info from two tutorials ("OpenSCAD Tutorial - Beginners Quickstart", "OpenSCAD - Model a Bearing in less than ten minutes."), OpenSCAD was able to fulfill the minimum requirements that were needed from TinkerCAD most quickly, i.e.,"...ability to create solid shapes and holes, and with resize, align and rotate options"

I suspect there may be fewer answers than we expect.
Personally free software wise I like FreeCAD but it is not similar to the simple shapes of tinkercad at all and not intuitive.
I did know someone who used something from https://www.xyzprinting.com that was very similar to the tinkercad stuff, but eventually ran into limitations and switched to more advanced software anyway.


text:
Problems with ColorFabb XT: over extrusion
I could really use some help here. I am trying to print with ColorFabb XT and have been having an overflow problem, which creates an accumulation of material on the nozzle tip creating stringing and depositing random chunks of material randomly throughout the print. When I get the nozzle to 250 °C, the filament flows heavily by itself.
I have upped the print speed, retraction speed and retraction distance and results are getting better, but the problem is still present and my concern is the values are getting relatively high.
I am using a CR-10S Pro and my settings are:

Print speed: 80 mm/s (I actually started with the recommended settings but they were all off)
Nozzle temp: 250 °C
Bed temp: 70 °C
Retraction speed: 50 mm/s
Retraction distance: 7.5 mm

I have managed to print some pieces that don't require much traveling since they are round and filament is deposited in a concentric pattern and also each layer didn't use a lot of material but whenever pieces have bigger cross sections and layers need to deposit more material or there is a minimum amount of travel needed, the problem becomes evident.

Any ideas?
Has anyone had experience with this material?

Level the bed and check your filament diameter.
Usually this occurs because the space between the nozzle and bed is greater than it should be for the material put out of the nozzle.
Such conditions can happen for a variety of reasons but usually it's an improper bed leveling.
Filament diameter vs what your slicer program thinks is the filament diameter is one of the easier ways to control material output after bed is level.  (Sometimes I tell my slicer that the material is smaller than it really is to get it to output more)
Sometimes your z axis moves too much or you are using a layer height that your z axis could not handle.  You may have to increase layer thickness.
Getting the temperatures into a point where it is not too hot and not too cold is also important.  If the material is too cold, it won't stick.  If too hot, it cools and shrinks by the time your new layer gets to it ( making it lower or warped out of place from where the new layer tries to stick )  Increasing bed temperatures is a good way to help counteract the shrinkage.

Hi, thanks for your answer @Abel. Definitely not the case here. Adhesion and leveling are correct. Viscosity is really low in this material when it reaches the required nozzle temperature so I guess its a normal effect (although its rare I have not seen this issue being discussed anywhere). I just put flow at 95% and its going much better. I'd say problem mitigated about 80-90%. I'll keep posting advances.


text:
BLTouch not covering the whole bed area
My problem is that the BLtouch doesn't probe the whole bed, in which the probe starts from the left edge and stops at the middle of the bed. I'm using Marlin 2 software and this the code in the configuration.h file:
  #define BLTOUCH

/**
 * Touch-MI Probe by hotends.fr
 *
 * This probe is deployed and activated by moving the X-axis to a magnet at the edge of the bed.
 * By default, the magnet is assumed to be on the left and activated by a home. If the magnet is
 * on the right, enable and set TOUCH_MI_DEPLOY_XPOS to the deploy position.
 *
 * Also requires: BABYSTEPPING, BABYSTEP_ZPROBE_OFFSET, Z_SAFE_HOMING,
 *                and a minimum Z_HOMING_HEIGHT of 10.
 */
//#define TOUCH_MI_PROBE
#if ENABLED(TOUCH_MI_PROBE)
  #define TOUCH_MI_RETRACT_Z 0.5                  // Height at which the probe retracts
  //#define TOUCH_MI_DEPLOY_XPOS (X_MAX_BED + 2)  // For a magnet on the right side of the bed
  //#define TOUCH_MI_MANUAL_DEPLOY                // For manual deploy (LCD menu)
#endif

// A probe that is deployed and stowed with a solenoid pin (SOL1_PIN)
//#define SOLENOID_PROBE

// A sled-mounted probe like those designed by Charles Bell.
//#define Z_PROBE_SLED
//#define SLED_DOCKING_OFFSET 5  // The extra distance the X axis must travel to pickup the sled. 0 should be fine but you can push it further if you'd like.

// A probe deployed by moving the x-axis, such as the Wilson II's rack-and-pinion probe designed by Marty Rice.
//#define RACK_AND_PINION_PROBE
#if ENABLED(RACK_AND_PINION_PROBE)
  #define Z_PROBE_DEPLOY_X  X_MIN_POS
  #define Z_PROBE_RETRACT_X X_MAX_POS
#endif

// Duet Smart Effector (for delta printers) - https://bit.ly/2ul5U7J
// When the pin is defined you can use M672 to set/reset the probe sensivity.
//#define DUET_SMART_EFFECTOR
#if ENABLED(DUET_SMART_EFFECTOR)
  #define SMART_EFFECTOR_MOD_PIN  -1  // Connect a GPIO pin to the Smart Effector MOD pin
#endif

/**
 * Use StallGuard2 to probe the bed with the nozzle.
 * Requires stallGuard-capable Trinamic stepper drivers.
 * CAUTION: This can damage machines with Z lead screws.
 *          Take extreme care when setting up this feature.
 */
//#define SENSORLESS_PROBING

//
// For Z_PROBE_ALLEN_KEY see the Delta example configurations.
//

/**
 * Z Probe to nozzle (X,Y) offset, relative to (0, 0).
 *
 * In the following example the X and Y offsets are both positive:
 *
 *   #define NOZZLE_TO_PROBE_OFFSET { 10, 10, 0 }
 *
 *     +-- BACK ---+
 *     |           |
 *   L |    (+) P  | R <-- probe (20,20)
 *   E |           | I
 *   F | (-) N (+) | G <-- nozzle (10,10)
 *   T |           | H
 *     |    (-)    | T
 *     |           |
 *     O-- FRONT --+
 *   (0,0)
 *
 * Specify a Probe position as { X, Y, Z }
 */
#define NOZZLE_TO_PROBE_OFFSET { -43.5, -9, 0 }

// Most probes should stay away from the edges of the bed, but
// with NOZZLE_AS_PROBE this can be negative for a wider probing area.
#define MIN_PROBE_EDGE 20

// X and Y axis travel speed (mm/m) between probes
#define XY_PROBE_SPEED 800

// Feedrate (mm/m) for the first approach when double-probing (MULTIPLE_PROBING == 2)
#define Z_PROBE_SPEED_FAST HOMING_FEEDRATE_Z

// Feedrate (mm/m) for the "accurate" probe of each point
#define Z_PROBE_SPEED_SLOW (Z_PROBE_SPEED_FAST / 2)

I have tried changing the > #define MIN_PROBE_EDGE 20 value but nothing change.
Also this is the configuration_adv.h code:
#if PROBE_SELECTED && !IS_KINEMATIC
  #define MIN_PROBE_EDGE_LEFT MIN_PROBE_EDGE
  #define MIN_PROBE_EDGE_RIGHT 15
  #define MIN_PROBE_EDGE_FRONT MIN_PROBE_EDGE
  #define MIN_PROBE_EDGE_BACK MIN_PROBE_EDGE
#endif

I also have tried changing these values but unfortunately, nothing seems to work.

What is your probe actually doing when you run G29?

Have you seen this question: How to set Z-probe boundary limits in firmware when using automatic bed leveling?? Your probe is pretty far to the left, this is subtracted from the right to prevent damaging the printer.

Thank you all for your contributions, I found that I had to reset the mainboard and upload the new code so that the new changes could apply.

I found that I had to reset the mainboard and upload the new code so that the new changes could apply.

Answered by OP, copied from a comment on the question…


text:
Stepper Motors getting extremely hot
I installed MKS Gen L V2.1 with TMC 2209 drivers to my Creality Ender-3 printer and updated the software to marlin 2, the stepper motors are getting extremely hot. What should i due to resolve this problem. The following Code is from the configuration_adv.h file showing the currents.
    #if AXIS_IS_TMC(X)
    #define X_CURRENT       800        // (mA) RMS current. Multiply by 1.414 for peak current.
    #define X_CURRENT_HOME  X_CURRENT  // (mA) RMS current for sensorless homing
    #define X_MICROSTEPS     32    // 0..256
    #define X_RSENSE          0.11
    #define X_CHAIN_POS      -1    // <=0 : Not chained. 1 : MCU MOSI connected. 2 : Next in chain, ...
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(X2)
    #define X2_CURRENT      800
    #define X2_CURRENT_HOME X2_CURRENT
    #define X2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define X2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define X2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Y)
    #define Y_CURRENT       800
    #define Y_CURRENT_HOME  Y_CURRENT
    #define Y_MICROSTEPS     32
    #define Y_RSENSE          0.11
    #define Y_CHAIN_POS      -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Y2)
    #define Y2_CURRENT      800
    #define Y2_CURRENT_HOME Y2_CURRENT
    #define Y2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Y2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Y2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z)
    #define Z_CURRENT       800
    #define Z_CURRENT_HOME  Z_CURRENT
    #define Z_MICROSTEPS     32
    #define Z_RSENSE          0.11
    #define Z_CHAIN_POS      -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z2)
    #define Z2_CURRENT      800
    #define Z2_CURRENT_HOME Z2_CURRENT
    #define Z2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Z2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Z2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z3)
    #define Z3_CURRENT      800
    #define Z3_CURRENT_HOME Z3_CURRENT
    #define Z3_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Z3_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Z3_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z4)
    #define Z4_CURRENT      800
    #define Z4_CURRENT_HOME Z4_CURRENT
    #define Z4_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Z4_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Z4_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E0)
    #define E0_CURRENT      850
    #define E0_MICROSTEPS    32
    #define E0_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E0_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

Thanks.

I'm not familiar with TMC 2209s but I've read that Trynamic's steppers run hot normally.

I notice that in "configuration_adv.h" for the BIGTREETECH-SKR-mini-E3, which uses TMC2209 drivers, the similar section has:
#if HAS_TRINAMIC_CONFIG

  #define HOLD_MULTIPLIER    0.5  // Scales down the holding current from run current
  #define INTERPOLATE       true  // Interpolate X/Y/Z_MICROSTEPS to 256

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(X)
    #define X_CURRENT       580        // (mA) RMS current. Multiply by 1.414 for peak current.
    #define X_CURRENT_HOME  (X_CURRENT/2)  // (mA) RMS current for sensorless homing
    #define X_MICROSTEPS     16    // 0..256
    #define X_RSENSE          0.11
    #define X_CHAIN_POS      -1    // <=0 : Not chained. 1 : MCU MOSI connected. 2 : Next in chain, ...
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(X2)
    #define X2_CURRENT      800
    #define X2_CURRENT_HOME X2_CURRENT
    #define X2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define X2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define X2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Y)
    #define Y_CURRENT       580
    #define Y_CURRENT_HOME  (Y_CURRENT/2)
    #define Y_MICROSTEPS     16
    #define Y_RSENSE          0.11
    #define Y_CHAIN_POS      -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Y2)
    #define Y2_CURRENT      800
    #define Y2_CURRENT_HOME Y2_CURRENT
    #define Y2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Y2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Y2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z)
    #define Z_CURRENT       580
    #define Z_CURRENT_HOME  Z_CURRENT
    #define Z_MICROSTEPS     16
    #define Z_RSENSE          0.11
    #define Z_CHAIN_POS      -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z2)
    #define Z2_CURRENT      800
    #define Z2_CURRENT_HOME Z2_CURRENT
    #define Z2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Z2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Z2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z3)
    #define Z3_CURRENT      800
    #define Z3_CURRENT_HOME Z3_CURRENT
    #define Z3_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Z3_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Z3_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z4)
    #define Z4_CURRENT      800
    #define Z4_CURRENT_HOME Z4_CURRENT
    #define Z4_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Z4_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Z4_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E0)
    #define E0_CURRENT      650
    #define E0_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E0_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E0_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E1)
    #define E1_CURRENT      800
    #define E1_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E1_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E1_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif
// ...

In the reddit thread Stepper driver current settings?, user brewc found that the stepper motors drivers supplied with the Ender 3 specify peak (maximum) current whereas the TMC drivers specify RMS current.
So, you probably want to change the current settings to those in the above .h file.
Of course, in the spirit of changing almost everything on an Ender 3, you could also swap for stepper motors with a higher current specification and/or add heatsinks to the motors.

Thank you so much for the comment. Unfortunately, I tried what you have stated in your answer but nothing changed the motors are very hot.
Do you have another suggestion?

@Rayan From a quick google, I think a relevant question is: are the "jumper caps" installed so that the TMC2209 drivers are using SPI control?

I'm so sorry but I do not know what is the meaning of SPI control?. I'm relatively new regarding 3D printers.

@Rayan SPI is a way for parts of a system to communicate. As no-one with experience of that board with those drivers is replying here, I'll point you to another reddit post: How to setup tmc 2209 uart on mks genl v2.1?

I have solved the x, y, and z axes problem by putting the UART jumper. but I couldnt solve the dual-axis problem, when putting the UART jumper the noise increase and the temperature doesn't dissipate and they become out of phase!


text:
How to enable Z-offset on MKS TFT28 V4.0
I am trying to enable Z-offset on MKS MKS TFT28 V4.0 touch screen but I couldn't for some reason.
This is the code that I have uploaded to the Screen firmware in which you can see that I have enabled the babystepping function:
#the color of screen background
>cfg_background_color:0x000000

#the color of title text
>cfg_title_color:0xFFFFFF

#the color of temperature,fan,(etc) background
>cfg_state_background_color:0x000000

#the color of temprature,fan,(etc) text
>cfg_state_text_color:0xFFFFFF

#the color of file button
>cfg_filename_background_color:0x494949

#the color of file text
>cfg_filename_color:0xFFFFFF

#the color of background in printing
>cfg_printingstat_word_background_color:0x000000

#the color of text in printing status
>cfg_printingstat_word_color:0xFFFFFF

#3D effects setting (disable: 0; enable: 1)
>cfg_BUTTON_3D_effects:0

#The screen is flipped 180°(0x00: no flip, 0xEE: flip)
>cfg_OVERTURN_180:0x00

#shield the function of detection power (0:no shield ,1:shield)
>cfg_disable_PWR_det:0

#shield the function of detection filament (0:no shield ,1:shield)
>cfg_disable_MT_det:0

#Whether to support the function of dual extruder single nozzle.(0: disable, 1: enable)
#the extruder number need set to dual.
>cfg_single_nozzle:0

#For the M110 command plus check, the version of Marlin 1.0.2 and below is set to 1, and the other versions are set to 0.
>cfg_M110_add_checkSum:1

#Enable function of display error message. (no:0; Yes:1）
>cfg_display_eeror_message:1

#Enable function of babastep. (no:0; Yes:1）
>cfg_babystep_btn_display:1

Thanks


text:
Still getting "no layers detected" after repairing model in PrusaSlicer console
I tried to slice an stl file using the PrusaSlicer console and I got the No layers were detected. You might want to repair your STL file(s) or check their size or thickness and retry. message. I tried repairing the model with 3 different services and I still get the same error. When I load the fixed stl file into the PrusaSlicer gui, it doesn't say that the model is broken. How can the console and gui give 2 different results and how can I fix this?
Here's an image of the model being loaded into the gui version. It states that the model is broken but was automatically fixed.

Then I manually fixed the model using Netfabb and the model is no longer broken according to the gui version.

Yet when I try to slice the repaired model using the console, it fails again.

PrusaSlicer version is 2.3.0 on Windows 10.
You can find the stl and repaired stl here.

Cura says, those files are perfectly fine..

Yes I know that the files are fine, I don't get why the console slicer is still producing that error.

degenerate faces are faces that do have no surface area... maybe internal geometry?

Still don't have an actual answer as to why repairing the stl file didn't seem to work, but since my stl file was a combination of different stl files I tried repairing the individual stl files before combining them, which resolved the problem.

Are you printing multiple parts? Try selecting all, merge then slice.

commenting to confirm that Selecting all then merging made it work to slice my stuff. I was adding generic cylinder to make a small ad-hoc support on my model


text:
Sending multiple commands to printer without overloading its command buffer
I am writing a python code for a 3D printer (Marlin). I'm trying to execute a movement that might be composed of multiple commands (G0). Unfortunately, sending all commands at once does not seem to work. To my understanding, this is caused because the printer command buffer for unexecuted commands is quite small and gets overloaded when sending so many commands at once.
Is there a way for me to know how much of the printer buffer is free, so I'll know when to send the next 1, 2, 5, etc. commands to the printer? I cannot send the next commands once the buffer is completely free as this would stop the movement and I need it to be fluid the whole way.
Two supplementary questions:

Does any of you know how the printer handles the G-code file it receives on an SD card so it executes it whole fluidly without overloading?
Does the 'ok' message received from the printer tell me that all the commands have been executed or that there is at least one free space in the command buffer?

I think something similar has been asked before, see e.g. this answer. This could we'll be a duplicate question. I think this answers your questions. With respect to the SD reading part of the question, you could look that up in the Marlin sources.

Thanks for the link. I completely missed that "Buffering" subsection on the RepRap page. I had a problem previously with sending multiple M105 during movement and I might have falsely assumed that it was due to buffer overload. I did not realize that signals are treated differently and only some are buffered. I will check this behaviour with my printer tomorrow, maybe I was worrying over nothing :)

OK means there is space in the "buffer". Whenever you receive OK send a command. Also Marlin will never execute a "fluid" set of commands. There will always be a pause in between. The idea is that it will be smooth enough.


text:
Will a Micro Swiss extruder and hotend speed up prints on my Ender 3 Pro?
Long story for hopefully a simple yes/no answer:
I have a lightly modified Ender 3 Pro (BLTouch, glass bed, beefier bed springs and nobs, led lights) and I daydream about someday getting an "Ender Extender" kit to go larger or something, but before I ever do that I need to drastically speed up the prints.  Last night the first layer on one of my prints took 40 minutes and I watched the whole time to make sure it laid down well.  Can't imagine waiting around with a larger build surface.  I understand basic settings like lighter infill/less perimeters/etc... but when it comes to really changing the speed and acceleration settings I'm a bit of a newb.
So after reading this article on improving print speeds, it seems like the Bowden tube style default extruder on my Ender 3 probably doesn't have the grip strength and/or constrained filament path to really push filament faster.
Based on that same article and this one, it seems like there are a lot of options for extruders and hotends to upgrade.  The reason the Micro Swiss appealed to me is that it seems like this option is pretty much bolt-on plug and play (additional info here).
And it seems like it already has a convenient spot for my BLTouch.
Which brings me to the title of my question:  will that Micro Swiss extruder/hotend combo do what I think it'll do?  i.e. allow me to push filament faster and heat it up quicker?
Is there a better alternative extruder/hotend that is also pretty easy to figure out?
Lastly (maybe this should be a different question/too open-ended) are there other relatively simple upgrades/modifications to the Ender 3 Pro that will help it print faster?

You should ask one question, and clearly, not many with different answers. In any way, the extruder is the limiting factor, not the Bowden tube. Change extruder to one which has dual drive and that's it, you don't need it to be direct drive as the Micro Swiss. Also, change heat break to a bimetallic one from Slice Engineering.

If you want a single word answer, then no.
Before you ask this question you need to figure out why your prints are slower than you want them to be. With default settings, unless your models are something dead simple like a big cube or cylinder, you're almost certainly limited by acceleration, not extrusion rate or even max print/travel speed (which you'll almost never achieve). Gcode analysis tools like gcodeanalyser.com will help you gauge this by predicting actual speeds the printer will achieve. Note that even if your model is simple, printing infill and top/bottom layers involves a lot of acceleration/deceleration cycles, so even for simple models this may still be your limiting factor.
Until you reach very high accelerations (over 5000 mm/s²) letting you actually achieve very high speeds (over 150 mm/s or so), the only way to make extrusion your limiting factor is by using really thick layers or wide walls. At 0.2 mm layer height and 0.4 mm line width, even a sustained 150 mm/s is only 12 mm³/s volumetric extrusion rate which is high but reportedly within the capabilities of the stock Ender 3 extruder and hotend (but probably requires cranking up the temperature).

Thank you. Sounds like extrusion is probably not the main culprit. So I guess my followup question is:  what should I do about the acceleration?  Larger nema motors? I don't mind googling but I'd love it if you could point me in the right direction.

@JosephCrozier: Your first step is probably just tuning your settings (on printer and/or in slicer) to figure out what you can achieve and where you hit limits you can't go past. Then figure out how to improve whatever the underlying cause of the limit you hit was. Bigger steppers are unlikely to be an ingredient in improving anything. Most of the limits you'll hit will probably be soft ones, not hard ones, where quality starts going down (surface defects, weak prints that break easily, etc.) as you push it further.

@JosephCrozier: You might want to browse the #SpeedBoatRace tag on YouTube to look at what people attempting extreme fast prints have done to achieve them. Mostly it involves low mass moving components (needed to achieve high acceleration) and powerful hotends and extruders (needed to increase extrusion rate once you get there). I'm not sure how far you could take these ideas on an Ender 3 frame. I would expect the moving bed/print (with relatively high mass) is a big limiting factor.

May be interesting to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msEpsJdUMUY

@JosephCrozier: Nice. The 45° rotation is a nice trick to spread out the forces between X and Y. Note that setting the speed to >700 like they did doesn't seem to be doing anything; at the size of a benchy and 10k acceleration, you'll never be exceeding 400 mm/s. BTW one thing you can do to tune your motion before considering upgrading hotend/extruder: print really fast but with very thin layers where the extrusion rate doesn't matter. Once you get that working but can't reproduce it at thicker layers, you know it's time to consider upgrading your hotend/extruder.

12 mm^3/s for a stock Ender 3 is quite high, see the graph https://youtu.be/xAiUZ7HDhdM?t=557


text:
How do I know if my BLTouch is faulty or firmware is faulty?
I just got the Ender 5 Plus with BLTouch set up today. I was having some massive issues and determined that my leveling was off because the BLTouch was flashing red and not connecting. When I turn on the printer there is about a 50% chance that it will probe correctly by deploying the pin and correctly retracting it. However, I'm having about a 75 to 90% fail rate on auto leveling where it is doing measurements. I've checked the wiring and it looks correct, but not sure what else to check.
The fixes I've seen say updating the firmware, but all show firmware at 1.70.0 BL. Mine is at 1.70.2 BL. So I'm not sure if there are more firmware updates to apply.
I do not know how to check which BLTouch I have. And I've been able to make it get to printing 2 times, but something is off because it is stringy at 1 point of the build on the first layer. No adhesion basically. So that is the problem I'm trying to fix, but can't get to it because the BLTouch fails so often on the first part. The only way I've found to fix the BLTouch consistently is turn off machine, pull the pin down, push it up, then turn on the machine again.
Is it possible this is a firmware issue or is just the BLTouch is likely faulty?

Is this a genuine BLTouch? I've had many issues with the clones, all of them failed, either instantly or after a while.

@0scar it is for sure an actual one. It came with the Ender 5 Plus. I'm new, but pretty confident. I ended up finding out that the probe that came with it was faulty. I replaced the probe with the spare they included with the packaging and was so much better.

Thanks, does this mean the issue is resolved? If so, post an answer.

Try calibrating your Z offset
Based on this answer it sounds like the flashing red means there isn't enough clearance between your bed and your probe for it to operate.
You might try raising your Z axis up a bit to let the probe achieve the minimum clearance necessary for deploying the probe. My guess is that your Z-offset isn't quite right and it isn't raising up enough to allow that minimum clearance.
I recommend calibrating your Z offset and see if that resolves the issue.

The only thing I'm concerned about that answer is that the bed isn't any where near the probe when it starts flashing. So I'm not confident the probe not having room is accurate.

Replace the probe
The probe that came with the original BLTouch definitely had issues. There seems to be some slight difference in the original probe and was replaced with a spare probe  that comes with the Ender 5+. There was an immediate change in success rate of turning on the device and other measurements.
This blog post goes into more details. I was helped by an amazing reddit user that gave me some pointers about this issue. It definitely is not obvious. Red flashing on boot and intermittent failures during checks are indicators you may  want to  change the probe.


text:
Why are so many bed surfaces black? Would white help?
It occurred to me after recalling cooling problems in the layers near the bed that many popular build surfaces (e.g. BuildTak clones) are black, which should radiate the most heat - onto the part being printed, which is generally undesirable. Is there a reason for this? Are there (white) build surfaces designed to minimize radiation of heat that might help avoid cooling problems in the initial layers?

I suspect the difference would be negligible, but now I want a white one, just because it would be easier to see the print for most colors (except white, obviously)

I think black surfaces absorb and retain heat better but this is just knowledge from high school days.

My bed is blue.

I believe that the color is just a design choice, and doesn't have that big of an effect on the print itself. Changing the color wouldn't have an effect on the print itself. If you are looking for a solution to minimize radiation of heat going up to the build, you could either lower the heat of the bed, or you could go into the advanced print settings and change the bed temp after the first couple layers.


text:
Ender 3 v2 printing problem
Last week, my printer worked really well, but after a print it started having some printing problems. The printer stops extruding mid-print or under extrudes.
After this happened, I

leveled the bed again
increased hotend temperature from 200 to 215 °C (PLA)
changed slicer (I was using Ultimaker Cura), now I'm using Creality slicer
changed the transmission ratio 93 to 106 according to this video

After making adjustments according to the video, the printer still stops extruding mid-print or under extrudes. What should I do to fix this?

Hi Ahmet! Did you run into the underextrusion problems on multiple print files or just the one? Is it stopping in the same point in the print or a different one each time?

We've cleared up the question as the original question was not very clear, please feel free to change it or add additional information. Your problem sounds like heat creep, a cooling issue or a too high hotend temperature in combination with incorrect retraction settings may cause this. Please add some information on retraction and hotend cooling. Maybe adding an image of the failed prints provide extra information for people to answer the question.

One common reason for extrusion to stop in the middle of a print is heat creep.  See What are ways to avoid heat creep?


text:
Randomly underextruding/overextruding small part on CR-10
I am printing fairly cheap, but highly rated, PLA and not sure whether this is underextrusion or overextrusion; but it just looks bumpy and not clean. My settings:

195 °C at 60 mm/s bed temp 50 °C
0.4 mm nozzle at 90 % extrusion
0.1 mm layer height
6 mm retraction at 60 mm/s with 0.50 mm coasting

I tried at 190 °C and it severely underextruded halfway through, but the outside looks much smoother; I also tried with and without coasting with no difference and tried adding -0.2 mm extra restart distance which didn't change much either. Could this be because I am just printing a rather small part (25 mm diameter)? I think this because I tried printing a much larger 100 mm diameter hemisphere just before, which printed perfectly using the exact same filament.
I've switched out to a new 0.4 mm nozzle, tried a 0.6 mm nozzle, but the only complete print I got had this rough and bumpy outside. It is printed in the orientation shown as removing support from those thin legs lead to them snapping.
I also had moderate stringing throughout, which I thought coasting and restart distance would fix.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Edit 12/04:
I have since reinstalled one of my all metal hotends, as I wasn't using them due to clogging issues, installed a brand new 0.4 mm nozzle, set the extrusion multiplier to 1.0 and disabled coasting. I also calibrated my e-steps, which means I needed to buy an arduino and burn new firmware.
Sadly I didn't print in between fixed, but these are the results I got.

The prints are much better but there is some pretty serious stringing and zits due to me needing to reduce the retraction distance for the hotend to 2 mm, as the 6 mm distance I was using before would make it clog; but since I'm using a bowden extruder it creates stringing. How could I go about fixing this? I feel like I'm playing a game of whack-a-mole.

90 % extrusion multiplier is very low. Are you sure your E steps are correct? or, at least, are you sure that % is correct for the filament? you can do an extrusion calibration, check online. Concerning coasting, in general it's recommended to calibrate linear advance and disable coasting for better results. Once you verify the extrusion multiplier and check the correct linear advance without coasting, maybe the problem will solve itself. If not, let's check something else.

Judging from the photos, the first one has overextrusion and the second one seems quite good

Ok I've tested the extrusion using the printers 'move axis', and after extruding 100 mm of filament, the remaining filament was 24.6 mm of the original 120 mm marking. It's extruding 4.6 mm less than intended which may be an issue. I don't know how to go about changing the e step value though as the printer isn't connected to my pc and I haven't got any software installed to change this. Also, the 90% extrusion multiplier was pre set on Simplify3D and I never changed it off that.

I'm going to recalculate and try to adjust the e steps when I have access to a laptop, as my desktop is too far away and I don't have space to move the printer either.

If you really had -4.6% and -10% (from the multiplier) you would not get the second print so nice. Check the cooling: the first one maybe didn't get cooled enough by the fan. Is the fan working properly? On the other hand, the second print does not show any cooling issue. I'm not sure anymore what's going on

Well this is probably from my ignorance, but I bought some brand new 0.4 mm nozzles and installed one, calibrated the e steps again with a laptop and the extruded plastic seemed A LOT thinner than with the other nozzle I was using. My new e step number is E97. 5 and I'll try another print in the morning. It may have all just been from a worn nozzle :/

Also, it says on the Simplify3D troubleshooting that it's common for PLA to use an extrusion multiplier of 90% (0.9).

"Also, it says on the Simplify3D troubleshooting..." <- there is so much utterly wrong information out there in this domain (3D printing).

The first one has major extrusion problems going on, possibly combined with issues caused by things you did to compensate for it or other issues. You should not see "bubbly" surfaces like that. There are a lot of things it could be, but my best guesses are wet filament, clogged nozzle or damage in the ptfe tube (if your printer uses one), and your 90% flow rate. If it was really printed "right after" the successful hemisphere that probably rules out wet filament and indicates a clog of some sort or your changes to settings.
Your retraction amount is probably good if you have a bowden printer but excessive and likely to clog with direct drive. Coasting and extra unretract are always wrong; they were a hack from a long time ago trying to simulate what linear advance feature in firmware does, but with a fixed hardcoded offset. Flow rate as low as 90% is also wrong unless your steps per mm were miscalculated. You can only go up/down by a few % without messing things up badly; there just isn't that much room for error.

I just saw your update so I'm adding a new answer to address it specifically. Your print looks much better, and all the remaining problems are likely caused by Cura's bad default Limit Support Retractions option. It causes Cura to skip retracting when moving from one support structure to another, producing heavy oozing/stringing there and leaving insufficient material in the hotend for whatever is supposed to be printed next. This will result in underextrusion and other problems. So, turn of off.
If you have any additional weird options like Coasting or extra unretract after travel, disable them too. These intentionally do the wrong thing trying to compensate for other things being wrong, rather than fixing the core problem. Depending on whether you tuned your retraction to settings like this you'd changed, you might need to re-tune retraction too.


text:
Qidi X-Pro - Trouble Printing - Home Settings Seem Off
So I have had problems straight out of the box with this printer.
After going through a lot of leveling / slicing things I decided to check what the printer "thinks" is its home settings.
After the following procedure:
▶ Factory Reset
▶ Power Off / On
▶ Manual Mode
▶ Home Button
And, looking at:
▶ System
▶ Info
I get the following position information:

X: 263.9994 mm
Y: 153.9987 mm
Z: 154.0000 mm

Please note:
A relative who has another Qidi (X-Plus) when he homes it his info is exact, X: 0.0000, Y: 0.0000, Z: 200.0000

I guess that system info is unrelated to the printer home position. Basically, the system info is the printer volume, in the sense of travel, the printing volume is smaller due to the two hotends.

Appreciate the comment, but from what I have been able to find online + a relative who has another Qidi (X-Plus) when he homes it his info is exact, X: 0.0000, Y: 0.0000, Z: 200.0000. But if you are saying that what the Info says has no play in the GCODE / Slice than alright, I can accept that.

It is strange that the printer of the relative shows the correct positioning after homing. While it is difficult to explain why it is different, I could suggest as an answer to create a G-code script file that homes the printer and moves the nozzle to the origin [0, 0, 0]. You can then check the info page. It could well be that there is a bug in the firmware displaying the position. Your reported x, y, z values would suggest that the platform is all the way down and to the back (+4 mm) and all the way to the right (+33 mm). Maybe add a photo of the position would help.

Oscar, I will try that when I am home tonight. Will snap a photo while I'm at it :)


text:
Can I print an object with thin walls?
Most specifications for 3D printers show that the minimum wall thickness should be 1 mm.  We printed our object using Selective Laser Sintering with Nylon12 through an online service, and although it looked great, it did not work as expected.
We are hoping to try the print again with a 0.5 mm wall.  What is the best printing method that offers the strongest model for this wall size?
We also found a service that offers even smaller wall thickness - does anyone have any experience with this?
We were also wondering if we could do post-processing to make it stronger - such as metal plating.  Would this work on thin models?

Hi Rich, welcome to the 3DPSE! It might help if you link to or elaborate upon what service you're referring to that prints thin-walled parts. It sounds like you might have done sort of machining tolerance your part needs to account for. It might help steer you to a better answer is we know a little more about the part and its function.

https://www.protolabs.com/services/3d-printing/stereolithography/ - if you click on "Minimum Wall Thickness", they show 0.1016 mm for High Resolution and even .0635 mm for Micro Resolution.

Minimum wall thickness depends on your print material and printer hardware.

The test print in your question used an SLS printer. The other common alternative is FDM.
For narrow outer walls with FDM printers, you want to think in exact multiples of the nozzle size. Furthermore, unless the printer is well-tuned, you usually want at least two rows for the outer wall. Otherwise any flaw at all in the outer wall leaves gaps or tears in the final print.
Given most printers use a 0.4 mm nozzle, this means the typical minimum wall thickness is 0.8 mm. I use this number fairly often with good success.
If you want 0.5 mm you could step up to a larger 0.5 mm nozzle and give it a shot with only one row. But again, this will end up with flawed prints unless the printer is very well tuned and assembled, and if strength is one of your concerns it will be significantly weaker. Or, you could step down to a 0.3 mm or 0.2 mm nozzle and use multiple rows. Neither of those sizes will give you exactly 0.5 mm, but they can get you a smaller thickness than the 0.4 mm nozzle, at the cost of longer print times.

As long as extrusion is stable layer by layer (which may be depending for example on speed, acc, momentary disruptions, etc.) it is possible to print nice wall as thin as nozzle diameter (slighly wider or even equal to). But, I agree, important is the question what is the purpose of a wall: aesthetics (e.g. semi-transparent Christmas decorations) or reliability/protection (like vessel for liquids or mechanical parts).


text:
Possible 3D printer nozzle jam?
Is this a jam? How do it fix it? There is a piece of filament stuck in the metal block (I have no idea what it is used for(other than mounting). When I heat up the extruder and try to extrude nothing happens.
Printer: Maker Select v2 (Wanhao Duplicator I3 Plus)

Image above is the hot-end with the filament feeding stepper motor removed.

Welcome to 3D Printing SE and thank you for your contribution. When you get a chance, please take the [tour] to understand how the site works and how it is different than others.

Need more information.  A nozzle jam is when the nozzle is obstructed, so that the filament won't extrude from the hole.

Am I correct to assume that there are parts removed? Could you provide an additional photo with an overview of the printer and optionally mention the hotend type. Please describe in more detail what we are looking at.

What you are looking at is the top of a Makerbot MK10-style hotend. It appears that the filament has snapped off at the entry of the heat break at the top of the cold end. The image below shows how the hotend is constructed, from top to bottom, brasss nozzle, heater element block, heat break (with PTFE liner, or not if it is an all metal hotend) and the cold end cooling block.

You indeed have a jam if an increased temperature cannot push the filament out. What you can try is to heat up the hotend (above the normal filament printing temperature, e.g. 10-20 °C higher; a too high temperature can cause filament to carbonize) with the feeder stepper removed pushing a 1.5 mm drill bit from the top of the heat break and see if you can push the obstruction out. If you have a fine needle or a specific nozzle cleaning tool, you could try from the nozzle opening. If not, you need to take the hotend apart and need to consider to buy some spare parts (at least a new PTFE liner if present), this is usually more simple than cleaning the small parts. If it is ABS filament you can use acetone to dissolve the filament, but for PLA/PETG there are no simple solvents.
The image below shows an exploded view of the assembly.

To remove filament in that spot, one can heat the printer, then insert a thin allan key (best one with a ball-adapter) or the drill bit with the drill-edge down, then shut off the printer. Once the temperature is down to 150 to 170 degrees, one can do a "cold pull" using the fallen key as an extension of the filament.


text:
How to unload filament without cancelling print
I have a Prusa MK3s MMU2s which I was running a 7-hour print job on.
It had two spools of filament in, a blue one (primary, very little left) and a gold one (secondary, quite a lot left). It ran out of blue filament approximately 75% through the print job and rather than simply using the remainder of the blue and switching to the gold, the blue was bent and caught on the output nozzle of my spool container. It says that:

MMU needs user attention, fix issue then press button on MMU unit.

I have fixed the issue (snipped the bent part of the blue filament), however, I can't figure out how to make it continue printing. After fiddling a little bit, the red and green lights are all flashing, but no matter what MMU buttons I press, it doesn't continue printing. How should I fix this without cancelling the print job?

I assume you looked up the issue on Prusa's web site?

This condition is covered in the MMU2S manual's section on troubleshooting:

13.4 All five LEDs blinking red and green
MMU2S unit can now deal with a state in which the Trinamic drivers were not able to provide enough power for steppers. A possible cause can be a broken MMU2S power supply wiring, connectors etc. Please check that all connectors are properly plugged into the MMU2S board and make sure that the cables are in good condition. Also, make sure that the screws on the Einsy terminal box for the power cables are properly tightened. If this state is detected, the MMU2S unit rehomes and automatically continues printing. If the problem occurs three times in a row, the MMU2S unit stops printing and starts flashing continuously with red and green LEDs. Printing can be restored by restarting MMU2S unit using the button on the right side of MMU2S unit.

So, once you have fixed the problem which prevented the filament from moving, press the reset button on the MMU2S. It is recessed, so you will need a tool to push it (such as the 2.5 mm Allen key included with the printer). You will then need to wait a few seconds for the MMU2 to complete its reboot and be ready to communicate, before telling the printer to continue.
Note that the filament may have been chewed by the MMU2 or extruder drive gears and unable to feed properly. Be prepared to — if you haven't already — disassemble the tubing and manually pull out the remaining filament sections. I find this modified holder for the MMU2's filament tubes that uses push-in couplings instead of a clamp very useful to allow quick access when there's a problem or even when inserting new filament.

I ended up just resetting the printer. The issue was a bend in the filament, which would have been a lot of trouble to fix (being inside the MMU), especially for a comparatively short print.


text:
Which connector should I use between the power supply and the Einsy board?
I am looking for a way to easily separate the wires between the power supply and the Einsy board of my Prusa Mk 3S+ with a connector. The power supply delivers 10 A at 24 V.
I thought about a YL wire-to-wire electrical connector as it can handle up to 7 A at 300 V. This should be enough since the two cables share the total load.

The 6 cables (4 power cables & 2 PSU power panic cables) have different diameters. Is it better to use one connector (6 pin) or two connectors (4 pin, 2 pin)?

If you use two connectors, what can happen if only one is plugged in?

I would only use it when all cables are connected. My main concern is that it is difficult to connect the 2 power panic cables to the Sam connector as their are thinner than the power cables.

You could use XT30 or XT60 connectors to sepparate the PSU from the Einsy. I have done it myself a few years ago on 4 Prusa's and it is working great. But I've only got the +/- cables, no power panic though.

The YL connectors are rated for wires as small as AWG 26 (and as big as AWG 16). If the power panic wires are smaller than this (or the power supply wires larger) you will need to use a different connector for them. Otherwise, I do not see a problem with mixing different wire gauges in the same connector.


text:
Can't print anything! Is this heat creep? (Detailed explanation & Photo)
I have bought an Ender 3 Pro in November. I loved 3D printing and even upgraded my machine to improve my experience. However, lately, I can't print anything due to an issue I can't seem to resolve.
I will provide as many details as I can in an orderly fashion.

My machine: Ender 3 Pro w/ BLTouch clone installed. Running Marlin's latest bugfix branch. Also has a Raspberry Pi with Octoprint built into the PSU so I can control both the Power and functionalities of the printer. I have a glass bed, red aluminum extruder.

My settings:

Printing with PLA;
Hot end at 200 °C;
Bed is at 70 °C;
ABL is on;
Nozzle: 0.4 mm;
Layer height: 0.2 mm;
Slicer: CURA

The issue: While the first layer is printing, the filament bunches up around the nozzle and if it somehow touches the bed (like I reduce the Probe-Z offset) it doesn't stick and drags on a few mm. It eventually sticks and keeps printing fine for long straight lines but it's impossible to print a little circle inside, for example. The small details aren't printed on the bed, the filament just bunches up around the nozzle.
Also when I do a cold pull(heat up to 200 °C then pull at 90 °C, the tip of the filament looks like this:

I have tried the following:

e-step calibration
PID Autotune
Lowering/increasing temp (210-190 °C)
Lowering/increasing first layer speed (+/- 10-25 %)
Changing the heat block and the throat tube (twice)
Taking the entire hot end apart and cleaning it and changing the nozzle (even re-cutting the PTFE tube) multiple times

My theory is that the heat traveling up the cold block thins out the filament, causing under extrusion. The filament can't properly stick to the bed because it's too thin. But the hot end fan works. Should I still replace it?
Or is my problem something completely different?

This sounds like nothing but a bed leveling (distance from nozzle to bed) problem, though you may have introduced other problems disassembling the hotend. It's normal to have material oozing and bunching up before the print starts; this is why you start printing with a priming line or skirt.
Clean the bed well with isopropyl alcohol, level it (paper method at Z=0 or feeler gauges at Z=0.1, I prefer the latter), then fine tune with a leveling test print. If you're still having problems make sure the PTFE tube is tensioned against the nozzle right inside the hotend. Having any gap will make for all sorts of problems.

It really was about the bed. Reinstalled my old magnetic bed and everything is working fine now. Thanks so much.


text:
What can cause the center of the bed to be higher than the sides?
I find it impossible to level the printer recently. I read a couple of articles on bed warping but that refers to having the center of bed lower than the sides (collapsing on its own weight warm up after warm?) but what I experience is the opposite: the center is higher than the sides. Did anyone face this situation and how did you solved it? I use an Anycubic Chiron so the bed is pretty big.

Try to use borosilicate glass no the surface to help it. It can help you reduce the height differences between sides and center. You can also use a thin silicone pads to add flexiblity.
Other than that the bolts holding to heat place must be little misplaced so enlarging the top plates holes can reduce stress on plate so it wont bend.

Are you asking what can cause this (subject) or how to adjust for this (body)?

As the Anycubic Chiron has an automated bed leveling, you can just calibrate that differences in height in the printer's firmware. Here is the official tutorial made by Anycubic :)

Hi and welcome. Can you elaborate on how to do this?

Honestly, Chiron auto bed leveling is a marketing prop. Do it manually will get far better result..


text:
Ender 3 V2 auto homing
With my Ender 3 V2, to home the extruder, I have to choose Disable Stepper, manually move the extruder to the X-axis stop switch; then select Auto Home. After that point everything homes correctly.
My question, is there a way to get the extruder to automatically move to the X-axis stop switch and then proceed to auto home after Auto Home is selected without selecting Disable Stepper?

Is this at power on or after printing something?

I would like to be able to do this anytime... I have G-CODE in my Simplify3D code to take the extruder to a neutral location after printing... im not looking for the printer to do anything on its own. I would like to be able to just select Auto Home and have the printer actually auto home without the process of selecting Disable Stepper and moving things manually.

I figured this out...
It was a firmware issue. I went to Creality's Forums
and found the appropriate firmware and now it auto homes as I would expect it should.


text:
Dual Z-axis has different speeds (out of sync)
The Z-axis has two stepper motors, I'm using MKS GEN L V2.1 mainboard with TMC 2209 Drivers. My problem is that the motors are out of sync. How can I get them to work together?
This is my code from the configuration.h file:
#define X_DRIVER_TYPE  TMC2209
#define Y_DRIVER_TYPE  TMC2209
#define Z_DRIVER_TYPE  TMC2209
//#define X2_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
//#define Y2_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
//#define Z2_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
//#define Z3_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
//#define Z4_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
#define E0_DRIVER_TYPE TMC2209
#define E1_DRIVER_TYPE TMC2209
//#define E2_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
//#define E3_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
//#define E4_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
//#define E5_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
//#define E6_DRIVER_TYPE A4988
//#define E7_DRIVER_TYPE A4988

Also here is the code from the configuration_adv.h file:
//
// For Z set the number of stepper drivers
//
#define NUM_Z_STEPPER_DRIVERS 2   // (1-4) Z options change based on how many

#if NUM_Z_STEPPER_DRIVERS > 1
  //#define Z_MULTI_ENDSTOPS
  #if ENABLED(Z_MULTI_ENDSTOPS)
    #define Z2_USE_ENDSTOP          _XMAX_
    #define Z2_ENDSTOP_ADJUSTMENT   0
    #if NUM_Z_STEPPER_DRIVERS >= 3
      #define Z3_USE_ENDSTOP        _YMAX_
      #define Z3_ENDSTOP_ADJUSTMENT 0
    #endif
    #if NUM_Z_STEPPER_DRIVERS >= 4
      #define Z4_USE_ENDSTOP        _ZMAX_
      #define Z4_ENDSTOP_ADJUSTMENT 0
    #endif
  #endif
#endif

and also this:
 // Microstep setting (Only functional when stepper driver microstep pins are connected to MCU.
#define MICROSTEP_MODES { 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16 } // [1,2,4,8,16]

#if HAS_TRINAMIC_CONFIG

  #define HOLD_MULTIPLIER    0.5  // Scales down the holding current from run current
  #define INTERPOLATE       true  // Interpolate X/Y/Z_MICROSTEPS to 256

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(X)
    #define X_CURRENT       800        // (mA) RMS current. Multiply by 1.414 for peak current.
    #define X_CURRENT_HOME  X_CURRENT  // (mA) RMS current for sensorless homing
    #define X_MICROSTEPS     16    // 0..256
    #define X_RSENSE          0.11
    #define X_CHAIN_POS      -1    // <=0 : Not chained. 1 : MCU MOSI connected. 2 : Next in chain, ...
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(X2)
    #define X2_CURRENT      800
    #define X2_CURRENT_HOME X2_CURRENT
    #define X2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define X2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define X2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Y)
    #define Y_CURRENT       800
    #define Y_CURRENT_HOME  Y_CURRENT
    #define Y_MICROSTEPS     16
    #define Y_RSENSE          0.11
    #define Y_CHAIN_POS      -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Y2)
    #define Y2_CURRENT      800
    #define Y2_CURRENT_HOME Y2_CURRENT
    #define Y2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Y2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Y2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z)
    #define Z_CURRENT       800
    #define Z_CURRENT_HOME  Z_CURRENT
    #define Z_MICROSTEPS     16
    #define Z_RSENSE          0.11
    #define Z_CHAIN_POS      -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z2)
    #define Z2_CURRENT      800
    #define Z2_CURRENT_HOME Z2_CURRENT
    #define Z2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Z2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Z2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z3)
    #define Z3_CURRENT      800
    #define Z3_CURRENT_HOME Z3_CURRENT
    #define Z3_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Z3_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Z3_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(Z4)
    #define Z4_CURRENT      800
    #define Z4_CURRENT_HOME Z4_CURRENT
    #define Z4_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define Z4_RSENSE         0.11
    #define Z4_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E0)
    #define E0_CURRENT      900
    #define E0_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E0_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E0_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E1)
    #define E1_CURRENT      800
    #define E1_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E1_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E1_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E2)
    #define E2_CURRENT      800
    #define E2_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E2_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E2_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E3)
    #define E3_CURRENT      800
    #define E3_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E3_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E3_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E4)
    #define E4_CURRENT      800
    #define E4_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E4_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E4_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E5)
    #define E5_CURRENT      800
    #define E5_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E5_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E5_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E6)
    #define E6_CURRENT      800
    #define E6_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E6_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E6_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

  #if AXIS_IS_TMC(E7)
    #define E7_CURRENT      800
    #define E7_MICROSTEPS    16
    #define E7_RSENSE         0.11
    #define E7_CHAIN_POS     -1
  #endif

Finally, this picture represents the jumper set-up used.

I'm not familiar with this board (have not used) but looking at the picture of the board, I see only one connector for the Z axis. Are you powering both from this or utilizing E1 to drive your 2nd stepper motor for the Z?
your configuration is telling Marlin that both steppers are on their own driver and yet you did not define Z2

when i define z2 driver i get this error
Error "TMC2208 or TMC2209 on Z2 requires Z2_HARDWARE_SERIAL or Z2_SERIAL_(RX|TX)_PIN

I'm having the exact same issue, SKR1.4 Turbo with 2209's on i3 clone and it started when I tried to enable G34 auto-alignment. I very briefly had it fixed by disabling the auto-alignment and I wish I knew how because now I can't even fix it with a fresh download of Marlin and no G34 to begin with.
I took the gantry off and watched the motors turning because at first I thought they were trying to move opposite directions but in fact, they were just turning at different speeds.
Right now I have tried enabling all max end-stop pins as well as only min pins (using only the probe as Z end-stop) so far to no avail.
The good news for you is I think I see your problem.  E1 stepper should be commented out, Z2 is the one you want.  Let me know how/if it works.

I was having the same issue and this solution worked for me. I enabled Z2 and disabled E1. The Z motors were turning at different speeds until I did this. Running on Ender 3 Pro with BTT SKR E3 Turbo and Marlin 2.x Where Z1 motor is plugged into first Z port and Z2 motor is plugged into E1 port.

Many thanks, you saved my day. Enabled dual Z drivers on MKS Monster8. Now all good :)


text:
Ender 3 v2 with Ender 400XL extender and BLTouch not working after installation
I have an Ender 3 v2 and just installed the Ender Extender 400XL and a new BLTouch. I need to modify firmware for the new dimensions of 400x400x500 mm for the new kit.
I changed all that and it seems to find the physical end stops, I haven't tried printing yet.
But the BLTouch is an issue, at first it refused to move down as the pin was always up, so I changed: #define Z_MIN_PROBE_ENDSTOP_INVERTING to true from false. Originally, the probe would tricky and stick to a triggered position. when changing it the true the probe now deploys but that's it.
But, now when using the leveling feature it goes to the X an Y physical end stops, then goes to the middle of the bed, a few inches from the bed, doesn't do anything else and the software freezes.
I can't figure out why its locking up and why the Z wont move.

I tried using a Marlin firmware 2.0 for Creality Ender 3 v2 and I also tried a custom one for an Ender 3 v2.
What happens now:
If I use auto home it hits the Y and X end stops perfectly, go to the center of the bed the pin drops and retracts several times but the Z axis never moves.
If I try to use the leveling function the same happens, it gets to Z, the probe drops and retracts, Z never moves but then the software locks up completely. I have to power cycle the printer.
Note, If I take the original firmware from https://www.creality.com/download it works, as expected. But of course it has the wrong dimensions as it is expecting the standard bed size not the XL Upgrade!

Hi Riki, welcome to 3DPrinting.SE! Please expand your question to include what you exactly set to true and what firmware you actually have used to base the configuration on. E.g. is this vanilla Marlin or Creality firmware? Please explain if the printer already had a working BLTouch prior to the upgrade to the 400XL or not. Also linking to your configuration files in comments might be helpful. This sounds as an incorrectly configured printer. Detailed information for the configuration of the BLTouch is found here.


text:
Marlin is restarting when pins 5 Vcc are enabled and has a servo motor connected (RAMPS 1.4)
My printer uses an ATMega 2560 with a RAMPS 1.4 shield, A4988 stepper drivers and a 2004 controller LCD interface. The PSU is 360 W (12 V, 30 A).
I bought a BLTouch for my printer, but when installing, Marlin is restarting and is unable to complete the boot.
I realized that this problem happens when it is being powered only by the PSU. When it is started by USB, it works normally.
Note, the USB + PSU combination, when the system (Marlin) has been started by USB, also works normally.
I tried to configure the servo in other positions (0, 1, 2 or 3), but the results were the same:

USB starts = Ok
PSU starts = infinite restart

Another possibility that I tested, was to change the BLTouch for a SG90 micro servo, to check if it was not a problem in the equipment. The result was the same:

USB starts = Ok
PSU starts = infinite restart

In fact there seems to be some problem between ATMega 2560 and the RAMPS 1.4, when powered by the PSU.
Does anyone know how to solve the problem?
In the last case, would the exchange of ATMega 2560 + RAMPS 1.4 be the solution?

Intriguing... Just to clarify: If neither the BLTouch nor the servo are connected, does the same issue occur? If so, then those variables can be eliminated. If not, then the issue would seem to relate to something connected to the board's servo output. Do you have either a spare Mega 2560 and/or a RAMPS to swap them one at a time to see where the fault may lie? Just a random thought, maybe the system only works when the USB is connected because the additional current (1 or 2 A) provided by the USB "makes it work" - that is to say, maybe the PSU alone isn't sufficient? Seems unlikely.

In addition, there seems to be a bit of confusing information: You state that PSU alone causes the issue but when USB is connected, it doesn't. You then go on to state that PSU+USB doesn't suffer the issue either. From which, one would infer that in the second case, that the printer is not powered by the PSU at all, and it powered by USB alone, which would seem to be impossible (unless you are referring to the Mega/RAMPS alone). In which case, it would seem that the PSU is at fault and not supplying the rated 30 A, nor even a fraction of that (which is what the Mega/RAMPS would require).

Yes, it's pretty confusing how it works. In the case of the PSU + USB working when the system (ramps + arduido) is started by USB, and later connecting the PSU to the rest of the system. If the system is directly connected by the PSU, it only starts when I add the USB. There really is a voltage drop, as mentioned by @Jiří Maier. I measured this drop

PSU is only feeding 12 V into RAMPS, but (if I remember correctly) RAMPS is using Arduino's onboard regulator for converting 12 V to 5 V. That regulator can not provide much power.
If you connect some significant load to any 5 V pin (like servo, LCD backlight, or BLTouch), the regulator will be overloaded and its output voltage will drop (too low or unstable voltage will prevent Arduino from running correctly).
You can prove this hypothesis by measuring the voltage on any 5 V pin when Arduino is in "infinite restart". It will likely be far below 5 V.
Connecting USB helps because it provides additional power for 5 V rail (but you may be overloading the computer's USB port by doing this).
The solution is to get an external 12 V to 5 V regulator (with enough power, something like 3 A should be ok) and connect it between PSU and some 5 V pin on RAMPS. (Or get PSU that has both 12 V and 5 V output)
If you get an external 5 V supply, it may be a good idea to then completely disconnect RAMPS from Arduino's 5 V regulator. Have a look at https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,799595
Also, the regulator on the Arduino board will likely be overheating and may get damaged (But regulators usually have some overcurrent protection so it probably will be OK)
The regulator is located somewhere near the power connector on the Arduino Mega board, Google "AMS1117" if you don't know how it looks. Replacement is possible with intermediate soldering skills. The regulator is only used when powering Arduino from power connector or Vin pin (RAMPS uses the Vin pin). If powered from USB or 5 V pin, it can run without it.


text:
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

Doublecheck your microsteps to make sure they are the same between software. 200 steps != 200 steps w/ microsteps @ 4 != 200 steps w/ microsteps @ 16.

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
```


text:
Ender 3 V2 hotend temperature issues
Recently, I started experimenting with new filaments on my Ender 3 V2. I got a spool from here.
This is PETG filament and I started dialing in the temperature to run a smooth print. I found on my V2, if I run the filament around 240 °C, it prints very smoothly and the extruder doesn't jitter or distort the filament during printing.
However, I found after the printer was printing for about an hour it had reduced its hotend temperature to 210 °C and the print went bad! I have a stock hotend for the V2. Any thoughts as to why the temperature would have reduced itself?

Welcome to 3DPrinting.SE. The printer does not change the temperature without a corresponding instruction. Check if your G-code contains temperature reduction instructions. Did you have similar problems with a previous print? Is this the first time you are printing with PETG? Are the settings in your slicer correctly set?

IMHO the answer for this question is found here, and as such a duplicate, please find out if your printer has Thermal Protection enabled, read for details this answer.


text:
Ender 3 Pro firmware upgrade fails
Problem with Creality v1.1.4 (Ender 3 Pro) and BLTouch (Creality V1 mainboard - upgraded version).
Error when attempting the firmware upgrade.
After downloading and executing progisp.exe, I get the error message shown below:


text:
Ender 3 v2 intermittent problem - clearly visible layers
I bought an Ender 3 v2 in January 2021 for my second printer. I have had an Ender 3 for two years and love the quality it prints. This new printer has been plagued with issues since day one. Creality sent me a new mainboard and fan due to issues. Even since then my printer will still not print consistently. I checked all my belts and made sure the bed is leveled.
I print a test cube and it looks perfect. Then I will print a bigger longer print and sometimes it looks 100 % perfect with smooth layers and then I will print the exact same print from the same memory card and there will be ridges every couple of layers and the print turns out very rough.
What would make this happen? I could understand if it always printed like this, but it is completely random. This is all from the same filament spool and I only use Hatchbox. My Ender 3 hasn't had a single problem in the two years I have owned it besides changing out the Bowden tube twice.
I use Cura for slicing.
The following pictures are of the same print on the same printer using the same filament from the same file.

First, check that your belts are tight, on the X-axis and the bed. If not, tighten them.
Second, grab the hot end and wiggle the gantry, and make sure it is not loose. If there is any play at all, tighten the eccentric nuts.
If this doesn't fix your problems, check out this playlist I put together for the Ender 3 V2, it should answer everything.
Ultimate Guide to the Ender 3 V2

Hopefully you've solved this by now.  If not, I'd be looking at all your bolts.  Tighten every single one of them.  Make sure none of the pieces are able to rock or twist or warp or anything like that.  After that, recheck your belts.

Welcome to 3D Printing SE and thank you for your contribution. When you get a chance, please take the [tour] to understand how the site works and how it is different than others.

If you have a 4.2.2 board, it may be a stepper driver problem. If this is the case, the only solution is to replace the board.

Had exact!y the same problem. Belts were slipping. X belt slips just a touch and the layers move left, then if it slips the other way, its back to normal

Welcome to 3D Printing SE and thank you for your contribution. When you get a chance, please take the [tour] to understand how the site works and how it is different than others.

This seems more like a comment than an answer. How did you resolve the issue? Please [edit] and expand upon your answer and update it with the solution. Otherwise it may be converted to a comment under the question. Thanks.