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Ender 5 Plus - does not level, the Z axis goes down, always
My Ender 5 Plus (original) does not perform leveling.
After the self-leveling command, the Z axis only descends.
I have already exchanged the BLTouch three times, and the problem remains unchanged.
I bought my E5P in December, in America, to bring it to Brazil, I had to completely dismantle it.
Machine reassembled, I start work again, everything works very well.
But, one day, I made the mistake of stopping an impression (due to problems with the appearance of the piece) and, before removing the piece from the bed, I pressed the HOME command, which caused the hotend/BLTouch to rest on the printed part, forcing the whole mechanism.
Well, I changed the BLTouch and the problems really started.
When I send the leveling command, the Z-axis behaves erratically, going down instead of returning to the beginning and, with each command, it goes down more and more.
I changed the leveler again, the problem persisted, I disassembled piece by piece, wiped a general cleaning, applied a clean solution to contacts all over the electronics, reassembled, reinstalled the firmware (Version 1.71.0 KF), and everything went back to work.
Yesterday, I sent a piece for printing (PLA nozzle 1.00 mm, layer 0.36 mm, speed 100 mm/s, infill 40 %), and left for my morning walk. When I returned, there was a huge ball of melted material, adhered to the hotend, again more problems. I disassembled the entire hotend, carried out the total cleaning, reassembled it, and let's go back to work.
Leveling OK, there was a problem with the thermistor and the heating of the nozzle, I changed the thermistor and the heater cartridge (taking the opportunity, since several times the system had heating problems, when the temperature should be above 230 °C / 446 °F). Everything ready, come on...

Leveling problem has returned.
BLTouch exchange done, nothing done
Loading the firmware again, nothing done
Review of connections, nothing done

The Z-axis continues to descend, not responding to commands, and in the Pronterface the message appears:
Error: STOP called because of BLTouch error - restart with M999
Error: STOP called because of BLTouch error - restart with M999

I've already exchanged BLTouch 2 times and it didn't work out.
I have 2 inductive levelers here, maybe the solution is to install them and forget the BLTouch, or do the leveling manually.
Questions:

Has anyone had this kind of problem with the printer? If so, what is the solution?
removing the leveler and performing manual leveling, has anyone tried this? What changes in Marlin need to be made?
Does the replacement of the BLTouch by an inductive sensor imply in what firmware changes? Is there a tutorial about it?

I appreciate any help you can get from friends

This is practically unsolvable, there is too little information on firmware and connection of the sensor, please provide additional information.

Please [edit] the question when adding additional information and not post it as an answer

You keep saying "Leveling problem has returned", but from your story I have impression, that levelling problem always had a different source. If I can suggest something: you should learn on how to focus and narrow down the single problem, before you dismantle everything to clean or re-connect (possibly even introducing new issues). Change one thing at time, take a note, do tests, keep results, etc. I think the best idea in your text is question #2 about removing ONLY the leveler (temporary change). It would allow to check if problem is related to the BLTouch, and not Z-motor cable e.g. etc.

Possibly related: https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/4158/prusa-i3-z-axis-only-goes-down-even-on-up-command

I had the same problem with my Ender 5 Plus.
There is a small set screw at the top of the BLTouch you will need to tighten this in to adjust the location of the sensor pin. Keep screwing it more and more until you see it initialize reliably that is it should move out and back twice to initialize.
When the BLTouch initializes correctly then the leveling can be completed.

I had the same issue. The probe for the BL touch was just stuck.
I manually pulled it out and tightened the screw and then the problem was fixed.

Hi and welcome to SE.3DP. Could you possibly [edit] and expand upon your answer? For example, how did you pull it out, did you have to loosen the screw first? Why did it get stuck? Maybe a photo and/or a diagram would help. Please take the [tour] to see how Stack Exchange differs from other websites, and how detailed and informative answers are expected. As it stands your answer has been flagged for reasons of its brevity, which may also explain the downvote. Detailed answers usually get upvoted - have a look at other highly voted answers to get an idea of the required standard. Thanks. :-)


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G28 is not homing to center of bed
I've got a heavily modified CR-10s Pro, and I'm compiling my firmware. I have my own x-carriage with the probe changed to the right of the nozzle. The bed size is 300x300. Oddly, when I do a G28 the printer homes to (177, 0). I can't understand where it's getting the number 177 from.
In Configuration.h I have:
// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 300
#define Y_BED_SIZE 300

// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS 0
#define Y_MIN_POS 0
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS 310
#define Y_MAX_POS 315
#define Z_MAX_POS 395

And
#define Z_SAFE_HOMING

#if ENABLED(Z_SAFE_HOMING)
    #define Z_SAFE_HOMING_X_POINT X_CENTER  // X point for Z homing
    #define Z_SAFE_HOMING_Y_POINT Y_CENTER  // Y point for Z homing
#endif

In order to solve where the 177 is coming from you might need to mention the offset of the sensor to the nozzle. I've got a feeling that it can be explained by that. Also, are you sure The print head can reach beyond both the bed sizes? What are the offsets from endstops to the origin?

What happens with G28 X0 Y0?

@Davo Please note: The X, Y, and Z parameters act only as flags. Any coordinates given are ignored. For example, G28 Z10 results in the same behavior as G28 Z. But that is indeed an interesting comment, this will test endstop positions, movement to the "middle of the plate" would be caused by G28 Z if safe homing is enabled in firmware (the question suggests it is). So all that is needed to home X and Y is to use G28 X Y, digits are ignored.

@0scar That's interesting. On my machines, G28 does nothing; G28 X0 homes only the X; G28 Y0 homes only the Y, and G28 X0 Y0 homes both X and Y.

@Davo You use a strange firmware flavor :-), G28 should be natively supported by any firmware, the flags are optional, digits are ignored.

What is more striking is the value of the Y-axis being zero (in [177, 0]), that should be a value close to the bed center (as in about 150).

@0scar we make our own boards, firmware, software, and hardware in-house. But we run most marlin/repetier-type gcode with minimal changes (like how we set temperatures without changing "focus" - we can change temps on T4 while printing with T0).

In my case: in section homing I've uncomented
#define USE_XMAX_PLUG

Apparently, when using sensorless homing, it is undesire.

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3D Print D&D Miniatures delicate supports
Any hints or suggestions (filament type? suggested settings? model sources?) for 3D printing minis to use in Dungeons & Dragons?
I've done a couple where the support structures were difficult to break off without breaking off a hand or something.
I have a Lulzbot Mini (1), single-extruder if that makes any difference.

get a set of needle files and some good paint.

... or a scalpel. How exactly are you currently removing the supports?

I've been using a pair of nail clippers, the type that are shaped like pliers.  They are sharp and are meant for cutting.

There are adequate demonstration videos on YouTube showing that it is possible to print very acceptable 28 mm scale miniatures with FDM printers, easily rivaling the quality of resin printers from only a few years ago.
There are a couple of key requirements to get optimum quality for small, highly detailed parts (like miniatures): the smallest practical nozzle (0.2 mm seems to be elected), the smallest practical layer height (for 0.2 mm nozzle, this seems to be 0.1 mm), and optimal temperature and cooling.  Supports, if needed, can be optimized for layer skip, interface, and traditional or tree style.  It may take several test prints to find the best combination, but once found this should remain fairly constant for a given printer and filament choice.
The final ingredient, of course, is patience -- small nozzle, fine layer height, possibly reduced print speed required for those, mean these prints will take longer than you'd think for the size of the final object -- but if you get the settings right, and are willing to wait, you can get good miniatures with FDM.
For filament choice, I'd suggest PLA, generally -- it's very tolerant stuff, except for temperature, and you aren't likely to leave your minis on the dash of your car in the sun anyway.

PETG can be finnicky to print on some printers, but is usually easy at low speeds and might be a better choice because it's less brittle.

Buckle up, this is going to be rough:
FDM printers are not the best choice for printing figurines in the 25 to 40 mm scale that is typical for wargaming and D&D games. Resolution-wise, that's the area of resin printers.
But there are ways to get some partially decent prints made:

you might want a small nozzle. 0.2 is about the smallest you can do without specialty extruders, so there is our lower limit.
You need to make sure to have a minimum layer time set, especially as the crosssections of figures are often rather slim.
Overhangs can be a pain

You might be better-served printing "meeples" than actual figurines.

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How do you remove rough edges from completed prints?
All of my completed prints come out with rough edges. What are some methods for removing rough edges from 3D prints? Also, are there any ways to reduce rough edges on prints? For reference, I use a FlashForge Adventurer 3 and PLA filament.

To remove unwanted residual material:

You can scrape with a knife
Use sand paper
use files
Very fine sandpaper or files can smooth out the rough surfaces left from filing or sanding.
Dremel tools tend to be aggressive.  They tend to melt the surface if too fast.  Buffing wheels are probably the most useful on a Dremel.  Dremel tools are good for cutting.

A deburring tool can remove sharp edges such as parts of the brim that don't want to come loose.  However, it's not unusually to need to scrape off flat surfaces as well.

If you want to smooth out the surfaces left from layers, you can:

Carefully use a heat gun or heat from other soldering tools; not spending too long in one spot.  The difficulty with using heat is most prints have fill rather than being solid; so, with only two or three outside layers, it's easy to get the surface to deform into the fill. Also the print material will tend to stick to solid surfaces hot enough to melt the material.
Use acetone on ABS.  Don't breath the fumes or dissolve your print.
Paint the surface as the comment from user77232

a deburring tool

a heat gun - carefully

Epoxy (XTC-3D High Performance 3D Print Coating)

Specific soldering tools for "editing" 3D prints, e.g. Modifi3d tools

Just fix your printer

In some cases, you can remove sharp edges in the CAD model before printing.  Outside corners can be rounded, inside corners can be filleted.  This also can strengthen the part in some cases.
Older printers and software did not handle corners well, and so accidentally rounded corners.  Newer printers that use controlled acceleration can make much sharper corners, so old or simple CAD models may not take that into account and may include unintended sharp edges.

There are several different ways you can go about doing this

You could calibrate your printer/software better that way so the slicer can make better gcode files that are best fit for you printer
Take a lighter to the edge and scrape everything off, this really helps for if your print gets really stringy, this balls all of the strings up and you can scrape if off
Use sandpaper, a file, or any type of abrasive tool to scrape the edge to get it smoother and flatter
Some filaments melt with acetone, so if your printing with that, this would be a good solution for you as well.

Here is a good video for every type of filament: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiy0KWuu9bwAhXyKDQIHf6iDasQwqsBMAt6BAgIEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DvSwumoSlZTo&usg=AOvVaw1L7WcqmbsJ5OBhzp5CT8lH


text:
My Hatchbox PLA filament only allows me to use rafts
When I first got my 3D printer (a FlashForge Adventurer 3), it came with a sample pack of filament. With this filament, I was able to use skirts for my first layer. When the sample filament ran out, I switched to Hatchbox PLA filament. For some reason, I cannot use skirts with the Hatchbox filament. Now, whenever I try to print something with a skirt, the print moves around, ruining it. The only first-layer that works now are rafts, which I do not like, as they use up more filament and are more of a pain to remove. Is anyone else having this problem? If so, what are some workarounds to this issue?

Here are the failed prints. I terminated them mid-way, as they started
to shift on the build plate.

please show a photo of such a failed print, so we can see what you mean

Have you cleaned the build plate for any oils, dirt, etc?

@agarza I tried cleaning the build plate with a wet paper towel. The prints still slipped. Is there something else I should try to clean with?

Sometimes the oils from your hands can get on the build plate and just water won't get the oils off. I have used regular dish soap and warm water to clean my build plate, but isopropyl alcohol (IPA) can be used. I would also caution on the use of IPA as it has been known to remove special coatings on build plates.

You have an adhesion problem, relevel, set correct nozzle to bed distance and use an adhesive such as glue stick or even better a dedicated print adhesion product like 3DLAC, or equivalent.

@0scar Would a regular school glue stick work, or would I need some other type of adhesive? Also, I'm not sure whether the problem is with bed adhesion. When I use a raft, the print sticks perfectly fine to the bed. I only get this problem when I use a skirt.

Woodglue and school gluestick work and are based on similar compounds.What is your first layer thickness and nozzle diameter?

PLA is a forgiving filament, you can even print such filament without a heated bed. Although there are differences in quality between brands, PLA shouldn't need a raft to be printed. Hatchbox filament is not considered as a low quality type of filament; it is economical and has been around since 2013. A raft is a structured platform that is specifically used for high temperature and or high shrinkage types of filament, PLA is not such a filament and shouldn't need a raft. This implies that something is wrong with getting the filament sticking to the plate. Good adhesion requires a levelled bed, a correct initial nozzle to build plate distance (e.g. paper thickness) and possibly an adhesive like a glue stick, special adhesion spray, a textured bed or blue tape, etc.

It is unlikely this is a filament material issue since many of us have used Hatchbox PLA without this issue.  This is a first layer adhesion issue.

Your bed may not be clean, or the bed may have had an adhesion layer you cleaned off.

Your nozzle may be too high on the first layer.

Your bed my not be level.

Glue sticks can help adhesion.  Glue sticks usually don't post the composition on the packaging, but Elmer's glue sticks work.  Elmer's washable makes it easy to remove the old layer before adding a new one.  There are also glue sticks specified for 3D-printing.

Here's a discussion on glue sticks: Are all glue sticks PVA-based? How to find out?

I tried cleaning my build plate and using a glue stick. I got the same outcome. I also don't thing there is a problem with the printer, as my prints come out fine when I use a raft. But when I use a skirt, I end up with problems.

@shwin320 You almost certainly need to level the print bed, and maybe bring very slightly closer to the nozzle.

After leveling my print bed, I'm no longer having issues with my filament. Thanks for the help.

@Perry Webb Sorry I still have a downvote on your answer. Even though your advice was helpful, I am unable to undo my downvote since it's been a while since I gave it.

Please try one (or more) of the following:

Change the temperature of your heated bed (50 - 60 °C)

Check your nozzle height (0.15 - 0.25 mm is what I use)

Make sure your bed is level (Maybe use a leaving stick (or whatever those bubble things are called))

Use adhesion. Start with painter's tape (least damaging, easy to remove), then use a glue stick or even hair spray if necessary.

Be sure the bed is clean (I recommend glass cleaner 1-3 squirts and then a light scrub of a paper towel)

#3 will only make sure the bed is level with the ground and not with the print nozzle.

#3 can and will make your prints worse unless your X axis is horizontal. A 3D printer can be set up upside down or on the wall and print perfectly fine, if the temperature is right. #4 Quite some Hairsprays won't work as they have a different glue in them that doesn't bond to PLA. Painters tape needs to be accounted for during leveling.

After leveling my print bed, I'm no longer having issues with my filament. Thanks for the help.

@Greenonline Sorry I still have a downvote on your answer. Even though your advice was helpful, I am unable to undo my downvote since it's been a while since I gave it.


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How to solve Ender 5+ weird Z-axis behavior issue?
Before you select if you want automatic or manual leveling, the printer runs a routine to determine the Home Z-axis at the center of the bed.
This starts OK, then the level goes to maximum (of the screw) and stops. Click on the + or - button for the Z-axis does nothing. I tried to flash the firmware again (I flashed it previously to fix the auto-leveling stalled as recommended by Creality) with no effect.

As you can see in the image above, the bed has lifted up the print head. That is repeating in printing, leaving scratch marks on the bed.

I don't like to close questions, but could you reask this question using the guidelines?  Guideline 3 is:  Questions seeking troubleshoot help ("My printer was working, now it is not! Help!") must include information on 1) expected behavior, 2) actual behavior, and 3) what steps have been taken to troubleshoot already. Exceptions can be made after communication in Meta or Chat. (3)

Witch firmware cos I'm having the same issue

@Void Gaming: constructor's Firmware. Nothing fancy on my side

Ok. So I solve the issue by myself. So to explain the problem a bit further: I had to install a new firmware. That completely reinitialize the z-axis, making the bed goes to the maximum of the screw to the point it lift the print head when I clicked on the Leveling button. To reverse the initialization of the z-axis, I click on the Leveling button,  manually lower the bed by clicking on the upper arrow, then, click on manual or auto leveling, then click again on leveling and start over. At each iteration, the starting point of the bed gets lower and lower to a normal position. I had to do 4 or 5 iterations until I get the desired result. Bonus point: when you click on the move button, the bed goes down if you click down of the z-axis. The opposite behavior is happening in the leveling menu: so you need to click a couple of time (between 10 and 20 time for me at the first iteration) before the bed isn't in contact of the print head.


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Jerk causing vibration and Y layer shift... Bad stepper?
This issue just started recently; I am not sure if it is because of the specific part I am printing or whether something on the printer is going bad. Up until now, I have been printing all kinds of parts with no problems whatsoever.
I am printing a hollow sphere whose walls have fill paths that require the X and Y to change rapidly. i.e. the wall is 2 mm thick and the wall-line-count setting is set to 2.
When the print head is jerking back and forth to fill in this area it causes horrible vibrations and really bad Y layer shift. You can see the vibrations transferred through the flexible neck of the black LED light in the foreground.

All the Cura settings are at default- I have not tried to speed up my printing in any way by adjusting the settings.
The vibration seems to be coming from the Y stepper.
I have already tried tightening the belt; everything else seems tight.
It is an Ender 3 Pro with a stock mainboard and probably around 50 hours on it +/- 20 hours.
I have printed the same part on my other printer with no issues.
This is happening now on other parts that do not have particularly high jerk paths, it is shifting the Y by a full mm or more at a time.
Would you say the stepper motor is going bad? Or the driver? Or something else?
Here is the part in the video; I of course stopped the print after it started shifting:

And this is how it is supposed to look:

EDIT:
Here is the path that causes the problem:

You might consider using just perimeters to print the object, no infill.

Your video doesn’t show a printer moving terribly fast, which makes it seem like it could be a problem with the motion or the electronics. Check the movement of the Y axis by hand, is it smooth? With the belt on, and the stepper motor attached, you’ll feel some resistance and little bumps, from the steps in the motor, but it should be pretty smooth, and especially it should be consistent across the range the bed can move. If you take the belt off, the motion should be like butter. Check the belt pulley isn’t slipping on the motor shaft. Check the idler on the other end of the belt spins freely.
The motor could be suspect, the driver could be suspect. Try running the printer so it sends the bed back and forth, and push against it with your hand a little as it moves. It should be pretty strong, and shouldn’t skip steps from some light pressure. If it does skip easily, it’s something with the motor or driver, or possibly the wiring to the motor (I had a failing connection on my extruder stepper that manifested as wimpy torque and skipped steps). You can beep the wire with a multimeter, and wiggle it around as you beep in case it is a loose/flaky connection. I’m not sure if the creality printers have trimpots for the motor drivers, but some drivers have a bias adjustment where you adjust a voltage with a multimeter, to decide how much current the motor gets. It’s not usually something that goes out of adjustment.
If it doesn’t skip steps easily from adding some resistance with your hand, then it might be an incorrect jerk setting on the printer, or the slicer travel speed is too fast, or, the hot end is hitting some plastic that is sticking up (an overhang curled up possibly), and skipping a step there maybe.

It requires significant manual pressure to cause skips. With the stepper off the axis moves pretty smoothly. The bed moves fine with the belt off.

I have tried printing the same part again with the jerk turned down to 6 (from 20) and it seems to have remedied the vibration. The part is printing fine now.
I do notice now how small the actual jerk motion was in the relevant section of the path. It is hard to see any motion from a distance but it is there when viewed from close up. Is it possible that the rapid alternating of the current caused by the path caused the driver to overheat? I had read elsewhere that one guy had to add additional cooling to his ender 3 to avoid his drivers overheating.

I added a jpg to the OP of the sliced path of the layer around where the vibration started previously. As you can see that yellow center is what caused the head to change direction so rapidly. I'm not sure if this happened because of something new that is going wrong with the printer, or if it happened simply because this is the first time I have ever tried to print something with such a path. I only know that this same part printed fine on my ender 5 with default settings. Of course the ender 5 also has a much more voluminous mainboard enclosure and better cooling.

If this is the old 8bit board, it will skip steps at 20 jerk. This is probably a Marlin bug running on slow microcontrollers.

It looks like your printer is working at it's resonating frequency. If the things you mention in your response to ChinchillaWafers is still not good enough, try using different printing speeds or different fill patterns.


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Problems with "Discount Full Graphic Smart Controller"!
I bought a new "RepRap Discount Full Graphic Smart Controller" for my printer. I'm having a hard time installing it. LCD wouldn't turn on and a ticking noise was getting out of the buzzer. It turned out that some have inverted sockets! So I scratched them to be used inverted. LCD turned on, rotary encoder, reset button, SD card and potentiometer and everything work but I get a quite scrambled show on LCD as it's shown in the picture.
I tried every possible combination of sockets (inverted and not) I don't know what is wrong!!!

The content of your display is so close to the expected picture, that I would not suspect signal incompatibility or any internal issues related to shift register, etc. - but I don't know details of I2C. I was happy to make old Panelolu v1 working with Marlin 2, but it's easier to debug when each pin goes straight to Arduino. I don't know how to approach. Also you should consider that it could be provided broken or you could burn something as well with inverted plug. Did you try any troubleshooting guide?

I'm confused. That troubleshooting link didn't help.


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Will there be any negative effects on the print process if the printer is outside?
If I buy a printer, it will be going on a small table on a front porch so as to keep the smell from the house. The porch has a roof, so precipitation is not a concern. I will find a way to keep the wind out, so that will also not be a factor. The only concern I can see is the lack of climate control. The printer will probably be an Ender 3 Pro. Will this turn out bad for the prints? Do I need to be concerned about dew? Any other concerns? Solutions?

Why not use PLA? The sweet smell of PLA is nice (at least in my opinion) and it is not generally considered bad for your health.

An enclosure with a little bit of a vacuum and a hose to the outside or even an active carbon filter is an even better idea if you really need to print ABS.

I second what @Hacky said. PLA smells nice, and even if it puts off fine particulates too, they're a substance the body can safely absorb (excluding pigments/additives, but those will be a tiny percent of a tiny percent). I would only worry about printing indoors without ventilation for stuff like ABS.

Yes, and I may be taking this farther than it needs to go. But having the option to print ABS as well as PLA and PETG appeals to me so I'm taking it into consideration. Appreciate the advice!

Unless you enclose the printer fully in some way or another, I see problems, even beyond just print quality:

humidity can and will end inside the printer by condensation and destroy the electronics, especially in the fall and winter months.
being accessible, children from the neighborhood might get their stubby fingers into the running machine or throw off the leveling.
being not locked in a box, people might decide to nick your printer.
If the printer is in the sun, the filament might age much more rapidly
Moisture can impact your filaments, making prints impossible with some filaments unless those are kept in a dry container.
Shifting temperatures along a day could lead to prints warping during printing, resulting in deformed prints.

Good points, but I believe the humidity is even more of a threat to your filament than it is to the electronics.

@Davo: That's true, but filament is a consumable, and you can dry it and mostly restore it to usable condition. The printer's electronics generally aren't considered a consumable.

@Davo I think I will use the official Ender 3 enclosure to minimize shifting temperature and keep the sun and wind out. I live in a very rural neighborhood so children and porch pirates are not a huge concern (hope I don't eat those words later). I think I'll end up storing the printer and filament inside when not in use. Appreciate you all's advice!


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Laser 3D scanner is used in the movie to scan a key: technically possible?
The Vault (2021) movie has a scene at around 42' in which a laser scanner with a rotating table is used to scan a key in a short time, maybe some minutes:

No calibration is done whatsoever. The scan quality must be high enough for the replicated key to be useful.
Is it technically possible? Is it exagerated? Is it fiction?

Kinda off-topic here, but it seems plausible enough to me.

There have been instances where people have replicated a key from a photograph of a key. A multi-minute scan of a key seems like overkill, but that appears to be a very large key so maybe so.
Is it possible? Yes.
Is it exaggerated? Probably much simpler than is portrayed.
Is it fiction? As portrayed, yes. Practically, no.


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Excessive filament powder/shavings near the extruder
I'm printing a Tower of Pi on my Ender 3, and I woke up to find this near the extruder:

All my attempts to google this led to checking for either a clogged nozzle or the extruder itself stripping the filament, neither of which appears to be the case.
It looks like the upper edge of the filament might be grinding against the intake hole, so I looked into lubrication, but the consensus appears to be "don't".
Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a name for it, and how do I fix it?

Are you sure that you are feeding the material along the recommended route? It looks like an approach closer to "straight in" would be less likely to erode the inbound filament.

@Davo The instructions didn't mention a recommended route, but come to think of it I can move the filament spool holder from the top to the side and see if that helps.

The shavings come in part from the extruder design: there is no fillet on the pulling in side, the filament goes up in a sharp angle and is dragged over a rather sharp edge. It also brushes against the leadscrew.
To help with the shavings, you should alter the filament path to try and have a flatter angle than the 90°. A simple rod that pushes out the filament to come in at 80° might already reduce the number of shavings.
More might be reduced by opening the entry hole of the filament to have a 1-2 mm phase around it, altering the angle of the edge that the filament runs against to a much lower one and reducing the ability to shave off flakes. I did swap my extruder for an aluminium one, and it has this phase, and since then I have had little to no shavings at that spot anymore.

Based on OP's description of how the problem came on, and the model (which looks like it has a lot of retraction), this seems like it's probably indeed the problem, but I never saw anything like that in something like 18 months of use of the Ender 3's original extruder. I wonder if something else is going on too.

And the canonical solution for OP's problem is this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3052488

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE I had those shavings, and the little change of a simple bar pushing out the filament 10 cm on the top and the other extruder all but eliminated them

Yeah my "canonical" solution might be overengineered, but I really liked it when I was still using the original Creality extruder because it was so bad at gripping filament, and any extra tension in the filament path seemed to cause intermittent extrusion problems.

Yeah, it was only happening with this one print. I'm going to try that roller bearing one though. Thanks for your help, everyone.


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Print stops midway and extruder collides with the frame while printer display appears frozen
I have a strange problem with my Hictop Prusa i3 printer. Recently almost all my prints fail midway (even small prints that were successful in the past). At some random location and time, the x and y axis start moving in one direction either following a straight line or while making small semi-circles (while the extruder keeps running), until colliding with the frame a couple of seconds after. At that point the printer just keeps trying to go in the same direction while hitting the frame repetitively and the display appears frozen (print cannot be stopped from the display). To stop the print I am forced to completely switch the printer off.
I have already checked that all axis move smoothly, that the belts are tight enough (but not too tight), and that the bearings are greased. The printer was working perfectly for a couple of years until it never worked properly again.
I also tried a running a print in which the extruder and nozzle heater are not used (moving only the x, y and z stepping motors). This seems to make the prints run longer until the same problem happens again.
I would appreciate any support you could give me to solve this issue. I suspect it is an electrical problem perhaps triggered after overheating of a circuit component.

Could be Bad G-code.

Maybe custom gcode in the slicer somehow changed positioning modes during printing? Look for G90/G91 in the gcode file or post it out.

looks like a failure of the motherboard. e.g. the mobo gets stuck sending the same signal to the motors as it was doing before getting stuck.
Did you do some maintenance, like opening the printer and checking that everything is fine, no dust in fans, no clear electrical components failure? I would contact Prusa as this seems an hardware failure after some operation time, maybe due to heating or some failing component. Perhaps there is some diagnostic that you can run as they do before shipping their printers.


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G-code pin state turns off
I am currently working on a short G-code to turn a LED light while moving through a specified path and then turning it off while moving to the next path. So I used M42 but It seems to turn it and off even before the path has started. My code is the following:
G28 ; home all axes
G1 Z20 F3000 ; lift
M42 P40 S0
; ----- HEADER -----
G1 F720 X112.33511 Y81.240995 Z258.23098 E0
M42 P40 S255
G4 P2000
G1 F720 X105.351433 Y81.240995 Z163.706453 E0
G1 F720 X183.876808 Y81.240995 Z122.186662 E0
G1 F720 X227.765593 Y81.240995 Z229.233326 E0
G1 F720 X244.826242 Y81.240995 Z133.513642 E0
M42 P40 S0
; ------ FOOTER -----
G28 X0 ; home X axis

Does anyone know something further about this command? May be there is some parameter so it waits untill it's set on or off?

is that repRap g-code or marlin g-code or klipper...


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Is "CoreXE" a thing, or is there a reason it's not?
Thinking about different types of extruder designs, and especially remote direct drive, I wondered if anyone's ever made a cartesian bed slinger printer (Ender 3 style) where a direct drive extruder on top of the X carriage is driven by a stationary E motor at the end of the gantry via a belt. This would of course turn the extruder hob whenever there's motion along the X axis, so the X and E motors would have to be synchronized, with effective extrusion being the difference of the X and E motor motions (thus my allusion to CoreXY in the name). Are there reasons not to do this, aside from needing an over-engineered belt assembly with closed loop belt? It seems like you could get whatever reduction you need just with an appropriate belt pulley, and no need for a gearbox on top of the hotend to get the necessary torque to the extruder hob.
Of course as described this only makes sense for bed slinger printers, since if you have to move the gantry in the Y direction, you have the motor mass moving just like a normal direct drive. Of course it might be extensible to "CoreXYE" with an appropriate belt layout.

Prior to our makerspace shutdown, a student mechanical engineer and I had a discussion about this exact topic. He had seen a paper espousing the concept. Unfortunately, it's been more than a year and for my brain, it's more like dog years. I found the concept interesting, but neglected to pursue it. Suffice it to say that it's likely someone has given the idea some consideration.

Wow, Kevin O'Connor (of Klipper) just pointed me to a real CoreXYE design by Vlad Strateniuk called REXY, with video available:

There's an open Klipper issue about supporting it and apparently Marlin was already adapted to run on it.

Very interesting! Doesn't such a system have a limit on extrusion speed? I guess the extruder motor compensates speed of the carriage, so, sometimes it has to run faster than a normal extruder would do. Maybe you could dwell upon such issues in the answer?

@0scar: Possibly. I think you need reduction gearing of some sort because the belts can't handle the torque needed at the extruder hob, and reduction puts a limit on extruder motion, but that mostly affects retraction speed, not extrusion speed, and shouldn't matter; even with 10:1 reduction you're still fine, and 3:1 or 5:1 is probably enough.

There is the matter of needing the sum of speeds, but I think if you have 2 E motors like in the REXY, the one going the opposite direction of the XY belt motion (needing added speed) can run at very low current and the one running in the same direction (needing difference of speeds) can run at full current. But that would require dynamically controlling the current, and I'm not sure how fast drivers can switch it. The total speeds probably aren't enough to need this, anyway, though, unless you're trying to do a 3-minute benchy...

I take it that everyone is forgetting that you need a seamless E belt for this to work at all. The person who posted that video said that they are using normal glue to hold the belt together, but that they are looking for one that is seemless.

there are tons of deign issues, but the result is a super light direct drive, so those can be seen as tradeoffs.

@user77232: Amazon has all kinds of closed-loop GT2 belts for sale for very reasonable prices. I would assume they don't have problematic seams but I'm not sure. And I know some might balk at this, but you can plausibly print working closed-loop belts. I did some experiments with a mystery flex filament a few years ago (3D Solutech brand, not described as "TPU" but "flex PLA") and it seemed workable.


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Ender 3 - Are my 2040 Z extrusions bent?
While installing my dual Z rod kit for my Ender 3, I noticed something I had completely missed. From the looks of it, I think my Z 2040 extrusions are bent? When I look at the printer head-on at the bottom the Z extrusion sits flush with the Y extrusion shown below:

However, when I then look at it head-on at the top, the Z extrusion does not sit flush with the 2020 extrusion mounted on top shown below:

This is the case for both Z 2040 extrusions. Does this mean my extrusions are bent? How would this affect my prints? Would I need to buy replacement 2040 extrusions or is this fine?

I would not assume the top 2020 crossbar is cut to the exact length; mine seems to be slightly longer too. What matters is that the distance between the two 2040 Z extrusions is constant along their length. Do you have a way to assess that?

One thing to check: If the Z extrusions were significantly bent, I would expect the V slot rollers not to grip consistently. For example you might have one Z height where the inner wheels are tight but the outer ones are loose, and another height where the outer ones are tight but the inner ones are loose.

So I measured the distance between the two extrusions at the top and bottom. At the bottom, it came out to ~120.85mm, and at the top, it came out to ~120.95mm. Is that within margin of error? Along with that, when the x gantry is at the bottom, on the right extrusion, the inner wheel feels fine, the outer bottom wheel is fine, the outer top wheel is slightly looser but still feels okay. However, when the x gantry is moved to the top of the Z extrusion, the outer top wheel can be freely moved with my fingers, but the outer bottom and inner wheels feel fine.


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How to wire 5 V proximity sensor Ender 3 V2?
I’ve got this proximity sensor which is a 5 V, it doesn’t say it can be used over 5 V. Can I use a buck converter or is it possible to wire it up direct to a 5 V source on the Ender 3 V2?
What I don’t understand is where to wire it direct to 5 V on the printer or if I use a buck converter then where does the 3rd wire go to on the printer?
If it goes to the signal wire on the Z endstop then which one is the signal wire?

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.

That part seems dubious
Your part is labeled LJ18A3-8-Z/BX. That is a Z/BX type sensor of the LJ18A3-8 series - that first part dictates an M18 outer thread and thus dimensions and a triggering distance of 8mm. Z/BX indicates NPN NO, so a normally open sensor of the NPN type. However, that labeling indicates an inductive sensor with a required supply voltage of 6 to 36 V and a power draw of 10 mA between the supply and ground line and a digital output signal of 300 mA.
There is a variant in existence, that has a 5 V supply voltage, but its part number is different by 3 characters: LJ18A3-8-Z/BX-5V - the appended -5V is crucial to show it differs from the standard!
The Ender-3 Board
The Ender-3 board has a 24 V input from the power supply and runs its end-stops on 5 V logic. That would suffice to connect the output of a LJ18A3-8-Z/BX-5V sensor directly to a sensor pin.

Hi I did test it with 5 V source and see if the led comes on near a metal object, and it does and it seems bright, there’s 2 wires going to the end stop and I was wondering how to wire it up?

@ImranAli then the part is mis-nomed, for wiring it up, you should test the output voltage on the other wires on 5 V input

There’s quite a lot of sellers selling them and they all say 5 V on the label on lots of websites , so I’m presuming it Is 5 V and most 6 V onwards won’t even work at 5 V but this does actually work at 5 V.

@ImranAli I would suspect this is the 6V-36V version and the sellers are stretching the truth a bit by claiming it (also) works at 5V. A sensor designed for 6V probably also works at 5V but may or may not be reliable.

The schematic attached to the cable shows the wiring for the sensor. There is BN+, BK, BU-; these are presumably the brown, black and blue wires respectively. The schematic BN+ is the positive supply wire (should be connected to 5V) and BU- the negative wire (should be connected to ground). BK is the output wire and should be connected to the endstop signal pin.


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How do I change Z safe homing coordinates in the G-code , not in Marlin
I bought a Vivedino T-Rex 3 not realizing it doesn't have continue after power failure.  I am over it.  What I usually do is keep the part away from the home position so if it crashes I can continue without crashing the head during z home.  I measure the height of what printed open the G-code and remove the layers before the layer with that Z height, then run G28 X Y  to get away from the print.  Then run G28 Z.  But the T-Rex has a Bltouch and it goes to the middle of the bed to home the Z-axis. This is due to something called "Z safehoming is enabled".  I don't want to change the T-Rex Marlin firmware. Is there a way to tell it when I am doctoring up the G-code to home the Z at at y = 5 mm x = 200 mm?

Don’t home the Z. Rather measure the height of your print to continue at with calipers. Or with detective work in your G-code preview, finding the layer your print stopped at and finding the Z height of that layer. The direction of the infill can be a clue. Then carefully lower your Z-axis until your nozzle is at the right height for your next layer (so get the nozzle .2 mm above your printed layer if you’re doing .2 mm layers).
Edit your print G-code to change G28, to be G28 X0 Y0, so that it only homes X and Y, not Z. Erase any line with G29 (auto-leveling routine), or it will crash into your print. After the G28 X0 Y0 line, enter G92 Z[your starting Z layer height in mm] that spoofs the Z position to the 3D printer, and it shouldn’t need to home. Then edit the rest of the G-code to start at the next layer of your resumed print.
Leave all the beginning commands that do setup, temperature, and erase the lines beginning with the movement, lots of G1 commands. Find the G1 Z[your resumed layer height] command and begin there, that’s the beginning of the layer. Make sure there’s an existing G92 E0 that resets the extruder distance, and the layer starts from a reset extruder position, you don’t want it to frantically dump a bunch of plastic on your print at the first extrude command (that’s one danger of resuming in in the middle of a layer).
Get everything heated up before you hit print, home the X and Y, stay in that position, and prime the nozzle. You can even hold something flat under the nozzle to keep it primed while you start the print, and have some tweezers handy to catch the goober on the hot end, so it doesn’t wipe it on your print. It helps to have a retract move when you begin, many slicers have a retract move when it advances to the next layer, you may want to start your G-code on that line if it’s before the line with the G1 Z [your layer height].

Thank you @ChinchillaWafers. Your answer saved a huge print on my Ender-3 V2.
My printer ran out of filament because the filament knob touched the led bar I attached to the top of the printer. After I cancelled the print, the printer still knew its current position so I was able to use 'Move Z-axis' to find the exact height I should start at.


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Can I use a material other than PTFE to print PETG?
Because of the crazy shipping prices, I want to find a cheaper alternative to ordering a 600$ all-metal hot-end.
Is there a material like that which does what PTFE does but till higher temperatures?

An all-metal hotend shouldn't be more expensive than a 10$ heat break.
There are variants of the PTFE tube (e.g. by Capricorn) that support higher temperatures (~260) that should suffice easily for PETG.

a genine e3D v6 costs about 70 €.

PETG does not need an all-metal hotend or alternate bowden/lining material. Unless you're trying to print at #speedboatrace-competitive speeds, the recommended print temperature range for PETG is 230-250 °C, and the temperature above which you should not use a PTFE-lined hotend is 250 °C.


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3 Extruders on SKR V1.1, how set up 2 in 1 out (Y piece), and 1 single extruder in latest Marlin?
On Anet A8 with SKR V1.1 32 bit board my intention is to use 3 extruders on my Anet A8, 1+2 via Y-piece on single nozzle, 3rd Extruder with 2nd nozzle. Need another stepper to connect to SKR V1.1 (10 additional pins are available), extruder 1 + 2 go to single nozzle/heater via a Y-piece, 3rd extruder is on its own with own nozzle/heater. How to modify latest Marlin for this?? Please, all help appreciated, thanks a lot.

The latest Marlin, version 2.0.8, allows for multiple extruders (albeit with a single or multiple stepper motors) through a single nozzle, or multiple extruders with multiple nozzles, it is not possible with the current compiler definitions to configure a mixed extruder nozzle concept; this would require more changes to the sources.


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Print not sticking to bed
Today I ran into an issue with the filament not sticking to the build plate. However, the strange part is, that this only happens with one filament color (both PLA, khaki, black works just fine) and only in the main print. The test line on the side of the bed and the brim all stick without a problem. I already releveled everything and as I'm using ABL and the other filament works fine, this shouldn't be the issue.
I also tried increasing the first layer thickness in Cura, however, this leads to extreme warp (2 mm height on 5 mm width).
From my observations, it seems that the print head is raised after the brim is printed. Is there a setting in Cura to change that?
Printer Details: Modified Ender-3 with MKS Gen L V2 Board and TMC 2209 motor drivers and BLTouch
Print temp: 220 °C / 70 °C initial after that 200 °C / 60 °C
Firmware: Marlin, details here

If you suspect that head is raised after printing brim, then you should analyze the g-code and detect actual increase of Z. It is rather easy searching by " Z". Then check comments nearby. Btw. what if you print with e.g. 190 initial temp?

220 deg C seems too hot for PLA. Try 190 and 200. Also sometimes it’s the slicer. For months I tried using simplify3d before realising that anything sliced by it would never work with my printer. Switched to prusaslicer and I get flawless prints every single time now.

Have you tried drying the filament?

Thank you for all your answers! After many failed benchies I fixed the problem now, however I don't know exactly what the problem was so I'll list everything I did:

Dried my filament
Recalibrated the Z-Offset
Turned around my print bed, as I noticed the warp always starts at a
certain spot

The high temperature is actually a recommendation by the manufacturer (PM Filaments).

Yes you can edit many parameters in Cura that may help with your problem.
However, I believe an easier fix to this problem may be to either apply some glue or masking tape to the bed before you try to change Cura settings since the problem only occurs with just one filament type..

Your temperatures look pretty good.  You could try raising both bed temperatures by 5°C.
You could try Elmer's glue stick or hair spray.
Make sure your Z height is still OK as well as your bed being level after you loaded the different filament.


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BLTouch not levelling correctly (it does seem to work, just not accurately enough)
My setup

Ender 3
Creality glass bed
Creality 3D BL Touch auto bed levelling kit v1
Creality 3D silent mainboard v4.2.7
OctoPrint running on a Raspberry Pi 4 connected over USB (with the 5 V pin covered with a piece of tape to prevent powering the mainboard)

Problem
Despite starting with G28 & G29 in my G-code file, and the printer & BLTouch doing a proper bed levelling (the BLTouch seems to work as intended), the first layer comes out uneven. Please find some pictures below of a test print (this one). I hope the pictures show clearly that the nozzle is too close in the bottom left, and too far in the top right (top left is also a bit far, and bottom right a bit close).
I've done days of research, all over the web, Reddit, forums & YouTube and tried numerous fixes, to no avail

What I've done to try to fix / debug 1: Observe z compensation
When I do a test print with a bed levelling at the start, I observe the z-axis go up and down during the print, suggesting the printer is trying to compensate based on the readings from the start of the print. It just seems it's not compensating enough (or too much).
When I run a M420 V I get (which implies it has the mesh loaded):
Send: M420 V
Communication timeout while idle, trying to trigger response from printer. Configure long running commands or     increase communication timeout if that happens regularly on specific commands or long moves.
Recv: Bilinear Leveling Grid:
Recv:       0      1      2      3      4
Recv:  0 +1.245 +1.257 +1.282 +1.332 +1.342
Recv:  1 +1.187 +1.167 +1.130 +1.127 +1.147
Recv:  2 +1.082 +1.080 +1.057 +1.077 +1.085
Recv:  3 +1.202 +1.147 +1.057 +1.000 +0.957
Recv:  4 +1.192 +1.180 +1.117 +1.085 +1.027
Recv:
Recv: echo:Bed Leveling ON
Recv: echo:Fade Height 10.00
Recv: ok P15 B3

What I've done to try to fix / debug 2: Level the bed as much as possible
I've tried to level the bed as best as possible. As you can observe from the M420 V command the bed is pretty level. This was done using the Bed Level Visualizer plugin from OctoPrint.
What I've done to try to fix / debug 3: I've changed from a 3x3 grid to a 5x5 grid
As advised in several places the bed levelling is now done with a 5x5 grid. This didn't make a (noticeable) difference.
What I've done to try to fix / debug 4: I've updated the firmware
I used to run on the Creality firmware. I've downloaded new firmware from marlin.crc.id.au (did that today, so using Ender3-v4.2.7-BLTouch-20210511.bin). Didn't help.
What I've done to try to fix / debug 5: I've calibrated the Z-offset
I've done a lot of tests, tweaking the z value to the current value, where part of the bed comes too close to the nozzle, and part of the bed stays too far away. So the Z-offset is not going to be able to improve anything I believe.
What I've done to try to fix / debug 6: I've done all the regular hardware tweaks
I've checked all the common things: Belts are tight, wheels are properly tightened, nothing is wobbly, Z-axis is clean.
What I've done to try to fix / debug 7: I've tried to add M420 S
I've tried to add the M420 command after the G29 command (I know it shouldn't be needed, as G29 enables bed levelling, but just wanted to make sure)
Reference: My printer M503 settings
echo:  G21    ; Units in mm (mm)
echo:  M149 C ; Units in Celsius
echo:; Filament settings: Disabled
echo:  M200 S0 D1.75
echo:; Steps per unit:
echo: M92 X80.00 Y80.00 Z400.00 E93.00
echo:; Maximum feedrates (units/s):
echo:  M203 X500.00 Y500.00 Z20.00 E50.00
echo:; Maximum Acceleration (units/s2):
echo:  M201 X500.00 Y500.00 Z100.00 E5000.00
echo:; Acceleration (units/s2): P<print_accel> R<retract_accel> T<travel_accel>
echo:  M204 P500.00 R500.00 T500.00
echo:; Advanced: B<min_segment_time_us> S<min_feedrate> T<min_travel_feedrate> X<max_x_jerk> Y<max_y_jerk> Z<max_z_jerk> E<max_e_jerk>
echo:  M205 B20000.00 S0.00 T0.00 X10.00 Y10.00 Z0.30 E15.00
echo:; Home offset:
echo:  M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
echo:; Auto Bed Leveling:
echo:  M420 S1 Z10.00
echo:  G29 W I0 J0 Z1.24499
echo:  G29 W I1 J0 Z1.25749
echo:  G29 W I2 J0 Z1.28249
echo:  G29 W I3 J0 Z1.33249
echo:  G29 W I4 J0 Z1.34249
echo:  G29 W I0 J1 Z1.18749
echo:  G29 W I1 J1 Z1.16749
echo:  G29 W I2 J1 Z1.12999
echo:  G29 W I3 J1 Z1.12749
echo:  G29 W I4 J1 Z1.14749
echo:  G29 W I0 J2 Z1.08249
echo:  G29 W I1 J2 Z1.07999
echo:  G29 W I2 J2 Z1.05749
echo:  G29 W I3 J2 Z1.07749
echo:  G29 W I4 J2 Z1.08499
echo:  G29 W I0 J3 Z1.20249
echo:  G29 W I1 J3 Z1.14749
echo:  G29 W I2 J3 Z1.05749
echo:  G29 W I3 J3 Z0.99999
echo:  G29 W I4 J3 Z0.95749
echo:  G29 W I0 J4 Z1.19249
echo:  G29 W I1 J4 Z1.17999
echo:  G29 W I2 J4 Z1.11749
echo:  G29 W I3 J4 Z1.08499
echo:  G29 W I4 J4 Z1.02749
echo:; Material heatup parameters:
echo:  M145 S0 H200.00 B60.00 F255
echo:  M145 S1 H240.00 B70.00 F255
echo:; PID settings:
echo:  M301 P21.73 I1.54 D76.55
echo:; Retract: S<length> F<units/m> Z<lift>
echo:  M207 S3.00 W13.00 F4800.00 Z0.30
echo:; Recover: S<length> F<units/m>
echo:  M208 S0.00 W0.00 F4800.00
echo:; Z-Probe Offset (mm):
echo:  M851 X-45.00 Y-7.00 Z-3.30
echo:; Filament load/unload lengths:
echo:  M603 L415.00 U450.00
echo:; Filament runout sensor:
echo:  M412 S0 D8.00
ok P15 B3

Reference: The start of my G-code file
;FLAVOR:Marlin
;TIME:775
;Filament used: 0.480677m
;Layer height: 0.2
;MINX:16.516
;MINY:16.515
;MINZ:0.2
;MAXX:218.485
;MAXY:218.485
;MAXZ:0.2
;Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 4.9.0
M140 S60
M105
M190 S60
M104 S215
M105
M109 S215
M82 ;absolute extrusion mode
; Ender 3 Custom Start G-code
G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder
G28 ; Home all axes
G29 ; Auto bed levelling
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed
G1 X0.1 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move to start position
G1 X0.1 Y200.0 Z0.3 F1500.0 E15 ; Draw the first line
G1 X0.4 Y200.0 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move to side a little
G1 X0.4 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 ; Draw the second line
G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed
G1 X5 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move over to prevent blob squish
G92 E0
G92 E0
G1 F2700 E-5
;LAYER_COUNT:1
;LAYER:0
M107
G0 F6000 X26.14 Y20.098 Z0.2
;TYPE:SKIRT
G1 F2700 E0

Reference: Congifuration.h
As I've used two precompiled firmwares (see point 4 above), I don't have a Congifuration.h to share.
Concluding
I hope I've given a detailed enough account for you guys to help me. If you have any additional questions I'll try to answer them as quickly as possible. Thanks a million!

Did you ever solve this? I believe I have the same situation. I've followed similar debugging steps. I manually tested each if the 16 test points and found that their correction value was out on average by 0.02 up to 0.14mm.

Unfortunately not

Had similar problems.  I even did a 10x10 grid just to find out that my printing bed wasn't actually flat.
It actually had dips in it.
I would have to look up the command, but I actually just lowered the nozzle by 0.050 mm at a time.  Eventually it got too low, and then I backed it off in even smaller increments.
I also had to print with a raft so any extreme dips are held together on top of the raft.

I had the exact same issue as you and had done all the fixes you mentioned. The only thing that solved it for me was to make sure the model in the slicing software was flat to the "bed".
I use Cura and it has a "flat the bed" option which I only discovered due to a model that was slightly off which caused the top and bottom layer to half.


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Fill hollow part of body in the 3D model
Sorry, I'm new in 3D printing and modeling and I need help.
I bought a 3D model with a hollow part of the body that doesn't print on my printer normally (with very high resolution (layer is 0.12 mm, the nozzle is 0.4 mm) because the walls are very thin).  I tried to make it as a solid in MeshMixer or ZBrush, but  I can't.  Can you help me, how I can fix this defect?
I use Cura for slicing.
I know, that I can take a thinner nozzle (0.2 mm) and Cura will slice it better, but I want to make this model solid so I could print it with nozzle 0.4 mm.

that is 100% a problem of the model. Those chest areas have their vertices inside-out.

@Trish, Hi! Thank you for you answer. Can you help me fix that model? (I'll share model for you)

https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/15881/8884 could help

The model clearly contains an enclosed surface, which is directed to the inside - in other words, it was modeled to contain a volume of air.
Those surfaces need to be removed to print the body solid. To do this, you could check if those surfaces constitute a separate shell for meshmixer. If yes, you can just go, run separate shells, remove those internal items, and then re-merge all other shells. Slicing that should result in the voids being filled.
If however the shell is meant to exist, then it should instead simply get its normals inverted. This is best done with modeling software such as blender. Some steps you need can be seen here

This is a problem with the model, you need to make sure that the model isn't hollow. You might be able to get around this though if you use scaffolding, it might recognize the overhand hand build supports for your print inside of your print, you just might have to mess around with the scaffolding settings a bit.

Print with Supports, Standard, Everywhere.
You'll get some external supports that may require sanding or scraping to smooth the attachment marks (it may be possible to use further Cura tricks to block those if this model normally doesn't need supports), but "Everywhere" will cause Cura to create supports that sit on the model -- hence inside the hollow body.  I've seen them inside a 3 mm diameter horizontal hole.  You can then adjust "support infill" to create what amounts to a (slightly inefficient) infill in the part of the model that's made as a hollow.
I'd recommend trying this first with a large nozzle and thick layers, to speed printing for the test ("draft mode"), but I have every reason to believe it will work.


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Do hygroscopic filaments (PVA, Nylon) absorb moisture while in a heated enclosure
I’m new to using PVA support filament, and have read it is especially prone to absorbing moisture out of the atmosphere. People made it sound like it starts to happen quickly, and if you aren’t supposed to leave it on the machine overnight, what’s the difference between that and doing an overnight print with the roll?
I’m building an enclosure for the printer (BCN3D Sigma, filament lives in the build space), expect the ambient temperature when printing PLA to be ~35 °C, unless I add an active heating element (100 W lightbulb possibly). The question is, do the hygroscopic materials continue to absorb moisture in a warm, toasty environment? And if so, do I need to construct a dry box for the filament to live in as it prints?
A frugal attempt at research brought back this:
As noted by the Sciencing.com website article "How Temperature & Humidity are Related":

As air temperature increases, air can hold more water molecules, and its relative humidity decreases. When temperatures drop, relative humidity increases.

After adding an inexpensive thermometer + hygrometer, I can report my enclosure, heated passively with the heat bed, isn’t very effective at raising the temperature and even less impressive at lowering the relative humidity. With the bed at PLA temperature (65 °C) for 2 hours, the temperature raised from 22 °C to 28 °C, and the relative humidity lowered from 32 % to 29 %.
I may go for an active heating element and will report back on what happens when the chamber is hotter.

FWIW, I''ve got a spool of generic PLA that's been open for three weeks plus a couple days, and as of last night it still printed well.  I live in humid North Carolina, though it's been drier than normal recently.

The concept that relative humidity decreases with an air temperature increase runs consistent with the concept of using a food dehydrator to purge moisture from filament spools. As the filament heats up, energy is imparted to the water molecules within. The dryer air around the spool will accept the moisture and "distribute" it to the environment. A warmed enclosed chamber will not have much humidity to endanger the filament.
I have a Sigma R16 and have moved the spools to the outside of the enclosure, but I don't plan to print hygroscopic materials in the near future. I suppose I'd have to build some form of drying enclosure around the spools, particularly for nylon and PVA.
My Qidi3D X-Max has both internal and external spool mounts and it is recommended to use the internal mount for nylon, as even an hour's exposure to humidity can deteriorate print quality.
PLA is safe for days, ABS is safe for perhaps less, but PVA is not a good overnight exposure material and nylon is definitely an inside-the-box condition.
I suspect that having the filament inside your Sigma, especially if you plan to fully enclose it, is not going to be problematic. I created a front panel for my Sigma to reduce ABS warping and the internal temperatures reached 37 °C. That's warm enough to keep the water clear of the filament, unless you have an extremely humid environment.
Before you add an additional heater, consider to place a perforated container of color-change desiccant inside the build chamber and observe over time the color change. Obviously when not printing, seal the desiccant from collecting non-test humidity, but I think you'll find it's pretty dry while you're printing.

Thanks for your notes. Desiccant in the build chamber is interesting. I’m ordering a thermometer+hygrometer (to measure humidity), I’ll report back what happens. I could see the crucial variables being how much the enclosure heats up, and the local humidity.


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Z-Axis on a winch
In Prusa i3 clones the Z axis is often problematic. Mechanically unsynchronized dual Z axises which are driven by the same stepper driver easily misalign. Using only one Z motor makes the whole gantry sag on one side. And Z lead screws that aren't perfectly straight lead to z wobble.
The other day I had a simple idea that would fix all of that, but I can't find anyone who implement it before, so I probably there are drawbacks that I don't see.
The idea is to remove the lead screws (possibly replacing it with a second set of smooth rods to counteract X axis vibrations) and instead hang the gantry onto two ropes/wires which are drawn by a winch. That way, both ends of the gantry could be drawn symmetricaly by a single motor. Since there is no Z lead screw, there is no wobble. And since only the gravity is pulling the gantry down, you shouldn't be able to destroy anything by ramming the nozzle into the bed.
What drawbacks are there for this system? What am I missing? Is the gravity strong enough to press the nozzle into the last layer when printing? I am using a direct drive extruder.

Supplemental follow up question (related to, and answered by, Trish's answer):

From my understanding the hangprinter is only attached to ropes, same as a portal crane. I am considering an i3-style printer with the leadscrews removed, but the smooth Z rods intact (maybe even with a second set of smooth rods in place of the leadscrews. So the only forces that gravity has to work against are: output pressure of the extruder and potential bouncing in z direction. So, how could I calculate if gravity is enough for that?

This concept already exists, it is e.g. found in some high quality 3D printers. Instead of a winch, a belt system (of several belts) is used.
An interesting point from this answer already mentions that a winch isn't a good mechanism to lower/raise the gantry; if the cables are wound over each other the diameter of the wound cables will get larger and thus the movement. This could be circumvented by creating a push pull system and very few windings on the winch.
But, this concept already has been worked out in the VORON 2.4 printer design. This design is based on the work of a group of engineers and is considered to be a high quality printer that is also suitable for professional use. From the following image you can see (on the right side) a belt. This design uses 4 linear rails to support and guide the bed and 4 belts to drive the whole CoreXY gantry up and down.

So, a winch will not work, but the type of suspension already exists and is in use.

With respect to the i3 style printers and the free gantry movement the following is from my own experience.
I've build several i3 style printers of which my latest 2 where all having a freely moving gantry upwards as I decoupled the lead screw from the X mounts. The lead screw nuts simply push the gantry up as they are embedded in a separate part; gravity will pull the gantry down. The mass of the guide rods, a stepper motor and the hotend provide enough mass to pull it down. I've had excellent results with these printers, e.g. mentioned in this answer:

poor layer bonding and possibly even collisions between the nozzle and already-printed material, from slight variations in height where extrusion pushes back against gravity

is not encountered. The following images give an impression of the lifting device:

The gantry of the printer seems comparatively stiff built and uses 4 belts as far as I can see.

I actually currently use something similar, but only on the right lead screw and I mounted it above, so that the gantry hangs from the screw lift. My right lead screw is not straight at all. I was afraid, that hanging from both screws would cause trouble since nothing forces the gantry down. Good to know that's not an issue.

That would also be my light-version of this modification: hang both sides on cable ties from the nut on the lead screws.

That's a crane. Cranes are low constrained
What you are proposing is a portal crane. Have you ever seen a container portal crane in operation?
Containers are strung up at the 4 corners and lifted from long cables. They move on their path because the container is super heavy and they have had years to finetune the acceleration profile. But the container sways and swings from side to side during airtime because the cables hang!
Only in a container lifter, where the container is carried by a gantry that is constrained on 4 corners and very heavy to keep the cables tight and taunt at every moment, you get the needed constrainment, and now we are talking that the claw lifting the container weighs in the order of tons.
Scaled-down to a printer, a napkin estimation of the gantry tells me that it would need to weigh in the order of about half a dozen kilos to ensure that nothing in the printer path could force the nozzle up - and the motors you need now are actually high power servos as you find them in heavy CNC equipment. However, that's for a conventional crane: the printhead hangs straight down, the mounting point of the crane is moving, and the high mass is to try and reduce swaying as we go really really slow.
extreme example of low constrainment: Hangprinter
The same problem was present in the hangprinter - in the idea that is a free-floating gantry with little to no limitations. The main problem it faces is layer accuracy because of the length of the ropes. The suspension stretches as a factor of the length of them, making movement complicated, but solvable. By using polyester that has no real stretching and mounting the wires in a triangular fashion by three cables, the printer becomes self-stabilizing. But the free-floating makes it extremely vulnerable to imparted errors from outside, such as wind or just the building swaying. Also, its print volume is a cone.
Constraining the gantry
Of course, we don't want to have a free-hanging gantry like a hangprinter. But now we need to constrain the gantry. With a quad of rods, that'd be enough, similar to how they are in the haulers on the ground in container harbors. That constrainment also reduces the needed weight to make it resilient to shifting, but the gantry still needs to be somewhat heavy to prevent the shifting weight to alter the balance - the gantry itself should be at least three times as heavy as the printhead to minimize the lifting cables stretching differently when the printhead moves left and right.
However, the setup still suffers from some large downsides:
The smallest problem is the elongation of cables under stress. While this is dependant on the length of cable, so the lifting profile isn't exactly linear, the right material choice can fix this.
A bigger problem is the diameter of the spool changing with the number of windings that the cable is coiled up over, adding more non-linearity, and this is hard to predict in the worst case. If one side gets its cable into the next layer while the other doesn't, this could force a tilting force onto the gantry.
Tilting forces of enough strength could, in the worst case, press the bearings in such a way against the rods that the result in a lock-up situation where the gantry isn't going anywhere. This could be solved with some engineering ingenuity and proper tolerancing.
Another problem is, that while constrained to the down direction, the setup isn't constrained to the up direction, making it possible to push the gantry up to the top, but the weight will get it back to the print level again. However, such a bump might result in the force on the motor losing a few steps, giving us layer shifting in the vertical. This is an outside-induced error though.
To mitigate most, if not all of these problems, you would need to use cables in both directions (one to hoist, one to prevent lift), which basically makes this a continuous belt-attached gantry and mitigates any requirement for a heavy gantry to keep the cables stretched. A well-designed set of loops also would prevent tilt-locking the gantry as the cable can't get mis-wound - possibly even all driven by one motor.
Mechanically linked setups
What you are looking for are mechanically linked/synchronized Z-axis'. That actually can be done without needing pulleys. A single motor can turn both leadscrews easily if it was connected to both with a proper motion train. Examples are using a chain and gears, or just a gear train using a horizontal axle and two pairs of angled gears to turn the leadscrews. Take a look into how heavy machinery synchronizes axis'.
If you want to go with a pair of belt-loops, you could have a single motor turn an axle upon which the gears for both belts are mounted, resulting in synchronized movement of both belts and the required constrainment on both belts. An example using 4 belts is the machine mentioned by 0scar. However, keep in mind that you want non-stretchy belts for this and to keep them tuned well.

Hi Dakkaron, has Trish's recent edit to the post, answered your question? If so, then your comment could be removed. However, IMHO, your question is actually quite interesting and if it gets removed then part of the context of Trish's edited answer will be lost (i.e. the edit will lose context). If would be far better if you asked a new question, using the comment's text, and refer back to Trish's answer (using the URL). That way your question: (a) will have greater visibility; (b) won't get lost buried in a comment; (c) could help others;(d) won't be deleted, and;(e) you will get upvotes.

@Dakkaron - actually, further to my above comment. I have just realised that you are the OP, so I've put your comment into your question... Please flag my two comments for deletion once you have read them. Thanks.

Having some experience in free moving gantries, I can relate to the OP's question, some of the text in this answer is theoretical, I haven't experience any drawbacks of the gantry being forced up. Also elongation of cables for these weights and lengths is ridiculously small (unless you use wrong cables) that it can be considered neglectable. The winching diameter increase is a point of concern.

@0scar would you test a lockup situation where only one corner is moving?

That doesn't happen, in my setup I use 2 lead screws, in a cable (or belt) suspended gantry you can also drive both sides, even with a single stepper. It requires some engineering ingenuity !

I have thought about this same type of problem before and my solution is to use CoreXZ!
Let me explain. With CoreXY the effector (the thing that the hot end is on) moves on the X and Y axes. However, there is no reason why this solution can't be turned 90 degrees to stand vertically. Once paired with a normal Prusa/RepRap Y axis, you end up with CoreXZ (which is supported in Marlin already I believe). You eliminate 1 motor, and the mechanism is inherently sag proof, assuming it's been built properly.

The only downside is the gravity issue. If the gantry is too heavy, when the motors are turned off, the X will fall and slam into the print.
This problem can be mitigated somewhat by:

Never turning off the motors until the bed has been moved out from under the gantry and the gantry has returned to the home position. If you want the home position to be at the top of the frame, then suitably sized magnets can be used to restrain the effector at the top as opposed to the bottom (some trial and error may be required).
Use a counterweight on a pulley to offset the mass of the gantry.
Use a constant force spring to ensure that the gantry always gets pulled upwards instead of falling downwards. (I once used constant force springs on a design. It gave an interesting and unexpected result. Instead of pulling the gantry upwards the slight variances in the pulling force resulted in the gantry twisting and then getting stuck. So instead of falling or rising the system just "magically" held in place. A happy accident.)

Use a "Double Pole Double Throw" relay to short circuit the phases of the stepper motors once the power or other control system has been turned off. When you short circuit a stepper motor, the back electromotive force makes the spindle much harder to turn (you should try this for yourself). You can use that effect to make a rudimentary braking system.

Lastly, make sure the linear rails you use are sticky. Less friction in this setup will allow the gantry to fall easier. Therefore using a linear rail solution that is both accurate enough and provides adjustable friction would help mitigate this problem.

that mitigates some of the problems I mentioned, but you open a whole can of worms if the steppers are not well synchronized. Possibly this might work better with servos.

CoreXZ doesn't support different gear ratios for X and Z, does it? Is that a problem?

@Dakkaron, No it would not support different gear ratios. No, it should not be a problem. The step resolution should be enough to print properly in all situations. CoreXZ would also be able to speed up Non-Planer printing.

Unless your gantry is extremely heavy, I don't think this will work. The Z motion system needs to not only lift, but to hold the nozzle rigidly at the desired distance from the bed/previous layer. Otherwise I would expect poor layer bonding and possibly even collisions between the nozzle and already-printed material, from slight variations in height where extrusion pushes back against gravity.

My X gantry on one of my i3 clones can move freely upwards (I decoupled the lead screw), linear rails, a stepper and a hotend provide more than enough weight.


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Height of the prints are always larger
This problem is driving me crazy, no, seriously speaking. I bought this printer this week and started to calibrate for accurate dimensions. I printed the one-and-only calibration cube (20x20x20 also a 10x10x10) and well, the dimensions for the X & Y axis are perfect, but the Z-axis is a big problem, almost 1.5 mm bigger than expected.
I tried everything in order to resolve this issue, I checked to see if the steps are correctly calibrated using a ruler and moving my extruder up and down, precise as you expected, no weird sounds coming from the Z-axis and stepper while printing. I calibrated the E-Step, also the bed leveling is done automatically using the BLTouch probe. Also I want to mention that the first layer is perfect (took time to calibrate this too).
I am using Cura for slicing using the default profile for the Ender 3 Pro, Premium PLA, 210 °C for the first layer & 200 °C for the rest, 50 °C bed temperature.
I will leave here some photos, perhaps somebody could give me an idea.
As you can see from the images the Z-axis is scaled-up perfectly. This difference is about 1.5 mm for both cubes (the one with 20 mm & 10 mm).
Has anyone encountered this type of problem before?
EDIT:
I will attach some pictures with the first layer. Right now I observe some wobbling in the Z axis and saw that the printer is not perfect laid on the table, one corner was lifted. So I tried to flatten. Waiting for the test print.

If your output is, for example, 5% too tall, please reduce your steps per mm in the Z by 5% and retest; let us know if this helps.

Thank you for your response. The idea is that if I move the Z axis manual the distance travelled is perfect all the time. Just when is printing this problem occurs. I will try to compensate using the steps, but I don’t think that this is causing the problem.

Since the 10mm and 20mm cubes are both off by the same amount, it is not a matter of scaling.

What does the first layer surface look like?

The first layer is looking incredible, no squeezing at all, I didn’t use any adhesive for the cubes. That’s what is driving me crazy ☹. Right now I am not near the printer. But I could update the post with the image to see for yourself.

You didn't mention anything about reviewing output g-code file. Have you review it? Nothing suspicious?

Since nobody had any idea what cause the problem, I investigated for a full week.
The problem is related to Fade Height and .... a warp bed, since I have ABL (Auto Bed Levelling) and Fade Height enable. The compensation was way too big, something like -1.4 or bigger.
So, after I bought a new glass bed and set the fade height to 0 the problem is gone and the prints are looking normal, like -.2 mm or -.3mm in heights.


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I am getting bubbles and a bulge at the bottom layer of my 3D print
I am printing ABS on an Ender 3 printer at a temperature of 240 °C on the nozzle and 110 °C on the bed. I am getting the following result:

Is there any way I can fix this?

Have you tried lower bed temperatures?

I think that your bed is too hot because the bubbling is only on the bottom layer, if it was through out the entire print, I would say that it is your nozzle temp and you should do a temp tower, but because that isn't the case try lowering your bed temp

I had a similiar issue. First 2 to 4 layers looked god, than a trouble zone with 5 to 10 layers, and after that good again.
In my case the z-layer screws were not tight. During moving up I lost some steps due to the lose screws ...


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Problem printing with V6 hotend on Creality Ender 3
I have installed V6 hotend (all metal) with a direct drive extruder on Ender 3. It flows alright when I push manually however, the print is severely under extruded and doesn't stick to the bed.
Things I have already tried:

Replaced the nozzle and the heat break however, the problem persists.
Tried changing the filament. PETG wrecked the heat break. PLA doesn't print either.
Reduced the retracing to 0.3 mm
Cleaning the bed.

Have you calibrated the extruder?


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BLTouch type sensor Z not compensating
I have a BLTouch clone (3DTouch) on my printer (Artillery Sidewinder X1). I installed it on the printer ages ago and has been working fine since. Recently, I did a BTT smart filament sensor upgrade.
I updated and edited both the Marlin firmware and the MKS TFT28 screen firmware to get it to work with the smart filament sensor. The filament sensor runs through the screen not the motherboard so it is enabled in screen firmware instead.
The sensor works fine and every other part of the printer is fine as well, except that after the BLTouch does a G29 (I have it do that before every print in my start G-code, followed by an M500), It will not adjust the Z-axis to compensate for the unevenness of the bed. I can see the Z motors not move and I cannot feel the lead screws rotate in my hand if I touch my hand against them.
I have been through several other forums, videos, etc. on the internet but none of them have the same problem as me and/or their solutions do not fix the problems.
I have also tried flashing the display with the original firmware, which did not work so I guess is that I have something wrong with the firmware.
I have checked and double-checked my firmware but maybe there is something I missed or do not know about that could be causing my problem.
Firmware can be found here.

I have tried running the original firmware with changes only made to enable the BLTouch. The Z-axis does still not compensate.

I have also replaced the mainboard. I don’t know if that could affect the operation or not.

Recently, I needed to print a part so I put the default Marlin firmware using the Artillery SWX1 example in Marlin's collection of examples with modifications made only to work with the BLTouch. I can post this copy of the firmware but it is probably identical to the GitHub repo below. This way I could just print with no Z compensation, however, now whenever I try to home the printer or do a G29, the BLTouch doesn't deploy and it will crash into the bed. I posted an unlisted video on YouTube demonstrating the issue here. Also note that in the video, I attempt to move the Z-axis by 1 mm, but instead, the stepper motors spin at full speed and the gantry comes zooming towards the bed.

I tried flashing the firmware yet again and for some reason, the BLTouch worked. it could home is and to a probing routine. I have been using the printer without the compensation and it works fine but it is really bizarre that this is happening. I know it is unlikely to solve the problem, but I am thinking of purchasing a replacement BLTouch. They are only 20 bucks to replace and I did accidental slightly bend the plastic probe before the Z stopped compensating. So is it possible the BLTouch is cactus?

So recently, I noticed when running a G29 T through Octoprint or Pronterface, etc. that the printer will return a set of numbers for each probing point. Does this indicate that the BLTouch has taken the measurements but the printer will not use them to compensate the bed?
I have tried all the answers below.

Does anybody have an idea of what is wrong? Do I need to add more information? If so please let me know what I should add.

Is the board exactly the same board (type, brand) you replaced the original with? I hope you are aware of the original 1.1.9 Marlin based firmware at https://github.com/artillery3d/sidewinder-x1-firmware?

No, the original was MKS Gen L v1.0 , the new one was an MKS Gen L v2.1 .

So I discovered that the fade height must have been set to something really off.
I didn't know this at the time so I thought I should set the fade height to the default 10 mm just to make sure nothing was wrong and tested it. The printer now levels and compensates perfectly!

Thanks for coming back and provide an answer. It appears that not setting the fading height in firmware recently causes these problems indeed, see e.g. this question.

It's not that the fade height was not set in the firmware, it was set to something really low making the printer not compensate because the unleveled bed is out of the fade height range but I get what you mean. M420 Z[fade height] fixed it.

I am not the best with firmware modifications or anything like that, but you could try running your printer through OctoPrint and do the bed leveling through that and maybe that might fix the problem that you are facing.

OctoPrint is an interface to the printer controller board, if the board/firmware doesn't work, this won't work either.

There is something not correct in your configuration file.
You mention the use of an upgraded controller board from an MKS GEN L to a MKS GEN L v2.1.

...the original was MKS Gen L v1.0 , the new one was an MKS Gen L v2.1...

This change of hardware is not effectively present in your configuration.h file, it currently states the use of the old board:
// Choose the name from boards.h that matches your setup
#ifndef MOTHERBOARD
  #define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_MKS_GEN_L
#endif

You should have used the board constant called BOARD_MKS_GEN_L_V21.
I honestly don't know if this could fix your problem, but at least all correct pins are then loaded and could help you start searching for the problem.

I have the exact same printer and had the same issue using the same probe. What fixed it for me was adding a M420 S1 after G29.

That should already be active if you look at the G29 G-code sources. But, worth a try I have seen this also on a very old Marlin version happening.

Make sure RESTORE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28 is uncommented in configuration.h.

Could you please explain what this does and why it should be done?

I fixed this problem long ago. The problem was the fade height was set wrongly causing the machine to apply no Z compensation.


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What is "silk PLA"?
I picked up some no-name "silk" PLA in a multi color pack as part of a project where I needed some additional distinct colors and structural properties didn't matter, but now I'm playing with the excess I'm not using for that, and its behavior is really weird. On overhangs with detail on the downward-facing surface it's like everything flowed/melted together rather than retaining the extruded shape. And on vertical surfaces where one would expect to see layer lines, the lines are present and can be felt and slightly seen, but don't seem to contibute to the sheen/reflective properties like how they would in normal PLA or other materials. Together these observations make me suspect there's an additive that melts to a state where it flows much more than the base PLA at PLA printing temperatures, coalescing into more of a uniform smooth surface.
What are the likely additives in "silk PLA" filaments, and what printing/mechanical properties should we expect from them?
Some further observations: pushing it out of the hotend by hand, it has a lot of die swell, almost up to the original 1.75 mm diameter, and if tension is released it tries to retreat back into the nozzle. This suggests to me there might be some sort of foaming type additive involved, and also explains the behavior on overhangs.

Silk PLA is a descriptor
Silk PLA is a description of how the PLA looks. It is a separation from Glossy and Matte that is taken over from paints: Gloss, Silk, and Matte are the three general types any paint can come in, indicating different reflectiveness of high, intermediate, and low respectively.
As a result, Silk-PLA is designed in such a way to get some sheen without looking all shiny/glossy.
Most PLAs are modified with various additives anyway to achieve good printing or specific looks, silk PLAs use theirs to get the sheen often attributed to silk. A common additive that gets a nice sheen in paints is Mica, but most PLAs are made silky-shiny by adding a slight bit of various TPE - Elastomers. That is not one but a whole group of materials that is added!
As a result of being a polymer mixed with additives, you need to tune for each material, brand and color combination anyway.
Further reading

What is PLA+? How is it different from PLA?
How to find pure PLA filament?

In terms of PLA 3D printing filament, the term "Silk" is NOT simply a description of how it looks. It refers to a specific set of additives that have been mixed in with the polymer (usually some form of lipid) to give it a shinier surface texture and a smoother feel.

TPE is not one but a whole family of thermoplastic rubbers, and you could create a silky, but very abrasive filament by adding Mica from the paint industry - which exists in natural and synthetic ways. What blend of TPE is added by which company or if they use a special pigment (also an option) is company secret.

It has additives to the PLA to change its characteristics.

Typically, “silk” filaments are enhanced PLA filaments, owing their glossy result to various additives. As such, they tend to show most of the same pros and cons of PLA filament. In the case where silk filaments have a different base, these would be expected to have similar properties to the base material. For this article, we’ll focus mostly on PLA-based silk filaments.

-- Silk PLA Filament: Best Brands
The article goes on to say that this does modify how the material prints and thus may need different parameters on your printer from normal PLA.  You can get silk PLA in different brands.  There doesn't seem to be a standard composition, so each brand may behave differently.


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Ender 5 with 8-bit Creality 1.1.4 board- Issue with speed of extruder motor spinning too slow
The issue I'm having is that the extruder motor is not spinning fast enough so the filament doesn't come out as fast as I would like it to.
In terms of the specs, the printer is an Ender 5 that has the Creality V1.1.4 8-bit motherboard in it. The only issue I need to fix is the rpm of the motor (Nema 17 stepper motor) because it doesn't spin fast enough.
I have tried changing the feed-rate settings in the Marlin firmware code but that didn't fix the problem. I found this video yesterday where a guy said that you have to change the steps per unit value in the code which depends on the micro-stepping value that's set for the stepper driver in the motherboard.
However, I don't know how to check or change this driver value so I searched up and found that usually for the A4988 drivers which are in the 1.1.4 board they're set to 1/16th micro-stepping. Online it says for 1/16th micro-stepping you need to change the extruder steps per mm value to 409 (rough estimate) in the marlin code (it was 93 before so I am wondering if changing this value would increase motor speed).
I don't know if this is a software issue or if it's because the stepper motor just isn't getting enough current due to the 8-bit board so if I swapped out the 8-bit board with a 32-bit board can I change the motor speed by increasing the amount of current that is sent to the stepper motor? Or does the board not really matter?
Sorry if the details aren't clear or something I said doesn't make sense as I am new to this.

Hi and welcome. Please [edit] and add the link to the video.

I think you might be asking how to adjust your steps per mm, but if the motor is moving the correct distance, but at a slow speed, then it might just be a speed problem with settings, or whatever it might be. I have an Ender 3 but I think I might be able to show you how to calculate the steps per mm. There is a simple equation for this.
New E-steps=(target distance/actual distance moved)*current E-steps
You can use this equation with a couple steps.
Step 1.   Make your printer extrude 100 mm of filament, then measure with a digital caliper how much it actually extruded (or moved). Plug this measurement into your equation in the part "actual distance moved", and put 100 in the part "target distance". You can control the motors by going to: prepare then move axis.

step 2.  Go to the steps per mm section.

Then use this value to fill in the "current E-steps"(but on your printer of course)

In the end your equation should look like this:
New E-steps=(100/your measurement)*your current E-steps.
After you solve the equation, put the answer into the printer. To save your changes, go back two pages from "Steps per mm" and click the "store settings" button. This will save your changes onto your sd card, so make sure that it is in the slot when you do this. Also make sure that your sd card is in the printer at start-up, because it needs to boot up with the settings. (at least on the Ender 3)


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Stepper motor moving only to one side after reset
I come through this post, rescue a problem with my printer. It uses Arduino 2560 Mega, RAMPS 1.4, and Marlin 1.1.9, which had configured it left it working as follows: on the RAMPS the Y-axis is connected to the Z-axis pins, as it has two stepper motors on the Y-axis and the Z-axis is connected to the pins of E1.
I did all the basic and necessary configurations in the firmware and sent it to the Arduino, eliminating the previous configuration, so that I can configure the steps of the motor correctly, as they were out of calibration. Before the reset, the motors moved to both sides, positive and negative. However, when I sent the firmware to the Arduino, I can only rotate the motors on all axes only to one side.
On the printer display, I go to the option to move the axis, rotate it 10 mm and the axis moves. However when I move it backwards, it does not come back, it is stopped. This happens with all the axes after I did the reset. Is there any way to configure the rotation of the motors by the firmware in relation to pins A1, A2, B1, and B2 in the same way that the axis change on the RAMPS was configured?
I apologize for the mistakes, I speak Portuguese and I used a translator.

I executed the command M119 on the console of the Marlin IDE and the printer did nothing, it is correctly connected to the PC via the USB cable
this appeared on the console screen:
x_min: TRIGGERED
y_min: TRIGGERED
z_min: open
ok

Do you have minimum endstops enabled? Did you check state of endstops?

Presumably, you need to home an axis before it will move in both directions.

Yes, the endstops are active, following a tutorial that I was following on configuration, it is this configuration, leave the options of the mechanical endstop in true

Assuming that your M119 command has been executed for non-depressed endstop switches, it could be concluded that the firmware is incorrectly configured.

If you execute the M119 G-code command and get TRIGGERED status values for endstops, even when the nozzle head is not pressing the endstop switches, then you have incorrectly configured the endstops in the Marlin configuration.h file.
The most common setup is to have the COM go to ground and NC to Signal, this requires the following values to be false, otherwise you need to use true.
#define X_MIN_ENDSTOP_INVERTING true// Set to true to invert the logic of the endstop.
#define Y_MIN_ENDSTOP_INVERTING true// Set to true to invert the logic of the endstop.

When an endstop is reported to be triggered while the switch is not depressed, the logic needs to be reversed. Marlin firmware will only allow movement to go away from the endstop when it is triggered, never against a triggered endstop (as this might damage the printer).

sorry for the delay in responding, i had little time these days. Anyway, here I left it configured like this
#define X_MIN_ENDSTOP_INVERTING true
#define Y_MIN_ENDSTOP_INVERTING true
#define Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_INVERTING true
#define X_MAX_ENDSTOP_INVERTING false
#define Y_MAX_ENDSTOP_INVERTING false
#define Z_MAX_ENDSTOP_INVERTING false
#define Z_MIN_PROBE_ENDSTOP_INVERTING false


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Laptop keycaps for Asus UX31A
I broke 2 keys (i.e. left ctrl, enter) on my Asus UX31A laptop and it seems that this model is too old to find replacement keys.
Is there any way I can find a 3D model of the needed keys to have them 3D printed?
I do not have a printer nor I have any experience in this field.
What I need is either someone that has models for these or that can point me where I can find such models.

This is more off-topic as an answer, but serves as a possible solution.
Replacementlaptopkeys.com is a resource that appears to have keycaps for the model you've noted.
https://www.replacementlaptopkeys.com/asus-zenbook-ux31a-db71-laptop-keys-replacement-dark-brown-black/
At seven dollars a key, it's going to be less expensive than 3D printing to accomplish your objective.
If you owned a 3D printer, it would not be less expensive to purchase, but the work involved would increase your cost to have such keys commissioned. As a 3D printed object, the strength is going to be less than a keycap purchased from the linked site.

You're better off if you can get the key from Fred's link.  I was impressed by the detail of a 3D-printed battery cover for electronic calipers, but I'm sure it took much work to get it right.  Also, ebay has keyboards for your model.