text:
Filament end expanding and seizing
This is a continuation of this question where comments and answers were extremely helpful in diagnosing the issue, which I am still unable to solve.
I determined I have the problem shown in figure 3 on this question. How I confirmed that is I started a print and monitored it closely. As soon as the filament stopped coming out I paused the print and pulled out the filament - it looked like this:

I snipped the expanded part off and re-inserted the filament back in, hit resume print and it continued printing normally, except it had skipped a layer or two.
What I understand is there can be a few reasons for this problem:

Filament moving too fast and not being able to melt at the nozzle
Too much heat in the radiator block causes the filament to soften up and unable to be pushed by the incoming filament.

To combat case 1 I reduced the speed of the print using the knob down to 80 % which already felt like it is too slow, but that didn't seem to make a difference. I also tried printing at speeds of 85 %, 90 %, and 95 % as well and the problem occurred in all of them. So this leads me to believe that speed is probably not the issue.
I read that there could also be another thing causing case 1 and that is over-extrusion. To verify this I did the 100 mm extrusion test where I marked 0 mm and 100 mm and extruded 100 mm manually in steps of 0.1 mm. It took a while but eventually in the end I determined that it is under-extruding at 95 mm actual filament extruded which means there is less filament being pushed which should actually be working against the jam. I pulled the filament out after the test to see what it looks like and this was it:

Nevertheless, I adjusted my E-steps from 93 to 99 and repeated the 100 mm test again which this time was about 1 mm off (99 mm actual filament extruded) but I guess my markings could be off too so it should be good enough. I again checked the filament and it still had an expansion on the end.
At this point, I'm assuming that there is no issue with my extruder and print speed, so I'm on to case 2.
I tried printing at 180 °C but that had no effect.
I also tried printing without heating the bed as I read that could affect the cooling of the radiator as the fan will be blowing hot air, but that also didn't help and the filament seized.
I took the fan cover off and set the nozzle to 200 °C. After a few minutes, I measured the surface temperatures on the cooling block/radiator using a multimeter which showed 47 °C on the top-most fin and 65 °C on the bottom-most. I also tried reducing the nozzle to 180 °C and took measurements again which were pretty much the same with about a degree or 2 off. Ok so maybe something is fishy here because in this video you can see the temperatures he's reading are in the 35-40s range.
Just to confirm this was the problem I took quite a large home fan and directed it such that the stream is hitting the radiator from about 5 cm (this is while the hot end fan is not mounted with the screws but hanging on the side, which was also blowing at the radiator). I waited a couple of minutes and measured the temperatures again which this time showed 35 °C on the top and 50 °C on the bottom. That was as low as I could get it and the house fan was pretty strong. I extruded another 100 mm manually and this is what the filament looked like afterward:

It still had a blob on the end and I'm pretty confident given more time it would clog up again.
Honestly, at this point, I feel like I've put way too much time and effort into resolving this issue and that is frustrating me as I fail to see any results.
I'm even more confused by the fact that I have had a couple of 3h prints go flawless, then out of the blue, it starts doing this problem. Sometimes it doesn't happen, sometimes it happens 3-5 times per print. I had an 8h print which went very well until the last 30 min when it clogged, thankfully I was around and I did the snipping procedure so the print finished but it is visible where it skipped a bunch of layers and has a weak spot.
It is quite annoying to have to babysit the printer like that and I'm really reaching out to anyone who'd be able to help me.

Is this the same filament from your last question?

@Kilisi yes it is, I'm still waiting on delivery which is supposed to come in today.

@Kilisi I just tried with "official" creality branded filament from ali express and the first 6h print was perfect but the issue started happening again on the second print..

Suggest you give your nozzle a good clean

@Kilisi I actually replaced the nozzle with the spare one that came with the printer after changing the filament. Am I supposed to clean it after each print?

Shouldn't have to clean the nozzle after each print. Just when it seems it needs cleaning

This is classic heat creep. What's happening is that you're getting softened material up inside the 2.0-mm-inner-diameter PTFE tube, and then, because it's soft, some of the extruding force causes it to deform and expand outward rather than go through the nozzle, because that's the path of lesser resistance.
So, where is the heat creep coming from? In my experience it's not common on an Ender 3, but there are at least 3 fairly likely possibilities:

Ambient temperature in your printing space is sufficiently high (perhaps driven by bed temperature if the space is somewhat enclosed) to make the hotend cooling fan insufficient.

Hotend cooling fan is damaged or wearing out and running at severely decreased flow.

Your retraction length is way too long, and on each retraction, you're pulling up molten, or at least softened, material into the PTFE tube, then squeezing it as soon as you unretract.

It's possible to be a combination of these things. For example if your retraction length is too long, things might go okay until the air warms up from printing, then eventually get to a point where the added ambient warmth keeps the material soft just long enough for it to jam.
Some things that could help:

Make sure you printing space is well-ventilated and air conditioned if ambient temperature is warm (I'd say over 26°C is bad for printing PLA). If you can't do that, run a desk fan pointed at the printer.

Try lowering your retraction length, especially if it's over 6 mm now, but be sure to perform retraction tests (stringing tests) to make sure it's still sufficient.

Use faster travel speed/acceleration and faster retract/unretract so that you're not giving time for heat to transfer from the retracted filament into the cold side during travel.

Given the temperatures you measured, though, I wouldn't be surprised though if you have a bad fan that needs replacement.

Well my printer is in my living room as of now, it's brand new, now about 10 days old or something, it's well ventilated and temperatures last days are about 20C so I suppose that's not the issue. It is possible that the fan could be just bad from the factory but to me it looks like a healthy fan, not sure how I can test it. I haven't tried anything related to retraction, as I have shown with extruding 100mm pieces manually I still get expansion without retracting, so I suppose retraction is not the problem as well. I'll try disabling it altogether anyway and will see what happens.

Furthermore, I had a desk fan blowing right into the cooler block and that didn't do much - after inspection there was still expansion on the filament end. I doubt any 40x40 fan is going to blow more than that.

Try another filament. I have this happen with bad filament. Baking it helps, but not always and it reverts to bad filament pretty quickly after baking. So my last attempt printed fine after baking then started having this intermittent issue on the third print.
I'd try changing filament before blaming the printer.

Another way to approach this problem is to increase the temperature of the hot end and increase the temperature gradient of the heat sink (better heat sink cooling).  One can increase the air flow of the heat sink fan or run fans to increase air flow around the printing bed and hot end, so that the air is cooler circulating through the heat sink.
Here's an overall approach: What are ways to avoid heat creep?


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Where/how can I connect a physical Emergency Stop panic button directly to a RAMPS 1.4 board to quickly stop all stepper movement?
The printer is a Prusa I3.  I'm running it directly from a PC with Repetier 2.2.4.  Repetier has a soft Emergency
Stop but that requires grabbing the mouse and getting the pointer to the hot spot on the screen. I'd be more comfortable with a physical button.
If all else fails I can rig a panic button to connect a 30 ohm resistor between hot and ground downstream of the GFI, causing it to trip. That seems a bit extreme. Also not sure if the capacitors in the power supply might keep a motor going for another few steps after the mains power goes away.  Interrupting the stepper motor power just ahead of the motor drivers seems like the optimal way to go.

I guess I could just pick up the reset pin on the Arduino Mega and use the panic button to connect that to ground. That will reset the board.

Just pull the main power on the machine if it bombs and goes haywire. It isn’t a computer that needs a soft shutdown.
The only thing you want to do is turn it back on quickly so the hotend fan goes back on and you don’t get heat creep with filament melting and then solidifying in the heat break.
Disconnecting motor power isn’t great, because the reason you are hitting the panic button is probably because the machine bombed is trying to wreck itself, in which case the processor needs to be reset. Could make a DC disconnect between the power supply and main board, but it should stay off for a few seconds for the caps to drain, so if it’s a momentary switch all users would have to know to hold it down for a spell. If it is an on/off switch you have a possible source of confusion, why the printer isn’t turning on, because now there are two power switches, and you wouldn’t want to use it as a general use power switch because the power supply would be left on all the time.
One alternative would be a reset button on the processor, if there is a breakout for that pin or a tact switch on the pcb you could wire a big, official momentary switch (normally open type) in parallel with. I would suggest some kind of shroud so it doesn’t get bumped accidentally.

With a good heatbreak that's not an issue - the filament path diameter should be monotonic-decreasing up to the hot zone so that it's always possible to reverse manually.

@gitub do you cut power to your machine while the hotend is at printing temp? I always would wait til it was down below the glass temperature before shutting down, unless the filament was already unloaded (nothing to heat creep)

I think it's preferable not to let heat travel up to the cold zone, but it's also really bad heatbreak design to make lips/gaps where the filament can jam if heat travels up or if warm filament is retracted (e.g. it makes automatic material switching risky, etc.). I would hope a nice machine like a Prusa doesn't have that issue.

Mind that if you are connected to your RAMPS via USB it will be powered via USB during that kind of emergency shutdown. That means that there won't be actual controller shutdown, but rather your steppers and heaters won't have enough power to run anymore. Switching mains power back on will continue the process as if it was printing all that time (which means, many steps are "skipped" and XYZ position would be quite off). That also might probably affect controller electronics (it would attempt to work with it's load without having enough juices).

Killing the Arduino 2560 with a reset would stop everything, would it not, even if the board is still powered by the USB  connection?

As ChinchillaWafers suggested in the last paragraph of his answer, I've confirmed that there is a tactile button reset on my RAMPS board. Not very conveniently located on my rig but it's there and is potentially a place to tie a panic button in.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Can you 3D print an electrical connection
I am trying to create a two-piece snap-fit or joint using a 3D printer (Resin). After that, I plan to coat the joint with a conductive spray and create an electrical connection when the two pieces are joined together.
Has this been done before? Are certain types of joint mechanism recommended?
I will probably use carbon spray because it is cheaper than others. However, after the spray dries it can start to flake and thin, so I might need a couple of rounds of coating or something else. Any tips are appreciated.
However, more importantly is the joint mechanism - this is what I had in mind:

The signal would be a DC current only, in the µA range and the targeted resistance would be less than 20 Ω.
Can this work? If not, what are my alternatives?

Hi and welcome to Stack Exchange. There seem to be two questions here: (1) Which joint mechanism, and; (2) Which (spray-on) coating to use... Generally, it is better to have just one query per post, as it makes the post simpler to answer, rather than having a number of disparate questions in one post. However, in this case, the queries seem to be inter-related. Nevertheless, more details may be required (the more info you can provide, the more likely it is that you will get an answer). Also "it starts to bring"... what does that mean? Do you mean "starts to bind"? Please [edit] & clarify.

I would be worried about wear.

You could use graphite between your conductive layers to reduce wear.

You could try experimenting with anti-sieze compound in the joint.  It contains a lot of graphite but it's so fine I'm not sure it would conduct very well. But at least it's messy! Another possibility is heat sink compound. Generally, things that are thermally conductive tend to be electrically conductive too.

This can work and with enough practice you will be able to keep the resistance down enough as long as the connection is snug enough, but anything except continuous DC won't survive. More technical: any signals (even if just binary high-low at low frequency) you'd try to communicate over them will have skewed slopes.

Electroforming is the process of applying a conductive paint to a non-conductive surface. Once dry, the object is subjected to a process similar to electroplating, in that molecules of a conductive, more durable metal are bonded to the conductive paint, which is bonded to the 3D printed part.
Typical metals would be nickel, which is quite conductive, as well as copper, known for conductivity. One could be somewhat absurd and perform the same process with silver and gold. The absurdity is related to the expense of those materials.
The link covers using copper, but I believe that nickel would be more durable.
Your joint selection is more related to the strength of the design and contact surface area and may be better suited for a more detailed separate question.

As usual, image from linked site.

For your task you basically have several options:

Electroforming (see @fred_dot_u answer). Pros: high electrical conductivity due to actual metal layer; very low friction between polished metal layers. Cons: the process is quite dirty and requires additional materials and processing, plus some skill to produce results of appropriate quality.
Conductive filament (e.h. PLA from Makerbot). Pros: direct printing of any form. Cons: high price, probably tricky to print with, high current resistance.
Sliding electrical connections (e.g. as in brushed motors or magnetic USB charging cables). Pros: when properly executed will be very durable and probably could even reuse parts from existing markets (brushed motors use this trick for very long time). Cons: requires additional engineering and redesign of your existing parts.
Wireless connection (e.g. parts use radio/Bluetooth/WiFi for communicating). Pros: independent functionality of each 'limb'. Cons: independent power sources required for each limb; complex communication means.
Optical signalling. Pros: no electrical connections; depending on your use-case might fall in-between wireless connection (without the need of additional power source) and sliding/magnetic connections. Cons: requires skills and tools to work with fiberoptics, which is totally different story.

Depending on your resources, requirements, skills and time you would chose one of above. You may also find some alternative solutions from engineering world.

One more: optical isolation.

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE added that to my answer, thank you

I was thinking if you really just need microamps, you may be able to do "full" optical isolation where it's essentially an LED on one side and a photovoltaic/photodiode on the other and otherwise unpowered.

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Missing filament at Z seam
The object on the right is a basic C channel, the outer surface should be smooth but the first ~5 mm of filament is missing after every layer change. In this example, the missing filament is reasonably consistent and extreme. The object on the left (from the same print) has a seam where the filament is also missing but it was not a layer change so it is only missing 1-2 mm.

But when printing a benchy the gap is not as large and has different lengths. The other side of the Benchy looks great, this side has all of the seams on it.

Details

Anet A6 direct drive
Marlin firmware with the latest Octoprint
Heated enclosure, glass bed @ 60 °C
eSun PLA, have used many cheaper brands all with the same issue
Printing at 210 °C but have tested 180-220 °C

When printing an army of Benchys, I thought this was a retraction issue and test all sorts of settings with small increments but did not fix the issue. It was after printing this C channel that the issue was more clearly highlighted.
Things that I have attempted to resolve this

Geomerty calerbration
Extruder calerbration
Filament temperature range tests
Retraction distance and speed towers
Retraction distance and temperature towers
Disabling retraction (worth a short) - Disabling retraction during only Z hop (did nothing)
Different version of Cura
Different filament brands

Can not seem to figure out what the issue here is and have run out of ideas on what to do next.

Several things to try:

Dry your filament. Wet filament can have trouble resuming after retract due to moisture absorbing all the heat and slowing the melt, and can also drastically increase internal oozing, leading to missing material later.

Adjust Cura settng "Max comb distance with no retract": set very low, around 1mm. Having this at the default (unlimited) causes serious oozing inside the model leading to missing material on the next extrusion path. You'll want to turn on "Connect infill lines" when changing this or you'll introduce a lot of extra retractions that will make your prints very slow.

If using Linear Advance make sure it's not set too high. Some users get carried away calibrating it for pretty corners, but if you go too high, you'll end up with serious underextrusion wherever the toolpath slows down. It needs to be set as close to perfect as possible, erring on the side of a lower K value rather than a higher one if unsure.

If your printer has a Bowden extruder system (I believe yours does not relevant to OP's printer), check that all the tube fittings are holding the tube snug and that it does not move in/out on retract/unretract. If there's play in the tube, this can make retraction and unretraction ineffective, causing all sorts of artifacts that can be similar to those of having bad retraction settings, but that can't be fixed by changing settings.

The question says it’s direct drive, i.e. no Bowden tube.

@fectin: Sorry, I missed that. Just googled for anet a6 and it seemed to be Bowden.

No problem, just trying to help improve the answer :)

Posting my own solution here
The seams are printing normally now and the solution was simple. The extruder gear was not gripping the filament correctly during retractions and was slipping as a result. Figured this out because the gear seemed to be dirty, which made me think 'how could it get dirty?'.
There was an adjustment that compresses a spring that holds the filament against the extruder gear, it just needed some adjusting.
Thank you to everyone for your ideas, I was close to quitting with this printer.

Thanks for revisiting your question and posting your own solution! This is very much appreciated. Please remember that after 48 hours you can even accept your own solution.


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How to change the time format on LCD screen in Marlin 2.1?
How can I replace the line in the time display with a dot? Using Marlin 2.1

The apostrophe or single quote character is officially used to indicate minutes, if there are two, this indicates seconds (but, in the image from the question, the double quote cannot be seen).
Replacing the single quote for a decimal isn't a good idea to display the time as the following number is in seconds, not a fraction of a minute.
Either way, the remaining time is converted from a number into a human readable format by the toDigital() function of the duration_t.h file (referring to the Marlin 2.1 bugfix branch). Even with little programming skills if is easy to find where and what you want to change ( hint, see comment: // 12'34), the function is quoted for reference below:
uint8_t toDigital(char *buffer, bool with_days=false) const {
    const uint16_t h = uint16_t(this->hour()),
                   m = uint16_t(this->minute() % 60UL);
    if (with_days) {
      const uint16_t d = this->day();
      sprintf_P(buffer, PSTR("%hud %02hu:%02hu"), d, h % 24, m);  // 1d 23:45
      return d >= 10 ? 9 : 8;
    }
    else if (!h) {
      const uint16_t s = uint16_t(this->second() % 60UL);
      sprintf_P(buffer, PSTR("%02hu'%02hu"), m, s);     // 12'34
      return 5;
    }
    else if (h < 100) {
      sprintf_P(buffer, PSTR("%02hu:%02hu"), h, m);     // 12:34
      return 5;
    }
    else {
      sprintf_P(buffer, PSTR("%hu:%02hu"), h, m);       // 123:45
      return 6;
    }
  }


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Clogging from heat creep, but only in the nozzle itself?
I have an all-metal V6 hotend clone that has worked in the past, but recently will clog very easily.
I've tried the following to address it:

Clean/replace the nozzle (0.4 or 0.5 mm, nozzle is hot-tightened)
Ensure nozzle is tightened against the heat-break tube, not the heater block
Adjust nozzle temperature higher/lower (190 °C to 230°C)
Recalibrate extruder steps/mm
Improve cold-end cooling with a 40mm fan (also, a 40 mm blower directly aimed at the fins did not help)
Try different filaments, from different brands (all 1.75 mm PLA)
Adjust slicer settings (speed, line width, layer thickness is usually ~0.2 mm) and even tried different slicers
Reduce/eliminate retractions
Replaced stock Ender 5 Bowden extruder with dual-gear setup for higher grip
Replaced the thermistor (wire was getting worn from disassembling/reassembling)

Some things I've noticed:

Prints tend to work fine for a while (~30 min to 1 hour or so), then the extruder is suddenly unable to push filament through the Bowden tube and begins to grind/click. There is very little to no period of reduced flow. It simply stops flowing completely.
I am unable to push the filament through by hand to clear the clog, but pulling the filament out and trimming the end works
The very end of the filament is the only place with any signs of being molten, well within the nozzle length itself
Pushing and pulling the filament in the hot-end by hand works for very small retractions, but can instantly result in a clog if pulled too far back (a few mm)
So far I have not seen particles / black buildup / other gunk that would explain the clogs
Letting the filament sit in the hot-end for a few seconds is enough to make it much harder to extrude by hand until enough filament is pushed through to clear what's melted (sitting too long will make it clog), but there are still no signs of heat-creep beyond the nozzle length.
I can always easily pull the filament out by hand after it jams (while still hot)

Examples of what the filament end looked like when a clog formed:

Since the melted material is so short I don't think it's heat-creep. Maybe it's the (very cheap) nozzles themselves having inconsistent dimensions? Not being able to retract a few mm and re-extrude by hand seems pretty odd. I have ordered official E3D nozzles to try in case they are the culprit.
Any thoughts on what else it could be?
Edit: I had commented with the new nozzle being a solution, but unfortunately I spoke too soon. Using the E3D nozzle helped for prints that maintain a high enough flow-rate, but when printing small parts and/or multiple parts it seems that the flow rate becomes low enough to overheat the filament and clog (even with reduced print temp to 190 °C).
Update: While using the new nozzle and improving cold-end cooling with a blower aimed directly at the cold-end fins did help delay the clogging a little, it did not prevent it. It seems unrealistic to say that this is traditional heat-creep since the fins were cold to the touch and the length of deformed, clogged filament is even shorter than before (<5 mm).

When it has been up to temp for a half hour or clogs, can you try touching the heat break? If it’s hot it’s heat creep.

I'm able to touch the heat-break, and while it's warm I can keep my finger on it indefinitely.

Have you tried increasing the hot end temperature after you increased cooling of the heat sink?

Can you clarify why you deleted your self-answer? Did it turn out to be wrong?

Yes, per the Edit at the bottom of the original post I found that it only helped for some prints with relatively high/consistent material flow, but when multiple parts or small parts were printed it still resulted in clogs.

Since I have been unable to find a way to fix the E3D V6 clone hotend I have instead replaced it with a Creality Mk 8 that I had on-hand, which has so far worked flawlessly.
I am assuming that the improved performance is related to the use of a shorter nozzle and/or the Bowden tube butting directly against the nozzle instead of interfacing with an all-metal heat-break. Those seem to be the biggest differences between the two designs.

The Creality Mk8 is definitely a better hotend than a V6 clone and arguably a better hotend than a real V6. If you want all-metal you can upgrade just the heatbreak. No need to put an inferior hotend on the printer.

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE How could ice be helped? I think, just turning off cooling would be enough in most practical, in-life circumstances.

I had issues with my all metal hot-end where I got heat creep. I ended up doing e-steps, PID tune, and ensuring my speed wasn't too slow either. Is your printer in an enclosure? I found that mine being in an enclosure caused the hotend to not cool sufficiently, so I had to lower the hot bed temp by 10 degrees and that seems to have resolved my issue for heat creep. I also have the Hero Me fan housing which improves airflow.

Thanks for the response. I am not using an enclosure, and the room is air-conditioned (I only print PLA). I had tried pointing a 40mm blower fan straight at the heat break fins with varying print temps, so I'm fairly confident that my cooling was not the issue.

I had to revert back to my stock tube for my Ender 5 Plus because the Capricorn tube caused too much drag and for some reason caused heat creep as well. The troubleshooting took forever as my unit being stocked worked perfectly fine, and then i did a bunch of upgrade on it which then caused many problems. So I had to by process of elimination revert back slowly until the heat creep went away.
I also asked a local 3d printer shop here and the guy said that these clones cause a lot of troubles for folks as they're not made the same and not a true all metal hotend.


text:
Meshmixer create solid
I have this .stl that I downloaded and I need to create a solid of this 3D. However, if I click "Make solid", it doesn't work.
How can I do? I think the problem is the black layer but I don't know how to resolve.
Before make solid:

After make solid:

I need to make solid and the black layer is deleted when I do it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g-YaF1k_X5FU1Y-SgWiGCXC4k_nADohk/view?usp=sharing
PS: The other object are different item, so if they are there or not is the same

Hi and welcome. We may require more information, please [edit] and add more details.

Other? I have download the file, I don't much more but I need to make solid and the black layer is deleted when I do it

Do you have a link to where you downloaded the .stl file from? If we can reproduce the issue, then maybe a solution can be found. Please [edit] and add the link to your answer (don't add info in the comments).

Your object browser shows three objects in the first image, only one in the second. Are the missing pieces those of the other two items in the first image?

The other two objects are different item

Make solid requires an enclosed volume
To run the make solid operation, the selected parts need to enclose a volume. In case the volume is not fully enclosed, the program tries to solve a solution that closes the open surface.
The black layer is most likely failing to compute because its normals are flipped. This means it does not enclose a surface, it excludes anything between the surfaces from being inside the body defined by it - it is everything but. This is solved as "this surface does not enclose anything, so I cut it out" but for where it creates a valid solution in the area of the white surface before the operation.
This leaves you with the white retained part after the operation.
To fix this is an in-depth project
Fixing such errors is quite involved. You will need to do the following steps, depending on your program to alter:

flip the surfaces so that it shows outside
make sure that the body is closed, possibly by adding missing surfaces

How can I enclose volume?


text:
Where do I find the specifications of the FLSUN 42BYGH stepper motor?
I would like to replace a NEMA 17 stepper motor for my FLSun SR (it clicks and the rotor eventually slides forward, causing it to offset layers). How do I find the specs for this motor?  They aren't listed on FLSun's website and I tried their contact us form.  The back of the motor has this written on it:
FLSUN STEP MOTOR
42BYGH718-B-28Q
LOT NO.210711
The total length of the motor is 47 mm.

Hybrid Stepper Motor 42BYGH Series

As mentioned in the comments by Mick. The full datasheet can be found on promoco-motors.com. Below is a table with electrical specifications from the mentioned datasheet.


text:
Marlin 2.1 reboots before printing model when power recovery is enabled
Ender 3 Pro with Creality 4.2.7 board. Just flashed Marlin 2.1.
Enabled POWER_LOSS_RECOVERY
Problem: The printer will successfully go through auto leveling and the clean/prep line on the left side. When the line finished I see the LCD rebooting. If I disable Power Loss Recovery in the menu it will start the print without any issue. Already tried reflashing but no luck. Any idea how I can print with Power Loss Recovery enabled?

I have the same issue with marlin 2.1.x bugfix. I just downloaded it this morning, installed it on 6 machines.
If power loss is disabled absolutely everything works, but as soon as I enable power loss recovery, it will auto home all, heat up the bed and nozzle, do the purge line on far left of build plate, attempt the very first layer, and then reboots, reheats, and keeps retrying...
Funny thing is that for some reason my printers print so much better with Marlin 2.1, so I really need power loss to work as well.

Yes, that sounds like the same issue. Right now i'm running Creality's release from their hompage. Not a perfect solution as babystep Z is only 0.1 increments and i need to reverse the filament runout sensor's activated position which isn't possible without the source code. (The source code offereded on their own page didn't work correctly either)


text:
The bed of my Ender-4 does not go down during printing!
I am using an Ender-4 with MKS Marlin Firmware and an MKS Rovin V3 Motherboard. It took me a long time to get Marlin set up correctly, but now I am apparently on the way. I calibrated the bed and to test it I went to print the cube_XYZ, I noticed that the bed didn't go down during the print, even though the display was showing that the Z was increasing.
Has anyone experienced this situation and/or can give me some advice?
Thanks!

It seems that the Z stepper motor doesn't work during the printing and after. Because I've tried to move the axis and it didn't work. So I reset the printer and try to move the Z-axis again, and it worked.

Please [edit] and add new info to the question and not in the comments. Thank you.


text:
What is causing the thermal runaway error E1?
I just acquired a new Creality Ender 5 Pro. It was assembled very easily. Today I tried my first print - the Dog demo that came on the MicroSD just to see how it worked. It is a 2.5 hour print.
While I was preheating there was a thermal runaway error while I was feeding the filament up through the tube. I restarted the machine and began the print. The error repeated 6 more times during the print. Each time I reset the machine by cycling the power (there were no instructions for a reset) and I was able to resume the printing.
I have been sitting here while this thing goes so as to be able to restart if necessary. It will be a real drag when I try to print anything larger. I feel as though I cannot leave the machine alone.
The bed seems to hold steady at 45 °C. The nozzle is set to 200 °C (the default on the display) for PLA. It seems to lag a bit sometimes going as low as 196 °C. I suspect this is normal as it is being fed cold filament. When I restart almost immediately, the nozzle starts with a temp of about 140 °C and takes a few minutes to get hot enough to resume the print.
What is going on?

What firmware version is shown on the screen during boot? Have you checked the seating of the thermosensor and heater cartridge on the heaterblock? Can you measure the resistance of the heater cartridge? It might be faulty (see below)

Thank you Trish for your response. On my Ender-5 Pro: the Software is Version 2.0.8.23. The Hardware is Version 4.2.2. Date shown is 2021-10-12. I have not yet made the checks to the thermosensor and heater cartridge as you have suggested. I will work on that today. I read the article you referred to. I don't know yet if it helps. Can someone point me to an explanation of "PID tuning"? What is "Layer 2"? The documentation I received with this machine is pretty sparse.

Ok, so it appears that the layers are just what you'd think - levels in the Z dimension. Pretty obvious now. I've also found some information on PID tuning. I have not been running the printer from a computer but only from the SD card.

I attempted to measure the resistance of the heater cartridge but I'm not sure I got a good measurement. Without removing it from the printer, I uncoupled the the connector at the clip from the control box (where I connected it during assembly). These are two red wires heavily insulated. Using a short length of 22gage solid copper wire inserted into the connector holes I could attach the leads  from my multimeter. I measured 14.5 ohms. I don't know if this is a reasonable value. When finished, I reconnected everything and set the nozzle temp to 100C and it heated to that temp in a few minutes.

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Possible reasons for the error:

Temperature sensor does not connect well;
Wrong working (mains) voltage, and;
Bed soldering.

Today, after several failed attempts at another part including "failure to heat" errors, I checked the voltage setting on the controller and found it to be at 230 V. I never looked at it when I assembled the machine 3 days ago. Shame on me!
Setting it to 115 V fixed the issue and my parts ran without interruption.

Many thanks to wanderland1990 for the answer, this led me to the solution.

Thanks for taking the time to come back and answer your question! Please accept this answer 48 hours after posting! Alternatively, mark the @wanderland1990 answer as accepted answer as it led you to the solution of your problem Wrong working (mains) voltage. P.S. Please remind, thanking is done through the voting and answer acceptation system.


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Creality Ender 6 Heating Failed
There is a message on my Ender 6 that is telling my that my heating failed. This happened last night in the middle of a print. I have cycled the power like the screen says but the nozzle does not heat up. The print bed heats up just fine. The nozzle stopped heating and just randomly started cooling, leading to a load of filament unable to go through the feeder. The printer has been just fine for the past year in a closet. I have changed rooms and tested again to no avail, so I believe it is not an ambient issue. I would appreciate any advice or solutions.

Don't you get a thermal runaway error?

If heating of the hot end fails, this is usually caused by the thermistor or the heating cartridge. You need to check the cables of these two or replace them altogether. It is advisable to keep spare heater cartridges and thermistors; these are very affordable parts to have in your inventory.
Once the thermistor doesn't register a temperature increase while the heater is on, a thermal runaway error should trigger the printer to stop to protect itself and you. That is, if the printer has this functionality enabled in the firmware. By removing the thermistor from the hotend and heating up the hotend you can test whether thermal runaway protection is enabled.
If the hotend drops in temperature, e.g. by a mispositioned cooling fan, the heater element should be commanded to heat up, if this doesn't happen, the protection should kick in as well.

There is a message on my Ender 6 that is telling my that my heating failed

This means that the thermal protection is enabled and did its job! You now need to sort out what caused the protection to kick in, a faulty thermistor or a faulty heater cartridge (or even worse, a faulty controller board e.g. burned connectors); cables could be broken or are not properly seated in the controller board connectors.


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What is the acceptable resistance of a functioning heater cartridge on my Creality Ender-5 Pro printer?
It has been suggested that I measure the resistance of the nozzle heater on my printer since I've had some thermal runaway errors. The machine is brand new. I have done so by connecting my multimeter across the two pins on the connector. I get a value of 14.5 Ohms. Is this a reasonable value?

Your printer uses a 24 V power supply, this implies that the peripherals also need to be for this voltage. Therefor a 24 V heater cartridge is needed.
From this answer on question Heater cartridge with 7.2 ohms - 12 or 24 V? gives you the answer:

e3D Heater Cartridges are documented to be around 4.8 Ω for 12 V & 30 W, 3.6 Ω for 12 V & 40 W, 19.2 Ω for 24 V 30 W and 14.4 Ω for 24 V 40 W.

A heater cartridge of 14.5 Ω is a 24 V heater cartridge of 40 W, this is the correct heater cartridge for your printer.


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Static electricity underneath the print with mystery adhesion and warping
Any idea what could be causing a static discharge on large prints? It seems that it's mostly visible when it's done and the print is being removed, it keeps zapping (can barely feel it. Small prints don't seem to be doing this. This leads me to believe it's one of the moving parts rubbing and creating it? I'm using CR6-SE with a glass bed and a full metal hotend and print in PLA PRO (which is another way of saying PLA+ I guess, but the reel said PLA PRO) (in case this was relevant). Another question, I have mystery first layer adhesion issues, could static be responsible for it? After washing the bed with water, it seems to be sticking again for a single print. And I have mystery warps as well. At first I thought it was normal warping, however, it seems to warp in the centre as well. Here's an image of a print:

It looks like someone punched the holes in specific areas. On the other side, they correspond to joints where thin walls ended. I've been suffering from a lot of warp, but it was always corners, never like this. Could this also be caused by static?
Lastly, is there any risk for the printer itself? The shock seems to be limited to bed/print only.

Hi welcome to 3DPrinting.SE! I've embedded the image for you, linking to off-site content is usually not very future proof, instead we use the SE dedicated image storage that is retained as long as this site exists.

Are you sure it is static electricity? Have you checked in the dark when removing the print? Furthermore, you are dealing with a large under-extrusion, you need to address that first (your bottom layer lines do not touch each other so you can see through). It is not the initial bed to nozzle distance, the other layer have the same problem.

Hi,
Thank you for fixing the post.
I'm quite sure it's static electricity. When I move the print next to my skin, I can feel the pull on the hairs (that electric feeling like an electrified balloon or plastic film that just keeps sticking back onto the hand). I haven't tested in the dark, no. It seems to be very weak. It also seems to be only on the underside of the print as I grab it from the top and then the bottom makes the noise.
I fixed the extrusion issue. Turns out the spring wasn't tight enough and it was making it uneven, however remaining issues remain.

It may be worth adding, I always had issues with the print sticking, but I went with a bad solution of overheating the bed to 90 degrees for the PLA Plus to stick. It would become soft at that point (ripping it off the bed would deform it: tested on the side line that is printed at the beginning) and the grip wasn't as strong as just washing the bed with soap. It mostly would warp, but I think that's sensible because warp affects the soft layers, which in that case was the overheated one.


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Layers peeling off in resin prints
I'm having some issues with my Creality HALOT-ONE. As you can see in the photo, it seems that the layers after the bottom layer are peeling off. I have to remark that the bottom layer sticks very well to the printing bed.
This issue always happens in the next layer after the bottom ones. I have never experienced this in the middle of a print.
Also, it doesn't happen in all the prints. It seems that it appears near the middle of the resin container. I haven't seen it near the corners of the vat yet.
I can imagine that the subsequent layers don't stick properly to the bottom one, but I don't have any clue why.
I'm using the Creality 3D Printer Standard Grey resin.
My bottom exposure time is 46 sec. And my layer exposure time is 3sec. The distance that the plate moves after a layer is 5 cm.

Are your bottom layers that are intentionally over exposed the same number or more as the raft thickness? You don’t want “green” layers in the raft. It can be thin and still do its job.

I didnt consider that, ill try reducing the number of bottom layers. But i changed the fep recently (i have been using the original) and the problem seem to be over

I don't know your machine or resin but here are some likely fixes:

wait_time_before_cure
When the build plate moves down and squeezes the resin against the FEP, the entire machine bends and the build plate only slowly approaches the intended height
Remedy: add e.g. 5 s of wait_time_before_cure

level your build plate
The bottom_cure_time might compensate for a skewed build plate but the first regular layer may not
Remedy: level your build plate

position of models
Models fail when placed in the wrong position. Follow this order when placing models on the build plate. When you put a model in position 3 and none in 1 or 2, a failure is more likely.
By the way, model/models can cover most of the build plate as pealing forces are very rarely an issue.

Not related to your issue but things to consider:

bottom_cure_time
It's not necessary to have 46 s bottom_cure_time. 2-3 times the regular_cure_time is fine, so in your case e.g. 7 s. It saves your light source from overheating and removing your models from the build plate becomes much easier.

lift_height

The distance that the plate moves after a layer is 5 cm

not sure what you mean. lift_height is typically 5 mm max, which also saves you a lot of print time.

It was a Fep Problem. I was using the original one, i changed it and the problem disapeared :D

@Germán - please post your comment as an actual answer (rather than a comment) and expand upon it. Then mark it as accepted (after waiting 48 hours). It may help others who have the same problem. Thanks.


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Large infill top layer almost immediately gets ruined trying to bridge
Info about the prints:

Using PrusaSlicer with 0.1 mm layer height
Using PETG, 1.75 mm
240 °C nozzle, 90 °C bed
0.4 mm hardened steel nozzle
Printing at 40 mm/s
9 top layers, 7 bottom layers
Using 15 % infill (slightly more than recommended, trying to keep this low for weight)

Here's a timelapse of the full print (I don't have footage of each individual layer being added, but this somewhat shows what's happening)
I've done some research, and I think the general term for this anomaly is called "pillowing", but I think what I've encountered seems to be a much more significant and harmful version. Essentially, it seems to nail the infill parts relatively well, not messing up any of the thin walls, but right as it tries to bridge over them, it seems to fail, creating these odd chunks of chaotic shards. This eventually gets refined as more top layers are added, but I don't want to simply add more top layers, as it seems that 0.9 mm should be enough for most applications. This would probably be a lot more inefficient w/ more top layers, so I'm just trying to figure out the root of the issue.
I've also seen some resources saying that the temperature used is too high and that the temperature is too low, but those seem to have different-looking problems. I'm not sure as well whether the hardened steel nozzle demands a higher temperature as this is one of my first couple prints w/ it. Other than this pillowing problem, the walls seem to be smooth and well-defined, so I'm not sure whether I should change temps.

From what you've seen, it's not a high enough value for the infill, as it results in the pillowing you are experiencing. As you are describing that bridging the infill is problematic, the two are directly related.
You may be able to mitigate the problem by increasing the infill value or by changing the infill to a different pattern.
If weight is that critical, something has to give way. I would expect very little increase in weight by changing from 15 percent to 30 percent. Your slicer will provide estimates, allowing you to compare the existing print weight in the slicer and existing print weight for increased infill (or different pattern) and determine more accurately the change.
Also consider to print a temperature tower for your printer with the steel nozzle. This will ensure that your bridging is being performed at the best temperatures.


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Chitubox: Is it possible to place a hollow object flat on the build plate and use internal supports?
I have a bust that I want to print flat on the build plate of an Elegoo resin printer, but I want to place supports inside it without having to add a skate or raft?
Is this possible, and if so how


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Print turns into spaghetti on Ender 3 Pro
So I was printing a low poly bunny and all of a sudden the new layers didn't adhere to the other layers. I don't think it was printing an overhang.
I have an ender 3 pro which I use together with Cura. I print in PLA at 200 °C. The print bed is set to  60 °C. I use a print cooling fan at 100 %. The layer height I set to 0.2 mm, the line width 0.4 mm from the 0.4 mm nozzle. The Printing Speed is set to 30 mm/s for outer walls, 60 mm/s for inner walls, and 60 mm/s for infill. My retraction is 6.5 mm

I had similar problems after replacing the nozzle. It would start printing ok but then after a certain point it would block up and then unblock itself after a layer or two and start printing in air. Have you tried swapping out your nozzle for a fresh one?

Did the print stay adhered to the bed during the spaghettification? Do you have an idea on what it was printing when it turned to spaghetti?

Thanks for filling out the template, but I'm afraid this isn't enough to answer the question. This could be caused by layer shift, print adhesion failing, we need more info how this happened.

If the print didn't stay adhered to the bed during the spaghettification, depending on where it was in the print (outer wall, inner wall, infill), I suspect that you might be printing too fast for that area.
This would cause friction to build enough to shift the print or even knock it over, and then you're printing in the air with nothing to support it.

Hi and welcome. Please don't put additional follow-up questions in your answer... that is what the comments section under the question is for. Please take the [tour] to get a better understanding of how the Q&A mechanism of Stack Exchange works. Please put the follow up questions as comments under the question (and [edit] and remove them from your answer), leaving just your proposed solution in your answer. Thanks. (Note: I have done this for you as you don't currently have enough reputation points (50).


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Can I re-flash the mainboard on my CR-5 Pro using the USB port instead of the microsd card?
I've had a lot of difficulty with my CR-5 Pro not reading the micro SD card. I was up and running but got the "blue screen" yesterday and re-flashed the main board using instructions I found on YouTube. But the software version showing up now is older than what was on the machine as delivered and the printer will not run a gcode file even when I can select it.  Trying to re-flash using the SD card is NOT happening. The SD card that came with the machine is 8Gb "Netoc" and is formatted as FAT32. I have a 32Gb SanDisk which I've formatted also as FAT32 but neither card will re-flash the main board. Can I upload the firmware via USB like I can on an Arduino?

Have you tried the .bin files on the SD Card and flashing it that way? If not, you can always use the slicer software that came with it like Creality or I use Cura and through the USB try re-flashing the software that way.


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Which firmware version is correct for my CR-5 Pro with 4.2.2 main board?
My CR-5 Pro is brand new and has the V4.2.2 main board. Originally the "About" screen showed the following firmware version:

When the machine went "catatonic" I re-flashed the main board based on instructions I found a troubleshooting tutorial on YouTube which resulted in the following:

This software is not working properly. I'd like to find the file that was on the machine as purchased but nothing I've downloaded so far is what I want.


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DIY 3D printer Z-axis problems
So I have a homebuilt 3D printer. I was testing the axes and all of that, suddenly the Z-axis stopped working.
I changed its connection to a different axis, and it's working, but when I bring it back to its original Z-axis port on the RAMPS, it doesn't move. I've adjusted the pot on the A4988 drivers, tried almost three of them, but still it wouldn't move.
What's the problem? Is it the controller issue or what? I've bought two RAMPS boards, first one 1.4, similar issue, the hotend port stopped working, and now RAMPS 1.5, Z-axis stopped working, although initially, they all worked great.

You have tagged the question with "G-Code" but don't mention it in your question. Please explain how the tag is relevant to the question.

Hi welcome to 3DPrinting.SE! Have you unplugged steppers when the board and steppers were being powered? P.S. do note the RAMPS shields are a little outdated, you have better options out there.


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Print stop/starts after 3Dtouch installation
Just installed and set up a 3Dtouch on my home-built Prusa. I followed several articles as well as YouTube videos. I can get ABL to work well but printing has become a problem. Each print starts then stops every few seconds and then continues. Having checked a terminal the motherboard is running an M119 every so often and reports the Z endstop triggered. This continues throughout the print stop/starting. The setup worked fine with the original Pinda and steel sheet, but I wanted to change it to a textured glass for better adhesion.
Tech info:

Prusa Mk3 clone
3Dtouch
BTT SKR1.3
Marlin 2.1.
Mattercontrol (slicer)

Do note that you cannot use the M119 when you use a touch sensor, it doesn't give you information on the Z-axis endstop status.

Agreed. I thought the reporting to the PC might be interrupting the print for a second before continuing.

I seem to have narrowed it down to Mattercontrol. Using Cura as the host, small test prints work fine.


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Resin printers: What effect does altering the lift distance on a Resin printer have, and what are the consequences of getting it wrong?
Slicing software for resin printers: Chitubox, for example, has a setting labelled "Lift Distance", which as far as I can tell determines how far build plate is lifted in between layers.
A layer is printer, the build plate is moved a set distance upwards, and is then moved back down again until the lowest layer is just above the FEP, ready for the next layer to be exposed.
In Chitubox this defaults to 7mm.
What effect does increasing this beyond 7mm have, will it simply increase the total print time or have any other effects.
Will reducing it below 7mm have any effects, other than decreasing the total print time?
If the distance is set too low, will it mean that new resin cannot flow properly into the gap under the build plate, or are there other potential consequences?

Your username made me smile.  Thank you... I needed that. :)

Print time
Raising the bed takes time. In fact, it is possibly more time spent in moving the bed than curing the layers.
Caveat emptor!
You can reduce the lift height, but you might suffer:
Lifting too little means, that you might not move enough to separate from the FEP film fully - the film is a somewhat stretchy film and you need to raise enough to come free fully to get clean layers, resulting in deformed or missing areas or even just a solid plate that stays at the bottom and separates from the printed.
High viscosity resin not properly flowing in might also be a problem, but of lesser importance generally.


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Marlin: How to print to terminal to debug?
I am looking for the equivalent of System.out.println() or Console.WriteLine(), but using M118.
For example, every time a particular variable changes its value I want to send a message to the terminal in OctoPrint as if it were sent by M118.
These commands would be hardcoded into the firmware files before compiling/flashing.
Since M118.cpp is only designed to parse a string given by the user I am not quite clear how to co-opt it for this use.
Any help would be appreciated!

Please find the answer here. If it works make your own answer, else I might do it later.

Do you have the option to edit the source code or is recompilation not an option for you? I'd just edit the M118 function to print your variable when a specific text is given. You could have it print different variables per text that is supplied.
A more fancy way would be to copy and alter the M118 to an unused function (above 1000 seems unused) to match your needs.


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Ender 3 not allowing z=0 regardless of z offset value
Using TH3D firmware with some small changes to allow manual mesh levelling and to increase the serial baud rate, neither of which are active when the error presented.
When auto home is used either through the LCD or by directly pushing a command to the printer it (correctly) says that x=0, y=0 but is incessant that z=0.3. When measuring with a feeler guage it turns out it is correct on what the Z value is, which would be fine if it wasnt for the fact it refuses to go lower than its percieved Z=0.3, even when I intentionally screw up the homing so that the endstop does not trigger at that height.
I've tried setting a z offset both through serial connection and through the LCD and it echos them back and appears to listen to the changes in that the nozzle distance changes but still the printer assumes that when the endstop is triggered Z=0.3, which makes absolutely no sense to me.
Any help would be appreciated

The issue with the TH3D firmware I'm using (the latest available for the Melzi ender 3 as of now) is I could not find any values for the minimum Z value, this was because it is not explicitly defined in the configs by default.
Digging around some borderline prehistoric docs and forum posts I found to fix this it needs defining in the configuration_backend.h (as far as I can tell - might also function in other config files).
#define Z_MIN_POS 0

My current assumption was by not defining this marlin was either assuming some incorrect default or the printer was assuming some long past set value and making it impossible to change this default through a serial connection without updating the firmware. (again this is a guess - it may be possible)
This can also obviously be used to set any Z minimum e.g. for a bed that is higher than it's endstops.


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How to configure the TMC2208 Driver Voltage for a Creality Sprite Extruder in Klipper on Ender 3 Pro?
I'm trying to set up a Creality Sprite Extruder on my Ender 3 Pro without using the kit (installing the extruder alone).
I can see on the Sprite Extruder Pro Kit product page that the extruder operates at 1.4 VDC and 0.8 A.
I'm using TMC2208 and Klipper. How can I set my extruder's driver up so that the provided voltage is 1.4 V? Is it the same as setting the VRef to 1.4 V?
Can it be done in the Klipper configuration (I have a UART set up), or does it need to be done on the trimpot?

have you gotten this figured out? I'm having extrusion issues with my sprite pro using the same drivers and I'm wondering if my VREF is too low or smth

Just ignore the voltages for stepper motors. TMC drivers drive the motors by controlling current, and as long as the current you select is not so high to burn the motor out, you're all good.
The voltage values listed have some physical meaning which I don't entirely understand, but in any case they are most definitely not the voltage the driver has at its disposal to move the motor and they're not anything you need to put in your configuration.


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How much extra resin should put in my vat beyond what the slicer says that it needs?
Starting with the premise that I that I can't just fill the vat to the brim (For example, because I don't have enough of a particular resin to do so), is there a rule of thumb, or a manufacturer's recommendation on how much resin I should put in my vat beyond the amount that my slicers says that it needs to print successfully, as a safety net against running the vat too low during the print due to uncured resin being retained on the surface of my model or inside a hollowed out model, and not freely floating in the vat?
For example, if I have a tank with XYZ dimension, and the slicer says that it needs 100ml of resin to completed, should I put in 150ml, 200ml, 300ml?, or percentage more ML based on the size of my vat?
I'm looking for the recommended minimum safety margin not to go below, not a maximum level.

Your vat should have markings indicating a maximum level. Filling to the brim will result in a Eureka moment, one much messier than the original bathtub version.
Consider that you want sufficient volume of resin to ensure that there will be some remaining on the vat when the build plate is lifted. Too little resin might result in areas of zero coverage. A low volume of resin may also affect how quickly the residual volume flows into the vacated area of the vat.
If you don't wish to use the max volume option of the vat (no markings? Check the manual) you could perform a test.
Pour resin to cover the vat surface. Use the manual controls to return the bed to home position. There will be some overflow on the build plate, but certainly not to exit the vat. Add enough resin to provide a few millimeters of coverage, then add the volume indicated by the slicer.
Most models are not solid blocks encompassing the entire area of the vat and as the build plate lifts, less resin will be required to cover the tapering portions of the model, ensuring better coverage than a minimum.

I think that you've misunderstood the question, in looking for the minimum level, not the maximum level.

Your minimum level would be a few millimeters to ensure the surface of the vat is covered, perhaps a bit more for insurance, plus the volume specified by the slicer, perhaps a bit more for insurance, as described in the fourth paragraph.


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Glass bed is higher in center when corners are leveled
After leveling the corners of my bed (Ender 3 Pro, with Creality glass bed) the center of my bed is higher. When I start a print the nozzle is so close to the glass bed no filament is laid down.
Is there any way to independently level the center of my bed? No matter how much I adjust the knobs I can't get the center leveled.

I bodged it to print the first layer nicely by simply using a raft. Its working for the benchy I am currently printing, but I don't know how feasible a whole beds' worth of parts is on a massive raft. But for the time being this should work for now.

Possibly related: Why is the center of my glass print bed lower than the corners?

Make sure that the glass is straight, use a ruler on its side to see it you have a bump in the glass when the sheet of glass is not on the printer, but, flat on the table.

If the glass is not straight you can do 3 things:

use a bltouch or some other mesh level mechanism.
adjust the height for the center of the bed, so you can print small prints with no problem. Do this by leveling the 4 corners and then adjusting all 4 knobs the same amount until the center is at the correct height.
probably the best thing to do is get a new glass plate. Creality has more issues with warped or bulged print-surfaces. Maybe your supplier can take care of this for you.

Do you think its worth reaching out to Creality about? Or should I just look into other hobbyist grade glass beds and use a purple glue stick?

Your bed really needs to be flat. Reach out to creality about the issue.


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Configuring Marlin 2.x with Ender 3 4.2.2 and BLTouch
I bought an Ender 3 recently and it has the 4.2.2 Creality board.  Then I bought a BLTouch to upgrade it with bed leveling. It turns out that the BLTouch now comes with a standard 5-pin connector instead of the separate wires that all the tutorials talk about.  How do I install the thing?

The BLTouch now comes with a standard 5-pin connector.

and that connector is supported on the board that seems to be shipping with Ender 3s these days, the Creality 4.2.2 board (Notice it's in the bottom right and says BL_T next to it)

This is intended to make installing things easier. Since I also had a new hotend I was installing, I needed to go the route of configuring my own firmware. If you don't need that, you can be lazy and snag the pre-built firmware from Creality's website here.
If you, like me, go the route of building your own firmware, there's a lot of steps, and I'm sharing the results of 2 days of effort. To do this, you get to become a software developer for the next few minutes. Follow along carefully, as any misstep could be really really annoying.

Download the latest Marlin firmware. Creality already uses Marlin as a base for their firmware, so this is going to be the best choice.

Marlin is not preconfigured for your Ender 3, but we can snag the example configurations for an Ender 3 from the Marlin Configuration repository. I went ahead and found you the version for the Ender 3 with a 4.2.2 board here. You're going to want to download all of the files in that directory.

Unzip the Marlin firmware to a folder, and in that folder you'll see ANOTHER folder named Marlin. You'll want to copy your configuration files downloaded in STEP 2 into that inner Marlin folder.

Now we need Visual Studio Code (told you you get to be a developer). Once you open it, you'll need to install an extension Marlin made for VSCode to allow you to easily build your firmware. The instructions on installing Auto Build Marlin are found here.

Now you have a neat little button in VSCode to do stuff with Marlin.
But wait!  We're not ready to click that yet. First we need to modify those configuration files you downloaded.

First let's update the Configuration.h file. There are a lot of important settings here, many you should change, and many that are nice to change, but I'm only going to list the ones that are absolutely necessary to get the BLTouch working.

you need to comment out the Z_MIN_PROBE_USES_Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_PIN setting, because the your BLTouch is using a different pin.

So that we don't lose our Z Homing, we need to then uncomment the setting for USE_PROBE_FOR_Z_HOMING.

And here's the one that I only found on the Creality forums with a lucky search.  You need to uncomment Z_MIN_PROBE_PIN and set it to PB1 which is your BLTouch's connection point.

Naturally, you'll need to uncomment the setting for BLTOUCH.

You'll want to adjust the NOZZLE_TO_PROBE_OFFSET to account for the position the BLTouch mounts in. The standard bracket should match close the values I have set below. Notice I didn't set the Z value at all.  You should do that on the printer by hand.

If you're going to use the BLTouch, you should configure some sort of auto bed leveling.  I picked UBL so I uncommented the setting: AUTO_BED_LEVELING_UBL

Since you're doing auto bed leveling, you need to turn it on, which you do by uncommenting the setting ENABLE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28

Consider Nice-To-Have values, like Z_SAFE_HOMING, LCD_BED_LEVELING, PREHEAT_BEFORE_LEVELING, INDIVIDUAL_AXIS_HOMING_MENU or PROBE_OFFSET_WIZARD in Configuration_adv.h

// #define Z_MIN_PROBE_USES_Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_PIN

// Force the use of the probe for Z-axis homing
#define USE_PROBE_FOR_Z_HOMING
...
#define Z_MIN_PROBE_PIN PB1 // Pin 32 is the RAMPS default
...
#define BLTOUCH
...
#define NOZZLE_TO_PROBE_OFFSET { -44, -9, 0}
...
#define AUTO_BED_LEVELING_UBL
...
#define ENABLE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28

Finally, you're ready to build. Click on the "Auto Marlin Build" extension, then click "Show ABM Panel".

Marlin should have figured out that you're trying to build for an Ender 3.  I honestly don't know what the different environments are for, but the first one seems to work just fine.

Once the build completes, there will be a link which will open the folder where the build is. You'll want to get the SD card from your Ender 3 and copy the .bin file from that folder onto the root of the SD card. Then stick the SD card in your Ender 3 and power it up and you should see your new Marlin Firmware start up. Then you can start configuring your BLTouch for auto bed leveling.

Hi and welcome to SE.3DP... Nice long answer... maybe fix the images' positioning in the list formatting..?

Thanks for this guide! I'm going to be flashing my printer later. One note I found while going through this (at least for my Ender 3 Pro with BLTtouch and Marlin 2.1.2, ymmv) - the compiler refused to compile unless I enabled Z_SAFE_HOMING which is listed on your "nice to have" section. Appears that may be required now.

Thanks so much for posting. The "uncomment Z_MIN_PROBE_PIN and set it to PB1" was the missing piece I haven't seen anywhere else.

Don't forget to add
M420 S0

after the G28 command in the G-code, else you have to level bed before every print.

Technically the use of M420 S for Marlin firmware to turn leveling on is based on whether in firmware the definition of RESTORE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28 is set or not.


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My printer clogs after Printing TPU! How can I fix it back up?
After printing some parts in TPU, I encountered continuous clogging after returning to PLA. Not right out of the bat, but after about an hour or such, all prints I started since the swap back clog after about an hour. I use an Ender-3, Bowden Style, and print my PLA generally at 200 °C. The TPU had been listed as 220-240 °C on the roll, so I printed at 230 °C.
How can I regain normal printing behavior?!

What's the cause of the problem?
The problem is the dissimilar printing temperatures:

TPU is printed at around $\pu{230 °C}$
PLA is printed at around $\pu{200 °C}$

As a result, when the PLA is molten and well printable already, residue of TPU in the hotend is at an awkward spot: it is molten enough to seep down along the filament path with molten PLA, but it is not soft enough to get easily extruded from the nozzle. This is what leads to clogging.
Problem solution
To fix the clogging, I took the following steps after the very first time I encountered it:

Swap the nozzle to reduce the residue still in the machine
Do a cold-pull with the PLA, taking away a quite good chunk of the residue that still might remain in the heatbreak.
Finally, do a purge print at an elevated temperature. For me, about $\pu{215 °C}$ did work to get the last traces of residue from the heartbreak out.-

There you go! One restored printing behavior!
Technically, the nozzle swap and cold pull were overkill, but reduced the amount of TPU that needed to be purged out of the nozzle.
Refined problem solution
Since the problem occurred first, I managed to refine my procedure to prevent clogs in the first place.

Heat the nozzle to ca. $\pu{230 °C}$
Pull the TPU Filament without cooling
Load the PLA Filament
Manually push filament until the about 10 to 15 mm are extruded from the nozzle
Order the extruder to extrude 10 cm of Filament
Set print temperature down to to $\pu{200 °C}$

While the extruder pushes the PLA through at an elevated temperature, it clears the whole path while cooling down, and can cycle right into the next print. It can help to use a different color PLA than the TPU to have a visible confirmation of the last residue being gone.
Another helpful indicator is the cooling down filament's flexibility: as long as TPU is in the mix, the extruded string is bendy but becomes stiff as soon as there is almost no more residue in it.

This probably works (presumably it did for you), but switching materials should be a lot easier than this.

Why not just clean the nozzle at TPU temperature and purge some PLA through? Works for me

@Kilisi possibly swapping the nozzle was overkill...

Perhaps, but it's a fullproof solution, so worth mentioning


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CR-20 Pro Heated Bed Thermistor "stuck" after mainboard change
I recently changed the mainboard on my Ender CR-20 Pro because the SD card slot started acting up. I replaced it with the same spare part, hooked everything up (after having a bit of a fight unplugging it from the old mainboard as everything was glued down...), and started the printer. Things looked mostly good, but the heated bed temperature was stuck at 113 °C (even after restarting, flashing the firmware again, or anything else). Just to be clear, it's just the firmware thinking it is 113 °C, it is in fact cool.
My initial thought was that I probably broke the thermistor of the heated bed somehow when installing the new mainboard and was almost buying a new heated bed already. However, I did (luckily) decide to just quickly swap the thermistors, connected the hotend thermistor to the heat bed connectors, and the heated bed thermistor to the hotend connectors. Interestingly the same result, hotend now shows the temperature of the heated bed (put a fan on the thermistor of the heated bed to verify) and the heated bed is still stuck on 113°.
With these results, it seemed obvious that the issue must be with the mainboard (broken connector or line/resistor whatever) and not the thermistor on the heated bed. Since my original issues with the old mainboard were unrelated I figured I'd just throw in the old mainboard and deal with the annoying SD card issue until I get a replaced mainboard through warranty. I removed all the connectors and put them on the old mainboard again. I turned on the printer again and now the heated bed is stuck at 168 °C. This has been working just a couple of hours ago. Same results as with the new main board, when switching hotend and heated bed it shows the right temperature still only on the hotend display.
I am somewhat flabbergasted, there are not that many connectors, and all of them are properly labeled, so I know that I have connected it to the right connector. I know that the connector on the old mainboard is functioning fine.
Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?
If it helps, here is a picture of the wiring of the relevant parts

Does the original mainboard still have the original firmware? It might be an issue with the firmware being incorrectly configured. Most likely it has the wrong pin assigned for the bed temperature.

Yes, I had removed the old mainboard and when going back installed it just as it was again and it did not work anymore. But this is a good suggestion, I will build my own version of Marlin and verify the pin is A14

Unfortunately it has to be something different, I put a version on it where I verified that #define TEMP_BED_PIN 14  // Analog Input and same.


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Is there an example of tight coupling between CAD and sliced models?
I am on the hunt for CAD packages which can perform some level of slicing as an inherent model feature, instead of either exporting to STL and then importing into the slicer (a la OnShape) or directly opening the slicer from within the software (a la Fusion 360). I would like this because I want to model directly for the print instead of having to go through an iterative process where certain tools cannot be used to their fullest extent.
For instance, it's very easy for me to print a model, measure it to quantify shrink, and then backport required changes into my CAD model. However, this is not ideal as it prevents me from analyzing the model before print. (For instance, using the CAD software to calculate mass, C.G., moment of inertia, or doing mechanical and thermal analysis on the printed shape, not the modeled solid.)
In a perfect world, I'd have the ability to run Cura as an operation on the model. The resulting CAD would then include the infill structures as well as any required modifications to the original part, e.g. a discrepancy between the desired height and the printed height or a wall width vs the nozzle width.
Is there anything out there which fits the bill? I know nothing is perfect, but anything right now would be a big step forward.

Blender has a CNC slicer plugin, it's not exactly what you're asking for but it can perform some of the tasks that you're asking for.
CNC slicer for Blender

Thanks! Unfortunately, as you point out it wouldn't meet the need to do in-CAD analysis and modification.

Microsoft 3d builder will do it. It's far from the best CAD or Printing software though. Works very well for what it is.

Could be promising. Could you provide some links to this functionality?

It comes inbuilt with Windows 10, lots of instructions online for it

That's good to know. I don't mean to give you a hard time, and I appreciate your input. Nonetheless, SE answers should have corroborating documentation, i.e. links. They should not simply an assertion.

Not giving you a hard time, but you've spent more effort typing that than it would to have typed the keywords into a search engine and gotten hundreds of links. ;)

Think of SE answers as canonical documentation for everyone who has the same question. If each user searches for his/her own answer, then there's little uniformity, as the answer will depend on the search engine, the user profile, etc... To avoid this, the answer should do more than be an assertion and should instead provide justifications. https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer gives a good overview of how answers ideally would be.

Feel free to downvote if you have a problem with the answer, I was just trying to help

I appreciate your help, and don't see a reason to downvote. To the contrary, I would like to upvote as I think your answer is helpful, but without justification it is incomplete.

Ironic that you upvote something with an irrelevant link, here's a link to google https://www.google.com/


text:
Does anyone know a site where you can download straight up G-code files?
Is there any known site where you can input your 3D printer's information and it will show you all G-code files uploaded to that site and would have a download button? If not, it's not a huge deal. It's just that I can't find my computer, therefore can't use a slicer.

Have you tried an online slicer? For example Kiri:Moto

It seems to be working ok so far. But I haven't found how to download the sliced model. I have tried online slicers, but normally I have to then have a 3D addon to wirelessly connect instead of just downloading the file

Say, I have the Voxelab Aquila X2, which is pretty much the same thing as the Ender 3, as the Ender 3 is open source. Is it okay to select the Ender 3 on the slicer since Aquila isn't on the list?

You could try it but make sure that the machine settings are the same as the Aquila. If this works out for you, please post your own "answer" and experience in case anyone else comes across this question in the future.

This is generally not a good idea. Your slicing needs to be reasonably tuned to your specific printer. You’re going to have a hard time finding files to start with, and you may have a very bad time if it’s set up for a material different from yours.
So, frame challenge: don’t do that.

Uncontrolled G-code can be a (medium) security risk.
As we already elaborated here. In general, you shouldn't use G-code from a website, unless you really know what you do.
Prusaprinters/printables.com
Printables.com, formerly Prusaprinters, allows uploading G-code that does not contain commands that can alter settings. This blocks the M50x family (esp. M500, M501, M502) and several other codes (M509, M400, M304, M303, M30) that are easily weaponized to destroy or at least alter printers. By disallowing these commands, some damage can be mitigated, but not all: The site does not detect G-code that would for example ram your hotend into the bed - and most printers don't have crash detection to stop that.

It's printables.com now.

@kosteklvp old person me forgot^^

Perhaps go to your printers manufacturers or resellers site. They may have g-code. I got some g-code files along with my printer. So I assume they must be available somewhere.


text:
ENDER 3 PRO - Install Dual-Z - Endstops trigger OK, but don't stop the stepper
While waiting for BTT technical support to reply to my email, I thought I would ask this community for help.
I own an Ender 3 Pro, upgraded 2 years ago with BTT SKR Mini E3 V2.0 + TFT35 E3 V3.0. Firmware MARLIN BUGFIX-2.0.x of 23/03/2020. (no change).
Everything OK, a significant upgrade from stock hardware.
Today I installed the second Z-axis (with its stepper motor), connecting it to the output (ZBM) of the motherboard.
The Stepper works fine, but all the limit switches (x, y, z) don't stop the stepper.
The end stops responding correctly to M119 ('open' state), when pressed manually they change to the 'triggered' state. But they don't stop the relative axis stepper motor when I perform (i.e.) a homing.
Can you suggest me a solution?

Hi Jo and welcome to SE.3DP!  :-)

I performed a factory reset and the end-stop situation has normalized.


text:
How to fix a tilted gantry on a Weedo Tina 2?
I recently ended up detaching the Bowden tube of my Weedo Tina 2 to get a stuck piece of filament out. I think I may have ended up pushing the gantry out of true because this issue started right after.
When I perform automated bed leveling, the nozzle is pushed into the bed. Printing with the previously good Z offset results in the nozzle carving a pattern into the bed. I needed to adjust the z offset slightly past the point where the hall effect sensor's led turns off. I can lift the side opposite to the screw slightly and this lifts the nozzle relative to the sensor a bit.
I managed to print the bottom layer of an object that occupies most of the bed. In this image, the lower right hand corner where the layer is thinnest is towards the single Z-axis screw. The opposite corner is slightly detached from the bed, as is the entire edge on the non-drive side of the gantry. During the printing of the raft, I could hear the filament feed motor stick as if the nozzle was so hard against the bed that it blocked the filament completely.

Experimenting with a small magnet, it appears that the hall sensor's indicator light turns on when the magnet is slightly above the level of the nozzle. Hand-turning the z screw with the bed offset to one side indicates that the sensor lights up when the nozzle would be in the bed. The magnetized part appears to be the bottom of the detachable bed, but the sensor doesn't light up with either side of it touching the sensor.
There is definitely some play in the non drive side of the gantry. It is easy to lift that side a bit. Also, I can see divots in the bed where the ABL has driven the nozzle in.
Here's the back and front of the gantry:

This one is from the top, the non-drive side:

Some poking around led me to notice this:

It appears that the top of the Z-screw is unsupported and, with the gantry down, it points slightly off the slot that looks like it should hold some sort of supporting bearing.
Supporting the gantry with a finger during the print job results in an evenly printed raft but I am not about to spend half an hour as a structural member.
As mentioned, I believe the gantry has become slightly tilted, but it could be an issue with the hall sensor. Is there a way for me to fix this?

It is a heavily boxed up printer, there aren't that many images to use to give guidance, but I believe it has a single Z screw, these sort of designs are prone to misaligned X-Z gantries, your proposition of a tilted gantry might be correct.

@0scar It does indeed have only a single z-screw. I can take pictures of the gantry if that would help answering.

Pictures may be helpful, please add them, we can always remove these later. In principle even if the gantry is crooked, the automatic leveling should encounter this, it is usually inconsistent following of the undriven Z axis that causes the problems. Check if there is play in the system (try to lift the undriven Z axis gently).

P.S. The Z lead screw should be unsupported at the top! This is to prevent excessive wobble, you should never overconstrain the lead screw unless you have a mechanism to get the wobble out at the connection to the X-Z gantry (e.g. Oldham coupler).


text:
Filament choice: durable, flexible, long space frame
I need to build a space frame (see Structural Mechanics) which however long it will be (e.g. 2 m), durable, flexible, supporting itself and small weight over. Let's imagine it as a fixed umbrella with that frame under which you can squeeze and come back to shape.
Which filaments should I check?
PS. I know the size is big but it is fine if I build it in pieces.

You should consider not printing this.

Thanks for the reaction. I do indeed consider that. I have no idea which material even to start from... even if i have to cnc etc

It should be made from tubes/rods and connectors (do you know the k'nex toy bricks), preferably steel and welded. This is more an Engineering question I guess.

Can you elaborate on the requirements? I wouldn't go so far as to say you shouldn't print this, but it's possible the best use of 3D printing might be just printing some of the parts from which it can be assembled, or that even if all of it will be printed, that it would benefit from printing as separate parts in their own optimal print orientations which can then be assembled.

@0scar it is definitely a direction i consider but i was hoping i could go down on weight and fulfill the requirement "squeeze and come back to shape once released".

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE really an umbrella of 2m radius with no moving parts (fixed) is a good parallel. I need to figure out the elements supporting the nylon sheet over. Minimal weight but strong on impacts. That is, it be hit from any direction and does not break but squeezes and returns to shape.

TPU filament is the only thing I can suggest if you must 3d print this gadget. It's strong and flexible.


text:
Quantum PLA stops extruding, other PLA works fine
I recently tried to use Matterhackers Quantum filament and I've run into some issues and curious if anyone else has.  I have a CR6-SE with community firmware, a regular Bowden tube with upgraded heatbreak (the metal tube that goes inside the heat block where the material is melted) installed, slicing software is Cura 15.  My issue is I can't get it to print well or for long.  I can run Polymaker, Geeektech, Sunlu, and most other brands of PLA without issue or minor tweaks. This stuff will not play nice. I'm at my wit's end trying to figure this out. Here are something's I've tried. The first 15 to 30 layers will go down beautifully and then it just stops extruding.  When it starts to stop extruding it will print blobs all over the print surface, wispy lines, then nothing. If I am not there watching it, it will have layers of virtually very little filament like it was getting clogged up and the next layers after that will be normal.
Other measures taken:

Hot end temperature ranges 215 to 240 °C as per Matterhackers support instructions.
Adjusting retraction distance/speed independent of each other.
Adjusted heat bed ranges 40 to 70 °C.
Adjusted print speeds 30 to 60 mm/s.
Adjusting initial Z height from 0.15 to 0.2 mm.
Put the filament in a food dehydrator for 2 to 48 hrs.

It's not just one particular file either; it's anything I try to print with this filament from a simple cube to complex curves and angles.
Image 1 shows first layer prints, these are mostly smooth and not problem with adhesion to the bed.
Image 2 shows how the print is changing.  The temp has stayed constant throughout the entire print, but only towards the top is it smoothing out.  On the bottom (pic doesn't show it clearly) there are layers missing, or partial layers missing.

You haven't even explained what these "some issues" are except that it won't "print well for long". For this question to be answerable you need to at least show pictures of what's wrong or a description of the specific problems, ideally both.

I will post pics when I get home from work.

If you are going to add images, please explain what with upgraded heatbreak installed actually means. I get the impression that it is an all-metal heat break which are prone to cause heat creep, the strange thing is that I fail to understand why other filaments do work well. Are the other filaments printed at lower temperatures? That would explain it! So please update your question.

@0scar yes, it is an all metal heat break. I had to change it out because the stock one from Creality pushes the Bowden tube all the way down to the nozzle.  The new one stops  the Bowden tube from going into the heat block, allowing only the material through.

@0scar yes, the temps are different .. vastly different.  Polymaker, Geeektech, and Sunlu print awesome at 220 °C @ 65 mm/s.  Matterhackers Quantum filament recommends 230 to 240 to print.  Tech support from them told me to try going up to 250, but that just straight out clogged up my nozzle.

PLA usually prints better with lined heat breaks rather than all metal ones, unless they are bi-metal heat breaks. A plain all metal heat break isn't always an upgrade, it is a widely misunderstood assumption that it is an upgrade.

@0scar: I used to think and say that too, but if the all-metal one is machined from a single piece and doesn't have internal lips for anything to get caught on, and has plenty metal length before the junction with the PTFE, it really is pretty much just a pure upgrade. Of course it's hard to know whether this applies to the one OP bought.

But, OP, if you have an all-metal heat break, even one that's working very well, but still the original Creality extruder, your problem is probably just that the extruder is junk. It has very very little grip in the filament, and will fail as soon as there's any resistance in the filament path, which there will naturally be more of with metal, especially after any nontrivial amount of retraction and resume has taken place. If it just happens with this one filament, the filament is probably just slightly harder to grip...

...but a decent extruder will not be on the borderline of not gripping the filament like that. A good extruder will grip the filament so well it skips motor steps before the filament slips. You can try increasing the spring arm tension, cleaning the brass extruder gear, etc. but you should probably just buy a good extruder with a gear that wraps around the grips the filament rather than just touching it at a single tangent point.

@oscar it is a bi metal heat break.  Copper and titanium for heat dispersion to prevent heat creep and melting / warping of the PFTE tube.  I'm looking at getting a new dual geared extruder for it.  The CR6-SE has an enclosed extruder, so there really isn't a way to increase the tension on the spring or replace the spring.  It is also a pita to take apart and clean, once you take the cover off the spring wants to fly and the small parts inside don't stay put either.


text:
In Creality slicer, which settings should be adjusted to reduce the contact area between a support and an overhang?
In Creality slicer, which settings would you change to reduce the amount of surface area from the supporting structure that makes contact with overhangs on the model you are printing.
For example, if you are printing the object pictured below, and the green area is the support structure, and the red area is the overhang that requires supporting, how would you decrease the amount of green that touched the red?

I'm asking about dialing back the surface area contact on "any" style of support, not choosing between different styles of support

Creality's slicer is forked from Ultimakers Cura slicer and afterwards further developed as a minimalistic slicer.
If the options are similar, you can look at Cura slicer support options.
The amount of support is controlled by the option called Support density in Cura, the lower the percentage, the lower the amount of support.

This model has triangle support with three different densities: 15 %, 30 % and 45 %

Looking at a Creality slicer screenshot from 2021:

You might want to look into Fill amount (%).

This sounds like an x-y problem.
You are probably looking for easier separation or a nicer surface on your red area, and what you are actually asking for does the opposite of that. (Probably. It's complicated.)
For tower-like supports, you will have a structure similar to infill used to get to the right height, then an interface layer (kind of like a raft), then the print supported on top of that.
You think (I assume) that you could have fewer points of contact, and this would mean the printed surface is more perfect. That's mostly wrong. With fewer points of contact, the hot strands are more likely to droop and fuse with the support. It's kind of like the trick where a person lies down on a bed of nails: more points of contact means less pressure, which means a cleaner surface.
What you can do instead is play with the interface layer (the "roof"). IIRC, it will only allow multiples of your layer height, so you don't have that much granularity. That's fine. try bumping it up one layer and see if that gives you better separation. You can also try making the roof a little beefier, so it snaps off as a single piece more often.
If for some reason you really, truly do want fewer points of contact, disable the support roof (or set it to height zero and turn support density down. I do not recommend this unless you have something specific and weird going on.

One of the problems that I'm having is that when you remove the supports it rips the surface layer off with it. Leaving holes. It's too firmly attached.

@AaarghZombies then, as I said, you do not want to have fewer points of contact.

Then smaller areas of contact? Whichever way, the supports are fixed too well to the model, they don't remove cleanly.


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How do I change and then save the Z offset on an Ender 5 Pro
Something changed on my Ender 5 Pro. I do not know what. Only that even after re-leveling the bed several times it won't lay down a stable first layer unless I go into the tune menu and manually raise the Z level slightly to bring the bed closer to the nozzle.
How do I change, and then save, the printer's settings so that this slight rise is applied to all future prints?
I presume that this is the offset value?
I'm running stock firmware.
Finding out what changed and why is a question for later.

Are you running stock Marlin firmware on the Ender 5?

Yes, machine is 100% vanilla. No mods not upgrades, even using Creality slicer.

At least for the Ender 3 v2, settings are stored on the SD card and not EEPROM. I have not been able to confirm this for the Ender 5 Pro. After storing settings, check for a .ini file on the SD card. If it is there then that is your settings file and must be on each SD card you use for settings to be "global".

I think this is answered here: https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/13713/ (note that this answer describes what to do if a bed is too close, for you it is too high, so do not copy this exactly). There are various ways to adjust the Z-offset. You should be able to persistently store the Z-offset, either in firmware or in your slicer. Also https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/4745/cura-set-z-offset might be interesting to read.

I know this is old, but did you check that the little bolt/thumbscrew at the back of the printer didn't get tightened/loosened? It's the one that makes contact with the switch to stop the bed once it reaches max height, in between the threaded vertical rod and smooth vertical rod on the right that the bed "travels" on. That was my issue, took me forever to figure out why my prints were all trying to start a few mm in the air.