BLTouch missing build plate on levelling I have finally sorted the problems out with the frozen screen, but inevitably there's always more to take there place.

I have installed the latest version of the 'Tiny Machines' Firmware but on trying to do a 'Level' on the bed the nozzle/BLTouch sensor moves to the front left corner and tries to take a 'level' reading whilst the BLTouch sensor is 20 mm off the build surface, so the nozzles hits the build surface.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to where the settings are to correct this?

I have an E3D v6 HotEnd and to the left of that is the BLTouch Sensor (60 mm to the left and 6 mm forward).

Tiny Machines firmware is based on Marlin firmware. Note that I personally am more comfortable using the original sources than a fork or copy from another derivative source. Using a derivative means that you will have to wait a second development commitment to post new features and bug fixes.

A similar reasoning is applicable using premade hex files opposed to compiling the sources yourself.

There are 2 things (related to the bed X, Y positioning) you need to be aware of when using a Z probe. When using the probe you must ensure that the probe deploys on the bed during probing.

First, define in your firmware that the probe can only deploy in the center of the build plate. In e.g. Marlin firmware this is described in the configuration.h; you need to enable Z_SAFE_HOMING:

// Use "Z Safe Homing" to avoid homing with a Z probe outside the bed area.
//
#define Z_SAFE_HOMING

Second, you need to define a confined bed area for the sensor to deploy, this is described in question: "How to set Z-probe boundary limits in firmware when using automatic bed leveling?".

Note that flashing an existing firmware does not guarantee anything, the used firmware from Tiny Machines (or e.g. from TH3D) try to simplify the firmware configuration for you by adding additional specific settings/constants (#defines), underneath the waterline all sorts of things are then handled for you. Personally I'd like to be in control and do the modifications myself. If the probe position you use is different from the probe position used in the pre-build firmware you will not be able to use this firmware safely. We can check this: e.g. in the Tiny Machines firmware there are 3 predefined positions for the sensor, in the sources itself none is active (see below), so it is not known which option is used for compiling the hex files they made available:

//#define CREALITY_ABL_MOUNT //Using creality ABL mount
//#define E3D_DUALFAN_MOUNT // Using HD Modular mount as above with 2 5015 blowers and sensor on the right
//#define E3D_PROBEMOUNT_LEFT // Default is probe mounted to the right for E3D. Set this to invert.

When you define one of these options above, the probe position can be read from:

   #if (ANY(ABL_BLTOUCH, ABL_EZABL,ABL_NCSW) && ANY(HotendE3D, HotendMosquito))
    #if ENABLED(E3D_DUALFAN_MOUNT)
      #if ENABLED(E3D_PROBEMOUNT_LEFT)
        #define NOZZLE_TO_PROBE_OFFSET { -63, 5, 0 }
      #else
        #define NOZZLE_TO_PROBE_OFFSET { 63, 5, 0 }
      #endif
    #else
      #define NOZZLE_TO_PROBE_OFFSET { 32, 5, 0 }
    #endif
   #endif

You will see that the E3D_PROBEMOUNT_LEFT and E3D_DUALFAN_MOUNT need to be active (you see that E3D_PROBEMOUNT_LEFT is embedded in the E3D_DUALFAN_MOUNT option, this cannot be correct...) to get a probe offset of (-63, +5) which is close to your probe (60 mm to the left and 6 mm forward translates to (-60, +6)). This is exactly why I use the Marlin firmware from the main source code, not a simplified derivative (which in this case is not accurate and unknown what options are used in the pre-build hex files).

Please note that the original Marlin sources also maintain configuration files for many printer types, e.g. the CR-10S is also listed in this overview.


Part cooling fan on when printing TPU? I could have sworn I read somewhere that when printing with TPU to make sure the part cooling fan is blowing. But I just did a quick Googling and couldn't find anything stating such on Matter Hackers or All3dp.

I currently don't have a part cooling fan attached (waiting for square nuts to come in). I've been able to get by printing PLA without the fan. I'm curious if this is going to be a major obstacle with TPU.

You'll probably be fine printing TPU with no fan. I just started printing with TPU, and did a lot of test prints to find out what settings work. Fan made little difference. With hotend at 230 °C, which I started out with, 0-20% fan was fine. I eventually increased temperature to 250 °C, which made extrusion more consistent and allowed me to reduce linear advance K-factor somewhat, and at that temperature having a bit more fan (I'm using 40% now) seems to help the material hold its shape, but it mainly made a difference at higher print speeds (over 35 mm/s) where the motion of the nozzle was "pulling on" the still-very-soft material just extruded. At 30 mm/s and below, fan still doesn't seem very important.

All of this is likely to vary somewhat with the properties of your machine. However I think it's safe to say you should be able to find a combination of print speed and temperature that make it possible to get by with no fan.

Follow-up: Upon further experimentation with TPU, I would say you really don't want any fan at all, except possibly for bridges. I've found significant distortion to shape just from air pressure from the fan, and at higher speeds the fan makes the print brittle just like what happens with PETG. Layers of TPU really seem to want time to melt together to bond, and without a fan blowing on them they don't seem to lose their shape during that time.


Levelling heads for dual extruder I upgraded to a dual Mk9 extruder, and quickly discovered how critical it is to get the ends of both nozzles exactly level with each other -- that is, equally distant from the build plate at all times. Otherwise the lower one will crash against the plastic just extruded by the higher one.

So, what's a good procedure for getting the nozzles accurately level? About all I've figure out is to move the heads down close to Z=0, and then run X and Y back and forth and eyeball and adjust; then move even closer to Z=0 and repeat. Is there a better / more efficient way?

Make sure that the bed is level. As the saying goes, a level bed is next to godliness or something like that. Pay extra attention to the direction the nozzles are offset by (if one nozzle is offset on the X-axis, pay extra attention to the bed leveling along the X-axis). This can be done with just one nozzle and a business card or piece of paper.
Use a bubble level to get the nozzles about right. Move your z-axis up a bit and put a bubble level against the nozzles. Adjust as necessary so it's exactly level. The nozzles should be level enough that the bubble stays in the middle.
Fine-tune it with a business card. When you home the z- axis, you should be able to just fit a business card under both nozzles with a moderate amount of resistance. Don't force the card. If sliding the business card under produces a different amount of resistance for one nozzle than for another, adjust the nozzle a tiny amount. You can also use an index card or playing card.
Once it passes the card test, try a test print. If it doesn't work, make sure your bed is level, your nozzle offset is correct in the slicing software, and try calibrating with an index card again. If the nozzles become way off, try the bubble level again.

As for physically adjusting the level, another answer suggests shims made from aluminum foil, which work well. Personally, my extruder was off-level by almost exactly 1mm, so a pair of washers worked nicely for that.

Happy printing!

Leveling with a bubble:


What are the most common 3D printing file formats? What are the most common 3D printing file formats, and which one is more effective or used more than others?

3D-Model Exchange Files
The most common file formats to exchange models for 3D printing are STL, OBJ, FBX, COLLADA, 3DS, IGES, STEP, and VRML/X3D.
Of these, STL, OBJ, AMF, and 3MF are the most popular formats according to All3DP. Pointing out which is the best is a subjective interpretation and not fit for SE sites. However, for many of the model sharing sites, like e.g. Thingiverse.com, many people share the STL file format.

STL file format is short for “stereolithography” and is a 3D rendering that is containing a single color.
OBJ file format, this format stores information about your 3D model. It encodes surface geometry of your 3D model and is also able to store color and even texture information.
AMF file format stands for Additive Manufacturing File Format, this is a relative new format for 3D printing based on an XML open standard. Like OBJ it can store color information. When compressed, the size can be reduced significantly to about half the size of STL files.
3MF file format stands for 3D Manufacturing Format. It is also a relatively new file format that aims to be a new standard for additive manufacturing. According to the 3MF consortium, it allows higher inter-operability between 3D modeling software and other applications, services, platforms, and printers.

Actual Printing Files
In the end, all these formats store the models of your products which eventually need to be transformed into 3D printer understandable instructions. These instructions are called G-code commands.
Lately I also noted that Ultimaker Cura stores sliced models in GZ file format for my Ultimaker 3 Extended, which is a compressed archive from the GZIP compression utility containing the actual G-code file.


Inconsistent inner/outer dimensions Using CuraEngine with my Ender 3, I'm getting what I'd call inconsistent inner and outer dimensions - for example, a nominally 3 mm peg is significantly larger than a 3 mm hole, and it takes dimensions something like 2.9 mm for the peg and 3.1 mm for the hole to get them to fit. Is this level of error normal? Is it caused by overextrusion, or does CuraEngine run its paths along the curve of the slice rather than offset by approximately half the nozzle width inside the sliced region? The magnitude of the error being almost exactly 0.2 mm, which is half of the 0.4 mm nozzle diameter, makes me wonder if it's the latter.

Filament expands slightly as it is extruded. Also, the width of the extrusion depends on the volume of plastic extruded (not the nozzle size), as well as the amount that it is "squidged" down. Some slicers (e.g. Simplify3D) allow you to specify the width of the extrusion that you desire, but I'm not sure if Cura does this. You can fine tune the width of extrusions by adjusting the flow rate. Note that apertures get larger as nozzles wear out, but this should not affect the width of the extrusion very much since the determining factor is volumetric flow rate.

I would say that if you are getting a dimensional accuracy of +/- 0.1mm, you are doing pretty well. If you want to improve on this, you will need to calibrate your extruder and also monitor closely the average diameter of the filament that you are using. I have included a link to an external article, since doing this is beyond the scope of my answer. However, I doubt if it is possible to get push-fit accuracy with FDM printing without fudging the dimensions of the objects that you want to print.

3D Hubs: How to calibrate, tune and fine tune your printer and filament


How do I set the G-code buffer size on Marlin? I am reconfiguring a Printrbot Simple Metal that has been retrofitted with a RAMPS+Arduino Mega running Marlin, with a fairly slow feedrate due to mechanical and quality limitations.

I am finding that upon cancelling a print where something goes wrong, I have a long period of time in which the printer is continuing to print from the G-code and movement buffer, although the host software (Octoprint) has long stopped sending G-code.

Is there a way I can either a) configure Marlin to have a smaller print buffer (since Octoprint has no trouble keeping up with the printer as it stands) or b) send a particular signal or G-code to the printer that stops it without continuing to read buffer contents?

Marlin does allow one to change the size of the buffers, in Configuration_adv.h. In the current version there's an ifdef that switches between two cases, one with SD support, and the other without. Both have a movement planner of size 16, which can be adjusted.

Additionally, in the same file, BUFSIZE can be changed to modify the size of the buffer storing unparsed commands before they are parsed and enter the movement planner buffer.

Additionally, for some firmwares, M112 will immediately shut down the printer, no matter what is in the buffer, but the reset button will need to be used, and the axes will not be homed afterward. In Marlin, it's hardcoded to call kill().


Why some corners aren't sticked well? Is this a leveling problem? or it's because the bed temperature isn't equal in everywhere?

If it's because of leveling, it means the distance between nozzle and bed in this not-sticked corners are lot and should be decrease?

EDIT: material is ABS, and it's recommended temp is 190-230/80-100. But I use Cura high quality ABS default settings with 225/80. (But I had this problem with PLA with 190/60 degrees too)

EDIT2: I have a cooling fan for my Arduino/ramps board. But there was a wire between it's blades and it didn't work. today I saw it and tried to fix but it's plastic duct broke. So I tried to put it by hand as how it's air can cool both the Electronics boars and the bed(you can see my fan in one of the pics in left side). And I got a nice printing results for the same part printing:

So the cooling fan for printing part is very important to stick print to bed and I will print a duct for extra fan very soon!

You can clearly print but there are also some problems it seems.

To see if you're about okay when it comes to leveling, I recommend to activate the 'skirt' in your slicer soft. Slic3r has it and I think most others too, it just makes the printer do a big one-layer all-around 'perimeter' around what is going to be printed before starting. You'll see quickly if there is not enough or too much space between the bed and the nozzle. You might catch other problems too (I love it because when the hotend drips a bit when leveling it get's smeared out far away from where the print is going to happen).

Your print looks like it is not optimal (overextrusion? no print-cooling? ...) so start with slowing down, first layer 20-25mm/s (Look at it when it's printed, it's very telling!). Then for the following ones, don't go over 40-50mm/s for starters.

Last but not least, you are printing ABS (but you said you had the problem with PLA too, hence my post), I have never printed ABS but for what I have read, you'll need a heatbed and a heated chamber(enclosed printer) to not have this kind of problems.

But for PLA especially; If you have a heat bed, don't put on too much heat when printing, I went from 60°C to 50°C, first layer, 30° then, and my prints now stick like they are melded onto my plate instead of skidding around.


My 3D printer hotend always jams I've just built my first 3D printer. It uses a Bowden setup.

When I try to print the extruder starts fine, but after a few seconds the extruder motor start skipping and the nozzle is jammed.

I tried a cold pull, but it didn't help. I removed the PTFE tube and tried to push the filament with my hand, it works but at the start I need the push harder but after it flows fine. But if I reinstall the Bowden setup, it works fine for a few minutes, but after a few seconds it starts again.

Note I am using silver PLA at 200-205 °C. I tried to raise the temperature to 215 °C, but it also jammed, and the filament what after I pushed out was black (it is a new hotend and I never used black filament before), like it was burned (if it is possible).

Extruder clogging is, at its root, a matter of too much backpressure at the hotend. There are a number of more specific causes, but it very simply comes down to the fact that the printer cannot feed the filament through the hotend as fast as the extruder is pushing it in.

Things to check, pretty much in the order they should be checked/performed for a brand-new printer:

Extruder stepper calibration. With new printers based on RepRap firmware (Enders, Prusas, pretty much any printer in the \$200-\$400 range these days), one of the first things you have to do after assembly is to calibrate your E-stepper (the motor that drives filament through the extruder). The printer is given commands based on millimeters of movement, including the feeding of filament, and it has to translate those into finite steps of the motors. If those steps don't actually move the extruder or the filament as much as expected, the printer will behave poorly, including clogging. E-stepper calibration is pretty easy, especially on Bowden extruders; you basically disconnect the Bowden tube at either end, load filament through the stepper, cut it off flush with the end of the tube or the coupling, then tell the printer to extrude 100 mm of filament. Cut it off flush again and measure, and if it's not 100 mm, look for a command beginning with M92 in your printer configuration (it can be in the settings of your actual printer or a configuration script in your slicer software that gets tacked on to the front of the G-code files generated for use with that printer), and adjust the value you see after the E in that command by multiplying it by 100, then dividing by the millimeters of filament actually extruded in the test. Rinse and repeat until the printer is feeding the amount of fil you tell it to.
Bed height/leveling. This may not sound like it has anything to do with extruder clogs, but in truth, if your extruder is too close to the print bed at any point during the first layer, it can very easily clog the extruder by not allowing enough material to flow out the nozzle to keep up with what's being fed in. Bed leveling is a key step in print prep, and every printer behaves best with subtle changes to the bed leveling procedure. My guess is that you need to re-level for a slightly higher "zero-Z" above the build plate. If you're using the sheet-of-paper method, either use a thicker piece of paper, or go for less friction as you pass the paper between the nozzle and build plate.
Nozzle diameter settings. The standard nozzle tip diameter is 0.4 mm, however there are others. Your slicer probably expects the standard diameter as a default, so if you're running a 0.3, 0.2 or 0.1 mm nozzle for finer detail, the slicer has to be told that so it can adjust the filament feed rate. Otherwise it'll be jamming up to 16 times as much filament into that hotend as it should be. This isn't likely to be your problem but it's something to check; most extruder nozzles these days have the tip diameter engraved or pressed into the side of the nozzle, and if yours is unlabeled, try heading to the local music store and buying a single 0.013" guitar string (typically sold as a high E for acoustics). If that wire end easily fits through the extruder nozzle, you have a 0.4 mm, if it does not, it's something smaller.
Extruder clog/obstruction. That guitar string I mentioned makes a really good extruder cleaner. Just feed it through the extruder tip and gently push it up through the hotend till it pops out the top of the extruder, then feed it back and forth a bit to "floss" the extruder tip, cleaning out any minor carbon buildup. If you can't feed the wire completely through the extruder body from either direction, that's probably your problem, and fixes range anywhere from a little more pressure with the wire, to a narrow drill bit carving out the obstruction, up to removing the entire heat block from the printer, putting it on or in something that won't burn, and blasting it with a soldering torch to burn out the obstruction, followed (after letting it cool) by a bath in some acetone to dissolve any remaining gunk.
Gunked-up extruder hobb. The toothed wheel attached to the extruder stepper is called the "hobb" (you may hear it called a gear, but it's really not one as it doesn't mesh with another gear). As the printer feeds filament, especially if you've had jamming problems, the hobb's teeth will fill with shavings from the filament it feeds through. This can cause the hobb to slip against the filament, which not only reduces the pressure of the filament being pushed through the extruder, it accelerates the accumulation of gunk on the hobb. A short blast of canned air is usually all you need to clean the hobb; if it still looks pretty caked up, a toothbrush will sort it out. While you're at it, check the idler to be sure it's still spinning freely.
Filament type/brand/age. You mentioned it's "silver PLA"; the silver stuff I have is actually a "silk PLA" product, that sheathes the PLA in a jacket of another plastic (often PET) for that high-gloss appearance. These kinds of filaments can be very temperamental, as can filaments with glitter or fiber aggregate in them (also common in metallic fil colors). You have to have the printer settings dialed in just right, and some of these products just don't work well at all in some printers. Try getting some very basic, brand-name PLA filament like Hatchbox, ColorFabb, MatterHackers, MakerBot, etc, in a good primary color (avoid black or white; the color saturation affects how easily the stuff extrudes at a given temp), no silk finish or other modification. If that prints well, the suspect becomes the silver fil.
Extruder temperature. You're printing at 200-205 °C, which is usually good, but if you're getting problems, the first thing to do with PLA is to try printing cooler, not hotter. Case in point, getting PLA too hot can cause it to fully melt and drizzle out (vacating the extruder and causing it to overheat the fil further up, jamming the melt tube), it can gum up (directly clogging the extruder nozzle), and it can carbonize (as you see it doing at 215). If you're already flirting with burning your PLA at 10 degrees hotter, you are probably running too hot. Try backing off to 195 or 190 and see if that helps any.


Cura Parameter Confusion: Initial Layer Flow Rate I have a LultzBot TAZ 6 3D printer and the software I use for my prints is "Cura LulzBot Edition - 3.6.3". Recently, I have begun to play around with the parameters in Cura relating to initial layer adhesion. One such parameter is the Initial Layer Flow Rate.

Now, after manipulating this parameter several times and evaluating the pieces that have been printed subsequently, it seems quite apparent to me that a manipulation in this parameter is affecting all subsequent layers that are printed.

For example, if I increase the Initial Layer Flow Rate from the default setting of 100 % to 130 %, layer 2, layer 3,...layer n all appear to be printed at at a flow rate of 130 % resulting in prints that are clearly "overextruded" (e.g. the finished surfaces are incredibly uneven, bumpy, etc).

Similarly, if I decrease the Initial Layer Flow Rate from the default setting 100 % to 70 %...all subsequent layers are clearly underextruded (e.g. walls are not connected at all and floor/ceiling have visible gaps).

Why is this happening? Directly above the Initial Layer Flow Rate parameter is a parent setting that is simply named "Flow". (refer to below picture)

Do I need to manipulate flow in order to avoid this from happening?

All I want to do is change exclusively the initial layer's flow rate (for better adhesion on larger pieces)...but my current method is not accomplishing this. Any suggestions?

$\color{red}{\text{EDIT}}$ - After reading the comments, I just wanted to clarify that I have let my parts "be printed to completion". The obersvations that I am making about underextrusion or overextrusion are in reference to the total structure (not just the first several layers). These are large structures (~12 hour prints).

If you're over- or under-extruding by a 30% margin, there is going to be so much excess or deficiency of material in the first layer that it will take a few layers to "catch up". Normally you would only adjust the flow by 5% or at most 10% unless you're using it to correct for compression of the filament in the extruder gear (for flexible filaments), but adjusting first layer flow only is always a hack to work around incorrect bed height or adhesion problems. You'd do much better to figure out the right solution to whatever problem you're trying to solve with flow.


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

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

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


Has anyone used a Shield Buddy (en lieu of a Arduino Mega2560) as the RAMPS 1.4 host board? I have read a few times1 that the Arduino Mega can struggle to perform the tasks required for 3D printer control, as the AVR chip is working at its limits, and this is why some manufacturers have moved away from the ATmega2560, to make custom (and integrated) controller boards using ARM processors.

Having just seen the latest answer to this question, Multithreading with the Arduino, on the Arduino SE site, I wondered if anyone had used a Shield Buddy in conjunction with the standard RAMPS 1.4 board?

It is pin for pin compatible with the Arduino Mega (and Arduino IDE compatible - once the appropriate add-ons have been installed), but it has a much faster three core processor. Obviously only one core would be used, leaving the other two idling, but even so the performance is apparently much better.

See Bringing Multicore To The Arduino World With ShieldBuddy TC275.

If anyone has experience of using this board, I would like to know whether it was successful or not? I don't see why it should not, although the Marlin firmware would need recompiling, for the Aurix TC275 processor. Would any improvement be seen? Is it worth paying the high price tag of £89?

1 One of the places was 3D Printering: Electronics boards:

  While they work for what they’re intended to do, there are a few
  limitations. Arcs and circles are a little weird to program, and using
  these boards for something other than a cartesian 3D printer – a CNC
  machine, or a laser cutter, for example – is a bit out of the
  ordinary.

It's not quite as simple as you would suggest.

You can't just recompile Marlin for another device. You'd need to rewrite large parts of it. It may be compatible with the Arduino IDE, but that doesn't mean you can just run firmware intended for the AtMega2560 on it. All the timings (e.g. those of the pulses sent to the stepper motors) would be off, if you managed to get it to compile at all.

As some examples, here are some pieces of code from Marlin that would be broken, as they're written directly in AVR assembly:

#define DELAY_1_NOP  __asm__("nop\n\t")
#define DELAY_2_NOP  __asm__("nop\n\t" "nop\n\t")

[...]

// ensure 100ns delay - a bit extra is fine
asm("nop");//50ns on 20Mhz, 62.5ns on 16Mhz
asm("nop");//50ns on 20Mhz, 62.5ns on 16Mhz

[...]

#define MultiU24X32toH16(intRes, longIn1, longIn2) \
asm volatile ( \
             "clr r26 \n\t" \
             "mul %A1, %B2 \n\t" \
             "mov r27, r1 \n\t" \
             "mul %B1, %C2 \n\t" \
             "movw %A0, r0 \n\t" \
             "mul %C1, %C2 \n\t" \
             "add %B0, r0 \n\t" \
             "mul %C1, %B2 \n\t" \
             "add %A0, r0 \n\t" \
             "adc %B0, r1 \n\t" \


Missing print steps in e-waste 3d printer I'm trying to create a 3D printer based on this instructable, EWaste 60$ 3DPrinter.

I have followed the steps provided there, and I'm facing the problem that the x-axis isn't able to move, i.e. the motor works fine but the z-axis part which is connected to x-axis doesn't move left and right. I have tried the following already:

Changed the design of 3d printer by attaching x-axis with y-axis and leaving z-axis separately
I gave a little force to the z-axis part and it starts to move left and right.

Any help on this would be appreciated!

Firstly, the X-axis should not be attached to the Y-axis.
Secondly, with respect to the Z-axis not being moved by the X-axis, it sounds like the X-axis stepper either:

is dead, or;
does not have sufficient power to move.

I would suggest removing the Z-axis from the X-axis CD carriage, in order to reduce the mass and therefore the power required to move it, and test the X-axis in isolation. If it moves left and right correctly, then it is not dead (obviously). If it does not move, then try adjusting (increasing) the current to the stepper motor, by adjusting the EasyDriver (assuming that you are using an EasyDriver stepper motor controller):

If it still does not move, then replace the stepper (or the whole X-axis CD-ROM drive, which is probably easier).
Then replace the Z-axis and test the X-axis movement again. If it does not move then the stepper does not have sufficient power, or strength, to move the mass of the Z-axis and, again, will probably require increasing the current to it, by adjusting the EasyDriver (as above):

If that does not help, then it will probably need need replacing.

If it does move, then you've fixed it.

Addendum
Having re-read your question, you state that the X-axis stepper motor works fine. So, it could be that the mechanism to which the stepper motor is attached is broken (teeth, gears, etc.) and not moving the CD carriage correctly. Again, remove the Z-axis and check the mechanics of the X-axis.
If they are damaged, then you will probably need to replace the CD-ROM drive that was used for the X-axis.


Will 3D printing work upside down or in zero gravity? I assume SLA printing only works on Earth and upright.
But would fused-filament printer (e.g. Prusa Mk3) work in zero gravity? What about upside down or sideways? If not, could it be modified to work in other orientations? Have there been any demonstrations of it?

Yes!
3D Printing upside would only potentially have an issue with the first layer if you're using an extremely large gap on the first layer, however in normal circumstances there's enough pressure that the filament is squished into the bed, if you've got one yourself you can put it on it's side, the question when it comes to 3D Printing isn't upside down, but not the correct way, as it's presuming that gravity pushing down is the important thing, while in every other orientation it also works.
In theory SLA printing would work just fine, as long as you're able to seal the build plate and vat together so no resin leaks out.


Only generate supports between object and bed (for a brain model) I would like to print a model of my brain (figure 1), it requires supports (figure 2). The supports also get generated between the brain folds/wrinkles of the brain by Slic3r. I only want the supports to be generated between the bed an the object, not within the object itself. I thought of writing a script to edit the g-code, is there an easier way out?

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Within Slic3r, there are settings for support, which can be enabled to create support only from the build plate. This would still generate supports under the brain, but not within the hollow sections.


Hatchbox Silver PLA settings? I have a RepRap Prusa i2. I have done the majority of my printing with clear PLA that I got on the cheap from eBay. It works just fine.

I bought a roll of Hatchbox Silver PLA (1.75 mm) from Amazon. I have never had a print go well with it. I have tried various combinations of hotter and cooler extruder and bed (180 - 220°C extruder, 50 - 78°C bed). Prints always either curl up from the bed after 5-20 layers are deposited or delaminate in the middle of the print. I print directly on the heated glass bed, and have also tried various cooling fan settings.

Does anyone have good settings (Slic3r) to use with this stuff? Or any other advice for getting a successful print?

I've been using Hatchbox 1.75 mm (but white), and settled on 190°C extruder temp, and 60°C bed. I've had trouble getting some prints to adhere to the bed, but most have been ok; I don't see a clear pattern. I don't know whether it's the fiber or my settings. I'm trying slightly higher temperatures, higher extrusion rates, and other filament brands to see if those help. Will post back if anything clear shows up...


"Err: MAXTEMP: E1" when THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS is disabled I am trying to port Marlin to my Qidi Tech 1 printer which previously ran Sailfish 7.8. Everything worked fine on the old board, including the temperature sensors.
All cables except for power, LCD, and USB (for flashing) are disconnected. I am still very early on in testing and have yet to plug anything else in.
When uploading Marlin to the board, at first startup I received the following error:
Err: MAXTEMP: E1

PRINTER HALTED
Please Reset

There may be a problem with my configuration. So I commented out all of the thermal runaway protection options since the bed and extruders aren't yet connected:
//#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS
//#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_BED
//#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_CHAMBER

I rebuilt, flashed, reset, and the printer is still telling me that E1 is at MAXTEMP.
Why am I still getting this thermal protection message?
I cleared the EEPROM from the LCD menu in Sailfish before flashing.
This board uses an ATmega2560 and I'm using the default fuses (E:FD, H:D8, L:FF, LOCK:CF).

#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS is for thermal runaway. When the temperature "should" be climbing or falling at a predicable rate, or holding steady once at running temp.
#define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP defines the maximum temperature Marlin will allow the extruder to get to before initiating a shutdown. This is ALWAYS active for an active extruder (E0) This setting is what will throw MAXTEMP if it is exceeded.
MAXTEMP error when there is no heat on is usually from a short in the thermistor cable.


Short-circuited heatbed After some months of good quality prints, since yesterday my heatbed does not heat anymore.
I've a BQ Prusa i3 Hephestos with this heatbed, controlled by this mechanical relay and powered by this power source. I know that a mechanical relay is not the best choice for a 3D printer, but I only had one of those when I've built the bed and setting bang bang control for the plate gave me some satisfactory prints.
Since if I connect directly the heatbed to the power source, the latter stops working (I think because of its shortage protection), I'm almost sure that in some way I've managed to fry my heatbed.
Before buying a new one, though, I'd like to understand how I've broken the current heatbed without doing anything but printing, to avoid similar situations in the future.
I'm afraid I've forgotten some component whose functionality is to protect the heatbed (maybe a diode or something similar, I'm sorry but I have never studied electronics).
I've attached a very simple wiring diagram showing the current configuration.

I see four points of error:

The heatbed could be faulty.
The lines could be faulty.
The trigger signal could be faulty.
The power supply could be faulty.

So, how to check what it might be? We need to measure, but we need to measure in a setup of 12/24 V circuits while they are live. While not necessarily considered "dangerous", take extra precautions! Remove the parts you will need to access from the machine, ground the power supply, and use your utmost care! Make sure the heatbed is not connected to the Power supply, so we can measure it in the safest way.
Ruling out the Heatbed
The first step can be done without power: the resistance of the heatbed should be non-0, non-open line. It's best to measure directly at the input pins to the bed. If it shows close to 0 (some milli-Ohms), open line (OL), or no continuity (NC), it has a short or is burned out and needs to be replaced.
Ruling out the Power Supply
Once we have reached a safe setup, take a voltmeter and measure the voltage (potential difference) on the pins you reserve for the heatbed. If it is 12 V with some tolerance, it's good, otherwise you might need to get a new power supply or have a professional fix yours.
Ruling out the trigger signal
Next, move your measuring to the output of the board. Now order your board to heat up the bed. Make no illusions, we will trigger TRP, as the bed is disconnected. This will need us to reset the board between tests. You should see a 5 V trigger signal. If not, your board or firmware might be faulty and require different investigations.
Ruing out the lines and switch
Next step is to swap to Resistance mode on the multimeter and measure the resistance of the switch, best with the whole power line. Under "heating", the setup should show a close to 0 Ohm resistance, if not it should show an infinite or open line.
What now?!
If it is neither of the 4, reassemble on the test stand, reconnect the bed to the power supply and investigate all connections between the elements we just checked. Now order a heating procedure - as all components should be ok, it has to be one of the interfaces between the parts.


How to connect filament end-to-end? Is it possible to connect two pieces of 1.75 mm filament end to end, with no change in width? I am asking the question because I am interested in creating a multi-filament feeder to a single extruder, and I am curious about the process of changing filament while the 3-d printer extruder continues uninterrupted. My current best-guess at the optimal solution is to someone 'cut' one end of the filament and 'melt' it to the end of another filament.

You'd have to ensure that the joining portion of the two filaments do not "bloom" or increase in diameter, which would happen if unconstrained at the melting and joining time. Alignment is also critical, otherwise you have a varying diameter from one color to the next at the point of join.

There's an item on ebay which is precision drilled and has precision machined mating surfaces to ensure alignment of the filament. The filament is extended through the two components, heated (in the case of the video, with a match) and the two metal parts are pushed together. The joining of the metal parts also cuts away the excess bulge of the melted filament, ensuring correct diameter.

In the case of the above item, the joining devices have to be threaded with the filament prior to the joining process and then have to be threaded off the filament by pushing them the entire length of the filament.

This would be okay if one were joining short lengths only. Consider how much fun it isn't to have to slide these two pieces over an entire full spool of filament.

A split device which would enable one to un-latch or otherwise open a clamshell to release the filament would require much more challenging machining to achieve the necessary precision, which is probably why we don't see such a product.


Which are the food-safe materials and how do I recognize them? What materials which are commonly used in 3D printing, are food-safe?

Are there any certifications/grading process for such materials, which can help me with my cross-checking and selection?

I have been using an FDM printer.

Food safety is a property of both the process and the material. You can't stick food-safe material in a printer that has previously been used to print something food-dangerous and expect the result to be food safe.

The only way to know if a given material is food-safe is to ask your supplier, but a lot depends on how you then process it. For instance, FDM printers often have brass nozzles, which contain lead. To print food-safe materials, you need to use a stainless steel nozzle.

Food safe materials can be identified by mean of an universal symbol.

Moreover, to ensure food-safety of a 3D printed model you may need to further process it (for instance, by vapor smoothing or coating with a food-safe lacquer). Some claims circulate on the internet that 3D printed models may have surface porosity in which bacteria can grow, but I've not been able to find a reliable source for this claim. Still, you need to be cautious.


OpenSCAD 2018 Command line First, I'm using Linux Mint 18.3 (Sylvia). Until now, I've been using OpenSCAD with the GUI and never experienced issues. Now I try to start OpenSCAD from the command line, but it always opens an empty file, even if a file with the specified name exists.

Since I have a rather big script, I'd like to generate the STL's via the CLI. Due to this error, I can not even do any tests for parameter passing.

What I'd like to do is to issue a command (flom the command line or in a shell script) that says "Set objectID to 1, render and export the result to stl".

Here is my M(N)WE:

// test.scad

objectID = 2;

if (objectID == 1)
difference(){
    cylinder(d=20, h=50, center=true);
    cylinder(d=16, h=50.2, center=true);
}

else if (objectID == 2)
difference(){
    cube(50, center=true);
    cube([35,35,70], center=true);
}

Any help will greatly be appreciated.

You can specify variable values from command line using:

openscad     ...\
             ... \
             [ -D var=val [..] ] \
             ... \
             ... \
             filename

See the OpenSCAD Manual.


My printer is making mistakes on the right half of the print, but not the left I am an absolute beginner having issues with my Monoprice Maker select v2 printer.
The left half of my prints look fine but the right half always gets messed up. When I watch it print the right half of an object it seems that the PLA isn't sticking even though I level the bed thoroughly beforehand. I don't think the problem is that the right half of my board is not sticky enough, because when I move the print so that the whole thing prints on the left half of the bed the problem persists.

I have attatched a photo to show what I am talking about. Any help is appreciated

Edit: I'm using inland pla. The extruder is at 220° and the bed temp is 60°

I found the problem. This model of printer Monoprice Select v2 has bed warping issues so when the bed heated up it would warp severely. I bought a glass bed and all my problems were solved.


Increase volumetric flow rate using a longer nozzle I'm looking to increase the printing speed, through increasing the volumetric flow rate, which is currently at 5 mm³/s. Larger amounts cause the feeding mechanism to skip steps.

I'm running at 190 °C, which helps with easier bridging less stringing and personally see no reason to increase the temperature to the popular 205 °C.

So, my thought process is the following: since I run at lesser temperature, there is still potential for the heating block to provide more heat and I need a longer nozzle to accumulate more heat and provide more surface area for transfer to the fillament (PLA), to speed up the melting of the plastic inside the nozzle (which seems to be the bottleneck).

That's similar to using larger tips for soldring iron, when faced with heating up large surfaces in order to desolder something large, since we need to stay at precise temperature, and need to increase the heat supply as well.

The suggested solution is to switch to the E3D's Volcano "everything included" kit. Which is nice and cool, but I don't think it's that necessary.

Is it possible to just switch to a volcano nozzle? (Manufacturer#: VOLCANO-NOZZLE-175-0400)
Would it actually noticeably help to increase the extrusion speed?

Current setup:

Ender 3 Pro, no mods
Classic 0.4 mm nozzle

Yes, the Volcano or the Super Volcano allow for larger flow rate (typically when using larger nozzles), that is where they were designed for. Just the nozzle will not help you, you need this larger nozzle shaft to be inside a Volcano heater block, else you cannot transfer the heat.
According to measurements from Metaform, the volumetric flow of a Volcano hotend is larger than the regular E3D V6 hotend.


Easiest way to build a horizontal hotend mount at home, without printing For my Frankenstein's printer I am at a loss with the hotend mount. I cannot drill holes of 16 (upper diameter) and 12 mm (clamping diameter, 6mm high) which i would need to mount the E3D V6 clone I have.

What I am looking for: a hotend mount plate that tightly fixes the hotend while having some holes for screws to mount it to the horizontally moving x-y drives. As I cannot print yet, it needs to be manufacturable at home. I thought of something like this:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:285405
I could get a piece of wood thin enough to fit the 6mm gap for the hotend, would not really be able to put any screws through it along the flat axis. also I would have to glue the layer with a 16mm hole on top. Not to say that I don't own a drillbit of 16mm diameter...

Are there some completely different ideas around which I didn't think of yet?

Additional info: the x-y axes are made from a scanner bed and an underneath mounted dvd drive laser positioner. Ideally, I'd want to mount the hotend directly to the DVD drive but a) there is almost no space for that, and b) I'm pretty sure I will burn the DVD drive's motor somewhere along the way, so I don't want to put too much work in the individual DVD drive.

You could cut a v-notch groove in a piece of plywood to hold one side of the groovemount neck, and then use a bolt through another piece of wood to push the neck into the V-notch.

There are lots of options when building RepStraps and JunkStraps. Really depends on what sort of hardware and fabrication capabilities you have on hand.


Dimensions off on final part I'm experiencing an issue with my Makerbot Replicator 2X (2000+ hours printing). The dimensions of my final part are smaller than what is initially modeled. My parts have been coming out roughly 0.3mm smaller than what is initially modeled. Is this a common issue or does this sound more like I may have a hardware issue?

I've confirmed that all my belts are tensioned properly and lubricated correctly. I haven't seen a calibration step that would correct for this issue short of manually scaling my parts to correct for the offset. The offset appears to only occur in the XY axis, never seems to happen in Z though

Example:
In the part modeled I had the width designed to be 35 mm (face to face, parallel walls). It doesn't seem to matter what size of part I have the final dimensions always seem to be off by about the same amount.

Yup that is what happens. It is simply the plastic cooling and shrinking. It will happen on just about any printer. 0.3mm on a what 40mm part. That is 99.3% on target.

There are some great blog links about it,
and here is a Stack overflow where I talk about it more in detail.

The only mitigations I can think of is
1) use a hear chamber.
2) use a SLA 3d printer.

I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure your designs have good tolerances.


How to add a proper fillet to corner of a cuboid in Fusion 360? I am a total beginner to Fusion 360. I need to add a fillet. Look at the picture to get better idea.

There are probably many ways to do this, this method describes how I do this.

First you need to fillet the top, then you chamfer the edges.

Create a lid:

Fillet the corner edges:

Chamfer the lid edges:


Will 3D Printed Dice Be Fair? Is there anything to the process of 3D printing that might make the dice unfair/land on a specific side more frequently? Or will any imperfections be negligible, thus making the dice fair? I'm more concerned about making a d20 than anything else, so focus on that shape if need be.

I am using a MakerBot Replicator+ with FDM, so take this into consideration if it affects your answer, and if you believe a different printing process would have an advantage over this don't hesitate to include it.

It probably won't be fair.
Incidentally, I have a decent amount of experience with 3D printing.
It depends heavily on the particular technology that you're using to do the 3D printing, but nearly all forms of printing aren't perfect--depending on the design you make (solid? honeycombed? hollow?), there will be slight, or not-so-slight variations across the faces, which will result in an unfair die. In particular, the faces that are parallel to the build surface will probably be different compared to the ones that are angled.
You could probably deal with some of these problems with some kind of post-processing, but honestly at that point buying dice would be easier. 3D printing is for making custom or prototype objects, and isn't really suited to mass production of simple shapes like dice.
Even manufactured dice have some imperfections, and a slightly unfair die probably won't make much of a difference in gameplay, but it will be hard for you to determine whether the imperfections from 3D printing are severe enough to make the die unfair without rolling it many times and looking at its distribution. Again, at that point, it's easier to just buy the dice.
That being said, custom d20s can be super cool looking, and if you're going to 3D print something, might as well make it look cool...


FLSUN QQ doesn't print and stops at Z=15 mm When I try to print something that is not the test model already on the SD, which means when I try to slice something in Cura 4 and than I start the print, the nozzle stops at Z=15 mm and only the extruder motor goes foward and backward. I tried to modify the G-code but I didn't solve the problem. I need help because it's my first delta 3D printer and I don't know what to do.

A distance of 15 mm is about the height of the probe or Z-offset. That can be a clue.

Compare the G-code from the testprint with the G-code you sliced. It can give you other clues.


How to build a CT scan into a printable 3D model? I have a set of 2D pictures from a CT scan.

How can I convert them into a 3D model for 3D printing? An example looks like this:

Using the terms "convert CT scan to 3D model," I found a number of links of tutorials. One of them is described as free, with registration and appears to be web based. The link, Embodi3D, appears to have a relatively comprehensive set of instructions to accomplish your goal.

Instructables also has a similar tutorial. Should neither of these prove suitable, the search terms above may be of value.

Image below via Instructables:


Is it possible to 3D print shapes of atomic orbitals for a regular customer? Disclaimer: I am not a professional 3D printer, so I'm not really familiar with how 3D printing works.

I was thinking about trying to make a real life model of the atomic orbitals, to clearly see how the orbitals are really shaped. I thought about trying to 3D print a block, made up of colored transparent "ink", in such a way that the darkness of the color at a point in the block should be proportional to the ψ2 value (probability of the electron cloud). This would print a block in which high density areas are darker than light intensity areas.

My question is, would it be possible to design an algorithm to print a specific darkness of ink at a specific location based on the computed value of ψ2, which is obtained by solving Schrödinger's Equation. Also, would it be possible to have this fullfilled at a reasonable price to be afforded by a regular customer, such as an engineering employee?

As Darth pixel mentioned, your best bet would likely be to explore subsurface laser engraving which makes little bubbles inside acrylic to make it translucent (frosted) on the inside in certain places.  However, it is expensive, it has no colors, and the resolution isn't usually great (it may look speckled on the edges instead of having a smooth gradient from clear to whitish).

A better option might be to 3d print a probability map of a 2D image an orbital cloud where height corresponds to probability rather than color. (So it will look like a hill or group of hills)  This would only run you a few dollars.


RetinaCreate Optimal Rotation I'm currently using FSL3d's RetinaCreate to prepare 3d-files for printing for research purposes. In this, I am relying on their Optimal Rotation feature which rotates the object by, as far as I can tell, judging models on their stability with regards to the printing direction. After rotating the model, supportstructures are generated to keep the model in place while printing without the bits and pieces floating about and to keep structural stability.

My question is, as I've neither found a manual nor any source-code (and admittedly I am terrrrrible at maths), how can I describe the kind of algorithm/logic used by the software here? This is essential for me, as I need to describe this in my research. Cheers, Jesse

Optimal rotation can be considered from different perspectives. For example

as little support as possible. This way app tries to orient object so as much surface as possible doesn't overhang and doesn't need support
bed only support. App tries to orient object so all overhanging parts can be supported directly from the heatbed (not from the object itself)

But have a look on Meshmixer as Ryan Carlyle suggested. In this app you can see 3 kinds of auto orientation procedures. Additionally Meshmixer can create angle support and tree-like support.

In terms of mathematics.

I cannot suggest any sources but you can imagine the way it calculates such optimal rotation. Let's say it will be dead simple explanation of the second approach:

Let's get all faces (facets) and let's project their center points on the "floor" (heatbed) or "ceiling". If imagined projection line slices any other faces then rotation is not optimal. App can calculate "a weight" of such orientation and then try to find the smallest weight of all possible orientations.

Of course it's not that simple. App has to manage concavity, which face requires support at all, and many other aspects but in general you can imagine the algorithm.

edit

"as little support as possible" could be considered as easier to imagine "as little shaddow as possible" and the problem can be simplified to projection and ray tracing
similarly "bed only support" could be simplified to "cast shaddows but not on itself"


Top layer and walls have gaps even with 120 % flow (Cura) I'm printing with Geeetech A20 printer, PLA.
I've started printing the same test piece while changing the following parameters:
Temperature from 215 °C to 195 °C (lowering by 5 °C on each print)
Flow multiplier from 100 % to 120 % (increasing 5 % on each print)
Speed on two first prints was 60 mm/s and on two last 40 mm/s
Bed leveling is perfect, the hardware seems to be in tact, the nozzle is clean and still the walls on the outer curve print well all the time, but in the inner circle they seem to be under extruded (even though flow is up to 120 %)
I am planning on going on with these tests until I get the perfect print, but I am hoping somebody can guide me on what to try next.
I've been reading about the issues on so many articles that now my head is a mess and I just need some clear instructions.

You are lowering temperature and increase the flow at the same time - which is contradictory (filament is less runny, but you pump more of it). Though 195 °C seems to be very safe for printing PLA at 40 mm/s. Just doublecheck that when you disable motors, and push filament with hand, it melts quickly and easily goes out. Otherwise you will deal with temperature-related issue.
Outer walls are usually printed slower, and even when underextruded, part of line may appear constant thanks to leaking filament (it has time). Next retraction will cause stop leaking, and the other wall is printed with almost no pressure. Maybe your constant issue with "inner circle" is just a consequence of such moves.
My suggestions:

Did you calibrate the extruder (steps per mm)? - if not yet, do it (it's a basic skill); to quickly check if this could help, try to continue increasing flow by 5% and observe what will happen then, because maybe this is simple underextrusion due to incorrect steps/mm?
Are you sure that extruder motor is not loosing steps? (e.g. too weak motor against the pressure)
Are you sure that filament is not slipping? (e.g. blunt driver's teeth, or too loose idler)
Could you unintentionally enable volumetric extrusion?


Fusion 360 M3D Slicer I have created a design with fusion 360. I tried to print it with my M3D Pro printer but it seems the designs have a flaw.

If I try to print the bottom part, the second layer is wrong. It seems to have moved to the left by a few centimeters.

Here is the link to the .stl files and pictures of how the first few layers turned out.

https://seafile.fmk.me/d/09e43aa7fc8e416ab187/

The bottom.stl file can be loaded and viewed in the m3d software but leads to faulty print after the first layer. The top.stl cannot even be viewed in the M3D software.

Other 3D files from thingiverse etc. can be printed without a problem.
Do I need to enable any special features to be able to print those files correctly?

Yours, Felix

FMK, I loaded the two STL files, top.stl and bottom.stl into Meshmixer. Using Analysis, Inspector, no errors were found in the models. I then loaded the STL files into my slicer, Simplify3D. Due to common Y/Z exchange, the models were loaded in a vertical orientation. It was simple enough to use "Place surface on bed" to get things "squared up."

The g-code preview showed also no failure points.

My first suggestion would be to ensure that you have your model flat to the bed. I've run into too many Thingiverse models that the creator made with a non-zero planar reference, that is, the model was tilted a few degrees.

You say that you created the model in Fusion 360, which would imply that your model is square to the plane.

I'm not familiar with M3D software, but if you have the option to use a different slicer, use Slic3r or Cura to see if you have the same results.

As it stands, I'd consider no fault in the model files.


Recommend simple software to create calibration print for table leveling I've just bought Anycubic i3 Mega printer and trying to level it.
So far I've printed test object and 2 others but looks like there are problems with leveling.

I want to make image of 5 small one layer squares(one in each corner and one in center). Looking for recommendations of simple software/tutorials/approaches to do it. I tried zbrush but found that it kind of complicated.

You are probably looking for something like this:

Note this is for large beds (300 x 300 mm), so you would have to X, Y scale this in your slicer.

This is a simple part that is very easily generated with OpenSCAD 3D design software (very good modeller if you are familiar with software coding), but could easily been designed in any other tool.

Another leveling and centering print that is created with OpenSCAD is this, and could be a start for you to create your own design:

Note that the file with the design is located in the "files" section.

Edit:
Some code for OpenSCAD made within 5 minutes (I don't type fast so it could have been faster if I did not use the constants, but if you go OpenSCAD, making parametric designs is almost a must ;) ):

// Set constants as you like
width = 30;
depth = 30;
layer_height = 0.2;
first_layer_height = 0.2;
nr_of_layers = 2;
box_size = 180;

// Calculated parameters
height = first_layer_height + (nr_of_layers - 1) * layer_height;

// Draw the test object
translate([-width/2, -depth/2,0]){
  // Draw the center square
  cube(size = [width, depth, height], center = false);
  // Draw the corner squares
  for (x=[-1:2:1]){
    for (y=[-1:2:1]){
      translate([x * (box_size-width)/2, y * (box_size-depth)/2, 0])
        cube(size = [width, depth, height], center = false);
    }
  }
}

Rendered figure:


Printer inverted Y-axis I made a custom printer with RAMPS. I used Y-MIN endstop at beginning. After few prints I discovered that Y-axis was inverted (mirrored).

I fixed Marlin firmware and now I have:

#define Y_MAX_ENDSTOP_INVERTING true
#define INVERT_Y_DIR false
#define Y_HOME_DIR 1
#define USE_YMAX_PLUG

I also connected the Y-endstop to Y-max pin on RAMPS.

Now the printer homing in the same direction than before (in front) and the y-endstop works as expected.

If I try to start printing or if I try to press the "center" button in Pronterface, the Y-axis moves in the wrong direction.

Can someone help me?

This blog post shows 3 main solutions:

Flipping the motor cables (As suggested in the other answer)
Switching the x and y-axis:
This may switch the direction of your y-axis depending on the way your printer is setup)
Change the direction of the axis in firmware which you can see below how to do:

  "When the solution opens up, you will see many different files open. You need to navigate to the Configuration.h file. Within this file scroll down to the following lines of code:"

// Invert the stepper direction. Change (or reverse the motor connector) if an axis goes the wrong way.
define INVERT_X_DIR true

define INVERT_Y_DIR true

define INVERT_Z_DIR true

  "This is where you need to switch the values around. If they are currently true, change them to false and if they are false, change them to true. Due to the fact I was having issues with my x-Axis, I have changed the above to the following:"

// Invert the stepper direction. Change (or reverse the motor connector) if an axis goes the wrong way.

define INVERT_X_DIR false

define INVERT_Y_DIR true

define INVERT_Z_DIR true


Thermister stops reading temp after a few seconds. (Marlin 1.1.8, Tronxy X5s stock Melzi board) I think it's best that I explain what my issue is before I explain how I arrived here. I have a Tronxy x5s with a stock board that I am repairing for the sake of repairing, even though I know I should probably just spring for a new board. It's the principle of the thing.

The extruder thermistor accurately reads for a few seconds, and then gives a negative reading as if it's been unplugged.
I know that this is the same reading of an unplugged thermistor because when you unplug either the extruder or bed thermistor from a known-good port, it gives this same negative reading.
It is not attached to the original pin. It is attached to a new pin that I moved it to. I cut the old pin off from the thermistor port and soldered the new pin to the traces of the port. Then I changed the pin in the configuration file, and it works, for a while.
The electronics are messy but sound; I have used my voltmeter to verify connectivity and voltage.
The thermistor works; it reads a little over 100kΩ in my hot garage and the temperature changes after I put it in my hand for a few minutes. But this temperature change only registers, as explained in the rest, for a few seconds.
I am sure there's a configuration somewhere in the firmware that I am missing that causes that pin to either go "off" or become disused after a few seconds.

Greater context:

The printer was working great for months, but one day the extruder thermistor shorted so badly that the Analog to Digital pin on the Arduino powering the Melzi board was permanently damaged. The temperature reading consistently stayed at 260 °C, even when unplugged.

I wanted to come up with a repair solution rather than replacing the board (even though I have plans to do that anyway), so I downloaded the datasheet for the Arduino Mega 1248P and looked for other ADC pins I could use. I found that ADC Pin0 was unused on the board, so I thought I'd isolate old pin (ADC Pin 7), solder the trace to the new pin, and change the firmware to reflect the new pin.

Then I changed the pin used for that extruder thermistor reading in the Pins_SANGUINOLOLU_11.h config file (the old Melzi board for the Tronxy X5s is a Sanguino):

// Temperature Sensors
//
#define TEMP_0_PIN          7    // Analog Input (pin 33 extruder)
#define TEMP_BED_PIN        6   // Analog Input (pin 34 bed)

Changed to

// Temperature Sensors
//
#define TEMP_0_PIN          0    // Analog Input (pin xx extruder)
#define TEMP_BED_PIN        6   // Analog Input (pin 34 bed)

I didn't know what "pin 33" was or used to be so I just put xx in the comment.

Anyway, my hardware was good, and my software was supposedly good, so I flashed the new firmware, plugged it in, and turned it on:

Yay! But after a few seconds...

Boo. It stops working.

I am sure my connections are solid: I've tested for connectivity and voltage. Both the new port and the heat bed thermistor port get 4.97 volts, so it's not a voltage drop. It's something in the Arduino.

Any ideas?

Thermal expansion is opening a connection somewhere. It might not be one of your solderings, but if you shorted the board bad enough to fry pins, it could have cooked something somewhere else, and putting current through it is heating up the spot enough to break the connection. Either somewhere else in/on the board, or inside of the IC chip itself.


Can I repurpose the ISP pins in the lower right corner of the Melzi board? Background: I have many years of experience with AVR and ARM Cortex PLCs and I feel very comfortable using them in projects but I am not an EE or SE. So, if I make a mistake or misunderstand something, keep that in mind. Thanks.

I cracked open the case on my Maker Select v2.1 and I noticed that I have a 2x3 header that is labeled ISP. This is fairly standard for the AVR PLCs and the Melzi board that I have uses the ATMEGA1284P.

I have asked at numerous forums and nobody seems to really know the answer (the downside to RepRap--people use but don't fully understand).

I'm wondering if I can tweak the Repetier firmware (I'm using the stock version 0.91) to use the ISP headers as a standard SPI bus. It has the SCK, MOSI, and MISO pins but it doesn't have the SS pin.

What I want to do is put a port expander on the SPI bus and break out additional usable GPIOs.

So, is there a hardware limitation or any other reason why I wouldn't be able to repurpose the ISP headers into an SPI bus?

In theory, you can; but, you may need those pins to attach an external programmer to bring your system back to life when playing around with the code.

Here are a couple of articles that could help if you still want to pursue that path:

Can SPI programmer interfere with other components on same pins?
Can I reuse ISP pins for other tasks?(Target: Atmega164p)

Another option (the one I chose) is to just buy a RAMPS board set.  I got one on ebay for $19 and it have lots of more options for IO.  That way you can play and still go back and plug in your stock Melzi and print whenever you need it.

I got all this for $40 - boards, display, cables, power supply, and even shipping

Here is a really nice detailed description of converting a Duplicator i3 from Melzi to RAMPS.  The process would likely be very similar for your printer.

The biggest challenge will likely be setting up the firmware

BTW, what printer did you get?


Filament that will not stick to wood glue? I am looking to 3D print some small molds that will allow wood glue to dry but not stick.
Is there a recommended filament that is known to resist binding to simple wood glue?
Alternately, is there an inexpensive adhesive (like wood glue) I could use instead that will not stick to the 3D printed mold?

You are looking for a filament that does not bond to wood glue, or as weak as possible. You misunderstand how wood glue "bonds" to plastics:
Wood glue is typically PVA. It bonds to wood and paper by seeping into them before curing and hardening. The mesh of the glue entangles fibers of the wood/paper and itself, bonding with not only the exposed surface but also with material up to the depth it penetrates.
When such a glue is applied to a typical print surface, it seeps into the cracks and through print imperfections but does not penetrate the print to the same degree as it does in the open wood fiber setup. It clings to the surface and only bonds - if it does - only to the surface layers. The same effect happens when you cast resin into for example a silicone mold: there is much less chemical bonding, at best at the interface, and quite some interlock.
To prevent such, two things should be made: first, you need to smooth the mold as much as possible and have all the angles right.  It might be easier and faster to coat the hard molds in a smooth lacquer, which not only removes the creep areas but also acts as an interlayer, making release easier.
Then, you should use a mold release agent. Mold release agents come in many shapes: I have seen Talcum Powder being used effectively for both metal as well as cold casts, if the shape of the mold was well made (no undercuts, no unpowdered areas). Easier to apply are usually mold release sprays for many applications - careful, some are PVA based and would be the same as the glue you want to cast. For a concrete casting, I had used plant fat as a decent mold release agent.
What might be an alternative to wood glue depends on what you want to do with the finished product.
As far as materials that actively don't bond go, you could look into POM (Which is a pain to print and expensive - it's a bearing material) or nylon (also a pain to print).


PRUSA likes the bed to be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. What else should I use? I have the original Prusa i3m3 printer.  Prusa recommends cleaning the bed before each print with isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol), with only occasional cleaning with acetone.  The textured bed prohibits using acetone.

Given the SARS-COV-2 situation and COVID-19, isopropanol is impossible to find, and will not be in stock on shelves in the US for months.

What would you suggest as an alternative that might still be found on store shelves?

Ethanol (Ethyl Alcohol) should work just fine as long as it's around 80% or more. It's very similar to isopropanol as a cleaning solvent. What you're basically doing is removing any stray grease from the bed with a solvent that evaporates quickly.

Methanol would also probably work. It's very poisonous though, and shouldn't come into contact with your skin, so it requires a bit more careful handling. Methanol also has the benefit that it can't be used for hand sanitizer (since it's absorbed through the skin), so supplies shouldn't run out.

Look for alternative sources, for example, methanol is often sold as de-icing agent for pneumatic brakes on trucks. Just make sure it's pure alcohol without anything funky added.


Premium heated bed upgrade options? The stock heated bed which came on my Creality printer is significantly warped beyond any simple leveling with the screws. Lets say I want to upgrade the stock bed to a premium heated bed, does such a thing even exist? None of the beds I see list any specs or tolerances regarding flatness or deviation.

What should I be looking for to ensure I am looking at a superior bed?

If you are only trying to upgrade the "flatness" of the bed and are okay with the heating times you can just put a peice of glass on top. Otherwise you can look into getting a milled tool plate which will be much flatter than a rolled or stamped plate, but you will have to attach your own heating element to this.


A single angle, single phone model windshield mount -- a job for a 3D printer? My end goal is getting high quality dash footage from a 6 month road trip I'm going on. From my research, very few dash cams support 4k 30fps filming, and the ones that do overwrite their own footage really quick, so instead of that I'd like to use my iPhone. I have a wide angle lens for it, and I figure I can mount it to my windshield, behind the rear-view mirror.

But here's the problem: there are no windshield phone mounts that allow for the angle I need. They're all designed to point the phone screen at the driver, and the little ball joints that let you set the angle just don't work to point the camera straight ahead. I've tried like 5 different ones, and they all have this problem.

What I need is a solid thing that sticks to my windshield and holds my phone in the correct direction. Once stuck, it never needs to be adjusted. I think I could use 3M strips to stick something to the glass, so the only remaining part of the mystery is this: A piece of plastic the exact right shape to hold my phone and point it at a specific angle.

My question is: Is this a good use case for 3D printing? And if so, how would a complete amateur get started on this?

A few more requirements that I'm not sure if 3D printing can meet:

It would need to withstand heat, as it would be left in the car on hot days in the south.
It can't be too brittle, as speed bumps and dirt roads will knock it around a fair bit, and it has to support a large phone with an added lens.

You'd need to print in a heat resistant material - ASA for example - and design the part for your needs, but this project is certainly feasible and doable with 3D printing. If that isn't enough for you, you could drill a hole to the internal cavity (it's best to have an infill pattern that does not split the internal cavity into several ones. Gyroid is one of these) and fill it with resin to make it even more sturdy.

With the right design, you could also go for SLA/DLP aks resin printing, but I am not well versed in the properties of printed resins but that they have some of the best inter-layer bonds.

If you don't want to get a 3D printer yourself, order the part printed, which usually comes cheaper than an entry-level printer with better quality for a one-off project as you won't have to learn the ins and outs of your printer and how to ensure the quality in the material you choose. Some print services also provide really exotic materials.


3D printing problem: waved walls The problem

When I print with my mElephant 3D printer from Makeblock, the prints come out with waved walls like in the picture below. I am using PLA filament from https://makeblock.lt

What I tried

I tried changing temperatures 190-220, tried to change the flow rate. Also checked if the bolts are not lose. Everything seems good.

My printer

I had the same problem with ABS, but printing different test objects I found out that the distance between the wavy structures depends on the cross sectional area of the object. Printing the testcube in 70.1% (1/sqrt(2) times of the original size) takes half the time per layer and the distance between two grooves doubles. I was printing ABS with 0.1 mm layer height and the simple bang-bang heat bed controller. The temperature is clearly wandering for 4° with a period of aproximately 2.5 minutes, which corresponds to the groove distances. After changing to a PID controller for the heated bed the temperature stayed within 0.1°C and the problem was gone. Several hundredths of a millimeter thermal expansion of the heated bed can have substantial impact at 0.1 mm layer height!

You can enable the PID controller for the heated bed in Marlin or Skynet firmware by enabling (removing the //) here:

  //#define PIDTEMPBED

and disabling (putting // at the beginning of the line) here:

  #define BED_LIMIT_SWITCHING

in Configuration.h. Calibration of the PID controller can then be done with the GCODE Command:

  M303 E-1 S90 C8

for 90°C. I had to preheat the heated bed before, otherwise the calibration would run into a timeout. The command will return parameters for the PID algorithm. The values can then be applied by the

  M304 P579.01 I100.87 D586.0

GCODE command (here for example values). Everything can then be saved to the EEPROM with

  M500

Bang-Bang controller:

PID controller:


Replacement Z Probe for MP10 Has anyone successfully replaced the inductive Z probe on the Monoprice MP10 (Mini or regular) with a different type, such as BLTouch or IR?
I find that the stock inductive probe isn't so accurate, and since it's inductive it only works with the aluminum build plate but not with glass or PEI, which I much prefer.

From Thingiverse you can find a BLTouch mount for the MP10 (and MP10 mini):

Note that in order to use the BLTouch sensor you need a different controller board that supports connecting a BLTouch sensor as the MonoPrice controller board doesn't support connecting a BLTouch sensor.
From ref.:

A BLTouch adapter for the Monoprice MP10 & MP10 Mini. NOTE: you will need an open source control board to get this to work as the stock firmware on the MP10 line of products does not allow for a BLTouch.


Hotend heating failure too short before limit I am trying to resolve this for months and have tried almost everything, I guess.

I am using Marlin firmware on a custom extruder with a custom fabricated heating block in which heater and thermistor (Marlin Temp_Sensor 11) are set up perpendicular to each other. Whenever I try to heat it up to 200 degree Celsius, it falls short and fails at around 140 and that too with a very low pace (especially between 100 to 140).

I have already tried PID tuning, ADC values calibration, etc. Also, I have tried varying the values of Watch_Temp_Sensor in Configuration_Adv.h. I don't know what's going wrong.

Can extruder coldend fan have an effect on the heating of thermal block?  I have tried heating the hotend without cooling the coldend, although it takes around 10-12 minutes yet it works perfectly fine then and it reaches to the desired temperature.

The power supply is working fine

P.S. I am not using any kind of pre-built extruder like E3D etc.

This is the setup:

This is the thermistor setup:

This is a view of heater position:

There are many unknowns at this point, you need to work methodically through each stage. You probably also need some test equipment, at least a basic multimeter. Ideally a temperature probe too.

First, check that your power supply can drive the hot-end directly. You already know how long it takes to reach 120°C, so be sure to not let it heat too far beyond this time. This will bypass all of the control logic, and risks overheating your hotend/burning out the heater - but it should be OK if you limit to a few minutes.

Check the temperature reading, and cross check with some PLA or other low melting point filament to see if you actually reach ~180°C. Check the voltage as close to the heating cartridge as you have a connection point. It should be at least 11V (with a 12V PSU). My guess is that you have a bad connection somewhere...

If you observe the hotend getting hot enough to melt plastic, check the thermistor readings. You should see a fairly constant rate of heating well past 200°C. However, I expect this will work fine.

Finally, check the hotend mosfet drive and output as the hotend reaches the target temperature. It should be on, then switching on/off, then off as you pass the target.

If this all looks OK, repeat but with the board in-circuit and controlling the heater. It may be that the mosfet is damaged, or it is not being driven very well - but to progress past that point we need to see voltage readings at various points.


Where to find information on 'fast' or 'professional' 3D printers? I work for a company that makes items from plastics.
Many or our current runs are between 500 and 5000 copies, but knowing the company, if we find a good method to do smaller runs, they are willing to see if it is a good commercial option.

At the moment we do use several different methods but the technical people are not yet looking into 3D printing.

While I am not sure printing is the right option just yet, I would be surprised if it will not be in the future.

At this time I am interested in finding information to convince the tech people to look into the abilities of printers and what would impress them to look further would be printers that can produce in short times or at multiple stations so the overall run will be relatively short term.
Our current items are mostly simple in shape, (disks with relief print) and small in size (no bigger than a 2 pound coin).

Do you know an online magazine where the tech people can look or can you suggest a (few) printer(s) to look at right now?
Links to online general information or names to search for will be great.

Knowing our current bunch of tech people they will likely prefer commercial available printers but proven 'home build technology' might be useful as well.

Since your company specializes in small objects, SLA printers seem to be a good choice, since it has better detail but small printing area. However, SLA printers tend to require lots of post processing.

If you need a printer for rapid prototyping, you should be using FFF or FDM printers which don't need any post processing. At most, you could sand surfaces to have a smoother finish.

If you need fast printers on the other hand, Delta type printers could be something to look at. Kossel or Rostock printers are faster than standard XYZ printers/CoreXY printers.

As for magazines, Make Magazine features 3D printers and 3D prints if that's what you're looking for.

Terms you can look up online (this includes some names of popular printers): FDM printers, SLA printers, Kossel printer, Rostock printer, CoreXY printer, Prusa i3, Formlabs Form 2, Ultimaker

If you have any questions and/or I got anything wrong, please notify me.


Gap between infill and walls for one filament only When I'm printing with my Chromatik filament white, 1.75 mm in diameter, I observe a gap between the infill and the walls (see picture).

Everywhere on the web I can find explanations for this kind of problem (apparently it's the symptom of loose belts), but I have this problem for this filament only. I have the filaments Chromatik electric blue and Octofiber black and I don't have this issue with them. I tried to increase the temperature by ~10 °C, but it didn't have much effect.

Have you ever seen that guys? I repeat, it's with this filament only.

I have observed similar issues between walls, not necessarily between the infill and the walls.

It is most likely that the viscosity of this filament is way different (less fluid) than the other filaments you print. Not only mechanical issues (to be precise: inaccurate positioning e.g. caused by loose belts) could play a part in this, but also printing speed. A more viscous filament needs more pressure and time to get the filament through the nozzle. This is exactly what happened in my case, because of different wall speed line settings (inner and outer), the filament did not flow fast enough leading to under extrusion. In your case you probably also have a higher infill than wall speed, so lowering your infill speed may mitigate your problem. Also, most slicers have an option to define the overlap between the infill and the perimeters/walls, you could also increase that for this filament.


Can MeshMixer export models for color 3D printing? I have captured several models using 123D Catch and Autodesk ReCap 360.

I do all my "clean up" work in MeshMixer to prepare the models for printing, and while exporting to STL works great for printing on my home FDM printer I haven't been able to get color files exported.

I would like to export scanned models from MeshMixer and upload them to an online printing service (i.e. Shapeways or iMaterialise) and have them printed on high end color machines.

My current workflow goes as follows.

Export raw model (OBJ) from 123D Catch or ReCap.
Open model in MeshMixer v10.10.170.
Remove unnecessary parts of the model.
Export model as OBJ, OBJ with per vertex color, or VRML.
Zip model and exported texture files and upload to an online service.

The file in MeshMixer looks great, but ends up with either jumbled or nonexistent  textures when it's uploaded to an online service. I'm guessing I'm exporting the file wrong for 3D printing, or possibly that I need to do some post-export editing to make everything line up correctly.

Color is only displayed if you set MeshMixer to render VertexColor:

MM menue/View/MeshColorMode/VertexColor

Color should be visible if VertexColor is active.

Meshmixer is a sculpting program, so it isn’t made for taking exact
measurements, creating mechanical parts, or creating architecture
models.
Basic rendering options make pretty screenshots, but advanced users
might want to add in backgrounds or set up custom lighting.

Also, you can read more about this matter on this link.


Poor surface quality when sweep interrupted I just started 3D printing a few weeks ago, so I'm still trying to get a handle on the tricks. I printed something with a flat surface and a few raised pieces (shown below). I'm pretty happy with the surface quality overall; however, in the locations where the print head came back for it's second pass the quality is worse. Is there any way to fix this? I'm assuming it's a slicer issue...

Using Ultimaker Cura 4.4 & Ender 3 Pro

It looks to me like you have underextrusion in these regions probably due to loss (oozing) of material during travel moves prior to printing them. Aside from small gaps in the surface sweep at the part you're talking about, I see a long slightly-diagonal light-gray line between the middle of the right and the middle of the bottom of your image, which appears to be material that oozed during combing.

Make sure you have retraction enabled, have sufficient retraction (at least 6 mm for bowden; somewhat less for direct-drive) and either disable combining or set max combing distance very small (like 1.5x nozzle width) and see if this helps.


Apparently systematic nozzle clogging A Monoprice Maker Select V2, upgraded incrementally with a Micro Swiss all metal hot-end, machined lever, and D4 extruder gear, systematically fails to produce complete prints, as seen below:

The following observations can be made.

The nozzle clog appears at different heights/elapsed times, so it does not seem to be because of heat creep, which ought to take the same time to take effect, each time.
All the clogs so far have been easy to clear manually, once the hotend has been made accessible.
The filament (1.75 mm PLA) is quite new, has only been sitting on the spool at the top of the printer, seems regular in density, is not visibly damaged etc.
In the original configuration, before the upgrading, the printer worked fine for some months.

One possible explanation might be inconsistent temperature in the extruder, but the display does not show any great variation.

Any other theories? These latest prints were made at 210 °C.

The nozzle clogging was verified, each time, by trying to extrude using the printer controls; and then cleaned manually by taking off the "cold end" part, heating the extruder, and pressing the remaining filament out by hand.

Not so long ago the nozzle was cleaned with ethyl acetate and a needle, so I do not believe carbon build-up is the explanation.

Cura settings:

The Micro Swiss hotend uses an all metal hotend. These type of hotends are more difficult to operate considering they do not have a Teflon liner that shield the filament of heat creep. From this article:

  Jams and clogs are often from a combination of excessive heat and
  non-optimal material flow. This effect is worsened by poorly cooled
  all-metal hot ends, high torque extruder gears, small nozzles/layers,
  slow printing speeds, too thin first layer, and excessive retraction.

The bold faced text in the quote sums up what is causing this. A smaller gear requires more force/torque as the arm i.e. the radius is smaller.

The article describes what steps you could do to alleviate the problem. Of all the suggestions, "Minimize retraction", seems a possible candidate for you to look into considering the posted print settings. As this is a heat related problem it is advised to also increase your printing speeds, these are pretty low (30 mm/s for slow and 60 mm/s for normal printing) and also check the cooling of the "cold end" (the fan that cools the radiator fins). Also reduce the printing temperature, 210 °C is pretty high for PLA filament, personally I don't go over 200 °C (note that this depends on your filament, but most PLA brands can be printed in the 185 - 195 °C range).

You have a pretty large retraction specified. The Ultimaker default is 6.5 mm is considered to be large, but works perfectly for Ultimaker machines (read Bowden tube setup). In my Ultimaker 3E which uses all metal hotends, or, in my custom HyperCube Evolution, also Bowden, but with a lined hotend, 6.5 mm retraction works perfectly.

Please look into this answer and this answer. Both describe that the retraction performance is worse with all metal hotends. My experiences are exactly the same with metal hotends, at least the cheaper production ones (I tested cheap all metal hotends, but also ran into problems because of production and design errors, I have not tried the better quality heat breaks/throats yet).

Please lower the retraction setting considerably to see if it has an effect. The Monoprice Maker Select uses a direct drive. Direct drive extruders do not need a large retraction length setting. If the filament is hot in the throat (as there is no PTFE lining that in fact acts as an insulator), too large of a retraction may not be reversed when the filament cooles during the retraction.

I think you might be experiencing what is described in this question: "Extruder prints fine up until further down the print". This answer describes issues of the metal heat breaks.

To comment on your statement in comments above, I am not suggesting you should use a liner in your current extruder. I'm pointing out the differences. Metal hotends are just more tricky to operate regarding retraction and heat management.


Is it possible to 3D print sharp objects with high details? And how? I mean 3D forms like these? In a small scale (height: 1-2 cm, width: 0.5 cm).

I want to keep all the form's details.

If it is possible, what printer do you advise? How much does it cost to print one piece like that in terms of ink? And what is the most permissive software for this kind of printing?

Best option for something like this would be to use an SLA printer. They can do sharper image detail compared to FDM style printers.

That being said, printing something like this poses its own set of challenges. In order to print a part, some surface needs to be in contact with the built platform, and depending on which surface chosen, you will end up with having some amount of overhang, or undercut. Not an issue in and of itself as these can be supported with support structures. For the size that you're looking at printing though, removal of the support material will be a bigger challenge.

As for costing of this, that's not something that this forum is used for, but these structures don't look absurdly difficult to print. If you were to contact a local print shop, or check on Google for an online print house, they will be able to give you costing on printing these.


Why does PETG require slower speed? PLA has a heat capacity of 1.8-2.1 J/g-K, while PETG 1.1-1.3 J/g-K. This means that each gram of PLA needs more energy to heat up. I assume no "melting latent energy", since we talk about plastics.
The density is about the same.
Still, printing speed for PETG is said to be kept at max at 60 mm/s, while PLA can easily go up to 100 mm/s.
Why is PETG supposed to be printed slower than PLA?
Edit: a link to a more recent question may be of interest: Power consumption of filament extrusion

The density of PLA is around 1.25 g/cm³ and the density of PETG is around 1.38 g/cm³. When you're talking about the amount of energy needed to melt a particular volume (which is what your extrusion units are) rather than mass, you need to scale the heat capacities (with units of $\frac{\mathrm J}{\mathrm g\cdot \mathrm K}$) by the density to get $\frac{\mathrm J}{\mathrm{cm}^3\cdot \mathrm K}$. This brings their volumetric heat capacities somewhat closer: 2.25-2.63 vs 1.52-1.79 (about 47% higher for PLA rather than your figure of about 62%), but with PLA still higher.

You also have to account for heat loss to the environment. PLA is typically printed around 200°C or 210°C at most; PETG in my experience requires 250°C to reach low enough viscosity to be printable at any speed. Assuming an ambient 20°C, the rate of heat loss should be something like 25% higher for PETG. So the hotend has that much additional energy needed to begin with.

Beside that, PLA is printed at temperatures where it's still extrudable and able to bond even if the temperature drops significantly below the nominal nozzle temperature (down to 180°C, maybe even slightly lower), whereas PETG has trouble with increased viscosity and poor bonding right away if temperature drops.

Going broader still, PETG seems to need to keep its heat longer after being extruded in order for layers to bond well. (As evidenced by the need to lower fan or turn it off completely.) A slow-moving nozzle both provides heat (from the proximity of the nozzle itself) to slow the cooling, and reduces air flow across the part (by not causing as much air flow itself just by moving).


What prints can I do to test/calibrate my printer for precision? I specifically want to test

calibration
tolerances
precision
accuracy

I'm having trouble with Print in Place models and I'm trying to find out if there's something I can do to improve my print quality.

The printer I am using is a Kossel clone, specifically a FLSUN QQ and assume FDM printing.

Any print you make can be considered a test print! But, specific test prints are easily found on the internet and lend themselves better for specific tasks. In order to improve your printer / print quality, you need to follow a meticulous series of tests and record the parameters you use to slice the model. Each test should be broken down into several print process parameters (and recorded) and tested for their effects (e.g. speed and temperature).

A general accepted strategy is to calibrate the extrusion process first and that look into the general accuracy.
Filament deposition calibration
An important aspect of printing is deposition of just enough filament (if you deposit too much the lines become wider, and so are the dimensions). To calibrate the extruder deposition of filament you can easily heat up the hot end, mark the filament with respect to a certain reference point and extrude e.g. 100 mm. Now measure the filament mark again with respect to the reference point to verify you actually extruded that same demanded amount.
Accuracy
For general accuracy printing of 20x20x20 mm cubes is usually fine. Note that the print accuracy is generally determined by the printer (construction) itself, but can be influenced by print speed. Large speeds in combination with a large mass of the printer head can lead to positioning inaccuracies (like overshoot). That said, you should also look into the printer itself. Does it have play? Are the belts tight enough, but not over-tightened? Is the bed skew, or are XYZ perpendicular?
This cube is frequently used to calibrate the dimensions:

Please do note that the poster of this picture probably produced a dimensional accurate print, but still faces under extrusion (as seen from the gaps between the lines)
If dimensions seem to be off reasonably, e.g. more than 0.2 mm (depending on the printer construction) you could change the amount of steps per mm in the firmware. Do note that the steps per mm is mechanically determined by the belt and pulleys.
More tests?
Even more tests can done to make specific filament adjustments. E.g. "temperature towers" can be printed to test the optimal parameters for filament flow and / or bridging (printing in air between two parts), or overhang (unsupported parts of the print). But, these last tests are not specifically designed for the issues you mentioned.
Tolerance test
Once you have calibrated the printer to the ability of yourself and to the capacity of the printer itself you could try to print a dimensional printing tolerance test. Such tests are usually constructed by cylinder shaped (or diabolic shaped) objects in a housing that is slightly larger that the shape.


How to sort G-code on SD card based on material (ABS|PLA|SBS)? I have various G-code files stored at SDCard attached to my Prusa i3 MK2S printer. They are either for ABS, PLA or SBS. The more files I had on the SD card, the more I was running into trouble of finding for which material is which G-code.

To tackle the situation I created folders ABS, PLA and SBS and put new files into those directories.

Is there any better method of finding, backwards from G-code, which material settings were intended to be used?

If so, is there a way to read temperature settings from G-code by Prusa i3 firmware without printing the actual model?

Good question as I also ran into some files not remembering for which purpose or which material I printed these. The online G-code visualizers do not display the temperature or the correct filament width, so basically that won't help you (unless you modify the open source programs...). Reading from firmware would not be possible without adding a new feature, as far as I know, this is not implemented in Marlin Firmware or in Prusa firmware (which is based on Marlin).

When using a printer server like OctoPrint, you can store your G-code files in a folder structure that you can define yourself; so basically create a directory structure based on the material type, brand, etc.

However, it is relatively easy to write a small program in Python to read a file and interpret the lines (even if you're not a programmer). There are lots of tutorials and examples to find to open files read the file e.g. line by line and detect strings to identify the settings for G-codes M104/M109 (hot end temperature) and M140/M190 (bed temperature). Usually you slice your models with a specific set of bed and hot end temperature (which you know), so basically you can find out which material was meant to be printed with the G-code file. You could even let the program sort the files for you by moving them into separate folders.

I'll add it to my list of things I'd like to do some rainy day! :)

Note that some printers use different, or even custom G-codes to control bed temperature; e.g. when reading Ultimaker 3 G-code files you cannot see the bed temperature!