How to print metal-like parts? I would like to print parts (e.g. jewellery) for use which I don't want to look or feel like a plastic, but metal-like, so briefly people won't see much difference.

Are there any specific type of home-printers that can achieve that? Or it's rather kind of filament that you should use?

If you'd like to print on RepRap like FDM printers, you cannot print from metal, but you can use some filament that tries to look like metal. I have good experience with Bronzefill, but there are plenty of others, just Google for metal filament 3d printing. Note that sometimes the parts need to be post-processed with a rock tumbler. There are several open source DIY tumblers you can build and use.

If you actually want to print from metal, you would need SLS (Selective laser sintering) printer, which is much more expensive.


Prusa i3 MK2 doesn't accept the printing material We have a Prusa i3 MK2 and we've changed for a print with another colour material but when I pressed "load filament", it didn't make anything.

Often after five times doing that the printer works. I don't have any pictures but the filament is in the hole and the printer holds it. However, it doesn't push it into the extruder and the remains of the old filament do not come out, so I wonder why the motors just stop and don't work.

Sometimes there are no problems - sometimes more and sometimes less. I hope someone has the reason for this problem.

My 0.02c:

Cut the tip of the new filament at an angle so that it is pointed enough. This will ensure that it easily enters the hole leading into the hot end beneath the extruder drive gear. A lot of times the curl in the filament (from being wound on a spool) will cause misalignment and lead to it not entering this hole properly.
Check filament debris lodged in the extruder gear teeth. Sometimes this will prevent good grip on the filament.
Finally you can try increasing the nozzle temperature. Often times any residue inside the nozzle will be cleared by elevating temperature and pushing in new filament.


Water-cooling stepper motor with aluminum block On a budget, I'm water-cooling a 3D printer. I'm using a 5 V aquarium pump (\$3). Originally I tried to only use about as much water in a can of chickpeas but then found out i needed a lot more. I have a deliberate need to water cool stepper motors in the first printer, so that I can print with a high temperature filament like PEI (the operating temp of a stepper is maxed at about 53 degrees celsius; PEI requires an enclosure temperature of 80 °C), but on another printer I'm having some other issues with the motors that I think could be solved by better heat dissipation.

What I am getting to is a device like this:

It is the perfect size for a stepper motor. My plan is to zip-tie one of these to each stepper motor and water cool it in a single path across my printer, including the hot end.

Can anyone think of a reason why this wouldn't work? i just haven't heard of anyone doing anything like this, but it makes sense to me as a chemistry minor. The specific heat of water is way higher than almost anything else. And it is way less noisy than fans. And it works inside an enclosure, while fans might not

Should I ziptie the aluminum block to the back part of the stepper where the metal is, or to one of the darker black sides?

Would I be able to 3D print a cooling block like this instead of paying for it? See also this relevant question on thermal conductivity of various 3D printing filaments. It should probably be metal to transfer heat better?

Cooling any single face of the motor is fine. The motor case conducts heat very well. Many 3d printers effectively cool the motors merely by having the output drive face of the motor bolted to a metal bracket which is bolted to the aluminum extrusion frame. That's it. That contact alone cools the motor, which is shown by how the motors overheat when people install vibration dampers, which puts rubber between the motor and the extrusion.

The only thing I would worry about is the surface area inside this particular style of block, and ensuring that you use an all-aluminum radiator since the block is aluminum.

There is another type of cheap 40x40 aluminum block with the nipples on the face instead of on the edge. That style has fins and a lot of surface area inside. This style with the nipples on the edge has a big S channel inside and not much surface area. It may still be more than enough. I'm just saying it's a significant difference and it might make a difference. If you find you're not cooling enough, all you may need to do is switch to that other style of block, not try to install 3 blocks per motor or any other exotic nonsense.

But no way do you have to worry about coooling more than one face of the motor, nor does it matter rwhich face it is, especially not with active water cooling like this, as long as the block is actually making good thermal contact with the motor (thermal tape, or thermal epoxy, or thermal pad & zip ties)


Problems with under extrusion and clogs on CR-10 I've asked a question before on the extruder gear clicking on my CR-10, but I'm certain its because of the nozzle getting clogged for some reason. I'm using a standard 0.4 mm nozzle with white PLA and randomly during the print the extruder gear starts clicking on the fast parts and then under extrudes the rest of the print, eventually the hobbed gear digs away at the filament and doesn't grip anymore. Why would the nozzle keep getting clogged? Could it be because the filament isn't high enough quality and is leaving particles in the nozzle?

Additionally, when I performed a cold pull after breaking up the blockage on the inside, the filament came out like a thin film even though it was purging fine before I cooled it down. Why?

190 °C nozzle temperature (tried printing at 210 °C and the filament burned)
50 °C bed temperature
60 mm/s speed, outline 50 % - first layer being 30 mm/s
0.2 mm layer height

This starting happening after I returned to printing after a 6 month break, with the filament being stored in a cool and dry cupboard for around a year (the filament was on the cheaper side, but still highly recommended by SUNLU)

Turns out the filament was the problem, I tried printing a model with a high quality sample PLA filament I had and it printed perfectly; one of the cleanest prints I've had. Never skimp on filament.


Can I repurpose most of the components of this Prusa clone for a Delta? I have a generic Prusa clone that I'm not using (my primary issue with it is the lack of rigidity in the frame housing as built). Will the motors (ks42sth40-1204a) and controller that come with it be good for a large-ish Kossel? Something no smaller than 200x200, preferably closer to 300x300? How do I reason about this?

Also - I know the Duet board seems to be recommended for Deltas, but can I use the RAMPS board that I already have here?

I don't have a design finalized, but have been looking at this Kossel, Building a Large Kossel Delta Printer – pt. 1: Parts and Planning, which uses a Flex3Drive effector.

Stepper motors
For equivalence, 4.8 kg⋅cm is 0.471 N⋅m or 47 N⋅cm.
Looking at the RepRapWiki - Nema17, the most common steppers are:

Kysan 1124090/42BYGH4803 (54.0 N⋅cm),
Rattm 17HS8401 (52 N⋅cm), and
Wantai 42BYGHW609 (39.2 N⋅cm).

The Kossel that you refer to is of a similar size to the Kossel XL. Again looking at the RepRapWiki - Kossel, the recommended stepper is the Kysan 1124090 Nema 17 Stepper Motor which has a Holding Torque of 5.5 kg⋅cm.
So, without knowing the exact make and model of your stepper motors and assuming that the specifications for your stepper motors given in the Prusa clone are correct, your steppers are not as strong as those recommended (apart from the Wantai). However, the recommended steppers may be over-engineered and provide [much?] more torque than is strictly necessary. After all, the holding torque of your steppers isn't that much below the recommended values.
If I were you I'd build the Kossel using your steppers and it might, in all likely hood, work out fine. FWIW, I have used the Rattm 17HS8401 in my Kossel Mini and Kossel XL. I got them on eBay and were quite reasonably priced.
You should probably read this article, RepRapWiki - Choosing stepper for a delta. Whilst no concrete values for holding torque are given, this is interesting:

A good practical setup
The Fisher, a small delta printer was designed by late RRP company. As for all their printers, they were using small and compact steppers with a torque of 2.2 kg.cm. This is lower than most repraps but is sufficient if there is no mechanical problem (friction).
These small motors have a low nominal static torque, but they also have a low inductance (2.5 mH), while due to their small size, the nominal current remains reasonable (1.2A).

as is

High inductance motors
You find on the market steppers sold for 3D printers, with a torque ranging from 2.6 to 4.4 kg.cm and a current of 0.4 A. This low current appeal builders as it make the electronic driver heating much less.
However, it came at a cost, which is a very high inductance which varies from 30 to 35 mH. That means these motors are totally incapable of any speed. They are unusable for a delta and a bad choice for another printer. As an example, a 4.4 kg.cm motor wired for this low current, while having a static torque twice the Fisher motors, simply cannot reach the maximum speed used by the Fisher, effectively having a near zero torque over a given speed. Same motors with a winding giving a nominal current of 1.5 to 2 A will be more usable.

Controller
Also, yes, RAMPS is fine for the Kossel, although the firmware calibration is obviously different, as it is a delta and not cartesian printer. For calibration, refer to How do you calibrate a delta robot 3D printer?.
Although, as Scott Lahteine states early on in this video, How it's Made: The Marlin Firmware!, using an 8-bit controller for delta printers is pushing their capabilities somewhat.
Extruder
I'm not familiar with the Flex3Drive, but it certainly looks interesting. I have used the 3325_0, this NEMA-17 motor has an integrated Planetary gearbox with a 52/11:1 ratio. It generates 16.2 kg⋅cm of torque at 1.68 A. I wrote a short blog about it here, The extraordinary extruder.
Building Tips
Also, if you are planning on building a Delta/Kossel, then I'd seriously recommend watching the series of videos on YouTube from BuildA3DPrinter.eu as they are extremely informative and helped me a lot, Build manual Kossel XL & Kossel Mini. I just checked their website to try to see which make and model of steppers they use, in order to get an idea of the holding torque, but they seem to have stopped trading. However, their stepper motor page states the following:

The standard motor for most 3D printers including ours, the 42byghw811
from Wantai Motors.
Holding torque is 4.8 kg⋅cm or 47.1 N⋅cm. Shaft diameter is 5 mm and
stepping angle is 1.8 degrees.

So, to sum up, your steppers should be fine.


What solder specs are safe to use when soldering wires to an Mk2a heat bed? I've already asked which wires I should use, and I believe I have that covered now, but I was also wondering what solder / specs on the solder are considered safe when attaching my wires to my heat bed.  I have some solder here at the house, it's quite new (never been opened) it's Radio Shack 64-008 E 60/40 Standard Rosin-Core with 0.062 diameter...

Old-style lead/tin solder has a melting range of about 180 to 250 degrees (the transition solid to liquid is spread out). This ought to be fine for the bed (even at the hottest hotspot) but wouldn't be good in the hotend.

Modern electronics lead-free solder varies since there are several different compositions, but is typically a bit higher in melting point (by some 10s of degrees).

Special high melting point solder transitions around 300C, but you would only need to use this in very specific scenarios.


Ender 3 extrudes plastic whilst at standstill, and while moving to start of print I have a small problem where plastic comes out of the nozzle while the printer is at a standstill (normally towards the end of heating the nozzle for a print), and whilst it moves from the line for clearing the nozzle on the left of the bed (Cura) before the actual print starts. This causes a slight problem where the first few millimetres of the printed line curls upwards when the nozzle comes back around again it goes over it but it causes a slight bump that makes a very small (but noticeable) skip or bump in the print on the bottom layer.

I am using the Ender 3 running Marling 1.1.9 with a Bltouch and a glass bed, I didn't seem to have this problem before I upgraded to the glass bed and Marlin for the Bltouch.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

basics first

The viscosity of plastic is temperature dependent: the warmer it is, the lower it gets and thus the more "runny". The lower the viscosity is, the less force is needed to move it.

In printing, a pressure is applied to the filament from the extruder. Pressure is the force by area, thus for our look pretty much the same: the extruder exerts a force on the filament, to overcome the viscosity keeping it in the nozzle.

A secondary effect is, that heated material expands, depending on what kind of material is in the nozzle.

what happens

The whole problem starts with shutting off the printer after the print: as the filament cools it shrinks. As the motors are turned off, the solidifying and shrinking plastic pulls at the filament. The filament can change its location or be pulled a little through the extruder, keeping the space quite well filled without cavities. Bowden style can change the mere filament path a little to compensate some of the shrinkings by shifting its path from hugging the outer wall to doing the same on the inner wall.

As you start to heat up the printer, there is no force applied on the filament from the extruder to push it out of the nozzle. But when you shut it down, there was some filament in the nozzle.

The filament melts and its viscosity drops, but at the same time, it expands. The extruder does not yet apply force, but as the material expands, it pushes against the filament stuck above it. Newton's 3rd law is the iconic Actioni contrariam semper et æqualem esse reactionem or as we know it short: Actio = Reactio, the force you exert in one direction equals a force applied in the reverse direction. Thus, the expanding filament pressing back against the extruder also exerts a force against itself down against the nozzle. The same is true for the nozzle, but the nozzle has one difference: it has a hole, where the forces are bundled to force filament out.

At some point, the force from the expanding filament is big enough to overcome the viscosity keeping the filament in the nozzle and it oozes out.

fixes

There are several ways to fix this in slicing, but I prefer the end-code method.

Modify your end code to provide space in the nozzle while it is still hot. Simply add G1 E-3 F1800 to retract quickly at the end of print. F1800 is rather fast.
Modify your start code could help in preventing very runny filaments from oozing, but you usually need to zero the extruder first with G92 E0 and you might also need to allow negative values with G1 S1. This isn't usable in all firmware versions, but one can use G92 E3 to set it to 3, then extrude, then 0.

Example End Code

Watch line 2. This is what prevents my Ender 3 from oozing in the first place

G91 ;relative position set
G1 F1800 E-3 ; Retract 3 mm to prevent oozing on startup
G1 F3000 Z10 ; Move up 10 mm to clear the print
G90 ;absolute position set
G28 X0 Y0 ; home x and y axis to clear the print
M106 S0 ; turn off part cooling fan
M104 S0 ; turn off extruder
M140 S0 ; turn off bed
M84 ; disable motors

Example Start Code addition

This is just a snippet that forces retraction at the start, once the filament is hot. it WILL though make the first three millimeters of push come empty, thus should be combined with a cleaning that uses more than this - check out Writing G-code : swiping at start of print for better nozzle priming.

G92 E3
G1 E-3 F1000
G92 E0


Does the layer thickness have any effect of the strength of the 3D printed object? Is a 100 micron layer thickness object stronger than 300 micron layer thickness 3D printed object? Are there any rules to follow?

Filament type - PLA

3D Matter has published an excellent article on the subject. They find that thicker layers result in a stronger part, with 0.3mm layers giving a part that is around 24% stronger than the same part printed with 0.1mm layers.

One small issue with this study is that it did not look at the effects of temperature. Raising the temperature generally results in stronger parts because the layers will fuse better. It is possible that you could make a 0.1mm part just as strong as a 0.3mm part by raising the printing temperature.

Another consideration for inter-layer bonding is how much the next layer is "squished" onto the previous one. Using a wider extrusion width will improve strength.

The main issue with the strength of FDM parts is that they tend to break much easier along the layers, much like how wood is much stronger across the grain. You have to take this into account when making your design, and ensure that features that will be subjected to stress/strain are printed in the XY-plane.


I can't get G29 to run BLTouch on my Ender 3 V2 I installed a BLTouch probe on my Ender 3 V2 and am able to manually generate the probe matrix and store it in the printer memory, but I can't figure out how to get Cura to run the probe for every print. I have included G29 in my start code, but the printer doesn't run the probe. Here is my full start code:
M201 X500.00 Y500.00 Z100.00 E5000.00 ;Setup machine max acceleration
M203 X500.00 Y500.00 Z10.00 E50.00 ;Setup machine max feedrate
M204 P500.00 R1000.00 T500.00 ;Setup Print/Retract/Travel acceleration
M205 X8.00 Y8.00 Z0.40 E5.00 ;Setup Jerk
M220 S100 ;Reset Feedrate
M221 S100 ;Reset Flowrate

G28 ;Home

G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder

G29 ;BLTouch

G1 Z2.0 F3000 ;Move Z Axis up
G1 X10.1 Y20 Z0.28 F5000.0 ;Move to start position
G1 X10.1 Y200.0 Z0.28 F1500.0 E15 ;Draw the first line
G1 X10.4 Y200.0 Z0.28 F5000.0 ;Move to side a little
G1 X10.4 Y20 Z0.28 F1500.0 E30 ;Draw the second line
G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ;Move Z Axis up

When I inspect the G-code directly, I can see that G29 is getting transpiled into
M501 ;load bed level data
M420 S1 ;enable bed leveling

is this correct? If not, how do I stop the transpilation?

This sounds like a firmware issue to me. I copied and pasted
G28 ;Home
G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder
G29 ;BLTouch

Into my start code, and it worked fine.
I have an Ender 3 V2 and a BLTouch (BL, not 3D.)
If you haven't updated your firmware, that's definitely why.
This is the start code I am using (in Ultimaker Cura)
; Ender 3 Custom Start G-code
G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder
G28 ; Home all axes
G29 ; Auto bed level
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed
G1 X0.1 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move to start position
G1 X0.1 Y200.0 Z0.3 F1500.0 E15 ; Draw the first line
G1 X0.4 Y200.0 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move to side a little
G1 X0.4 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 ; Draw the second line
G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed
G1 X5 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move over to prevent blob squish

How are you manually initiating the bed level? G-code command? (If so, which command/commands) or on the printer itself?
If you haven't already, I suggest you try placing the line G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder before the line G28 ;Home. I'm wondering if it is possible that this is somehow interrupting the process.
Are you on stock firmware? If so, I would try using firmware for the BLTouch, from the manufacturer.
*You can find a guide on how to do a firmware update here is an external link.
You shouldn't have to change anything in the configuration if you download the pre-configured BLTouch firmware.


Ender 3 first layer of ESD PLA printing on raft fails I was asked to print something with ESD PLA and the first layer, on a raft, is coming out like this:

Nozzle temperature was 220 °C and I'm using the default Cura draft profile.

Can you provide any tips on how to get a good print with this?

The gap between the raft and the first layer is too large (you need to switch to expert mode in Ultimaker Cura to see the values of the option before you can change them) and the hotend is too hot (normal PLA generally prints at 190 °C, ESD PLA prints at higher temperatures; you could aim for 210 °C as a start), This makes it difficult to precisely deposition the first layer on the raft as the nozzle drags the hot filament causing inaccurate first layer deposition.

Furthermore, PLA generally doesn't require a raft to print the part. The Creality Ender 3 has a rough bed (like a BuildTak surface), you could print directly onto the bed surface.

Source states:

  Extruder Temp:  Typically 210-220°C.  ESD PLA is a filled product and
  has a higher melt viscosity vs. unfilled PLA.  Therefore, it is
  sometimes necessary to print at higher temperatures than your standard
  PLA to allow the resin to flow properly.

This implies that a hotend of 220 °C mot not be hot enough, in that case the filament is too cold and viscous and gets dragged because the gap is too large.


Wrong temperature on extruder 2 Firstly, I just bought a G2S mini pro from Geeetech and it is my first 3D printer (therefore I'm 100% newbie in this area).

The first extruder seems to be ok, the temperature varies from 23°C to 201°C and if you touch it you can see that it is hot. However, for the second extruder, the temperature is shown with more than 400°C:

The cables are connected correctly and the firmware is updated.

Do I have to return the printer? Or is there another solution?

If you have access to an IR thermometer, it would be interesting to verify what the actual temperature is.  I doubt the hot end actually reaches that temperature, but:

if it actually does, then it could actually be dangerous, as most extruders are designed for temperatures well below 300°C.  The problem would likely be in the firmware in this case.
if it stays cold, then probably is a problem with the temperature probe or its cables/connectors being broken. Most printers use thermistors as temperature probes, and thermistors let less and less current pass through the higher the temperature is, so: no current would be interpreted as the hot end being "extremely hot" and the firmware would not heat the hot end further.
if it is hot but at another temperature than the one displayed, then it could either be a problem with the probe over-reading or a firmware bug (e.g.: the temperature is shown in Fahrenheit, or the firmware mis-process the signal from the probe).

Either way: thermistors and cables are cheap to replace, while problems with the firmware may be fixed only if you have access to the code.

If you just bought the printer in a physical store, I would simply swap it with another unit, rather than fiddling with it, though.


Which outdoor filaments for unheated beds? I am searching for 3D printing filaments, that are suitable for outdoor purposes, but printable on unheated beds.

I will mostly use it for sensor node enclosures (should withstand temperature up to 50°C/120°F) and car accessories (70°C/160°F).

If it requires annealing, it should have low shrinkage, since I will be printing parts that will fit into each other.

PETG is good for your project.
You can also print transparent ABS on unheated bed with ABS juice.I tried transparent ABS in outside environment and it work fine.I live in India where outdoor temperature reach to 45C in summer.It is easy to print small parts.ABS juice may or may not work with large parts depending on your ambient room temperature.Ambient room temp should be above 30C for ABS on unheated bed.I suggest you to use a enclosure for printer if you are in cold area.


Prints are now sticking too well to the bed. What to do? I'm a beginner. I've a Printrbot Play with a heated bed add-on. I'm using it exclusively with PLA.

It worked great initially, but then I took the nozzle out and put it back in, and the Z calibration was lost (and I didn't know the calibration was a thing). As a result, I started having issues with the piece warping up and not sticking to the bed in the corners and around the edge, when the piece was large and flat.

I've installed the heated bed. I used Kapton tape. All these made it perhaps a little better.

Finally I started tweaking the Z axis calibration (the fine adjustment for the initial distance between nozzle and bed) and that made it perfect. No warping anymore.

But now I have the opposite problem. When printing pieces with large flat surfaces that are siting flush with the bed, it's next to impossible to tear it off at the end.

I went back to using plain blue tape instead of Kapton, but it's still sticking too well to the bottom of the piece. I tried to pry it off by pushing a knife under the piece, but that has put a few scratches on the bed. Obviously I don't want to continue doing that.

What can I do? How to prevent warping, while also making sure the piece does not stick too hard to whatever is underneath?

EDIT: The accepted answer was very good and I don't want to mess with it by adding my own "answer". So here it is:

I ended up adding a glass plate on top of the bed, with a heat conductive layer between bed and plate (it's a funny looking, rubbery, chewing-gum-y material that conducts heat). Now I just apply glue stick on the glass and print. Works great. Large pieces come off on their own sometimes if I let them cool down to 30 C or lower.

I had some issues with the Z calibration sensor due to the plate, eventually got solved, but that would take too long to explain here.

Options to check (in order of probability of occurenece and success):

Z-calibration

Maybe you should perform calibration again. It's possible that nozzle is now too close which causes the filament is spread on the heatbed, which causes that the bottom surface is "too flat". It means all separate filament tracks are spilled and they create "glass flat" surface. You did mention that the model sticks too much even to kapton. It suggests z-calibration.

Temperature calibration

Check if the temperature is not too high. Reducing it a bit can reduce sticking. If filament is too soft then material sticks usually better (causes the same as in #1)

Heatbed cleaning

If your HB is scatched (even not visible scratches) then it's possible that previous printouts left little grains in such scratches. Cleaning HB could then help. Are you using glass? if yes - change glass side to check this option. Eventually replace glass with new one.

Heatbed surface

If your heatbed is scratched then filament can penetrate such scratches and increase sticking.

Filament

Did you change filament vendor? If not then maybe your filament had changed during a time/humidity/sun/cigarete smoke. This is very doubtful option but who knows.

What methods you can use to detach model

Paper knife

I also have the same problem when I use paper glue stick. Some vendors produce such sticky glue that I affraid to break a glass (which I use of course). When this happens I use a paper knife. Glass is scratchproof enough. Be careful - if your model suddenly detaches releasing knife... just be careful. Unmount HB or unmount glass first of course.

Hammer

I know people use hammer to detach sticked model. I would suggest this method only for big and relatively simple elements. Especially for solids (fully filled with the material, without any grid/honeycomb inner structure). One short hit in the same surface as the HB. Be careful of course and unmount HB or unmount glass first.

Fridge

As HB material and filament have most likely different thermal shrinkage factor it might help. And guess what - unmount HB/glass first ;)


How can you calibrate extrusion multiplier value in Slic3r WITHOUT changing printer settings in memory? Most tutorials ask you to change the printer settings using the The command M92 E420 will set the new value which can be saved to memory (so that it is available after a printer power off/on cycle) using M500.

But I just want to modify the Extrusion Multiplier in Slic3r's settings. It's default at for each filament, and I'd like to modify this by adding a profile for each roll I have after calibration.

What's the best way to do this? If I measure extruding 100mm and checking how much is left, what is the formula used to get the new EM value?

Divide the amount overextruded by the desired amount. If you wanted 100mm but got 101mm, that's 1mm extra, or 1% over. Use an extrusion multiplier of 0.99 (1% under) to compensate - AND THEN DO ANOTHER TEST to confirm.

This modifier will be used by Slic3r to generate E values in your gcode without flashing anything.

I recommend saving this recipe with an intuitive name, like Acme Green PLA.


Why isn't any color showing up in my .3mf file in Windows 10 3D Builder So, I made a 3D picture of a cute mouse using Microsoft Paint 3D and exported it as a .3mf.

Why didn't the colors match when I opened the file in Microsoft 3D Builder?

Per the 3MF Specification, colors in the .3mf files are sRGB.

If you are looking at gross color defects, I would look a the raw codes generated in the 3mf to make sure they make sense.

If you are talking about subtle color differences, that is much more complicated.

Color have always been a tough thing to define as it is affected by whether the it is emissive (like displayed on a screen) or reflective (like a physical object).  The way it is perceived is affected by ambient light, surface texture and more.  I worked on a project once where Marketing wanted all the colors to match (on the screen, on paper, on plastic, on on fabric) and it was a mess.


Getting E1 Thermal Runaway errors, even after replacing the heating element on Tevo Tarantula Earlier today I successfully completed a small print (less than 1 hour) on our Tevo Tarantula. When it came time to print the next one, I started preheating for PLA and got an "E1 Thermal Runaway" error. I replaced the heating element with a backup and got no error on preheat.

With an estimated 5+ hrs printing time, the print got about 1 hour in before it quit with another "E1 Thermal Runaway" error. This is with a brand new heating element, the third in about as many months, and I don't do much printing at all.

Is this normal for the elements to be so shoddy or are there settings I need to be changing? I still have the first 2 elements that I thought had died but maybe that's not the issue at all so I'll hang onto them in case I'm overlooking some code to change in Marlin.

I've tried connecting and reconnecting both the wires for the heating element and for the thermistor. I've tightened and loosened the screw holding the thermistor in the heating block. While it did heat up momentarily, the error popped up again after less than a minute:

23:40:57.529 : echo:DEBUG:INFO,ERRORS
23:41:04.974 : PID Autotune start
23:41:37.274 : Error:Heating failed, system stopped! Heater_ID: 0
23:41:37.274 : Error:Printer halted. kill() called!

How can I find out what is wrong?

1 PID Tune
Changing the thermosensor or the heater cartridge is a big change in the system: each of these items has internal errors differing them from each other item. If your thermosensor has a different standard resistance by a small way than the one before, if the resistance of the cartridge is different, then the chip gets readings it does not expect. This is why a change of either of these components (or to a different heater block size/material for the matter) one should run a PID tune, teaching the chip how the new sensor/cartridge behave.
To do this, connect to your Printer via an USB Cable and run a software that can send raw gcode. I prefer Repetier Host, but other software also works. I like to follow the instructions of the e3D v6 assembly manual, but the video by Tom (Thomas Sanladererer) and the RepRap Wiki have excellent explanations too.

Send M303 E0 S200 C8
wait for finishing
send  M301 with the values you just got returned. One example might read  M301 P17.28 I0.63 D118.87
sent M500 to update your EEPROM

If this doesn't help, we might have a bigger problem, so let's go troubleshooting! Hardware first, then Firmware.
A few useful hints that Thomas Sanladerer found when he was checking his printers for fire hazards:

A shorted out thermosensor (closed loop, 0-Resistance) triggers Maxtemp
A burnt out thermosensor (open loop) triggers Mintemp
A non-connected or burnt out (open loop) Cartridge triggers thermal runaway, as does any other error with the cartridge that leads to abnormal heating.

2 Check the Hardware
Hardware can fail, we all know that. But luckily there are only 5 items involved that could fail:
2.1 Check all connections
If the heater cartridge is not connected properly, that will result in a Thermal Runaway Error, as the thermosensor does not detect any change.
A non connected thermosensor will trigger a mintemp error, a shorted thermosensor will trigger maxtemp error.
2.2 Check the resistance of the heater cartridge
A broken heater cartridge can have two results: either it conducts no electricity at all (for example if a lead is broken), or it acts as a jumper and has no resistance at all. To check this, use a multimeter and measure the resistance in Ohm by connecting it to the leads of the cartridge while it is dismounted. A broken circuit in the cartridge triggers Thermal Runaway, a shorted out cartridge can break the board in worst case. A pictoral guide for analogue Multimeters.
My e3D light6 in my 12 V TronXY has a resistance of about 5.2 Ω. The Value you will get depends on what kind of heater cartridge you use. For reference: e3D Heater Cartridges are documented to be around 4.8 Ω for 12 V & 30 W, 3.6 Ω for 12 V & 40 W, 19.2 Ω for 24 V 30 W and 14.4 Ω for 24 V 40 W.
If your Value is given as infinite or near 0 Ω, your heater cartridge is broken - Though having 3 defect heater cartridges seems unlikely on first glance, unless something shortens their lifespan considerably.
2.3 Check your supply voltage
Now comes a thing that can be dangerous for you will measure a live circuit. Be aware that you are working with live current when you do this. Do NOT bring your fingers into contact with unshielded wires!
Set your Multimeter to check the Voltage. Connect the test probes to the output of the power supply that runs into the board. Power up the voltage supply. It should read close to 12 or 24V, depending on your machine.
2.4 Check the voltage given by the board
Again, this is measuring live current and can be dangerous. Use maximum care not to fry yourself!
If your Power supply is working, then it might be the board that is not allowing the current to get the heater cartridge. So we need to measure if it gets power. Since I=U/R, and we have established that R is not 0 or infinity (see above), we can establish if there is I by simply measuring U, which is the voltage.
Mount the tips of your multimeter into the clamps that should take the leads for the heater cartridge and set it to measure the Voltage. Make sure they have contact. Connect the machine to power and start it up. Order it to heat up the cartridge. It should show a voltage that is similar to your supply voltage (12/24V).
2.5 Thermosensor
The Thermosensor might trigger an error if it is faulty but not entirely broken. A broken thermosensor should trigger MINTEMP for a broken open and MAXTEMP for a shorted out sensor. The only way to test this would be to measure it against items of known temperature, for example using the bed sensor as Benchmark.
3 Check the Firmware
3.1 Thermosensor settings
In some cases, the temperature tables of the thermosensors are not compatible and one has to change the settings for that in the firmware. One of the best rundowns I know is in the e3D light6/v6 firmware manual, if you need more help than this.
In the Marlin 1.9 you do this in Configuation.h, under the header Thermal Settings. In my Ender 3 this is done in line 289:
#define TEMP_SENSOR_0 5

That means, that my temperature sensor 0 (the one in the hotend) is of type 5, where type 5 is defined in the block above. The relevant line 256 of my file reads:
 *     5 : 100K thermistor - ATC Semitec 104GT-2 (Used in ParCan & J-Head) (4.7k pullup)

The most common choice in Chinese hotends to use this very 4.7-kiloohm pullup thermistor table, and the actual specific table for most of these is reasonably close to the 5. Other thermosensors can be reasonably overlapping, but in case you change the style of thermosensor, it is generally advised to change this value accordingly1. Always run a PID tuning after changing the thermosensor table!
3.2 Thermal Runaway Protection
The settings for the Thermal Runaway Protection might be worth a look. Maybe it is a little trigger happy? Configuration_adv.h contains a block titled Thermal Settings, containing when to trigger the emergency shutdown. For my Ender3 it reads like this:
#if ENABLED(THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS)
  #define THERMAL_PROTECTION_PERIOD 40        // Seconds
  #define THERMAL_PROTECTION_HYSTERESIS 4     // Degrees Celsius

From your error log, I guess that your printer has the second line as 30 seconds. It would be technically safe to increase this time to up to 120 seconds, but I strongly suggest not to go over 60 seconds.
1 - I had switched the whole hotend on my TronXY X1 for an e3D light6, and it only needed a PID tune, but in theory I should have also swapped the Firmware to reflect that - but, as said, luckily many Chinese printers use the table 5 even if they are not using the sensor. Table 5 was made for the thermosensors used by e3D.


Non-Heated Beds affect on 3D Prints I'm looking to buy my first 3D Printer, on a tight budget of $250. Unfortunately, this printer that I found on Amazon comes with all the bells and whistles, except for a heated bed.

I want to know if this would affect printing severely, as I have read that the plastic/ filament cools down rather quickly, and that it results in Printer "fails".

I'm actually a bit nervous with this buy, as I don't want to spend $250 on a printer that produces 90% print fails.

An example of the printer I'm referring to is the Cube 3 Printer, Grey
by 3D Systems.

Yes. That said you can view it as an intro into 3d printing. Once you know you are really into it you can buy a higher end machine, or hunt craigslist / ebay / facebook groups for a used one.

What the heated bed will allow you to do is print more than PLA, and certain formulations of no warp ABS. The Makerbot uses no heated bed, instead in addition to being PLA only it does what we call a raft. That said one of my 6 printers is a makerbot and it still gets warping if the print is on the edge of the plate.

You can also add a heated print bed later. If your electronics allow for it.

That said.. Just buy one with a heated bed? I know you can get one close to that price point. Heated beds cost 7 dollar. However as pointed out by Tom, there are other costs such as a more powerful heated bed. Still one should be able to get a printer in that price range or close to it with a heated bed.

To be more clear. You will not have a 90% fail rate if you use PLA. However your prints will often have some heat warping and you will HAVE to use a raft.

from
http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Glossary

  Raft
  A technique used to prevent warping. Parts are built on top of a 'raft' of disposable material instead of directly on the build surface. The raft is larger than the part and so has more adhesion. Rarely used with heated build surfaces. For the small area models, it is very useful to prevent warping via adding a raft for the model before slicing it. It can also help with with precision parts by removing the slight first few layer distortion caused by the heated bed.


My Monoprice Select Mini v2 isn't pushing out filament and it isn't the nozzle The printer isn't pushing out filament.
I'm using the filament that came with the printer, and I know it's not the nozzle. I've tried to get the metal piece surrounding that goes from the Bowden connector to the extruder off, but I can't seem to.
Are there any ways to fix this?

The push to release connection on the top of the heat sink may be secured with thread lock adhesive, but you should not have to remove it. Push the blue ring downward while pulling upward on the bowden tubing. It may be necessary to work it up and down while you push down on the blue locking fitting. I have to use a pair of pliers to hold the blue ring down while wiggling the bowden tube up and down, as it is rather tiny.
Once you have the tubing removed, check for high friction in the now-released bowden tube. Push filament from the extruder drive mechanism and observe how easily it passes through the tube to the open end. If you do not experience clogging, the problem resides in the heat sink/heat break/heater block area.
It's not uncommon for the nozzle to have an excessive gap between the heat break and the nozzle. This will allow for cooled filament to jam, preventing normal feeding.
From the Prusa support site:

Notice that the collet is visible in the photo and appears to hold a longer section of PTFE tubing. It should enter your heat sink until it bottoms against the recess cut into the metal. If it does not, you have the possibility (slim) of jamming in that locations.
Notice also that the nozzle is not flush against the heater block. The heatbreak is threaded into the block with the nozzle slightly lower than flush. This ensures a proper flow from the entry point to the nozzle. If it is not properly secured at either end, the heat break can bulge with filament that cools and creates the jam.


Arduino Mega voltage regulator overheats with RAMPS board This is my problem:
I'm assembling a 3D printer with the RAMPS 1.4 board and Arduino Mega. I have assembled the structure and the electronics (set drivers, placed the jumpers, connected stepper motors...) and have uploaded Marlin firmware (configuring: thermistor, endstops...) on the Arduino Mega.
I've tried to connect, via USB, to the computer and using the Repetier software I have commanded the printer which did do some movement. The printer worked perfectly. After a few tests, however, I've noticed that the Arduino was restarting several times and at one point I saw a component on the Arduino board burning. Searching the internet I saw that the burned component was the voltage regulator.
I heard also about unplugging the screen because it consumes a lot of current, that passes through the voltage regulator, thereby heating it up. I then proceeded to buy another Arduino Mega. I also checked the voltage of my 12V 360W power supply and it is correct. I always powered the Arduino with USB and RAMPS 1.4 was connected to the power supply from the two terminals.

When the new Arduino arrived, I connected the whole (without connecting the screen) and tried. The printer worked very well until it started giving the same problem as the first Arduino board. Someone can tell me if I have done something wrong, or is it the RAMPS board that does not work properly?
EDIT:
I read that the endstops can cause this problem. I have these endstops: 1 PZ di Alta Qualità Finecorsa Meccanico Per rampe Reprap 1.4 stampante 3D Con imballaggio indipendente kit fai da te and I connected the black wire to GND, red wire to 5V and the green wire to SIGNAL.

I've solved unsoldering the diode(D1) on RAMPS. This diode provides to power the arduino board with 12V. If you have a chinese arduino this will probably cause some problems.

I hope this will help someone.


Square and parallel infill patterns I don't know how to word this right now but I am going to try my best... moving on!

So I was playing with my slicing software (Craftware) and I was looking at two infill patterns, Square and Parallel. When looking at strength, print quality, and time does Square really benefit a whole lot over parallel? I ask because Parallel does not use near the filament and has less contact points on the model. I provided pictures of both to give a visual. Can I use parallel and still get super strong and good looking parts?

Parallel infill pattern

Square infill pattern

If I didn't include something or not making sense ask in the comments and I will answer/edit as needed. Thank you!

... does Square really benefit a whole lot over parallel?

That would depend by the definition of "a whole lot", of course! :)

Strength

Generally speaking, the variable you want to operate to tweak the overall sturdiness of your part is not the type of infill, but rather its density.  According to the literature I have access to, sturdiness grow fast until about 60 % infill, then the gains become progressively more marginal.

Different types of infill modify the way the part reacts to stresses.  The two you showcased, for example, are strongly anisotropic: a part with those infill will resist a lot more to stresses along the Z axis than along either the X or Y ones.

Also, relative to the squared infill pattern, my experience is that parts with a parallel infill pattern typically have a bit more give when squashed.

In case you wonder: cubic, cubic subdivision (and solid) infills are those regarded as offering the most equal resistance along all axis.

However, the way the infill will affect rigidity and sturdiness of a part is as much dependent from the type of filament and the shape of the part as much as from the infill settings, so - if you are after precise numbers - you should most definitely run some tests.

Time

That depends entirely from the part shape and size.

Typically, a printer will spend most of its time printing the shell. This is due both to the settings (you want to go slow on the shell to increase quality) and to physics, the shell typically requiring many more changes of direction (and thus accelerations and decelerations) than the infill.

So, even if the parallel infill requires about half the work of the squared one (50 % faster), in a small print with a sparse infill, the total time spent doing infill may be 10 %, thus the net gain would be only 5 % of the total printing time.

Quality

This is very printer-dependent. For me, when printing with two shells, I can't tell the difference on any infill. For the top layer, the quality is affected more by infill density than type (with the filament sagging slightly between walls if the infill is very sparse).


Ender 3 Pro distance between nozzle and bed too large Even when trying to level the bed, the max I can get the bed to the nozzle is pretty large.  I cannot level any higher (please see pic).

Your springs are WAY too much compressed. Turn them loose into the "UP" direction till you are almost at the bed and then level your bed.


What air filtration options exist for enclosures? Given the emissions that 3d printing gives off (ABS = styrene and other chemicals, PLA give some off, etc), what options are there to filter the air in the enclosure other than venting the air out of a window?
More information on the chemicals 3d printing emit:

http://built-envi.com/portfolio/ultrafine-particle-emissions-from-3d-printers/

It looks like activated carbon filters would be a strong performer for ABS (styrene) and PLA (lactide):

https://www.sentryair.com/activated-carbon-filter.htm

Are there better filtering materials or processes for filtering the air in an enclosure?
Here's an example filter setup:

This fan mount: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:780001
60mm fans and this filter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XNI5SY4
And sandwich the filter on the fan using this fan grill: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11906

My residential materials expert referred me to these links (3D Printing Fume Extraction Solutions, and ABS 3d Printer Nanoparticle and Chemical Exhaust Air Filter) and thinks that you're pretty much on track with the idea of using activated carbon.

We both primarily print with ABS with my Replicator Dual and what's worked enough for me (in the past 5 years) is to keep my printer next to a window or vent in my den at home. The window is obviously a good ventilation option, but the variability that it creates in the ambient temperature screwed with my prints. Later, I moved my machine into its own hutch, which, if it is an option, would greatly help the overall environment for both the machine and any stored filament.

We'll keep poking around, but hopefully that helps in the mean time.


Printing non-commercial model to make money If a customer sends me a non-commercial 3D model to print, am I allowed to charge money for the 3D printing process? I understand I cannot charge anything for the model nor offer it as a part of my business.

I cannot download the model myself, print and sell it, but if the customer downloads it and sends it to me for me to print it, is it a violation of the license or not?

Intellectual property law is complex, so you might want to consider getting proper legal advice. However, to respect the original designer's intent you need to look at what their license permits and try not to find a loophole in the process. There is nothing to stop you asking the designer (in public or private) to clarify their intent.

The biggest 'non-commercial' restriction reason is to protect the design idea, and stop someone mass-producing a clever design for profit. This applies irrespective of the original designer's intent to monetise their work.

Another big reason might be to 'hold back' the time invested in the design. Maybe the designer wants to share something they spent a lot of time on, for individuals to appreciate rather than profit from. The designer would presumably gain reputation as a result of wider knowledge of their work.

Sometimes, a design inherits licensing restrictions from a 3rd party (even maybe from the design tools used). For example, Fusion360 can be used for free by small companies, students, or for hobbies and personal learning, but has restrictions on commercial, professional or for-profit use. In that case, you would need to ask clarification from the tool provider.

The case you describe is complicated. You can't sell the printed part, but a 3rd party can probably contract you to print the part (or rent time/access to a printer). However, your contract rate can't include any element of value derived from the model. Assuming there is no explicit license condition, you should be OK if you charge for your direct costs. As soon as you include time, profit, or any modification to the model, you are on less solid ground.

To consider a non-obvious use-case of the Fusion 360 license, a student may well not have their own printer (particularly for an exotic material, or living in university accommodation). Can they contract a fabrication company to commercially produce or evaluate their model for the purposes of education or not?

I don't expect you will find a definitive answer to this question since there are too many variables. Creative Commons have a page about their Non Commercial license which identifies some things to consider when you interpret a license.

As noted in the comments, you can divide your time and professional contribution (and thus billable items) into several steps. By providing a model, the customer skips step 1:

making the digital model
preproduction (slicing)
printing
postproduction (cleaning off support)

A clear license would refer to all of these.


High-viscosity gel/polymer to suspend conductive material while it is being printed I currently doing research on 3d printing on circuit boards. The technique we are using is to put a conductive material, I.e ceramics/metal in a gel/polymer, to print the suspension and then when is complete to sinter away the gel/polymer. The problem I am having is the suspension needs to be thixotropic. Furthermore it must have a high viscosity i.e 500 cpa under low shear and to quickly drop to low viscosity as the shear increases

So far the closest thing I have been able to find is in this paper but if you look at the graphs none of them have a high enough viscosity and more importantly the drop to low viscosity under increasing shear is too shallow.

I have tried to use models like the ones in this paper but I am finding it quite difficult.

Does anyone have any suggestions to find more materials like the one I require? Thanks

The material you are describing sounds very similar to the material used for Metal Injection Molding except that you want to print the material rather than molding it.

A company called MarkForged is making a printer called the Metal X that uses this technique of printing & sintering to produce solid metal parts.  Here is a article describing more details about the printer.

It sounds really cool.

If you investigate papers around those processes you may find what you are looking for since they are so related to what you are trying to do.


Print of fine hole seems to twist My model is a keycap for mechanical keyboards. There is the cap itself, and a stem with a hole in the form of a cross, which fits the switches themselves.

I print in the same position as it is intended to be used, top up. This means that the stem and the cap are not connected until quite a few print layers.

To prevent the stem from falling off during the print (it has a small footprint), I created connectors in the first layers, to hold it in place.

The issue: it seems like all my prints have a rotation of the stem, compared to the cap. It probably rather is the cross-shaped hole, or its walls, that are not completely symmetrical. I do not think it is only the edges against the printing bed that are the cause, since I have trimmed them with a scalpel. The rotation is always in the same direction.

The twist is detectable when watching the keycap with the switch, and more so with keycaps on switches on a keyboard plate (you can see that the edges of the caps do not align. They do in my CAD program):

I use Cura as my slicer, layer height 0.06 mm, and ABS. I attempted a slow print (30 mm/s), which didn't help.

The first work-around that comes to mind is to measure the twist and compensate for that in my model. But I believe that since the problem is in the printing process, the problem would best be solved in the slicer.

What could possibly be the issue? Is there an option is Cura to compensate for this? Short of the work-around mentioned above, what are other steps I should look into?

This looks like a shift rather than a twist.

Looking closely at the "+" opening, it doesn't look as much twisted as it looks as if the top and bottom halves are sheared, with the top half shifted slightly right and the bottom shifted slightly left.  The horizontal part of the plus seems aligned on the left and right halves.

When you press-fit the keycaps, you will "average" the displacement forces and the keycap will twist.

I am suspicious of a backlash problem in the X axis (left to right).  Perhaps the belt isn't tight enough, or some part shifts differently.  It could be in the rails, the belt, a loose drive pulley, the hot end being slightly loose on the carriage, or any uncontrolled movement.  It could be a high-friction x-axis which causes spring wind-up in the drive system.

I recommend carefully examining the printer for any excess friction or movement, and taking action to fix that first before tweaking the model to compensate for what can not be fixed.

If it is a twist, use more cooling.

If the photos have misled me, and the vertical "+" shaft if actually twisting, you may need to use higher cooling.  The drag of the filament as the head traces the perimeter can create a torque on the shaft, and if the plastic is not sufficiently cooled it could be dragged around.  I consider this more of a theoretical problem than a real one, and have not yet seen it in practice.

This is a beautiful design

This is a wonderful application of 3D printing.  With a multi-material printer it would be tempting to label the keys similar to old-style multi-shot keycaps.


Ender 3 V2 upgrades and addons I am very new to 3D printing. I am looking to purchase the Ender 3 V2 but before I do I would appreciate some advice on what I should purchase as the upgrades/addons for it. I'm not sure as to what I would need for the V2 since most websites are for the original Ender 3 so I don't know if the V2 already has that upgrade/addons or not when compared to the original. I would rather get all the upgrades/addons and the Ender 3 V2 at the same to save on shipping and all.
Pretty much the only upgrade/addons I have constantly seen is the auto bed level.
So if anyone can help out a first time 3D printer noob then that would be great!

IMHO, it's probably better to get the printer as-is first. This way you can get familiar with the printer and 3D printing in general before you get overwhelmed with all the extra introduced variables from your upgrades.
The new model already has loads of features that were considered upgrades on the older model and you can already get very nice results.
Upgrading your printer is a part of the 3D printing hobby, and you'll probably never be done with it :)


BLTouch not leveling I installed a BLTouch V3.1 on my Ender 3 which is using Marlin (bugfix 2.0.x) off a Skr mini e3 v2.0. I updated the firmware using a teaching tech video.
I'm having trouble when using bed leveling. It homes everything correctly, and then moves outside the bed before the probe repeatedly deploys and retracts, without the head moving at all. I attached a link to a video here: Bed Leveling Problem
I have a feeling it  must be something in my config files from looking at other answers here but I really don't know. I attached my config files as well. Configuration.h , Configuration_adv.h
I have the BLTouch plugged into the z-stop for the black and white cords. I didn't need to cut any wires or anything since mine came with the endstop connector piece attached, and the other wires in the Zprobe section (Blue, Red, Yellow) to (GND, +5V, PA1) respectively. As for the firmware, I got it directly off the Marlin site: marlinfw.org/meta/download.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Additional information:
I have connected my printer to PronterFace and recieve the following error when sending a G29
    Reset.
>>> G28
SENDING:G28
>>> G29
SENDING:G29
Error:!! STOP called because of BLTouch error - restart with M999
[ERROR] Error:!! STOP called because of BLTouch error - restart with M999

Error:Probing Failed
[ERROR] Error:Probing Failed

You are mixing and matching a few older techniques. That's understandable, because "older" means "as of three months ago." But there is a better way now: as of version 2.0, the SKR mini has a full, working port for the BLTouch. You do not need to plug it into the z-stop, and you can and should retain your existing z-stop switch.
So:

Power down your printer and get access to your board.
Roll back your hardware changes by unplugging the BLTouch and reattaching the z-stop switch.
Plug the bltouch into the port labelled "z-probe", which is next to the display port. Starting from the pin nearest to the stop switches, the pin order should be Brown, Red, Yellow, Black White.
Optional: instead of the step above, cut the DuPont connectors off the BLTouch cables and crimp a single XH-5Y connector in their place, then plug that into the board.
Download the official BLTouch firmware from SKR mini: https://github.com/bigtreetech/BIGTREETECH-SKR-mini-E3/blob/master/firmware/V2.0/firmware-bltouch.bin
Install that firmware: Rename the file to "firmware.bin", unplug any USB cables from your printer, copy the file to a MicroSD, insert the MicroSD into your printer and power it on.

...and then it should work.


Some steppers only rotate one way on RAMPS 1.4 I have a RAMPS 1.4 tester code for Arduino MEGA, only need stepper motors and drivers connected. The code in a working setup moves steppers in both directions but in my setup does something wrong:

Extruder 0 , Axis X/Y only moves in 1 direction all time.
Extruder 1 , Axis Z works fine in both direction

I changed stepper drivers but always Extruder 0, Axis X/Y were moving in same direction all time.Tried 2 differents RAMPS 1.4 shields with same results in tester code, Sprinter or Marlin.

I have the code if someone wants, it works fine in other setups.

What could be the problem?

As towe said, it could be a dir pin ( can be checked by metering the dir connection), but in my experience this behavior has usually been a limit switch issue (as 0scar pointed out).  Try seeing if you have a limit switch setting somewhere that expects normally closed (assuming no limit switches are connected).

There is also another possibility that has to do with microstepping on some drivers, but i'm guessing you are going for a rudimentary no microstepping test right now (and have configured jumpers appropriately).


How can I get PLA or PETG to stick to a glass bed permanently without adhesives? 3D printing gurus,

I've read on several forums that people have had issues with printing with PETG or even PLA on glass and it sticks so well to the glass that chunks of glass rip off due to thermal stresses from the glass/plastic bond thermally contracting at different amounts.

I'm looking for a way to actually increase the adhesion to that point (or beyond) so that I could get a watertight seal on a plastic to glass interface. A lot of the forums mention that these problems occur when the extruder head is too close to the glass build plate and thus "bonds" the plastic to the glass somehow. Is this the case or are there other methods (with just the filament and the glass) that could make this happen?

There are seven factors that I can think of, that contribute to the adhesion of the first layer onto bare glass:

glass cleanliness: dish soap and hot water, dried by patting down with quality kitchen paper is what seems to work best for me.  Beware of fingerprints.
glass roughness: a common way to increase adhesion to glass is to rough-up its surface by scratching with some fine sandpaper.  This works best if you take care of sanding in multiple directions (so that you have grooves crossing each other).  I suppose an experiment you could try is printing on frosted glass (the side that has been sandblasted or etched of course).
tuning of the bed: your bed should be super-flat and perfectly leveled.  Use an indicator gauge if you can.
filament chemistry: that is not only to say that certain plastics, like PLA, stick better than others, but also to say that certain brands work better than others (as the additives each manufacturer adds to the plastic influence how the strength of the interface with glass).
printer settings: typically a slow speed, no active cooling and a bit of overextrusion work best.
area of the interface: the larger the area of the interface, the better.  But also: for large uninterrupted interfaces, problems with curling begin to appear.
temperature: each filament has it's own sweet spot, but typically some heat make prints stick better.  However this is true until the print is in progress, once the print is done and the printing bed cools, prints tend to separate by themselves, so in your case you may want to print with a cold bed (which is totally feasible with PLA).

All that said, this would not be a complete answer without a strong warning: any functional part which integrity depends on this kind of adhesion is bound to catastrophically fail very quickly, if working at all.

For one this "assembly" would be extremely susceptible to change in temperature.  While I read too of broken glass due to too good bonding, I only recall this having happened to people using some sort of substance on the glass.  Usually the differential in shrinkage is exactly what makes the print come off the glass (a common tip for stuck prints is to put them in a freezer).

Secondly, as soon as some air (or other fluid) will begin seeping between glass and plastic, it will take very little for it to separate the two completely.  It's a bit like using a crowbar: as soon as there is a crack you can stick the tip in and use for leverage, it is very easy to pry things open.

Finally, be aware that managing to print watertight shapes with FDM printers is relatively difficult.  You can help your luck by extruding at slightly higher temperature than required.

It's difficult to advise on alternatives solutions without knowing what you are trying to achieve, but I would be very surprised if there was not a better alternative. :)

EDIT: the "nozzle too close to the bed" is the wrong way to achieve what you factually achieve with setting the flow rate so as to overextrude during the first layer: you want to increase the pressure of the molten plastic beyond what you normally would do so as to really "squish" it on the glass.


HDPE as the body of a 3-D Printer? I've been working on my own DIY 3-D printer recently, and I've been trying to experiment a little with different materials for the body. Someone suggested using HDPE (high-density polyethylene), since it works well on a CNC machine, which would make creating a number of prototypes easy. I know HDPE can also be used for filament, but I've never tried it before. Does anybody have any input on HDPE, or other potential materials for the body? I'm trying to avoid using wood, as I've had some poor experiences with it.

The main consideration when building the body/frame of a 3D printer is the stiffness.  The stiffer the material, the less the frame will deform under load, and the more accurate and repeatable your results will be.

UHMW has a Tensile Modulus of Elasticity around 120,000 psi (http://www.polytechindustrial.com/products/plastic-stock-shapes/uhmw-polyethylene)

Aluminium has a Modulus of Elasticity around 10,000,000 psi (Mott, Applied Strength of Materials, 5th Edition, depends on the specific alloy)

Aluminium is around 100 times stiffer than UHMW.


SVG to STL conversion to make symbols recognisable for visually impaired users I work on communication devices for people with disabilities that prevent them from speaking.  This can be anything from a board with symbols on, to a relatively sophisticated app.

Some potential users also have sight issues and have to distinguish symbols by feel (these particular users have cognitive disabilities and so braile isn't useful) .  Currently the solution is to, by hand, stick items onto the buttons. Like this:

This is effective, but takes a very long time.

There exists open symbol libraries like this, that include nice svg images like this one (not uploaded, because SO doesn't like svg, but here's the screenshot:

A friend converted some of these images into 3d prints like so:

This was amazing, and useful, but I understand quite time-intensive for him - and there are thousands of these symbols.

Here's what I want to know: given that SVG is a relatively simple structure and the symbols are very simple, what are the steps for writing the script that says: "Take the svg, map it to a plane, raise everything that is black by 2mm, everything that is gray by 1mm and add height for the rest of the colours according to this table" ?

Bonus points for something that I can reasonably get going on a set of 10000 svg files and come back to later...

If you install inkscape, pstoedit and ghostscript version 9.21 (not the latest as pstoedit is incompatible)   you can get the file into a format that openscad can
import using two commands in a cmd file

"C:\Program Files\Inkscape\inkscape" -E "traffic lights.eps" "traffic lights.svg"
"C:\Program Files\pstoedit\pstoedit" -dt -f dxf:-polyaslines "traffic lights.eps" "traffic lights.dxf"

then in openscad

linear_extrude(3) import ("traffic lights.dxf");

will import gives me

With a thickness of 3mm - you can see the model needs some scaling but its seems possible although - I can't see an option to scale based on color -


How long can you leave filament in the extruder Just one quick question about the filament.

Can I leave the filament in the extruder for a prolonged period of time while the printer is off?

Most filaments you can leave in the extruder indefinitely without any ill effects.

There are some filaments that need to be stored away from moisture, particularly Nylon, because they absorb moisture from the air and don't print well if they contain a lot of absorbed moisture. However, this isn't an inherent issue with having the filaments in the extruder (if you had some setup that protected the filament from moisture while in the extruder, that would be fine as well - but in most cases it is more practical to store such filament in an airtight box).

Most commodity filaments (ABS/PLA/PETG) don't suffer from this as much (PLA supposedly also absorbs moisture but I haven't noticed this to be a problem, perhaps it depends on the conditions of the room in which your printer is kept) so they're fine to leave in the extruder.


What do you use to keep your blue tape from lifting? I have a few issues with the blue tape, which I'm trying out for the first time.

The tape seems to warp, bubble and lift from the aluminum plate when it heats and cools and during printing.
I put some clips on it, but not sure if this is standard.

It also seems the print is lifting off the tape itself (bottom left corner). I applied some magigoo glue to it. Maybe I shouldn't have done that.

I feel like this print isn't going to make it...

I'm printing with a Monoprice Select V2, with AmazonBasics ABS with 100 °C bed and 250 °C extruder temperature, at 15 mm/s initial layer speed and 60 mm/s print speed sliced with Ultimaker Cura.

The tape probably would stick better to the Aluminum bed than the BuildTak clone sheet you have as it would have had more surface area to bond to.

What I found that works best is to print on the bare aluminum bed using a PVA based spray, this can be hairspray or a specific 3D printer product like 3DLAC, or just glue stick. I ditched tape after day one (for reasons you mention) and solely print on aluminium or on glass without a problem, sometimes it sticks too well and the bed needs to cool down to room temperature before I can remove the print. This has been described as an answer to: Should you use hairspray on a metal bed 3D printer?
.

Removing the BuildTak clone sheet may be quite laborious if a very sticky adhesive is used (it took me a long time and lots of solvents to remove the goo/glue from a PEI sheet I used once) it is better to try and print on the BuildTak sheet, maybe use PVA based (hair)spray or glue stick.

Furthermore, ABS is more difficult to print than PLA or PETG. Printing ABS is difficult because of the relative large shrinkage when the filament cools. It therefore requires careful heat management (no part cooling, no draft, enclosure, etc.). This filament needs a good surface to build on and requires brims, "mouse ears", adhesive spray or glue to get the first layer to stick and not curl up. Tape at temperatures of 100 °C will become soft and loose its power to stick. Kapton tape might work better.


Can I use external stepper motor power and USB connection I have a RAMPS 1.4 with Arduino Mega 2560 with 2 steppers connected to an external power supply using Polulo stepper drivers. The steppers are for X and Y axis movement. This external power supply is set to 12 volts and power is applied. I have configured the marlin firmware also.

Can I connect my setup to my PC using USB when the external power is also on?
If i connect the USB while the external power is off, do the motors take power from USB? Will this will burn my board?

The motors are powered from 12/24V external power supply, so the motors will not be powered.
the ramps Schematics shows the connection diagram and the power is provided via the VMot pin/12V.


How is E value calculated in Slic3r? I want to know the math behind how Slic3r calculates E values. $E_{value}$ represents amount of filament in mm (unless volumetric extrusion is selected) that has to be fed into the hotend to obtain a road of specific extrusion width.

Consider an example with following parameters:

Nozzle diameter = 0.6 mm
Layer height = 0.35 mm
Extrusion width = 0.61 mm (for external perimeter)
Length of the line segment (distance of the deposition path) = 98.2 mm
Diameter of filament = 1.75 mm

First part of the question: How is $E_{value}$ calculated for this case?

Second part of the question: How is velocity of extruder motor calculated for this case?

The Slic3r manual has limited information on flow math but is not comprehensive.

Let's assume volume of plastic fed in equal volume of plastic comes out

$$Volume_{in} = \pi\times{(\frac{d}{2})}^2 \times E \times x = \frac{\pi\cdot d^2}{4}\times E \times x$$

Where,

$d$ = diameter of the filament
$x$ = extrusion multiplier
$E$ = $E_{value}$ to solve for

$$Volume_{out} = (A_{road} \times L)$$

Length of path, $L$, is obtained from start and end coordinates
Area of the road, $A_{road}$, is calculated according to this link (Slic3r flow math; Section: Extruding on top of a surface). The formula for area of the road according to Slic3r manual is:

$$A_{road} = (w - h)\times h + \pi\times{(\frac{h}{2})}^2 $$

Where,

$w$ = Extrusion width
$h$ = layer height

Seems like I am missing something. Math doesn't yield me same result as Slic3r $E$ value.

Many of you have marked this question duplicate. I know the first question is similar to what has asked before (calculating E value) but the answer doesn't match actual E value in G-code.

Also there is a second question on how to calculate extrusion speed given an E value

I have added G-code from actual Slic3r with the same settings as above to check the math.

The advance extrusion width settings in slic3r are as shown in the picture below:

The settings are from a Prusa config for 0.6 mm nozzle

Consider a 100 mm x 100 mm x 5 mm part (X x Y x Z dimensions). Following is the output G-code from Slic3r:

; generated by Slic3r 1.3.0 on 2019-06-04 at 16:36:24

; external perimeters extrusion width = 0.61mm (6.55mm^3/s)

; perimeters extrusion width = 0.65mm (10.54mm^3/s)

; infill extrusion width = 0.70mm (15.25mm^3/s)

; solid infill extrusion width = 0.65mm (8.78mm^3/s)

; top infill extrusion width = 0.60mm (6.43mm^3/s)

------ Values of parameters defined in Slic3r -------

first_layer_acceleration = 1000
first_layer_bed_temperature = 60
first_layer_extrusion_width = 0.65
first_layer_speed = 30
first_layer_temperature = 215
first_layer_height = 0.35
max_print_speed = 100
nozzle_diameter = 0.6
external_perimeter_extrusion_width = 0.61

------ some initialization lines above --------

G1 F1800

G1 X78.400 Y169.100 E8.21483 ; perimeter

**G1 X78.400 Y70.900 E8.21483 ; perimeter**

G1 X176.600 Y70.900 E8.21483 ; perimeter

G1 X176.600 Y169.010 E8.20731 ; perimeter

G1 X177.175 Y169.675 F10800.000 ; move to first perimeter point

The above code snippet refers to the perimeter of the very first layer in the print. Let us consider the highlighted line in above G-code. According to equations we have above, the values of the variables are:

$d$ = 1.75
$x$ = 1
$E$ = $E_{value}$ to solve for
$w$ = 0.61
$h$ = 0.35
$L$ = 169.100 - 70.900 = 98.2

Area of the depositied road is:

$$A_{road} = (0.61 - 0.35)\times 0.35 + \pi\times{(\frac{0.35}{2})}^2 $$
$$A_{road} = 0.187211 mm^2 $$

For calculating $E_{value}$, We use volume equality

$$Volume_{in} = Volume_{out}$$

$$E_{value} = \frac{A\times L \times 4} {\pi\times d^2 \times x} = \frac{0.187211 \times 98.2 \times 4} {\pi \times 1.75^2 \times 1} = 7.6432 $$

The $E_{value}$ in the G-code is 8.214

This is a big difference isn't it? I know about the die swell effect and expansion of molten plastic at the tip, but there seems to be no uniform compensation factor for this!

To answer your first question:

Your calculations are not wrong, they are correct for a normal layer (uncorrected) layer. These calculations should get you very near the solution. The problem is that there are default modifiers at play that modify the extrusion process which become apparent when you change them or look at the hoover hint in the advanced printer settings section. E.g. see the image below of the "Print Settings" graphical user interface; specifically look at the hoovering hint:

The hoovering hint tells you that there is a 200 % modifier at play. What! a default modifier without me knowing? Well...., if we had looked at the
Slic3r Manual (The Important First Layer) a little better, we read that:

  Fatter extrusion width. The more material touching the bed, the better
  the object will adhere to it, and this can be achieved by increasing
  the extrusion width of the first layer, either by a percentage or a
  fixed amount. Any spaces between the extrusions are adjusted
  accordingly.

  A value of approximately 200 % is usually recommended, but note that
  the value is calculated from the layer height and so the value should
  only be set if the layer height is the highest possible. For example,
  if the layer height is 0.1 mm, and the extrusion width is set to 200 %,
  then the actual extruded width will only be 0.2 mm, which is smaller
  than the nozzle. This would cause poor flow and lead to a failed
  print. It is therefore highly recommended to combine the high first
  layer height technique recommended above with this one. Setting the
  first layer height to 0.35 mm and the first extrusion width to 200 %
  would result in a nice fat extrusion 0.65 mm wide.

Tada! There we have the modifier from the screenshot; 200 % (this is expressed as a percentage over the layer height, and causes that an additional filament scale factor bigger than 1 is at play; the $x$ in your equations).

To answer the second question:

That should be rather straight forward, you know how long the path is and at which speed the head is moving (either at constant speed, decelerating or accelerating) and how much of filament you need to deposit, at the end point all filament needs to be deposited so you can calculate how fast the extrusion needs to be to accomplish that.

If you calculate back from a volume of 8.214 mm2 and solve for unknown $w$ you see that this yields $ w = 0.65\ mm $, and that is exactly what is stated as first layer width in your Slic3r settings; I quote:

  first_layer_extrusion_width = 0.65

P.S. When you look into the source code of Slic3r, if you dig deep, you find that extrusion width is bound by minimum and maximum values, it could well be that that is causing the value to differ from 0.70 mm (200 % of 0.35).


Delta Printer: Slighty incorrect print alignment on the build plate After building a Delta printer, I noticed that my whole prints are slightly tilted around the Z-axis in comparison to the slicer (e.g. Cura). There is no twist layer wise. This means, the prints themself look actually perfect.

I just don't know what could be the reason of the rotation. I do not believe it is a build issue of the printer, because I tried to keep the printer frame pretty stiff and symmetric.
Could it be, that the Auto-Calibrate Feature of Marlin can add such a rotation?

The picture below illustrates the problem. I expect the black alignment of the print and get the orange one. Note that the print is still a rectangle with ~90° corners.

I figured out that the reason is probably a slightly translated slider construction. Instead of using a proper centered slider as shown in red, I used a slider construction like illustrated in yellow. When all sliders are translated on each tower like this, the print should be tilted by the same amount. This seems to have no influence on the general shape of the object. However, for my next printer I will use a proper centered uni-body slider.


PLA and bed heating? I've read different things about PLA and heat-bed. Some say it is not needed, others recommend 60-70°C, but not for the first layers.

For larger objects I often have the problem that the object does not stick to the blue-painters-tape-covered aluminium print plate. Instead the print "curls" up on one or more corners. To reduce this effect, I'm using a brim between 5 and 10mm. Depending on the size of the object the brim works quite well. Will heating the bed also improve the print quality by reducing the amount of heat warping / curling?

I actually find it's not needed for PLA. I generally have it heated to 40 °C and use blue painters tape along with some hairspray (I prefer Tresemme as it smells gorgeous).

I've experimented with a glass bed, and Buildtak but I find blue painters tape is the key. I overlap the blue tape ends to the bed so it sticks, then spray the hairspray onto the tape. Also bed leveling is super important as are your print settings. What you want for the first layer is to have it essentially "pushing" into the bed. That way it gets good contact and wont curl up during the print, though it can be a challenge to get off later.

TL;DR for PLA you dont need a heated bed, its more about the surface and 1st layer height.


Is there a way to invert motor direction with GCode instead of Firmware in Marlin Is there a way to change the direction a motor goes with GCode instead of reconfiguring Marlin firmware?

You can use M92 to change the axis steps per unit to a negative value, which causes it to move in the opposite direction. I.e. if normally your X axis has 160 steps per mm, using M92 X-160 will invert all of its movements.

However, this is more of a hack than a real, intended solution. It would be better to (if you are concerned with the homing direction) change the configuration to have the printer home in the other direction. Unfortunately, this can only be done by changing the firmware and not through G-code.


PID tuning and different filament temperatures Since I have lots of PETG, I ran tuning to 230 °C (average temp for my filaments).
What is it good for, in terms of temperature ranges?
For the same printer configuration, and just different filaments, will I need to run it again and again?
Let's assume that I'll be printing between 200 °C and 240 °C.

PID tuning can be performed multiple times and the results saved for future use, since the question is about "what are the usable ranges for PID tuning", based on my experience

a slightly suboptimal tuning will not make the temperature oscillate more than 2-3 degrees, which is more than enough for most traditional filaments
if you have a 30-40 °C temperature range you can likely keep a tuning in the middle and be done with it
an accurate tuning is needed if you run the hot end at its maximum rated temperature: mine was rated 250 °C and without a good PID tuning the temperature was overshooting by 2-3 degrees, which was enough to trigger a over-temperature safety shutdown. Using the printer at 245 °C would have resulted in no issues even with sub-optimal PID tuning.

Of course, people with high temperature hot ends (up to 270-300 °C or more) will need a tuning for the usual range (200-240 °C) and one for the higher temperature range to obtain better prints.


Using an Anet A6 3D printer in the UK... (mains voltage issue!) I understand that this is probably more of an electronics question, but was hoping that someone with experience of using an Anet A6 in the UK (or a country outside of the US/China) may be able to help... or alternatively, someone knowledgeable in electronics!

I recently bought and assembled an Anet A6. I am based in the UK. On the power supply transformer of the Anet A6, there is a switch that allows you to select the input voltage from the mains. There are two options, 100 V or 220 V.

When I turn my Anet A6 printer on, nothing happens... I have triple checked all connections and there doesn't seem to be anything wrongly connected or loose.

I am wondering if the reason it is not working is because in the UK we use a different mains voltage 230 V (I think) and a different frequency 50 Hz (I think) to the US and China (which I assume the printer was built to accommodate)?... I am not 100 % sure on this, just a guess, I am far from an electronics expert.

I don't have a multimeter to test if there is voltage flowing (not that I would even know how to test it lol).
Is it likely that this difference between voltage/freq is the reason that it is not working? If so, is there anyway to fix this? I would prefer to buy something (some sort of converter) than tinker with the electronics, as I have no experience in electronics and live in a rented flat, which I really don't want to burn down (not that I would if i owned it).

Any help is massively appreciated, thanks in advance!

Update

I have done what @Oscar suggested and also bought a multimeter to test the circuitry. I plugged my Anet A6 into the mains power supply and turned it on, but still nothing happens... the LED doesn't light up, not does the LCD screen turn on.

I tested the voltage of the power supply whilst it was turned on across connections 6 and 8 in the video below (taken from the assembly instructions video, 12 mins 46 seconds):

Assembly Instructions Video, 12:46

The 6 and 8 connections correspond to the output from the transformer (ie the connections that would be connected to the mainboard). There was no voltage reading at all when I measured it here with the multimeter. Does this indicate that there is a problem with the transformer/power supply, or is this expected?  Or am I testing in the wrong place and there is a better place to test when the printer is on to determine what the problem might be?

The UK uses 230 V mains voltage. The 220 V designation is from the past, Europe is now using 230 V. You do not have to worry about the frequency.

You should place the switch to 220 V and plug the cord into the socket. The printer should start immediately booting (cycling) the printer firmware, the LCD should light up and the cold end cooling fan will spin (annoyingly).

If nothing happens, you need to check the Power Supply Unit (PSU) and all cables for proper connection (does the fan of the PSU spin if it has one, you should at least see a led light up). A multimeter is not expensive and generally very valuable to test if it outputs 12 V. That way you know the PSU is working or not, if it works the problem is at the main printer board.

As these PSU's are pretty cheap and faulty, you could well have received a broken one.

How to measure the voltage?

If you look at the connection terminals you will find labels above them. Measuring position 6 and 8 might be the incorrect ones, this depends on your PSU. If you have exactly the same PSU as from the linked video, measuring between 6 and 8 would be correct:

From the image above the connections from left to right (for other PSU units, the order may be different, I have units where the connection to the mains is on the right):

L, N and ground are used for connection to the mains,
COM (stands for common or 0 V) or sometimes denoted as -V is the output ground (negative, connection for the black wires) and
+V is positive, connection for the red wires.

You need to measure the voltage difference over COM and +V, this should be the voltage of the power supply. Ideally you measure the voltage when the power supply is delivering a load (e.g. directly connected to a strip of LEDs or directly connected to the heated bed; some faulty PSU crash in under load, this can be seen by a lower voltage than the rated voltage).

If the PSU is correctly wired, your fuse is not broken, does not have a LED lighted and the voltage is zero the unit is defective.


How to enable EMERGENCY_PARSER in Marlin firmware? In the documentation of some commands of the Marlin firmware (like M112 - Emergency Stop), it says that the EMERGENCY_PARSER should be enabled to execute them instantaneously.

The thing is, I didn't find any information there of how to enable that EMERGENCY_PARSER or how it works.

Any help will be appreciated.

The constant EMERGENCY_PARSER is located in the advanced printer configuration file Marlin/Configuration_adv.h:

// Enable an emergency-command parser to intercept certain commands as they
// enter the serial receive buffer, so they cannot be blocked.
// Currently handles M108, M112, M410
// Does not work on boards using AT90USB (USBCON) processors!
//#define EMERGENCY_PARSER

To enable the EMERGENCY_PARSER, you need to remove the // before #define EMERGENCY_PARSER and recompile the sources.

Normally your printer will execute a command until it is ready to accept a next instruction. Without the EMERGENCY_PARSER set, the printer finishes the instruction that it is executing at the moment, if set, the execution is interrupted and immediately sent and thus not waiting for a clear space in the buffer.


Casual under-extruding on Ender 3 (don't know what to do anymore!) I own an Ender 3 that I bought in December 2018. I have now a problem with under extrusion that I don't know how to solve. I tried everything: I changed the nozzle, changed the PTFE, changed the filament, dismantled the hotend and controlled that nothing was blocking the flow. The problem is that it isn't a normal under extrusion: in fact, the printing starts quite well, then for some reason the filament doesn't flow anymore. If I try to push the filament I feel like there is a gap that, if I continue pushing, it's "filled" and then the plastic continues to flow normally for some time. And when it has to do very little parts of the printing, this problem occurs, and the final result is a disaster. I hope someone can help me because I don't know what to do. The photos show the condition of the printing, and I have also a brief video that explains the situation better. I added also an image of the original CAD file, so you can see how it should have been, and another project where you can see missing layers when things get "difficult" to print (but, in the past, the printer worked perfectly with such projects!) and a simple parallelepiped, that the printer printed perfectly (I assume it's because it never stops sending filament, I don't know). Thank you for your time.

DropBox link for the photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xav38c8tw8mgs8h/AAA7VGypWIrIR0RwB4Ih3O7ma?dl=0

YouTube link for the video (I recorded the printer printing and made a video with the most important moments such as when there is under extrusion; the video lasts 4 minutes and it can help you find the problem):

You may have a problem with the nozzle heat setting being too low for the flow rate, which is directly related to the travel speed.

As a background, when you're printing fast, the stepper motor driving the extruder has to move filament more quickly. That's obvious, but what is overlooked often is that the heater may not be able to move heat quickly enough to keep up with the filament.

Consider increasing your hot end temperature by five degree steps until you observe that the under-extrusion is resolved.

Some colors and brands of filament require adjustment in hot end temperatures. I'm currently printing with silk-like PLA. The filament I usually use prints at 210°C while it was necessary to turn up the temperature to 225°C to prevent nozzle clog.

Not yet viewed in my inbox is a YouTube subscription notice regarding "calibrating your hot end:"

YouTube hot end calibration

I suspect it may be of value to you in your current situation.


Marlin: Switch Y to E1 I have an Anycubic Kossel with Trigorilla Motherboard, Mega2560+RAMPS1.4.
I'm using Marlin 2_0_bugfix
My Y connector is not working anymore so I would like to use E1 connector as Y.
I found a very good solution here but for me for some reason it's not working.
I did that modification what suggested in the pins_RAMPS.h file (for Y of course instead of X), then I compiled it with Arduino 1.8.13 and uploaded to my printer.
After that I flashed firmware then Y (which I plugged to E1) is not moving anywhere. I have never plugged anything to E1 before, so I think the connector port must be good and working.
What I am missing, what's my mistake?
What I did:
#define Y_STEP_PIN         36
#define Y_DIR_PIN          34
#define Y_ENABLE_PIN       30
#ifndef Y_CS_PIN
  #define Y_CS_PIN         44
#endif

#define E1_STEP_PIN        60
#define E1_DIR_PIN         61
#define E1_ENABLE_PIN      56
#ifndef E1_CS_PIN
  #define E1_CS_PIN        49
#endif

If you followed the answer to switch steppers in firmware to the letter, but changing X for Y, this should work.
I've looked into the pins files for you and concluded that your proposed changes should work.
This leaves you with the following questions:

Is the stepper driver for E1 working?
Is there a stepper driver installed?
Is the cable working/not damaged?

Swap drivers and cables to troubleshoot the problem.


Why are fast printed lines thinner? I have run the K-factor Calibration Pattern generator to tune LIN_ADVANCE and found that when K=0, the whole middle part of the line is thinner.
I was expecting that LIN_ADVANCE would only make a difference short after where the speed was increased or decreased, as described by the first picture on this page.

So from this picture, it looks as the best setting is around K=0.8 and that is also what was set as default in Configuration.h for Chiron. But when I tried the Printing Direction-setting set to 45 degrees the result was different. Then the best setting was around K=0.4.
The picture below shows a second test, where I set K=0 and just changed the fast speed. The faster the thinner lines were printed. I have tested printing long lines and seen that thickness will not compensate, even after a long time.

So why is my printer printing thinner lines when going fast and not using LIN_ADVANCE? Isn't the number of E-steps per mm printed line constant and not depending on the speed?
Here is a zip-file with the files used and pictures. (let me know if not possible to download)
ADDED 2021-02-22:
To learn more about LIN_ADVANCE I made a second test today. To rule out most of the uncertainties that can affect the result, I let the bed stay heated between all four tests. Every test started at 210ºC, then 200, 190 and last 185ºC. The printer waited more than one minute between each temperature change. Bed temperature set to 60ºC. The lines are numbered in the order they are printed. Each test started by printing four lines at 20 mm/s to get "normal" nozzle pressure. Each line is 20+40+20=80mm long. Today I had acceleration set to 1200 and jerk to 8, which are higher than before (500,5). I changed because I use these values in Cura. Unfortunately, the bed is not 100% flat.
LIN_ADVANCE = 0.0

LIN_ADVANCE = 0.4

LIN_ADVANCE = 0.8

LIN_ADVANCE = 1.2

What I learned from these today's test:

Very little ooze when going from 190 to 185ºC. (#46 is good)
At higher temperatures after pausing for a minute, the printer needed some 10 to 15cm of printing distance to get the pressure back. (#16, #17)
Next time I will print every second line as a reference and test fewer speed changes.
Next time I will also test higher temperatures.
The lines are printed thinner at higher speed, independent of temperature when K=0. (I thought it only happened at (too) low temperature).
LIN_ADVANCE setting shall probably be lower when printing at higher temperatures (affected by filament viscosity).
It might be different behaviour between the grey and the orange filament. Orange looks better, but the grey one sticks better to the bed.
It is fun to do testing. :)

I did another test the first day, where I tested K=0 to K=0.8 and where the speed was 20+50+20 mm/s and the length was 60+180+60mm. Temp was 190ºC. It seems to show that even after 180mm of fast printing, the thickness is not recovered:

The pictures above are uploaded at a lower resolution. Original pictures and the G-code can be downloaded from here.

In your case, since linear advance makes the issue disappear, the reason of the thinner lines is the same as explained in the link you provided:

The section (2) simply is very long because you probably have a Bowden setup which takes more than the length of the middle section to recover. However it does recover, see the first line (k=0) in the first image.
At higher (constant) speed the flowrate decreases further due to pressure in the nozzle causing a reduced supply of filament, but this effect cannot be corrected by linear advance because linear advance assumes a linear relationship between pressure in the nozzle and extrusion.