Reopening the HellMouth...

[Slaintemaith]

So after a few weeks of cooling off, here's what I have:

(See Attachments)

After a long, apparently inconclusive (it turned 5:00 and JJ stopped responding--and hasn't today) email session with support, it appears I'm still screwed.
What's (still) annoying is that the printer does -some- bits just fine. Then screws up the same thing in a different part of the same print.

Pictures: One is Matter Control's default calibration box. It's about as close to .5mm as is likely to get. I had to mess with my extrusion multiplier to get that. (Yes, I tested with calipers) Look how nicely it prints! If only I wanted to make open-topped boxes...

Another (the spires on the base) is a retraction test. It printed very well--apart from the purpose of it--seems my retraction sucks.

The other images are of a fidget cube I grabbed from Thingiverse. See how it -almost- looks good? Some of the part connectors (printed in place) look great. Others, which are exactly the same as the ones that printed great look...not as great, and one set is positively stringy.

What. The. Hell?

This is AFTER changing to what the friendly folks at SeeMeCNC suggested I alter my settings to, as it's what they use. And recalibrated my extrusion multiplier.
If screenshots are required for all my settings in MatterControl, that's fine.
gcode available upon request.

I will not use a direct gcode file from the SDCard. Someone suggested I do this before, and it did VERY BAD things to the printer. Seems there are processes involved in doing that that I'm not aware of. I'd just as soon stick to something simple like MatterControl. It's what the machine came with.

*Edit Here's another question: Where the HELL are my attachments?!?!

**Edit Due to the mechanics of this forum biting the big one, here are dropbox links for the images.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6xoh070fy659o ... 7.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wm4ielqzlvw5c ... 3.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qhk1h95cw0jr3 ... 4.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ehvsxtsp340a4 ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/17z7icqnb8emt ... 7.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ntc6t96yldch ... 2.jpg?dl=0

[Jrjones]

I can't really help you with your stringing issues, but I don't seem to have any problems attaching the pictures? Are you letting them all upload completely?
SS of the attachments in this post:

[Qdeathstar]

Have you verified your hot end temp with a meter? You look like you are extruding over temp.

[Qdeathstar]

If you are not able to print using an sd card, you have done something very wrong to your printer, and attempted to fix it using software.

I'd reset the printer to stock firmware, and edit it's eeprom only. Printing from an sd card is the best way to print (though it is probably not responsible for these issues).

I'd also suggest using a different sliced. Anything besides matter control would be an improvement.


Lastly, 3D printing is a process of elimination...

[Qdeathstar]

Are you using a stock system? (Which one)

[Turpinator]

I will not use a direct gcode file from the SDCard. Someone suggested I do this before, and it did VERY BAD things to the printer. Seems there are processes involved in doing that that I'm not aware of. I'd just as soon stick to something simple like MatterControl. It's what the machine came with.

Im going to guess that these 'very bad things' were starting a print without homing or getting the extruder/etc up to temp? That'd just be a few lines of gcode that most programs add to the print job when you specify its being printed from an SD card. Others leave this out of the gcode as its meant to be set up, or the program actually does this stuff prior (and after) running the gcode.


Annnyway. The calibration cube looks good, of course, except for the missing top. I haven't used matter controller in a year (srs, switch to repetier host or something), so I cant talk on it with complete certainty, but I believe there is a 'solid top' or 'top thickness' setting. Make sure these are set to On/not 0. Additionally, it looks like you had 0% infill (or the vase setting was on), so even if there was a top layer, it would have just sagged into the print.

[Xenocrates]

There are some other things that look to be going on. I think you're a little high on temperature (Or too low of fan. Even ABS can benefit from a bit of fan speed). Another thing would be to turn on support, and possibly increase your non-printing travel speed and Z-hop. The combination of factors should reduce stringing, as the now cooler (Either through temp adjustment or fan speed) filament won't dribble through the nozzle as readily, while the higher speed and larger Z-hop should stretch out and break any strings that would develop, making them much easier to remove from the part if they remain. Support would stop pieces like the undersides of those hinges (I think those are what they are) from distorting as much, and increasing the minimum layer time will help on small parts quality wise.

If you could, would you write up a description of the problems you had printing from SD card? it seems odd that it would have major issues, considering all I ever printed from was the SD card.

[Slaintemaith]

Let's see if I can address everything...
I'm printing at 210. This is the temp JJ from SeeMeCNC says they print PLA at at their shop on this printer. I assume the folks who work at SeeMeCNC know what they're doing. I have not checked it with a meter. **Correction, sort of. I've measured the temp with a laser thermometer at the nozzle--it's reading 191. How that translates from the 210 it's set to, I don't know...

Printing with an SDCard resulted in the towers going places they shouldn't go. Namely attempting to go through the glass. I'm not very thrilled about the possibility of trying it again. Besides, the printer came with a tablet that connects to it. It seems like it should be used for this purpose. It's managed to print things in the past. Some things it prints fine. Others, not.

We can't reset the printer to stock firmware, as we changed hot-ends (to self-calibrating) thinking that might help with the inconsistencies we've been having since we built it. It didn't. At all. The new hot end doesn't work with the old firmware, I'm pretty sure.

We were repeatedly corrected that changing from Simplify3D, AstroPrint, or MatterControl is not changing the slicer. And then told that all of these suck. I really don't feel it's a software problem with the images shown above. But what the hell do I know? I just know I want to take a sledgehammer to the thing and maybe buy another one in ten years when they're less fiddly.

The calibration cube is supposed to be missing the top. In this way, one can measure the width of the extrusion. I put that there only to show that the printer can print small squares without tops, but that's really about it.

Turning on support has always created a huge mess at the end of the print which I've never been able to cleanly remove. This is probably because I don't know what support settings are 'good.' I'm willing to adjust them and try them again.

I've done bridging tests before, and it's always worked like a champ in the past. Perhaps those settings need tweaked now. I have no bloody idea.

So the issues are the gloppy mess that are the connectors on the fidget cube. (Which no one's noted some came out perfectly--and those are all photos of The Same Object--not separate prints) And the blobs that look like broken tree branches on the retraction test object (The one that has blobs that look like broken tree branches)

I've read MANY MANY articles on troubleshooting these sorts of problems. Some point to lower nozzle temp--even so low as 185. This just makes our extruder made sad clicking noises and globs up the nozzle. Some point to retraction, but I'm starting to think that the retraction settings don't actually do anything at all. Because no matter how much we futz with them, the results are the same.

My description of SD Card problems is this: Towers lower the nozzle rapidly into the glass. I turn off the printer. End of report. I'm not trying it again. Sorry. I'm aware this might reduce the quality of the print. I don't think it will reduce it to the images shown.

I've not messed with fan speeds. If I'm honest, I'm not even sure what they do apart from 'cool things down.' What things or what effects that has, I haven't a clue. So maybe there's something there. z Hop as well as travel speeds are things I'll happily adjust as well. Where should I start?

Thanks for all advice.

[Slaintemaith]

Here's a different test print. This is why I say I don't think bridging is the issue...
This is with the same settings as all the above images.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zxnunya8a9k1t ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fof1gg7lwyxv0 ... 7.jpg?dl=0

Re: Attachments. I don't have the option to show them inline.

[Xenocrates]

Alright then. It sounds like the SD card G-code was missing an M28 (Home axis's) command. That''s interesting. Since you bought the Mattercontrol tablet (I'm not a fan of it, but then, it offers minimal utility to me since my printer can't be networked using it anyways), we'll work through getting it playing nice with that for now.

So, in not particular order: 210 sounds like a fine temperature for PLA. If you're using the HE280, then it's understandable that you don't want to reflash the stock firmware, since it's only sorta compatible. The temperature reading on the laser doesn't translate particularly cleanly to the actual nozzle temp. However, it does give hints. That 191 sounds high given my experience, but it's also very possible you have a more accurate IR thermometer than I do, since mine reads ~180 at 235C nozzle temps (Aluminum and other uncoated metals are a pain in the butt to get a good IR temperature reading on without a very expensive thermometer). Each PLA spool is slightly different though. Perhaps lowering the temperature will improve the finish (I don't use PLA much, since I do vapor finishing of the parts, which means ABS is almost a requirement). That would track with what I usually see as effects and advice.

Increasing the fan speed does in fact cool things down, which acts to get the extrusion below the transition temperature quicker, effectively freezing it in place (Much like chilling dough will firm it up). This reduces the chance of it distorting and drooping. This should improve the bottoms (And given the size, probably the tops of the hinges), and probably keep those cylindrical pins from shifting sideways at an angle. I would bring fan speeds up in 5% steps or so, then do finer tuning once you know around where you want to be.

To be clear, Mattercontrol and Astroprint are primarily host programs, but at least mattercontrol contains a slicer (Although you can feed in arbitrary G code instead if you want.) S3D is a slicer primarly, although it may contain a host program (I refuse to pay a company money to give them ownership of my G-code, which seems to be in their license agreement and they refuse to say that it doesn't). This is mostly a pedantic clarification, since I'm not going to tell you to switch slicers (or avoid doing so). I feel my role is to give advice and knowledge, not dictate the process. However, each slicer has it's strengths and weaknesses. S3D is considered to set the bar for CONFIGURABLE support. KISSlicer is thought to be the best of the free (as in beer) slicers around for general use, but needs a lot of configuration and tweaking. Mattercontrol and matterslice is flexible and somewhat balanced, but has some interestingly terrible failings, IE Z-hop not working in a raft at all, broken Slic3r implementation, and a weird relationship between "first layer speed" settings and the actual speeds when making a raft.

Supports may need tweaking. If you're having issues removing them, I would increase the gap set in the slicer, or lower the density of the support. This offers a balancing act between drooping and ease of removal. Pick your poison.

For travel speed, I would start by increasing it ~20mm/s, and raise the Z-hop to maybe something like 2mm. This is a large step, but you'll be able to see any changes pretty clearly like this.

As far as retraction, low and slow seems to be the right answer, especially for PLA. If your slicer supports independent prime and retract speeds, retract slow and prime fast. PLA is non-newtonian at temperature, either you want a very fast speed which few extruders can accelerate to in a small enough time or a slower one to remove as much molten material and pressure as you can from the melting chamber.

[Slaintemaith]

Tried again using S3D. I 'Translated' all the settings from MatterControl into the new host.
This is interesting...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g3i0h3808rsvq ... 9.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/78nm9ev49zf34 ... 3.jpg?dl=0