Running a micro swiss direct drive on the ender 5 plus,
using Matter3d performance PLA
retraction : distance 1mm
speed 40mm/sec
tried troubleshooting and printed an open box with .27mm thick walls and didn’t have the same problem.
Have you checked your e-steps, I had to adjust mine when I went to a Micro Swiss hot end.
Hey there!
What temperature are you running at? It almost looks to me like a little bit of under-extrusion on the part. I agree with @HobbyMaker3D, you might want to try to check that your esteps are correct. I have included a guide for this down below. One other thing you may want to try is to re-tune your retraction distance, there are many models that can be found online which could help you to find out what retraction distance would work best for you.
If you have any more questions please feel free to reach out!
Thanks,
Matthew
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Thanks for the tip…
Ya, that is definitely a necessary step, we did that a while ago, big improvement, but this is something else,
running at 225’
we’ll go through the teaching tech retraction calibration instructions and see if that helps.
I did talk to Aman from Matter3d, he said its not exactly a retraction issue, but its related, he couldn’t remember what the setting was in Cura,
but we’ll start with the teaching tech calibration and post back.
if anyone else has some advice or tip, I know its fixable (we can cheat and set 'start new layer on the inside) but that doesn’t fix the problem, just hides it, and doesn’t work if the wall is real thin.
I run PLA at 205, my buddy runs it at 215, maybe just try a lower temp.
Temp tower. I find generic don’t always produce the best results personally I am almost always 210-235 but I run hardened steel nozzles that take a bit extra to heat.
Have you tried a cold pull? Gunge in the hot end can cause under extrusion as can things in the nozzle. Have you been running any glitter, glow, or wood/stone filaments they chew the nozzles up badly and can leave bits in the hot end.
Esteps and extrusion multiplier as others suggested.
Oh check the filament runs smoothly too!
also if the filament path isn’t smooth that can cause issues fur friends helping cannot be ruled out!
Are you using matter3d performance pla?
No just giving general information. I just adjusted my regular PETG temp setting down 10 degrees and am getting better bridging. All things to try.
ok, trying out a few things, trying to go back to basics,
going through some of the teaching tech tutorials.
getting a lot of messed up results that seem to be useless.
nozzle is clean, filament is clean
slicer flow calibration was very confusing, aiming for a .4mm wall, came out with a nice smooth finish, no holes, but with a .47 thickness, re-adjusted the numbers, ended up with a .4mm wall, but it looks bad, full of holes, and not a nice smooth finish at all. we can target a .27 wall and end up with a .36 wall that looks perfect. no holes and smooth, so its not the thickness thats the problem, no clue whats going on there.
temp tower seems to show no significant improvement from any temp, none look amazing, but none look horrible either,
retraction tuning/tower make no clear answer either, going from .7mm to 1.2mm the bottom looked better, got worse as it went to the top. flipped it from 1.2mm- .7mm, also tried them all at 1.2. all three had similar results. looked best at the bottom, worse at the top.
none of these calibration tools appear to be helpful, no answer to the fine tuning, and we still haven’t even looked at the initial problem of under extrusion after some sequence of retraction.
not sure where to look to get this figured out
Hey there.
Would you mind sharing some pictures of these tests that you ran for us to look at? I have an idea of what it may be but I would like to see the prints first if possible.
Thanks,
Matthew
first up, test cube, the walls look ok, a little bulging on the corners
the top looks like under extrusion
here is a wall thickness test, the one on the right was done first, .2mm layer height, with a called for .4mm wall width, came out at .47 (flow rate is set at 97%)
when adjusted to 84% we have the box on the left, came out at .4mm width like it should, but now its full of holes, and uneven.
at the bottom is a different test, aiming for a .27 wall, and came out at .35, at the bottom before the gap, it prints nice and smooth, after the gap, full of holes and uneven (you can see the holes easier when held up to the light) also the gap was full of strings.
we had printed another box without the gap and it was really good, looked like the bottom section. (but it got destroyed for another test lol)
not sure how to get it to print to spec width without it doing holes, i
retraction test from left to right, first was 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, second was 1.2, 1.1, 1.0, 0.9, 0.8, 0.7, third was all 1.2, and forth was, 0.6, 1.0, 1.4, 0.6, 1.0, 1.0 extra restart distance 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, -0.1, -0.1, -0.1. prime (unretract) speed 50, 50, 50, 40, 40, 40 (bottom to top)
temp test (probably fix the bridges with better cooling)
first was 210, 215, 220, 225, 230, I also broke the tabs to test strength, they did not have really any stringing. second was 210, 220, 230, 240, 250.
Thanks for all the pictures!
The under extrusion looks like not enough top layers to me. You may want to try upping the amount of top layers a bit to help with this.
Have you tried tuning your esteps? It almost looks to me like your extruder is performing a little weakly here. Another thing you may to try is to make sure your pla is dry. Does this happen with all the filaments you have tried or is it only this one?
Thanks,
Matthew
Thanks Mathew,
we did calibrate the e-steps a while ago, doesn’t hurt to double check, I’m thinking because thie performance PLA requires hotter temps, that the stock cooling isnt enough, we still get pillowing on large flat top prints with 7 layers.
All these minor issues, arnt even the big problem, its the gapping and holes, inconsistent extrusion after a retraction, or in the test case it even performance poorly when we try to get the walls to build at spec (0.46 when asking for .40 prints fine, but .40 when asking for .40 looks bad)
If it was moisture, we shouldn’t get good prints at .36mm single wall print (but asking for a .27)
wouldn’t hurt to dry the filament, re check the e-steps, put in a new nozzle. But I am not seeing any constancy in the tests to point that any of those are the problem
thanks for your replies, it is helpful to run ideas around
oh forgot to mention, on the test cube on teaching tech, its his generated G-code, i cant add top layers. I also think i might need to slow the top down, its at 80mm/sec.
Hello there!
I would always advise against using these pre-generated gcode files from these creators. There can be enough differences in the machines to cause some weirdness in the prints. I would advise trying a slice of the models yourself, I have included a link to the file below if you need a download link!
Give the earlier suggestions a shot and see if those help you at all.
Thanks,
Matthew
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