Troubleshooting CR-10 S4 with Direct Drive - gaps in perimeter at end of layer

[jamsessionein]

I need some help troubleshooting!

I have had recurring issues with the extruder on my CR-10 S4 jamming, and I honestly don't like the bowden setup much anyway, so I went ahead and got a Microswiss Direct Drive for my machine.



I recalibrated the machine's e-steps after the change to the point where I'm pretty confident that it's delivering the expected extrusion lengths on demand (telling it to push 100mm moves the filament 100mm). I also dialed the retraction settings back a bunch

However, my prints are getting these tiny holes all over the exterior of the parts. This is PLA at 205.



Looks like underextrusion? I checked and saw that I had coasting on, so I disabled it and printed again, and got an almost identical part. So I lowered the retraction a bit... same thing, basically unchanged. I started trying to push the 'extra restart distance' setting up in Simplify3D to .2mm and then .4mm and saw... well, again, no real change on the exterior of the part. On a lark, I set the extra restart distance to 1.4mm, which gave me this blobby monstrosity, so that wasn't really fruitful.



Here are my print settings right now:











Turning retraction down or even off doesn't seem to do much to the surface finish of the part. I still get these little pits.

I've tried setting the temperatures a bit higher (~215) but I haven't seen a change in results. I also switched filaments, in case that was involved.



Since my slicer is set to build layers inside-out, I was pretty sure the gaps are where filament is trailing off at the end of a layer, but none of the settings I'm tweaking seem to do anything to it. I set Simplify3d to start layers in the same X-Y position and I saw most of the gaps line up...



Any ideas?

[dkightley]

My suggestion would be to have a read of this page: https://www.simplify3d.com/support/prin ... -and-zits/

I Know it talks about extra bits being extruded at the start/end of layers, but the opposite of "too much" is "not enough".....and its the same issue that causes gaps as blobs!.

Turn coasting back on and follow the guidance on the referenced page. You need to work out if its an issue at the start or the end of the layer first....then make adjustments.

And a final piece of advice......if you want to post details of your print setup, don't screen print half of the settings pages......create and attach a Factory file. It has absolutely everything anyone would need to help diagnose your problem. File dropdown....Create Factory file.

[Aosen]

I have EXACTLY the same issue with my MircoSwiss direct drive. I've spent months tweaking settings on/off and from 0 up to whatever, and it seems to be a light switch of either blobs or those under extrusion gaps. Did you figure anything out?

[jamsessionein]

Honestly, still a work in progress. Not as reliably solved as I was hoping, so I've been leaning on my other machines in the interim.