2.2.2 is almost perfect for dual extruder prints

[rsavell]

First I want to thank you for all of the improvements in 2.2.2 for dual prints. It seems like you got all of the issues ironed out except for 1.

When i am printing something using both extruders on a PowerSpec 3D Pro using 2 processes with the right extruder printing the first part of the object and the left extruder printing the second part of the object it starts out fine. The first process with the right extruder is heated to 220 and the left extruder's heater is left off. Then it gets to the second process it turns off the right extruder's heater and turns on the left extruder's heater but does not wait for the heater to stabilize before it starts printing and of fails. The settings on the temperature tab "Wait for temperature controller..." do not seem to make a difference either.

the gcode is:

; layer 11, Z = 2.18 : this is where is switches from process 1 to process 2
M104 S0 T0 ; Turns off right extruder's heater
M104 S215 T1 ; Turns on the left extruder's heater

; Needs to wait for the left extruder to reach the set temp but there is no gcode generated for this so it just starts trying to print with a cold extruder

M127
M135 T1
; tool H0.2 W0.4
G1 X69.487 Y-13.042 F4200
G1 Z2.18 F1200

Is there a setting somewhere or something I am missing for this?

Thanks,

Randy

[JoeJ]

You probably want to have both extruders heated up at the start of the print since it can take several minutes for a nozzle to reach 230C. You wouldn't want the other nozzle sitting idle that whole time.

Click "edit process settings" and then choose the "PowerSpec 3D X/Pro (both extruders)" profile. This is the profile you should be using if you are printing with both extruders, as it is already configured correctly to heat up both nozzles. Look at the starting script and you can see the commands that they are using.

And I've noticed some big improvements too, so I'm glad you're also getting better prints! I talked to some of their developers, and it sounds like they have more on the way too!!

[rsavell]

JoeJ,

Ideally we could set the second extruder to start heating up several layers before the second process kicks in and I think that is possible by setting the temp at the correct layer but this should work. There is a setting for waiting for the extruder heater to stabilize but it does not seem to do anything in the gcode. if they could make that work it would provide us with the flexibility we need.

new features coming - way cool!

I vote for honeycomb infill!

Thanks,

Randy

[dennisjm]

I've done the opposite quite a bit... set the 2nd extruder to turn off when I was done using it. You can do that pretty easy and I I assume you could do the opposite easily to by just setting the temperature to what you want several layers before you need it.

Unfortunately, the method breaks down really quickly with multiple processes and lack of purge walls.
1) The multiple processes with temperature changes on layers is completely broken. I can't get it to work and I have no workaround. I can only do this if there is one and only one process.
2) You wouldn't be able to purge the newly heated nozzle well. Purge settings just don't cut it and even if they did have a purge wall feature you'd have had to have the nozzle printing the purge wall from the bed up so that point moots the issue anyway.
3) There is also a toolchange/temperature bug that still isn't fixed. Can cause a tool change to the wrong extruder... thus breaking your prints. Search for workarounds and descriptions of the bug.

[JoeJ]

@dennisjm -

1) Multiple process temp changes seem to work fine for me. For example, if I have process 1 and set a temp at layer 5, then process 2 and set a temp at layer 10 - those go into the gcode correctly. However, as it continues to go back and forth between processes, it will also correctly keep switching the temperatures back and forth since your two printing processes have different temperatures. So for your case, I think you would just want to have the same temperature setpoints for both processes, but it all seems to be working correctly in all the tests I've done (feel free to post a factory file if you're still having trouble).

2) Yes, if you want to use a purge wall or something, you need to print it the whole way up. So you couldn't use that if you wanted to leave one extruder off for half the build

3) I'm pretty sure the HBP temp change issue isn't going to be fixed until someone patches GPX. I haven't seen any other programs that use GPX that don't have this same issue.

[dennisjm]

I'll retest it again one of these days.. Last time I checked the temperature points didn't make it in the gcode at all or were on the wrong layers entirely.
The issue with the hbp isn't a gpx issue. It's in the gcode. You can fix the gcode manually and run it through gpx and print correctly.

@dennisjm -

1) Multiple process temp changes seem to work fine for me. For example, if I have process 1 and set a temp at layer 5, then process 2 and set a temp at layer 10 - those go into the gcode correctly. However, as it continues to go back and forth between processes, it will also correctly keep switching the temperatures back and forth since your two printing processes have different temperatures. So for your case, I think you would just want to have the same temperature setpoints for both processes, but it all seems to be working correctly in all the tests I've done (feel free to post a factory file if you're still having trouble).

2) Yes, if you want to use a purge wall or something, you need to print it the whole way up. So you couldn't use that if you wanted to leave one extruder off for half the build

3) I'm pretty sure the HBP temp change issue isn't going to be fixed until someone patches GPX. I haven't seen any other programs that use GPX that don't have this same issue.

[JoeJ]

What are you doing to fix the gcode? It was my understanding that because of the old MakerBot style of having a heated bed associated with a specific extruder, that you can't even change the heated build platform temperature without causing the bot to actually do a full tool change to the extruder that is associated to the bed. I would be interested to hear what changes you are making. As long as it isn't something silly like doing ANOTHER toolchange after that to switch back, then it could be useful.

I did more testing this morning on the multiple process temp stuff and it all worked correctly. So you might want to re-test that one.

[dennisjm]

So if I'm printing on a dual extrusion, and I change the temperature, it'll look something like this

; new layer with new temperature
M140 S<whatever> T0
... continue printing
<here is the problem we were printing with T1 not T0>
... broken...

So to fix it I just put a T1 after the temperature set command.

Or Use a workaround listed in other threads already.
The workaround is to re-set the extruder temperature the same layers as the bed temperature changes. Gotchas are that you need to make sure the bed is listed first in the temperature controllers. The result is that after your M140 S..., you'll have another temperature set for the extruder which in effect changes the tool back.

I'm surprised we're still dealing with this bug really. Maybe need more people to +1. It sure pops up in the forums a lot though.

[gelly]

i am really tired of this bug and how it has not been fixed or even looked at. what do we need to do in order to get attention from the developers ?

[rsavell]

Yes, thank you gelly!!!

That was my point - yes of course we can work around this by going in and editing the gcode but we all bought this software to do things like that for us and we just want it to work.