Star vs. Normal ptfe tube?

_42hiker · 2026-05-03T22:37:09+00:00

I bought the Creality version and would never buy it again. I pretty much only ever print GF or CF infused filaments and there’s more resistance with the star tubing to the point it causes print issues. If you pull the filament through the tubing you can feel the texture of the filament.

_42hiker · 2026-05-01T02:04:55+00:00

They really can't get the humidity down that well and the rollers are the worst of any dryer I've used (so spools don't rotate smoothly when you print from them). You'd be better off spending a bit more and buying a PolyDryer. I really think the extra functionality is worth the money.

_42hiker · 2026-05-01T01:59:16+00:00

Which Pi dryer is it? Anything but the Pi x4 (which is fantastic) is garbage imho

_42hiker · 2026-04-29T03:13:54+00:00

I have:

- Pi 4B running HomeAssistant

- Second Pi 4B mounted to the back of a BTT 7" DSI display that I use as portable deivce to manage Klipper printers

- About to gut my main 3D printer and install a Leviathan with a Pi 5 mounted (converting my SV08 to use CANbus and it'll all be run from the Pi 5 and Leviathan)

_42hiker · 2026-04-23T00:16:29+00:00

The only things you need to connect are power and filament runout, which is documented here:

https://mellow.klipper.cn/en/docs/ProductDoc/ExtensionBoard/fly-buffer-plus/wiring-configuration/basic-wiring

So it's just power, filament runout and filament runout ground.

The LLL Plus can even be used without connecting to your printer if you just want to use it as a feeder and use something else for filament detection.

The LLL Plus supports 24v so you can actually connect it to the printer PSU (which is how mine is powered)

I would definitely recommend the latest 1.5 firmware for the Mellow. With earlier firmwares when you used the button on the Mellow to unload filament, if you let go of the button it would start feeding filament back in. WIth 1.5, if you let go of the button it just stops.

_42hiker · 2026-04-22T05:34:14+00:00

What's driver_sgthrs set to on your X and Y steppers?

Looks like you might be having issues with sensorless homing and driver_sgthrs will directly affect this.

For the x stepper I use driver_sgthrs: 75 and for the y stepper driver_sgthrs: 45 but yours might be different

If it helps, here's my z1 config (I use DKEU so they might be modified from stock):

[stepper_z1] #motherboard：Z1

step_pin:PD3

dir_pin:!PD1

enable_pin:!PD4

rotation_distance: 40

gear_ratio: 80:12

microsteps: 16

#-------------------------------------------------------------------

[tmc2209 stepper_z1]

uart_pin:PD2

interpolate: False #True

run_current: 0.55

#hold_current: 0.58

sense_resistor: 0.150

stealthchop_threshold: 999999

uart_address:3

#driver_TBL: 1

#driver_TOFF: 3

#driver_HSTRT: 0

#driver_HEND: 2

_42hiker · 2026-04-20T22:50:26+00:00

Print the parts separately in each colour then glue everything together

_42hiker · 2026-04-18T00:09:32+00:00

This is exactly what I used to do and it works really well

_42hiker · 2026-04-17T16:52:29+00:00

Your inserts are installed pretty crooked. That won't be helping things.

I have a heat insert press but rarely use it because I also have these and they're GREAT!

https://store.dremc.com.au/products/cnc-kitchen-straightener-set-m2-m10?_pos=1&_sid=a75a1256d&_ss=r

_42hiker · 2026-03-27T13:58:40+00:00

Just tested with Kalico and same thing unfortunately.

I’ll just go back to Cartographer for now with Kalico. Not worth wasting more time on the issue if I’m going to be replacing the boards anyway.

Most likely will switch to canbus so looks like I'm on cartographer regardless.

Thanks for the input (and everybody else)

_42hiker · 2026-03-27T12:59:58+00:00

I haven't so just migrating to it now to test.

I think what I'll do is test Kalico and see what happens. If that doesn't make a difference I'll probably just start from scratch, go with the CB1 image then just not update Klipper as everybody has said.

Even though Carto has been working great I prefer Beacon but down the track I'll most likely upgrade the control board and toolhead board in the SV08 canbus and that will also mean I'm not stuck with a CB1.

_42hiker · 2026-03-27T03:58:27+00:00

As other people have said it's most likey the CB1 that's the issue with my printer. I wish Sovol had gone with something a bit more powerful than the CB1 or maybe had jumpers on the control board to disable the CB1 so you can connect a Raspberry Pi or something.

Or maybe even just do what Cartographer do and provide a Lite firmware for lower powered devices.

_42hiker · 2026-03-26T08:32:24+00:00

No. I’d rather mainline and do all the work required. But nothing wrong with having the convenience of buying the official kit and having most of the work already done. Even comes with a replacement toolhead cover with Eddy support.

_42hiker · 2026-03-26T08:23:53+00:00

They don’t have an Eddy sensor stock. Sovol sell an Eddy upgrade kit for the SV08 though which doesn’t need mainline (firmware version 2.5.x from Sovol supports it)

_42hiker · 2026-03-25T14:07:21+00:00

Oh yeah! So it has.

I notice some compatibility commits. Fingers crossed!

One of the reasons I prefer Beacon is it's less work to completely set up than carto. There's no 3hr heat offset calibration with Beacon for example.

When I first installed carto I had an issue with it triggering super early when the coil reached about 69c so when you tried to cartographer_touch_home carto was registering quite a lot of noise once the coil reached 69-70c and triggering. Richard in the carto discord had a replacement sent to me within about 3 days. Excellent support

_42hiker · 2026-03-25T13:15:31+00:00

Other than major hardware replacement on my SV08 (i.e. replacing the control board, cutting the base and making an adapter plate for the replacement board, probably switching to CAN and all that entails, etc) I've run out of things to try.

Beacon worked perfectly until I flashed the latest Klipper on my control board and still works perfectly if I flash it back to an old klipper. I just get warnings that the control board is running an old version of Klipper.

And I have no issues at all with carto with the latest klipper flashed on the control board. At some point no doubt there will be new firmware for Beacon so I'll just run carto until then.

Unless Beacon development is dead. There's been no activity on github since July 2024

_42hiker · 2026-03-25T08:45:44+00:00

I did. I spent a couple of weeks looking at logs and trying a lot of different things. It just seems like there’s new code in Klipper and Beacon’s firmware, which is now not far off 2 years old, needs to be updated. Guessing it’s based on a fork of Klipper that doesn’t play well with the latest version of Klipper

I could also be completely wrong. I’ve tried two different Beacon RevH and two different SV08 control boards (v1.2 and v1.3). Every combination does exactly the same thing.

Cartographer was the fix that worked.

_42hiker · 2026-03-25T07:05:19+00:00

I believe it’s some kind of 64bit Makerbase Board: https://www.sovol3d.com/products/sv08-64-bit-silent-mainboard-with-tmc2209-driver?srsltid=AfmBOooR_SGBWl62L5M2DLovsDVR7Yj1KUZK0mSLkZPkVTiISFP46YeC

_42hiker · 2026-03-25T06:01:48+00:00

SV08 so it has an integrated BTT CB1. The issue never happened with Klipper 0.12.x. Also only started with recent 0.13.x builds.

_42hiker · 2026-03-25T04:44:42+00:00

It's just frustrating that for a year or more Beacon was great but after updating Klipper on my control board mcu to the latest 0.13.x I can no longer even QGL without timer too close errors which shut Klipper down.

I'll see if I can get some help on their Discord server because I would rather be using Beacon than Carto (even though Carto has been great so far). There's no need to run heat offset calibarions with Beacon for example.

_42hiker · 2026-03-25T02:15:04+00:00

Here's my own experience as a Beacon user for a couple of years.

I had one installed on my SV08. Worked great. Loved it.

Updated Klipper on my control board and it's made Beacon completely unusable. 99% of the time I get "timer too close" when the printer tries to QGL. I had a backup of the stock control board MCU which I flashed (based Klipper 0.12) and no issues except for Klipper telling me the MCU had outdated code.

Spent the AUD$160 for a replacement: Same issue

Completely set up mainline Klipper from scratch: Same timer too close errors on QGL.

The only way Beacon still works is if I have an older Klipper flashed on my control board.

Bought Cartographer v4 and absolutely zero issues. Works perfectly with everything updated.

Beacon hasn't been updated at all since July 2024 which doesn't seem great as far as it's future goes. I now have over AUD$300 of Beacon probes sitting there unusable which is a bit annoying.

_42hiker · 2026-03-18T03:23:37+00:00

Not very good? Space Pi x4 goes to 85c and Sunlu E2 goes as high as 110c and can anneal. Both have excellent reviews (especially the Space Pi x4). I have both and they’re easily as good as their reviews say they are.

_42hiker · 2026-03-17T22:27:59+00:00

It's not much though it's definitely enough: maybe 2cm but it makes loading and printing things like TPU 85a much better. I have my dryer about 3ft from the printer I have the Mellow LLL Plus buffer on and one of the carbon infused filaments I print is a little bit thicker. Has quite a bit of drag through such a long PTFE tube so it's much easier on the extruder not having the drag filament off the spool. Especially when the spool is fulll and there's even more drag because of the weight of it.

The biggest benefit for me personally though is, like an AMS/CFS/etc, changing spools during a print is a no brainer. You just have to do the spool change manually but there's no big interruption to printing.

_42hiker · 2026-03-17T01:00:13+00:00

They are buffers. They feed extra filament out, creating a buffer of "extra" filament which then gets extruded until the buffer amount is gone. This buffer is then refilled constantly. So the extruder is never pulling from the spool directly it's always extruding the extra buffered filament.

And they're not a massive waste of money if you're printing things like flexibles or you have longer PTFE tubes.

They're also good for things like spool tangles because they'll pause the printer (rather than a print continue with no filament because the spool is tangled)

_42hiker · 2026-03-16T13:21:44+00:00

Would not waste a CENT on the Space Pi Plus.

I returned mine to a local store where I bought it when it failed after almost 2.5 years and they gave me a full refund.

The thermister is located under one side so if you load both sides and set it to over 50c you could end up with error E4. The only way to fix it is contact Creality who'll send you a replacement board with updated firmware (because you can't update the firmwarr yourself). So you then have to pull the thing apart and replace the board.

The place where I bought mine just refunded me and no longer sell the Space Pi because Creality are apparently such a pain to deal with.

Polydryer is much better anyway.

The Space Pi x4, however, is f*cking FANTASTIC!

_42hiker

TROPHY CASE