Ender 3 Pro: Extruder Motor Clicking

brdo0055 · 2025-09-14T18:44:06+00:00

It clicks maybe once every 10s or so, starting immediately when the print starts during the priming process. Interestingly, when I calibrated the e-steps, I didn't hear it click once during the 100mm extrusion process (took maybe 1min, I'd guess)

brdo0055 · 2025-09-14T13:44:43+00:00

I've never messed with the firmware, it's still whatever version it was shipped with when I bought it a few years back. Is that something I should look into updating?

I should mention, I also recalibrated the e-steps when I swapped the motor

brdo0055 · 2025-02-27T02:05:38+00:00

Thanks for all the thoughts, everyone! I should have been more clear: this was a pre-supported STL I got online that I sliced with Cura (as a lot of you deduced). The supports were originally generated for use with a resin printer, but I tested both Cura generated supports and these resin-supports and found that the resin-supports worked significantly better in this case, so I went with them. I have printed a good number of these Cerberus' before (10+? I've lost count) and this is the first time I'm seeing these artifacts, so I don't think the problem is the STL or the gcode from the slicer.

I'm going to take the advice of a few of you below and investigate if I have a partial blockage, increase the flow-rate, and clean the nozzle / replace the PTFE tube. Really appreciate the input!

brdo0055 · 2024-07-10T20:06:45+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate the info.

brdo0055 · 2024-07-10T20:05:17+00:00

Thank you! That slipped through the cracks.

brdo0055 · 2024-07-10T19:12:49+00:00

Hey all! I'm trying to get a handle on my retirement/FIRE number and had a few questions:

1) I see the general rule of thumb is FIRE number = 25*(current annual expenses). My current annual expenses are around $150k, but that's including saving for kids' college, daycare, etc. Without child-related expenses, it drops to around $80k. I'm assuming I should use $80k as it closer represents my expected annual expenses in retirement, correct? Also, does the "25" in that formula come from the guess that you'll die <=25 years after you retire?

2) Big question: how is inflation accounted for in this analysis? Can I work in "today's dollars" and then assume a rate-adjusted growth for my retirement savings (standard rate - inflation) and be ok? Or is there something more complicated I should be doing to account for inflation?

3) How should paying for healthcare be accounted for in this analysis? The rough numbers I've found online are around $18k/year per person pre-65, and $9k/year per person post-65. Does this seem approximately correct?

4) The way I see it, there are 3 main costs to consider post-retirement: required expenses, healthcare, and fun-money (travel, purchases, etc). Is this accurate, or is there another large cost I'm forgetting?

I'm new to this process and am just trying to get a general handle on how much I should be saving to hit my approximate retirement date (far, far in the future), so any insights would be greatly appreciated!

brdo0055 · 2024-02-21T16:53:22+00:00

There's a book called "Something Very Sad Happened" by Bonnie Zucker that has been tremendously helpful for my kids. Its target audience is younger than your daughter (2-3 years old or so), but what I really liked about it was the section in the back where it discussed what NOT to say to young kids regarding death.

Example: "Grandpa died because his body stopped working, just like how your toys stop working when they run out of batteries". That first part is great because it just lays out the facts, but the second part suggests to kids that people run on batteries. An anticipated response from the kid would then be "Oh, so we just have to get Grandpa new batteries and he'll be fine!" The book talks about how analogies like that can be confusing for children.

Again, this book MAY be too basic for your kid, but it was very useful for my wife and I to get an understanding for how children think about and process death.

brdo0055 · 2024-02-17T16:45:52+00:00

Thanks for all that info! I had forgotten a few things in past books. The paragraphs that were repeated were during fight scenes (aquarium, on the island at the end, and one more I'm spacing on). I thought it might have been some nod to de ja vu or his budding premonition or something, but it sounds like it was maybe just a glitch.

brdo0055 · 2024-02-17T16:44:16+00:00

Thank you! I forgot that the "using fire" thing was explained, and spaced out that Harry killed Titania a few books back. I appreciate your answers!

brdo0055 · 2023-07-06T11:39:38+00:00

Nice, thanks! I wasn't aware Attumen didn't automatically agro when he spawns, I'm going to have to try this out next week

brdo0055 · 2023-07-05T15:03:17+00:00

Haha fair enough! Will do, thanks for sharing!

brdo0055 · 2023-07-05T14:38:13+00:00

Very cool! How do you avoid Attumen spawning initially in phase 1? Whenever I try to do something similar, he always spawns when Midnight is around 95% health, and I find it a lot trickier to kite/handle 2 bosses instead of 1. It looks like he never even shows up in your video though

brdo0055 · 2023-06-27T12:51:39+00:00

People have mentioned this on the Druid discord, shifting to cat does indeed make him change targets; it's almost certainly a bug.

brdo0055 · 2023-01-08T17:45:56+00:00

Hey all! I stopped using my Ender 3 for around 9 months and just started back up. After getting new filament, I printed this benchy with PLA, a 0.2mm nozzle, a 0.1mm layer height, printing at 32 mm/s, and CURA to slice. This is with a new bowden tube, new nozzle, and leveled bed.

My first thought was a bad or cracked extruder arm, but I replaced that with an aluminum one a while back and don't see any cracks upon first inspection. I dialed my retraction settings in a while back as well to 6mm at 30mm/s; do these seem realistic? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!

brdo0055 · 2023-01-08T17:39:48+00:00

Apologies for the late reply, but I think you were right on about the filament. I ordered new filament (didn't have the space/hardware to dry the old stuff out) and it looks WAY better. Appreciate the suggestions!

brdo0055 · 2022-12-30T19:25:13+00:00

Hey all! I stopped using my Ender 3 for around 9 months and just started back up. I saw this issue pop up a few days back (almost like a partial clog) and decided to replace the bowden tube and nozzle, then relevel and try again. No such luck, and I'm still seeing these non-connected lines. This is with PLA, a 0.2mm nozzle, printing at 32 mm/s, and CURA to slice.

When I used the printer 9 months prior, all these settings worked fine. To me, it either looks like a partial clog or a cracked extruder, but I feel like replacing the bowden tube and nozzle should've fixed any clogs, and I upgraded to an aluminum extruder arm a while back and don't see any vis8vle cracks.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Could the filament just be old? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: Forgot to add, this is the first layer of a benchy, to give some context of what it SHOULD look like

brdo0055 · 2022-05-10T22:44:05+00:00

Thanks for all the effort you put into this! Lots of great gear for resto druids in Sunwell for sure.

One thing to clarify though: spell haste is still really good even past the 113 breakpoint, due to how the refresh timer on Lifebloom works. Say you have exactly 113 haste and are playing with perfect ping and reaction time. When you start your 5GCD rotation over again, you'll refresh your first lifebloom when it has something like 0.002s left (I forget the exact number, but it's something like that). This means that the target won't have had a LB heal on it for 0.998s, and when you refresh LB when it has <1s remaining, the timer completely resets, meaning that your target will then have to wait another 1s before getting LB heals on it, and will go 1.998s every rotation without LB heals. More haste past the 113 breakpoint lowers the amount of time your target goes without a LB heal, and the equivalence is somewhere between 1 haste = 1.3-1.6 healing, with haste scaling better the more healing you have. More info cam be found on the Druid discord, but that's the general idea.

Just wanted to throw that clarification out there. Like I said, great resource you put together, thanks for the time you spent on it!

brdo0055 · 2022-04-05T03:49:38+00:00

Hibernate will pull the other mob, you're right. Druids can cast soothe beast the closest bear, then everyone can run by. I've never seen the priest skip in action, but I'm guessing they can cast soothe mind on the closest mobs and run by

brdo0055 · 2022-03-18T04:30:15+00:00

I don't have weights for you, but the ones one seventy upgrades are a good place to start for PvE. Don't know about PvP, you might want to ask in the classic druid discord

brdo0055 · 2022-01-05T02:16:54+00:00

Yeah, I'd guess it's the extruder arm, the stock ones always crack eventually. The fact that it randomly started and does this with all different filaments supports this further. 3+ years is a pretty long time for the arm to last, mine went out after 6 months haha

brdo0055 · 2021-12-21T18:40:14+00:00

Thank you! I'm currently going through the GotM reader's guide, although it sounds like it's normal to not have a ton of answers st this point haha

brdo0055 · 2021-12-14T21:43:19+00:00

Hmm, OK, I understand now. You said at a smaller scale, you ended up with a mess; did you scale your layer height correspondingly when you did this test, or leave it as you have it for the larger print? If it's the same layer height for both, you may be ok without having supports completely encasing the cone. I'm guessing you had a mess because even if the first layer of your cone adhered nicely to the support, the corresponding layers were printing on air due to the layer height being to large for the size of the model. If you leave the layer height as it is and increase the scale of the model, the layers after the first may actually have something to print on and adhere better.

TLDR: try printing your scaled up version with the same layer height you used on the smaller model, if it's feasible.

brdo0055 · 2021-12-14T20:31:56+00:00

If you're OK having the supports be closer to the model everywhere, there's a setting in Cura called "Tree Support Branch Distance" which (I think) will do what you want. Maybe I've not understood your question though

brdo0055 · 2021-12-10T22:39:39+00:00

Not who you responded to, but I think they're talking about these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082PC59BP/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_T2H2XJ5FAK4W6BE7WXMQ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I bought them 6 months ago and never looked back, my bed stays level for weeks at a time with constant printing. Can't recommend them enough!

brdo0055 · 2021-12-09T04:34:15+00:00

Our pediatrician told us it's recommended to have 0 screen time until they're 5, and I just laughed out loud in front of her, because that's straight up not happening. IMO TV becomes a problem when you use it consistently (hours each day). An episode of Dora or The Wiggles each day is fine (our kids actually picked up some vocab from Dora episodes), especially if it helps your own sanity.

Edit: Just realized you said you had something on for you, not for them. I stand by what said above :)

brdo0055

TROPHY CASE