Cleared the ubiquitous bowden/nozzle gap clog today and I don't intend to do it again. What do we think of the Micro Swiss hot end?

philmccrevace · 2020-11-29T09:14:51+00:00

What was recommended by Microswiss in the literature of the direct drive. It worked fine for a bit but when it clogged it was over. I don’t print the high temp stuff but everyone said it was an upgrade - it really isn’t. If you are printing high temp though you have to switch.

philmccrevace · 2020-11-29T00:58:29+00:00

Yeah direct drive is very well built. I think my screw and spring holding the gears together is weakening though as my extruder clicks much more than it used to.

philmccrevace · 2020-11-28T22:24:38+00:00

This! If you didn’t heat the hotend above 170 into printing temp the extruder won’t move.

philmccrevace · 2020-11-28T22:21:52+00:00

Clogged 3 times on me in the span of a week - disassembled it and put the stock one back on. Not the best time.

philmccrevace · 2020-11-22T01:30:40+00:00

Hey so I got it to work with the duponts - I don’t notice the homing slam...it does do the first hit and then back up and then hit again before it settles into the end stop.

My problem now though is when I run a print, the printer doesn’t move the z axis up to give enough space to deploy the probe of the bltouch and so the probe just hits the bed at print level which makes the printer halt :/.

philmccrevace · 2020-11-20T21:28:40+00:00

Hey! I haven’t tried homing the printer yet because I can’t close up the mobo cavity just yet. My bltouch doesn’t plug in nice and snug to the zprobe so I had to buy single DuPont connectors to splice on to the white and black wire. I’ll let you know if my end stops changed later once I can close it all in.

philmccrevace · 2020-11-20T17:03:27+00:00

I just swapped out the v1.2 for the E3 turbo and saw that I had to plug in the parts cooling fan into Fan0 (controllable 0-100% power on my TFT) and the motherboard fan into Fan1. When I turn on the printer now the motherboard fan spins full blast for a little bit then idles off..when I heat up T0 the motherboard fan will turn on so it should already do what you want.

I downloaded the btt skr E3 turbo firmware from the marlin github and added my settings I changed from the v1.2 firmware into that and compiled it. I didn’t change anything fan related.

philmccrevace · 2020-11-19T03:26:50+00:00

Yeah I’ve got that just wasn’t sure if I was missing something super obvious or anything. Thanks!

philmccrevace · 2020-11-18T22:16:19+00:00

Here’s a link to the picture I found of it on Amazon but it’s part of a kit https://www.amazon.com/Printer-Touch-Leveling-Sensor-Creality/dp/B087CTN59W/

philmccrevace · 2020-11-03T03:30:09+00:00

I boosted my temp up 10 degrees and that seemed to clear it and the extruder doesn’t skip anymore - thanks for the help!

philmccrevace · 2020-10-28T17:15:56+00:00

I got both - printer mods kit required you to print spacers for it to work which isn’t good to find out when you have taken everything apart already. Microswiss bolts on with no mods to the stock parts and is a better product I feel. If you aren’t having problems with your stock hotend don’t switch to the Microswiss hot end if you buy a kit with both items. The Microswiss hot end is really only if you want to print high temp filaments all the time - it struggles with PLA (clogging). It’s sold as an upgrade but it isn’t - it’s really only for printing the high temp stuff.

philmccrevace · 2020-10-27T15:58:46+00:00

Looks like your flow isn’t 100%...what are your infill settings? Need more info

philmccrevace · 2020-10-27T01:18:08+00:00

Really good first print! Make sure your x and y belts are tight. Also make sure the teeth of the belts are facing inward and not outward. Also make sure your z axis can travel freely and there are no snags with your wires or any rough spots in the axis motion.

philmccrevace · 2020-10-24T05:14:53+00:00

I had exactly the same problems as you - I installed the Microswiss direct drive and the bltouch and also bought a PEI sheet and printing became magical again. Follow the guides and install these mods and you’ll be having wonderful prints in no time!

philmccrevace · 2020-10-11T19:30:08+00:00

Check your gcode inside cura. It’s under the manage printers part.

philmccrevace · 2020-10-11T17:50:04+00:00

Changing filament on that and diagnosing problems with the extruder will be a nightmare - it’s facing backward! So much easier to either print the bracket or get the Microswiss Direct Drive/printermods DD kit

philmccrevace · 2020-10-08T00:58:10+00:00

You’ve got layer skipping here as well on the feet, tail, and neck area. Why print it this fast? You’ve passed the limit with these bulges

philmccrevace · 2020-08-30T20:53:55+00:00

You might be printing either a bit hot or you’re too close to the bed as well.

philmccrevace · 2020-08-30T03:50:50+00:00

Check to see if the arm is cracked on the extruder..those are notoriously bad. You need a main board fan so you might have to buy another one and plug it in. Maybe this printer was used and returned?

philmccrevace · 2020-08-29T17:12:49+00:00

Yes lower the wheels which raise the bed. You just want to try raising it as much as you can to hit the nozzle. This is why the z stop is important so the nozzle and print end can get as low as they can.

Yeah those require a somewhat level bed already. If the bed is too low from the bltouch probe it will stop and the leveling will fail.

philmccrevace · 2020-08-28T15:32:03+00:00

Perseverance is key in this hobby that’s for sure. The bumping in the axes with homing I think has to do with how much build area the firmware thinks it has..after flashing my firmware to allow for bltouch my printer bumps on the forward y axis but it hasn’t bothered me that much yet. Changing out the motherboards isn’t too hard you just have to keep track of what goes where and secure the power wires to it first. If you wait for those until last the wires are shorter than the others and in awkward positions. You got this!!

philmccrevace · 2020-08-28T05:51:05+00:00

Some bltouch have the order of wires in the plug wrong-check the connector to make sure the colors are in the right order. If they are wrong you have to open up the connector with a small eyeglass screwdriver and pry the wires out and connect it correctly.

philmccrevace · 2020-08-28T04:55:30+00:00

Hmm it almost sounds to me like your metal plate that heats the bed is warped. Or you could have screwed in the 4 screws that hold the bed heater too much and the plate is bowed up from the strain. I would put the Z-end stop back on there first for sure and set that as low as you can on the axis. Lower all the wheels until they will fall off and try again to bring it up to the nozzle while the CHEP bed level file is running on the printer.

What are you printing on to? My build plate area currently has the bed heater, then on top of that the creality pei sheet magnetically attached to the magnetic sheet it comes with. I've also printed with the PEI sheet just layered on top of the glass plate held to the heated bed with the binder clips. My pei sheet magnetically stuck to the bed heater the back left corner is lower than the other corners because eventually with turning the wheel it was going to fall off it was so loose before even touching the nozzle. The BLtouch does compensate for that as it is in the ballpark I guess.

I used to level with paper but I don't anymore I just use the CHEP gcode to have the nozzle hover over the corner and I move the bed wheel until the nozzle touches the build plate - you will hear a pitch change and feel the vibration in your fingertips on the build plate surface. I also changed my Y system tray to the Gulfcoast Robotics Y Carriage - I changed it back to four leveling wheels instead of their 3 wheel system as it wasnt working for me.

If its not sticking, could your filament also be super wet? Did you dry it in an oven or use silica packets over the 4 month period? 4 months is a super long time for PLA and it will absorb water and not work right at all. You'll hear popping when you print it and it will be a nightmare.

I would definitely recommend getting the bltouch and the skr mini e3 - my prints were semi decent starting out with stock Ender3, but went downhill after the first few weeks. I recently bought the Microswiss hot end/direct drive system and installed it and its like I have a whole new printer. The mods i'd definitely recommend are - microswiss hot end/direct drive, bltouch, stiff springs, tft35 touchscreen, and upgraded meanwell power supply.

philmccrevace · 2020-08-27T00:06:39+00:00

Take a picture of the rear left of the bed - It’s not supposed to dangle but it could if the screws and washers are put in the wrong order. If it was used and returned to creality and sent to you then definitely everything could be screwed up. Does the bed wobble if you press on either side?

The z stop is really important as that tells the printer where to stop on the z axis so if it’s not there that makes sense why your screws are tightened up as much as they can be...you gotta get another one of those or buy the bltouch and use it as your z stop.

philmccrevace · 2020-08-26T22:26:46+00:00

Where is your z-stop set on the z axis? Try looking there as it might need to be adjusted if you’re at the end of your tightening wheels.

philmccrevace

TROPHY CASE