Talk me off the ledge, this is probably a bad idea...

I don't know whats going on with this thing. About a week ago it was printing just fine (for what I have come to accept as decent quality prints from this crustacean of 3d printers) and now I can't get it to print right. By that I mean, I get inconsistent first layers, under extrusions, this weird gap on the bottom of my prints that only seems to go away if I use a raft, and now it just randomly pauses and resumes during prints leaving blobs of plastic throughout my print. I've tried different slicers, changing settings, default settings, changing filaments....etc. Now I'm considering the idea of updating the firmware.

My setup:
Printer - FLSUN QQ (Delta Printer)
Nozzle Size - .3mmBoard - Makerbase MKS GEN_L V1.0 with ATMEGA 2560
Firmware - Marlin 1.1.6 https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin

Updated firmware I am considering - Marlin 2.0x https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/tree/bugfix-2.0.x

I want to follow this tutorial, seems short and simple. https://github.com/makerbase-mks/MKS...ster/README.md

How does the firmware know that its running on a delta printer vs a traditional Cartesian printer? Is this even a valid question?

Is there anything else I need to do besides modifying two lines of code to make sure the firmware (Marlin 2.0x) is compatible with my delta printer?

tried changing the nozzle ? sounds exactly like a partically blocked nozzle to me.

9 time out of ten with 3d printers the problem is purely mechanical.
For some reason printer users always rush first to the complicated, electronic solution rather than the more obvious mechanical one.

It's a brand new nozzle but I'll give it a try.

as far as changing firmware - is that a bucket of slugs you really want to get into ?

With a delta I think you need to tell it all sorts of things: length of rods and a bunch of stuff.

I have to admit I have never changed any firmware on any of my printers - and, I suspect, as a consequence - never had all the hassle and problems people round here seem to have. probably 60% of our problem threads start with:'All i did was update/change/fiddle-with the firmware....'

Are you using cura as a slicer ?
Would be worth trying something else.
I like simplify3d for the deltas.
But repetier is a good free alternative.
Both give you full usb control over the printers, which makes for better and easier trouble shooting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

as far as changing firmware - is that a bucket of slugs you really want to get into ?

With a delta I think you need to tell it all sorts of things: length of rods and a bunch of stuff.

I have to admit I have never changed any firmware on any of my printers - and, I suspect, as a consequence - never had all the hassle and problems people round here seem to have. probably 60% of our problem threads start with:'All i did was update/change/fiddle-with the firmware....'

Are you using cura as a slicer ?
Would be worth trying something else.
I like simplify3d for the deltas.
But repetier is a good free alternative.
Both give you full usb control over the printers, which makes for better and easier trouble shooting.

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To answer your your question, no. This is definitely not something I want to mess with or get into at all. I am trying to avoid being the 60% here.

Yes, I am using the latest version of Cura. I will give Repetier a try as well.

I changed the nozzle (.4mm), extrudes with no problem. I auto leveled the bed again. When the print head lowers to the bed to begin there is a nice 1-2 sheet of paper thick gap from the nozzle to the bed just like before. Now my first layer is even sketchier than before. Still terrible prints.

So after one failed/messed up print after another I decided to hold down this little button I saw on the printer board (Makerbase MKS GEN L V1.0) while everything was still on. I held it until I saw a notification on my OctoPrint screen that the connection was lost/interrupted. It now prints 99% better, however I still can't figure out why I keep getting this weird gap after the first layer and the little wave in the corners. Other than that, the print comes out great. The purple block is the most recent. How do I make the layer gap at the bottom and the wave in the corner go away?

what are your first layer settings ?

for example. If I'm printing with a thin layer I usually got for a thicker first layer.
Been doing some prints at 0.1mm recently so I set the first later to 250%

For 0.2 or 0.3 I usually have it at 150%
and for 0.4 - just 100%.

Also what are your fan settings ?
I tend to leave mine off for the first 2 layers and then 100%.

Don#t see how any of those could give you that line - but, hey, you never know till you try :-)

Is there any slack in your bowden tube ?
Most deltas come with one that's too long. You can usually shave a few inches off fairly easily. The less distance the filament is pushed, the lower the friction resistance. It can also help to reduce how sharp an angle the filament is pushed round.

The basic machanics of a delta tend to make more difference than with a cartesian machine as the print head has so much more mobility.

I suspect I was lucky - apart from a few basic mods I made, my he3d k200 is still 100% factory spec. Well i did replace the hotend heatblock - same heat cartridge mind, but after you break off a nozzle in the heatblock because you can't be arsed to heat it up before changing nozzles, there's no other option - it's a replacement job.

Printing at .2 layer height, my settings are:

Initial Layer Thickness - .25mm
Initial Layer Line Width - 300%

Fan full on at height - .4 mm
Fan speed min - 90%
Fan speed max - 100%
Minimum speed - 10 mm/s
Cool head lift - Off

The slack in my bowden tube is pretty minimal, there is probably a few extra inches I could do without. Before I had all this trouble with my printer the bowden tube was a little longer and I replaced it with a slightly shorter one but I will get rid of any slack in there now.

Quote:

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Initial Layer Line Width - 300%

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well there's your problem.
Well it's definitely a problem :-)

Also fan speed for the first layer should be 0%

why on earth are you trying to print with a 1.2mm wide bead from a 0.4mm wide nozzle ?
That's just never ever going t aork.

bead width should always be whatever the extruded diameter of your filament is.
So load some filament - extrude some, let it cool and measure it - and that should be your line width - always.

I like the way the thicker lines look on the bottom of the print but I changed it back to 100%.

I figured out the problem that was causing the weird gap after the first layer. My nozzle was a little too high off of the print bed starting out. When I looked in the firmware (I assume that is what I'm looking at in the terminal) it showed my Z offset to be .8mm so I changed it to .1mm using the M851 command. After that the problem went away and I now have pretty decent prints, not quite 100% but not bad. I still get the wave along the corners, some rough edges here and there but it's definitely a decent functioning printer now. 25mm cube below is shown being measured along the Z axis.

Attachment 14437

cool - you should also find that different brands of pla produce different quality prints.

But at least you're off the ledge :-)

I did it anyways. I updated from Marlin 1.1.6 to 2.0.x. I did so because I could not get the bed to level correctly. Whenever I would run the auto bed level it would never compensate for the bed being higher on one side than the other. Running some test prints now, seems to be working better.

not a fan of marlin but picking up a amchine tomorrow that has version 2 and - apparently - will need some formware settings changed to make it run without ctahcing fire.
So that's my first priority lol

I've loaded and tried Marlin 2.0.x, 1.1.9 and 1.1.6 (what it originally had) Printing from an SD card, not connected to Octoprint or anything else it starts off great, with a very level and equally distributed first layer. After about 5 - 20 minutes it just stops in place and usually does not resume but sometimes it does. It does this with all three of the firmware versions I have tried. What causes this?

If it is something in the firmware, what is it usually attributed to? My firmware code has 0 errors and uploads just fine. I'm printing at 40 mm/s, nothing to fast that would outrun a 8 bit board. It also did stuff like this before I updated the firmware.

Is this why you're not a fan of Marlin? Is there a different firmware compatible with a Makerbase MKS GEN L V1 that you recommend?

If not the firmware could this be caused by some kind of EMI emanating from the power supply, motors...etc?

UPDATE:
I'm running 2.0.5.3 now. When printing from an SD card it runs fine without stopping or pausing (yet) but if I try using OctoPrint it stops early on in the print. The only thing I did different when editing the config file this time was I did not change the string names of the printer and person who edited it. I can't imagine this having anything to do with the problem I'm having since it's just a string that gets printed in the EEPROM outputs, but it's worth mentioning. Also, I spoke a little soon on the good bed level, when I tried printing something a little bigger I noticed an uneven first layer/skirt. No matter what firmware I use (even when it came from the factory before I tried any of this) the auto-leveling does not appear to compensate in the Z direction for the surface of the bed.