Help! noob in over his head with new ("used") Tenlog TL-D3-pro setup :-(

[fred_dot_u]

Only just now have I installed Ideamaker to see how close to S3D it compares. It's not close in any manner. It doesn't appear particularly difficult to use and does have a profile for the tenlog pro available to download. It appears to generate g-code, which avoids the proprietary aspect. The company does not have a profile for either my x-max nor the Sigma R16, which means no testing for me.

I'm still a big fan of Prusa Slicer, but didn't find a profile for tenlog pro with that program.

[minneapolis-matt]

In paper graphical printers the USB cable has always served primarily as a means of transferring the print data from desktop or laptop to the printer. My Voxel and TL-D3 pro came with such cables but in the case of the voxel I didn't care because the wifi functionality worked great and in the case of the tenlog TL-D3 Pro there was no documentation concerning the usb cable at all apart from its inclusion in the parts list. Today I decided I would see if it would save some time with the slicer tweaks to use the wire. Since I had no documentation I powered down the printer and plugged it into the PC. immediately the printer powered itself on and the LCD display lit up with a static display of vertical randomly colored lines- a crash of some sort and the power button became unresponsive. I had to unplug the printer power cord and then unplug the USB cable and then replug in the power cable and re power on the 3d printer to regain functionality. Do 3d printers use their usb cables differently from how paper graphical printers use them? are they just for flashing roms on the mainboard or something?

[minneapolis-matt]

I'm sure last time i tried ideamaker it only produced sliced files in it's own propriatary format.

have they changed that ?

As far as z-hop goes.
try not to use it. If your retraction settings are correct - you will never need to anyway.
But with any printer (deltas excluded) constantly moving the z-axis up and down, will always introduce errors.
It's one reason that a flat bed is better than using 'auto'level' to map a beds inconsistencies and constantly be moving up and down.

Deltas are exempot from this as the hotend move in all 3 dimensions as a matter of course.

The less often you move the gantry up and down the fewer chances there are to introduce incinsistencies into your prints.

I need your help here Aardvark. I want to print that octopus to prove to myself that I can print something that has been failing and do so without glue, or rafts, or Z-hops and I know from your chainmail print that you have achieved something like this. But every time I try to do this my printer eventually manages to dislodge one or more of the small early pieces well before the overall print is articulated and print failure then becomes guaranteed.

Is there perhaps some variable that I can't account for? Perhaps you succeed without using a glass plate?

[fred_dot_u]

Unless the printer is specifically a tethered device (rare), one does not have to use the USB cable. Typically, the printer is powered up and the computer is powered up. When the cable is connected, the computer should "see" the printer, which also is probably going to reboot the display. The display should return to normal, not go haywire as you've described. If I forget to disconnect the USB cable and power off the printer, the power leads from the computer to the printer will continue to operate the display, but not the printer, of course.

Using USB to perform your prints implies that there is a feature in your software which will recognize the attached printer and offer the option to send the file to be printed. This also requires that you keep the computer powered on (no sleeping!) and connected while the job is underway.

By using Octoprint, one can send the job to the SD card over USB and disconnect, but Octoprint can be configured for wireless access and requires an intermediate device such as a Raspberry Pi or another dedicated computer (no sleeping!) to perform the queuing and monitoring.

[Martin_au]

I have done nothing with z hop at all. Should i generally set it to something? What are the trade offs if any?

Trade-off with Z-hop is that it makes the print take a little longer. Contrary to what aardvark says, it does not introduce errors into prints. On any reasonably built printer, the Z-axis has no issues at all getting back to the same position. What it does it lift the nozzle away from the print when travelling between printed parts. This means that if you have any over extrusion, or the very common slight lift around the edge of low angle PLA parts, the nozzle will not collide with the print when travelling. It's typically set to 0.6 to 0.8mm. It may well be already set, as PrusaSlicer has it on by default (at least for Prusas), and Cura has it set to occur on retractions.

[Martin_au]

Just downloaded that octopus. The slope at the base of the model is a lot steeper than appeared in the photos here, so I think we can remove the concern about edges of the PLA lifting.

The next thing I'd do it take a look at the base of the prints that are lifting. Do they have any sign that they are lifting at the edges first (usually there's a visible 'crease' where the outer edge has lifted while the centre holds). That will give an indication of whether it's mostly bed adhesion which is the problem, or the print leveraging itself off the bed. You can also do this by watching the first few layers as they print.

[minneapolis-matt]

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3503779


Yeah, Ive just been trying to print this little guy. It's not even necessarily something that I wanted to have it just looked like a good demo item for troubleshooting multiple issues in one print. Now the multiple fails have made it something of an obsession. I feel if I can't make it work I am asking for more random fails on other prints. I temporarily moved on to reducing stringiness by modestly adjusting retraction amounts and after some success there, I guess I will try another overnight print of the octopus using cura and the profile I downloaded from tenlog with a raft. I think with a raft you actually want a cooler bed so I'll try that this time and see if separation will be possible.I may try using ideamaker as well but there seems to be more troubleshooting support for cura.

[Martin_au]

Try a brim instead of a raft. Saves plastic, and still gives heaps of adhesion.

[minneapolis-matt]

Will a brim be more difficult to peel away in prints with many small parts like the octopus or chainmail?

[Martin_au]

Wouldn’t recommend it for the chainmail, but should be fine for the octopus.