Diamond hotend firmware installation

jroh

Dear Deckingman,

Much appreciate for your advise. I now fully understand steep helix possibly becomes problem and will be careful next time when choose screw. It's so regretful but no choice but to pray to work well as I already spilt water.

Thanks.

deckingman

@jroh,

I'm glad that you perceive my post as advice rather than criticism. I understand that you have already spent quite of lot of money on these ball screws so would be reluctant to change them. There are a couple of things you can do.

As it's a big machine, I guess you intend to print big parts. If that is the case, consider using a large nozzle. Something like 1.0 mm would mean that you could use a layer height of around 0.8mm. This would help to mask the resolution problem.

Of course, that will mean that you won't be able to print highly detailed parts, so another option would be to use gearing. Something like a 20 tooth pulley on the motor coupled via short belt to an 80 tooth pulley on the screw would help. If you choose try this, just be careful with your selection of pulley sizes and ensure that your chosen layer height can be achieved with multiples of full steps.

HTH

dc42

I agree with Ian's points. However, 320 steps/mm @ x16 microstepping is 20 full steps/mm, so any layer height that is a multiple of 0.05mm would be an integral number of full steps. On delta printers we routinely use between 80 and 200 steps/mm @ x16 microstepping, without apparent problems with Z resolution - although there is some averaging going on, which may mitigate the effect of the size of steps being up to 5% out. If you choose a layer height of 0.2mm, that's 4 full steps, and I think it should work quite well. Or use 0.4 or 0.8mm with a larger nozzle.

If you do need to increase Z resolution and the coarse pitch ballscrews are not causing any other problems (e.g. the bed dropping when you power down), you could consider switching to 0.9deg Z motors if that is significantly less expensive than changing the ballscrews.

jroh

Dear Mr. Ian and David,

Firstly Merry X-mas and wish you and your family's much good health next year!

Thanks for your advises and I'm testing and testing of movement. Luckily It works well without twisting upto max Z-axis and microsteps also works well though needed more test. But unluckily bed drops when power down. So It will be quite hard job watching power always. HAHAHA.

Let me report further problems if happens.

Thanks

deckingman

Apologies. David is of course correct. I divided the thread lead of 10mm by 200 steps for 1 revolution and for reason came up with the answer of 0.2mm per step when in fact it is 0.05mm, so resolution should be fine. Sorry to hear that my prediction about the bed dropping when power is removed proved to be true. Maybe you could fit a brake to one or all of the motors? Something along these lines https://www.applied-motion.com/news/2016/10/holding-brakes-nema-23-step-motors

jroh

Dear Ian,

Thanks for the suggestion of brake motor. M'time I just realized that you are the person who gave me idea of multiple colour print with Diamond hotend and Duetwifi and I'm now carefully reading your articles on your website with much thanks but something difficult to understand for me as I'm new at multiple colour and python.

I guess it needed 3 gcode files of ("test.gcode" for source file, "output.gcode" for destination file, "temp.gcode" for temp file) in order to print Julia vase etc. But It's hard for me to divide the code on your articles of your website to 3files above and not sure where to set those 3 files on Slic3r.

I just guess these 3files save on my desktop and set the path(s) on "Print setting - Output options - Post-processing scripts" but not sure what to put on "Print setting - Output options - Output file - Output filename format".

I feel it's quite genius idea using script but it's hard for me to setting, so I'd like to ask something about that as follows.

1. Could you e-mail for those 3 files, or advise divisions of 3 files on your article?
my e-mail : jroh09@gmail.com

2. Could you advise correct setting of Slic3r to apply those 3 gcode files?

End.

Thanks a lot.

deckingman

@jroh,

You don't need any files from me. To help you understand, I take the original gcode file and modify it on my PC to move the tool change points to a position earlier in the file which corresponds to the amount filament needed to purge the hot end. The work flow is as follows:

Load the stl files into Slic3R. There will be one for each colour. Then slice the file which will generate a gcode file with the tool changes embedded in it. Then post process that file to move the tool changes.

You should know that I am not a programmer so the way I do it is just a guide. I chose to use Python as it seemed the easiest for me to learn but I've only taught myself enough to get the job done, and that's mostly from searching the internet.

I wanted to keep the original gcode file intact so I decided to copy it to another location and rename it "Python test file.gcode". So that's the first file you need - it's just a copy of your original gcode file. When you run the Python script on that file, it generates another gcode file which has the tool changes moved. This file is generated by the Python script and is called "Python output.gcode". That's the second file. Note that every time you run the script, it will create a new "Python output.gcode" file which will overwrite any file with the same name that already exists, so it's best to rename the "Python output.gcode" file to something like your original gcode file name but add "shifted" or something to the name so that you can distinguish it from the original (unshifted) file. The Python temp.gcode file is also generated by the Python script but gets overridden every time the script is run. You don't need worry about it.

There is an article on my blog which explains what to do with Slic3R.

Please note that there are a couple of bugs in the script as it exists on my blog and also note that it isn't a perfect technique. I'll maybe do an update on my blog in the new the new year.

That's all I have time for right now. Merry Xmas and a happy new year to you.

deckingman

@jroh:

Anything did I mis-set or missed? Should I set volumetric extrude?

No, don't use volumetric extrusion. SLic3R setting look OK. Do you have a "T" command in the Slic3R start gcode to select the correct tool? Can you also post you config.g, and I'll take a look at that to see if I can spot anything obvious.

Edit. Strange - the post I was replying too isn't here any more. Has the OP deleted it?

jroh

@Ian

Thanks your reply and I just put "T" command in the start gcode asf.
T0
G0 E8 F100
T1
G0 E8 F100
T2
G0 E8 F100
T3
G0 E8 F100
T4
G0 E8 F100

And my config.g is at top of this thread. Frankly say, I was so hard today due to needle was broken inside the diamond nozzle while I was picking up the needle inside the nozzle. It was very difficult to take it off from the nozzle finally succeeded by using magnetic and hexa-rod. But after then, fan was broken and just now waiting for coming fan which I ordered. I will revise a result after setting/testing.

I just assume the reason that, I did not put "T" command initially or the Geared extruders which I ordered together with Diamond hotend set was not tightened well. I rectified both already but not tested yet.

Thanks a lot sharing your precious time.

deckingman

Sorry to hear of your problems. What I meant about putting a "T" command in the start code was basically just to make sure that Slic3R had selected the correct tool for the object you want to print. If you don't assign a tool (extruder) to the object then Slic3r will default to not putting a "T" command in the gcode so you can get the situation where you try to extrude with no tool selected.

I find it's easier to enable skirts in Slic3R (not brim), to purge the hot end at the start, rather than using all those manual extrusion commands.