PrusaSlicer on Duet3D & Artemis for DUAL extrusion

[TheLightSpeed]

Hey all... first time, long time. I got a SeeMeCNC back in February, (Artemis)... Since getting it, I have mostly used PrusaSlicer as I am completely unfamiliar with Cura. Well until last week, I had not ever attempted Dual Extrusion that the Artemis is setup for.

Here's a few things that are different from a normal SeeMeCNC Artemis -

• Capricorn Tubes
• Bondtech BMG's on both sides

So the good news is after a lot of trial and error I got it to work and work good. I have a fantastic single profile and this weekend I finally got a dual profile setup and working.

It is really cool to see the Prusa movements and smoothness magic on a Duet3D powered Delta. It's so much better than Simplify3D and Cura.

So here is my long awaited question... When it comes to gcode, I am an idiot. I know the basics and I know enough to get things going. When it came to Duet3D I am very much a Noob and still learning. So in my Dual Color profile I have it working great, but in order to get it to work right I have to load to the nozzle the starting filament, which is a pain. On the Artemis we all use a starting spot to load the filament to, leaving about 100mm left to the nozzle itself.

I would like to stage the filaments in each side of the "Y" adapter (this is 2-1 by the way), and have the gcode know what extruder to start with based on the sliced gcode and then load that filament the final 100mm to the nozzle. Also I would like it to retract to the parked position 110mm from the nozzle when done.

Last night I got it to work one time, then never again. Here's what I did. I added to the bottom of the Start GCode -

Tx - This is the PrusaSlicer should select the first extruder in the sequence.. and as far as I can see it did.
M701 S"PLA" (I did make a copy of the filament "PLA" in the Duet Web Controller, with all the loading sequence from the Duet Website)

Of course this only worked once, and then after it would start the print on the correct extruder without following the PLA Filament Temp gcode that was in the Duet Web Controller.

So I deleted all the above and put into the start gcode -

Tx - Select the correct extruder
G1 E110 S2500

This seems to work for the most part.. but I would really like it to do the 110mm load to the hotend on its own based on the sliced files first implemented extruder...

Hopefully all this makes sense. I have been reading and reading and don't see a lot with Duet3D and PrusaSlicer or Silc3r for that matter that would help me solve this. Lots of Duet3D users from what I see are going towards PrusaSlicer. Hoping there is someone smarter than me that can help me make this start and end on a Dual Color Print seamless and smooth like the rest of the process in PrusaSlicer. Thanks.

[TheLightSpeed]

Here is a picture of the First Ever PrusaSlicer, on Duet3d on a SeeMeCnc Delta! Pretty good I would say.

[TheLightSpeed]

And the second print...

[deckingman]

@thelightspeed I'm struggling a bit to understand what it is that you want to do. However, have you looked the tool change macros tpre, tfree and tpost? They might do what you want. Some documentation here https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/ConfiguringRepRapFirmwareCartesianPrinter#Section_Tool_change_files

[TheLightSpeed]

Its confusing.. So this is a Y or 2 into 1... I stage the filament on both sides to right before the Y adapter. I just want when I hit "print" for the slicer to select the correct extruder automatically and then load the filament all the way to the nozzle.

I have't see those before.. I will take a look. thanks for responding.

[T3P3Tony]

@thelightspeed said in PrusaSlicer on Duet3D & Artemis for DUAL extrusion:

Its confusing.. So this is a Y or 2 into 1... I stage the filament on both sides to right before the Y adapter. I just want when I hit "print" for the slicer to select the correct extruder automatically and then load the filament all the way to the nozzle.

I have't see those before.. I will take a look. thanks for responding.

From the point of view of the Duet a "Y" or a 2 in 1 out is the same - its just the distance that is required to retract before the other filament can be extruded that changes (and possibly some temperature changes if you are doing semi cold pulls with the old filament before changing.

Do you have an example of a working config for the Artemis "Y" feed? All the can be handled in either the slicer entirely, or mainly using the Tpre,Tpost,Tfree macros as Ian has mentioned.

[deonholt]

Posted by: @alecksonj001

Hi
I have a custom Ender 3 with a Y Splitter for dual extrusion. I'd love to be able to write custom gcode for it, but I can't for the life of me find what the gcode is for next tool. Cura has separate start and end custom gcode scripts for each extruder, so you obviously can edit those individually. In lieu of that, I need to be able to write the code using things like "current tool" "inactive tool" etc.

Thanks!

Hi.

I started using PrusaSlicer about 3 hours ago. I usually used Cura. I have an Ender 5 also with Y-splitter & dual extruders.

I'm battling in Cura to get a dual colour square to have an acceptable look. It looks terrible, to say the least.

So going from Cure to Prusa, is a completely different ball game ... something I am busy discovering.

Did you manage to get your machine with the Y-splitter to work? I will really appreciate it if you can help me with your/sample gcode to get my printer going again. I tried but it only did a small print of something that looks like a very narrow strip and then said it is finish with the print.

Thank you so long. Will really appreciate your help.
(Images below are two different prints.)