Posts made by gbartsch

Just a follow up; since the upgrade I've printed steadily and have yet to experience a disconnect from DWC. That appears to be fixed (crossing my fingers).

@Phaedrux said in Z Maximum and Z Position and Homing:

Nothing wrong with that.

@Phaedrux said in Z Maximum and Z Position and Homing:

That way you can position the Z axis however you want.

Thank you! It's so cool what the Duet can do. I'll be trying that for sure at some point.

Right now I have my machine set so I don't need any Z offset. Because of my disability I sometimes have to do things in non-conventional ways because I can't do things the normal way. To get the Z height I adjust the Z offset in the slicer and when the print shows a perfect first layer (or skirt thickness) I adjust the machine Z maximum by that amount and the result is 'close enough'.

The above assumes the machine Z maximum is already close.

I also tram the build plate, when needed, by printing dots in the center and corner of the bed and then adjust as needed. It's messy but at least I can do that without help.

@Phaedrux said in Z Maximum and Z Position and Homing:

With an accurate measurement of the Z0 position you shouldn't need any slicer offset.

The smallest moves the macro makes are 0.05mm (I'd like to know how to adjust that value) and I don't find 0.05mm fine enough to get a perfect first layer; particularly when printing tiny parts with very little contact area to the bed.

My Z leadscrews have an 8mm pitch but even with them 16x micro-stepping gives theoretical Z resolution of 0.02mm. I'm not sure what actual resolution the machine is capable of but I adjust my Z offset in 0.02mm amounts and it makes changes that give me very good first layer control.

Maybe I'm missing something with the macro? If I could jog the X axis down by 0.02mm it would be perfect. To avoid trying to see the nozzle touch the bed I'd put a 1mm thick steel ruler under the nozzle and jog down till I could feel the ruler just start to drag on the nozzle and then pull it out. Then I'd lower the nozzle 1mm and then move the axis to the top.

That is a really cool macro.

@dc42 said in Idiot's Guide To Upgrading Duet Firmware:

The maximum instantaneous speed settings are best left alone unless the machine stutters when printing circles.

Thank you.

Sorry, I mislead you. After upgrading I reduced some speeds and now want to try increasing them to as close to the defaults as possible.

My machine has heavy axes so bangs hard if the speeds are too high.

These are its current settings:

M566 X1000.00 Y1000.00 Z24.00 E3000.00             ; set maximum instantaneous speed changes (mm/min)
M203 X30000.00 Y30000.00 Z900.00 E2700.00          ; set maximum speeds (mm/min)
M201 X1000.00 Y1000.00 Z200.00 E3000.00            ; set accelerations (mm/s^2)

@droftarts said in Can't run pressure advance g-code:

Check you are using Gcode with D0 rather than D3.

Thanks. I have been using D0 after @tas clarified that.

At this point I've changed so many variables and settings, and used different slicers, etc., that I don't know what wasn't working, BUT now that code runs through the slicer and is working.

I ran a coarse test and then narrowed the range down for a second test with finer ranges and now have a pressure advance value that's working well with PET-G. I'll run the test again with PLA and I'm really eager to see how all my machine's new settings with work with Ninjaflex. I really can't believe how much pressure advance is helping already.

I have a direct drive extruder (homemade with 78mm from the center of the drive gear to the nozzle tip) but seem to require quite a high pressure advance of S0.650 (2.85mm PET-G). Here's a picture (sorry for the poor quality).

Even though I don't know why it wasn't working, it is now, so I can say the issue is solved. Thanks a lot to everyone who helped with this!

@Phaedrux No worries! Thank you.

Actually the value was written to config-override.g and is, I believe, working.

Interestingly the macro says my Z maximum is ~0.25mm more than the Z maximum I've been using so without adjusting my slicer Z Offset the first layer was too squished. This could be due to how I ran the test.

I measured a piece of thick-ish paper that was on hand and placed it under the nozzle and dropped the nozzle till I could slide the paper out without too much trouble. Then I dropped the nozzle the thickness of the paper before putting the axis back to the top.

I'll run the macro again.

Everything seemed to run perfectly till after the X axis moved to the top and touched the limit switch and an error message popped up saying the process took too long and to see the message in the console:

@Phaedrux said in Idiot's Guide To Upgrading Duet Firmware:

... some things are probably a bit faster which can help quality as you don't want the print head hanging around oozing out plastic when it shouldn't be

The settings are definitely faster. I'll try increasing acceleration and maximum instantaneous speed changes as much as possible before the machine complains.

@tas said in Idiot's Guide To Upgrading Duet Firmware:

I have found that every upgrade brings some improvement to print quality.
Of course the slicers have improved too.

For sure; it's exciting to be along for the ride!

@Phaedrux said in Z Maximum and Z Position and Homing:

Take care when running this macro.

So as not to smash the nozzle into the bed?

@Phaedrux said in Z Maximum and Z Position and Homing:

Take care when running this macro. Perhaps it would be wise to reduce motor currents first, just in case. You could add M915 X50 Y50 Z50 after the G28 command to reduce motor currents by 50% and then add M915 X100 Y100 Z100 at the end to return them to normal.

Does this look OK?

; Automates measuring the Zmax height for mechanical endstop at ~214mm
;
M291 P"This will set Z0 and calibrate Zmax height" R"Proceed?" S3
M291 P"Homing all axis" T5
G28			                     ; Home all
G90			                     ; Absolute positioning

M915 X50 Y50 Z50

G1 X107 Y107 F6000
M291 P"Adjust nozzle height until it's touching bed" Z1 S3
G92 Z0 		                   	; set Z0
M291 P"Z will now move to max and save the height" S3
G1 H3 Z300 F600
M500                            ; save m208 value for z axis to config override

M915 X100 Y100 Z100

@Phaedrux said in Z Maximum and Z Position and Homing:

You would need M501 at the end of config.g to load config-override.g but that're probably already there if you've PID tuned your heaters and used M500 to save them.

Thanks. Yes M501 is there; I've run the PID tuning and values were written to config-override.g so everything is working. I'd never used it before the firmware upgrade and it's great.

@Phaedrux Oh my! This is magic. I'll do this right away. Thanks for explaining.

So I can leave my Z maximum setting in config.g?

@Phaedrux That's cool!

I don't know much about reading this but it looks like when the macro is run prompts will ask permission to proceed? First I would make sure the nozzle is free of any plastic. Then upon running the macro I would need to manually move the nozzle down till it just touches the bed? Then click a prompt and the axis would move back up (but there is only one prompt)?

But how can this work without a probe? I don't have any BLTouch or optical sensor.

@chrishamm Thank you! That helps a lot and makes the process easy.

@tas It's a game of iteration and never being satisfied.

Here's another print that has improved markedly after this firmware upgrade. I'm not sure why but wonder if part of the reason is pressure advance is working and tuned, and my acceleration and speed change settings are higher than before? Regardless, I'm pleased.

Sorry if this has been discussed before but I'm confused with Z maximum and Z position and homing.

In config.g the machine dimensions are set, including the Z axis maximum:

M208 X214 Y214 Z218.315 S0                         ; set axis maxima

My cartesian machine homes to the top and I have assumed this would be the only place I should need to set the machine height.

But in both homeall.g and homez.g there is a G92 that has for a comment.

; set Z position to axis maximum (you may want to adjust this)

In my homeall.g and homez.g this Z position number is different; and one is different from the number in config.g.

Why are there two files where Z position can be set? And is maximum in config.g different than position in the two home files?

I think I am confused because my machine homes to the top using a switch while I suspect many people home using other means.

@tas Thank you! You figure this is OK? It's PET-G at 230C and 40mm/s (dino; ergo slow). I'm pleased for it being one of the first prints after a major firmware update. There's tweaking to do but I feel this is a good start.

@Phaedrux said in Idiot's Guide To Upgrading Duet Firmware:

That sounds correct for your config.

Awesome! Thank you for checking that. Then this firmware upgrade is a success!

I'm printing now and can see some differences immediately. Infill is now connecting to perimeters; that was a thorny issue I could not solve for a long time but is much better now.