Cura and other advice

K8200 3D Printer K8200 - Your printer, creations, and ideas for imp
1

I used Cura for the first time today and I have to admit that the first print was the highest quality print my K8200 has done yet. Some of the settings had to be adjusted for Cura to slice properly with the K8200. Other than the settings that had to be changed, I left everything else at the default.

Cura is ideal for use with an SD card because it is only a slicer, so all the other stuff is gone. You only see the settings that you might want to change slice to slice.

FYI: I sliced the same file with both Slic3r and Cura. Slic3r took over 4 minutes. Cura took 20 seconds.

Other advice:

Get an LCD with SD card. 1. No computer tied up. 2. No communication issues 3. Easy to make changes without uploading firmware.

Add an on/off power switch to your controller cover. Flip the switch, controller will run file on SD card to warm up bed, auto-home, or do whatever else you want it to do on power-up.

These three additions make this printer so much more enjoyable to use.

Other changes include:

Diamond filed glass plate.
Trapezoidal z-axis screw
GT2 belts
24v ps for bed heat (under construction)

2

How long does it take to slice GyroTheCube with cura?

Slic3r is running for like 2 hours and it’s not looking like it will finish anytime soon…

3

Hello,

I tried Cura today for the first time. Slic3er keeps crashing on larger files, it takes 20minutes to slice and then when I load them in the printer often the file is not even complete, after 20 minutes of printing the printing stops like its done… I’m a bit sick of Slicer now. I started to test some settings in Cura. Do you mind sharing your settings? Then I can check if I did the same.

4

Hi motoritz,

[quote=“motoritz”]
Slic3r is running for like 2 hours and it’s not looking like it will finish anytime soon…[/quote]
just a quick note: the current version has some issues with large objects when “Avoid crossing perimeters” is activated.

Cheers,
kuraasu

5

Ah right thanks, I might try slicing this thing again with the option disabled. For the gyro cube it doesn’t make sense anyway.

6

I had a few promising tests so far, the only thing that doesn’t work is make the bed heat up first and than the extruder. I tried some things in the Start Gcode but I can’t make it work. This is what it originally said (btw I like the fact that the extruder goes up for extruding the first bit of filament so this I want to keep):

;Sliced at: {day} {date} {time}
;Basic settings: Layer height: {layer_height} Walls: {wall_thickness} Fill: {fill_density}
;Print time: {print_time}
;Filament used: {filament_amount}m {filament_weight}g
;Filament cost: {filament_cost}
;M190 S{print_bed_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own bed temperature line
;M109 S{print_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own temperature line
G21 ;metric values
G90 ;absolute positioning
M107 ;start with the fan off
G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops
G28 Z0 ;move Z to min endstops
G1 Z15.0 F{travel_speed} ;move the platform down 15mm
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length
G1 F200 E3 ;extrude 3mm of feed stock
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length again
G1 F{travel_speed}
;Put printing message on LCD screen
M117 Printing…

I personally like Cura more than Slic3er. Slicing goes extremely fast, handy since I don’t need more then the slicing part of the program. Only downside so far: prints look better (no more blobs etc) but I have much more X/Y wobble. Maybe Ill try slowing down the print

Edit: This is my configfile: dropbox.com/s/2q6na1x3q4ekwjy/k8200.ini

7

I’m not sure which Gyro the Cube you are slicing. This one (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:19026) took about a minute on my old xp machine with .20 layers.

Go to machine settings and make sure you check the box for Heated Bed.

About the only settings I changed were width, depth, height, and heated bed in machine settings. If you have the setup info in the K8200 manual for Repetier, its not too hard to find those settings in Cura. You can use the default start/end gcode or copy that from Repetier as well. Leave whatever you can at default so that you have a starting point for tinkering. As long as you make sure to auto-home before printing, you can’t really mess anything up. Since I am using an SD card, I have no advice/experience with Cura on communications.

If you do not have an SD card, you could always slice with Cura and load the gcode into repetier.

8

[quote=“mpoore”]I’m not sure which Gyro the Cube you are slicing. This one (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:19026) took about a minute on my old xp machine with .20 layers.

Go to machine settings and make sure you check the box for Heated Bed.

[/quote]

I think you got me wrong. In Slic3er the bed heats up, and then the extruder starts to heat up. With Cura they both start heating up at the same time, resulting in an extruder which is hot for 5 minutes before the bed is. The extruder starts dripping and is almost completely empty when the print starts (even when the skirt is layed out the extruder is still empty)

9

Make sure you are using M190 to set your bed temp because it waits for bed temp to be reached before going to the next step. If you use M140, it will immediately go to the next step. Also, make sure M190 is after M109 (set and wait for extruder).

10

As seen in the Start G-code that I posted, this is standard M190. Also the order of commands is set right. (and yes I uncommented those commands). But my knowledge about these commands isn’t that great yet. How would you write the start G-code based on what I posted before?

11

It looks like you posted the default start code. Maybe not, but let’s try this:

After cura slices your file, save it to disk, and post the first 20 or so lines. Let’s see what is being sent to the printer.

By the way, how are you sending this to the printer? SD card, Repetier, Cura?

12

Okay. Here is what I have figured out about Cura. It uses some of your machine settings and parameters in the Basic and Advanced tabs to place some code at the beginning of the gcode file along with the starting code you have manually entered. For example, if you check the box for heated bed, it inserts code to start the bed heater. If you also have that in your start code, then these commands will be duplicated.

I decided to enter all of my machine settings manually using the Start/End Gcode tab, which means that I had to make some changes to prevent Cura from also inserting these lines and duplicating code. On the basic tab I set printing temperature to 0. In Machine settings I set E-steps per 1 mm filament to 0 and I unchecked the box for Heated Bed.

No guarantees that this will fix all Cura issues, but you can tweak the start code all you want without worrying that Cura will insert contradictory code.

Here is my start code taken from Cura:

[code];Sliced at: {day} {date} {time}
;Basic settings: Layer height: {layer_height} Walls: {wall_thickness} Fill: {fill_density}
;Print time: {print_time}
;Filament used: {filament_amount}m {filament_weight}g
;Filament cost: {filament_cost}

M92 E600.000000 ;set steps per mm

M190 S65 ;Uncomment to add your own bed temperature line

G21 ;metric values
G90 ;absolute positioning
M107 ;start with the fan off
G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops
G28 Z0 ;move Z to min endstops
;G1 Z15.0 F{travel_speed} ;move the platform down 15mm
M109 S225 ;Set extruder temp

G1 E10 F400 ; prime the nozzle
G90 ; use absolute coordinates
G92 E0
M82 ; use absolute distances for extrusion
G1 F3900.000 E-3.00000
G92 E0

G1 F9000

;Put printing message on LCD screen
M117 Printing…[/code]

Here is the first few lines from a gcode file sliced with Cura using the above starting code:

[code];Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 13.12
;Sliced at: Sat 08-03-2014 22:27:03
;Basic settings: Layer height: 0.2 Walls: 1 Fill: 20
;Print time: #P_TIME#
;Filament used: #F_AMNT#m #F_WGHT#g
;Filament cost: #F_COST#

M92 E600.000000 ;set steps per mm

M190 S65 ;Uncomment to add your own bed temperature line

G21 ;metric values
G90 ;absolute positioning
M107 ;start with the fan off
G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops
G28 Z0 ;move Z to min endstops
;G1 Z15.0 F9000 ;move the platform down 15mm
M109 S225 ;Set extruder temp

G1 E10 F400 ; prime the nozzle

G90 ; use absolute coordinates

G92 E0

M82 ; use absolute distances for extrusion

G1 F3900.000 E-3.00000

G92 E0

G1 F9000

;Put printing message on LCD screen
M117 Printing…[/code]

13

By the way, I must revise my original advice to also convert your bed to 24 volts using the diagram from the post by Edirol using a mosfet and optocoupler: [url]Additional power supply for heatbed]

The parts cost less than $10. I got a universal laptop power supply rated at 24v 5 amps for $60.

I timed it to see how fast it heats. It took 3:24 to go from 24C to 60C. Not only is that a HUGE improvement in speed, but the temp is more stable. The temp used to fluctuate between 56-61. Now it runs 59-61.

This addition must be added to the list of must have mods along with LCD/SD controller, rocker switch, and Cura.

Nice work Edirol!

14

I have tryed cura too and it gives me indeed also better results in less time printing. I have less cariages and this results also in faster and smooter surfaces.
Good suggestion!