I have the following problem:
My Vertex has two print heads installed, the LCD shows both nozzles’ temperatures and I can operate both extruders from the printers menu i.e. I can load the filaments and preheat the nozzles.
I have PLA in the 1st extruder and ABS in the second in order to be able to print the support with the PLA.
I’m just in process of starting to use the printer, so my first attempts have been to print with one nozzle at a time as instructed.
In Repetier, if I select the EXTR1 or EXTR2, the Repetier changes the colour of the object in preview correctly to what I have set for the filament colours, but when I press the PRINT-button, the printer ALWAYS prints with the EXTRUDER1 ignoring the setting to print with the EXTR2.
This must be something very basic to do with the repetier setting, but I just can’t figure it out.
Yes, and there are both the EXTR.1 and EXTR.2 available in all menus, so that I can select the EXTR. 2 for printing the model or just for the support.
If I select the EXTR.2 for the part and EXTR.1 for the support, it still prints both using the EXTR.1.
I started to wonder if it was about the Windows version (7) so I installed the Repetier to an old XP-machine and the problem is still the same.
On the slicer tab under the heading “Print Settings”.
There is a drop down box “Print Configuration” for single or dual.
You need to have dual selected.
OK, now back to this issue after a while, during which I have updated the Vertex firmware to the latest version on the Velleman website.
The FW update has not improved the situation: the priter still wants to print everything using the extruder 1. Only exeption is if I manually select in the manual control the Extruder 2 - then it will print everything using the extruder 2, also the suport which it should print using the extruder 1 (or 0, if you prefer). Also the print is printed shifted to left, so the extruder offset seems to be ignored.
One more pecualirity noted: if I select “touching bed” for support, the printer still prints the support as when “everywhere” is selected.
To me these problems seem to be related to the Repetier rather than to the printer itself.
I can send the stl-file I used and the G-code generated, in which I selected the support for “touching bed”, but as there is no attach-option here,which e-mail address I should send the files to?
As a resulst, the Vertex prints everything using the white PLA filament on extruder one and ignores the blue ABS filament in extruder 2. Also, support is made everywhere around the part.
Just a thought.
Since you only have 1 part and it does not use multiple colors set the printer back to single head then before you slice it set it for extruder 2
Since I don’t use support I can help you much there.
The whole idea of purchasing this printer was its assumed ability to print the part in ABS and the support in PLA, so that the support could be solved away in NaOH bath in an ultrasonic washer as the support removal is annoying work and it’s sometimes difficult to tell where the support ends and the part begins.
So far the second extruder seems only to be waste of money and effort.
with the provided gcode you can definitively print only with one extruder. When you have a look at the last lines of the gcode file you will find some commands T0, T1 and back. This is switching the different print heads but without any printable code. You have the luck, that the slicer doesn’t set the proper extruder at the beginning of the printer code, so you still can manually preset the extruders.
However, this is definitely a problem of a messy slicer setting, no firmware can improve it.
Please review the parameters in your repetier settings (I cannot help for that, I’m using slic3r).
Thank you for the reply, I’ll look into the G-code.
You are certainly right, the problem must be in the slicer and I’m using the recommended Cura slicer. There is a problem that as the support and the actual part are printed at the same slice, the G-code needs to have at least as many extruder change G-codes as there are slices in the print - sometimes hundereds of them. Threfore I would need to go through the whole G-code and try to decipher where to change the extruder - a job which the slicer should do. I don’t think I’ll even try.
Apparently the Cura slicer is no good in that respect.
You say that you use the slic3r. Can you do both materials with that, so that the other extruder would do the support and the other the part?
although I use Slic3r, I’m still not in the situation to promote it unconditionally. It can handle the situation you are describing. However, I must confess, that with two printheads I had not too much success up to now. The major issue is for the proper alignment of the two nozzles. But that is independent on any slicer.
The second issue is the generation of an ooze shield, which was demonstrated in the manual using the Repetier host. I didn’t found an easy way to generate a similar construct in Slic3r.
Finally I didn*t found the proper filament handling during tool change: retraction length, extra extrusion at restart.
Actually my target is on printing with carbon filled material, the issues with two nozzles are actually postponed. So I cannnot be too much helpful.
Preparing a print for dual head printing is not so straightforward. And you must have a STL file specifically made for this use (or different STLs correctly placed on the Repetier build plate).
After testing some dual prints it happens to be a time and filament consuming process and now I try to avoid having to use it. Most of the time I can print difficult objects just by splitting them in two or more parts (As I’m mostly printing in ABS it’s easy to glue the parts together and mask the seams afterwards). Or using Meshmixer to generate better support.
I will try the example of two-colour print even though it does not solve the actual problem. I still think that if the repetier&cura would work as they indicate, the Repetier should be able to make the support using the one extruder and the part using the other, because:
-the Repetier is able to add the support using the same extruder when requested - so it doesn’t need a separately made part for it
-as it can do this, it apparently has knowledge which is support and which is the part, but it just doesn’t add the appropriate G-code to switch between the printheads. This is a plain and simple bug in the SW.
It is somewhat unclear whether the Repetier or the Cura slicer actually add the support, but as there clearly is an option to dedicate one extruder for the support, it should do it - no matter which program does it.
I would be very interested to know whether the Velleman development team or the Repetier developer have been able to print with this feature successfully or are they simply shipping an insufficiently tested product? If so I have to say that I’m disappointed - I have so far considered Velleman a quality oriented company.
Support is computed by the slicer (Cura) and Repetier has nothing to do with it.
And the end result is in the g-code as one whole object.
[quote=“hputkinen”]but as there clearly is an option to dedicate one extruder for the support, it should do it - no matter which program does it. [/quote]From where did you get this feeling?
To print with 2 nozzles either you need 2 (or more) separate objects or one stl embedding the objects and that you can split in various distinct objects (with the Object Information icon next to the object name in the Object placement tab). Then you can assign a different nozzle to each object.
It means that support must be generated at design time as a distinct object.
In the Slicer settings or configuration, there is an option for selecting which extruder should be used for the support.
You are probably right, it is a feature of the Cura as it is under the slicer configuration. To a layman this would mean that if the extruder 2 is selected for the support, the rinter would print the support using the extruder 2 and the part otself would be printed using the extruder selected in the object placement tab - only it doesn’t. No matter what I select for it, the support is always printed with extruder 1.
Actually, everything is still printed with the extruder 1.
Your explanation that I should make the support as a separate stl is pointless as I have done that and IT DOESN’T HELP. If you look at my older posts, I have already told that even if I have more than one stl model on the “object placement” and I have selected extruder 1 for some of them and the extruder 2 for the rest, the machine still prints everything using the extruder 1.
Actually I tried to set the support to the second extruder (I never had before) and it worked ! The object is printed with extruder 1 and the support with extruder 2 and a different material. I don’t know why I never used this.
Use Vertex Dual extruder (print configuration) and set Extruder 1 as the support Extruder in the Cura Extrusion settings.
The yellow filament is ABS and the withe one is PLA.
Remarkable!
Could it be that because I have PLA in the 1st extruder and ABS in the second (you have it the other way round), it doesn’t work? I have to try to change the filaments as soon as I get home from work.
