I first spotted the problem when trying to print one of the many gliders on Thingiverse.
I got some rather strange left wing tips. Then I tried scaling a print to the maximum and sure enough the left wing tip developed a nasty blob on the first layer. But on closer inspection I realised that the print head was stopping at +20 on the far left, rather than going all the way across. You can clearly see this in the print below :
I guess space is left for the second nozzle, which I’m about to fit. But then we have a problem.
Firstly, Repetier Host should take account of the fact I only have one nozzle, therefore I can’t print at the far left hand side. There is a 20mm gap. But on scaling a print to the maximum, the object went into the forbidden 20mm gap. The printer then tried to print the object. Luckily it didn’t damage itself - or perhaps it did, it does seem much less smooth than it was previously. RH should not allow objects to enter this 20mm strip.
Or should it? As I only have one nozzle - there is certainly space for the print head to get closer to the left edge, so why doesn’t the printer let me?
Either way, what it currently does is wrong. There is no warning and you could damage your printer as it repeatedly tries to print in an area it can’t, ending up with big globs of molten plastic. It’s not pretty, in fact it’s a mess.
I don’t think the two nozzle (or even one nozzle) approach has been thought through very carefully in terms of the max. allowed print sizes.
I already had noticed that but hadn’t time to check it further.
The printer area is correctly defined in Repieter as 240 mm with a forbidden zone of 20 mm (for the second nozzle). But in the firmware the print area is 200 x 200 so the print head won’t get further even if Repieter wants it to.
I had planned to modify the values in the firmware and seed how the head moves but as i said : no time.
[quote=“raby”]I already had noticed that but hadn’t time to check it further.
The printer area is correctly defined in Repieter as 240 mm with a forbidden zone of 20 mm (for the second nozzle). But in the firmware the print area is 200 x 200 so the print head won’t get further even if Repieter wants it to. I had planned to modify the values in the firmware…[/quote]
But it’s not. That’s my point. Reptier does not define the correct print area. It allowed me to scale a model to the ‘maximum’ which intruded on the left hand strip that the single right hand nozzle can’t enter. That’s not correctly defined is it?
And there is still the issue of what happens for the second nozzle - it’s going to the same on the RHS. Repetier Host needs to look at which nozzle has been selected to print which parts of the model, and then work out whether any part of it is in the forbidden zone down either side of the print bed and highlight those parts in red or something so that the user is warned and can move them to where they can be printed successfully. For two nozzles, there has to be two separate but overlapping print bed areas.
It’s not rocket science, but it’s something I would have expected @Velleman to ask for if they are paying for a customised version of Repetier Host. It’s a fundamental issue of having two nozzles. They need to fix it.
Have you tried a search on the reprap forum? forums.reprap.org after all if this is indeed a bug they might already have a fix for it. And the velleman version is nothing more than a branded build with their default settings!
I’ve not, but in Repetier there’s no option for defining two print beds.
You can only set up a single print bed, which generally makes no sense for two nozzles unless you’ve got a machine that can move both nozzles right to the edge of both sides of the print bed, which the Vertex obviously can’t. So they should ask the developers of Repetier to sort it out. It’s not exactly a difficult bit of coding is it, after all? If you’ve paid for a customised version of Repetier, I’d expect at the least for it to properly support the printer.
You need to define two print bed areas. One for each nozzle. That’s it.
I’m just here to help out, don’t bite my head off…
Perhaps you could try using Cura? I’m getting excellent results with their software on my MacBook, plus it’s free, open source (i believe) and actively updated. They have builds for Windows and Linux too. The slicing speed in spectacular (perhaps 10x that of Slic3r). It may lack an interface to control the printer, but as I’m printing via SD anyway (the printer is in the cellar) it doesn’t affect me in any way. I’ve seen all sorts of settings for a 2nd nozzle (which I’m about to order), so I should be good.
To configure, press ‘export settings’ on the repetier host and import the settings into Cura. That’s how I did it and i’m never going back to Repetier. Well, never is a big word, but you know what i mean.
See the screenshot. I HAVE NOT CONFIGURED THE 2ND NOZZLE. I am just showing these settings to inform you that there is full support for go/nogo zones and nozzle distances in Cura.
I’ve been trying this afternoon but it doesn’t seem to work…
If I export the Cura setting from Repetier (in Cura/Configuration) I get a rcp file, but Cura (Load Proifile?) wants an ini file. The rcp file contents are ini format, but quite different to the ini file I get with Save Profile from Cura. I renamed the rcp file to ini and it loaded in Cura without error, but as far as I can tell it didn’t change anything.
I’ll follow this up on Cura forum, but I thought I’d see if you had a quick solution… I can’t see any other way to export or import settings.
[quote=“pinthenet”]Just a quick question to robv: you said
I’ve been trying this afternoon but it doesn’t seem to work…
If I export the Cura setting from Repetier (in Cura/Configuration) I get a rcp file, but Cura (Load Proifile?) wants an ini file. The rcp file contents are ini format, but quite different to the ini file I get with Save Profile from Cura. I renamed the rcp file to ini and it loaded in Cura without error, but as far as I can tell it didn’t change anything.
I’ll follow this up on Cura forum, but I thought I’d see if you had a quick solution… I can’t see any other way to export or import settings.[/quote]
On my mac it read the .scp file just fine. If all fails, just enter the values from the scp file manually, it shouldn’t be too hard. If that fails too, contact me i might send you my cura profile through mail (as you can’t attach files here)
Sounds like it could be a Mac/Windows difference. I’ll follow your suggestion, the parameter names are similar but not identical, or I can just open side-by-side.
If I lose patience I’ll take your offer of an email, although a Mac scp file may not look like a Windows ini file anyway…
I just have the printer that I had to setup on the first startup. When I load the renamed Repetier export file I don’t get another printer.
I’ll start again
Perhaps a bit obvious, but you need to select ‘Open Profile’ from the Cura file menu, not ‘Load Model File’. And I did add the machine by hand because the wizard didn’t recognize the printer.
I just found the Vertex Repetier ini files - cura, printer, filament etc. I tried loading those in Cura but nothing, not even an error.
To check I just edited an ini file that I saved from Cura, then loaded it and the change was there. I’ll try and edit the Repetier.ini to look like a cura.ini file - the section names are different.
Never a dull moment…
Do you know which version of Cura is integrated into the Vertex Repetier 1.0.6 - I can’t find the version nr.
I guess I’m getting off topic here.
I know it’s the weekend but I feel this thread has gone off topic. Yes, we might be able to use Cura. But we should be able to use Repetier Host with both nozzles with the correct bed sizes for each nozzle and the user should be warned if the group they’ve assigned to one nozzle is on a part of the bed that can’t be printed with that nozzle.
After all, the manual only talks you through using two nozzles with Repetier Host, not Cura. Maybe it’s the same, I don’t know but I think someone from Velleman should come on here and discuss it.
It’s not going to go away. More and more people will be buying their second nozzles over the next few weeks. Velleman support must have read this thread. Bit disappointed by their lack of response TBH.
I do apologise for going off topic, I was just trying to help out. I’ll try to give my point of view.
A few weeks back I complained about the Mac support, as Repetier host for Mac hadn’t been updated for 6 months and the project looks quite dead. Velleman suggested to switch to Windows. Eeehm, what? No. I for one am not waiting for Velleman to come up with a software solution. I switched to Cura and I am perfectly happy with the printer now.
The above doesn’t help you, or your cause. Yes, they should respond. Yes, they should come up with a fix. But unless they are working on it right now (and have been for a few months) I have no confidence in Velleman coming up with a fix in the coming 4 weeks. Building software takes time, testing the software takes time. The software is not made by Velleman, it is made by Repetier. I also doubt Repetier is rushing all their devs to fix the Vertex issue. And that is why I suggested to try Cura, just to bridge the gap in the meantime.
Guess I’ll just have to get to grips with Cura. I’m sure it’s fine and it might even work great for two nozzles. But I’m still a bit disappointed that Velleman didn’t even own up to the issue. I was just singing their praises the other day and what do you know, the following day they seem to have developed a kind of selective blindness!
