3D Printing General Discussion Thread

[RAZRBAKK]

Maybe it's just me, but I always feel weird starting a thread for a simple question or post that isn't going to get a lot of traction.

So, post your questions, opinions, tips, editorials, etc. in here!

[RAZRBAKK]

I just completed upgrading my Ender 3 with a CR Touch Auto-level, a Dual Z-rod kit, and an enclosure.

I excitedly ripped apart the Ender, installed everything, opened up the board cover and discovered that I have the old Ender 3 board. The 8 bit screamer. Not a silent driver in sight. The way the pioneers used to 3D print.

It's fine out of the box, but speaking from the future with a 32 bit board, the silent drivers immediately pay for themselves.

I wonder if I can play Doom on this thing.

Anyways, I did a little reading about board upgrades. The newer Creality boards are cool, but they seemingly don't come with the silent drivers off the hop? Then I saw a comment on Youtube about how an SKR mini is a cheap upgrade that goes a long way.

It did. But the journey there has been interesting.

I ordered the SKR Mini E3 V2.0 from Amazon and waited. I went with the 2.0 over the 3.0 simply due to cost and the major changes being, well, not so major.

It arrived this week, I dropped it in and wired everything up. Then I saw Bricks comment about potentially bricking the printer, which up to this point hadn't even crossed my mind.

I decided to sleep on it and get to the firmware and setup later so I would have a fresh mind going into it.

What I can tell you is that these boards are a fantastic drop in board if you have exactly 0 upgrades on your printer. Once the upgrades go on, you pretty much have to configure and compile your own firmware.

It's not hard! But, it's detailed. I'm not a coder, but I AM a Linux enthusiast, and I happen to work in tech so it fortunately wasn't a huge leap for me.

I'll spare the details, feel free to ask if you're interested, but after a few hours of watching tutorials, following exactly what they do, and not achieving the same results(linux moment), I ended up going for a custom firmware. Right now it's running Marlin 2.1.2.1 with my own config for the components I installed.

I managed to get OctoPrint running with it as well, but that was another test of wills.

So I've got some test prints running, and hopefully I'll have a few good prints to show you over the weekend.

[shooter311]

That is great. I bricked my board by trying to update the firmware. I still have no idea what went wrong. I work in IT and I am very confident with anything like this. However, it just did not take. It was very odd. I ended up just buying the "Official Creality Upgrade Motherboard Silent Mainboard V4.2.7" off Amazon and I just swapped it, and my printed starting printing so much better and much much quieter. I think I bought my printer in late 2018, and it was very loud. I didn't realize how loud it was until I put the new board in. If I had to do it again, I would have bought that upgraded board the day it came out!

[RAZRBAKK]

I feel the same way. Can't go back to the screamer.

[Bulldogr6]

I have a SKR e3 V2. 0 in my Ender 5, it is very good bang for buck rato. At the same time i added an EZ ABL from TH3d with mixed results and feelings on the inductive probe idea. Originally I had it wired and configured to hook up in the end stop port but was having issues with consistency so I switched to the BL touch port better but I still don't trust it. And the one thing that aggravates the shit out of me is there's no active end stop anymore so if you make a manual move and go up you bury the nozzle into the sheet. I've wrecked three so far which pisses me off. I did end up buying a BL touch setup and will integrate it when I print the minimus part cooler head. Hello that project's kind of on the back burner since I bought myself a Qidi X max 3. Unless I get real busy I bet the 3 &5 will probably just sit there for a while.

Sent from my E6910 using Tapatalk

[RAZRBAKK]

Yeah, I left my end stop in place just to act as a physical barrier for any real damage. It's a concern for me, but we'll see how things go. I'm looking at picking up a BambuLab printer at some point this year, but it's nice to get the performance up on the ender.

How do you like the Qidi X?

[pghp8ntballer]

Hello, my name is Tony and I have a 3D printing addiction, lol. After picking up the Bambu A1 mini and the FlSun V400, I essentially shelved the Ender 3 V2 and Voxelab Aquila. (Ran out of room for them). But the other printers print so nice and fast, I’m not sure the other printers have a place anymore. I may turn one into an ABS/ASA printer through.

I put Marlin 2 firmware on both the Ender and Aquila, but the main boards are stock. I haven’t had the “need” for upgraded boards but I totally get the benefits of them.

I want to punt the FLSun Super Racer into the next state though. It printed great stock and even with minor changes. However when I went to put it on Octoprint, it kept locking up and disconnecting. That led to Marlin 2 going on it. Printed great for a month or two then I took a 3 month break from printing. It then decided to want to suck hardcore when I got back in the mood. It’s printed like trash since. I dunno. The Bambu REALLY puts the other printers to shame.

[RAZRBAKK]

Took a massive L fellas. After swapping everything over and getting ONE good print, I'm now fighting an uphill battle against X axis layer shifting.

To recap, I installed a dual Z, ABL probe, and put up an enclosure, added an SKR mini board.

Thanks to the algorithmic search engine I feel like I just get the same 4-6 potential causes, nobody digging deeper. Tighten belts/wheels, inspect connections, possible overheating of board or motor, belt/gear/motor damage, etc.

Follow each of these with, "but the problem still exists." I have tightened all the belts and wheels to appropriate levels, I removed the Dual Z incase it was some extreme Z wobble causing X shift, I went back to the stock board, I tried a different cable on the X motor, tried out of the enclosure to rule out heat issues, I inspected and then reversed the belt to see if it had any signs of damage.

I'm not sure what else to try. I think I'm going to order a new stepper motor and try that. I wish I could get the gear off the the old one because I have a spare motor from the Dual Z kit that would be nice to try before spending money on a new one.

It's immediate, too. Layer 1 to 2 shift, and each one on top of that. Never the same dirextion either.

[pghp8ntballer]

RAZRBAKK so you got one good print? Like a test cube or an actual time involved print? Im also assuming that it was with all of the upgrades?

Did you change anything on your PC? What slicer? Have you rebooted your comp? I know this side of things sounds silly, but it can happen.

no joke, a coworker just got through an issue with his Tenlog Idex using cura. The slicer went wonky after adding a monitor. Oddly enough there are several issues about this that pop up when googling “Cura 4 not opening” or something similar.

[RAZRBAKK]

No, all good man. I have re-sliced the file on 2 different computers, I've tried printing files that worked fine before.

Not sure, I'll be dicking around with it again tonight.

[pghp8ntballer]

Are you using the same SD card from the original ender board? The SD card may be going bad too.

Just trying to rule out as much as possible.

[RAZRBAKK]

I've tried with an SD card and with OctoPrint.

[Bulldogr6]

I had a wire harness fail right close to the stepper on my Ender 5. Check that out

Sent from my E6910 using Tapatalk

[RAZRBAKK]

Hot end was SLIGHTLY loose. Just enough to not notice. Felt solid wiggling the tube. Tightened down those bolts and I it's ripping now. 😎

[pghp8ntballer]

Yep. Been there. I rebuilt/upgraded the hot end on the Super Racer before. Got it all up and running. Then I had weird issues. Then I had a hot end encased in plastic. Simply because I forgot to hot-tighten the nozzle 🤬

[Jackson]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a crash course on PETG printing? Virtually all of my printing has been with ABS. I recently tried out some PETG (because I need translucent green for a specific print), and I had some interesting results. First off, I guess I should have read a bit on bed material because I found out that PETG kind of literally fuses to PEI and ruins it. Oops. It worked better on kapton tape. Secondly, massive stringing. I guess I need to up my retraction? Maybe get a new hot end? I'm still using my old Lulzbot Budaschnozzle 2.0.

In the end I was able to get a passable print out of it, but many failures along the way. I thought I could just fumble my way through it and figure it out, guess not.

[RAZRBAKK]

For me PETG has been decent so far. Its notorious for stringing, so drop the nozzle temp a little and up the retraction slowly until you see better results. I have never had issues with PEI, but have been warned against printing on a glass bed. I avoid the smooth side of my PEI bed with PETG.

[Spider!]

Also check the cooling. My overhangs droop without it.

[Not-required]

After taking a break from printing for over a year. I fired up the old Voron 2.4 and it's been putting out some amazing prints.

[RAZRBAKK]

Wow those look excellent.

[Not-required]

Thanks. Took a little bit to dial in but it was worth it.

[RAZRBAKK]

Well, I guess it's good I hesitated on ripping the A1 on my credit card.

I think I might just keep saving and get the P1S.

Either way, it looks like Bambu is doing the right thing and addressing it, all expenses on them.

This is an update to the recall announced in A1 Heatbed Cable Callback.

I would like to start by thanking everyone for their patience in this matter. We apologize for not updating this situation quickly, but we are still working around the clock to learn more about this problem and ensuring we share accurate information about what needs to be done.

New Findings
At the time of publishing this blog post, we have found that less than 0.1% of all the A1 printers sold have electrical malfunctioning problem related to heatbed cable suffering from damage reported to us.

These printers showcased problems related to damage close to the cable connector due to external factors, craftsmanship and a few of them are still being investigated to determine the cause.

There are cases where the printer was placed on the heatbed cable connector during installation causing significant stress on the cables. In other situations, the source of the problem reported might be related to different factors and we are still waiting for those affected printers to get back into our engineering team's hands for adetailed investigation of the problem.

While the number of faulty printers is very small, we take the safety of our customers very seriously, and until we learn more about what exactly causes the heatbed cable problem, we recommend everyone stop using the printer for their safety.

At this time, we are unable to determine with 100% confidence what causes the problem and we prefer to choose the safe option, which is to recommend everyone to stop using the printer until more information is available.

Malfunctions caused by fatigue are complex and require extensive testing and time to thoroughly comprehend; we aim for our customers' absolute safety and we do not want to rush to any conclusions.

Current Solution
Given the challenges customers face in reliably assessing cable damage on their own, and to ensure our customers' absolute safety, we are extending the recall to include all A1 printers currently in the market, regardless of their condition.
We strongly urge all customers to stop using their A1 printers until the issue has been resolved.

Recognizing the significant inconvenience this may cause, we are offering the following compensation options for customers who purchased through our online store, listed below:

Option 1 - Return for Refund
We know no one wants to ground their printer and wait months for a replacement, so all customers can return their A1 and receive a 100% refund of their purchase. This means that you will need to repackage your printer and ship it back to us, just like you would do with a regular return.

This process can take up to 15 business days until the refund is processed depending on shipping conditions and other potential delays, but we will do our best to solve this as quickly as possible and refund you the cost.

In case you wish to switch to another Bambu Lab model immediately and continue printing, we will provide an additional $80 discount voucher (equivalent discounts will be provided across different stores and regions) for customers returning the printer.

This discount applies to the A1 Mini, P1, and X1 series printers from our store, so you can order a replacement and get back to printing in the shortest amount of time possible.

Of course, you can also use it to buy an A1 printer when it becomes available again. We expect the new batch of A1 printers with the revised cable to be available around May.

Option 2 - Wait for Heatbed Availability and Replace It
Some of our customers might wish to keep their printer to avoid the return hassle, and simply replace the heatbed when the new one becomes available (expected around the end of March, as we plan to airship it to local warehouses).

If you prefer to keep your A1 printer and replace the heatbed when the new upgraded unit is available, we will provide a $120 discount voucher (equivalent discounts will be provided across different stores and regions) valid for any product in our online store as compensation for the extended wait, which will be provided when the heatbed is delivered.

We have a detailed Wiki article on this topic and a YouTube video to guide you through the process which should take around 20 minutes.We will ensure this guidance is further improved until the new heatbeds become available.

Please carefully check the information before deciding to choose this option, to ensure you are comfortable with the process of replacing the heatbed. We would also want to mention that the warranty period in this case is increased with an additional 6 months of coverage.

Also note that in some countries, due to regulations, this self-replacement of the bed by the customer may not be an option and in this case, the only solution is to return the printer for a refund.

How to Apply?
Please help us by sharing your decision on the registration page we have prepared. This will greatly assist us in forecasting the materials we need to prepare and optimizing the entire process to solve this unfortunate issue.
Customers who purchase from our official resellers should receive the same compensation through the reseller. Please contact them for details.

Further Considerations
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding.
Please also note that this plan could suffer modifications due to unforeseen discoveries we make in our investigation. Rest assured that we remain committed to ensuring the safety and satisfaction of our customers.
We will provide updated information on this matter as soon as possible after we learn more about the situation.
If you have any questions or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

https://blog.bambulab.com/a1-recall-update/

[pghp8ntballer]

A coworker of mine had his intercepted in shipping for the recall. They are absolutely doing the right thing and are showing that they are a genuine reliable and reputable company.

[zinger565]

Sister facility upgraded, so we got their old printer: a Raise3D Pro2. Pretty nice printer, dual nozzle, built in camera, network capable, etc. I'm excited to dive into it both for work and personal usage.