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Flashforge Dreamer Mod Help

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by JustinDS89, May 5, 2018.

  1. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    Hello all!

    I have a unique situation and I'm having some issues.

    I upgraded my Dreamer with a Titan extruder and e3d v6 hotend.

    In order to get this to work I upped the extrusion multiplier to 3.80 and it prints great... sometimes.

    After awhile through a print it starts chewing through the filament until it wears it in two.

    Any idea what is causing this. Up until it does that it works great!
     
  2. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    I have tried increasing and decreasing tension on the filament just to see what would happen and it still does it either way. I'm a bit at a loss here as this is my first time doing something like this or messing with the Titan extruder.
     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    No experience with either the specific printer or the Titan extruder, but the chewing through is due to too much backpressure when trying to extrude. Could be a temporary/intermittent clog (PLA at least will do that without seasoning) and the fact that the extrusion multiplier is cranked up just makes it worse (since you are trying to shove more through). I am not a fan of playing with the extrusion multiplier for significant changes, if it is that far out of kilter then the extruder needs to be calibrated. Fix the problem, not fight the symptoms :)
     
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  4. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    Thanks for the reply!

    It isn't actually out of calibration. The titan extruder has a gear ratio that comes in to play. So you have to either adjust e steps or up the multiplier to compensate for this.

    I can't change e steps on the Dreamer to my knowledge though.
     
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Uhh, that is exactly what calibrating the extruder does you know :)

    Maybe watch Toms excellent video:

     
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  6. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @JustinDS89 Is there no way to modify the firmware on the FlashForge? My guess is that it would have been better to recalibrate the extruder and reflash the firmware? or at the very least using G-Code to set the e-steps. If it follows the pseudo G-Code standard M92 Ennn would do it.
    http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code#M92:_Set_axis_steps_per_unit
     
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  7. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    Ah okay haha, thought you meant something else.

    To my knowledge no there isn't, but I hope I'm wrong lol.

    I may try a post processing gcode script if i can figure out how to do that.
     
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Some folks install Sailfish on the FF (which would then be updateable/editiable) but I don't have one to play with so take that with a grain of salt.
     
  9. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    From my understanding you can only do that on the Creator Pro, but not certain.
     
  10. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    Haven't found a way to adjust the steps without a complete board upgrade.

    It wasn't just that model as it ate through the filament on another model.

    I don't understand why it prints great and then starts chewing through the filament.
     
  11. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    I just disassembled everything and put it back together. I adjusted the retraction to 0.5mm and 15 mm/s. This seems quite low, but I don't know what else to do.

    EDIT: Tested it out and it started grinding the filament by the second layer...
     
    #11 JustinDS89, May 6, 2018
    Last edited: May 6, 2018
  12. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Did you try what @WheresWaldo posted? You can set the extrusion Steps in EEPROM assuming its not disabled on the FF machines (I wouldn't think so). I have a titan on a few machines and I did find if you tighten the bolts that hold the cover on to much it will bind up the filament drive and cause a similar issue. might want to recheck assembly, also try seasoning the extruder (canola oil on the filament).

    From there once everything mechanical has been verified I'd suggest rechecking all your settings in your slicer. You can use coast to relieve back pressure at the end of a layer but will take some tuning to get it figured out.
     
  13. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    I have not as I'm not sure how to add that in the post processing script. I guess I could add it manually to the gcode for test, but not sure where it needs adding.

    From my understanding is there isn't a way to change it in EEPROM on the Dreamer. I have disassembled it completely and put it back together last night with no luck and I made sure that the one screw that goes through the drive gear wasn't too tight.

    I have not messed with coast at all. So far all I have done is reduce retraction and retraction speed. Can't really reduce that much more other than turning off lol.
     
  14. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    its like what Mark said above. Grinding filament is back pressure. Either micro clogs with PLA, or the system is driving to much to fast. If your only getting to the 2nd layer I would tend to believe its because the extruder is not calibrated so we have to get that handled first.

    If your using Simplify 3D you would open the gcode terminal (well any slicer really) and while connected over USB to your machine figure up your esteps, type in the code waldo gave you. So say your esteps are 425. the code he gave was M92 425 Then you want to follow that with a M500 to save to eeprom. Then try and extrude 100mm of filament and see what you get. If that doesn't work your in for some trouble. Quick googling shows a few groups that mod their FF machines so you'd have to find how they are changing the firmware, get a copy of it, flash it with your correct esteps, then see how the printer reacts. Sounds like a bunch of crap to go through but when companies close off their source it makes life...difficult lol.
     
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  15. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    It happens on the second layer on one model, but the other model is probably 20 layers into it before I see this problem.

    I will try sending that code to the printer and see if it will save to the EEPROM.

    How do I tell it to extrude 100mm of filament?

    I've done some research and I have yet to find anyone that has changed the firmware of the Dreamer, but I may not know exactly what to look for.

    I will start with trying to set esteps though and go from there.

    I really don't want to have to change out the board to something else and go through that process as I'm not really familiar with that either.
     
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  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  17. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    Ah okay, thanks! I will try this this evening.

    Still trying to figure all this out lol.

    Appreciate the help though.
     
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  18. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    F is the feedrate. No clue what works on the Dreamer so you may have to play with that if it is too high.
     
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  19. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    Okay sounds good. I will post back with the results!

    Thanks guys.
     
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  20. JustinDS89

    JustinDS89 Member

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    I was actually able to test this sooner than expected. It shows that the code was received in the terminal of S3D for the Dreamer, but it doesn't appear to actually be doing anything.

    It is extruding way less than 100mm when I try to extrude that amount.

    I'm assuming this means I can't write to EEPROM since it has no effect?
     

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