Alice Averlong🏳️⚧️also the filament has been sitting in a garage, loaded into the printer, for a year.
it's probably really shit by now. as soon as the cube finishes I'm gonna need to swap to something, anything, else
there's a lot of work that can and should be done on this printer, but it's all gonna be limited by the fact I can't stand up for more than 5 minutes
well, there's something going on with the z-axis, but it printed more or less.
I've also got to switch to a different power supply for the pi that's running octoprint, and upgrade the pi to a new OS (which requires backing up and restoring existing octopi settings) because my python is EOL.
so it's working, but I'm still sighing a lot
anyway I loaded new filament and I'm printing a chep cube again!
okay I printed a CE5P calicat after attempting to fix the z-offset issue. It still is horrible.
possibly this is mostly a temperature issue: I'm using the stock temperatures but I think I upgraded this to an all-metal hotend that needs to run higher?
reprinted with higher temp. it's better, but still bad.
so probably there's another issue. I remember I did a lot of rebuilding of the hot end in the final days of using this before, so who knows what's clogged in there?
I printed on a raft because the z-offset is still fuckt
a higher temp (220°C) and 110% flow rate seems to be working well enough.
had to dig out my flir phone to take pictures for silly cellphone reasons.
Anyway, this is the 220°C 110% flow calicat. It looks way better, right?
also octoprint is yelling that my pi is undervolting. I'm specifically using a dedicated 5v 2.5A wall-wart, how is it STILL undervolting? ugh.
I need to throw away and replace every part of this setup and I don't have the time, money, energy, or space to do that
Thanks to everyone who has given suggestions for how to fix this. Unfortunately most of them require me standing up for longer than I can manage, so I've mainly just fiddled with settings (since I can do that from my bed).
but when I can, I'll be:
* calibrating the extruder
* trying to clear clogs in the hot-end
* calibrating the z-axis offset (which is a multistep nightmare in this setup)
I need to upgrade the octopi install so I might switch to a newer pi. I have one somewhere, it's just probably up in my office where I can't really get to it (stairs)
installed a USB power blocker to try and fix the undervolting. it didn't work.
So I'm gonna have to find another power supply for that
I'm gonna try cold pulling next because that's easier than getting to the extruder
okay I tried switching to a different USB power supply (5v 2A) with thicker usb cables: No difference, still undervolting.
I also cold-pulled the hot end a few times, to see if that'll help.
the extruder is still difficult to reach
printing another calicat to see if that changed anything
okay I think my extruder is fucked. damn it, that's the most annoying part of this printer to access.
new extruder motor has arrived. hopefully I'll be feeling well enough to install it sometime in the next decimillennium
new extruder (hardware & servo motor) installed, along with new bowden tube. lets see if this works
pi has stopped reporting undervoltage. I haven't touched anything with that setup since yesterday. the fuck?
Seems pretty good.
My z-alignment is still fucked. I printed this on a raft because I knew it still was, but the raft was nearly impossible to remove. it was WELDED to the build plate.
I'm not sure if I need to adjust my z-offset in the ender 5 plus's touchscreen or if that only applies to printing natively with the printer, and I need to change it in my slicer. or in octoprint! there's a lot of places! (there's too many fucking places!)
and keep in mind that's me saying it as someone who has made it their livelong profession and hobby of touching computers as much as they can. I love a bunch of little places to change things. I love being able to fiddle with settings.
3d printing has too many settings
fiddled with my z-offset calibration. tried measuring the build plate: that was a mistake. The thing is bent as fuck.
but it does do a 4x4 grid for level so maybe it can compensate enough for that to not be a huge problem. Lets see, time for another 9 hour print!
it failed. it did a couple layers and then clogged. I went in there and the hot end was just hovering over the beginning of the print, while the extruder clicked.
and the undervolting is back. while the octopi isn't even connected to the printer (because I accidentally left the USB disconnected)
Okay I thought I fixed the clog and turned up the print temp and did another Calicat. At the end of the print, the webcam showed nothing there. I watched the time-lapse, and yep. No filament at all came out.
So I've got something way more broken than just a low temperature
replaced the filament that had snapped off just inside the extruder. it's printing again
it made it like 3 hours into an 9-48 hour print and stopped extruding again. I bet it snapped off once more
This bowden tube does seem kinda crap, but I wonder if it's my filament? this has only been open a week, but maybe it was just brittle to begin with
swapped to a different brand of newer filament. lets see if this works any better
NOPE! spaghetti after about 40 minutes
3d printers yearn for the sea floor
here's what happened. Maybe this filament doesn't like the 220°C that I was running the other filament at, and I overheated it?
the Principle of What Changed, however, says it's the filament:
I printed like 10 CHEP cubes and CaliCats in the last couple weeks, zero spaghetti.
I switch to the green filament, everything I've printed is spaghetti.
maybe this filament is just bad or I'm outside its temperature range. I tried 220°C and 200°C, both spaghettied.
Got some fresh filament, it printed a CaliCat just fine at 200°C.
I also swapped to a Pi4 for OctoPrint, so no more undervoltage errors.
Now lets see if we can do a loooong print
so a brief list of issues I've had so far in the last 10 days of my exciting 3d printing adventures:
* slicer was crashing
* old filament
* pi undervolting
* extruder gear destroyed
* old filament again
* old filament again
* z axis is questionably calibrated
* build plate is bent
* slicer was crashing
* old filament
* pi undervolting
* extruder gear destroyed
* old filament again
* old filament again
* z axis is questionably calibrated
* build plate is bent
oh yeah it wasn't in this thread but it turned out my slicer wasn't launching properly because it was trying to talk to my keyboards
new filament failed. I went in there and the extruder was clicking, trying and failing to shove plastic through the hot end.
SO YEAH I KINDA HATE THIS THING
the issue is either the bowden tube (unlikely but possible) or the hotend. if the hot end is clogging I cannot fix it. it takes more time to disassemble and reassemble that fucker than I can stand in a day
my roommate bought another printer.
arcade w.
Evan@foone Why pay for printers everyone throws them away in fixable condition for free? Their like monitors.
Pop Justy 
@scribblesonnapkins @foone This is true. I remember my first laser printer. It was a DECLaser 5100 that was thrown away by the VA Hospital in my area.
It just needed a few repairs and bam! Laser printer for free. That thing ran till I replaced it with my Brother HL-L3230CDW.
Kraftwerk-Das Model Collapse
Athena L.M.@foone unforgivable
Simulacra of a girl@foone always nice when coupons stack
endrift 🏳️⚧️
rabbit400
A cool crab wearing shades@foone printers are already magic devil magic bullshit and then we gave them a 3rd dimension
Maxx (she/her)@foone 10 days, an incredible journey
Solarbird 
niarbeht
Misty@foone [fwoosh of fire starting quickly]
Cowboy Who?
William D. Jones@foone OctoPrint fainted! Foone is out of usable 3d printers! Foone took their printers to the Pokemon center.
(Yea, Idk what the "game over" messages look like these days.)
rx13 
@foone
Also, I've had numerous issues with Octoprint specifically where the exact same model will print fine via SD card or USB stick.
Ymmv, but that could be your problem too
@rx13 I don't know why it would suddenly develop that symptom, though! this stupid printer has printed thousands of hours of shit, mostly just fine.
Runner 🏳️⚧️
StarkRG@foone
Most of my problems end up being bowden tube and filament quality. Almost always there's some friction in the tube or filament run that causes issues. Cheap filaments can vary in problems from diameter to being spooled improperly (extruder tension locking a filament overlap to the spool), to hydrated filament, or cheap filler materials that leaves deposits behind
I've had a hotend issue once and replacing the nozzle was sufficient to solve that case.
@foone > place your bets until how long it'll be until I'm ranting about how printers are a sin against man and god
10 Days. You lasted longer than I thought, tbh. Reset the counter to 0 days?
Jim P.@foone Printer's haunted [racks shotgun]
Seriously, though, that sounds like some trouble I had with my Creality CR-10S. I no longer have that printer, though. Lots of fiddly trouble like that.
Replaced it with a Core One and the only problems there have been self-inflicted and easily solved. Cost a hell of a lot more but being able to "just print" is a hell of a lot better on one's mental health, I can attest to that.
ThatKomputerKat 
@foone I got a few good prints out of my 3d printer in between lots of weird failures. In the end it encased the hot end and related parts in a huge elephant’s foot of PLA. Company that made it has gone bankrupt earlier so no easy parts supply so I said fuck it and ripped it apart to get a few bucks selling parts on eBay. 
Kawaoneechan@foone That seems like a very Foone-specific issue.
@kawa as I said recently elsewhere, being Foone is both my crime and punishment
Ret
Σ(i³) = (Σi)²@foone
I always picture your entire computing setting consisting of nothing but stacks and stacks of interconnected keyboards. What else would a device be talking to,?
I always picture your entire computing setting consisting of nothing but stacks and stacks of interconnected keyboards. What else would a device be talking to,?
garthy@StarkRG I didn't think it'd be that, since the green was fresh out of a vacuum sealed bag (but I'm not sure how old it is)
nepi@foone One would hope that brand new reels would be dry enough to print with straight out of the bag, but I've found that isn't always the case (though it usually is). It could be print settings, but you'd have to get them quite wrong to end up with something like that (like using very low extrusion rates or very thick layers).