If you aspire to achieve flawless, high-quality prints without banding or other issues, tuning your printer is a must-do process. Starting from the basic e-steps calibration, then progress to advanced topics like pressure advance and input shaper. Whether you're a beginner, intermediate, or advanced user. these techniques can significantly enhance your 3D printing experience. It's crucial not to skip any steps; starting from the beginning and following through to the end ensures outstanding results.
E-steps Calibration
1. Measuring Filament 100mm: Prepare a marker and a piece of filament cut to exactly 100mm in length. Secure the filament at the bottom or top of the extruder, ensuring there is no slack. Mark the filament at the top edge.
2. Extruding 100mm: After marking the filament, instruct the extruder to extrude exactly 100mm of filament using the printer interface.
3. Measure Offset Distance: Measure the distance from the bottom of the mark to the bottom of the extruder. Record this measurement.
4. Calculate Rotation Distance: Use the following calculation to determine the new rotation distance: Rotation distance = (previous rotation distance) x (actual extruded distance) / 100.
5. Second Measurement Verify: Repeat the process by marking the filament at 100mm again and extruding 100mm. Verify that the extruded length matches the desired length accurately.
6. Adjust and Restart: If necessary, adjust the rotation distance in the printer configuration based on the calculated value. Save the changes and restart the printer.
7. Final Check: Perform a final extrusion of 100mm to ensure that the extruder now accurately extrudes the specified amount of filament.
By following these steps carefully, you can calibrate the E-steps of your printer to ensure accurate filament extrusion.
PID Tuning Heatbed
1. Prepare Environment: Before proceeding with PID tuning, ensure that the nozzle and heatbed are heated up to the desired printing temperatures. It's recommended to mimic the printing environment as closely as possible.
2. Run PID Tuning Command: Execute the PID tuning command for the heatbed. This involves sending the appropriate G-code command to initiate the tuning process. For example, if printing with ABS at 110°C, send the command to tune the heatbed at this temperature.
3. Monitor Tuning Process: Allow the printer to complete the PID tuning process. Once finished, verify the completion status and ensure that the tuning values have been updated.
4. Save Configuration: After successful tuning, save the updated PID tuning values to the printer's configuration. This ensures that the new settings are retained even after power cycles or resets.
PID Tuning Hot End
1. Set Printing Parameters: Similar to heatbed tuning, ensure that the printer is set up with the appropriate printing parameters. This includes heating the heatbed to the desired temperature and configuring other settings such as fan speed.
2. Run Extruder PID Tuning Command: Execute the PID tuning command for the extruder. Set the extruder temperature to the desired printing temperature (e.g., 255°C for ABS) and initiate the tuning process.
3. Adjust Settings: During the tuning process, ensure that the part cooling fan is operational and that the nozzle is positioned close to the heatbed without touching it. This simulates typical printing conditions and ensures accurate tuning.
4. Monitor and Save: Allow the tuning process to complete, monitoring the progress as the printer adjusts its PID parameters. Once finished, save the updated PID tuning values to the printer's configuration, ensuring that the new settings are applied effectively.
By following these steps for both the heatbed and hot end, you can effectively tune the PID parameters of your 3D printer to optimize temperature control.
Pressure Advance Calibration
Ensure that the nozzle and heatbed are heated up, and the nozzle is tightened properly. Use the Ellis Pressure Advance Calibration Tool:
Ellis Pressure Advance Calibration Tool
https://ellis3dp.com/Pressure_Linear_Advance_Tool/
1. Tool Configuration:
- Set parameters like nozzle size (e.g., 0.4mm), filament diameter (1.75mm), and extrusion multiplier (initially set to 1).
- Configure bed and hotend temperatures to match your typical printing conditions.
- Set print speeds, fan speeds, and layer heights based on your preferences and the filament type.
- Configure acceleration, pressure advance start value (0), increment (0.05), and end value.
2. G-code Configuration:
- Copy the start G-code directly from your slicer settings, not the printer config. If using Super Slicer, find this in Printer Settings > Custom G-Code under the start G-Code section.
- Save the configured settings and download the generated G-code file.
- Upload the downloaded G-code file to your printer interface, such as Fluidd. Start the print with the uploaded G-code, and observe the printer's performance during the calibration.
3.Inspect and Get PA Values From Print:
- Print Observation: In examining this print, let's focus on the quality of its corners. Disregarding any stringing present, we observe the gaps and artifacts on these corners. Our goal is to identify the corner with the sharpest appearance and minimal gaps along the line. This assessment will guide us in determining the appropriate Pressure Advance (PA) values for optimizing print quality.
- Adjust PA Values: Based on the observation, adjust the pressure advance values to optimize print quality. Consider tweaking parameters like start value, increment, and end value to refine the pressure advance settings.
By following these steps, you can effectively perform Pressure Advance calibration, enhancing the printer's ability to handle filament flow during printing and achieve better print quality.
Extrusion Multiplier Calibration
Extrusion multiplier refers to the calibration of filament flow for the filament being used. It determines the amount of filament that is extruded during printing relative to the specified amount in the slicer software. This calibration is necessary to ensure accurate and consistent extrusion, leading to better print quality.
The need for calibrating the extrusion multiplier arises when changing filament types or brands. Each filament may have different properties such as diameter, composition, and flow characteristics, which can affect the extrusion rate. Therefore, recalibrating the extrusion multiplier is essential to adapt to these variations and achieve optimal printing results.
The following calibration cube allows users to adjust the extrusion multiplier settings based on observed print quality, such as layer adhesion, surface finish, and dimensional accuracy.
Extrusion Multiplier Cubes STL
https://github.com/AndrewEllis93/Print-Tuning-Guide/blob/main/test_prints/extrusion_multiplier_cubes/EM_Cube-Unlabeled.stl
1. Import the calibration cube into the slicing software (e.g., Super Slicer). Right-click on the cube and select "Add Setting."
2. In the slicer settings menu, locate the option for "Filament" and enable the "Extrusion Multiplier" checkbox. Ensure that the Extrusion Multiplier value is set to 1 to maintain accuracy in subsequent adjustments.
3. Copy and paste the cube to create multiple copies for calibration. Arrange the cubes on the bed, keeping track of their positions. Modify the Extrusion Multiplier settings for each cube individually to cover a range of values (e.g., from 90 to 98).
4. Adjust other settings as needed, such as infill percentage, top and bottom layers, and line width, ensuring consistency across all cubes.
5. Slice the model with the specified settings, ensuring that infill, bottom layers, and other parameters match the desired configuration. Export the sliced file and proceed with printing the calibration cubes to evaluate and fine-tune the Extrusion Multiplier for optimal print quality.
By fine-tuning the extrusion multiplier, users can achieve precise filament flow and consistent print quality across different printing sessions and filament types.
Input Shaper
Input Shaper is a control technique for reducing vibrations on our 3D printers. It's a way to print fast, but without the usual reduction in quality.
As we increase our print speeds and especially acceleration, 3D printing becomes a lot more violent. The vibration of the mechanical parts can be seen as an artifact on the surface of the 3D print, known as ringing or ghosting.
Some printers suffer from bad ghosting even at low speeds because they've got a particularly heavy print head to move around. But in any case, we should notice that the oscillations seen on the surface repeat at a regular interval, and this is related to the resonant frequency of the machine.
If we can find a way to measure the resonant frequency of our 3D printer, Klipper has precise enough control of the stepper motor movements that it can compensate and magically make ringing or ghosting disappear.
Ringing Tower Test Stl
https://www.klipper3d.org/prints/ringing_tower.stl
Klipper will specify what settings we need to apply in the slicer to prepare this file. A crucial one is making sure your external perimeters are at least 80-100mm/s, and you might like to verify this with a calculator.