Thanks for investigating and sharing. I suspected a hardware change on newer minis was the culprit, but had not chased it down. Thanks!
Is Marlin v1.1.0.8 for LulzBot Mini a full release, or a beta/development version? When I go through the menus on th elulzbot site for a “single click firmware flash” it seems to be leading me to an older version.
I think it is still Beta. Download the latest hex version from the link a few posts up then choose the option to flash a custom ROM. choose the file you downloaded.
John, this Marlin release is still in Beta for the time being.
…soo… I’m having some terrible print quality this morning. I’m thinking it’s mostly just a nozzle that needs to be cleaned out out well. Honestly i don’t think i’ve ever had something print out this badly, there is a lot of things going on here that i’m almost embarrassed to post pictures. And if someone knows what is wrong and how to fix it please let me know.
But in regards to the beta firmware on this print i noticed quite clearly that the nozzle is dragging on the surface when moving the nozzle. It almost seems like it is not raising it up (either at all or not enough) when it goes to move the x-axis. Is this a problem with the beta firmware or is it just another symptom of some other major print problems i’m having today? Has anyone else had that problem?
Check your filament diameter again. It looks to be over-extruding and the little bit of Z Lift is not enough and it causes the end of the nozzle to be dragged through the extra plastic laid down. Or at least that is my S.W.A.G. .
Or your E-Steps.
I believe when you install new firmware, you lose your e-steps setting and any custom z-offset (if you have stored a z-offset in your firmware, as opposed to just entering an adjustment in Cura). Those will need to be reset.
On my mini, the default e-steps set by the firmare install was too high (either 833 or 850, I forget which). I had to set to to about 820. The Z-offset was too low (too large a negative number). I forget what the actual value was that I entered, but I remember having to bump it up by 0.15mm or so. After those adjustments, things worked fine. (your values may differ).
Thanks for the tips guys. I double checked everything i could today. I took a look at the E-steps and eventually concluded that was fine. I tried measuring the filament and found it was slightly off so i think that did fix the slight over-extruding issue. I re-leveled my two z-axis leadscrews. It is my understanding that the Z-offset only affects the bottom layer and how far the nozzle is from the bed at start. My mini is fine in that regard other than an occasional spot where i think my bed is slightly angled. I thought the automatic bed leveling would take care of that but sometimes it doesn’t, nor do i think a slightly angled bed is taken into account when the nozzle is traveling, so i wonder if that is the real root of my issue. I tested both the new firmware and old firmware and both have this issue. Perhaps some more z lift could be added to the new firmware (when traveling) to help avoid this problem a little more? I think this problem may occur more on quick prints more than standard or slow prints, but i’m not sure. Anyone else been seeing this issue? I can link my STL file if anyone else wants to test it on their mini (you will need to rotate it so the flat side prints on the bed). Thanks. That’s all i can really do at this point. I think I’ve reasonably done everything i can to calibrate and adjust my mini as best i can.
EDIT 9/3/16:
So maybe this is just a problem for me. I just figured out that this is not a setting in the firmware but the the expert settings in cura i think labeled “Z hop when retracting (mm)”. I don’t know if it would be feasable to bump the default number up from .1mm to something like .3 to give more clearance by default or not in the next release of cura, but at least i now know how to change that if indeed it does what i think it does and if it ever is a problem.
Otherwise the new beta firmware is great. No problems, infact fewer problems than before with the new bed leveling and everything else.
shermans_clock_face.STL (352 KB)
I’ve tried downloading the .hex file but for some reason it takes me to a page with just numbers. Is there something that I’m missing?
Right-click on it and choose “Save target as…” (or you browser’s equivalent if you’re not using IE)
I was able to save it as a .hex in chrome. Thanks
thadjhb
Can the existing firmware (with current settings) be exported or backed up before flashing newer firmware?
(So as to be able to flash back to just the way it was (settings) in case of issue?)
My mini has been printing great with little to no tuning and I don’t want to find it degrades in print quality but I’d really like the extra protection of the probing changes.
Also my mini is an older gen, will I HAVE to change out/print the parts noted in early posts due to rod length issues?
I’m not sure how to back up the firmware in your Mini right now and you may be able to find it on LB’s website. But, you can always go back to the current official ‘release’ version. You’ll notice there are two firmware update options on the Cura menu.
You use the “install custom firmware…” option to install the beta firmware you’re downloading now.
You’d use the “install default firmware…” option to flash it with the current released firmware version.
I dont think without an ISCP (in-line-system-programmer) direct to the atmel arduino chip on the electronics board its possible to backup the firmware. But DougZ is right, you can always use cura to go back to the current stable firmware release should you have issues. You also can browse the devel.lulzbot.com and the download.lulzbot.com site and browse the firmware folders manually and go to your version of the mini you have and grab the firmware release that you desire. Chances are you are running an older firmware than what is even the current stable release.
no, i just printed those because it bugged me that the tip was touching near the edge of the washer. The bed leveling still worked fine, it just bugged me that it wasn’t in the middle. You may need to adjust you z-offset setting whether you try the new firmware and/or go back to an older firmware as those settings may get changed when you flash. But it’s not really a big deal once you figure it out. Plus you might not even need to do that at all depending.
EDIT: Also, you may be able to figure out what version of the firmware you are currently running by checking the terminal printout from cura. 1. open cura. 2.go to >file >print. 3.with the print / terminal window displayed turn your printer on and connect. 4.if you do not see anything pop up then while connected turn your printer off and on quickly.
This is what my mini currently reports as marlin is starting up:
< < echo:Marlin 1.1.0.9
< echo: Last Updated: 2016-04-27 12:00 | Author: (Aleph Objects Inc., LulzBot Mini)
< Compiled: Aug 26 2016
< echo: Free Memory: 4404 PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
< echo:V23 stored settings retrieved (396 bytes)
< echo:Steps per unit:
< echo: M92 X100.50 Y100.50 Z1600.00 E833.00
< echo:Maximum feedrates (mm/s):
< echo: M203 X800.00 Y800.00 Z8.00 E40.00
< echo:Maximum Acceleration (mm/s2):
< echo: M201 X9000 Y9000 Z100 E1000
< echo:Accelerations: P=printing, R=retract and T=travel
< echo: M204 P2000.00 R3000.00 T2000.00
< echo:Advanced variables: S=Min feedrate (mm/s), T=Min travel feedrate (mm/s), B=minimum segment time (ms), X=maximum XY jerk (mm/s), Z=maximum Z jerk (mm/s), E=maximum E jerk (mm/s)
< echo: M205 S0.00 T0.00 B20000 X12.00 Z0.40 E10.00
< echo:Home offset (mm):
< echo: M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
< echo:PID settings:
< echo: M301 P28.79 I1.91 D108.51 C100.00 L20
< echo: M304 P294.00 I65.00 D382.00
< echo:Filament settings: Disabled
< echo: M200 D3.00
< echo: M200 D0
< echo:Z-Probe Offset (mm):
< echo: M851 Z-1.35
Just wanted to report, another happy camper on the v1.1.0.9 firmware! I wish I upgraded sooner, last week I installed a new PEI bed surface only to mark up the surface when leveling failed nearly immediately… oh well.
@Biolumo, your print is pretty clearly over-extruding. It looks like my Mini’s prints when it was new out of the box. Sure you never changed E-steps before? I run at E800, far lower than the factory default of E833. I also needed a different M851 offset.
(IMO the defaults in the firmware are bad and should be changed, as it seems like lots have problems with the defaults. but my sample size is pretty small too)
So I just tried 1.1.0.9 on my Mini, and it is not able to successfully probe. It does the front left corner fine, then moves to the front right corner and appears to give up just short of reaching the washer. Re-cleaning the nozzle doesn’t help, since the nozzle doesn’t come down far enough to make contact, so after a couple of cycles it errors out and aborts the print.
I tried changing M851 from its default value of Z-1.43 to -1.23 and even -1.1 but it doesn’t seem to change anything (I’m not really sure what that parameter does anyway). Is there a way to tell the thing to go further?
[edit] I downgraded and took note of the output during a successful leveling with the 1.0 firmware:
Send: N47 G29*33
Recv: Bed x: 0.00 y: 0.00 z: -1.70
Recv: Bed x: 160.00 y: 0.00 z: -3.07
Recv: Bed x: 160.00 y: 160.00 z: -3.15
Recv: Bed x: 0.00 y: 160.00 z: -1.67
Recv: Eqn coefficients: a: -0.01 b: -0.00 d: -1.67
Recv: planeNormal x: 0.01 y: 0.00 z: 1.00
Recv: Probing done!
Maybe my bed is way out of whack? Is adjustment possible?
Looking at your leveling values your right side is up around 1.5 MM higher than your left side. You will need to slowly turn the threaded rod on that side until you bring them back to the same height while the printer is powered off. Then power it back on, perform the auto level routine and see if you raised it more or lowered it closer to the left sides height. Keep doing this until you got them closer in value.
I see what you mean. There is a significantly larger gap on the right side. I never looked at that before. Once this print is done, I’ll make the adjustment. Thanks!
Isn’t the right side LOWER than the left? Larger negative number means further down, doesn’t it?