I second the use of PVA. It is a game changer! The quality of the supported print is amazing! Famous last words, but I will probably never go back to using the PLA/PETG for support. It just doesn’t work as well and is much more difficult to remove. Yes, PVA doesn’t always just peel right off, but that’s a good thing in my opinion. It has to stick to do it’s job. Give it a good soak in water and voila!
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That’s what I was reading too. Apparently you can set your distance to 0… and just let the water wash it away and it really improves your surface. I was pretty happy though; I could never do what I did with a same-material support.
Game changer.
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Exactly right. Setting distance to 0 is the key with water soluble support.
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There is a lot of PVA waste in that picture, and PVA is very expensive. If you want to save some cost on PVA and still use PVA, you’ll need to use a different slicer like PrusaSlicer or SuperSlicer. They allow you to use up to 3 different materials when printing with supports:
- The support material.
- The interface material.
- The print material.
When using the Dual Extrusion 3D Printing Module, you’d probably want to use print material for the supports and the print, and only use PVA for the interface layer(s). This will dramatically reduce your use of PVA or other interface material, lower your costs, and it will greatly increase the number of prints that you can get from your interface material.
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So the interface material is the material used direct before the print and so the “last layers of the support?”
For me cost reducing is far away. First I want to use the dual extruder reliable in general. I did again some prints with open enclosure and open print head and the results were better for PLA / PETG.
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I can vouch for this approach. I tried supporting PLA with PETG and ASA, both fairly successful, but the Snapmaker breakaway PLA gives the best results (I have not tried PVA yet). Since it’s relatively expensive filament I have set it to only print in breakaway PLA for the support interface (two layers), with contact distance set to 0. Very easy to remove and the supported surface looks great.
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Okay, that is genius. The setting in PrusaSlicer was looking me right in the face the whole time! I’m definitely setting just the interface layer to PVA the next time! Thanks for the suggestion!
Oh, yea, the whole point was to waste it actually. I wanted to print it with an entire face down and make it build the entire object from the pva. I couldn’t think of a better test to show it works.
You’re right, it’s expensive. I just needed to know it worked as advertised in a worst case use scenario.
Is there anyone in the forum who has been able to successfully print multicolored modules using the dual extrusion module and Luban to build/slice the GCODE file?
I’ve been trying to calibrate the new dual extruder and am on my fourth full-day attempt. No matter how many times I check the firmware, software and device settings, I cannot get the calibration process to complete (including the two test prints built into calibration). I just opened a ticket with SM support and gave them the logs, but wondering if other have has success with troubleshooting?
Well I’m running a 125 hour print right now. Took me a while to get started, and then I had to figure out the false filament runout issue, but now finally it’s been printing for 15 hours. Let’s see if it can complete the print.
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Whats your problem?
I also had trouble running the calibration prints after initial calibration through the touchpad. No matter how many times I tried, the prints would fail. The problem was that the Z offset was too high. Basically what I ended up doing is I ignored the calibration prints, lowered the Z offset, and then just started printing little test prints until I was happy with the first layer.
I don’t know if it’s a bug in the firmware or simply inaccuracies in the proximity sensor, but at least as of now, you have to manually adjust the Z offset until you get a good first layer
It seems to be a bug, there are many reports from users that say after the update to 1.15.19 they start to have a 0.3 +/- 0.1 mm offset in Z after Auto Z calibration. Snapmaker support contacted me on this - I sent them logfiles, seems they’re investigationg. Before 1.15.19 Z-offset after auto-calib was nearly spot-on for me.
See: Discussion of Snapmaker 2.0 Firmware Updates - #651 by Hauke
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Appreciate everyone’s responses/input. Here’s a OneDrive link to my videos and logs I have two issues
(1) when I attempt to load filament on the controller, the print head gets to temperature and says it’s loading filament but no filament comes out (happens for both nozzles). I can confirm there are no clogs and i have done multiple cold pulls and hot pulls to make sure there’s no obstruction
(2) related, because I can’t get filament to deposit when the calibration steps which print a test model (2x) are run, no models are produced. Before I upgraded to the most recent firmware and hardware, I previously (early March 2023) could get the filament to deposit and at least complete the calibration steps. At that time though, I couldn’t get Luban to slice the file (multicolor/multi material) so after a bunch of attempts I shelved the module and went back original, single extruder (which works without issue)
Note: each time I change the module I make
Sure to recalibrate and that the machine settings properly correspond.
Are you able to manually extrude filament?
@JonnieCache when you say “manual” do you mean a cold or hot pull — such as manually forcing filament through the nozzle without using the step motor? If so, yes, I can manually extrude filament without the step motor.
If you’re asking whether I can, outside of calibration, heat the nozzle and extrude filament through the controller, the answer is no. I’m both instances the nozzle heats up (and changes if I switch L/R nozzles) but the controller says filament should be extruding but no filament comes out and the motor does not run
Sorry for not being clear. I do mean extruding filament through the controller by just hitting Load Filament after the nozzle is heated. You can also do it through GCODE (G1 E10) to extrude 10mm of filament. If neither of those are working, in my estimation, you have a physical defect rather than a firmware/software problem. You might have just gotten unlucky and got a defective dual extruder module.
The only thing I can think of to do is to maybe remove both nozzles and re-seat them? Maybe swap them? I know you said it happens on both sides, but have you tried swapping the extruder nozzle modules? Just a thought.
The auto-z offset doesn’t work. I recommend skipping that part and doing a manual z-offset followed by the prints… it’ll give you a better idea of where you’re at.
Helps to take a picture and show us what is failing too.
For your second response, if filament isn’t loading, it probably isn’t getting into the hot end. If you open the door you can see it… You can use the tweezers to help it along (just don’t do that while the gear is running).
@Mads0100 – appreciate the feedback – did you see the videos in the OneDrive link (above) I figured a video was easier than a picture or description.
@dmacnulty I’m confused by the video because at least one of them shows that you are extruding filament. I also can hear the extruder motor running. I thought you couldn’t hear the extruder motor, so maybe I’m not understanding what you are experiencing. I do see that you are using the enclosure, but are not using the PTFE tubing. In my experience, the PTFE tubing provided with the dual extruder helps guide the filament where it needs to go. If you haven’t already tried the PTFE, that would be another thing to try.