Issues I would like to see fixed
Do you have issues that bother you with your MINI?
Here is my pet peeve:
Live Z Calibration print. The hotend gets to full temperature first, then performes mesh bed levelling and generates huge blob of ooze. This was already solved in regular pre-print levelling. I would love to see it here as well.
I have come here to chew bubblegum and perfect my MINI ... and I'm all out of bubblegum.
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
I do not think I have had this issue. I will check it tonight and see it happens.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
Two more:
1. Why is the bed heating up when loading / unloading filament?
2. Why do I need to restart the printer after I reinsert flash drive? The flash drive is not recognized if I insert it when the printer is running. (Turn on, remove flash drive, insert back).
I have come here to chew bubblegum and perfect my MINI ... and I'm all out of bubblegum.
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
[...]
2. Why do I need to restart the printer after I reinsert flash drive? The flash drive is not recognized if I insert it when the printer is running. (Turn on, remove flash drive, insert back).
I only have that with USB3 thumb drives
Mini with FW:4.4.1 + SuperPINDA + Bondtech Heatbreak + PC4-M8 couplers + 1 piece boden
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
There are also some changes to how the Mini recognises the USB stick in 4.1.0 which may help.
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
- Mini should detect that I tried to feed it a gcode file for the MK3S accidentally and at least prompt you to continue - it just plows on ahead (I left MK3S selected in slicer accidentally)
- USB drive handling needs work. If I power the Mini on with a drive still connected it won't be detected until I physically reinsert it
- Sometimes when cancelling a print it seems to acknowledge that but then move the nozzle all the way back to the model, then move all the way back and park
- When loading filament if you "miss" getting the filament pulled into the extruder during the initial speedy movement, it takes like eight times of answering no to "Did the color change?" for the filament to make it all the way into the heatblock.
- (Why don't I cancel it all and try again to get that fast feed motion at the beginning? That doesn't work when it's during a print, for obvious reasons)
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
- Mini should detect that I tried to feed it a gcode file for the MK3S accidentally and at least prompt you to continue - it just plows on ahead (I left MK3S selected in slicer accidentally)
I don't have a Mini to test any of this with, but the Mk3 series has a firmware feature that will do exactly this sort of check. The printer profiles for these printers include the following in sliced gcode:
M862.3 P "[printer_model]" ; printer model check
M862.1 P[nozzle_diameter] ; nozzle diameter check
Interestingly, the Mini profiles do not include these checks, so I assume the Mini firmware doesn't have the check feature yet. Given that the Mini has a 32 bit controller, I'd expect to see this on the "future" features list.
and miscellaneous other tech projects
He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
@gordon-w
Have they given a time line for 4.1?
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
- When loading filament if you "miss" getting the filament pulled into the extruder during the initial speedy movement, it takes like eight times of answering no to "Did the color change?" for the filament to make it all the way into the heatblock.
Happened to me once. Very annoying indeed.
I have come here to chew bubblegum and perfect my MINI ... and I'm all out of bubblegum.
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
@wh49ersfan
No timeline unfortunately. They have created a 4.1.0 branch, and there has been quite a lot of activity, so hopefully not too long until we see a beta at least.
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
The first layer calibration uses actual print temperature instead of 170 degrees. not sure if it's on purpose or by omission.
I for one would like to see if print head moves away after first layer calibration. Right now it just sits like 3 mm above home position, making it hard to remove and clean the sheet. have to go to settings and manually move Z up.
And better sorting of USB files, or better work with USB storage in general. Right now it sorts by date from newest added, I'd appreciate if I could sort by name. Names which don't fit into one line don't scroll nor span multiple lines, neither in list when selected nor in preview before print. Navigating menu as well as USB files and directories does not remember your last position, when you go back you have to scroll all the way from beginning of list or directory list. Combined with truncated names, it is sometimes frustrating finding exactly what you need. You have to be very creative with naming if you have multiple files of the same print with different settings as gcode versions. It's like old 8+3 DOS names 🤣 I have to keep notes somewhere external about which change is in which version if I want to compare instead of making meaningful name of it.
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
@crawlerin
You are right. i would expect the filename to marquee when selected.
I have come here to chew bubblegum and perfect my MINI ... and I'm all out of bubblegum.
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
@wh49ersfan
No timeline unfortunately. They have created a 4.1.0 branch, and there has been quite a lot of activity, so hopefully not too long until we see a beta at least.
The 4.1.0 branch has now been merged into 'master' so it's getting closer, we might get more news on tonight's livestream.
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
Hopefully this will help solve at least some of these issues: https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy/releases/tag/v4.1.0-RC1
- Improved behavior after USB drive removal
- Marlin Card Reader replaced
- Printer acoustic signalization
- Filament load/unload procedure adjusted
- Preheat function improved
- Tune menu extended
- File browser improved
- Horizontal scrolling text
- Octoprint screen improved
- Watchdog dump feature
- Support for NTP servers
- Safety measures for filament load/unload
- Reworked temperature regulation
- Bug fixes
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
I’m new to this game, so maybe this is my lack of understanding - but my mini has crashed several times in the first couple of weeks of using it and when the system reboots the values for each axis seem to be way off. This has led to several heart stopping moments of the print head smashing into the end stops and grinding stepper motors. Worst of all has been me inadvertently moving the z axis and not realising the values were completely out - now I have an immaculate circular dent in the PEI sheet from the nozzle 👎
So, it would be good if the next firmware update could include a fix for this - e.g. on system reboot following a crash the user is made to perform auto home calibration to reset accurate values for each axis?
RE: Issues I would like to see fixed
Unfortunately 4.1.0-RC1 doesn't fix any of my issues. The primary two are (1) no temperature compensation for MINDA probe and (2) a limit of 100*C on the print bed.
(1) The lack of temperature compensation is dangerous as the Z offset needs to be cranked down a lot when printing in an enclosure. The increased temperature really throws off the MINDA. If you then decide to open the enclosure to print at a lower ambient temperature the nozzle will crash into the bed. As it stands now I have to wait quite a long while to get the enclosure up to a consistent temperature so that I can use a consistent Z-offset.
(2) I've been unable to get medium sized ABS prints to print at a bed temp of 100*C without lifting. The Mini (at least my Mini) is capable if heating to 110*C but is software limited to 100*C. This limit was implemented in a previous firmware release, I believe 4.0.3. I've had to load a custom build of 4.1.0-RC1 to get the bed up to 110*C and now I have no lifting with ABS prints. This has of course voided my warranty.
I've also not been able to get decent PETG prints out of this thing. It might be the batch of PETG I'm using, but I suspect it has more to do with the fact that it's a Bowden setup.
If you can't reliably print either PETG or ABS then you're really left with PLA, which relegates the Mini to toy status.