What are the drawbacks of silent mode?
Other than loosing crash detection, what are the drawbacks of running the Mk3S in silent mode?
I've googled around but could not find a definitive answer. Some say layer shift might be a problem in silent mode. Others say that silent mode struggles with small prints and fine details. True or false?
My printers: Mk3s / Mk3s clone with +upgrdaes (you know SPinda and all that good stuff) / Mini+ / Ender 3 v2
RE: What are the drawbacks of silent mode?
Silent mode is just slightly slower. There really isnt much of a drawback. and Yeah i could see where it would not get as fine detail because the drivers are also running with a different mode / frequency (only to make it quieter) but those modes have not been tuned at all as far as I know. TBH the MK3 is quiet enough and I have never used that mode myself for any of our print farm.
RE: What are the drawbacks of silent mode?
In silent mode your motors are running with less current. In addition they are running in a different mode. This can lead to layer shifts, under extrusion and all the other funny stuff. Some people are printing fine without any issues in silent mode. I had some weird (but rare) issues together with MMU2 in silent mode. Since then I'm always printing in normal mode.
That's the reason why you got and will always get mixed opinions in regards to this topic.
Often linked posts:
Going small with MMU2
Real Multi Material
My prints on Instagram
RE: What are the drawbacks of silent mode?
Never had an issue with printing in silent mode whether with stock motors or 0.9 Deg motors, actually I only ever use silent mode nowadays and my prints come out good and strong.
The time difference is negligible and you can always tweak speeds in slicer anyway, printing at the fastest speed you can eek out of your printer has much more of an affect on print quality than silent / normal mode ever has, so give it a try. If you do start to get layer shifts, then something is not quite right with your printer and will be straining things during normal mode, just you haven't noticed it yet, but may / will cause failures at some point in the future.
Basically if everything works perfectly in silent mode, it will work reliably and consistently in normal mode and your guides / belts are set up correctly and lubricated correctly / tensioned correctly. Try it, it is well worth knowing that there are no issues in silent mode, which could give you advanced warning of sticking bearings.
I can't speak of silent mode with an mmu as I don't own one, so in this case, there may be other factors coming into play.
Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.
RE: What are the drawbacks of silent mode?
I'm sure I read somewhere that missed steps are not detected in stealth mode. Try goggling the stepper drivers and stealth mode.
RE: What are the drawbacks of silent mode?
Stealth mode has no crash detection, this is correct.
RE: What are the drawbacks of silent mode?
Hi all! Stealth mode for me, has never hurt any model I have printed. Also, I sometimes use stealth mode on purpose. For example, printing first layer in silent mode, seems to make it perfect. At least on this specific model I am printing where the first 20 or so layers are printed in PLA+, then I do a filament swap for TPU. The model is a 'butt pad', for an AR15. The printing profile must be designed for TPU, except for the nozzle temp and bed temp when starting print. At layer 18, I do a temp change, to the required TPU I am using, then layer 19, I do a filament swap. All this is built into the gCode of course, done so in Prusa Slicer. Anyways, yeah I have NEVER had an issue with silent mode. I often put printer in silent mode, while printing overnight. The printer isn't loud at all in regular mode but, in dead silence, Ican hear it of course, so I put it in silent mode.