acting as my own MMU  

Re: acting as my own MMU

Hi Christopher,

open slic3r single extruder mode.

go to the printer settings drop down menu and choose the general tab, in this tab, increment the number of extruders (maximum 4 extruders, (trust me))

go to the Custon Gcode and choose Tool change G-code and insert M600

this should set up Slic3r to create a colour change action at every material change instant... ( which is likely to keep you busy 🙂 )

let's assume that you already have a multipart print ready to use... if you load the parts individually you might get something like this

each of the parts will be placed on the build plate, individually, which is not very helpful, but does allow me to show the separate parts that will be used.

I used 0.2mm layer height for the extruders(yes I know the picture shows 0.15 layer height... I changed it whilst you weren't looking, later!)
the magpie was 0.4mm thick, and the words were 0.6mm thick
the whole card was 0.8mm thick

the correct way to load these parts sensibly, is to add one part, say the card background, to the build plate,
then whilst that part is still selected, go to the Objetc menu, choose the settings menu item and you should get a window like this:

in the picture I have used the Load Part option to add the remaining parts. initially a default extruder is allocated to all parts, in the picture above, you can see that I have highlighted the 'Card' part and allocated extruder '3', to this part. (the current version of slic3r(1.40.1 only offers 4 extruders in this window)
Note! I have allocated extruder 1 to the magpie and extruder 2, to the wording.

at this stage you may be ready to slice and print the object. however all of the colour detail would end up on the top side.

I chose to go to the Object , choose rotate and I rotated 180 degrees in the 'Y' axis so that the information ended up facing the build plate. then sliced and printed the model

slic3r prints the colours (materials) in extruder order for the colours on the first layer (there is no indication on the display, as to which extruder will go next!)
so...
on the first layer extruder 1 prints the black magpie, then extruder 2 prints the Red wording, then extruder 3 prints the white card background

on the second layer, extruder 3 is already loaded so it continues to print the background on the second layer followed by extruder 1 and extruder 2, in turn...

on the third layer Sic3r already has filament 2 loaded so the wording prints next... as it happens the magpie didn't appear on this layer, so Slic3r continued to extruder 3. and printed the background,

on layer 4 there was only white, so extruder 3 was already loaded so it completed this layer and the print ended

I hope this helps,
regards Joan

Re: acting as my own MMU

I'm saving this in OneNote. Thanks muchly. 🙂

Re: acting as my own MMU

Joan,

That was excellently explained in detail. Very nice.

Re: acting as my own MMU

Thanks Guys,

let me know if it works
regards Joan

Re: acting as my own MMU

thanks Joan.
the M600 was the trick I bet.

at least I had the setup right,

Re: acting as my own MMU

I want to report after some more help from Joan, I can now be my own MMU. after 27 filament changes I now have my rubber skeleton inside a action figure. seems something with the newest alpha of slicer PE must have been messing with settings.

now for a AAA battery tester.. 😀

Re: acting as my own MMU

Yaaaaaaayyyyyyy!
well done

regards Joan

Re: acting as my own MMU

funny the conductive material has to purge like 4 times.. all this work for a basic battery tester.... will be awesome once the MMU gets in my hands. good fun

Re: acting as my own MMU

Confucius says " do your math good on placement of other colors, or you'll be changing filament for one dot"...… lesson learned

Re: acting as my own MMU

31 "correct" filament changes and this showed up. only one filament change flubbed. you gota take the old filament out fast. and it seems to pause right on top of the print often making those bumps from the heat. SOOO cant wait for the MMU.

p.s. the resistance of the conductive filament is abit on the high side. making a new circuit board with different widths for the conductive filament to see how well electricity can flow. but filament heating up is a bad thing... o well still fun. next on my list is a printable electro magnet.

Re: acting as my own MMU

the most success I've ever had so far. 100% claiming the fan on the extruder motor was the trick. I did have to slow down the print every so often to push down the over extrusion from filament change. but yaa. at no point did the extruder motor get over 36c (that's cooler then all the other motors.)

at least 81 layers with filament changes each layer (I do think its might do 2 layers at a time per color.)

I have a Prusa therefore I research 😀

Re: acting as my own MMU

no "click click click click"

Re: acting as my own MMU

Hi Chris.

if the slicer is doing a multi colour print, and the current colour also occurs on the next layer, the slicer is intelligent enough to know not to change filaments
so in the model show, the base starts red, so the slicer will do the red of the first colour change layer without changing, then it will change to Blue, complete that layer and then the blue on the next layer, then it will change to red and do the rest of that layer and the red on the next layer... and so on to the end

which thankfully reduces the number of changes necessary

regards Joan

Re: acting as my own MMU

the fan hash't cured the problem, but it has cleared the symptoms 🙂

No Clickey!

Yaaaaaayyyyy!

Joan

Re: acting as my own MMU

by far, that was the most layers of multi color i have done. soo happy, but sooo sick of changing filaments goodnight.

Re: acting as my own MMU

now you know why I have the MMUv1, and the MMUv2 on the way...

when I do manual MMU I restrict the colours to the first couple of layers!

Joan

RE: acting as my own MMU

Thank you for this thread. This gave me the confidence to try to use this technique myself. Here is my result: https://www.thingiverse.com/make:669228

RE: acting as my own MMU

wow, hard to believe its been almost a year. glad the manual MMU thread helped someone else. but having a mmu is much better.

RE: acting as my own MMU

But the thread is cheaper (if one ignores the "personal cost" of the time spent babysitting a print). 😉

(I also wanted to bump the thread so others notice it, without it being obvious it was a bump.) 🤣