MMU2 - Real Multi Material  

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

Hi all,

PrusaSlicer 2.1.1 - Dribbling V.B01 is finally out 😀 

You can find at https://github.com/antimix/PrusaSlicer/releases/tag/dribbling_2.1.1-B01

You can download the executables or compile yourself.

This new version has a lot of capabilities to handle different materials.  It does not need any script, it directly handle the special functionalities by generating appropriate GCODE.
See info at the github release page.

Happy printing.

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@nikolai.r are you still using this for 3.9.0 and PrusaSlicer 2.2.0? Just curious if they fixed diff temperatures of filament for multi material at all.

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@nimaim

Yes, my script is still in use. There are no changes in PS in regards to that.  

3.9.0 introduced filament cutting. Some people reported bend filament and loose blades. That’s why I prefer to stay for the time being on my 3.8.1 firmware. It’s working pretty stable for me and most important I know the most common issues and how to solve them. 

But I’m pretty sure there will be 3.9.1/3.9.2 and adjusted blade cutter designs in the future. So always keep an eye on it.

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

Posted by: @nikolai-r

@nimaim

Yes, my script is still in use. There are no changes in PS in regards to that.  

3.9.0 introduced filament cutting. Some people reported bend filament and loose blades. That’s why I prefer to stay for the time being on my 3.8.1 firmware. It’s working pretty stable for me and most important I know the most common issues and how to solve them. 

But I’m pretty sure there will be 3.9.1/3.9.2 and adjusted blade cutter designs in the future. So always keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the reply! Yes, 3.9.0 also addressed new parts like the blade cover and a deeper blade position on the selector. Being the first release of the feature, you are probably right that it may take a minor revision or two to have it working for everyone. I updated, but it's easy enough to go back so we'll see what happens. 

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@nimaim

Thanks for the hint with the new parts. Most likely there is no reason to go back. For somebody who is just starting with MMU2 or struggling with the old one anyway, I would recommend to install the most recent version. So far there was always a step forward in revisions. None is issue free. The only difference is known vs unknown. 

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@antimix

👍 good work!

I consider the integration into the prusaslicer an interesting possibility. however, i don't want to burden my computer with further installations like visual studio or other stuff and therefore i ask if there is an already compiled version dribbling_v2.2.0 available for download.

Thanks!

wbr,

Karl

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@nikolai-3

Can you share how you ran these tip tests, and which / where are the settings that you change in the slicer to modify them?

Thank you !

Tim

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@tim-o14

I didn't setup any fancy test scenarios. Just printed my needed MM parts with inputs far away from each other (1-5, 1-3-5). This way you can pull out the filament any time during the print and see what's happening with the tip.

Based on my experience so far the most important variation is a temperature. The second one are cooling moves. And keep in mind that with different filament brand/color you might get different results.

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

I keep receiving this error-- see the attached photo.

I copied the link to the python file in the post-processing scripts section under Print Settings

Any idea?

Cheers,
Tim

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

I have not been able to figure out this error, does anyone have an idea?

Thanks,
Tim

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@tim-o14

Try the precompiled version (exe) from github repo. Most likely your system is not configured to run python scripts from the shell environment. 

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

Hi.

I really love this script but I find it way to complicated if you want to change a single parameter. Therefore I modified the script to handle settings directly from G-Code. Also I added a simple progressbar because when processing large files it can take a while.

You can find my version of the script here: https://github.com/Saij/mmuGcodeParser
I also have a new Windows executable and I will make a pull request so that @Nikolai can merge it into the base source.

If you have any questions about those settings please ask ^^
Also if you have any ideas to further improve the script.

TODOs:
- Add sanity checks for temperatures
- Add option to wait before toolchange/temp change to let the planner get empty and be in a stable state
- Add option to wait for all temperatures to be stable before proceeding

Debug Mode

Place: Printer Start G-Code
Description: Enabled debug mode which prints out a nice summary of the tool changes at the bottom of the new G-Code file
Default value: off
Example:

; MMUGP Debug

Ram Temp Diff

Place: Printer Start G-Code
Description: Sets the value of the temperature difference for ramming
Default value: 10
Example:

; MMUGP Ram Temp Diff 10

Ram Temp Diff Wait For Stabilize

Place: Printer Start G-Code
Description: Enables waiting for ramming temperature (only on non transitioning changes)
Default value: Off
Example:

; MMUPG Ram Temp Diff Wait For Stabilize

Filename Prefix

Place: Printer Start G-Code
Description: Sets the prefix of the newly generated G-Code file
Default value: None
Example:

; MMUGP Filename Prefix MMUGP_

Filename Suffix

Place: Printer Start G-Code
Description: Sets the suffix of the newly generated G-Code file
Default value: _adjusted
Example:

; MMUGP Filename Suffix _MySuffix

Detail: If you want to turn off the suffix, just set it empty.

; MMUGP Filename Suffix 

Ram Temp

Place: Filament End G-Code
Description: Sets the ramming temperature for this specific filament
Default value: None
Example:

; MMUGP Ram Temp 230

Detail: With this setting you can set a specific temperature for ramming for a specific filament. This helps if you can't use the global "Ram Temp Diff" setting, because some of your filaments have a very different setting for ramming temperature.

Purge Temp

Place: Filament End G-Code
Description: Sets the purge temperature for this specific filament
Default value: None
Example:

; MMUGP Purge Temp 250

Detail: With this setting you can set a specific temperature for purging for a specific filament. It only works on High to Low temperature transition. This is for example useful when you need 230°C for ramming PETG but to get all out of the nozzle afterwards you want 250°C before you switch to printing PLA at 215°C

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

Hello Saij,

Thanks for taking my script as a base for further development. It’s targeting mainly Mac/Linux users. There it’s pretty easy to setup and use plain script instead of the binary. Therefor any modifications and parameter changes are straight forward.

I can see there are major changes in your version. Most likely I will not have time this year to verify those on my hardware. That’s why I will keep the pull request open. I can suggest you to make a fork and publish your version under a new name. 

In general I also don’t have any plans to invest time in this script. It was always designed as proof of concept and fill the gap until PrusaSlicer devs. integrate it into their main brunch. The biggest draw back in post processing is time. I would love to see some kind of plugin option for PrusaSlicer where I could implement such a thing as a plugin. But I fully understand that such a change requires a lot of man power which they don’t have/need to use to keep up with Cura.

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

Sadly the pull request for PrusaSlicer has no change. I don't think they will implement the changes soon ^^
But I wanted to try PETG as support for PLA but got very little layer adhesion due to PETG not purging good enough. But I will try to develop the script further in my branch and will update the pull request and in this thread when I publish a new version. Maybe there are others that want to try my versions ^^

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

Posted by: @saij

But I wanted to try PETG as support for PLA but got very little layer adhesion due to PETG not purging good enough.

In this case I would rather increase the purge volume and/or change the filament temperature. Both parameters are available in PS.

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

What filament temperature are you suggesting to change? Higher temp on PLA (which results in more stringing) or lower temp on PETG?

Playing with purge volumes is also on my plan. But 400 or 500 for one transition is a bit too high for me. But I will test it ^^

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

It highly depends on the filament you use. Sometimes you can’t avoid higher purge volume.

You wan’t to achieve a nice cold pull. In general I would go with both as low as possible. PLA get’s more sticky with higher temps and PETG more liquid. So higher temps are not really beneficial. But feel free to try both and report the results.

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@nikolai

Hello. You said something about having made a script for Mac users. I can't wait to make a multi-material print, but it has both been confusing with what to do with the codes and difficult due to it being designed for Windows. I have PrusaSlicer. Could you maybe send me your script and/or tell me how to connect it with PrusaSlicer? Thanks!

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@akanna3569

Hi. The script is OS independent. You can find it on github: mmuGcodeParser.py

How to make use of it can be found on this pages:

• https://projects.ttlexceeded.com/3dprinting_prusaslicer_post-processing.html
• https://manual.slic3r.org/advanced/post-processing

RE: MMU2 - Real Multi Material

@nikolai

Appreciate it!