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Oleksandr ShyshatskyiandClaude Opus 5
65a7528e09
The pages written on top of the old README inherited its premise: that after flashing you face a gauntlet -- go/no-go checks, a safety net, a mandatory calibration -- before the machine can be trusted with a model. That is not what happens. The factory numbers import themselves on the first boot, a bed mesh loads at the start of every print, and the mod is built to run the files the stock firmware ran. A printer that printed before the flash prints after it. "Your first print" now says so in its first line, and everything under it is optional, ordered by what you would actually reach for: check the offsets are applied, and calibrate only if that disagrees with the machine. Three audiences now, because owner and contributor was not the real split. "For experienced users" sits between them: How a print runs, and How calibration works. Someone who knows Klipper and wants to change what happens around their file has a place to go that is neither a walkthrough nor the build system. What was cut is most of what changed. Pages that were cryptic to the reader they were aimed at -- Printing, Upgrading -- are out of the nav and kept on disk to be rewritten rather than deleted. Within the pages that stayed: Expected output, Probe sampling, What is being measured, the symptom table, the dark-screen diagnosis, TOOL_Z_ADJUST, PLATE_CHECK, the ff-*.cfg inventory, [ff_legacy] and SAVE_CONFIG in a paragraph about factory calibration. Filenames and internals earn their place on an owner page only when the reader has to type them or look at them; the rest moved to the experienced pages or to Internals, where the audience wants them. Calibration became a section rather than a page, because tool offsets are not the only calibration: bed mesh has its own page now, and its own gotcha written down -- BED_MESH_CALIBRATE writes `default`, a print loads `MESH_DATA`, so a mesh probed by hand is a mesh no print will use. Input shaping is described but has no procedure page yet. Several claims came out because they were not true. "Is this for you" listed calibration and input shaping as things the mod gives you; both are the touchscreen's own sequences, recovered and reimplemented, and the notes say so plainly. What the mod actually gives you is that anything speaking Moonraker can drive the machine -- on stock, FlashForge's Klipper does not toolchange at all, it raises a flag and waits for an application that is not watching a Mainsail print, and the print hangs at the first T2. The page now opens by telling most owners not to flash it. Contributors are still deferred. Their pages are regrouped, not rewritten. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01S3XZh4SqPdXAowVndz6tMr
163 lines
8.8 KiB
Markdown
163 lines
8.8 KiB
Markdown
# Printing
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Day-to-day use once the machine is calibrated: how to set the slicer up, the
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rules that keep a toolchanger from damaging itself, and what happens when
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filament runs out or clogs.
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---
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## Slicer setup
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**Leave the profile stock.** The mod is built to print the files the stock
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firmware printed, so there is nothing to add and nothing to re-slice; if you
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want to drive the sequence yourself instead,
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[How a print runs](how-a-print-runs.md) is the page for that. An untouched FlashForge Orca profile works as
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shipped: nothing to paste into Machine start or end G-code, and files sliced
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before the mod keep printing. `[ff_print]` wraps `SDCARD_PRINT_FILE`/`M23`,
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reads the bed, nozzle, initial tool and first-layer height out of the file
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itself, and runs `START_PRINT` before the file's first line -- which the stock
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block needs, because it has no `G28` (its first motion, `G1 Z5 F2400`, assumes
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a homed machine) and no `M190` (nothing waits for the bed). At the other end
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its `;end_gcode` is a single move that turns nothing off, so
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`FF_AFTER_PRINT_END` runs the exit sequence when the job leaves the printing
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state.
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To drive the sequence from the slicer instead, put an explicit `START_PRINT`
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call in Machine start G-code and set
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`SET_GCODE_VARIABLE MACRO=FF_BEFORE_PRINT_START VARIABLE=prepare VALUE=0`
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so the machine is not prepared twice.
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Leave **Change filament G-code** empty. With no custom block Orca emits its
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own bare `Tn` at each tool change, which reaches `ff_toolchange.py` directly.
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Older instructions here asked for a `T[next_extruder] ; ff-toolchange` line to
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dodge a trap in FlashForge's Klipper fork; we ship upstream `virtual_sdcard`
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now and that trap is gone, so **clear the field** if it still holds anything.
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Files already sliced with the old marker keep printing correctly — the G-code
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parser discards the comment and `T2` arrives either way, so no re-slice is
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needed for that.
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No re-slicing is needed: `[ff_print]` applies the print Z offset for any file,
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including ones sliced before the mod existed.
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`START_PRINT` options, for the explicit path: `TOOLS=0:220,2:240` every tool
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the file uses with its clean temperature (Orca: `is_extruder_used[n]`; a bare
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`TOOLS=0,2` also works and falls back to `NOZZLE=`) — presence gate and
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pre-print
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nozzle clean; without explicit temperatures each tool is cleaned at the
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temperature its `_FF_FILAMENT.tool_material` maps to; `CLEAN=0` skips the clean (default on: each used tool is grabbed,
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heated, purged 50 mm at the chute with the part fan on, wiped at the
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station, cooled by 100 °C and docked while the bed heats — the app's
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`clearNozzlePrint`); `LEVEL=1` probes a fresh mesh (recommended for the
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first print); `SOAK=<seconds>` dwells after the bed reaches target (the app
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waits 5 min; default 0).
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---
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## The rules that matter
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These are the gates the mod puts between a bad command and your build plate.
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Knowing they exist explains most of what looks like the printer refusing to
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cooperate.
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* **`G28` docks a mounted tool before homing Z.** Z homes on the
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carriage's eddy sensor, whose trigger height is ~3.2 mm below the nozzle
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tip — with a head on, the nozzle hits the plate first. The `G28`
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wrapper in `ff-toolchange.cfg` homes X/Y (endstops at 0, away from the
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docks), runs `TOOLCHANGE_PARK`, then homes as asked; `G28 X`/`G28 Y`
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alone are untouched. If the dock sensors can't say whether a head is on,
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Z homing is refused.
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* **Prints refuse to start while uncalibrated.** `START_PRINT` runs
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`_FF_PREFLIGHT` first, and `[ff_print]` runs it again through
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`FF_BEFORE_PRINT_START` before the file is even loaded:
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if any tool's `nozzle_z` or the `station_z` is missing, the job is refused
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before anything heats, homes or grabs, with the fix spelled out. Override
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only for bench tests:
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`SET_GCODE_VARIABLE MACRO=_FF_JOB VARIABLE=allow_uncalibrated VALUE=1`.
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* **Calibration moves are bounded.** The plate check gates both
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calibration commands; the Z probe targets −3 by default (the app's own
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station value) and, once a trigger height is known, stops 2 mm below it
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instead of driving on.
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* **Implausible results are not saved.** A circle-fit residual above
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0.05 mm, or a nozzle-to-station gap (`nozzle_z − station_z`) outside
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1.5–5 mm, aborts the command with nothing staged. Thresholds are in
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`ff-tool-offset.cfg`.
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* A `T<n>` on an unhomed machine aborts instead of homing silently
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(`auto_home: False`) — a remote G28 with a tool mounted rams the nozzle
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into whatever is on the bed.
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* **Missing tools are caught before anything moves.** `START_PRINT TOOLS=…`
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passes them to the same `_FF_PREFLIGHT`: every tool the file uses must be sitting in its
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dock (switch pressed) or be the mounted one, else the job is refused with
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the list of what is missing (the app's E0165 — which only checked the
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first tool and let the others fail mid-print at their grab).
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* **Runout and clogs pause the print.** See [Runout and clogs](#runout-and-clogs).
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---
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## Filament: load, unload, purge
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`payload/klipper/config/ff-filament.cfg` reproduces the touchscreen's FilamentLoad page
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(recovered from the binary — [`docs/notes/47-filament-load-recovered.md`](notes/47-filament-load-recovered.md)):
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each tool has its own direct-drive extruder, so loading means *grab the tool,
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drive it to the purge chute at the back right (X275 Y254), heat to material
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temperature + 30, push 150 + 145 mm at F240, park the tool, heater off*.
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```gcode
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LOAD_FILAMENT TOOL=1 TEMP=220 ; or MATERIAL=PETG (app's temperature table)
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UNLOAD_FILAMENT TOOL=1 TEMP=220 ; prime 10 mm, then pull 80 mm out (LENGTH= to tune)
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PURGE TOOL=1 PURGE_TEMP=220 LENGTH=50 ; app's clearNozzlePrint purge + cold wipe (WIPE=0 to skip)
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```
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* `TOOL` defaults to the mounted tool; `RELEASE=0` keeps the tool on the
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carriage afterwards, `HEAT_OFF=0` leaves the heater on.
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* `PURGE` ends the way the app's pre-print clean does: the nozzle rests on
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the front-right wipe spot (266.5, 13.8) 1 mm above the eddy trigger height
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while the hotend cools by 100 °C, then lifts — the purge string freezes
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and tears off instead of riding back to the dock. `WIPE=0` skips it.
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`LOAD_FILAMENT` has no wipe, as in the app (its guide tells you to pull
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the string off).
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* While a print is **paused** the macros only act on the mounted tool, use
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the app's in-print lengths (100 mm then −5), and leave tool and heater for
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`RESUME`. While **printing** they refuse.
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* The stock app has **no retract-unload** — its "unload" is the same forward
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push and the on-screen guide tells you to cut and pull. `UNLOAD_FILAMENT`
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is therefore designed, not ported; `unload_length` (80 mm) in
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`[gcode_macro _FF_FILAMENT]` is a first guess — shorten it once you have
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measured the nozzle-to-above-gears path.
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* All geometry, feeds, the temperature table and the per-tool chute nudges
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are variables of `[gcode_macro _FF_FILAMENT]`.
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---
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## Runout and clogs
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The stock config ships all eight filament sensors with `pause_on_runout:
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False` and a `runout_gcode` that only prints `wheel runout:Tn` — the
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touchscreen app did the rest (polled the mounted channel's switch sensor
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from its print loop, kept only the mounted tool's motion sensor enabled).
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Without the app nothing would happen. `payload/klipper/config/ff-runout.cfg` restates the
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sensor sections (Klipper merges repeated sections, later options win — the
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stock `printer.filament.cfg` stays untouched and OTA-safe) so that
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`runout_gcode` calls `_FF_RUNOUT`, and `ff_toolchange` arms the mounted
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tool's two sensors on every grab, disarms everything on release, and
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re-arms on `RESUME` (the app's `setFilamentWheelManager`).
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Flow: sensor fires while an SD print is running and the sensor belongs to
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the mounted tool → `PAUSE`, `T<n> out of filament` / `T<n> clog` on the
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display and console → fix the filament → `LOAD_FILAMENT TOOL=n` (its paused
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path is the app's in-print feed: 100 mm, then 5 mm back) → `RESUME`.
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Sensors of tools that are not mounted never fire, and nothing fires
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outside a print. `TOOLCHANGE_STATUS` shows which sensors are armed;
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`FF_RUNOUT_ARM [TOOL=n]` / `FF_RUNOUT_DISARM` do it by hand. Clog pausing
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can be made report-only, as the app's `plugCheck` toggle did:
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`SET_GCODE_VARIABLE MACRO=_FF_RUNOUT_CFG VARIABLE=clog_pause VALUE=0`.
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The pause is immediate, as the app's was. Note that the runout switch is
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upstream of the extruder gear with a long PTFE run in between (~600 mm
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here), so the head still holds that much printable filament when the print
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stops — it is lost. Printing on and pausing once that length has been
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extruded is a real improvement, but it needs a per-machine measurement and
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a watcher counting extrusion; it is not built in.
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No endless-spool: another tool is another head, not another spool of the
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same material. Untested on hardware: whether the motion sensors
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(`detection_length 50`, `event_delay 3`) stay quiet through `LOAD_FILAMENT`.
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