My filament is getting stuck in the Y splitter. Two of the filaments seem to slide through while the other two get stuck. Is there something one can do to may the Y splitter less sticky?
(sorry about the choppy video. I need to fix something with that as well. )
See video.
Downloading Prusaslicer now. This project just keeps getting worse and worse.
Here are pics of my filament that is jamming:
The Y adapter is nothing but a tube... there are three points of contact for the filament... the PTFE tube at the top and bottom and the PET material of the Y adapter itself. The inner diameter is 1.8mm... if your filament exceeds that on any dimension, it can jam... or if there is something blocking it. 99.99% of the time, the issue is the filament itself... pull it out and measure it... I saw you were manually messing with it in your video... what does this filament do now? Do you have calipers to measure it? Can you pull the specific tip that is jamming and take some pictures to show it to me? In that .01% chance there is something else going on, you should be able to physically see something that is damaged... look for crimped, bent or misshaped PTFE. As for the temperature thing, I have no idea why Cura is doing that... we do not mess with any temperature settings at all in any of our code, so it must be a setting that is tripping it up. Personally, I don't use Cura for this... PrusaSlicer is light years ahead of them in terms of multicolor support.
Also, why is my filament still getting caught up in your Y? If the filament cannot reliably pass through the Y then this thing is useless. When I bought this your videos led me to believe that it would work, the filament would go through the Y and not get hung up half the time.
I may have screwed up my cura settings but the Y is a part that should be able to reliably work when I feed in freshly cut filament. What do you do to get your filament to reliably pass through your Y? Or are you just hiding all the print failures?
It looks like cura is turning off the hotend just after the tool change:
M117 3D Chameleon Tool T1
M83 ;relative extrusion mode
M104 T0 S0
Why? How have I screwed this up?
Filament 1 loads, Filament 1 prints, filament 1 retracts, filament 2 loads (sometimes- sometimes it gets caught in the Y at the top where it enters, or at the bottom where it exits). then the hotend drops to 0. Why? I followed your instructions for setting up the 4 extruders. I used your website to generate the start/stop gcode and copied that into cura. I'm attaching my gcode if that will help. (Gcode will not upload for some reason)
Also, why does my filament keep getting hung up inside your Y? I cut it at an angle. It seems to only be filament 2 that gets stuck. Do I have to open up the Y again and clean it out? Filament 1 has no string. I reduced the temp to 190.
Also, I want to make sure you used a straight razor to cut the tube and reflared it on the inside if you did cut it. Here's a video where I show the correct technique as well as a demo of what can go wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtBYxefDwPc&t=180s
Did you take it apart? There's really nothing inside of it that would block it unless the PTFE in the bottom isn't tapered on the inside or it isn't all the way into the Y adapter. There is a pocket that the top of the PTFE tube fits in... if it's not seated correctly, it will allow the filament to catch on it. Can you take pictures of that bottom PTFE tube? Also, did you pull out that black piece that was blocking it on the inside? If not, it's possible it's still in the bottom.
https://youtu.be/NqvvsBICYVQ
Maybe mine is defective. When I push a piece of filament through the passthrough, it gets hung up just before the bottom. I can work it through if I twist it while I push, but there is definitely something hanging it up down there. I'll make a video to show you.
Oh, I might add, you might not need to actually take it apart... there is a straight pass through that you can insert some filament into that will go straight down between the two top PTFE connectors that allows you to push out any strings. Just take a straight piece of filament about 10 inches long and push it in there... because it's a straight path, it will pull off that string from the Black and push it right out the bottom. (Disconnect the bottom of the Y adapter from the extruder first so you can remove it.)
The black filament has a piece of string/filament still attached to it that is blocking the other filaments, which is why they're getting jammed. You can actually see it in the video as you're moving the black filament, it's right at the location where you're filament is jamming.
Watch the video... that string moves.
Yes... but watch when you pull out the Black filament further, you might not see it, so I'd leave it in place while you disassemble it. It's a very thing string, but attached to a much larger string below.
The only thing I did was use the gcode generator with the value for the button position of 223mm on the Y axis and a loading distance of 605mm.
It is perfectly smooth and is injection molded out of PET, which will remain smooth... but that piece of debris is what is blocking it. It's inner diameter is 1.8mm and with filament being only 1.75 +- .05, your right at the limit... so any additional strings in side it will block it.
It was not the black (you call blue) that was getting stuck, it was the red and white, both of which had been cut at 45 degree angles. I'll see if I can correct the stringing, but that won't help me when I have a freshly cut piece of filament.
Both the red and white were getting hung up at the bottom of the Y nearest the extruder. not near your arrows.
Do I need to open up the Y and clean it out?
Can you either send me or make available the gcode you use for extruder 1 start and stop for your ender 5 setup? I'd like to compare it to what I'm using
even if I fix the stringing and the gcode, the problem with fresh filamant will still remain. Why can't I get a piece of new cut filament to pass through your Y? Why isn't it manufactured with smoother internal geometry?
See our FAQ, specifically #10, for combatting the stringing and blobbing you're seeing. https://www.3dchameleon.com/faq
So... I'm seeing a piece of additional filament in the Y adapter that it appears to be jamming on. It looks like it's the end of the blue filament... because when you pull it out, that string also moves... and when you pushed it down, it moved with it.