G-code Pause
Maybell Hughs
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
You can also set up to do a relative move of the Z to avoid any risk of dragging the nozzle across the part. But it takes a few commands. This code does similar, but not using relative mode. Change the +30 to something smaller for what you are doing. 5 mm clearance is probably enough.
Today i wanted to print a sign (Use the Force) with 2 colour layers (first= White and the second layer = black). In prusa I gave the program the assignment to stop the printing (M600). So i sliced it and i copied the file to my SD card an I ran the file.
Conclusion: The printer does not stop at the layer that it should stop ! So i looked into the Gcode with notepad++ and i found the M600 but thats it! There is bunch of codes and than M600 with no other command.
The question you should be asking is does your Ender 3 firmware support M600 ? The Marlin standard consists of LOTS of codes with their parameters, however it is up to individual suppliers to compile support for them into their firmware. The Prusa MK3 supports a subset, the THD firmware another and Creality another again.
If the previous owner was running the printer via Octoprint then as Octoprint spools out the commands a bit at a time as long as Octoprint supports M600 then that might be enough to pause a printer that doesnt itself support M600. I dont have a Ender 3 and my Cr10 isnt running stock Creality firmware anymore so I dont know if the Ender does or does not support it.
When i making up a drawing (like i mentioned, the Use The Force sign). I give prusaslicer the command to change the colour of the drawing (M600). I see this command in the G-code (M600) but in the G-code there is not any other info like M600 (no parking, no stay heated, no lAYERS...NOTHING!). A friend of mine is working in Cura and he made a G-code for me with the M600 rule. In that G-code I see the the Layer number, the temp and other stuf. But still, the M600 won't work.
Actually, to be more accurate, on Prusa printers sending a G28 on it's own will home all 3 axis and then also run a bed mesh level routine. You want "G28 W" to only run a home on all 3 axis on Prusa FFF printers. AFAIK this is a Prusa unique behaviour, and reinforces your argument. ?
I had a need to add pauses between cuts to my g code files for a couple of reasons. I wanted to extend consumable life and also to allow my compressor to catch up after several cuts as it is a little undersized.
I actually just ran into a similar problem. My Titanium Plasma 45 leaves the air on after the torch is released(It does this to cool the tip). The super heated air would still cut or score for a about .25 inch or so as the machine was moving to the next part. I ended up modifying the Post so that it would add a property field where you could choose an after cut dwell. Throughout the G-code anytime there is a M5(torch off) it will put in a G4 PXXX where my torch will stop moving for a selectable time while the air cools down some. before setting off to the next part. I have included my code if anyone else needs a similar option.
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You can try downloading the files from the link below. You will likely get a warning that the software comes from an unknown publisher as I wrote this myself using the free version of Visual Studio 2019.
The installer may prompt you to download dependencies such as Microsoft .NET 5.03. In fact I have no idea what the installer or the software will do on your particular machine or configuration.
Okay thanks. Clearly this is still a work in progress. It looks like the output files have a couple of hidden characters that are messing with firecontrol. I have deleted the link to the program for now.
Open both the original file and the new output file in Microsoft Code.
In the new output file, select al lines except for the very first one and Ctrl+C to copy
Go to the original file, again select all lines except for the very first one and Ctrl+V to paste
Save the original file. The original file should still load ok in firecontrol but it now has the new pauses added.
Hello, Just so I can be clear of my understanding on how to use this script. Using Sheetcam, I would export the g-code as normal using the Firecontrol 1.6 post processor and then open this program, import the original into the script, run it and then the result is the g-code with the dwell time?
I am trying to use octoprint's "@pause" dummy gcode. In PrusaSlicer I use the "custom g-code" at-layer feature to insert @pause. That does pause the print, and I can resume it through octoprint's web UI.
1.) When the printer pauses and the nozzle moves up, it leaves behind a vertical strand of melted filament. I have to cut that off with a side-cutter. I thought the retraction for the E axis would prevent that.
I previously (before using octoprint) used a manual filament change event instead of pause, and I did not have either of these issues, so I know the printer is capable of cleanly pausing and resuming the print, given the right g-code.
I tried various changes to the snippet, for example I tried to add a few mm more extrusion at resume than retraction at the pause (with a dwell and manual cleanup of the resulting gunk at the nozzle after the extrusion) to make sure the filament is really at the tip of the nozzle.
You can hopefully see that no filament is extruded when it resumes. Ignore the fact that it's a bit messy because I didn't clean the nozzle this time and cut off the extra vertical strand, I did that in other attempts and it made no difference. The main problem is that the nozzle doesn't seem to be extruding filament after the resume.
Rather than make us guess (most likely incorrectly), please provide the gcode snippets you are using and a sample gcode file that contains the pause (something simple like a 2x2x2mm cube with a pause at Z=1mm). Enable the OctoPrint serial.log, print the above file, and provide the log here.
Thanks again Brad, very interesting. I removed them and did a quick test, unfortunately the result was the same. I'll keep experimenting a bit more like I did initially, but this time with the M82 instructions removed.
Ok. I changed M82 to M83, and while it doesn't quite make sense in my head, it seems to work after a few tests. I know that switches it to relative E but I don't quite understand how it works. I'll update this if anything changes on my end.
Some slicers use absolute E and some use relative E (and some have an option to do either). G-code snippets for pause and resume almost always use relative movements, but you have to know what mode the slicer is using so you can restore that mode when you are done.
I was reading in another thread that some older printers don't like relative ... not the case with me as I'm using a Prusa i3 MkII... a lot of the code you'll find on the interwebs will lean towards absolute for general compatibility. So maybe that one wee change really did the trick. I'm in the middle of a long print now...about to split my office, so I'll pause and manually turn off the heaters and fan before I go. We'll see if she works on the morrow. Thanks!
I believe (but would have to verify) that PrusaSlicer uses relative E. You could check by opening the gcode file, if the E number is not increasing then it is relative. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the print, if the E numbers are still low it is definitely relative.
Indeed, it is relative. I was able to print my 14 hour print with a break in-between. It wasn't perfect, but the issues had nothing to do with the above problem. The second session was just a wee bit off from the day before (admittedly my studio went from very warm to very cool overnight, which I think may be the culprit.). That may be another thread one day haha.
Yeah, I figured that as well. If I was printing in PLA I would have been more apt to just let it go all night... for some reason (even though I know it's probably not a big difference) since I was printing a little hotter using PETG... I didn't feel comfortable letting it go all night in the office with me two blocks away...
When looking up the different gcode-commands i found out, that some printers interpret G90 and G91 as relative/absolute settings for both XYZ and E (see here). This is why my Prusa MINI+ kept not extruding after resuming.
I made it so the printer moves to the very back of the bed and starts extruding a little bit before reaching back to the print. It leaves a filament snake behind that you can easily pull of from the back while printing. But this seems to be the only way to resume the print with a perfect extrusion (no thinner filament extrusion).
M600 would be a welcome upgrade.
Now it would be nice if Luban would show or give a status on a layer that the SM2 is printing or allow users to see individual layers after it slices things to help me identify which layer is best for the pause (M600) to be inserted.
Is there a way to pause the system without having to go into the g code? I ignorantly hit the pause button 5 hours into a 6.5 hr job and almost fainted when I saw the screen say line 0 of 35,581. This seems so fundamental. What am I missing?
This brings up what would be a really good discussion in how to best interrupt a long running program by inserting a program run stop g-code into the program at a logical breaking point. Then you could power down the machine for hours/ days, etc. Power up machine return to work zero coordinates, move to the point in the program you stopped, and begin running from there. Anybody want to lay out the steps?
thank you for taking the time to respond it is appreciated.. My apologies my original code had been modified to take out the incremental and absolute commands (suggested by some else) below is directly from my sd card
I looked at the code and decided where the pause would be there's two pauses in the complete programme, the print is in absolute (start of G code) I had two issues 1 unless I put the G92 in the filament would be completely retracted ruining the print and when I could get it to re print the line
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