I tried printing with PETG yesterday, and I noticed that it intermittently stops moving during the print for a few seconds. It doesn’t throw an error or anything, just stops and then after a few seconds resumes as if nothing happened. But this creates huge blobs where it stops. It only happens when printing PETG, not PLA. Could this be caused by a filament setting in my slicer? I’m using prusa slicer. I inspected the gcode and there are no stops, pauses or color changes etc. in it. The behaviour happens both when printing from octoprint and directly from SD card.

Edit: these random intermittent stops are 10-20 seconds long, causing massive blobs from oozing filament.

Edit 2: so it seems to not actually be a PETG specific issue, but rather a model size/speed issue. I can get it running without stops if I just reduce print speed. When I crank speed to 100% I start getting these weird 10-20 second long stops.

So I’m overloading the controller with a lot of gcode commands in rapid succession? I’m running at slightly lower than manufacturer default Max.

SOLVED: the gcode resolution was set too fine, I increased it from 0.0125mm to 0.5mm as described here and the stuttering disappeared.

  • seasick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    6 months ago

    I got a farfetched theory … Maybe your printer is underpowered. Printing PETG requieres a higher temperature and thus more power. This is absolute guesswork, but you could try to disconnect your printer from the power outlet and tighten the screws for the power connections going from the power supply unit and going into your printers main board

    • DreadPotatoOPEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      It still happens with low temps that are in PLA range. I tried a temp tower starting from 220°C, so the upper end of PLA temps, and it still happens. I can print PLA with 220°C without stuttering, so I don’t think it’s a power issue. But I’ll check nonetheless.

      It happens randomly, it may do several layers without stopping at all, but then it suddenly stops. It happens often, but not at the same spot, and not with fixed layer offsets.

      • seasick@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Did printing with PETG ever work with your printer?

        You could create two gcode files for the same model, one for PLA and one for PETG and see if something stands out in their difference.

        • DreadPotatoOPEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          Did printing with PETG ever work with your printer?

          I have done a few prints in PETG before, only 2 or 3, but they didn’t have the issue.

          You could create two gcode files for the same model, one for PLA and one for PETG and see if something stands out in their difference.

          Yeah I was planning on trying this when I get home.

      • rambos@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        I dont use pruca slicer, but had simmilar issues with ArcWelder plugin in Cura. Disable plugins if you use any and maybe try another slicer for testing