Partial supports 1:1

[mikej]

Actually, I need a screen grab of the Settings dialog (Go to the "Settings->Printer Settings..." menu item and do a screen capture).
Thanks!

[khitro@gmail.com]

I had the same problem and its gone after my VAT was re-coated with new PDMS. And the old one wasn't cloudy at all. Before I decided to go with new PDMS I was trying to re-calibrate build table and projector couple times, playing with exposure settings , switching from 1:1 mix to cherry and always was getting only few mm of support printed. Have no idea what was wrong with old PDMS.

[mt300883]

I hope this is the right one

[mt300883]

Wow, that's interesting about the pdms. Yeah mine looks fine. I will do a recoat and try again.

[mikej]

The lamp may be going dim faster than normal. These are supposed to still be putting out 1/2 of "new" power at 3000 hours and your lamp has only 141 hours on it.
Increasing the MSM to 1.2 - 1.3 (if the vat recoat doesn't help) may be in order.

[RobertH]

Aditionally, how much is the recommended lamp hours until it needs a change for the 1.2?

[mikej]

It should work fine (but slower) until the lamp burns out, which shouldn't be until ~3000 hours. This can vary greatly based on the lamp cycle (don't turn it on/off many times in a short time frame!). Of course, a lamp with 3000 hours will cause prints to take twice as long, so you may want to change it out sooner.

[mt300883]

The first photo is with new pdms. A slight improvement. I aborted the print when I could see it failing to completely print the supports.
The second print is with the msm on 1.2. Once again aborted when the supports failed to print.
Is there anything else I can do to test whether on not it's the bulb? It's a very expensive part to replace so early.
After almost 150 hrs and only a few good prints it really is becoming a chore.

[mt300883]

Bit the bullet.
New bulb on its way!
Fingers crossed

[mt300883]

So after an agonising wait for the new bulb to arrive it finally came.
I have printed again and the result is worse than before.
I have no idea what is going wrong. Everything has been followed down to the tee.

Is there something else wrong here?

[b0ris]

... Z axis movement problems?

Hi everyone, i have a 1.1 machine I have been getting some very successful prints with 1:1 mix and the standard cherry settings until recently.
My 50xy 31z prints are not printing their supports correctly anymore. The light supports are just coming out as small nubs and one of the heavier supports on this particular model is only printing a up few mm before it becomes a mess and stops completely.
I have attempted to up the exposure times a little but to no avail. The print comes out more or less the same. Also tried a new mix of resin, in case it had become contaminated somehow.
Does anybody have some advice on improving my settings, or perhaps I am missing something fairly obvious?

[Capn]

I was having this exact same issue with my B9 and cherry resin for the longest time and although I have no idea what was causing it, these are the steps I took to fix it. The one caveat being I did end up using a different resin, not to say there is anything wrong with the B9 cherry resin, I just found it to be a bit tricky for what I was trying to create.

1. Completely rebuilt the z axis. I am still using the linear busings and find that they work fine as long as there is not a bunch of oil or goop on the vertical guide rods. The first thing I did was to wipe everything down with a clean rag. I then took out the threaded rod and rolled it across a sheet of glass to find all the spots that were slightly bent and re shaped them with a block of wood and some mechanics gloves, a little bend here and there is all it takes to get things in order. I did this step when I initially built my B9 but I found that I did not remove all of the non straight sections.

After this I reinstalled all the z axis hardware one component at a time making sure nothing was binding. the set screws and bearings on the top and bottom of the threaded rod seemed a bit touchy and I took care to make sure nothing was overly tight. Also I re tightened the z axis motor coupling making sure everything was as straight and friction free as I could make it. The same goes with the bushings, they are just tight enough to stay in place but not squeezed by the clamps.

Next I worked on the vertical guide rods, the set screws on the back definitely seemed to make things bind if tightened too far so I carefully tightened them enough to keep things in place but not so much that it put any strain on the z axis movement. After making these changes I got the z axis to move from bottom to top with no chatter from the decoupling unit and it is now super quiet.

2. Reinstall the x axis motor. The B9 seemed like it was starting to struggle pulling the vat so I removed the whole x axis motor and mount and re installed making sure that the gold arm on top was pushed down super tight and that the set screws were in tight as well. This step was super easy, I am guessing that at some point the set screws were not tight enough and caused the arm to slip or wobble a tiny bit. The vat movement seems solid now and the motor no longer sounds like it is straining.

3. Moved from my desktop computer to a laptop. Although I believe all of my settings were correct for the desktop, I used my laptop as a second computer to test with. The laptop has a setting in the power options for brightness and I made sure to set this to 100%.

4. I moved the projector out a bit with spacers so that I could use a clean area of pdms. Obviously this step is not necessary, this is just what I did to rule out any issue with old pdms.

5. Thoroughly sloshed brand new cherry resin in its original container for 5 minutes.

After all this work I tried out some prints and finally had better success than previously but still not perfect prints. I was still having an issue with the left and right sides deteriorating while printing. At this point I was thinking it was possible that I did not initially mix my cherry resin thoroughly enough and have altered the pigmentation enough to cause some trouble. I do not need the burnout capability of B9 resin so I decided to order up some spot-ht resin. The first print I did with this resin came out perfect and the smallest of supports work every time. If I had to narrow down what the problem was, I would say it was a combination of hardware being slightly off, maybe a brightness issue with the video card, and improper mixing of resin by me and or the settings I was using for the resin. Hopefully some of this info helps in some way

[Robert Howle]

At what resolution and slice thickness are u trying your prints?

Robert Howle

[Capn]

50xy and 31.75z

[Robert Howle]

You really should consider the 1:1 red/cherry mix. You get shorter exposure times and crisper details. Been using it for over a year on my 1.1 and now on the 1.2 machine.

You will be happy with the results.

Robert

[mt300883]

Thanks for the replys and the info about the z axis. When I first started having problems, one of my first thoughts was that it was z axis problems so I went through and completely rebuilt the z axis which has not seemed to make a difference.

I can print fine with makerjuice but not with any of the b9 resins.
While I can use the makerjuice mix for some applications, I also need the burnout capabilities of the b9 resin. This being the foremost reason for choosing the b9.

[mt300883]

Good point about switching computers. I will try to print from a different machine and see if the outcome is better

[mt300883]

Different computer, not much of a difference.

Seems to be getting worse from the start of the thread.



Software Version: Version 1.7.3 Copyright 2014 B9Creations, LLC www.b9creator.com

Last Comm Port: COM3
Display Index: 1
Last Print Attempt Status: Completed
Configuration: B9Creator v1.1.0, XY at 50 microns
Job Name: C:/Users/Wiley E Coyote/Desktop/Leafy Band full sliced.b9j
Job Data
Name: Leafy Band full Layout
XY Pixel Size: 50 µm
Slice Thickness: 31.75 µm
Total Layers: 614
Material Volume: 2.11 ml

Material Settings
ID: Robert Howle 1:1, Description: Hi-Res, lost wax suitable.
Calc Base: 8.918, Used Base: 7.856
Calc Over: 0.446, Used Over: 1.443
Calc Attach Layers: 2, Used Attach Layers: 2
Calc ABase: 35.672, Used ABase: 35.424
Calc AOver: 1.784, Used AOver: 1.772

Cycle Settings
Unsupported Pixel Multiplier: 1
Shutter Open Speed : 90
Shutter Close Speed : 90
Pre Exposure Delay (Settle) : 4
Post Exposure Delay (Kick) : 1
Post Release Delay (Breathe) : 1
Overlift Cutoff (mm) : 2
Initial Overlift (mm) : 1
Subsequent Overlift (mm) : 1.6
Dip (mm) : 1.6

Job Position
X Offset: 0
Y Offset: 0
Mirrored: false
Show Grid: true

[Robert Howle]

Is your "hot spot" centered. Are u usig med supports. Light ones may be to thin. Show screen capture of your "layout"// I would also slow down the vat speed to 60 or 70%.

In order to use the MSM to make adjustments for u go to the thread where mike has posted set up for testing 1to 1 mix. When u do it this way it becomes a "default" material and all the software functions come into play. When u create the duplicate materials, the way u have, and inter your own settings, then the MSM does not function.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2203


Robert

[mt300883]

Hey thanks for the tip on the msm. I didn't know that it wouldn't work for duplicate settings like that.

Below are the pictures of the layout and the previously successful print.
Many months ago I printed this model successfully so I know that it should work.

Robert, I think the model is the same one I sent you a few months ago to see if it was a problem.
Still trying to get this machine working after being sent the wrong bulb, it took this long for the supplier to send me the correct one. Although not worth the wait as it hasn't made a difference.

I didn't manually center my hotspot because the software was printing very well until I didn't print for a couple of months. Then all of a sudden supports were printing incomplete. Now it barely prints a base with the b9 resin.

Do you think this could have anything to do with the filters inside the projector? I see a few others with the 1.1 machine have had them stop working recently. I opened it up and inspected the filters but none of them are cracked.