Hi. I just got my sv08 printer yesterday and i am trying to calibrate it using orca slicer. everything was going fine until i tried to run the ‘Pressure Advance’ calibration and this is happening in the picture below:
That is exactly how the pressure advance test should look.
When pressure advance is too high the extruder stops turning too soon resulting in the gaps.
The calibration print starts with the pressure advance very low then turns it up every .1mm of Z height. Read the tutorial again, measure the height of the “best” layer and calculate what PA value to use for that filament.
You’ll have to compromise as the start/stop, 90° corner, and 45° corner will be slightly different.
EVERY filament will have a different ideal PA value
The same Filament will have a different ideal PA value at different temperatures. Nozzles Too.
Different rolls of filament that are the same manufacturer/type may have a different ideal PA value
The point I’m making is don’t make yourself crazy trying to get it perfect.
One problem with 3D printer calibration is that several variables are interrelated. Doing the OrcaSlicer calibrations in order does a pretty good job of sorting the variables in the proper order. If you’re getting under extrusion at a lower than expected flow rate, try increasing the nozzle temperature. 205 C is usually a good temperature for PLA but maybe try up to 220 C. I usually start with the middle of the manufacturer’s range and work from there. The manufacturer specifies a range because the melt characteristics vary significantly from one printer to another. Of course, with the mystery filament that comes with the printer, there is no manufacturer data but presumably it should work with the manufacturer’s PLA slicer profile. If the nozzle is too hot you’ll get stringing, fumes and smoke.
Unfortunately, you can dial in one PLA and a different PLA may be very different. Even different colors of the same material from the same manufacturer may require different settings to print optimally. This is keeping 3D printing as a hobby or niche manufacturing method where some necessary fiddling is tolerated. I don’t have much good to say about Bambu, but them offering a complete solution of printer, slicer and filaments that all work well together did help popularize 3D printing. There is much opportunity for open standards to do the same without customers held hostage in a proprietary walled garden.
If you’re just starting, I’d recommend using one readily available quality filament to avoid frustrations and maximize your early success, and build from there as you feel comfortable.
First I have to point out the sample filament included with the printers is NOT going to be some random scrap of crap. If the presliced sample files with that sample don’t produce GOOD prints Sovol’s return rate is going to go up and profits go down.
Second - 3d printing is a great hobby BECAUSE of the almost infinite level of complexity that always presents a next level challenge when you’re looking to up your game.
The flip side of that is it is easy to set your initial expectations too high and spend all your effort tuning and no time making things. Print something… IF some aspect of it disappoints you then drill into that specific issue and solve it. Rinse and repeat.
And always remember the only thing it requires to be a youtube expert is a smart phone and a little production know how. They don’t have to be good at 3d printing they just have to look good trying.
The point I was trying to make is that the complexity requiring artistry and skill that makes 3D printing a great hobby is what prevents much wider scale adoption of 3D printing by people who don’t want another hobby and instead want to use a 3D printer as an appliance that allows them to print a product in a few hours for a couple of dollars rather than spending $20 and waiting a few days for delivery.
EXAMPLE: I needed to mount my drone controller to my motorcycle handlebars. The exact mount I needed wasn’t on Amazon. It’s too niche a product, even for Amazon. I downloaded the generic mount from Printables, spent five fun minutes in FreeCAD to make the simple ball mount that I needed, printed both parts on the Zero in ABS-CF, epoxied them together and I have a $2 part in a couple of hours that I couldn’t buy online. I’ll upload the simple ball mechanism and mention it in the Printables page for the mount in case someone else could use it. Once more people have 3D printers, we’ll be able to download and print almost anything, because there is no product too niche to justify a quick upload and a few MB of storage space.
I’m actually in both of the 3D printer markets. I love 3D printing as a hobby but part of that hobby for me is making useful things. I’m not denigrating anyone who 3D prints miniatures, cosplay, fidget spinners, etc. If you’re having fun with your hobby, you’re doing it right.
There is no end to the technical frontier for those who enjoy tinkering, and some standards that allow much faster and easier success aren’t going to detract from the hobby experience in my opinion. OrcaSlicer has recently pushed out a process that makes it easier for users and particularly manufacturers to share filament profiles for specific printers. What I’d really like to see is some parameters that more accurately characterize a printer rather than simply adjusting nozzle temperature to fudge for all of the other hot end characteristics. That would allow each printer to be tested and characterized, to have a standard calibration that could be used with filament melt and flow parameters to produce optimal results without everyone doing the laborious and time consuming calibrations to get a particular filament to work well on a particular printer. I know some people enjoy that tuning process. I don’t mind it, but I’d be happier if I didn’t need to do that and could spend my intellect and creativity solving novel problems rather than Just Another Filament Calibration.
I hardly ever, and I mean never do any type of calibrations anymore.
I think I pretty much found the sweet spot for all of my filaments.
If I buy a filament that I can’t seem to print with my settings, then I’ll do a temp tower.
Other than that, I’m pretty much done with testing.
I did all that on my Ender 3 Pro years ago & decided I’m not doing that for all of my printers.
There are a couple of files I might print for a new printer, just to compare them to previous prints…but, unless there is a major issue…I don’t think it necessary anymore…JMO