Fan Speed NOT Changing During Print - Stays at Initial Speed

[TheSchrund]

Cura Version

5.8.1

Operating System

MacOS

Printer

Makerbot Method

Reproduction steps

Fan speed and regular fan speed set to 100%
Initial fan speed set to 0%
Regular fan speed at layer 2

Actual results

Fan speed is initially 0% and remains at 0% throughout the print

Expected results

Fan speed should start at 0% for the specified number of layers then increase to regular speed of 100% at the determined layer.

Add your .zip and screenshots here ⬇️

[GregValiant]

Thanks for the report.
I can't duplicate this with my setup so we really need a project file.
Within the gcode file - Cura will put an M107 at the beginning of Layer:0 and then at the start of Layer:1 there should be an M106 S255 line.
You should see this near the beginning of the gcode file.
G1 F1500 E-6
;LAYER_COUNT:250
;LAYER:0
And then at the start of the second layer:
;TIME_ELAPSED:85.423495
;LAYER:1
M140 S50
M106 S255
And that is exactly what I get with all versions of Cura from 4.2 to 5.8.0.

If your printer is running a flavor of RepRap firmware then it might need the "Fan scale 0 to 1" setting enabled. That requires that the "Printer Settings" plugin is loaded from the MarketPlace.

Depending on how you are using the 2 extruders (each can have different fan settings), you will get different results in the Gcode. If an incorrect number is entered in the Machine Settings / Extruder "Cooling Fan Number" boxes then you may be getting the M106 lines but they might be referring to an invalid fan number. If an M106 S255 P1 is in the Gcode that would be telling the printer to set fan # 2 to 100%.

Someone from the Cura team (@HellAholic ?) will take a look but they are going to need a project file.

[HellAholic]

Thanks for the report.
I see some behavior that does not seem to be in line with the expected behavior.
Gonna do some investigation with the profile team for the Method series.

[TheSchrund]

Of course, the next time I opened Cura, it restarted like a new install, then said that my printer configuration was corrupt. It gave me the option to remove all my printers and remove all my profiles. I clicked yes to start fresh and now the fan commands are working properly. It will now start at 0% and change to the selected % at the selected layer (with a step change increase in between).

Thanks for the prompt responses.

Now If i could just get the Method to listen Cura and switch extruders to allow multi color printing. If I select extruder #2 for one model it will pause after printing model 1 with extruder 1 then start printing model 2 with extruder 1.

[GregValiant]

"Now If i could just get the Method to listen Cura and switch extruders"
That's a different problem (but maybe still firmware?) and really needs a different bug report.

[HellAholic]

So I identified an issue where the extruder start/end gcode is not configured correctly for the machine.
If you are printing a model without support then fan speed will behave as expected and you should not notice any issues, but as soon as you try to do a print with both extruders, then the fan speed is set to the initial layer fan speed (due to the gcode).
I'm following up with the profile team still to see how we can address it. I'll update here with the actions/follow ups.

For the multi-color printing, I'm afraid that is not officially supported by the printer FW. It can probably be done using Cura as it provides near unlimited access to settings and configurations, but the Printer itself is probably not gonna like it. As such I cannot recommend taking that approach but instead following up with the support as a feature request for the printer and the firmware.

As far as I know (I'm mainly involved with Cura software part), the Method series are designed with the intent that the left extruder is always the model extruder (can print support with model material) and the right extruder is only and always the support extruder. Which would mean there are firmware checks and configurations in place for that.

[TheSchrund]

The firmware should be able to handle it as SImplify3D can direct printing with either extruder. I have done multi extruder prints on the Makerbot Method using simplify 3D. I can assign each extruder to individual parts and the machine will switch. As for materials, I simply let the settings say PVA for second extruder and then just assign the correct temperature for the material i want to print with the extruder. Unfortunately I do not like the lack of other controls for some of the slicing so i may not keep simplify 3d and would like if the functionality can be added to cura.