If you want to take your print quality to the next level, Klipper’s Pressure Advance feature could be the key. To enable this, it is necessary to understand how to set it up, fine-tune it, and calibrate it, along with some troubleshooting methods.
3D printer firmware is a software that controls various aspects of the printer, such as movement, temperature, and communication. It interprets G-code commands and translates them into actions for the printer to create some fantastic 3D printables.
Let’s take a quick look at one of the popular 3D printer firmware, Klipper. This firmware is completely open-source and supports various advanced features that give you more precise control over print quality.
These advanced features include multi-extruder support, temperature control, and high printing speeds.
Overall, Klipper is a powerful and flexible firmware that can be an excellent choice for advanced users looking for more control over their prints.
This article will focus specifically on Klipper firmware and its Pressure Advance feature. I will also discuss the steps for enabling and configuring Pressure Advance and what to do when you face some difficulties while setting it up and implementing it.
What is Pressure Advance?
Klipper firmware’s Pressure Advance is a feature where you can regulate the nozzle’s pressure and flow of the filament at various extrusion speeds.
First, we determine a specific value, known as the pressure advance value, which the firmware uses to predict the amount of pressure needed at the nozzle in advance and accordingly adjust the filament flow for the particular print movement.
Once you calibrate pressure advance, you will notice a reduction in the amount of ooze during zero extrusion of material and a curb on the amount of blob formed at the end of any layer or the corners of your 3D printed model.
This calibration significantly improves your print results while eliminating imperfections such as ringing, regardless of printing at high speeds.
However, setting up Pressure Advance in Klipper can be challenging for several users.
You need to consider your slicer settings and a few other factors in determining the pressure advance value precisely.
It’s also possible that you will encounter extrusion issues with an improper pressure advance value. So, the next section will take you through these steps and help you easily set up the pressure advance for your 3D printer.
Now that you are familiar with all this information, let’s begin setting up Pressure Advance in Klipper!
How To Setup Pressure Advance in Klipper
To set up pressure advance in Klipper, you must first run some test prints and use these results to calculate the appropriate pressure advance value. Once you have acquired this value, you can enter it in your printer’s configuration file.
Let’s go over the setup process in detail.
1. Slicer Settings
You can use any slicer like Cura or Prusa to generate a G-code for the square tower (download here) test print. This is a great way to determine the pressure advance value.
In the slicing parameters, the first step you need to take is to set a high print speed with a layer height that is around 75% of the nozzle diameter, along with all dynamic acceleration control being disabled.
2. Print the Square Tower
After slicing the tower and prepping your printer, you can paste:
SET_VELOCITY_LIMIT SQUARE_CORNER_VELOCITY=1 ACCEL=500On either Mainsail’s or Fluidd’s web interfaces for Klipper.
In order to highlight the effects of extruder pressure, this command causes the nozzle to move more slowly through corners.
Now, set a value for the factor in the tuning tower command, which differs for both direct drive and Bowden extruders. Choose the one according to your extruder.
Direct drive:
TUNING_TOWER COMMAND=SET_PRESSURE_ADVANCE PARAMETER=ADVANCE START=0 FACTOR=.005Bowden:
TUNING_TOWER COMMAND=SET_PRESSURE_ADVANCE PARAMETER=ADVANCE START=0 FACTOR=.020As soon as you feed these commands, you can start the print and stop when the object finishes printing or notice significant failure at any of the tower’s corners.
3. Calculate the Pressure Advance Value
Using a digital caliper, find the height from the base of the tower to the print layer you find to be the best (It’s preferable to round down while measuring if you are unsure of the height).
This measurement will give you the measured height.
You can use this height and calculate the pressure advance value using:
PRESSURE_ADVANCE = <START> + <MEASURED_HEIGHT> * <FACTOR>( You can modify <start> and <factor> for further trial and error to identify the best pressure_advance).
You’ll get your final value to be somewhere between 0.050 and 1,000. If the calculated value is outside this range, retry the process by recalibrating the print parameters.
4. Input Pressure Advance Value in Klipper
When you finally get the Pressure Advance Value, you can add it to the configuration file’s [extruder] section and issue the RESTART command. With this, you have completed setting up the pressure advance in Klipper.
Before you start with the setup, here are some of the best practices for fine-tuning to keep in mind so that you get the best results:
- Start with a small pressure advance value, like 0.05, and gradually raise it to the desired level until you see the desired results.
- Play around with different values of pressure advance to find the best fit for your printer and filament, and keep an eye on any printing defects.
- Track all the various pressure advance settings you’ve tried and the outcomes you got; this way, you can fine-tune the parameters more quickly in the future.
Perfecting pressure advance settings can take some time, and it might take a few test prints before you find the ones that work best for your printer and filament.
In addition, Klipper has a few advanced features related to pressure advance.
One of these features is Input Shaping. This feature eliminates ringing and ghosting in your prints to a great degree, giving you a 3D printed model with a superb finish.
Klipper Pressure Advance Not Working
Are you having difficulty getting Klipper’s pressure advance feature to work?
In that case, it may be due to an error in your firmware’s config file, improper calibration, or a limitation due to some unknown printing parameter. To troubleshoot, you can look at these aspects one at a time until you resolve them.
Check your Firmware Configuration
It is crucial to ensure that Pressure Advance is correctly enabled and configured in the firmware configuration file for it to function correctly.
You can do this easily by editing the config file, setting an appropriate pressure advance value, and ensuring that the firmware has enabled it.
Calibrate your Printer
Once you verify that your pressure advance is enabled, and you are still having issues getting it working, you can try calibrating some of the common aspects of your 3D printer.
This calibration may involve inputting the accurate layer height, making sure the bed is level, checking the print and bed temperature, checking the extrusion, and ensuring that the movement of stepper motors is accurate.
Adjust your Slicer Settings
If your print quality still doesn’t improve, you can start experimenting with your slicer settings.
For example, you can experiment with the flow rate, line width, printing speed, and other settings and check whether they affect the quality of your prints.
However, it is important to remember that these settings can interact with each other and with the pressure advance settings.
Conclusion
Klipper’s advanced feature, Pressure Advance, requires you to understand how it works and how to adjust it, along with the knowledge that it may only work for some types of prints.
However, it is a feature that can improve the quality of many 3D printed models by estimating the optimal pressure required by a particular section of any print at high speeds.
Getting the pressure advance setting right on the first try can be tricky. Nevertheless, with the help of all the setup information, best practices, and troubleshooting tips, the outcome will undoubtedly be favorable.