Retraction Tuning
What is the process to do retraction tuning with RatOS?
I've tried just doing a SuperSlicer Retraction Tuning print, but it seemingly didn't change along the height (print was perfect). I then went into my printer.cfg and commented out the "firmware_retraction" section altogether, no difference in the printing. Noticed the "Retract Length" in Mainsail shows 0.5... so I manually tried changing it while the print progressed with no results (you'd think something would change, right?).
Now I just started digging around to find out where that 0.5 came from and found that the includes for the hotend (Rapido) and the extruder (Orbiter-1004) both have settings under the "firmware_retraction" group. As far as I can tell, there is no way for me to turn off those firmware retraction settings once they're set by the profile.
So.... how do I get around this to do a test print with slicer retractions that vary?
18 Replies
Sorry if I sound a little irritated... I've probably spent 6 hours over the last 3 evenings trying to tune in this ASA filament 
1) firmware retraction needs to be explicitly enabled in your slicer. No point in commenting it out, just disable it in your slicer if you enabled it in the first place (not default).
2) firmware retraction is the only way to tune retraction via TUNING_TOWER.
3) All other forms of retraction tuning happens in your slicer.
What firmware retraction does is expose G10 and G11 - retract/unretract. If those are never called (by your slicer) they don't do anything, neither does the firmware retraction settings in klipper.
Ooof... I guess it makes sense that TUNING_TOWER would be able to do it, but I never really looked into all it was capable of. Of course, now that I read the section on Klipper's docs about it, it still isn't clear because they don't ever go through a list of what it can modify... https://www.klipper3d.org/G-Codes.html#tuning_tower_1
Now all this is making me wonder what other effects turning on firmware retraction in my slicer will do (SuperSlicer) since I've always had it set on, so it's always been in my gcode files
Well, thanks for the pointer... I've been a bit lost lately trying to figure out tuning in a new filament since I have stuck pretty solid with PETG/PLA up until now. There isn't really any definitive sources of tuning out there, just a million of different methods posted from throughout the history of 3d printing... I was even getting close to suggesting that we have some type of tuning support area added on this Discord (almost a hybrid of fix-my-print and fix-my-printer in terms of topics)
It's not modifying anything, it's calling GCODE commands. It'll run any gcode command with any parameter with values ranging from whatever you want in the steps you want.
For me there definitely is a definitive source, it's this one: https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/
Nothing i've seen is as comprehensive.
Yeah, it does seem like one could get super creative with it, but it seems to cover not only GCODEs, but also Klipper commands (SET_PRESSURE_ADVANCE). Without it being more than a hobby for me, I'm going to stick to the basics 😅
Thanks, I'll check this out... I have a feeling with our particular configuration of Klipper (RatOS) there will be a handful of things that will be a bit more customized to perform. I just hadn't been expecting that firmware_retraction was a hard-set standard -- I don't think it was when I first started using it, and likely I hadn't paid attention when it was mentioned it became one 🤷♂️
Those "klipper commands" are GCODE commands.
Gcode commands is anything you can put into the console in mainsail.
There's nothing about RatOS that changes how you tune a printer. There's no "hard set" firmware_retraction standard, you can simply not use it or override it like everything else. It makes no difference to the tuning process.
Perhaps my wording of "hard set" is a bit extreme, but it definitely is turned on from the default includes... and we know there is no way to turn off a setting in Klipper, only to override it to a different value unless you remove it from the includes altogether
Perhaps my wording of "hard set" is a bit extreme, but it definitely is turned on from the default includes...As i explained to you earlier, you cannot "turn on" firmware retraction from the printer configuration. Firmware retraction requires the slicer inserts G10 and G11 for retraction moves, that has to be explicitly enabled in your slicer. Without enabling firmware retraction in your slicer, the
[firmware_retration] section does absolutely nothing.
It is not enabled by default in any slicer either.So setting that on only makes Klipper look for those G10/G11 commands? It doesn't make it ignore gcode with retracts in them? If so, why wouldn't my retraction tower string even with 0 retraction? Ahhh damn, did I just unlock filament that refuses to string?
It enables parsing of G10/G11 in klipper.
It doesn't make it ignore gcode with retracts in them?Of course not, how would that even work? Slicer retraction looks like any other gcode, G0 E-0.7 F499 whatever.
If so, why wouldn't my retraction tower string even with 0 retraction?Check if you have firmware retraction enabled in your slicer. What slicer are you using?
I did not have it enabled (SuperSlicer)... Printer Settings -> Use Firmware Retraction was unchecked and a value was in Filament Setting - Retraction Length (0.6)
But, of course, the calibration object overrides that when you use it
Excellent, then your problem is in the slicing.
Or, as you say, you might be tuning filament that doesn't string much. Such as CF filled stuff, which usually strings a lot less.
PA influences retractions too
Oh geez... well I'm hoping the wisdom for tuning all this is in that site you linked to, maybe there is a way to negate the effect of the PA on the retraction tuning...
I didn't think it was a slicer setting that was causing it, though, as it changes that length setting in the calibration model with modifiers
PA doesn't affect the tuning, it just makes retractions less necessary, as you have little to no blobbing at start/stops. That's why you're always told to do PA first.
Inspect the gcode
See if it's changing the retractions as expected
Yeah, that makes sense (and I was just reading that on Ellis' site). I thought I had tuned the PA properly, but I might have had something else going on... I'll have to go back through it all from the beginning
I think the rest of this adventure should continue in #fix-my-print
Yeah, definitely somewhere else... I even debated on where to start it until I noticed what I thought was an un-removable setting. Thanks for all the pointers