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Topic: Couple questions about my solidoodle 4...

had my solidoodle4 for about a year now, pushed a couple kilo's of filament through it at this point.

1. so, my extrusion % is set to like 66%, should i just redo my extruder's steps per mm to get that closer to 100%, and just use extrusion % for fine adjustments?

2. is the fan on the side of the extruder head necessary?

3. can i compile mainline marlin firmware for the printrboard, or do i need to use the year+ old "special" marlin firmware branch linked here? (it looks like there would just be some lines to be copied over from the config.h file)

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Re: Couple questions about my solidoodle 4...

1. Yes! definitely need to adjust the steps per mm for the extruder. Solidoodle sets it FAR to high. should be more like 102-105 vs the 138 they have it set at.
Measure and mark 100mms on the filament feeding into the extruder top (you may want to make a second mark at 150mms). in RH free extrude 100mms - measure how much it fed past the 100mm mark (or how much remains to the 150mm mark)
use this formula to calculate the corrected steps/mm:
     (expected length* x current steps per mm) / actual length = new steps per mm.
          *expected length is the 100mm you asked for

2. If you are using the stock hotend, then yes, the fan on the side is necessary to keep the cool side of the hotend cool enough to prevent heat-creep and internal meltdown of the PEEK liner. If you upgrade the hotend to an all metal like the E3D v6, then it could be removed.

3. I have no experience flashing the Printrboard, so cant really comment on that one, but i see no reason why you couldn't. Others here have more experience with this.

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

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Re: Couple questions about my solidoodle 4...

I too have had an SD 4 for about 1 year.
Setting the steps per mm is easy via the RH host software. You do not need to reflash firmware to adjust steps.
Tin

Soliddoodle 4 stock w glass bed------Folger Tech Prusa 2020 upgraded to and titan /aero extruder mirror bed
FT5 with titan/ E3D Aero------MP mini select w glass bed
MP Utimate maker pro-W bondtech extruder
Marlin/Repetier Host/ Slic3r and Cura

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Re: Couple questions about my solidoodle 4...

Tin Falcon wrote:

I too have had an SD 4 for about 1 year.
Setting the steps per mm is easy via the RH host software. You do not need to reflash firmware to adjust steps.
Tin

not looking to reflash firmware to adjust steps, i reflashed already because the bed dimensions were wrong & i wanted to enable thermal runaway protection -- but thermal runaway protection has some issues in this version (https://github.com/ozadr1an/Solidoodle- … in_v1_beta), and looking at release notes those issues have been resolved in later marlin releases.