If you are looking for ways to improve the print quality and speed of your 3D printer, you may want to tune two important settings: pressure advance and input shaping. In this blog post, I will explain what these settings do, how to tune them, and what to consider when choosing the appropriate filament.
Pressure advance is a feature that compensates for the elasticity of the filament and the extruder. When the extruder moves at a constant speed, the filament behaves like a spring and creates a lag between the extruder and the nozzle. This lag causes over-extrusion at the start of a line and under-extrusion at the end of a line. To avoid this, pressure advance adjusts the extruder speed according to the acceleration and deceleration of the print head. This way, the pressure in the nozzle is kept constant and the extrusion is consistent.
Input shaping is a feature that compensates for the vibrations of the printer frame and the print head. When the print head changes direction abruptly, it creates ringing artifacts on the print surface. These artifacts reduce the accuracy and aesthetics of the print. To avoid this, input shaping filters out the frequencies that cause vibrations and smooths out the motion of the print head. This way, the ringing artifacts are minimized and the print quality is improved.
To tune pressure advance and input shaping, you will need to print some test patterns and measure some parameters. There are different methods and tools for doing this, but one of the easiest and most popular ones is to use Klipper firmware and its built-in calibration tools. Klipper is an open-source firmware that runs on a Raspberry Pi and communicates with your printer via USB. It has many advanced features and allows you to fine-tune your printer settings with ease.
To use Klipper, you will need to install it on your Raspberry Pi and flash your printer board with a bootloader. Then, you will need to create a configuration file for your printer and upload it to Klipper. You can find detailed instructions on how to do this on Klipper’s website: https://www.klipper3d.org/
Once you have Klipper up and running, you can use its web interface or terminal commands to perform pressure advance and input shaping calibration. You can find detailed instructions on how to do this on Klipper’s documentation: https://www.klipper3d.org/Pressure_Advance.html and https://www.klipper3d.org/Resonance_Compensation.html
One thing to consider when tuning pressure advance and input shaping is the type of filament you are using. Different filaments have different properties that affect their elasticity and viscosity. For example, flexible filaments are more elastic than rigid filaments, and high-temperature filaments are more viscous than low-temperature filaments. These factors affect how much pressure advance and input shaping you need to apply. Therefore, you should tune these settings for each filament type you use.