Change Filament Manually Part Way Through a Print.

Karnivor

Hi All,
I'm new to this forum, having recently acquired a Tarantula Pro Printer (thanks Santa).
I'm trying to figure out if I can change filaments part way through a print with only a single print head.
I am building a clock and the face will be black with raised numbers.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3524448<br/>I would like to manually pause the print manually at the point where it starts to lay down the numbers and change over to a luminous filament. This means pausing the print, raising Z, changing filament, flushing the hot end and lowering Z back to its original position to continue the print. All of this without cooling the bed or hot end.

Can this be done from within Repetier Host? Modifying the Gcode is beyond my current capabilities which is why I am prepared to sit through it manually.

Any help would be appreciated.

Repetier

Yes it is easy possible but you need to change the gcode. You need to insert
;@pause

where you want the pause. Also in printer setup you have a pause script - here you should move to the side so you do not ooze on your print while waiting for the color change. Something like
G1 X0 Y0 F12000
should already be enough. Use position that works best for you.

To find correct position go to gcode editor. At the bottom you can select to show a layer range. Start at 0 and set end to where the color change should happen. You see preview changes. Git on the layer button there to the left and it will jump to the gcode end of that layer. If you select gcode it will highlight in yellow so you see which line corresponds to which move. Select a position where you want the pause and add the command there.

During print it will then wait there for you to change filament.

Karnivor

Excellent, thank you.
so, will a 2nd @pause unpause the print and move the HE to the next absolute co-ordinates and resume printing?

Repetier

In host you see a continue button when you are paused. Just hit it to continue.

Repetier

Oh any yes, host has remembered last position and will move back to it before continuing the script. Just make sure that you do not move the head while changing filament. Some firmwares have a disable motor timer when able then it is easily moved in xy direction. If that happens home xy before hitting continue!

Karnivor

Brilliant, Thank you.
Ill do a couple of practice runs on a cube or similar before committing to the actual piece.

Thank you for all your help, its greatly appreciated.

Karnivor

OK, been playing and finally decided to change things very slightly. I moved away from the manual script as it left the nozzle over the work until the script was initiated (not good for toilet breaks).
Once the filament had been changed and flushed through, the nozzle wanted to ooze, so I incorporated a retract before resuming. The following Gcode returns the filament back before printing commences.

Its worked a treat.
Thanks again.

G1 E0.53988 F2700.00000 (end of last layer)

G1 X-12 Y0 Z50 ( move to safe zone before pausing)
@pause
G1 E-6.00000 F2700.00000 (de-snot the nozzle)

G92 (new layer)

G1 Z2.050 F7800.000

G1 X203.971 Y28.723 F7800.000

G1 Z1.550 F7800.000

G1 E6.00000 F2700.00000

G1 F900