I had some time today so I modified my Halloween Big Bat to work with some solar yard lights from Harbor Freight (https://www.harborfreight.com/solar-decorative-led-lights-3-pc-69462.html).  These have mixed reviews on Amazon but good reviews at Harbor Freight, but I have seen them in use for a year or so at a neighbors, so I think they will work OK.  I just picked up some of these today and am charging them up, but in the meantime, I am also printing the smaller version to check the fit.

These will have 2 or 3 parts, with a bat, the back cover and an insert (to be printed in clear or possibly glow PLA).  The insert may be optional but I need to see how it looks without the insert to know for sure.  The larger version will require some M3x6mm screws (yeah it's a weird size but an M3x10 may work if a nut is added as a spacer.  As always, I will post this up to Thingiverse when it is ready, and I'm putting a rush on this since Halloween is right around the corner.

Maybe a few more if I have time to print them:

Update 10/18/2021: I think I have the designs finalized and have printed a couple of tests, but I still need to re-print everything to verify things work, so I will end up with a couple extra bats.  My test print of the ghost failed about 80% through since I had to use ABS and it popped off the bed (it was the only type I had in clear), but I got enough printed to confirm it will work and looks really cool with the LED inside.  I will reprint it with a brim next time.  The models should print with minimal supports, though obviously the Jack-o-Lantern will need some, it should not matter how ugly it looks inside (real Jack-O-Lanterns are stringy inside anyway :D).  I expect it will be the end of the week before these are tested and then I will post them up. 

These will need Black, Orange and Clear filaments (or they could be painted).  Clear is a requirement however since the LED's need to be able to show through the material. 

The pic below was a test of the smaller bat, the larger one will be 1.5x as large and I have made a few changes to the design as well (but the changes won't affect the overall appearance).

Update 10/19/2021: The Ghost was printed and looks great (I think :D).  I printed with 2 walls, 2 top layers which I probably should have used 4 or 6, but it still works, and I used 24% gyroid infill with 3 steps.  The infill and thin walls makes it look like there is something going on inside, but I'm sure it could be printed with other settings just fine (though I suggest sticking with gyroid for the infill on this).

I also printed a clear back for the Bigger Bat, which gives it a cool background glow effect.  I still need to print the Jack-O-Lantern and test it out but things are on track to post these up later this week.

According to this post and Reddit too (so you can take it as gospel), Thingiverse was hacked.  Best to change your password if you have an account there to be safe.

More info here:
https://www.databreachtoday.com/thingiverse-data-leak-affects-228000-subscribers-a-17729

Update 10/19/2021: And it keeps getting worse, but at least it's bright and sunny in the reality where Thingiverse seems to reside.  Unbelievable that they don't even care enough to add any notice to their main page to notify users, many of whom may be using the same user and passwords across multiple sites, and now are in danger of real problems.  There won't be any consequences in this country for the way they have handled this I'm sure, but maybe the laws in the EU will at least get them to make the proper notification and come clean about what was taken.

I have been trying out some alternatives to Thingiverse and the latest problems have only accelerated things.  The best alternatives I have seen so far are Cults3D and PrusaPrinters.  Neither are perfect and their communities seem to be less active, so I will probably be (unfortunately) sticking with Thingiverse as a primary location for files.  Cults3D allows selling of files (which is not currently something I care too much about), and Prusa has contests (including one I have entered some designs into) and seems to have a much more engaged management.  Both the sites mentioned will automatically download designs from my Thingiverse account which makes it very easy to migrate.  I did not copy everything over however, since many of my things are remixes and I need to make sure they are pointing back to the original sources.  Anything I have that is original though, should be up on Prusa and Cults3D.

I just posted a quick remix of my Halloween Bat Bead, but this one is 2x the size and has an insert which can be printed in a contrasting color to give the eyes and mouth some contrast with the rest of the model.  There is also a version which has a hole for hanging it up.  The model is about 130mm across.

I have not tested this yet, but since things are tight right now and I'm not sure if I will get the chance to print it prior to Halloween, I wanted to get it posted.  There may be LED version of the bat if I somehow get the time, but that's up in the air right now (pardon the pun).

You can find it here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5019145

I was just looking for some PLA and picked up some spools at Amazon.  I have used Monoprice in the past and it has been pretty good in the past and right now it looks like a good price.  The cheapest colors are the green and light blue ($12.35), but the black, white and orange are only $15.44.  The white PLA+ which I bought previously from Monoprice was actually white too, not like the milk jug white that many cheap PLA's seem to call "white".  I picked up a few spools since I have been burning through white PLA for the Ikea Alex Organizers I have been printing.

Update - looks like the prices on the black, white and orange have changed, but the green and light blue are still a good deal.

I canceled the Version 1 of the Ikea Alex Organizer after learning to appreciate the grid systems for indexing the small organizer boxes over my idea to index them with little pyramids.  The pyramids would have worked, but they wouldn't have allowed the boxes to be moved around much after the pattern was set.  With the grids that can be done all day long.  I was especially impress with Duke Doks' version for an Ikea Helmer drawer, which I used as an inspiration for making the model above, which is designed to fit the smaller of the Ikea Alex drawers.  Many of the dimensions were taken from Duke Dok's version, for example the grid is nearly the same, but made larger for the bigger boxes, which are about 58mm square for the single 1x1 version.  The other larger boxes are just expansions from the 1x1 box in the lower left of the pic. 

I liked the way the Duke Doks storage boxes have a label tab which doubles as a handle, but instead of having just the tab centered on each box, I designed mine to run the full length of the box, which should make them a bit stronger.  There are two version of each box as well, one with the tab along the short edge (cyan) and one along the wide edge (orange).  The blue boxes are square so they don't have a long or short edge.

I have been printing these using a 0.6mm nozzle which gives 2 walls since (1.2mm thick), and found that a slight over extrusion of PLA+ seems to be the strongest.  I printed in PETG and they are fine, but not as solid as the PLA+ so I am switching over to PLA+ for the remainder of them (I also ran out of PETG).  So far I have only printed the 1x1 and 1x2 boxes, but now have things dialed in and will begin printing some larger boxes, though I probably won't be printing the largest of them.

Once I have enough to fill a drawer and can confirm everything fits as it should, I will post it up to Thingiverse and Cults3D.


Update 10/14/2021 - Well, I have a drawer filled up, but I'm a bit busy so it will be a few days before I can upload this to Thingiverse (which is having some problems right now).  I noticed that the furthest back boxes will need to be at minimum 3 units deep since otherwise they would not be accessible.

3D printing is not very green.   No matter how you cut it, building a model from melted plastic a few fractions of a mm at a time with a 40W hot end and a 200W bed will add up.  Often there is no good way to trim power usage since shutting the bed off or reducing temps can lead to warping and in that case it makes sense that a successful print is more power efficient than an unsuccessful print and a successful print.  Sometimes however there is some power savings to be had by reducing the bed usage during a print, and it is not that hard using the "ChangeAtZ 5.2.1(Experimental)" plug-in for Cura.  Despite the "Experimental" name, I have not yet had problems with it. 

The plugin is accessed from "Extensions>Post Processing>Modify G-Code" and is bundled with Cura so it's pre-installed.

The prerequisite for lowering bed temp during a print however is really good bed adhesion.  That sounds strange since most of the problems with bed adhesion are related to it being too weak, but the other case seems as common from my experience using a PEI sheet.  I have been running more PETG lately, and that stuff loves to stick to PEI, sometimes so well that it's hard to remove.  There are limits however, and I have had PETG lift on large flat prints without a brim using this method, so lowering bed temp is probably better suited for tall models than flat ones.  TPU is even "worse" and I ruined a PEI sheet on my Ender3 trying to peel off a print recently.  As an aside, I don't run much TPU, but have in the past used hairspray as a release agent when running it, and that seems to help remove it from the PEI bed, but in the last case, I ran out of hairspray and ran it without using it.

Since some materials seem to stick pretty darn well on their own, it got me thinking that I could probably shut down the bed part way though a print and suffer no ill effects to the print.  Although there is definitely a benefit to using the heated bed on the initial layers, in some cases (for my printer at least when running PETG), there is less benefit as time goes on in a multi hour print where the model is not some squat thing and the nozzle moves well away from the bed during the print.  To test it the idea of shutting off the bed after some number of layers (I used 20), I used the "ChangeAtZ 5.2.1(Experimental)" plug-in for Cura and set it to trigger on "Layer No." and the Change Layer at 20, then I set the Bed Temp to 30°C which is around room temp.  This worked on a small print, but a larger print had a problem with a crack in a thin wall which I cannot for sure say was related, but after that I changed it to reducing the bed temp in steps of 20 layers by 10°C each time and that seemed to be fine. 

To access the "ChangeAtZ 5.2.1(Experimental)" plug-in from the Post Processing Plugin screen, use the "Add a script" button and select the plugin.  Multiple scripts can be added this way as shown below:

So for example, starting with a 60°C bed temp, I would do the following using the plugin to drop the temp over the print to shut the bed off in steps:

1. Layer 20 - Bed temp 50°C
2. Layer 40 - Bed temp 40°C
3. Layer 30 - Bed temp 30°C

I'm still experimenting with this method but it has worked well so far and saves some energy.  The prints are still just as stuck to the bed so there is no change in that regard. 

The "ChangeAtZ 5.2.1(Experimental)" plug-in for Cura also handy for other changes that need to be performed within the g-code at layer heights, but I would use the "filament change" plugin for swapping colors.

The CR10S Pro has some quirks when updating firmware due to the graphic LCD.  The LCD gets commands from the board and then displays the info or sends info back to the board.  The screen also has it's own firmware and processor to help make this communication happen.  So the screen is not like a monitor is to a PC, just displaying what the graphics card sends it, but rather the screen keeps image files (in BMP format) and knows which commands from the board they correspond with.  So for example, when the printer boots up, it tells the screen to display an image of the boot screen.  The screen just keeps these images locally and knows which one to throw on the display when the board asks for it, and can send data back to the board if the user makes a change, like updating the hot end temperature.

This makes updating Marlin a bit trickier since both the firmware on the 3D printer's main board, and the graphic LCD both need to get updates.  The Marlin update is done the same way as always (and I use the Octoprint Firmware Updater plugin for this), but the screen requires a bit more work.  Additionally the firmware and screen files need to play nice together, so unless you want to build it from scratch, finding some fork of marlin specific to the printer is an easier way to go.

So now you are probably asking, "where do I get the code to upgrade Marlin or the screen?".  The answer is a couple places that I am aware of currently.  The first is TinyMachines which has been supporting the CR10S Pro and other machines with a fork of Marlin that is customized to work with the screen files they provide.  Their firmware and great instructions can be found here:

https://tiny-machines-3d.myshopify.com/pages/10spro
(click the link which says "Tiny Machines 3D Printer Firmware" and links to their google Doc with links and instructions.

One note about the current DW7.4 version of the TinyMachines firmware for the CR10S Pro however.  I installed it over a week ago and have had some strange issues (I was running DW6 prior with no problems).  The primary problem is that auto bed leveling takes about 15-20 minutes now, since the probe will pause if the bed temp fluctuates by even a fraction of a degree between probes.  I tried using the saved mesh instead of probing with every print but that also had some failures several times.  Finally the hot end temp is pretty bouncy but magically stabilizes after a dozen or so minutes, and this is after running several rounds of PID tuning of the bed and hot end after upgrading the firmware.  So I would not recommend DW7.4 on the CR10S PRO v1 with the inductive probe at this point.

I recently found another project on GitHub with recompiled firmware and screen files for the CR10S Pro and a few other models (CR10 Pro V2 and Ender5Plus) here:

Marlin FW (precompiled binaries):
github.com/Desuuuu/Marlin/releases

DWIN Screen Files:
github.com/Desuuuu/DGUS-reloaded/releases

Screen Instructions:
github.com/Desuuuu/DGUS-reloaded/wiki/Flashing-the-firmware

There are also config files if you want to compile that fork of Marlin:
github.com/Desuuuu/Marlin

It's not required but you can check the SHA256 checksums on the files if you wish using windows and the process explained here.

I have just installed this version and have not yet tested it out, but will update here when I do.  If there is a problem, the next plan is to roll back to an earlier version of TinyMachines firmware. 

Before updating firmware, it's a good idea to either copy the output of M503 to a notepad, or if you can't access the printer's terminal, write down the z-offset so you can re-enter that after the upgrade.  Also if you calibrated the e-steps, that should be copied so it can be re-entered post upgrade.

Once the firmware and screen files are obtained, the next hurdle, for the CR10S Pro at least, is that to access the screen's SD card slot, the entire bottom cover of the printer must be removed, and that means removing at least a dozen screws.  To make this process simpler, I installed a microSD card extension on my printer so I can access the screen SD slot without removing the cover, and for about $6-8 it's not that expensive to do.  I added some double sided foam tape between the flat ribbon for the extension and the case, to help protect it, which can be seen in the pic at the top.  Edit 10-18-2021: I don't think it would fit through the vents.

The screen updates via a microSD card which needs to be formatted with FAT32 and 4096 byte clusters.  The cluster size can be a bit of a "cluster", pardon the pun, since windows does not show that option on my install, but you can get a free program like MiniTool Partition Wizard which can easily format it with the correct cluster size.  Then a directory containing the files the screen will need, is simply copied to the formatted MicroSD card.  The directory is always named "DWIN_SET" and if you look inside you will find the images, WAV files and other cfg and bin files the screen will use to update itself.  Updating just requires turning off the printer, plugging in the MicroSD with the "DWIN_SET" directory onboard, and then powering up the printer.  The screen will go blue with some text showing it is loading files and then it will flash images of all the BMP files in the DWIN_SET directory across the screen, and then it goes back to the blue screen with the text where I usually give it a minute to make sure nothing changes, before resetting the printer again.

Installing the firmware and screen files is well documented but in a nutshell, I upload the firmware using the OctoPrint Firmware Updater plugin, and then, when that is completed, I just install the screen files as described previously. 


Update 10/4/2021: I have been using Desuuuu's fork of Marlin for the CR10S Pro V1 and it does not have the same problem with ABL as Tinymachines DW7.4 does (that is taking 15-20 minutes to peform an ABL mesh).  It is however not perfect and I have had a few annoyances with it.  The most serious was that the z-offset seemed to get lost after setting (and saving it using M500) one time, which caused the printer to try and bury the nozzle in the bed, but since resetting it, it has been OK.  When I say bury the nozzle, it was only off by a mm so no damage was done.  Oddly, when the printer got it's stuff back together (after several rounds of re-adjusting the z-offset), I ended up just about where it should have been to begin with, but I was seeing inconsistent offsets several times before getting it back to just right.  It has since been stable with no further z-offset issues for 3 prints since this happened.  Temperature stability of the hot end is also not great, I can see waves on the temp/time graph in Octoprint, even after running 2 cycles of PID tuning at the same target temp as I use.  Previously the temp/time graph was rock solid.  I also noticed this to a worse degree with TinyMachines DW7.4, but it cleared up after the first dozen or so minutes with DW7.4, whereas with Desuuuu's fork of Marlin, I see the wavyness through the print.  The fact that this temperature instability is a problem with both firmwares, but was not a problem previously, and does not clear up with multiple PID tunes, makes me question if it is due to some change with Marlin itself, or possibly more interrupts going on within the code or something like that.  I did not see any issues with the hot end itself so will try another PID run on the hot end to see if that helps.

There was also an error about bed timeout, which I haven't received on my old TinyMachines DW6 firmware (I did run 2 PID tuning cycle of the bed several prints prior to that occurring).  There are a few other things that are not super about it, like very small buttons, and at least one which is mislabeled, but it does work and most of my prints seem mostly OK.  I am still testing, but really I wish I hadn't upgraded since there was nothing new, and stability has suffered if anything since it was pretty reliable on the old code.  With both the TinyMachines DW7.4 and the Desuuuu updated versions of Marlin, there have been some strange issues which I never had seen before with my printer.  I may still revert to the older TinyMachines version I was running if I see more problems.  I guess I should have heeded the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

It has been a while but I finally had some time to get this uploaded, and it even shows up in the search at Thingiverse.

Check it out here:
www.thingiverse.com/thing:4967884

The combo center axis and roller is a remix posted here:

www.thingiverse.com/thing:4979880

Below are some pics from the design and build of this project.

I have been seeing blobs on my prints and have tried a few things to fix them, because it is getting to be a problem when running PETG especially.  I know that the blobs are due to the nexus of retraction, speed, flow, temperature and coasting volume, and maybe something else I have not considered.  That's a lot of knobs to adjust though, but I'm trying. 

The material I am using is Duramic3D White PETG, which is generally my go when I need PETG.  I ran some temp towers and found that the best temps are between 230°C and 235°C so I am going with the lower value.  I calibrated flow using single wall cubes, where normally I run a 2 wall cube, but the value was quite a bit lower than I expected at 89%, but it does work.  I also re-checked my e-steps which right on 140 steps per mm. 

So I am checking off some of the boxes but the blobs are still there.  I'm down to retraction and coasting, which seems to me are two ways to deal with a pile of filament that needs to be gotten rid of.  My understanding is that coasting pushes the pile along and spreads it out, and retraction sucks up whats left.  To get into the ballpark for the retraction setting, I ran several retraction tests first, which were not great, but I settled on 5.2mm @ 25mm/s yet still seeing blobs.  One limitation potentially with the hot end I am running however, is that (IRRC) Microswiss recommended staying below 4 or 5mm for retraction.  I have never had a problem going to 6mm though, so I'm not really concerned yet.

You can skip to the end if you just want to read my go-forward plan to deal with ugly seam blobs on the surface of prints.

Finally (maybe), I'm looking at the coasting volume.  For some reason, even though I have a 0.6mm nozzle, Cura wants to default to the value for a 0.4mm nozzle (0.064mm^3).  The coasting volume should be close to the diameter of the nozzle cubed, so 0.4mm nozzle would be 0.4x0.4x0.4 = 0.064mm^3 and a 0.6mm nozzle (which I am running) should be 0.6x0.6x0.6 = 0.216mm^3.  So I first ran a baseline test (TEST 1) using a model I created after Brilliant Name's "Underextrusion, retraction, extra prime and coasting test" (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3229413/).  That model is designed for a 0.4mm nozzle so I had to make mine for a 0.6mm nozzle, and I also added a 2 layer brim.

One thing I noted going into this was that the default coasting volume had been set wrong for my 0.6mm nozzle (set for 0.064mm^3 which corresponds to a 0.4mm nozzle). Still I tested with that coasting 0.4mm nozzle value to start with and then tried the recommended coasting value for my 0.6mm nozzle.

In a nutshell, it looks like retraction is better for cleaning up blobs but maybe coasting can be used to polish things up a bit.  It's not a big surprise really, but I have not tried calibrating coasting, and I now see that it has been incorrect (way too low) for much of the time I have been using a 0.6mm nozzle, so I'm happy to have that fixed.  I also think that the way I was testing retraction using the tower type stringing tests may not be the most optimal for surface finish, since the tower type stinging tests are looking at what is really the toughest case, but surface finish is something that is a more general concern with most prints.  Maybe need a balance between stringing and surface blobs, but I will lean towards trying to reduce surface blobs and take care of stringing the old fashioned way.  Finally, I could probably do another 10 tests and tweak this some more, and may do so, but for now I'm gonna see how an actual print looks with the new settings.

So in a nutshell, what I plan to do in the future when I really need to clean up a print, is to:

1.  Calibrate flow (using a single or double wall test cube)
2.  Calibrate temp (either using my notes or a temp tower)
3.  Use this thing (for 0.4mm nozzles) or this thing (for 0.6mm nozzles), to calibrate the retraction first, using the recommended value for coasting based on the nozzle size (which is the nozzle diameter cubed).  I will however need to be in the ballpark for retraction to start, which should be easy since I keep track of these settings in a spreadsheet.
4. Once retraction is as good as I can get it, I will adjust the coasting up or down by 0.014mm^3 (on a 0.6mm nozzle) which (I believe) is a similar amount of ooze that could be adjusted by changing the retraction by 0.05mm.  On a 0.4mm nozzle I would try going up or down by 0.003mm^3 once retraction was as good as I could get it. 

It should also be noted that this retraction test seems best for cleaning up surface blobs vs stringing, which may be an either/or balance of even more retraction to clean up stringing or dealing with some stringing but having a better surface finish.  I don't see enough of a change between using Octoprint and the SD card, so I will stick with Octoprint for now.

I looked around at drawer organizers for the IKEA Alex and saw some that were really good, but missing one feature - some way to keep the bins from moving around if one was removed.  Some systems use a grid to get around this but that means a more complicated print.  I also don't need the compartments to be held in too tightly since there is not going to be any lid to keep them secure anyway, I just want to keep them in position.  I'm gonna try to use some pyramid shaped "keys" to help keep things aligned, and they will be placed with a guide so things can hopefully stay consistent.  The keys will be held in place using clear VHB tape and they are sized 12.8mm square, so a 1/2" wide VHB tape should work.  This system has one major drawback, being that once the design of the drawer is set up, it will be hard to change, since the grid is only where it needs to be.  The keys could be removed and moved, but with VHB tape will be hard to remove.  Additionally these will be long prints.  The largest box is more than 8 hours, but since they are simple, I should be able to increase the print speed.  Although with a 0.6mm nozzle they only have 2 walls, the smallest box still takes about 2 hours on my printer.  I did test with "spiralize" (or vase mode), which prints with just one wall, and though it prints quickly, it is not strong enough and missing the corner tab details.  I have no idea when this may be posted, but I wont be posting it until it's tested, and that again is gonna take some time to fit out a drawer with these.

Update 9/30/2021: I decided to cancel this project after printing several of the boxes.  I feel that it could work, but I've come around to the idea of using the grids to index the bins, as long as I can print the larger ones without supports, which I don't think will be any issue.  I'm currently working on a design similar to this, but the bins are larger for the Ikea Alex drawers, and I made the bins a bit thicker since my printer is using a 0.6mm nozzle.  The design I'm working on is not a direct remix, but I am definitely taking design queues from Duke Dok's design.