Pause 3d prints?

Cupar19 · May 8, 2019

Is there any way to successfully pause a 3d print and fully turn the printer off and then continue again the next day?

I just cannot leave my ender 3 on whilst i am out and just cannot make time for some of the longer prints, is there any way to do this?

LLL003 · May 8, 2019

Not sure about an Ender 3, but I've modified my Wanhao i3 to be able to do this.

The main issue is with re-homing Z, as obviously you dont want to crash the head straight down into the part.

There's a couple ways to do this, I use a Z-Max microswitch. With a Duet 2 or something with trinamic drivers you can use stall detection, but I'd rather not ram the Z-axis about on a regular basis. In theory you can not bother re-homing Z providing the mechanics of your printer make sure that the Z-Axis won't droop by more than 1 step, but I don't trust that personally.

Exactly how you set this up depends on the firmware. AFAIK its not possible ( or at least pretty tricky ) on marlin.

I use a Duet 2 board. For that first you need to generate or alter your config file to make the firmware aware of the Z-Max limit, then calibrate the position of Z-Max (just home on Z-Min, jog up to Z-Max, back off 0.1mm, and single step until the switch activates. Check it a few times as micro switches can have a little bit of variance. Put this value into the firmware configuration.)

You'd need to put the homing and heating commands in resurrect-prologue.g. I also have a purge and wipe in there as well.
Before pulling the power, pause the print (Which you should have setup to hop up in z a small amount then home x-y, so that the head is safely away from the part to prevent oozing onto the part), and the firmware should write out a resurrect.g . Just check that's there and you can pull the power.

When you get back, apply power, then run M916 to trigger the resume.