3D Printing Forum

Hello everyone!

New to 3D printing. I am in the IT world and I have pretty good logic / troubleshooting skills. But I have some across an issue with my printing that I can't quite figure out. Hoping that some of you can help.

I purchased a used Ender 5 Plus that was original except for an added Micro Swiss Direct Drive.

I had the original 8 bit board.

I upgraded it to the V4.2.7 silent board. (Yes, I know that this in not officially supported.)
I changed to a CR Touch.

I am having a problem printing more complex models. Seems to be models where the head has to raise / transition / drop. The drop seems to not always happen and the print becomes like "wicker".

Here is an example. The blue block was on the 8 bit board and the black one is afterwards. Note that the finished height seems to indicate that I am adding layers somehow: I can print anything that continuously increases layers: I know that the print is not the best, but I am working on it...

I am compiling my own flash file. I have attached my configuration files that I am using.

I am running Marlin 2.1.2.4...

I placed one of the blocks and one of the "z towers" in the same print and the tower built fine until what I am presuming is a layer plus without a minus.

One obvious item is that the V4.7.2 board only has one connection for the z cable. I purchased a splitter to use for the two z motors. There are several videos out there where people have this setup, so I think that the board will handle it.

What I have done so far:
Tried different rolls of material
Cleaned the z screws
Applied a light oil.
Calibrated the Micro Swiss Drive (mark 100mm and it pushed 100mm of material)
Tried printing in the Creality fabric enclosure.
Made sure that the filament tube is not catching the filament.

After all of this I really think that it is something that I have configured incorrectly.

Any thought of a setting that I have missed or any other ideas??

Here is my leveling screen for grins and giggles.
THANKS!

as your using a 'splitter' board for powering both Z steppers, you most likely need to increase the current the board is providing. You are running the motors in parallel so the drive current required is now twice what the single stepper was.

Thanks for the reply!

I wondered about that. There are several videos that people have posted about this upgrade but they never mention doing that.

I will research that and give it a try.

It was the slicing software.

I was slicing using Bambu Studio. I downloaded UltiMaker Cura. Sliced with that and it is printing correctly....

There must be some setting in there that my printer does not like.

Printing the Hero Me base so I can update the fans and actually see the nozzle...