I need some help troubleshooting my print issues. A while back (months) I updated the firmware on my Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro. After I did that, I have not been able to get a quality print since. (I’m a teacher and a dad, so I just haven’t had many free moments to sit down and really work on it.) My worst issue is the Z axis on the calibration cube. X and Y are less egregious. Using Elegoo Rapid PLA+ and the same default settings I was using pre-update. Any advice would be helpful.
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This looks to me like your part cooling fan is not turning on or pid calibration of the hotend is not good. Also may be over/under extrusion. You may need to go through calibration steps for your printer. It’s likely the firmware update cleared the calibration. There are many sites that will walk you through it, but I frequently use Teaching tech’s website: teachingtechyt.github.io
Also, white color is the worst for troubleshooting, literally any other color would do better. But even from that, I see your overhangs are drooping, suggesting too big temperature, over extrusion or no part cooling. Edit: corners also look overly rounded, so pressure advance is likely very off, too.
The problem with Z axis is most likely either inconsistent extrusion or the printed PLA getting pulled alongside the nozzle. Have you tried lowering the temperature (the printed PLA getting dragged along and oozing are both present), adjusting the Z offset (though unlikely to be the sole problem since your printer should not be stringing this much even if Z offset is slightly wrong), drying the filament (could be responsible for inconsistency of extrusion though unlikely), applying some glue (to improve adhesion if the model is moving slightly when printing), and cleaning the nozzle (some foreign particle is interfering with extrusion) and the sheet (in case bad adhesion)?
Bottom and sides look good, so it’s just a top-layer problem.
To me that rules out inconsistent extrudion or a wrong steps-per-mm setting (which would cause under- or overextrusion), since all these things would be visible on the sides too.
The two first things I would check would be:
- Is infill off? You should have at least 5% infill, better 10-15%, otherwise you’ll print in thin air causing issues just like that, with the edges looking ok and the closer you get to the middle getting worse.
- Is the fan on? Especially on PLA and fast print speeds the fan should be constantly running at 100%.
Pressure advance would be the next one. To check whether that’s the issue, turn the print speed way down to maybe 50mm/s. At that speed pressure advance hardly matters, so the issue should disappear. That test only works if you ruled out infill and bad part cooling as culprits, since slowing down the print will also help for these two issues. Tuning pressure advance is not trivial though.
This looks like either underextrusion causing gaps in the surface, or the filament sticking to the nozzle a little too much and tearing as the nozzle passes over it.
Simple things first:
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check that the extruder clamp screw (that holds the filament against the extruder drive gear) is still tight - it’s possible that the filament is just not being pressed against the extruder drive, allowing it to slip
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is your nozzle clean on the outside? or does it have a clump of plastic buildup on it? if there’s plastic stuck on the outside of the nozzle, the extruded plastic may be sticking to it and tearing
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is this a filament that you’ve used on this printer before? have you done a temperature tower? have you done a flow rate calibration?
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do you have more pictures of your test prints? other angles?
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Have you looked into pressure advance calibration?
Never heard of it, but I certainly can research.
Other pictures for reference.
The head might be too close to the bed. You could potentially compensate with either additional top layers in the slicer or just give it some more room to lay down layer one. Another possible cause is potentially too much heat. I am going by the slight elephants foot at the bottom of the cube and the slight droop at the top of the X and Y.
