Going to run out of filament near end of print!

[jdacal]

I'm printing this huge print and by my calculations I will run out of filament right before it finishes. Still have plenty of time before it happens. Any suggestions on how to switch the roll and not lose the print?

I'm using Octoprint. Does the pause button on that actually stop and then allow you to resume printing? Can I pause and switch filament then resume? Any tips/tricks appreciated I'd hate to have to start this one from scratch, its huge.

[jsc]

You can pause in Octoprint, then retract, extrude, jog the head, etc. and when you restart it should reset everything to where you left off. I haven't really played with it, though, so I can't give you any warnings on things to watch out for. Good luck.

[jdacal]

Thanks jsc, I'll give it a shot and report back on how it worked out. I thought I had another roll of black filament. Now I'm going to have to finish it in a second color. Will have to find a good stopping place so the color coordination looks good.

When it rains it pours.

[sprior]

There's a timeout (i think about a minute) where the motors will shut off and you'll lose your place - there's a code to disable that, but I don't remember it. See if anyone chimes in with it.

[jdacal]

Ill find it. Enter the code into the terminal window after I hit pause? Would that be the proper procedure?

[sprior]

I think so. Never done it, but heard about it.

[jdacal]

Well... I'm about 24 layers from finding out.

[jdacal]

I might just jog it before the timeout. I'm scared typing something into the terminal might interfere with the pause sequence in Octoprint.

[Dale Reed]

Sorry if this is too late! From the RepRap Wiki G-code page:

M84: Stop idle hold
Example: M84
Stop the idle hold on all axis and extruder. In some cases the idle hold causes annoying noises, which can be stopped by disabling the hold. Be aware that by disabling idle hold during printing, you will get quality issues. This is recommended only in between or after printjobs.
On Marlin, M84 can also be used to configure or disable the idle timeout. For example, "M84 S10" will idle the stepper motors after 10 seconds of inactivity. "M84 S0" will disable idle timeout; steppers will remain powered up regardless of activity.

Ref: http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code

Dale

[jdacal]

Thanks Dale. No I still have about 20 layers before Defcon 1. I think I'll just jog it, I'll set a timer on my iphone to beep every 45 seconds. I'll just cross my fingers and dive in and see how the water is. If I fail I'll be doing a lot of reading tomorrow.