Showing posts with label Printer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Printer. Show all posts

Monday, April 26, 2021

Monitor & Printer Color Calibration - PC


Printing out images can sometimes produce different colors and tones than you might expect. Here are a few ways to make sure your screen and printer are properly calibrated.

  • DON'T USE STANDARD PRINTER/COPY PAPER!

  • Get a Professional Graphic Design Monitor; Even One Pre-Calibrated:

ViewSonic Professional 27 Inch 4K Monitor with 100% sRGB Rec709 14-bit 3D LUT Color Calibration for Photography and Graphic Design

  • Calibrate Your Monitor Colors - Windows 10:

  1. Click Search or Cortana in the lower-left corner of your display.
  2. Type "Calibrate Display Color".
  3. Select "Calibrate Display Color" from the flyout menu to open "Display Color Calibration"
  4. If your system has more than one monitor, move the "Display Color Calibration" application window to the display that you want to calibrate and then click Next.
  5. Follow the instructions as they walk you through calibrating your monitor.

  • Display Color Management - Windows 10:

It's important that you make sure that both your monitor and your printer are using the proper ICC profile. You can see and change these profiles from the "Windows Color Management" dialog box. 
To get there, follow these steps:
  1. Click the "Windows Search" or "Cortana" icon in the lower-left corner of your screen.
  2. Type "Color Management".
  3. Click the Device drop-down menu.
  4. Choose your monitor from the list.
Note that if you did not install the drivers that came with your monitor, Windows may recognize and install its own profile for your display. Some inexpensive displays may not come with ICC profiles, and in turn, draw their calibration info from one of Windows' several generic profiles. And remember that, as mentioned, a good number of monitors come calibrated for office settings; the monitor may require some additional tweaking to get colors to match more closely to what comes out of your printer.

  • Printer ICC Profile for Paper Being Used: 

As for your printer's ICC profile, nowadays, nearly all printers come with them, which programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign load and read as soon as you select the device from the printer list in the application's Print Settings (or equivalent) dialog box. You can also pick up ICC profiles from the hardware manufacturer's website or by contacting the company directly. When you have the profile in hand, you can install it in Windows in two steps:
  1. Right-click on the ICC profile file (it has a .icc file extension)
  2. Click "Install profile"
ICC Profiles and Monitor Settings Database

  • Hardware Color Profiler/Calibration Tool:
Monitor calibration kits and/or monitor-printer calibration kits, have been around for some time now and many of them work quite well. They range in cost from just less than $100 to more than $500. These devices can be your go-to for the entire process of calibration, or in addition to the steps listed previously. 

Datacolor SpyderX Pro – Monitor Calibration Designed for Serious Photographers and Designers


Hopefully, with all these steps complete, you should find that your prints are much closer to those on your screen.

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro 3D Printer/3D Printing "Dialing It In" Tips!

I created this guide to help Ender 3, Ender 3 Pro, and other Creality Printer owners get their printers and their prints "all dialed in" as I like to say. Let me know if you have any questions or issues and thanks for checking this out!


Dial-In Your Creality 3D Printer:

Overall printer test from Thingiverse. Start here!
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2975429
Then print this again after tuning your printer!


Chep Cura Profiles for Creality Printers:

Chuck Hellebuyck's Electronic Products Cura profiles for Creality printers, gives you a great starting point for using Cura with a Creality Ender 3, Ender 5, CR-10, and CR-10 Mini 3D Printers.
This way you can get started printing higher-quality prints, right out of the gate on your Creality 3D Printer! 


Bed Leveling:

If you do not have ABL (auto bed leveling) please check out this Chep guide below for easily getting your printer bed leveled and printing level: https://www.chepclub.com/bed-level.html

Propper Belt Tension:

A lot of people think, that more belt tension = better quality. That isn’t the truth at all. The perfect belt tension is when the belt isn’t really tight but teeth on won’t slip at all. Be sure, that you can normally push the belts together with your fingers, but when you move the carriage by hand, everything should be smooth, with no bumps, no weird sounds. To find this perfect spot I’d suggest you add a belt tensioner that will fit your 3D printer!

Calibrate the Extruder:

Increasing or decreasing the millimeter (mm) steps for your extruder so your printer is pulling/extruding the correct amount of filament. 
  1. The easiest way to do this is to make a mark on your filament about 100mm away from where the filament goes into your extruder. 
  2. Then heat up the printer's hot end and feed 100mm of filament through your extruder. 
  3. If all is dialed in correctly, the filament should stop RIGHT on the mark you created. 
  4. If you went past the mark a decrease in your steps per mm is needed. 
  5. If you didn't hit the mark at all; an increase in your steps per mm is needed.
  6. You can calculate deviation and your new/needed Esteps by using a simple formula:
    • Deserved length / Observed length * E steps per mm. 
    • Using a 105mm example: 100mm / 105mm * E200.00 = E190.47 new number of steps per mm for your extruder.

Print Temperature:

Run a temperature stress test to see what temperature is best for your printer: Stick to the temperature value you consider as the best one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3071464

PID Auto-Tuning:

Poor temperature stability can be caused by both non-calibrated or disabled PIDs as well. There are a few ways to fix Z artifact issues caused by bad PIDs. I highly recommend this printer tuning/PID Tuning guide for both your extruder AND your heated bed: 
https://3dnation504795197.wordpress.com/guide/ 

How To Run Extruder PID Autotune from Terminal: 

  1. First home your printer on all axes (X, Y, Z)
  2. Next, move your Z axis 10mm up and X and Y to mid of your print bed. 
  3. After this turn on your blower fan to 100% by sending M106 S255
  4. Next, send the M303 E0 C8 S210 command to your printer, 
    • M303 declares PID autotune command for your extruder
    • E0 is the number of the extruder (E-1 is the bed, E1 is the second extruder)
    • C8 is the number of PID calibration cycles you will run
    • S is the desired temperature
  5. If print ABS or PETG most of the time, you can use S240 or the temperature value you'd like.
  6. Now, wait a few minutes until you see "PID autotune done" in your terminal window. Below that, you’ll see your new Kp, Ki, and Kd values. 
    • For example Kp 21.00, Ki 1.25, Kd 86.00. 
  7. You have to write these values to EEPROM now using the M301 command. 
    • Something like this: M301 P21.00 I1.25 D86.00 (Kp = P, Ki = I, Kd = D)
  8. Then save these new values to the printer's EEPROM by using the M500 command. 
  9. You can check, that you’ve done everything right by reading EEPROM values with the M503 command. 
    • If you see your PID values there under the M301 section, everything should be correct!

How To Run Heat Bed PID Autotune from Terminal: 

  1. Move your Z-axis 10-20mm up, and X and Y axis to the mid point of your print bed. 
  2. Send the M304 E-1 S60 C6 command to your printer, 
    • M304 declares PID autotune command for your heat bed
    • E-1 is the bed (E0 is the extruder, etc.)
    • S is the desired temperature
    • C6 is the number of PID calibration cycles you will run
  3. If print ABS or PETG most of the time, you can use S85 or the temperature value you'd like.
  4. Now, wait a few minutes until you see "PID autotune done" in your terminal window. 
  5. Below that, you’ll see your new Kp, Ki, and Kd values. 
    • For example Kp 10.00, Ki 2.00, Kd 5.00
  6. You have to write these values to EEPROM now using the M301 command. 
    • Something like this: M304 P10 I2 D5 (Kp = P, Ki = I, Kd = D)
  7. Then save these new values to the printer's EEPROM by using the M500 command. 
  8. You can check, that you’ve done everything right by reading EEPROM values with the M503 command. 
    • If you see your PID values there under the M301 section, everything should be correct!

Print Speed:

Run a speed stress test to see what speed(s) may be best for your printer: this will help you with stringing, bridging, and overall print quality.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3071464

Slicer Retraction Settings:

You want to be sure that you have retractions turned on in your slicer software. You want to start with some lower values like 2mm retraction and 30mm/s retraction speed. Then you should print some retraction tests like this one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2563909
This way you can find and save the retraction settings in your slicing software that produce the best results!

Stringing

Stringing happens when there is too much pressure in the extruder and melted plastic leaks out during movement in free space. There are 3 major values, which you are going to adjust to remove stringing: retraction, temperature, and travel speed. Tweaking those settings will help you get rid of stringing on your prints. FYI however, PETG is notorious for stringing! 
Some brands will string no matter what you do! So don't stress out too hard/badly.

Pre-Sliced tests for Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro! 
Pre-sliced G-code for the Ender 3 printers (speed, temperature, and retraction) to help find your ideal slicing settings. Everything is covered in detail here:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3071464

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Recycle your old computer, computer parts, peripherals and electronics!


If you live in the Vancouver, WA Pacific NorthWest Computers does take in some computer products.
Give us a call to find out more!
Keep Electronics out of landfills and recycle what you don't need!

Jon Pienkowski
Pacific NorthWest Computers
www.pnwcomputers.com
360.624.7379

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Lexmark Printer Service/Print Spooler Bug: XP Systems

Because of a flaw in Lexmark's printer driver and software removal and uninstall utility. After removing a Lexmark printer driver and software from an XP system, may create "Printer Installation Failed: RPC Server Unavailable" and/or "Print Spooler Service Is Not Running" error messages.

The first thing you always need try if you are having any kind of basic software problems, is to try uninstalling and reinstalling the appropriate drivers and software, and/or visit the manufacturer's website and download and install the latest drivers and software for your device. If this does not fix your printing issues, the problem probably lies within Windows itself. (Unless of course, your device is physically broken or you have a broken cable). But what I have seen over the years is that customers with these specific "Printer Spooler Service" or "RPC Server Unavailable" errors happen to to use or have had used a Lexmark printer.

So really quick, here is the definition of what a Windows Service, like the Print Spooler Service, basically is: (Taken from Wikipedia.org Link)
"A Windows service is an application that starts when the Microsoft Windows operating system is booted and runs in the background as long as Windows is running."
*Quick explanation of What Is RPC and How Does it Work.

The Print Spooler Service itself basically is a Windows service that starts when your computer starts, and is constantly running in the background of your operating system to load files to memory for printing. What I would find is that there would be a service installed in the computer from Lexmark called the "LexBce Server". The LexBce Server Service is installed by the Lexmark printer's software to configure the onboard network print server.
*The print server
accepts jobs from computers and send the jobs to the appropriate printers.

When the service installs itself however, it installs itself so the Windows Print Spooler Service becomes dependent upon it. So disabling the LexBce Server Service will make it so that your Print Spooler Service can no longer run. Which in effect disables all printing on your computer. Also, without the Print Spooler running, an installation of a printer is not going to be possible and you are going to most likely get the "RPC" error that was mentioned at the begining.
*The LexBce Server Service can also come pre-installed on some Dell computers that are packaged with "Dell" printers; that's because they are made by Lexmark.
**The LexBce.dll, a file related with the LexBce Server, is also related to
the software "MarkVision for Windows" also a product of Lexmark.

So, do all Lexmark printers install this service? I can't say for sure. What I do know is that if you are using a Lexmark printer or have had a Lexmark printer, you could have the LexBce Server Service installed on your computer and may eventually experience the discussed issues. Same scenario for previous owners of Lexmark printers. The un-installation of Lexmark printer drivers/software might have left this service behind. The bottom line is that if LexBce Server Service was, or is, on your computer and happens to fail or is disabled instead of removed during software/driver removal, say hello to the Lexmark Print Spooler bug!


*I originally wrote this blog working at Battle Ground Computers, back when I was a manager at their store; it was a great find of mine so I wanted to re-post it on my new blog with some updated and edits. My original blog posting; http://tinyurl.com

Get the most out of your internet!

Getting the Most Out of Your Internet

Probably one of the number one issues that is brought up to me is "Why is my internet so slow! It use to be so much faster!". Well dial-up or high-speed, everyone can be affected by internet "chug". So here are some quick recommendations and thoughts on how to keep your internet AND your computer running quickly and smoothly!

1) Confirm that the computer itself is operating at maximum efficiency. It is very common for computers, mainly those using the Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, do become sluggish after as little as a few weeks of operation. This can make users think that their dial-up connection is extremely slow and can become an incentive to convert to a more expensive broadband connection. Sluggish computers are, of course, less noticeable with broadband.

2) Empty browser's caches and cookies, which are directories that the browser uses to retain copies of previously visited web pages. When these caches become very large, they can consume considerable space on a Hard Drive and thus slowing down your computer's operation, including its ability to displaying web pages.
**CCleaner is a free PC optimization tool. It combines a system cleaner that removes unused and temporary files from your system and also a fully featured registry cleaner! CCleaner allows Windows to run faster, more efficiently and gives you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's Small, Fast and Free!
*Here is a direct ink to it's download page: http://preview.tinyurl.com/bvtbj
*
Here is a link to instructions on how to install and use CCleaner: http://preview.tinyurl.com/ngh4pc

3) Use a fast web browser. There are large differences in the speeds at which browsers render web pages; a browser is rendering when it's interpreting the web site's "geek" code and converting to a form which we see as a beautiful web page. The fastest is said to be closely between FireFox 3.5 and Google's Chrome web browser. Also, the newer the version of these browsers, generally the faster you'll go. Reason for this include improvements in coding and in how previously visited pages are stored in the browser cache. Internet Explorer should be avoided because it is the slowest of the major browsers, because it has inferior security and because it lacks other advanced features. FireFox and Chrome can be downloaded from the Internet at no cost and are available for use with most major operating systems.
*
Here is a link to download FireFox: http://preview.tinyurl.com/y3prgo
*
Here is a link to instructions on how to install FireFox: http://preview.tinyurl.com/5keeym

4) Use tabbed browsing. Tabbed browsing is an innovation built into advanced browsers such as FireFox and Chrome that allows multiple pages to be opened at a time in which appear as different pages in a single web browser window. Each of these pages is easily accessible by clicking the appropriate tab along the top of the window. This can be much more convenient than having to open each page in a separate browser window when it is desired to have a number of pages open simultaneously. Furthermost, it can also speed up the web surfing by making it more convenient to be downloading other web pages while another page is being read.

5) Avoid unnecessary browser plug-ins, which are downloadable software that is designed to "add functionality" to your web browser. Plug-ins can substantially decrease web page rendering time because they allow additional data to be downloaded for many pages or is trying to consistently update "sibling" applications. Perhaps the most notorious example is Adobe Flash, which is used for moving images.

6) Turn off pop-up windows. These unrequested windows, which are usually used for advertisements, consumes bandwidth and can slow down the rendering of web pages. They are also a nuisance because the user has to click them to close them. The ability to turn off pop-up windows is a major feature of advanced browsers such as FireFox, Chrome and Safari; it was not available on Internet Explorer as of early 2006.

7) Turn off web page images. This is probably not desirable for most people, but for those who are interested solely in text, it can speed up the loading of web pages considerably, particularly those which contain numerous advertisements or other images. With the FireFox browser, for example, this is accomplished by clicking on the Edit menu to open the Preferences panel, clicking on the Web Features icon and then removing the check mark from the Load Images check box. Finally, click the OK button at the bottom of the panel.

8) The last and best solution is to optimize the performance of the computer itself. Several causes of sluggish performance are most notably caused by:
- A full, or nearly full, hard disk drive (HDD) & a lack of defragmentation.
- An older computer with a slow microprocessor with limited memory
- The presence of viruses or other malware in the system.
**Typically, the first of these is the easiest to correct; this can be accomplished by removing little-used files and programs. However,
malware can be "in-the-wild" per-say for up two weeks or more before being identifiable by your Anti-virus software. So there is small possibility that there might be something in there that just can't be seen for found yet; worse case scenario of course.


Additional Software Recomendations:
Applocations were picked for the effeciency, effectivness and low impact on the user's system performance.

Avira’s AntiVir Personal Anti-Virus:

Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus is a reliable free antivirus solution
, that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs (such as viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, hoaxes, worms, dialers etc.), monitoring every action executed by the user or by the operating system and being able to react promptly when a malicious program is detected. Avira AntiVir Personal is a comprehensive, easy to use antivirus program, designed to offer reliable free of charge virus protection.

Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware:
Detects and removes Trojans, Worms, Spyware, and other malicious programs.

  • Repairs damage left by malware

  • Internet surfing tracks erased with TrackSweep

  • Incremental updates for faster downloads

  • Efficient computer resource footprint

  • Free software updates throughout license duration

  • Free support from worldwide security volunteer network


Safer Networking’s Spybot Search & Destroy:

Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behavior to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven't intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been "hijacked" (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware. Even if you don't see the symptoms, your computer may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging. Spybot-S&D is also absolutely free.

JKDefrag:
Why use this defragger instead of the standard Windows defragger?

  • Much faster.

  • Extremely easy to use.

  • Optimized for daily use.

  • Several strategies of disk optimization.

  • Directories are moved to the beginning of the disk.

  • Reclaims MFT reserved space after disk is full.

  • Maintains free spaces for temporary files.

  • Can defragment very full hard drives.

  • Can defragment very large files.

  • Can defragment individual directories and files.

  • Can be run automatically with the Windows Scheduler.

  • Can be used from the commandline (DOS).

  • Can be used as a screen saver.