I really enjoy my H2C, but there’s one thing I’m struggling with: after I send a print job, it takes around 15 minutes before the printer actually starts printing. Initializing, testing, nozzle cleaning, another test, another nozzle cleaning, and so on.
For longer prints, that’s totally fine. But every now and then I just want to print a small test piece to check if something fits, and those only take about 5 minutes. Waiting three times as long as the print itself feels a bit frustrating in those moments.
How is it for you? Does your H2C take this long too? And have you found a way to bring the startup time down to around 5 minutes for quick test prints, for example by skipping certain calibrations or changing settings?
Any experience or tips would be really appreciated. Thanks a lot!
I own a p2s and yeah, the initial calibration is sometimes annoying. Here are the two things you can do:
-Let it calibrate (recommended): If you want max print quality
-Remove the calibration from the initial Gcode: If it is a small print, same filament as last print, and quality doesn’t matter. I have never done this because the time you take in deleting the gcode, is what your printer takes in calibrating for a perfect print, so in my opinion, let it calibrate.
Hi, is that 15 minutes with chamber heating? Dual nozzles? Or just no-heat single nozzle/material stuff? What’s it doing?
If the latter, that sounds excessive… my H2C basic pre-print dance is closer to 5 minutes, with the 3 calibration options on “auto” in the print dialog. Depends… leveling takes longer for larger area prints. The right nozzle tends to level/finish a bit quicker than the left. But not 15 minutes, even when using both nozzles… unless it needs to heat the chamber.
I’ve gotten in the habit of manually pre-heating the bed and the chamber (if needed) before sending the print, perhaps as I’m still finalizing the setup. A more thorough bed soak never hurts anyway, and if nothing else the stuff starts heating sooner in the process so it’s done quicker (especially the chamber). I know this could be put into some startup g-code, but I like the manual control on an as-needed basis TBH (for now anyway).
There’s a printer option for using a lower power level for initial bed heating… that would definitely slow the startup down (AFAIK it is disabled by default).
I’m trying to think of what else would make a big difference in startup time, but can’t.
Personally I prefer to leave the calibrations on for the most part, even for “quick” prints since if it goes wrong the first time it’s no longer a quick print…
Cheers,
-Max
PS. Just sent a print and actually timed it… PETG on an induction nozzle, with a flow calibration and an overall parts footprint of ~150 x 100 mm (for leveling). From start jingle to prime strip took 7m 30s. But I did already have the plate heating (turned it on just before sending the print)… that would have taken another minute or two probably (I could see where it would have started to heat the plate, part way through the dance).
Thanks Max, that’s really helpful! It’s just basic PLA, so no chamber heating needed. Bed leveling is already turned off, and I’ve also modified the start G-code, but that only saved me a few minutes. So based on your numbers, something still seems off.
I’ll check the low-power bed heating option you mentioned and time the next print step by step. Any other idea what could make the pre-print routine that slow with plain PLA?
You’re very welcome, happy to compare notes. But yea I don’t know… just now the leveling took ~ 2 minutes of that time, so that would be quite a chunk, relatively speaking. The flow calibration was another almost 2 minutes. Cleaning the nozzle takes a bit (and then it has to wait for the nozzle to cool)… and some homing and the initial filament load/purge. What else does it really do?
Oh, I do have build plate type detection disabled… but that was just a quick move IIRC (and alignment check is still enabled).
Can you time or note more specifically how long each step takes?
If you’re printing single parts, center them on the bed. If you’re printing multiple parts, cluster them closely together near the center of the bed.
Turn leveling and flow calibration to auto in your preflight screen.
This ensures the quick bed level only needs to probe the smallest necessary amount of the bed, and in a future update when zone-based heat stabilization is enabled it will shorten the amount of time spent waiting for the bed to heat.
