Palette 3 Loading Offset and Historical Modifier

Printer Profiles are saved to Palette when you create a new printer profile in Canvas, Slic3r/PrusaSlicer. Below are some example scenarios:

a) Selecting a preset on Palette 3 when setting up a printer.

b) Slicing with a new printer profile from Canvas.

While viewing your Printer Profiles, you may tap on a single profile to edit its calibration data and name. You may also delete a single profile at a time by selecting "Remove from Palette."

To completely delete all Printer Profiles from your Palette, please go to Settings > System > Delete All Local Files. Please note that once this is done, the action cannot be reversed.

These two values are first established when you complete your calibration print. Loading offset remains static after calibration, while the historical modifier will change slightly after each print with Palette. Both of these values work together to maintain color calibration and splice lengths throughout the print.

Loading offset on Palette 3 no longer includes the outgoing tube length.

For direct drive printers, the LO is the length of the extruder and printhead/hot end.

For bowden printers, the LO is the length from the bowden extruder, the bowden tube, and printhead/hot end.

It is a percentage that tells Palette how much filament to make based on your printer's extrusion. For example, if your HM is 98%, your printer may under-extrude slightly when compared to the GCode, and Palette compensates by adjusting splice length. If you had a calibration print that had a 'No Pings' error, you will find that in your printer profile, HM will be 'None.' For a further explanation of pings, click here.

You can check and edit your LO if needed during the calibration process. Please only proceed with editing your HM after you have completed multiple prints and your pings are consistent. These steps can be done to fine tune your printer profile, and it's recommended to take note of the LO or HM before making any changes so that you can revert settings if needed. The following steps can be done by going to Printers and tapping the profile you wish to edit.

You can edit the LO if you find that the length saved requires some further tuning. You may see the print's transition's start too early or too late, and adjusting the transition target in Canvas, PrusaSlicer/Slic3r doesn't have an effect.

To determine if this is the case, you can do the following next time you start a print (the print does not need to complete, and you can cancel shortly after).

a) Load your extruder with clear or white filament before loading the filament from Palette. This will prime the nozzle and make observing the filament from Palette easier (please do not use clear or white in Palette).

b) Start the .mcfx/.mafx file on Palette and proceed with the steps provided on the screen to load filament to the extruder. You will come to the loading step that asks you to jog a specific number of millimeters before starting the print (based on the saved LO). Jog the filament slowly, and stop as close to 0 as possible.

c) After confirming that loading is complete and before starting the print, take a look at the filament that has been extruded. If you see that all of the clear or white filament and some (>5cm) of the colored filament from Palette has been extruded, the LO may be too long and needs to be decreased. Incrementally decrease your LO manually. Start with 5-10mm at a time. Cancel the print, and proceed to the next step.

Photos above: Loading offset length is too high - first transition does not appear on bottom of tower but begins on the keychain itself. The color filament from Palette extrudes too much from the nozzle when loading/smartloading to 0mm is complete.

If you reach 0 and see that none of the colored filament from Palette has been extruded, the LO may be too short and needs to be increased. You may continue the print and increase the LO based on when you see the colored filament print on the first layer, or you may remove the profile and re-do the calibration. Note: Because the extruded filament length is different from the length of filament when it’s in the extruder, it can be challenging to provide exact values to edit your loading offset. This is why in both scenarios we would recommend editing the LO incrementally using approximate values.

Photos above: Loading offset is too low - first transition on bottom of tower is slightly visible, but not enough. The color filament from Palette does not extrude out of the nozzle when loading/smartloading to 0mm is complete.

d) From the home menu, go to Printers. Tap on the profile you wish to edit, and then tap Loading Offset.

e) You will be brought to a screen that allows you to edit the LO by adding a new measurement. Please press Save.

Please note that editing the HM should only be used if other methods to improve calibration have not changed results.

The steps below primarily pertain to printing in Accessory Mode, if you see that HM is ‘None’, and if you are unable to complete e-steps calibration on your printer (e.g. the e-steps are hard-coded in the printer firmware, or you are unable to save the e-steps calibration).

a) Determine if there are discrepancies in how much your printer is extruding. This can be done by following e-steps calibration guides. For example, if you command your printer to extrude 100mm but it only extrudes 80mm, you’re under-extruding by 20%. Using a baseline length of 100mm will make it easier to understand how much to edit the HM value to.

b) Using the actual number of millimeters extruded from your printer, convert that into a percentage for your HM. With this example, we would edit the HM to be 80%. Go to Settings > Preferences > Printer Profiles. Tap on the profile you wish to edit, and then tap Next. Tap Edit, and you will be brought to a screen that allows you to edit the LO and/or HM. Using the current example, change the HM to 80%. Please press Save after making the change.

c) After editing the HM, test a multi-color print and monitor the pings. Because we edited the HM from None to this new percentage, we are changing the threshold in which the pings should be logged. If you were previously getting very low pings, Palette may have rejected these very low pings because they fall below the ping threshold. By editing the HM, we’re telling Palette that we are actually looking for pings closer to this amount. After editing the HM from None to this percentage, you should see the pings start to climb closer to 100%.

Note: If you are unable to determine how much filament your printer is actually extruding, you can try editing your HM to be 90%, and see if your pings begin to climb to 100%.

The steps below should be followed if you find that your pings when printing have been stable and consistent, but this ping average is a couple percent higher or lower than 100% (e.g. your recent prints have had pings stay consistent at 98%).

a) Determine your current HM value in your printer profiles by going to Printers > Printer Profile > Edit calibration data.

b) Use the following formula to calculate your new HM. In order to use this, you need to know what your pings are from your recent prints. Pings can be viewed during a print by opening the menu on Palette’s screen and choosing Logs > Pings. These ping percentages must be converted into decimal (eg. 98% becomes 0.98).

Old HM * Average Pings = New HM

Example: 0.95 (Old HM) * 0.98 (Average Pings) = 0.93

New HM 0.93 = 93%

c) Under Settings > Preferences > Printer Profiles. Tap on the profile you wish to edit, and then tap Next.

d) Tap Edit, and you will be brought to a screen that allows you to edit the LO and/or HM. Using the current example, change your HM to 93%. Please press Save after making the change.

By changing the HM in this way, it can help get pings calibrated from the beginning of the print. The HM acts as a way to adjust PPM to match your printer. Editing HM in this way helps to tune profile without having to complete prints in order to save or ignore the calibration data.

If you have any additional questions, please send us a message at support@mosaicmfg.com