The nozzle tip has certain width. So when you print at 0.4mm the nozzle moves over existing prints and collects th plastic which turns into blob later. This is especially important with PETG because it is very sticky.
If it works for you. Do post your problems and results in the 3D printing debugging and discussion thread. It will be very useful for others having same problems.
Have you tried higher a nozzle temp? 225 seems a little low to me, but I’m definitely no expert. 235 is working for me and @SeanHacker is at 240, IIRC, and I’ve read 250 is good too, as long as you’ve upgraded the bowden tube, so it doesn’t melt.
Also, what speed are you printing at? And what fan speed settings? I’m at 40mm/s and 15mm/s for the first 1-2 layers, and have read that slower is better, like 30-40mm/s. And maybe try running 0, 50 or 100% fan speed to see what works better, and 0% fan for the first couple layers. And FWIW, my retraction settings are 6mm @ 25mm/s, although I have no idea what the effect the different retraction speed has on the print.
Hope something out of this can help. 
I’ve printed a few temp towers and 225 gave me the least stringing.
15mms first layer / 30mms print speed
0 fan first layer, 100 fan after.
Thanks for input, I’ll try one thing at a time and let you guys know
Direct drive… I still have no clue what I’m doing yet…
Nice! I’ve had the printermods pieces in my cart for a while now. I’ll be following your progress.
Even though you are somehow a 3d printing unicorn immune to failed prints 
That’s where I’m at but with a 0.6mm nozzle 
this angers me greatly. i cant for the life of me get my printer to print properly after going direct
What settings did you change after going DD? Any other hardware changes besides the extruder?
No hardware changes. Just changed retraction distance to 1.2 instead of 4.0.
I think it needs to be wayyyy lower normally. Like 0.4mm
I believe @mishrasubhransu suggested that to me once
Sorry sean. I’m not trying to reply to you.
OK, what to try next? TPU is obviously stringy AF but I also see poor adhesion between walls and infill.
TPU
.2 layer height
20% infill
230 C hotend (Micro Swiss)
60 C bed
20mm/s print speed
Yes, but is it squishy?!
It will be stringy without direct drive, but you can try a few things.
For stringing:
Wall wipe distance: 0.2 or 0.4mm
Increase retraction.
For wall infill problem look for some setting corresponding to wall infill overlap.
also, and this is one mod NOBODY talks about but trust me do it now and thank me or remember if for later…
chuck out that cheap ass SD card that ships with the Ender and buy something quality!
A high quality SD card will be more reliable, and read eah new step quicker. You won’t know your SD is on it’s last legs until the middle of a 13hr print when it just fucking stops…
[my] stock Ender came with a stupid “resume after power outage” and it wrote a fuckton of times to the SD card effectively wearing the cheap bastard out. Eliminate that “feature”.
“resume” may work for you if you are on a 4th world mud island somewhere, but in this day of modern electrical grid power, power outages are minimal, plus the “resume” feature does not end gracefully… imagine a power out, everything stops except the nozzle temp… it has to wind down, and filament will flow and ooze from the nozzle… then imagine starting the printer back up… YUP it’s not pretty, and if you’re using a heated bed the bed will cool off… YUP not pretty…
so today’s advice get a high-quality SD card, and disable that feature that writes to the SD card every step…
225 is way low for PETG. You need to tune your retractions to eliminate stringing, not temps. What are the recommended temps for you filament? (should be labeled on the roll or on the box). Start there, then tune your retractions, then go back to adjusting temps, find the max acceptable printing temps. (higher temps = better bond/stronger parts), then go back to adjusting your retractions.
Just a little followup on this. In the picture below I printed a 3 deg wedge riser before and after installing an enclosure. Print parameters are the same except I lowered the bed temp from 70C to 60C with the enclosure.
My lady wanted this for her desk at work. Printed in PETG 240/80. Came out perfect. I don’t see anything this wrong with it at all. I tried this print before going to direct drive and would get holes and voids where lines intersect. Thinking the dd has something to do with the print quality.
