Solidoodle Press - First Disappointing Hour (Page 3 of 3)

BOOOOOO --- I disconnected the switch, at the switch, and it still says "TRIGGERED".
So I disconnected it down at the PCB, and it still says "TRIGGERED".

Thats a PCB Assembly / Firmware issue.

AWESOME! THANKYOU!!!!

so... if I short a few of the wires, then I *should* see it open? (obviously check levels with a multimeter first) -dont want to short VCC to GND

Do we know that for sure on the Press?

I'm in the same boat.  Disappointed beyond words -- THIS is what I waited *6 months* to get after being sold a "6-8wk delivery time"?

1.  The extruder cable.  Continuously falls down into the extruder's path of motion, and either blocks the Y-axis homing, or blocks the X-axis from getting over far enough to lower the Z probe.  There's no way to fix this -- I've been trying for days.  I just have to hold the lid open with one hand and hold up the cable with the other.  Also, the filament and cable keep conflicting with each other.

2.  No sensing on the Z-probe.  If it doesn't get lowered, the bed just smashes into the extruder.

3.  Z-axis calibration does not work, nor does bed levelling.  Even after doing Z-axis calibration several times, my first print layers are all "jamming" the extruder from being too close to the bed.  And I can see the gap between the extruder and bed vary across the Y-axis range of motion.  Also, the Z-axis calibration just makes a mess -- it extrudes in open air, which creates a spiderweb blob around the extruder tip, and then drags that blob around the build plate while creating *more* blobs, basically just smearing ABS all over the place and making the calibration results totally unreliable.

4.  Z-axis calibration appears to get lost every time the Press is rebooted.  If I power-cycle the Press, I have to do a fresh Z-axis calibration or else things get even uglier than in Item 3.

5.  The only way to get SoliPrint to connect to the Press is to boot SoliPrint, then boot the Press.  If I have to reboot either, I have shut down both, then use this same sequence to get a connection.

6.  ABS prints coming loose from the bed at one end after 6-7 layers (appears to be related to the non-level bed from Item 3)

7.  Extruder works fine most of the time, but "thumps" and fails to extrude when there's any resistance.  I suspect this is mostly Item 3, but given what other owners are reporting, I'll need to check the set screw on the extruder gear.

8.  SoliPrint -- leaving aside all the obvious "not out of Beta" issues, there's no way to *rotate* a model on the build plate.  So I can't try to defeat the curling issue by putting the short dimension of the model along the Y-axis.
  EDIT:  Okay, my bad.  There's no rotate *button,* up with the "Move Model" and "Pan" buttons, but there is a set of boxes for entering manual rotation angles.  Which seems like an odd mismach, but at least it's there.

9.  Documentation.  I do custom industrial machinery (automation and robotics) for a living, and have to write my own documentation.  I'm decent at it, not great.  And I would have been ashamed to release this documentation with my name on it.

  Utter disappointment.  Total false advertising -- this is categorically NOT a Plug&Play printer.  I'm actually glad it came in after Christmas -- If I'd given this as a gift as intended, it would have been a complete disaster.  The extruder cable is particularly galling -- I've seen better design from rookie FIRST teams.  That cable bundle should have been cable-chained, not left to float free in a randomly-bending sheath.

Hm... Do you mean this Thing?  thingiverse.com/thing:493057
I'll give that a shot.

In the meantime, I've been trying some experimental prints, mostly the MAKE test parts from their 3D-Printer Shootout testing.  The results are... mixed, so far. As long as I hold the cable for the first few layers, the rest of the print isn't terrible.  The lower four "steps" of the "Wedding Cake" Thing in this group (ThingiVerse.com/thing:533472) worked okay, but the top two layers were pretty badly banded and wobbly.

I tried printing the MadeInSpace ratchet (collectspace.com/news/news-122914a-3D-printer-space-station-ratchet.html) as kind of an acid test.  It didn't fail utterly, but the part that should be free to rotate is a single, solid mass.  I'll point out that this part was designed to print in one piece on desktop-grade FDM printers.

I didn't notice before, but when the print bed drives up into the extruder, it also nearly rips out the heated bed power cable.  I'm not sure which one is blocking the motor first.  And the Z axis motor keeps driving without ever seeming to stop -- I've ended up killing the power after 10sec of motor chatter because I'm afraid the machine is going to break itself.

And there's a definite software/firmware reliability issue.  I just performed a Home All Axes while the printer was warming up, and the Z-axis probing ran without a hitch (again, I was holding the extruder cable out of the way).  But as soon as I hit Print, the bed came up and slammed into the extruder again.  Even when the Z-axis probe works properly, the firmware seems to be hit-or-miss about *using* the resultant zero reference.  I've had this happen several times, along with my other problems, so it's definitely not a one-off fluke.

And, oh yes, the Z axis driving down to the bottom of the Press and chattering for 5-7 seconds when I do a Home All.  Again, this only seems to happen sometimes -- software that fails randomly is *bad* software (and I speak as someone who's done it for nearly 20 years at this point).  Not only that, failing to have a limit switch at BOTH ENDS of each axis is simply...  I *fire*people for that kind of mistake.  This machine isn't safe from *itself,* much less ordinary consumers!

Addendum:  Oh, yes -- unreliable is putting it generously.

I just performed the following sequence:
1.  Z axis calibration
2.  Hand-selected largest positive value from the resulting test
3.  Tried a test print
4.  Found the first few layers were still much too close to the bed
5.  Killed the print using the SoliPrint Stop button
6.  Cleaned the bed
7.  Manually added 0.5mm to the Z axis offset
8.  Started the test print again
9.  And watched the bed come straight up and slam into the extruder by much more than 0.5mm. 

I think the Z axis is drifting, or all these collision events are jacking it iteratively out of alignment.  Looking back, this has been happening since the very first power-on, but got "lost in the noise" of all the other issues.  I was thinking that the Z-axis problem was due to rebooting the Press, but this time there was no reboot or power-cycling.

Hm... five prints in a row, with ABS, and the front-right corner keeps curling up on all of them.  Always front-right.  This suggest anything to anyone?  It's happening even on small prints, so I don't think it's the issue with the bed not levelling properly.  Curling occurs quite early in the print, every time -- the prints are still semi-successful since the perimeter printing actually pushes the curled-up layer back down and prints on top of it, well enough to keep the entire print from coming part (I can forget dimensional accuracy, though...)

I'll give that a shot, assuming I can get far enough past all the other problems.  I've now found that moving the position of the model in SoliPrint has no effect on where it's printed on the bed.  SoliPrint doesn't seem to allow for alterantive temperature control -- it just runs the defaults, as far as I can tell -- 90C for the bed, 250C for the extruder.  I assume if I switch the drop-down selection to PLA, that'll change, but I don't have any PLA handy at the moment.

And, the Z-axis problem is worse than I thought.  Even after performing a full bed-probing, the first several layers of every print are so low they're actually driving the extruder into the bed -- I didn't realize it before b/c the bed doesn't actually get gouged by the extruder, the way I was expecting.  Instead, with a print that's large enough in the Y axis, I can watch the bed *bend* as the extruder moves along the Y axis.  Seriously?

So far, I've only tried using this thing with SoliPrint, which I think is about half the problem.  Does anyone know what steps are needed to try using the Press with some other control software?