Topic: Davinci 1.0a Extruder Problems
Edit: Figured out my problems (added at end of post).
I've completely exhausted every idea I could come up with, so as a last attempt I figured I'd see if anyone else is having any problems like this. I bought a Davinci 1.0a last November (2015), and it worked fantastically until early January, when I stupidly installed an XYZ firmware update, and suddenly every single print I tried would fail within the first layer. I tried other files, and even the built-in example STL files would fail within a few layers. At the time I wasn't sure what was wrong, but I now know that the extruder was getting jammed. After a month of XYZ's online support repeatedly not reading my messages, and regardless of my question replying with canned responses of 'try calibrating your bed' (which I have done many times, successfully I might add) and 'make sure it is plugged into a firm wall socket' they just stopped responding, and haven't responded for about a month now. So I guess their warranty is worthless. I decided to flash repetier on the printer. Did so with no problems, but am still having the same issue with the extruder jamming. I have been attempting at least one print every day (changing settings trying to figure out what's wrong) since February, and not a single print has made it past the first layer.
So here is what I believe is happening: The metal tube above the brass extruder head is getting too hot somehow, and softening the filament too high up. Eventually, once it is soft enough (and far enough into the print), when the stepper pushes the filament, it starts to widen and jam up in the top of the tube. I've tried different slic3r settings with regards to print head temp, print speeds, and keeping the fan on the extruder on all the time, and the results all point to that conclusion (lower temp takes longer to jam, but still jams. Fan on extends time to jam, etc). But for the life of me I still cannot get a single print to work. Running it at 200C still jams, and I see a lot of people are running around 230C with the same filament I'm using. I'm printing with ABS (have never printed with anything but ABS), and I've tried different brands of filament, even different colors of XYZ filament for sanity's sake with all the same result.
My question: Does anyone have any idea what might have gone wrong? Why would it suddenly have started jamming, even when running XYZ firmware? I didn't take the extruder apart until after I had flashed repetier and done a number prints with it, so I know that the majority of the jams were not because I had somehow broken the extruder or anything. Is the 200C print head temp still too hot? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I guess my next step is to drop the $100 for a new extruder (even though mine should still be under warranty, I don't think I'll ever get anywhere close to getting XYZ to honor it, or even simply respond to me for that matter).
Thanks!
Update:
So I've learned a lot about 3D printers over the past few months, and wanted to post what my actual problem was for anyone who comes across this post with similar issues. Turns out the heat break fan (the fan that blows on the metal tube that the filament is pushed into) should always be running if the extruder is heated. If the fan is off, something is wrong. Being a newb and not understanding the difference between a bed fan and an extruder fan (and only having an extruder fan, thinking it was a bed fan) I figured the fan control options in slic3r were simply for the fan I had, and that I just never happened to have the top off the printer when the fan was turned on. So I had a broken wire in the bundle leading to the extruder. It was a bit of a pain to replace, but certainly not impossible, and now the printer is working perfectly again.
Hope that can help someone in the future who doesn't understand the difference between fans like I did!