Initial Issues with the SD Press & How to Fix Them. (Page 2 of 4)

Many times.  Makes no difference.  The crash is 100% consistent on *any* attempt to print.  Performing a manual G0 Z0 also produces the collision, and by the same amount.  My best guess at the moment is that there's something wrong with the firmware's offset value between the height of the Z Home sensor and the height of the extruder.  But that doesn't explain why the Fine Tuning value appears to have no effect whatsoever.

That's not the problem I have, though.  The Z-axis calibration, when run on its own, starts with a ~3.8mm offset generated by the bed probing, before the printing of the calibration lines, and it still collides by 1.9mm.  When I put a 5mm offset into the Fine Tuning box, the bed and extruder still collide by 1.9mm -- putting even these large values into the Fine Tuning box has no visible effect on the collision, to reduce it or make it worse.

Still can't get SoliPrint to find my Press no matter what I do... Any tips?  I'm on OSX btw.

5mm is greater than 3.8mm, USE LOWER VALUES NOT HIGHER.  Set your offset to 0mm and see what happens.

ISSUE:  Extruder stepper going thump, thump, thump but not turning.
CAUSE:  The wiring bundle going to the extruder get frayed and breaks,
FIX:  Resolder the wires on the connector on the top of the extruder stepper

This is a problem that multiple people have seen and at least three of us have fixed it the same way, so it looks like a design/manufacturing defect.   The connector to the extruder stepper motor is so tight that moving back and forward strains the wires until they break.  Since the connector is held by insulation of the wire, it may not be obvious that the connection has failed.   The only way to test is to use a multimeter to make sure that the wire is unbroken from the motherboard connector to the extruder motor connector.

This was first diagnosed by Eric Albert (thank you very much):   http://renaissance-engineer.net/2015/01 … epic-fail/ but has been seen by at least four other Press owners.

I've attached a copy of Eric's picture of the extruder stepper motor connector and circled the place where the wires are likely to break.

Note that you'll have to readjust all of the trimpots after you fix the connector.   For some reason, as soon as I reconnected the broken power cable, all of the other stepper motor voltages changed dramatically, so I had to readjust the trimpots.

As a answer to a separate questions I've seen about a dozen times already, I was told by Solidoodle tech support that the approximate stepper trimpot voltages should be:

X: 1.0v
Y: 1.0v
Z: 1.0v
E: 1.5v

What software are you using to print with?  I was having issues with repetier until I added G29 to do the autolevel routine.  You can tell if it's missing as it will do a single probe in the middle of the bed.  If this is off track, please excuse me as I'm a noob.

I'm not doing manual Gcode commands during the Z axis calibration-- I'm just using SoliPrint's "Z axis calibration" screen.  Every time the Z axis calibration runs, the offset gets set back to 5mm no matter what I type into the New Z Offset box (I keep calling it the Fine Tuning box, which is wrong, argh).
If I do a Home All after manually adjusting the New Z Offset, the extruder still tries to drive 2mm through the bed.  Performing a manual G0 Z0 does the same thing -- a manual G0 Z2 produces almost exactly the right height for first layer print, but the extruder keeps smashing through the bed, by 2mm every time, no matter what values I try in the New Z Offset entry.

When I tried RepetierHost, it air printed several mm off the bed, and I don't know RH well enough to try manually tuning it out.  Besides, I'm not sure it'll work anyway -- all these massive collisions have now bent my print bed down so that the front edge is ~5mm lower than the back edge. 

I'm at the end of my rope, here.  I've been devoting most of my spare time for the last 3 weekends trying to get somewhere, *anywhere* with this, and Solidoodle stopped responding to my open support ticket 11 days ago -- ironically enough, right after I posted the Youtube video *at their request.*

@skyefire, if you get a chance would you post a screen shot of your Z-Offset Calibration screen?

I hate the idea of having to spend more money to make a product work, but…
Simplify3D has been one of the best decisions I've made regarding my 3D printer.

The Press hardware is pretty great out of the box, but the SoliPrint software is complete junk. Especially if you're on a Mac (like I am).  I wouldn't expect much from SoliPrint for a very long time.  You can't even print multiple objects simultaneously (or move an object to a different part of the bed).

Solidoodle nailed it with the hardware (they are good with hardware).  Acknowledge that.  They blew it on the software (software development is clearly not yet their strong suit).  Don't bang your head against a wall if there are simple alternatives.

I know $140 is no small sum, but S3D really is in a league of it's own and it will make your Press that much better.

Can anyone confirm if the glass for the bed is the standard 8.5x11 picture frame glass if so that would be great.

I use OSX yosemite and soliprint 1.1.0 don't find the Press, BUT:

• I used a virtualized Windows partition (with vmware) and I succeeded to find the press and to print an object, but not to start the z-offset calibration

• I uninstalled soliprint 1.1 from macosx and installed the previous one (1.0): now the system find the press, I succeed to calibrate the Press, but not to print an object (when I press the PRINT button, slicer icon appears for a moment on the dock and then quit himself…)

• I succeeded to print with repetier host on osx but I have not the correct start gcode lines, so no calibration and too much space from hotend and the bed.

Has someone good advise?

I tried it and actually now I see the printer (thanks), I succeed to heat and cool the extruder and the bed, but z-offset calibration and print still don't work.

I tried with another mac (this time, with mountain lion) directly with Soliprint 1.1.0 and it saw the printer at first shot, but as before I succeed only to heat and cool the extruder… no z-offset calibration or print.

It looks a problem with slicer anyway, that is incorporated in the soliprint app package (on mountain lion like on yosemite, when I press the PRINT button, slicer icon appears for a moment on the dock and then quit himself…).

At the moment I'm completly stuck (because since I reinstalled Solidoodle 1.0 and I tried to use the calibration, now it is really messed up) and I'm waiting a new version of Soliprint, but if someone has some new advice, I'm still here.