SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — How is this possible?

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-22T15:40:46Z

Thankfully I didn't do that. I am still too chicken to start tampering with my board just yet. That was going to be my last resort.

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-22T01:26:19Z

Morganism wrote:

After checking my extrusion steps, I found my E was 138. Looked it up in instructables, did some math, and came up with it should be 102.22. Set everything back to 100% and ran ABS at 195 degrees, and it worked like a charm.

Just a note, if you raised your vref thinking it was an issue you may want to readjust. You want it to be set to just enough to do the job. Too little will cause skipping and too much will cause excessive noise and heating of the respective motors.

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-22T01:15:19Z

Morganism wrote:

After checking my extrusion steps, I found my E was 138. Looked it up in instructables, did some math, and came up with it should be 102.22. Set everything back to 100% and ran ABS at 195 degrees, and it worked like a charm.

Nice job!

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-21T13:38:26Z

After checking my extrusion steps, I found my E was 138. Looked it up in instructables, did some math, and came up with it should be 102.22. Set everything back to 100% and ran ABS at 195 degrees, and it worked like a charm.

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-20T16:29:08Z

Yes, I am talking about two different problems. I am convinced the problem pictured had to do with the model I used. This is because, I went to reprint it centered on the plate, not on the right. With the same settings that worked for the piece on the left with the same bad results (meaning it appeared the piece on the left was 40% infilled, the reprint at 20% infill looked >70%). I will take your advice and check for possible mechanical issues as well.

The E steps I am going to check further, calculate, and update.

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-20T16:16:13Z

I am concerned that you are confusing issues. Your problem in the picture has something to do with how the filament is moving to and through the extruder. This has to be either a mechanical problem such as the filament is tangled or otherwise pulling on the extruder. Or you could have a bad connection and you have a temperature fluctuation. Both things you can verify by looking at your filament path and ensuring it is unrestricted along with looking at your temp chart.
E steps can be changed simply in EEPROM found in the below image. E-steps on your machine should be very close to 105 but you want to measure it. Seriously, spend some time digging through the WIKI in the calibration section.

When calibrated properly you should have your flow rate and feed rate sliders at 100.

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-20T15:53:10Z

I had looked up fixing the problem. One of the solutions was to change the flow rate. This concerned me because I was afraid it would blow out my stepper driver, but seemed to work. After a little more digging, I think I have found a way to calculate the steps/mm and adjust them through Sl3cer/RH. I will try that tonight. Thank you very much.

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-20T14:01:16Z

ok - first - extruding 135mm when you ask for 100mm has nothing to do with the vref - that is a steps/mm thing and is set in the firmware - not by adjusting the trimpot for the motor. vref being off will cause diagonal banding on all prints due to pulsing - more/less plastic being extruded at a regular interval (there is a better explanation than this somewhere, just not sure exactly where at the moment) this is especially noticeable in single wall, hollow items like a calibration cube - you can feel the thicker & thinner parts of the banding.

perhaps a read thru this will help with that: http://www.soliwiki.com/#Calibrations

as for why one side looks good and the other not so good - what claghorn said, make sure there is nothing causing dragging/pulling/binding on the one side, and the bed is leveled properly

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-20T13:09:14Z

I went this morning and printed just the piece on the right. I believe it was in the original model that the top was filled in solid and the bottom was not. I ran it at 20% infill instead of 40%, and centered it on the plate. I lowered the flow rate to 85% and ran at 205 degrees with similar results. I am going to try with 0% infill and see what happens.

Re: How is this possible?

2015-05-20T10:23:49Z

Could be something tugging at the X carriage assembly when it moves to the right side making it rock? Make sure the wires and filament and such are free to move that far.

How is this possible?

2015-05-20T02:47:32Z

So, this is my newest problem. I have determined my vref for the extruder is off. It was extruding 135mm when I set it to 100mm. That is 74%. I usually run between 80-90% and get decent prints. Haven't quite gotten to the point where I feel comfortable taking a screwdriver to my board with the power on yet, but soon. This my current print. It is a puzzle box. They were sliced and printed together with the same settings. The piece on the left is printing well and looks like at the 40% infill I set. The piece on the right is clearly being overextruded. I cannot figure this out other than a slicing issue. It looks more like 70-80% infill. I have decreased the flowrate an additional 10% and dropped the temperature 5 degrees, and still have the same problem.