IanJohnson wrote:I think this video from Solidoodle might be exactly what you need. It sounds like you were on the right track already-
I learnt a lot from that .. where was the link for this posted and are there any more ?
double click the SD, I see 3 video up so far all very helpful.
]]>I think this video from Solidoodle might be exactly what you need. It sounds like you were on the right track already-
I learnt a lot from that .. where was the link for this posted and are there any more ?
]]>THe G91 G1 Z5 F300 Lowers the table 5mm so as to not tag the part on the way home.
G28 X0 Y0 ; homes X axis and y axis incase x & y got off and fixes the location error.
G90; set to absolute system Back like it was.
]]>This is the same behavior it would exhibit when it first arrived, as well.
Is something misaligned? Is a belt too loose? Too tight? Are the Y travel rods bent somehow?
Everything seems to be ok in terms of tension, smooth motion when the printer is unplugged and the carriage moved by hand, and nothing looks misaligned or bent... but if everything is as ok as it looks, then why is it having this problem? I'm stumped.
]]>About 45 minutes into the print the Y axis starts acting up again. Except this time instead of just being off a little bit it's giving me the angry buzzing honk sound when it tries to move in the Y direction, but the printhead is far in the -Y direction (when it formerly only did it far in the +Y direction).
So new problem I could use help with... This is what is consistently happening when I have the machine move in the Y axis:
If I start at a point more than 40mm in front of the rear Y endstop everything is fine. 1mm, 10mm, 100mm moves, works smooth as butter.
If I start at a point closer to the Y endstop than that and move 100mm it works just fine. If I try anything shorter the carriage barely moves, the Y belts vibrate like plucked strings, and I get the angry buzzing honk noise.
If I start at a point where it's moving fine and either hit the Y home button, or make a 100mm move that would put me inside the non-working area, it works just fine.
So basically it's only short moves within about 40mm of the rear Y endstop where it has a problem.
It also doesn't seem to be hopping teeth on the belts. It appears to be binding on the motor, or something, so things are moving but only just a little bit.
This is the exact same behavior it exhibited out of the box, which seemed to go away after some playing, but has now come back and nothing is making it better.
Sigh... anyone have thoughts on this latest issue?
]]>The filament tension isn't causing it, there are 500 or so people printing with the spool holder as shipped and not having any trouble. Unless you have some unique drag on your spool that isn't causing you any problems.
Yeah, I didn't really think the filament could be doing this, unless it seriously binds up somehow. But I do think the way it occasionally hangs, briefly, on the metal hose clamps holding the Z travel rods in place can result in slight but noticeable misalignments when printing at .1mm.
Of course, it could also be any number of other things too, or a combination of them, but... as long as I get the major problems (like this one) fixed I'm happy. I can worry about the minor problems, like small misalignments at .1mm, later.
]]>I tried the suggestion of removing the set screws, blowing them out, then replacing them on the Y axis pulleys... and managed to scare myself half to death. After reassembly the motor would just give off an angry buzzing noise any time I tried to make it move in the Y plane.
Two hours of loosening, fiddling, tightening, buzzing, loosening, fiddling, tightening, buzzing, etc... later I finally fixed an entirely different problem.
When my Solidoodle first arrived it would hit a point in the +Y direction where it would give that same angry buzzing and not move. I regreased the rods, tightened the belts, and played with it until it (mostly) stopped. It would still do that every once in a while, but so rarely that I decided I'd just forge ahead.
Now, though, I think I've figured out what was causing that and (maybe) fixed the root cause of the shifting Y axis.
It seems that the motor and the first pulley in the Y stage weren't aligned. They were really, really, really close. But off just enough that as the motor moved it would slowly move the belt along the pulley itself. Eventually it would hit a point where that belt would reach the end of the pulley and start to bind on the motor, making it unable to turn and produce an angry buzzing sound instead.
Why would it only do this sometimes, and only at the very back of the Y stage? I'm not really sure, I don't know enough about gearing and alignment in situations like this to say for sure, but that misalignment seems to have been the root cause (and after all my fiddling the alignment is now right, so the root cause is gone).
My first attempt to run the same print resulted in a very clearly jumped tooth on the Y axis, so I checked the belts and now I'm trying again. It'll be a bit before I know for sure if it's fixed, but I'll check back in at the end and we will see.
On the other suggestions:
I've always felt iffy about the included PVC spool holder, and especially about threading it through that rear hole. I plan to print this: (apparently I can't post links, but it's thing:36931 on thingiverse) when I get a chance because that looks like a much better solution to me. I don't know if the filament tension was causing this problem, but I've felt sure it has caused some intermittent layer alignment issues I've seen in the past.
For the Slic3r code, I have most of that, but I don't issue G91 at all, I just set to absolute system then move the platform down and find home. I'm game for trying incremental then absolute like that, but what is the effect of that, and what is it intended to fix?
]]>G91 ; set to incremental system
G1 Z5 F300 ;move platform down 5mm
G28 X0 Y0 ; home X axis and y axis
G90; set to absolute system
After that, the problems went away with the shifting.
]]>It looks like all is well for the first couple dozen layers, then there's a sudden Y skew (which sometimes skews back) after which there appear to be minor perturbations every few layers after that.
The only suggestion I've seen but not tried is active cooling of the electronics, but does this really look like an overheating problem? And is overheating really that prevalent that active cooling is required on sizeable prints?
This also hasn't been a problem from the beginning. I've succesfully printed pristine objects that were just over 100mm tall, but in the last couple days anything that goes over about 12mm seems to skew and then get ugly.
The only thing that has changed is I implemented the Z-axis anti-backlash nut, but I noticed (smaller) Y axis jumps even before that.
Anyone have any clues?
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