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?

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...)

Adhesion is always an issue with this hobby. First, have you sprayed the bed with any sort of adhesive? Aquanet hairspray is a good one. Some also have luck with glue sticks. How hot do you have the bed? 105C is my go-to temperature. Combined with a level bed and a warm enclosure, this is about all you can do on the hardware side. Your bed may also have a cold spot there, and the suggestions below may help:

On the software side, you may want to consider using a brim and skirt in slic3r. I have not installed SoliPrint, so I don't know what options it's giving you folks, but if you use Repetier Host with Slic3r, you can tell it to use a brim and skirt by going to the Slicer tab, clicking Configure under Slic3r, and going to the "Skirt and Brim" section of the "Print Settings" tab in Slic3r.

I almost always use a 5-10mm brim, and it works quite well for me on my SD4. My bed has a few spots that are 5C lower than the set temp, and those sections are almost guaranteed to warp if I don't use a brim.

The Z-axis "Fine Tuning" appears to be a joke.  I just tried (in desperation) adding 1.0mm to my Z offset in order to try and beat the problem I keep having with the first layers being so close to the bed as to be unprintable.  I confirmed that a G0 Z0 let at least 0.5mm of air gap between the extruder and the bed (left my gap gauges at work, so I had to eyeball it).

But as soon as I hit Print, the Press performed its own Bed Probing, after which the bed came up so far that it hit the extruder again, then dropped a bit and began trying to print... just as too-close as it had before I tried adjusting the Z offset.  Best guess, SoliPrint is wiping the manual Z-axis offset in favor of its fresh bed-probing measurement.  Which leads me to wonder, what's the point of the Z-axis calibration screen, since SP appears to ignore it entirely?  My Z-axis offsets certainly don't seem to have any affect, whether I use the "automated" calibration, or just type values into the Fine Tuning box.

And on the Minor Gripe list:  WTF doesn't SP drop the bed to a reasonable height after a print is completed?  If I print a low-profile part, the bed stays so high that its physically impossible for (ham-handed) me to reach in and pull it out, or even get the putty knife under it.  The only reason I'm able to get around this is b/c I have some previous experience with Repetier derivatives and G-Code.  The little "spring-loaded" jog bars in the "Config" screen might serve for regular consumers, if they were willing to spend 5 minutes jogging the Z axis 10mm at a time, but come on!

Pet peeve:  no keyboard shortcuts in SP?  No even the Windows-standard ALT-F, ALT-T, etc?  Good grief, people.

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.

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!

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.

I've too have had all of these issues with the addition of the bed seems to have a hard time raising and lowering. At one point it was shuddering like crazy, but then I figured out it was because the cable had come loose from TRYING to twist tie the cable shroud to the exposed wiring. Ugh.

All of these things aside, what frustrates me most about this is where the hell are the directions!? No directions on how to perform the Z calibration and the hot head smashing into the bed is a BIG issue, but simple fix. I had to dig around forum thread after forum thread to figure out the basic set up of this thing.

Here's the thing. They want to sell this so the average consumer and there is NO WAY I'd recommend this to anyone. I'd say I'm a little above average as I've been working with an Afinia about a month now, but I am far from an engineer of any sort.

That being said, I think I may have a fix for your extruder cable.

I printed the Solidoodle 4 cable clip on thingiverse (won't let me include a link in this post) and used it to lift the cable above what I'm assuming is some kind of motor on the top. There is a hole where what I'm assuming are the power wires go through and I clipped it in right there. The lid closes and thus far it hasn't been in issue.

Also, does anyone know if you can print PLA with this? They say you can, but there is no cooling fan so...what's the deal?

I just want to say thanks in advance to any experts out there helping us newbies out with this thing. Your advice/input is really appreciated.

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.

jagowilson wrote:

No it is not. It just means your switch is broken. These are NORMALLY CLOSED (NC) switches which means they do not make an electrical connection when the switch is pressed.

Check all the wires going to the switch carefully. A broken endstop is pretty rare. Do you have a multimeter?

Do we know that for sure on the Press?

The truth is we don't, but based on videos he has posted, his printer thinks it is home even when the switch is disconnected. So I think it's reasonable to assume so. The firmware seems almost identical as well, it even ships with 138 steps per mm on the extruder according to another user.

(So yeah.. I wonder if they are shipping the GPL? )

No it is not. It just means your switch is broken. These are NORMALLY CLOSED (NC) switches which means they do not make an electrical connection when the switch is pressed.

Check all the wires going to the switch carefully. A broken endstop is pretty rare. Do you have a multimeter?

Do we know that for sure on the Press?

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