Will this harness work (I would probably cut off the end that does not connect to the motor and solder the wires to the pre-existing ones)? I wouldn't use the motor, I may just ask to buy it separately.

Yeah i found it. Its a JST-ZH series connector Ordered a few from digikey and im going to use cat5 for the wires.

CAT 5 is not all that flexible.  I was actually thinking of switching all of mine to USB cables. You only need 4 conductors max and USB has 5.

EDIT: NOPE NOT JST-ZH its a JST-PH

what kind of connectors are used on the x-axis harness? I pulled the harness and I just want to rebuild a new one and never have this problem again

It is a JST and the X axis is a 4 pin JST.

what kind of connectors are used on the x-axis harness? I pulled the harness and I just want to rebuild a new one and never have this problem again

They dont have a specific name as they are made by a host of companies. You will just need to go to Mouser or Digikeys website and look at images and match them. Or go on ebay and buy nema 17 stepper harness like I was thinking of doing till I found my issue was a bad driver.

I highly suggest everyone replace the wire harness going to the stepper motor.  I am sure you could get away with just replacing the wire that moves back and forth during printing - but that will solve your missed steps.

Thanks for all the great info!

At this point, I expect that the wire will likely fail completely before long, and I will replace the harness with decent motion grade wires instead of the cheap crap that xyZprinting installed as a full motion harness.

Note that I will begin a new thread with listing this as a known defect in the da vinci printer, so others with the same problrm can find it easier...

In case anyone else encounters this issue...

My printer would start a print job and then suddenly shift on the x an y axis location and continue printing somewhere else.  I tried different files and then, in this picture, you can see i also tried to print a sample file to see if it was something with the files that were being sent over.  After corresponding with customer support, I had the option to send back the unit for repair or send back the motherboard.  I opted for the latter.  We'll see how that turns out.

I have a pretty new printer with about two weeks worth of printing on it (1.0a flavor) and it starting shifting prints like this and after much testing it turns out that the wires plugging into the stepper motor on the side were rubbing back and forth on the plastic wall near the hand hold, and as those wires at the plug (for the motor and end stop sensor) wiggle back and forth it would cause my prints to randomly shift.  I tried swapping the wiring harness between the X and Y steppers to test this and got the same random shifting on the same motor.  So I think it's the plug on the stepper motor that is loosing connection as it wiggles rather than the harness.  I removed the plastic wall on that side and pushed that side up against the wall so it's not wide open, but nothing there for those wires to rub against and haven't had any issues since.

Eventually I'll probably replace that motor with one that doesn't have this type of connector, or maybe just open it up and solder the wiring harness into it.

Hope this helps!

J.

Having a similar problem when printing out the tri-joints for the hyperbolic planetary gearset (aug 26 2014) listed in Thingiverse. When I print them with bearing stubs pointing down, the stub bearing quality is poor. If I try inverting the CAD model and printing stubs pointing up, the bearing quality is fine. However I get a sudden XY permanent offset of about 15mm, about 10mm up from the glass, rendering the part unusable. Tried it three times and the offset is in the same place each time. Curious that the offset appears with stubs up but not with stubs down.

Did they have any actual makes posted? Did you run the stl through netfabb? Most of the stuff oh Thingi is just coceived models that generate an stl. But a majority of them have never been printed or even proven ptintsble. 

Many of the model makers over there have no concept of how printers work or what is needed to make a model printed. Many just enjoy making 3D models and never intended for them to be printed.

@cadarousse
I have had the same issue, usually with a full cartridge. I actual saw it happen once. After it happed a few more times I just removed all the spools form the cartages and made a PVC Pipe rack to hold them. Putting the empty cartage in the printer and feeding the spool down from the top.
This worked fine until I wore / tore a grove in the edge of the rubber feed tube by the cartridge. Then it started to snag / bind on that. I just removed it and feed the filament through the empty hole, no more problems.