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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Solidoodle Discussion → How to troubleshoot jumping carriage?
Hi
Please see attached picture. The printer was printing a cube. Then, all of a sudden, it decides to move a lot more in the Y direction than it should. As it did it, there was a slight grinding noise.
How can I troubleshoot what's happening? What could be causing this? Sometimes it'll jump in both the X and Y direction.
Thank you for any suggestions.
Dan
Sorry, here's the picture.
You may want to check that when the motors are off and not powered, the carriage moves pretty smoothly along both axis with by manually sliding it around. Sometimes this can help fix a little alignment issue. Slide it back and forth several times in the x and y. If you feel a little resistance at a certain point, it may go away by sliding it back and forth more... This resistance can be causing the larger steps or more likely missed steps. If there is no resistance or it goes away when sliding the carriage you should be fine. However, if the problem continues after this, you may look into the cooling your electronics and or checking the pot adjustment... Most likely it just needs to be slid back and forth some though.
check the belt of the carriage when you print. if it jump teeth, you need to add more tension to the belt that jump (use the screw at the end of the belt)
Ok, I'll try that. It does seem to move ok when I move it around with pronterface. What is 'pot adjustment' and what electronics would I cool? You mean the board, with a fan?
Thanks
Dan
You may want to check that when the motors are off and not powered, the carriage moves pretty smoothly along both axis with by manually sliding it around. Sometimes this can help fix a little alignment issue. Slide it back and forth several times in the x and y. If you feel a little resistance at a certain point, it may go away by sliding it back and forth more... This resistance can be causing the larger steps or more likely missed steps. If there is no resistance or it goes away when sliding the carriage you should be fine. However, if the problem continues after this, you may look into the cooling your electronics and or checking the pot adjustment... Most likely it just needs to be slid back and forth some though.
That's a bit difficult to see, with how fast it moves...
check the belt of the carriage when you print. if it jump teeth, you need to add more tension to the belt that jump (use the screw at the end of the belt)
when the belt "jump" a teeth, it made a specific sound like a "tac" (or a knock)...
Yes, that sounds like what it does. Ok, I will tighten the belts. I had to replace the belts on my system, as it came damaged, so I wasn't sure how tight they should be. The X movement belt is factory installed, and, come to think of it, is tighter than the Y belts I put on. Should they be about the same tightness?
thanks
dan
when the belt "jump" a teeth, it made a specific sound like a "tac" (or a knock)...
for me , i just tighten the two belts that move the carriage on Y (one on each side... or perhaps it is X .. there is one short belt that move a bar that move 2 belts.. this is this 2 belt that i tighten) for the same amount.
i do it by 2 or 3 turns of the screw then test , repeat until it work..
mine jump only with a certain type of model .. so i think it depend of the speed movement..
It's definitely something with the belt tension. Although when I tightened mine, it refused to move at all. So I went back. It still jumps when it has to do a lot of very fast movements in a small area. I lowered the speed to 30 (from 50) and it's working better. I still think my belts aren't correct, so fiddling with those. It's busy printing a pyramid, and if I am right, and it screws up at all, it'll be towards the top of it, where there is more fast movement in a small area...
Dan
Well, it managed to finish the pyramid with this jumping problem. I think the slower speed helps. But it ran into a different one.
This is what I am printing: 'http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4155'. It printed fine all the way to that top cube like structure at the top. Then it started to print that, and I noticed, about half way through printing it, that the nozzle was dragging through the plastic (of the layer before the one being printed). Now, I suppose that means the nozzle is too close to the platform, but it printed fine up to that point... although here it was printing solid lines for all the layers, so there was a lot more plastic.
What do you think, should raising the nozzle a bit (via the z screw) help here? Otherwise it seems to print really well. The first layer sticks really well and the corners don't curl, so I am somewhat hesitant to break that.
Dan
Here's a picture of the top so you can see what I mean. See how it's squished down a bit?
Ok, after going through Ian's calibration steps, and adjusting the Z screw, it seems to be doing much better. It was definitely pushing down too hard...
Many of us have been cooling our electronic board with a fan as well... This tends to help with inconsistent stepper motor steps. If you run into this problem again after calibration, you could try that before actually adjusting the pots to the motors.
What are 'pots to the motors'?
From solidoodle site...
Successive layers shift in the X or Y direction during a print
This can be caused by a few things:
The filament spool doesn't rotate freely during a print, putting too much force on the motors.
The part is too large for the build surface and/or improperly positioned. In this case the extruder may bump into the end of the axis during a print, causing the layers to shift over.
The flow rate is too high, causing blobs of plastic to build up on the part, eventually causing the extruder to get caught.
An improperly set trimpot on a Stepper Motor Driver. The trimpot, which control motor current, could be set too high or too low. The four stepper motor drivers (X, Y, Z and E) are located on the motherboard and can be adjusted with a small screwdriver. This is a tricky problem to diagnose, so we recommend you contact us first so we can walk you through it. Here are some general guidelines: If the current is too low there may be no indication except layers shifting in the X or Y direction. If the current is too high: in addition to layer shift you you may notice an slow, audible click when the printer is powered up and the motors are enabled but not moving. Gently turn the trimpot clockwise to increase current or counterclockwise to decrease current.
I had to make this adjustment for my z axis because of the same problem you are having. It was debatable if cooling the board or adjusting the trimpot solved the problem. You can also measure the overall height of your print compared to what it is supposed to be. If it is too short, it is likely you are having some sort of overheating issue.
The solidoodle support people have failed to recognize and publish that one problem is the overheating. I know for a fact this is part of my problem, as I cant duplicated the problem most of the time when fan I have setup on the board is off.
The other problem is that the bushings in the back for the y axle are being pulled two different directions, and it's just a tight fit in general. They also never responded to my email about it.
I would check to make sure your head moves freely with the power off, if it feels too tight that can cause the jumping as well.
I had to take mine apart and sand down the y axle ends with emery cloth to reduce their size every so slightly. I still haven't replaced these bushings with bearings, but I plan to at some point.
In regards to overheating, we see this as more of an intermittent problem than a constant chronic problem. To be honest we've never seen much of it in the shop. We may add a spot on the FAQ about it, but it hasn't come up in a very long time.
In regards to overheating, we see this as more of an intermittent problem than a constant chronic problem. To be honest we've never seen much of it in the shop. We may add a spot on the FAQ about it, but it hasn't come up in a very long time.
It's problem that affects ALL prints for me that take longer than 1 hour. It's an intermittent problem for prints that take 10 minutes or so.
Meaning that it jumps several times an hour and sometimes I get lucky on short prints.
The fan fixed that, but you have still never replied to my email regarding the rear bar tight in the bushings.
Hi
I have a solidoodle 4 with me and I have been facing the same problem for a while. I have tried tightening both the X and Y belts equally but the problem still persists. I am trying to print an object for which the shift in layer is more or less at the same level in the middle but rest of the print looks ok. I have noticed that the outer metal box of the printer in slightly askew in shape.... I am not sure but wanted to know does that make any difference to the print quality and may be because of that there is a bit friction in the Y axis movement. Please guys help me out
Kind Regards.
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