1 Topic by headstroon1992

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Topic: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

I recently switched to an E3D V6 tip on the solidoodle 3 and I am having problems with the extrusion. When I try to print the filament comes out in "beaded" increments. I went through a lot of forums and could not find anything. I finally pin point it to the stepper motor. When I manual push the filament through I don't get the beaded filament coming out but when I use the stepper motor to push it through I get the beaded groves. I've try to calibration of the motor and I get the same results. Anyone had this issues before or have any idea on how I can troubleshoot this? Thanks

2 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

What board do you have?

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3 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

When you say calibration of the motor, are talking about steps/mm or the vref?  Usually after installing an E3D the vref needs to be tweaked a little bit.  You can set the manual extrusion speed to something very slow, like 5, then start extruding some filament.  The motor will be moving slow enough that you can hear the pulsing of the steps.  Turn the vref until you find the point where the pulsing is as smooth and even as you can get it.

4 Reply by headstroon1992

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

AZERATE wrote:

What board do you have?

I have a arduino board I believe.

5 Reply by headstroon1992 (edited by headstroon1992 2014-08-14 14:36:07)

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

IanJohnson wrote:

When you say calibration of the motor, are talking about steps/mm or the vref?  Usually after installing an E3D the vref needs to be tweaked a little bit.  You can set the manual extrusion speed to something very slow, like 5, then start extruding some filament.  The motor will be moving slow enough that you can hear the pulsing of the steps.  Turn the vref until you find the point where the pulsing is as smooth and even as you can get it.

I went through the measure out 100 mm out then extrude it through then remeasure it then do the math to find the step to change in the EPPROM thing. I had a E3D v5 before this and it worked just fine. The picture below is what it looks like when I extrude it. It had groves in it every step so I believe it the stepper motor. If i try to print that out the bed I get beaded prints.

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6 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

You either have a dirty drive gear or some serious moisture issues with your filament or a combination of both.

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7 Reply by IronMan

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

That's a huge diameter...dumb question, but you do have a nozzle installed, correct? :-)

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8 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

IronMan wrote:

That's a huge diameter...dumb question, but you do have a nozzle installed, correct? :-)

I have had filament get so saturated with moisture that the die swell out of a .6 nozzle ended up being 1.6 mm's.  Craziest thing I have ever seen, put it in at 1.75 and shove it through a .6 nozzle and get basically the same (1.6mm) thing out the other side.  I never had it bead like that though.  Safe to say I threw that spool away wink

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9 Reply by headstroon1992

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

wardjr wrote:

You either have a dirty drive gear or some serious moisture issues with your filament or a combination of both.

The drive gear is all clean and I've tried different filaments too and I'm still getting the same thing.

10 Reply by headstroon1992

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

IronMan wrote:

That's a huge diameter...dumb question, but you do have a nozzle installed, correct? :-)

Yes, I have a 0.4 mm brass nozzle on it

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

Try the vref adjustment as Ian pointed out...

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12 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

IronMan wrote:

Try the vref adjustment as Ian pointed out...

+1 past that we need a video of it in action to really help.
Also might try some different filament or drying that stuff out.

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13 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

Can you post a picture of how you assembled the e3d?

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14 Reply by headstroon1992

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

elmoret wrote:

Can you post a picture of how you assembled the e3d?


It's just a regular set up.

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15 Reply by headstroon1992

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

wardjr wrote:
IronMan wrote:

Try the vref adjustment as Ian pointed out...

+1 past that we need a video of it in action to really help.
Also might try some different filament or drying that stuff out.


The server won't let me upload a video (too large). I have tried other filaments and are getting the same results. And I tried the Vref thing that Ian was saying with no sucess.

16 Reply by headstroon1992

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

And this is what the first layer kinda looks like. It's wavy/beaded

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17 Reply by IronMan

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

headstroon1992 wrote:
elmoret wrote:

Can you post a picture of how you assembled the e3d?


It's just a regular set up.

That tension arm seems a bit tight...try backing that off.

Also, if you sharpie a black dot on the extruder gear and then hit extrude 10mm (at heat), take a look and see if the rotation is smooth or sputtered.

Also, you can post a video on Youtube and just put the link here.

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18 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

+1 for VREF adjustment.

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19 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

Does it make a difference if you increase the temp? I've seen filament do something like that with a partial clog.   I wonder if the nozzle had  little bit of a burr left somewhere or some other machining problem.

20 Reply by headstroon1992

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

IanJohnson wrote:

Does it make a difference if you increase the temp? I've seen filament do something like that with a partial clog.   I wonder if the nozzle had  little bit of a burr left somewhere or some other machining problem.

Nope, I've tried everything from 215 to 300 and nothing seems to work. I dont think it's a clog because everything is pretty new on it.

21 Reply by headstroon1992

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

IanJohnson wrote:

Does it make a difference if you increase the temp? I've seen filament do something like that with a partial clog.   I wonder if the nozzle had  little bit of a burr left somewhere or some other machining problem.

Nope, I've tried everything from 215 to 300 and nothing seems to work. I dont think it's a clog because everything is pretty new on it.

22 Reply by PheonixSD3 (edited by PheonixSD3 2014-08-15 14:13:03)

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

For me it looks like some kind of surging behavior.

I have no idea whats going on but I think I would check out the following things if that happened to me:

1 - vref adjustment to be as smooth as possible
2 - adjust tension arm and check for smooth movement - bearing could be under too much pressure to move freely
3 - make sure your stepper motor connections are secure (some pulses on alternating coils may be weaker than others)
4 - try swapping the extruder motor driver with a different driver to make sure the driver hasn't died
5 - clean the hotend very thoroughly to make sure there is no debris or partial clog
6 - buy a new 3D printer (j/k)

Good luck

Edit - clogs can happen on new stuff too - you really want to check closely just in case - especially for something like a little burr somewhere like Ian mentioned

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23 Reply by LdyMox

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

Other ideas On E3D V6, some stuff I did with the E3Dv6. Did you use the PTFE Liner and push in in there good? Did you "season" it yet? By season I mean put a small amount of filiment covered in cooking oil through the hot end.

Like in this picture from the documentation, except my tubing goes to my just before my gears. I can't tell from your picture if you have it installed.

http://e3d-online.com/image/data/V6/AssemblyImages/175PTFE.jpg

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24 Reply by mdrVB6 (edited by mdrVB6 2014-08-15 19:59:20)

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Re: Stepper Motor causing beaded prints

+1 on the VREF adjustment from me too.  A lot of people here seem to be a fan of tuning it by ear but that did not work for me and I ended up with a lot of bad prints before I diagnosed it.  I did get pretty close once Adrian gave me the tip about putting a mark on the extruder arm and making sure it turned smooth.  The best thing to do, IMO, is to look up the proper voltage for your driver, get out your multimeter and tune it.  If you have the stock board, then detailed instructions are available from the solidoodle.

Edit: I see where you said you tried VREF tuning with no success?  What, exactly, did not work.  Here is solidoodle's instructions:
http://support.solidoodle.com/hc/en-us/ … ip-Voltage

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