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Topic: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here after scouring the web for hours to no avail.

Help!

I have had my S4 for a few months now and never had a problem. All of a sudden this morning when I heated it up to print some more things it just didn't work!

Details:
- All the motors and extrusion work fine when controlled manually.
- When I home all the extruder returns to its normal spot and the bed does too (no matter where they were, aka working as intended)
- When I start a print, the extruder moves to the center of the bed, as it should, and then just stops. It almost looks as if I had paused the print before it even got started.
- Connection is absolutely fine, never had it drop out.
- When I try to kill the print after it pauses in the center of the bed nothing happens. I have to power cycle the printer to get it to respond to commands again.
- After power-cycling I can hit Home All and everything goes back to its correct spot.
- Since last night after my last print I changed a few settings:
        - I changed the in fill percentage from 0.2 to 0.15 and now back to 0.2
        - I changed the amount of extrusion on the very first layer from 0.3mm to 0.4mm and now back to 0.3mm
        - I also changed the skirt to be 3 layers tall instead of one. I changed that back too.
- I have downloaded and updated to the most recent versions of both slic3r and repetier host, neither fixed the issue.
- I have restarted my laptop as well as the printer multiple times.

I am at a total loss! If anyone has any ideas please help!

Thank you all so much

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Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

Have you checked your driver in windows had a experience similar to yours. Found windows did an update of the driver. Both where loaded, found two different date listed under the add remove programs.

3

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

I'm running Repetier on a mac. I don't think it is a communications error (drivers or physical connection) because all normal operations work. I can turn on and off the heat to the bed/extruder. I can move the extruder/bed via the print panel menu. I can even run individual lines of gcode from the print panel.

I think it has to do with the gcode generation or something? When I start a print the extruder moves to the center of the print bed and then just stays stationary. So it clearly is getting the commands but something is happening before the extrusion happens (post extruder moving to middle of bed but before the skirt is printed).

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Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

Could it be that there is a Mintemp Extrude error?  Are you getting any errors reported in the log screen?

SD2 - Stock - Enclosure - Heated Bed - Glass Plate - Auto Fire Extinguisher
Ord Bot Hadron - RAMPS 1.4 - Bulldog XL - E3D v6 - 10" x 10" PCB Heated Build w/SSR - Glass Plate
Thanks for All of Your Help!

5 (edited by Smarch 2014-11-12 21:48:54)

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

No errors in the log. I can also extrude manually from the print panel.

6

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

maybe a wire/connection is getting loose when moved to center. including a thermistor or microswitch

Solidoodle 2 with Deluxe kit cover & glass bed with heater. and 2nd board SD2 used not 3rd and alum platform not installed yet still wood. also need cooling fan installed to board. use Repetier Host couple vers. Slic3r also have all free ware STL programs

7

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

n2ri wrote:

maybe a wire/connection is getting loose when moved to center. including a thermistor or microswitch

Probable!

Check all hot end connections and wiring and make sure no wires are moving relative to the hot end when the carriage moves...as n2ri wrote, maybe your shorting out or disconnecting momentarily during the 1st move.

SD2 - Stock - Enclosure - Heated Bed - Glass Plate - Auto Fire Extinguisher
Ord Bot Hadron - RAMPS 1.4 - Bulldog XL - E3D v6 - 10" x 10" PCB Heated Build w/SSR - Glass Plate
Thanks for All of Your Help!

8

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

I thought that too, but when I move the hot end manually to the center of the bed, I can still move around after. In addition to the extruder moving to the center of the bed, the z-axis homes itself (as it should) but then just hangs from there.

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Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

Instead of just trying to describe it over and over I recorded two videos for you guys. First video is of what happens when I run a print, second is a video of my manually moving the printer head to the center and extruding.

Running some print:
dropbox.com/s/fzyrbnkg6ylqnd1/2014-11-12%2017.04.29.mov?dl=0

Manual movement to center and extrusion:
dropbox.com/s/l3gts8ar40y8ryd/2014-11-12%2017.05.51.mov?dl=0

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Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

OK...can you slice a job and post the starting G-Code sequence?

SD2 - Stock - Enclosure - Heated Bed - Glass Plate - Auto Fire Extinguisher
Ord Bot Hadron - RAMPS 1.4 - Bulldog XL - E3D v6 - 10" x 10" PCB Heated Build w/SSR - Glass Plate
Thanks for All of Your Help!

11

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

Here is everything that happens before the first X/Y movements.

Start code:

G21; Set units to milimeters 
G90; Set absolute coordinates 
G92 E0; Reset extruder 
G28 X0 Y0; Home x and y axis 
G1 X100 Y100 F4000; Center extruder above bed 
G28 Z0; Home Z axis 
G1 F3000; Set feed rate (speed) for first move

Sliced gcode:

; generated by Slic3r 0.9.9 on 2014-11-12 at 17:53:31

; Please note that the first layer is set at 0.35mm to avoid sticking and warping issues. For further precision, consider adjusting this value to 0.3mm.

; layer_height = 0.3
; perimeters = 4
; top_solid_layers = 3
; bottom_solid_layers = 3
; fill_density = .2
; perimeter_speed = 60
; infill_speed = 60
; travel_speed = 75
; nozzle_diameter = .4
; filament_diameter = 1.68
; extrusion_multiplier = .6
; perimeters extrusion width = 0.42mm
; infill extrusion width = 0.42mm
; solid infill extrusion width = 0.42mm
; top infill extrusion width = 0.42mm
; first layer extrusion width = 0.42mm

G21 ; set units to millimeters
M107
M190 S115 ; wait for bed temperature to be reached
M104 S195 ; set temperature

M109 S195 ; wait for temperature to be reached
G90 ; use absolute coordinates
G92 E0
M82 ; use absolute distances for extrusion
G1 F9000.000 E-2.50000
G92 E0
G1 Z0.350 F4500.000

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Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

Try commenting out the M190 line...this has caused issues with many in the past.

SD2 - Stock - Enclosure - Heated Bed - Glass Plate - Auto Fire Extinguisher
Ord Bot Hadron - RAMPS 1.4 - Bulldog XL - E3D v6 - 10" x 10" PCB Heated Build w/SSR - Glass Plate
Thanks for All of Your Help!

13

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

I tried it. Nothing changed. I have it echoing the lines as it goes through them, and no matter what lines I comment out it just hangs before it gets to the actual print.
The last line it echos when I take out the M190 line is the G92 E0 line.
So I tried commenting out that as well and it hangs on M82.
When I comment that out it hangs on G92 E0 again.
When I comment that out it hangs on the G1 line.
If I comment that out it just hangs earlier back at the G90 line.

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Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

I figured it out, if anyone else in the future is having this issue:

Check your filament settings when slicing, make sure that your first layer temps are set to 0. For some reason Repetier was having issues with me setting my first layer temp to the values I wanted. You can set your other layers setting to whatever temp you want. I just set my extruder and bed temps manually.

Thank you so much everyone (especially you IronMan) for your help!

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Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

Smarch,  I will need to check your code against mine, but I cannot get to it tonight...I'm remote from my machine and I've got a ton of CAD work to do for my day job sad

Some other more Code-worthy members please weigh in!

In the meantime, read through this topic:

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/397/too- … ing-wrong/

Might be some nugget in there for you...it's a bit dated, but code is code.

SD2 - Stock - Enclosure - Heated Bed - Glass Plate - Auto Fire Extinguisher
Ord Bot Hadron - RAMPS 1.4 - Bulldog XL - E3D v6 - 10" x 10" PCB Heated Build w/SSR - Glass Plate
Thanks for All of Your Help!

16

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

I was a bit late on the reply!

So glad you got it...I never had to change that on mine for some reason (maybe cause mine is 2 years old and I did not have to deal with SD factory presets)

Awesome work, Smarch...persistence pays off!

SD2 - Stock - Enclosure - Heated Bed - Glass Plate - Auto Fire Extinguisher
Ord Bot Hadron - RAMPS 1.4 - Bulldog XL - E3D v6 - 10" x 10" PCB Heated Build w/SSR - Glass Plate
Thanks for All of Your Help!

17

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

I appreciate it! Thanks again for the help.

18

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

It was all you!  Happy printing!

SD2 - Stock - Enclosure - Heated Bed - Glass Plate - Auto Fire Extinguisher
Ord Bot Hadron - RAMPS 1.4 - Bulldog XL - E3D v6 - 10" x 10" PCB Heated Build w/SSR - Glass Plate
Thanks for All of Your Help!

19 (edited by jagowilson 2014-11-13 05:00:47)

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

Smarch wrote:

I figured it out, if anyone else in the future is having this issue:

Check your filament settings when slicing, make sure that your first layer temps are set to 0. For some reason Repetier was having issues with me setting my first layer temp to the values I wanted. You can set your other layers setting to whatever temp you want. I just set my extruder and bed temps manually.

Thank you so much everyone (especially you IronMan) for your help!

Still sounds like sometning you need to address. For some reason your host or the printer is halting and failing to resume after a blocking call for temperature checks. You should try another version of RH or a different host. But you should definitely find the cause. Your printer shouldn't do that. It should successfully unblock after a target temperature has been reached.

In the meantime be cautious of heating up the hotend for too long before a print starts. The stock hotend is sensitive and could clog if left hot and not extruding for 15-20 minutes.

20 (edited by n2ri 2014-11-13 06:30:23)

Re: Help! S4 stops print in middle of bed before it starts,

never saw file trying to print, or filament type being used. but unless RH filament tab is set to PLA it should let bed temp be set anywhere to 110c PLA onlt like 70c

check the stl file in netfab for errors as this type gcode gets wrote sometimes if bad stl file or if I try to use skienforge to slice

also just because you can manually move extruder dont mean a loose connection wont tell printer to stop due to an issue

Solidoodle 2 with Deluxe kit cover & glass bed with heater. and 2nd board SD2 used not 3rd and alum platform not installed yet still wood. also need cooling fan installed to board. use Repetier Host couple vers. Slic3r also have all free ware STL programs