severe offset printing problem (Page 1 of 2)

Looks like your just losing steps, a very common issue with most FDM printers. when the motors get overloaded either by not enough torque or too much heat they simply lose steps and the controller does not know the loss of position happened so it goes about sending commands to keep on printing... this is how all of the open loop stepper motor systems work on cheaper cnc systems.

a quick search should show you many of the causes of lost steps and how to overcome them.

That is SOOO far off I find it hard to believe it is a missed step issue. If it is missed steps it seems the drivers shut off for extended periods to produce such off print.

I've had similar issues with a nearly 1" shift in the x axis from one layer to the next.  The first one happened on a long print, it shifted 1/3 of the way through the piece in the middle of the night.  Printing the same object a few days later resulted in a perfectly fine print after 16 hours.  However, the shift just happened again 10 minutes ago on a small build to test the firmware update that just went through this morning.  After turning the machine off and on and attempting the print again it is working.  Gotta love random bugs.  Any ideas? No response from tech support yet...

I replaced the mother board.  It now prints the demo key fine and mixed results on prints.  Sometimes in prints ok in the right location  Sometimes in prints ok in the wrong location (i.e. offset) esp. with smaller objects.  Sometimes it doesn't print because it's in the wrong location (esp. larger objects).  Sometimes it just seems like the print instructions are really screwed up and it just prints non-objects.

Tech Support gave me a beta of the 1.06 Mac software to try even though I had already tried a PC and Mac and two different USB cables.  Same results or if anything, the new software seems worse.

well, after going back and forth with support, my unit is headed back for repair/exchange.  in the meantime, I have a flashforge creator x on the way...

Oh, and when it happened to me, I contacted support - got their canned "someone will get back to you" and never heard from them again!  I sent follow ups with no response.  Because of the lack of support, I decided to go the open firmware route!

I had pretty quick responses from support when I contacted them about the infuriating heat-bed leveling system they have. I eventually got it to work, but the person was very willing to schedule a time for a phone call to get it sorted.
Anyway, I've had a pretty vicious shifting issue on my XYZ as well. But what's weird, is that it doesn't seem to be random. I started printing with their stock firmware/software (not stock stock, updated with their software, firmware "J") and was having very impressive prints right out of the box. I then printed the Makerbot model and it printed well enough, but almost all of the moving parts were welded together. So I began looking into things, and found that you can use a version of their software with slic3r. I did that, set everything up and calibrated it with some online tools to make more accurate prints, then I printed the model. About half way up the model, it shifted about half an inch backwards, midway through his body. I thought that was pretty weird, but just counted it off as a fluke. I then did it again, and found it was shifted again in exactly the same place. I then downgraded to the beloved -g- firmware, and printed again. It didn't shift.. almost. I could tell in exactly the same spot on the model, there is a very slight variance. Some models don't give any trouble. I just printed a larger model and found that after printing the base, it shifted about half an inch (always in the same direction) and then printed the rest of the rather large model perfectly. But the question is, why always at that same spot, on only some models?

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.

A few commentators said they had successful builds. The thing that has me beat is that the offset problem only happens when I print with the stubs pointing upwards. No problem when stubs are downwards. I'll try netfabb, and also I'll try adding a pedestal to see if the offset stays at the same height from the glass or remains relative to the tri-joint. Troubleshooting by printing takes so long though, so suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks to jsnbrgg for the heads ip on the X axis plug.  My DaVinci 1.0a has begun sever step loss as well (X axis only).  This is after flash to lucs repetier .92, but appears unrelated.  Motors are not hot, nor are driver chips.  I didn't believe the plug, but tried removing the right side.  The missed steps were much less severe, but still present.  I tried conductivity paste on the plug, and slight bends in the male pins to no avail.  Finally, in desperation, I removed the motor, disassembled, removed the plug, and soldered in a solid portion of wire.  My next 14 hour print was flawless.  At this point, I put the right side back on - and my missed steps were back.  I have removed the right side again, and am much farther into my next print with no lost steps.  Perhaps it is not the plug but actual defective wires.  The stock harness certainly tends to kink around the carriage at the X axis motor.

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...

For anybody else having offset issues, This may not be the cause for you, but I had a similar problem and it turned out the way the wiring going to the extruder was held on the extruder/hot end chassis, it would sometimes get caught on the lever and hold it back. I ended up rerouting the wiring and haven't had any problems since (I can get a picture if this was hard to understand).

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.