Help - Printer stops extruding about an hour into print (Page 1 of 3)

Just to be clear, I have a Bulldog XL and E3D running on my Solidoodle 3. Could it be that there is too much tension on the extruder grabbing the filament and forcing a clog? Am I running my filament through too fast?

I will get you that screen shot on the next failed print. Yes, the filament stops extruding and I get some sort of clog in the hotend. I'm running PLA high at 215C, I was previously running it between 195-205C but decided today to try and run it a little hotter to see if it would rectify the situation.

I also just turned my Extruder steps per mm down from 460 to 458 and will keep inching it down to see if that changes anything. My fear is that I am feeding too much into the hotend and causing clogs. In any case, I will keep working on the steps and post a picture of the temp chart as soon as it fails again.

I'm printing at 40mm/s. Yes, I know that is at the hot range for PLA but I still have this same issue at 195C.. I figured it was worth a shot trying a high temp to see what the outcome was.

I can't heat my hotend past 230 or my machine will short out. Changing the steps seems to have worked. I finally completed a print after months of issues. ARGHH!! I'm going to run another print and if it crashes I'll be sure to let you know.

Looks like your right, it was so long ago I had forgotten that I saved the thermoster from the E3D as a back-up and never upgraded my firmware. Looks like I'll be doing that next as well as printing the fan mount that I never got to making. Thanks for that! Much appreciated!

Found it. It's the ATmega Au1286, but I don't have an option to select that board in Arduino.

It says AU1286, but here is a picture, yes I can remove the pins. http://imgur.com/bWCOsy6

Try following these
I just updated my solidoodle 3 printers firmware tonight. It has the Printboard Rev E, my operating system is Windows 7 64bit
These instructions I compiled after talking with Adrian, and reading the existing wiki (http://wiki.solidoodle.com/update-firmware)
A: Download the Arduino IDE (www.arduino.cc)
B: Download Teensyduino (http://pjrc.com/teensy/td_download.html)
C: Download the firmware  (https://github.com/ozadr1an/Solidoodle- … in_v1_beta)
D: Download the upload BootloaderHID (http://blog.lincomatic.com/wp-content/u … derHID.zip)
1.    Install Arduiono IDE
2.    By default it installed in C:/program files/Arduino (or program files C:/program files(x86)/Arduino)
3.    Install Teenyduino
4.    It will ask you where the arduino install is, point it to the above folder
5.    Unzip the firmware file to a folder you will remember
6.    Open the Arduino.exe (shortcut put on your desktop after the Arduino IDE installed
7.    Click Tools, Board (might say Board:Arduino Uno) and select the Teensy ++2.0
8.    Click Tools, Serial Port, and change it to the port of your printer
(If you are unsure, and using windows, click the start button, right click computer, click properties, click device manager, and click on ports. Your printer will be the one listed as “USB serial port (Com X) write down whatever the x is, and put it in step 8)
9.    Click File – Open
10.    Browse to the folder you extracted in step 5, select the file (in the marlin folder) named Configureation.H , double click it or select it and click open
11.    You will notice that there are several tabs across the top: Marlin, Configuration.H, ConfigurationStore.cpp etc, select the Configuration.H tab
12.    Scroll down until you see (in black as the grey is comments and effects nothing)
#define SOLIDOODLE_VERSION 2 (line 22 on mine) Change to #define SOLIDOODLE_VERSION 3                 
13.    #define MOTHERBOARD  62 (line #76 on mine…you can tell the line by clicking the code, and looking at the bottom left, a number will be there, this is the line of code)
Change it to read #define MOTHERBOARD 81
14.    find #define TEMP_SENSOR_0 1 (line 120 ) and change to #define TEMP_SENSOR_0 6
15.    find #define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 225 (line145)  change to #define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 350
16.    350C is the max the thermister can is good for, the hotend can go higher, but you’ll need a thermocouple instead of the thermister
17.    In the top arduino menu, click Sketch, then Verify/compile
18.    If you installed Teensyduino, it will pop up a window, just close it
19.    If your sketch does not report errors and simply gives you the Binary sketch size and memory use, it is safe to upload. If it reports errors, you have made a syntax error, and should recheck those lines you changed.
20.    Before doing the final compile, click file – save (if you do not, it will not upload the changes)
21.    Hold down SHIFT and click Compile
22.    There has been a .hex file created. Marlin.cpp.hex, in my case (windows 7) it is under C:/users/whateverYourProfileNameIs/AppData/Local/Temp….it will be in the folder
named build-xxxxxxxxx.tmp (the x’s are a string of numbers) created today. You must have view hidden or system files enabled in folder options (control panel. Have view folders by icon instead of category enabled, folder options,view, check Show hidden files and folders)
23.    Unzip the BootloaderHID.Zip (step D) to a folder
24.    Copy the Marlin.cpp.hex file, and past it in the folder above (the bootloaderHID folder
25.    Make sure your computer is connected to the printer via usb cable
26.    Add a jumper to the BOOT pins on the printboard (back of the printer) or bend the 2 pins so they are touching , then press the RESET button
27.    Open a new command window (click the windows start button, and in the search programs field (windows vista or newer) type CMD.
28.    Within the CMD window, navigate to the folder you unzipped the BootleaderHID to in step 23
29.     Type “hid_bootloader_cli -mmcu=at90usb1286 -w -v Marlin.cpp.hex” (no quotations)
30.    It should say something like “read Marlin.cpp.hex xx bytes, xx% usage, found halfkay bootloader, programming…………………..Booting
31.    Remove the jumper, or unbend the boot pins on the printboard (back of the printer)
32.    Press reset
33.    Verify that you have updated them, start up Repetier Host.
34.    Click Connect
35.    Look at the bottom of the screen, you will see a greeting msg when you connect it should now read
02:09:14.238 : echo:Unknown command: ""
02:09:14.405 : FIRMWARE_NAME:Marlin V1; Sprinter/grbl mashup for gen6 FIRMWARE_URL:http://github.com/mlaws/solidoodle2-marlin/ PROTOCOL_VERSION:1.0 MACHINE_TYPE:Solidoodle EXTRUDER_COUNT:1
02:09:14.405 : echo:Active Extruder: 0
If you see the address changed to github.com instead of solidoodle, you know you're golden

Links C and D give me a 404 error.

Got to step 29 and the command didn't work, it said the command was not recognized. Also, can you verify with me where the boot pins are?

Boot pins are (in your photo) right by the lower left corner of the caution triangle.  It pointing right at it. 
You do have a reset button it is at the top right corner also in your picture.  It is labeled "reset"
As far as line 29 you either don't have the file properly moved to the correct folder or you aren't properly navigating the CMD screen to the correct folder.

That looks right did you have the boot pins jumped?