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Topic: Major shift in printing

Had some issues with bed leveling, but solved that. Installed the latest xyzware and firmware. Printed some large prints and started to see some imperfections in prints. Had printed another object and all hell broke loose. Looks like the print had moved to new location on bed. Did a little reseach, checked belts and gearing seemed okay. Printed demo key chain and watched as print head moved erratically. How do i troubleshoot this.

Thanks

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Re: Major shift in printing

This could be a number of things. What do you mean by erratically?
I had issues with missing Y Steps from a bearing mount crack, but it I wouldn't say the movement was erratic.

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Re: Major shift in printing

Print job seems to start at a new location on the bed. As seen in photo.

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Re: Major shift in printing

parentemv wrote:

Had some issues with bed leveling, but solved that. Installed the latest xyzware and firmware. Printed some large prints and started to see some imperfections in prints. Had printed another object and all hell broke loose. Looks like the print had moved to new location on bed. Did a little reseach, checked belts and gearing seemed okay. Printed demo key chain and watched as print head moved erratically. How do i troubleshoot this.

Thanks


Is your filament binding? Did you remove the rubber shipping pin from the cartridge before installing it?

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

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Re: Major shift in printing

Actually, it was a new roll of the davinci clear. Seems to print the test strip just fine. But when i print the demo keychain it starts printing in different location. Makes a grinding sound as the print head moves back and forth.

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Re: Major shift in printing

Check the cable to the x axis stepper on the right side. Sounds like it's dragging on the plastic side case. I cut a 2" x 2" square of duct tape and taped the loose wires to the carriage to solve the problem on mine. I may get around to designing a cover to do the same thing.

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Re: Major shift in printing

Can you get me a picture of where this is located.

Thanks

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Re: Major shift in printing

It's kind of hard to see and take a pic of since I used black duct tape...but hopefully this helps.
You can take off the right side cover and do a test print first. If it works then do this.

http://soliforum.com/i/?pfjoovP.jpg

http://soliforum.com/i/?RvUIbBN.jpg

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Re: Major shift in printing

Hard to make out what your talking about. Any additional info would be great.

10 (edited by madmike8 2015-04-25 18:08:42)

Re: Major shift in printing

Pop the side cover off the right side. It just clips on. You will see loose wires next to the X axis stepper motor. Compare it to mine which are hidden under the black duct tape.

The loose wires catch on the right side cover causing the print to shift. You will hear the belt skipping past the teeth when this happens. To solve this I just stuck the duct tape over the wires and on to the carriage which keeps them tucked in, and prevents them from dragging on the side cover.

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Re: Major shift in printing

Mine never catch but do rub and make an annoying click ever few moments. I never noticed till my new board makes it run so quite I can hear every little other sound it makes.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

12

Re: Major shift in printing

Carl, you hit the nail on the head. removed side panel, put some duck tape over the area where the connection is. Now its rock solid. Had my doubts, but right on. I would think this is a common problem. Any word on a more permanent fix?

Thanks, again

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Re: Major shift in printing

parentemv wrote:

Carl, you hit the nail on the head. removed side panel, put some duck tape over the area where the connection is. Now its rock solid. Had my doubts, but right on. I would think this is a common problem. Any word on a more permanent fix?

Thanks, again


The tape is Madmikes idea. Can't take credit for that one. I will look into something more permanent though.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

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Re: Major shift in printing

Thanks Mike.

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Re: Major shift in printing

Lol Thanks... I had planned for something more permanent myself... But I'm lazy and it hasn't messed up again. Btw if you haven't done Carl's Ziptie fix on your extruder connector, you probably should...

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Re: Major shift in printing

Spoke to soon, I printed a heart shaped cookie cut out and had success. left it alone a couple of days. Went to print a large square shaped piece 6x6x1 inch for a robotic arm i'm working on. I started to print and it outlined the square fine. Then it started to fill in the square from one corner and gets about and inch out from the corner and the starts to print erratically (sounds like belt slipping). Could the problem be in the file itself? checked the tape and nothing had changed. Not sure what to do next. will try to print demo key chain. This had also failed in the past. Let you know what i find out.

Help!

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Re: Major shift in printing

parentemv wrote:

Spoke to soon, I printed a heart shaped cookie cut out and had success. left it alone a couple of days. Went to print a large square shaped piece 6x6x1 inch for a robotic arm i'm working on. I started to print and it outlined the square fine. Then it started to fill in the square from one corner and gets about and inch out from the corner and the starts to print erratically (sounds like belt slipping). Could the problem be in the file itself? checked the tape and nothing had changed. Not sure what to do next. will try to print demo key chain. This had also failed in the past. Let you know what i find out.

Help!


When this starts to happen, feel of the x and y motors. They should be warm but not hot or uncomfortable to touch. If one or both is hot then you probably have the same issue I did where the controller is pushing too much current to the motor. This will cause skipping and could explain the sound as well. The other issue is make sure the wires for the x endstop are secure and not damaged. If they are making and breaking contact the machine will see that as an endstop hit and make that the x min from that point on during that print. If it does it again then it will make thst the new min and shift the print accordingly. Same holds true for the y as well.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

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Re: Major shift in printing

Where would I find the end stop for x axis? How did you handle the to much current issue?

Thanks

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Re: Major shift in printing

Problem definitely in connection, if I hold the wire while applying pressure problem goes away. Not sure what approach to take to fix this problem. Any suggestions?

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Re: Major shift in printing

parentemv wrote:

Where would I find the end stop for x axis? How did you handle the to much current issue?

Thanks


The X axis is the one that goes left to righ. The endstop is an optical switch in the bearing housing on the right end. It has a three pin harness that plugs into it from the outside or side facing away from the bed. That harness could be loose or could have some physical damage as it does constantly rub on the machines side wall. The bad part id thst in order to cut corners, XYZ opted not to have a 2 cent indicator LED installed on their endstops so there is no way to see if it is loosing power from a bad cable.

If you had repetier firmware installed you could send an M119 command through the terminal and it would report endstop status. You could move yhe gantry by hand slowly from front to back and keep sending an M119 to see if the status on  that endstop changes at any point in the motion.

As for what I did for the excessive current? Well on the stock board current is under digital control and cant be adjusted by the user. There are probsbly firmware settings to do it but I have no clue nor could I find on Google what tab in Adruino that current control might be under. This was happening under Repetier firmware, but stock could do the same since it is still the same function.

My solution was to get rid of the stock board and install a RAMPS 1.4 conyroller and use Marlin software. Now the machine runs so smooth and quite, it cant be heard from ten feet away. The power supply fan is the now the loudest sound from it. The excessive noise on stock is another indication of excessive motor current.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

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Re: Major shift in printing

parentemv wrote:

Problem definitely in connection, if I hold the wire while applying pressure problem goes away. Not sure what approach to take to fix this problem. Any suggestions?


First you need to isolate if it is a bad or broken wire,  or if the connector is loose in the socket on the sensor. Or could be a broken solder joint on the sensor. The sensor just snsps in and can be easily removed for easier testing and looking at.  You could disconnect the wires from the sensor and ohm them out to the mainboard. Then movr the wire and see if the continuity changes. Of course you need extra arms for that so help might be in order.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

22 (edited by parentemv 2015-05-13 01:15:20)

Re: Major shift in printing

This 2 cent connector seems to be the problem. I ran a test print of the key chain while messing with the 4 wires going into the motor connector. When i got a print pattern consistently I through a piece of duck tape. I know I already did this many posts ago. Why it failed again is still the question?

What is the actual problem? The wire connecting to terminal in the connector? I think I'm going to solder wires directly to pins on the connector. They don't give you a lot of room to work. Will need to splice some new wire extensions. Option 2, find connector similar to one used. Not sure where I would find it.

Any thoughts?

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Re: Major shift in printing

I've had similar problems with both the extruder stepper motor and the x-axis stepper motor on different occasions.  For the Extruder I ended up cutting out a short section of wire that had the break and soldering it back together and protected with shrink tubing.  On the x-axis stepper I made a whole new wire harness with thicker gauge wire and new ends.  As far as the end connectors, they are JST 2.0 and can be found in many places with a quick google search.

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Re: Major shift in printing

Would the following item work as a replacement? http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/1113866931 … amp;chn=ps

Just the female end.

Thanks

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Re: Major shift in printing

parentemv wrote:

Would the following item work as a replacement? http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/1113866931 … amp;chn=ps

Just the female end.

Thanks

That is the correct style but I believe the motors use 5 pin connectors with only 4 wires. I did not redo that end when I converted.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.