1 Topic by zimmer62

  • zimmer62
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-08-10
  • Posts: 163

Topic: problems with my new printer.

Mine showed up today. but nothing is working right for me today.

I never received a tracking number until I asked them about it today... it was already at my door by the time I got a tracking number.

I have some major concerns, and I'm likely to not be able to use the machine all weekend or until I get / make some replacement parts.

Got it unboxed, and setup.  A few issues with the drivers not installing, I ended up downloading the arduino drivers from http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software which gave me the proper usb to serial driver.  Not sure if that has anything to do with my other issues, but I kind of doubt it.

The other way of installing the drivers didn't work on a fresh windows 7 64bit box, and there was no "change settings" button as shown on solidoodles tutorial from their site.

So.  When trying to home the Z axis, all I get is a loud squeal from the printer.  It seems to be stuck, I think it might have the acceleration set too high when trying to home.  If I manually press the z-axis limit switch it will stop that noise and move up and down a little bit.  I have no idea where to find this setting if there is one.

The Y axis home button does nothing, doesn't seem to have any effect.

The X axis homes fine.
except:
After homing the X... if I click any X axis direction either + or - it will crash into the opposite side from the home switch even at the 0.1 level increment.  Sometimes even pressing the Y in any direction will cause the X to run off the other direction and crash.

The wire for the LED's was on backwards, after a little bit of wondering if it had LEDs I traced it back to the plug near the fan plug... the fan and the LED plugs were opposite direction of each other.  I swapped the LED plug around and it lit up.

There was a pre-existing tear in the kapton tape.  It's small, but none the less worth mentioning.  I'll post a pic of it sometime.

Some acrylic on the extrusion head broke as soon as I touched it for the first time.  I just took it apart to see what broke and I posted pictures of it in the repair section.

2 Reply by Merko (edited by Merko 2012-08-11 00:40:06)

  • Merko
  • Merko
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Norway
  • Registered: 2012-08-08
  • Posts: 61

Re: problems with my new printer.

the software is somewhat bugged. So if you home the Z axis, you need to disonnect your printer. i had same issue. very loud noise.

My LED didnt work also, so gonna check the wire if its on backwards or not, is the LED cable/pin got any marks on it so i can see it easly? or do i need to follow the wire from the led lights?

Edit: Yeah, the pin cable was on backwards.. Makes me wonder how they quality check things..

3 Reply by Gordym

  • Gordym
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Adrian, MI
  • Registered: 2012-08-10
  • Posts: 317

Re: problems with my new printer.

Mine has a broken heat sink. Obviously not a shipping problem, an over-tightening problem at the factory. It hasn't proven to be a problem and they did not offer to send a replacement. I am sure they are more concerned with emergencies like yours. Hopefully they will respond quickly to you.

SD2
E3D V6
MK5 V6

4 Reply by zimmer62 (edited by zimmer62 2012-08-11 01:56:29)

  • zimmer62
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-08-10
  • Posts: 163

Re: problems with my new printer.

I've got the homing working, Thanks to Ian's post on the google groups.   I had to change the firmware settings.

The Z axis should home at a rate of 500 not 1000.  And the Y Axis should be changed from a -1 to a 1.  Then they will all home if you hit the all home button.

You can find these settings when flashing the firmware in the Configuration.h file.

I've attached mine for reference.
this line:

#define Y_HOME_DIR -1
needs to be
#define Y_HOME_DIR 1


and this line:
#define HOMING_FEEDRATE {1500, 1500, 1000, 0}  // set the homing speeds (mm/min)
needs to be
#define HOMING_FEEDRATE {1500, 1500, 500, 0}  // set the homing speeds (mm/min)

Post's attachments

Configuration.h 15.79 kb, 87 downloads since 2012-08-11 

You don't have the permssions to download the attachments of this post.

5 Reply by IanJohnson

  • IanJohnson
  • Moderator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-08-07
  • Posts: 2,815

Re: problems with my new printer.

Now that you are comfortable digging into the firmware, have a look at my post oin calibrating the extruder-

http://solidoodletips.wordpress.com/201 … libration/

You can print fine as it is with the default Skeinforge, but it is something you might want to look at doing eventually.

6 Reply by Merko

  • Merko
  • Merko
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Norway
  • Registered: 2012-08-08
  • Posts: 61

Re: problems with my new printer.

Thanks both. I will look into that later today  :]

7 Reply by ronald29609

  • ronald29609
  • Newbie
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2013-06-18
  • Posts: 5

Re: problems with my new printer.

My Solidoodle 3 arrived 2 days ago and I have a driver problem also. Windows 7 x 64 can't find the drivers. I've tried all of the recommended fixes that I could find over the last 2 days without success.
I read zimmer62's post about using arduino drivers and went to their site. I don't have an arduino board so I don't now which driver to use. I am over my head here. Any help will be appreciated.

8 Reply by ronald29609

  • ronald29609
  • Newbie
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2013-06-18
  • Posts: 5

Re: problems with my new printer.

Solidoodle support sent me this driver: Flip Installer - 3.4.7.112.exe.
It's installed and the printer is connected.
Support team, Thanks so much!