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Z-Index wizard doesn't work

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Shrp77, Sep 8, 2019.

  1. Shrp77

    Shrp77 New Member

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    Hi,

    I recently brought out my R2 from storage and updated the firmware. Now, when I run the Z-Index wizard it generates a value of +12.4. I can confirm the value is set in the EEPROM Home Offset. Whenever I try to go to the fine-tuning wizard for the Z-Index, it says that the value is not set and shows the current value of +12.4.

    After reading some forum posts, I manually set the value to -12.4 on the EEPROM. I can then go to the fine-tuning wizard for Z-Index, however even when I change the value to +10.0, there's a ~10mm gap between the build plate and the extruder.

    So I mounted an extension to the Z-Stop pin at the bottom of the build plate (figuring that if I can physically set the zero position of the build plate to be higher, I should be getting lower Z-Index values that might fall within the margins that the wizard will permit).

    I now have an initial Z-Index at -0.1, however when I go to the fine-tuning of the Z-Index it still has that ~10mm gap between the build-plate and the extruder.

    Is there a beta build of updated firmware somewhere that fixes this? or can I downgrade to the previous firmware (anyone have a link to it?)

    Right now I feel that the printer is as useful as when it was in storage - except even less so because it's now taking up space on a workbench....
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The Z offset needs to be negative in that firmware.
    (Or manually level it -- granted this is a pain on the C2/R2.)

    This is what I have done with my C2 (don't have an R2, but firmware is largely identical)

    I thought I had a post about this, but probably in the C2 section. They broke something in a later "patch" and never got it fixed before just dropping the support.
     
  3. Shrp77

    Shrp77 New Member

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    I tried setting a manual Z-index to a negative value, then went through the process of manually leveling it. Tried to print what I need to print and right away the bed got moved up straight into the extruder!

    What a @#$! joke! Does anyone have the older firmware available? This needs to be fixed!
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    P.S. if you actually manually level the printer you need to remove the G29 from the startup so that it does not try to autolevel it
     
  6. Shrp77

    Shrp77 New Member

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    I'm a total newb at this - thank you.

    I noticed that the model I was trying to print had a Z-Index in the model? When I manually level the bed, should I then re-slice anything I want to print?
     
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yea, if you sliced with the autoleveling and a z offset you have to re-slice once you manually level to remove the autoleveling stuff from the generated GCode.
     
  8. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    @mark tomlinson is correct.

    Log into the R2 Octoprint and edit the "Before print job starts" script. Comment out any autoleveling code (G36 and or G29)
    First, try a different R2 image on a new SDcard. Look for the link to the image in this thread of this forum-> Need an image of the R2's microsd card
    And do change the hostname to match your R2's ID (serial number) Second, consider updating the firmware of the controller board as suggested by @mark tomlinson
     
    #8 tkoco, Sep 9, 2019
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2019
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  9. Shrp77

    Shrp77 New Member

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    Between manually setting the Z-Offset (Home Offset) in the EEPROM and using the manual leveling wizard, I was finally able to get the system to have a good bed height.

    Unfortunately once one problem is solved, another creeps up... Now the feeding mechanism to the extruder starts "skipping" (feeds normally, then goes "clack clack clack" and I can see there's a momentary stop in the extruder output...

    I'll search the forums for this new conundrum... :confused:
     
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  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    OK, just make sure when that happens that the nozzle is not too low (i.e. jammed down on the bed).
    Obviously if it happens somewhere other than layer 1 it is not that ...
    Intermittent extrusion issues are not fun.
     
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  11. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    In addition to the point brought up by @mark tomlinson , make sure the filament is not being printed too cold. (i.e. near the lowest temperature rating of the filament as an example) The standard hot-end of the R2/C2 printer has a shorter melt zone than other hot-ends like the "volcano". So, if the bed height is good, try raising the filament temperature a few degrees (2 or 3 C). Also, do a quick check of the extruder toothed gear for filament fragments which might keep the gear from fully "biting" the filament.

    @mark tomlinson , any recommendations on a model of "volcano" hot-ends which would fit the R2 printer?
     
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  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    There is only the E3D and that requires the carriage modification for the R2. There is a thread on that, but it is not a drop-in. You will need to reprint other parts and rebuild it for it to work. Real bummer because that is a great upgrade if you need larger scale prints or if you want to print 4x faster ...
     
  13. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    Thank you for the information. So, it is not a simply drop-in replacement. Fair enough.
     
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  15. RoboticsRob

    RoboticsRob Member

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    Mark, the patch that causes more issues than it helps with, is that referring to a firmware update or a roboOS/pi image update?

    If Firmware, is the latest version linked on the Robo support page the bad version, and is the one labeled previous version the more functional firmware? Having a bit of a time sorting through the pile of R2 stuff we’ve got here.
     
  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    With the R1 series it was obvious. Firmware is the software on the printer :) Everything else is on a PC somewhere talking to it.
    With the R2/C2 the firmware is still inside the printer (on the controller board) but there is an OS on the Raspberry Pi inside the printer and various versions of software on THAT too. The Pi then talks to the controller board and you can still connect with a PC via USB or not bother to use a PC and slice and print via OctoPrint running on the Pi (the printer even has a web UI to do that from).

    In this specific case I was talking about the printer software on the Pi (AKA RoboOS). They "bent" something on the C2 at least where the wizard (Z offset wizard) was trying to calculate and store the offsets as a positive number (hint -- it still needed to be negative). So even if you did everything correctly the bed leveling would be bogus since the Z offset was totally backwards.
     
  17. RoboticsRob

    RoboticsRob Member

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    Ok that’s what I was afraid of, the issue being RoboOS. I have two R2’s, both updated to the latest RoboOS via the on-screen update app under Utilities. One of them shows this Z-Offset issue but the other does not. What is the version number of the latest functional RoboOS? I have spares, one of them may have the latest known good version on its micro SD card.
     
  18. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    No clue. They were never great at numbering versions of anything.
    What I can say is if you have one that works, clone the SD card from the Pi, rename the machine on the Pi SD card image to match what your original machine name was and see if it works on the other one.

    Here is a thread that discusses that (changing the machine name for the Pi/printer).

    http://community.robo3d.com/index.php?threads/some-software-tips-and-tricks.19004/
     
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Note you could rename the machine name to anything -- when they were still doing updates Robo tied the machine name config to a printer for tracking versions, but since they no longer are you can name it whatever you like. It does need to be a different name than other network devices.
     
  20. RoboticsRob

    RoboticsRob Member

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    So I pulled another microSD card, which also reportedly had RoboOS 2.0.0-r2.6 on it (the latest) and this one does not exhibit the Z-offset issues. That implies that the issue is actually not within the current build of RoboOS, but in the update process?
     

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