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Partially Solved Robo 3d R1+ need Mattercontrol settings help

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Miguel Rodriguez, Jul 15, 2020.

  1. Miguel Rodriguez

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    I have been using my Robo 3d since my wife got it for me as a Birthday present and have recently purchased and rebuilt from almost the ground up another. While waiting for parts and troubleshooting, which took the better part of 5 months or so, the version of Mattercontrol changed and so did the quality of my prints. I used to keep my prints on Medium Quality unless I was doing something small and intricate but for some strange reason I can no longer print anything with fine details or small parts.
    When I got my original Robo, I could print small Lego sized items and they came out great but now anything having a small footprint or (heaven forbid) numbers on it, come out poorly if at all. I have wasted countless meters of filament trying to print simple but small items on either of my Robo 3d printers. Does anyone know if the settings changed from version to version or if there is some other culprit. I have checked all the limit switches and wires as well as making sure the bed was aligned and still nothing. On the other hand I can print large items with little issue other than some overhang issues.
    I have the original R1+ bed with a Magnetic bed plate attached and print mainly in PLA and Silk PLA. I have tried Cura but have had issues with it as well and I will admit I purchased Simplify#d and returned it because I had a few set backs in getting it set up (I will revisit it again later). In the meantime I am stuck using my Da Vinci Jr 3in1 printer for small things but I do not always have access to it.

    Any ideas would be great. My current printer profile is attached.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I can'r speak for mattercontrol (I do not use it) but as a stab in the dark look over these links with visual troubleshooting aids. Maybe post some examples/pictures of your failure on a site like imagur and post links to them so we can look and maybe have some suggestions (posting pictures in this forum is clunky and they must be low resolution)

    Visual troubleshooting:
    ----------------------
    https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/
    and :
    http://reprap.org/wiki/Print_Troubleshooting_Pictorial_Guide
    and :
    http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/23-a-visual-ultimaker-troubleshooting-guide

    As another thought if it has been log enough you may need to do some maintenance like tighten the belts, replace the nozzle, lubricate the rods and maybe some of the bearings need swapping. Not saying that is the case -- I have no evidence to evaluate -- yet :)
     
  3. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    I remember my R1+ printer came with a specific version of MatterControl on a SD card ou a USB pen. I'm pretty sure I still have those lying around; if you think that would be helpful I believe I can upload the matter control profiles and even the whole matter control software as provided by Robo

    PS: on a totally unrelated note, do you change any settings when printing on Silk PLA? I'v had a Silk Gold filament for over a year which has been a total pain to print with
     
  4. Miguel Rodriguez

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    OK. Sorry for the delay in responding. It has been a living nightmare to get anything to print for the last 3 days and it turned out to be my new magnetic print bed. Finally yanked that off and put my blue painters tape with a light glue stick coating and back in business, so far anyway. I unfortunately did not have the foresight to take any pics of the issues occurring with smaller prints and as soon as I have a minute I will try one again. I will say that after trying cura again and looking at how my DaVinci Jr 3-in-1 as well as my cube 3 print, the Robo settings seem to be too fast. It is strange because the same print will take more time on my Robo 3d than when printed on my DaVinci but will look worse when completed. In the past I had not ever had to tweak the settings so I never bothered learning what does what aside from the normal everyday stuff like leveling and changing the bed/extruder temps and such and that is on me. That being said I am getting totally frustrated with trying to tweak the settings so I make better prints with my Robo. I like the build size and was enjoying its ease of use but that has changed and I do not know why. OK, rant over!.


    @mark tomlinson
    Issue is with both machines but for now I will just focus on one and then worry about the other later. I looked at the belts and they are ok but ordered some anyway, just in case. I have checked the tightness of all the belts and bolts, entire hexagon print head is new including the nozzle and it was seasoned, all rods have been lubed and ordered some bearing just in case. I will replace them all when the come in. One thing I noticed while I was inspecting the system is that the bed seeme to have a bit of play when i push down on the front of it. there is about a mm or two of movement, Is this normal? I ordered new y axis pillow blocks as well so those will get replaced this week.

    @4sfaloth
    now that you mention that, I seem to remember there was a 1.? version I had in the beginning when i got mine as well. If you have those profile settings then that would be great. I can compare them to what i have already. Also to answer your question, I recently used a gold Silk PLA and it worked awesome and i printed at a temp of 190. That is my go to temp for Silk and clear PLA, less stringing. Also i have put at least 10 spools through this and my other Robo and have had no issues printer other than the echoing/ghosting/whatever you want to call it when any type of text or number has to be on the side of a print. If the numbers or letters are on top or bottom there are no issues. The only issue I found with Silk PLA is if you open it here in TX then use it within 2 weeks or you will have to dry it out again and I can tell if it needs to be dried out because the filament extrudes at twice the normal width like it has been bloated by something coming out of the hotend.
     
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    If the LM8UU bearings start to wear (the ones in the rail brackets for the bed) or the rail brackets that mount the rails to the bed are loose then the bed will tend to flex more.
     
  6. Miguel Rodriguez

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    Finally a few pics and vids to look at. I have 2 bids of the y axis and pics of a make bot v6 from thinhiverse that was printed in medium quality with a raft.


    https://imgur.com/a/tRlg2mq

    PLA Green 3D Solutech
    190 for extruder
    50 for bed
    Matter Control 2.20
    Blue painters tape with Glue stick
     
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Some notes...

    1) Looks like (just overall look of the model) that it is printing a bit hotter than it needs OR there is not enough cooling.
    2) The stringing with ABS/PLA almost always indicates it is hotter than it needs, but another thing to check for stringing is the retraction setting. More retraction can improve the stringing.
    3) The second picture (bottom view?) it looks as though your Z offset is too high. Note that the filament is still more round than pressed flat into place.
    4) the movement in the bed can be contributing to #3 -- and that is too much free movement. Since the mounting blocks look fine I would replace the bearings. You can get LM8UU bearings cheaply from Amazon or many other places. That is what the printer uses.
     
  8. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    You can download MC 1.3.0 that came with the printer from here:
    https://we.tl/t-r3Lv8r4zmr
    (will only be available for a few days I think)

    As for the configuration file I think this is it, but I am not 100% sure:
    https://we.tl/t-AUNTdUZYmc

    I suggest you install matter control and check the profiles it has

    hum.. that's actually pretty interesting. Mine is open for way longer than 2 weeks :p
    I do keep them in a closed plastic container, but it's not exactly sealed.
    I did indeed see that "bloating" behaviour where it expands significantly after extrusion in a number of my filaments, including that pesky Gold Silk one. I'll try drying it out and giving it another shot
     
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  9. Miguel Rodriguez

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    Finally got the bearings and assorted parts and installed. Printed the same model and this is what i got with the same settings. I should mention that the other model was also printed with a raft. So I will have to change the temp in the firmware later but in the mean time I wanted to know more about changing the retraction setting. Any idea where to find that and what it should be?

    After lm8uu install https://imgur.com/gallery/5Spl3ZR
     
  10. mark tomlinson

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  11. Miguel Rodriguez

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    Sorry it took so long, things have been hectic. Made some changes and printed the little tugboat and this is the result.


    Tugboat https://imgur.com/gallery/5QvkoV9
     
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  12. mark tomlinson

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    Maybe bump the retraction just a bit more (and/or lower the heat a little) and you can get rid of the last strings.

    Overall it is looking better :)
     
  13. Miguel Rodriguez

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    Hit with disaster and slightly frustrated. Changed the mintemp setting so I could lower the temp without getting an error and my original retraction was 3mm so I went to 4 and now 5 with a temp of 180 and looks worse. Almost looks like under extrusion.. You would think the tugboat was inhabited by millions of tiny spiders and I had to stop it before it finished because the front window supports broke at the bottom right before the roof got started. It was mentioned by a imgur user that my cooling may not be aggressive enough so tomorrow I am going to print a shroud, since I do not have one, to direct the cooling and see if that makes a difference. Sorry no pics, i got a bit frustrated after so many attempts that I had a childish fit and destroyed it. The only other thing I can think of is that the filament is bad? Is that even possible? This one is 3D Solutech and I have used their filament as well as overture(mainly black because it works and looks great), and hatchbox filament aside from the random silk plas. .

    I also want to thank everyone for putting up with me and all the support. I have learned far more than I ever dreamed of and do not plan on giving up just need a good nights rest and will look at it with fresh eyes and a new fan duct in the morning.
     
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You may be too cold. I'd suggest (now that you can go colder) configuring and printing a temperature test tower... maybe from 180 -> 220. See which looks the best.

    Something like this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2493504

    Don't use the STLs unless you are going to redesign it, use the GCODE files since they already have the temperature changes embedded. Just validate the starting GCode is correct and you can go with them.
     
  15. Miguel Rodriguez

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  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Good work. Clearly the left does not have the layers completely fused (so too cold).
    Once you settle on the best temperature you can fine-tune other settings (like retraction) if you need to.
     
  17. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    For most filaments you really want to use the lowest temperature for the extruder that gives you complete layer bonding. You don't want to go higher since that means more settings need to be adjusted to clean it up.
     
  18. Miguel Rodriguez

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    I got tired of the green and decided to remove it as a variable. Then i printed the tugboat at 190 degrees with the bed at 50 degrees and changed the retraction to 4mm. I printed this and the bottom of a spannerhands (from thingiverse) spool holder and everything came out great minus a few weird spots. Only problem now is that if I try to do anything smaller than the tug then I get a stringing but not to the extent I had before but enough to be frustrating and I cannot get the fine details. Might just have to get over it and use my Robo C2 for small objects with fine details.


    Latest 190 with 4mm retraction and 50 on bed https://imgur.com/gallery/jIV21cB
     
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    :) Yep we use the C2 for all of the smaller fine-detail stuff. Actually the REAL fine detail stuff we use a resin printer for, but if it is something we want to print with an FDM printer then it goes on the C2.

    Except for the one with the glitch on the side, those last ones look decent for an R1
     

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