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Unresolved Robo R1+ prints not centering on y axis as shown in Mattercontrol

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Lael, Feb 16, 2016.

  1. Lael

    Lael New Member

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    Hey there, I've been printing on this printer since October with very few issues, but now all of my prints are orienting way farther back than they should on the Y-axis (to the point that they are off of the heated area). I am running my prints with Mattercontrol, and when I look at the 3d view they look to be oriented properly (approximately center), but then they print way too far back in reality. To correct this, I have been moving the parts forward in the software to compensate, but I would much rather just fix this issue properly. The variance is maybe 1 to 1.5 inches, and seems pretty consistent.
    Any troubleshooting suggestions are greatly appreciated; I'm sure it's something stupid, but I don't know whether I should start by looking at the hardware itself or the software. :/ Thanks!
     
  2. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    There is nothing to troubleshoot, the printer is going to print where it needs to, the R1 on the glass bed and the square have no basis in reality.

    This question gets asked by nearly every new Robo owner and the answer is always the same, don't worry about the square.
     
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  3. Lael

    Lael New Member

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    Thanks for the response. And I do actually believe there must be something to troubleshoot. I am aware of the print bed (and the heat area) being fairly arbitrary. Let me try and explain better: I'm trying to print let's say a 6"x6" (base size) object, loading the model, letting Mattercontrol locate it on the build plate, and then printing. Up to the end of last week, it would print fine, fairly close to the center of the plate, and that was that.
    Now, following that exact same procedure, the object is now printing significantly farther back on the build plate, far enough that now the rear edge of the object is now off of the heated portion and then lifting/warping. It is acting as if the calibration for 'center' on the y axis has somehow moved back a bit, and the prints are all too far back on the 'Y' and it's causing problems.

    As I mentioned before, this is a new problem, I have well over 400 hours on this printer already and have never had this issue before. If anyone else can offer suggestions, any help is appreciated. Thanks!
     
  4. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    With all due respect, things like this just don't happen without reason, your explanation leaves out significant details, either settings have changed in MatterControl or something mechanical is wrong with the printer. You are also aware that the heated portion only covers 67% of the designated print bed size.
     
  5. LumpyDVC

    LumpyDVC New Member

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    Lael,

    Have you recently done anything with your Robo firmware?

    I did some tweaks to the firmware Robo Tech sent me. Ever since I did
    that my "center" has shifted very similar to what you are describing.

    Not quite sure how to get my prints back to center again. It's a pain to
    start a print that looks fine on-screen but when it prints it hits a endstop
    and goes off kilter.
     
  6. Lael

    Lael New Member

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    Of course they don't happen without reason, that's is why I posted on the forum after looking several places first and finding no solution. And, as I already said, this is a new issue, no settings were changed, and no other problems accompanied it.

    Perhaps someone else has had a similar problem or has a suggestion and could weigh in? Thanks!
     
  7. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Check for loose set screws or insufficient belt tension.
     
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    So has anything been changed recently? Firmware update perhaps?
     
  9. Lael

    Lael New Member

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    Everything seems secure in terms of the hardware, and there have been no unusual noises, or any obvious anomalies. As you had suggested, I had also thought that a possible firmware update that may have changed a parameter and caused it, but Mattercontrol says I'm still using ROBOR1PLUSV1.

    The kicker is, I do have quite a bit of printing experience, but when I got this printer I specifically stuck with everything it was set to essentially 'default' operate with so I could get a good idea of it's operational quirks and such before bringing in different software or modifying the hardware in any way. So, outside of running the machine on the Mattercontrol Touch for all of 3 days when I first got it, everything has been run on a stock R1+ through Mattercontrol on my laptop with essentially default settings. To clarify as well, by 'essentially' I mean I have only ever changed temps, infill percentages and layer height, very cursory stuff... Never even adjusted print speed, and definitely didn't monkey with G-code settings or anything like that. Maybe I just picked up a gremlin. :rolleyes:

    I've got a couple of ideas for a workaround, but for now I'm going to just wipe my old software and start over, see if I have the same problem again and also if I have any problems running the machine on S3D instead... At least that should help tell me if I'm looking at a hardware or a software issue. I can't complain, I'm actually at over 500 hours printing since about the beginning of November, and the machine has run beautifully otherwise (on some pretty unfriendly models to boot). Thanks for the suggestion!
     
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    At least with S3D there is an actual level of support available if you experience issues.
    Sadly, I don't use MatterControl so all I can offer there are vague generalizations :)

    Over hundreds of print hours the only things I change on either of the Robo printers is an occasional belt tightening and a little grease.
     
  11. Shontzy

    Shontzy New Member

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    I was/am having the same issue.The software will center your part on the total print area, not the pad, regardless of where you place it. I found the best way to get around this is to have a small insignificant object that you will add to the edge of the y axis in the section that is off the heated pad (this can just be a .5 cubic mm cube). This will force the object you care about into the heated pad.
     
  12. Mirko3D

    Mirko3D New Member

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    I too am seeing this issue. It happened with MatterControl and Simplify3D. At least in S3D you can adjust the Y position to center the print on the heated part of the bed.
     
  13. Lael

    Lael New Member

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    Well, I did finally find the problem. It was (drum roll) a software issue. Mattercontrol would home properly, it would also level the bed at the typical points as it should, and the part would appear centered for print in the display in Mattercontrol ,just as it had always done. However, once the machine would start to attempt printing the part itself, it would orient the print WAY too far back (at least an inch, sometimes more) from center, causing all kinds of problems. Nevermind a part straying from the area of the heated bed, this problem was making it impossible to print larger pieces without the printer head physically trying to run past it's travel limits on the Y axis.. That problem combined with that y-offset from center varying inconsistently from print-to-print meant that I couldn't just manually change the print orientation by 'X' number of inches to compensate and have it work. I checked all of my settings over and over, compared it with my other computer's Mattercontrol settings, kept looking and looking.... and found nothing.

    So as a last resort, I just uninstalled Mattercontrol, reinstalled it, and it works fine. The only change I noticed with the reinstalled software was in Mattercontrol's 3d view: my original 3d view would show and image of the Robo3d bed design (with the big 'R' illustration/etc and heat area corner squares), now it illustrates the bed as a grid with measurements in centimeters to the proper proportions of the print area. So, all is good again, thanks for the advice while I was struggling!
     
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  14. HelmutK

    HelmutK New Member

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    @Lael Mine was doing this too, right out of the box. Center of print is about 1" back in Y axis. Mine came with MC 1.3 and I let it update to 1.5 when I installed the software. Did you upgrade from MC 1.3 to 1.5 through the MC interface? Maybe that is what is causing the offset. I will also try uninstalling the MH software and reinstall with 1.5 from Robo's site.
     
  15. Lael

    Lael New Member

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    Comparing the release notes to when I originally downloaded the software, I think I had 1.4. Anyway, I manually deleted the Mattercontrol application file, downloaded and installed the new one in the same spot, and the new release worked great. The new app version also still accessed my custom settings so I didn't have to enter them again.
     
  16. alphacat

    alphacat New Member

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    Hmm. We just got our R1Plus and are seeing the same thing (fresh out the box). A clean install of MatterControl made no difference, and we tried both the custom version provided by robo3d, and the vanilla from the mattercontrol site. We've also tried two different computers, just to be certain of clean installs. Any thoughts?
     
  17. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

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    Main thought is "forget the markings on the bed, home the machine, make a mark of your own, run it to the limits, make more marks, go by that and call it a day."
     
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  18. alphacat

    alphacat New Member

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    A reasonably sane approach, and probably what I'll end up doing. Thanks.

    Aside:
    I should've mentioned, in my initial post that I'm seeing this with MC build 1.5.1.6706 for Mac.
     
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  20. Pushpal Sidhu

    Pushpal Sidhu New Member

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    Hm, I'm wondering if this is part of the same issue, but on my R1+, the Y-Axis suddenly started to 'overshoot' causing slippage on the y-axis (the glass bed visibly shakes and makes a loud "BRRR" noise). Anyone run into this (might be some offset thing)?
     

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