Solved printing in the air!

my robo r1 plus is hardly 2 weeks old and it's screwed up. it keeps printing up in the air. I read the forums and checked all the stuff everyone suggests. I checked the end stops and the wires and the g code and watched the terminal as it was leveling and while i was fiddling with the switches.....and changed the g code to include a z offset. no matter what number I put in for the offset, it won't work. a negative 8 brings the z up and a positive 8 does nothing. I even checked the box for. "z can be negative" and still no luck. manually centered the head and manually turned the threaded rods till I heard the switches click.... it all seems level.........starting to think I'm screwed. any help would be greatly appreciated. how does spacing in the g code effect things? should it be x1.1 or x-1.1 ? or even x 1.1 or x -1.1 <--- with a space after the X....

 

My Robo had the same problem. Check to see if the z end stops are out of place and if they are check out the link below

http://download.robo3d.com/videos/LeftSide_Z_EndstopBracket.mp4

 

been there....done that.... I already looked everywhere I can think to look. and tried it all. it's gotta be in the software. but there is no simple fix to just set a z offset. custom g code isn't working, and I don't see a z offset in matter control like some people have. I made a macro for an offset, I don't even know what the macros do, but I tried anyway. I selected " z can be negative" just in case. I have fiddled wirh as much as I can in hopes of stumbling across something that does it....

 

I emailed matter control, they directed me here.... to you guys. I wish there were a hard reset button. Just reset it to out of the box condition.

 

Did you try this:

To do this you just need to lower the Z Axis a couple of millimeters from the bed and slide the extruder to one side. Now pay attention to the gap between the nozzle and the bed while sliding the extruder to the other side. You will want to adjust one side to make this gap consistent across the bed. You can do this by turning the threaded rods with your hand to raise or lower each side.

 

Make sure that the auto-calibration on the software if disabled, if it's on it can throw it off.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems, i would like to tell you it gets better, but it wont. I had the same problem with mine, come to find out, it was the lid that was causing the problem. The newer R1's including the big batch of factory refurbished units they just shipped out all have the Z stabilizers in the cover, the angle on them is off and it causes one of the four corners to not register correctly on the Auto-Level. Unscrew the cover and just let it sit on the machine freely. Works most of the time, sometimes you have to wiggle it or lift it up then put it back on again, watch when it does the auto level, you will see that the nozzle does not touch the bed in one corner the tines that it starts printing off in the air.

Worse, is once you get that figured out, you will discover that the Y axis has some major issues as well, still have not figured it out on my machine yet, but a quick google search will show that hundreds of people have the same problems over and over.

I hate to say it, as the machine is beautiful, but the machine is nothing more than a $400 Chinese ebay printer with a larger build area and a $40 injection molded case around it.

If you purchased one of the refurb machines from ebay, I would send it back and get a refund ASAP, if you bought it direct from Robo, it has a warranty, sounds like it would be a good time to use it and let Robo figure it out. Unless you have a huge love of tearing things apart and fixing them, maybe the R1 is not the printer for you. I found out the hard way

 

Can you clarify the issue a bit more? Whats occurs when? i.e. You send the print from matter control, it runs the 9 point check, then heads to the middle to start the print? once in the middle starting point is it already off the bed by a by several MM or more?

Can you post a pics? Usually host them on Flickr or similar and link them in.

 

yup.... it seems to be leveling fine... but when it starts to actually print.... its like maybe 10mm off the bed.

 

You mention custom G-Code, can you post that specific G Code and pics of your Matter Control Settings you tried?

I could just be a visual person and maybe nobody else needs pics but without them and that g-code all replies are essentially a "best guess" or a "hmm sounds like that problem I had once".

 

here ya go... I got the g code from a post in here somewhere....

 

I would delete your machine in Matter control. and reinstall with the standard firmware. Robo firmware , then set your z offset to .75 and give that a shot. I just reconditions 14 machines and that is what I do with each machine and they print perfect.

 

sounds like a plan..... pretty sure I can figure out the deletion of the machine in matter control..... how do I reinstall the firmware? just do what I did right out of the box? and matter control does not have a proper z offset function on mine.... I've been fiddling with a custom g code offset I found in these forums. which is being weird..... a -1.1 appears to do nothing.... a -8 causes a rise in the z movement, and a +8 does nothing. so maybe i'm messin it up ... but i'm having seemingly unique experiences with my robo.

 

Yes go to select your printer then upper left edit. You will be given a delete option. You can just add printer again and try that. It might work. If not then download ardueno for free from the ardueno website. You use this to flash the Robi updates or firmware onto your printer. Robo uses a ardueno compatable board and ramps to run the printer.once you have ardueno install on your computer go to Robo3d.com. Select support tab, then documentation. They have all the firmware there. If you have the R1plus select lead screw update file . Download and save in a file you can locate. Open the file double click on it and open it. There will be one file colored for marlin and one for the update "somethingplus" click the plus file and ardueno will open the file . Upper left will be a upload button. Plug in USB and hit upload. Done

 

Hope the re-adding of the machine works!

I suspect something in your G Code based on the z numbers in there but im no G code expert . I have print running right now when complete ill load up MC add your gcode and give it a shot.

It will be a few hours though, question did you erase all the other gcode before pasting in the new?

I would just offer my current gcode but i jumped from MC to Cura a while ago

 

YIPPEE!!! ok so I just deleted my machine from matter control and added it back and now it friggin works!!! THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! only problem now is it's so close to the bed it wont extrude.... so I hit the .08 macro and its printing fine now... Thought the .08 was a negative value, but whatever... it's working. Thank you all for your help.

 

oh, and sorry dude, I didn't even see your post asking for more detail.... It was doing the bed leveling procedure just as it always did, but the second it started going through the motions to print the actual thing, it was like it thought the bed was closer to the extruder than it was.... it wasn't doing that trippy diagonal / vertical lift like when the switches are messed up or the leveling was off... it literally tried doing the print normally, just not on the bed.