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Unanswered Intermittent Squiggly Lines

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by robofish, Jul 1, 2016.

  1. robofish

    robofish New Member

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    File_001 (1).jpeg File_000 (1).jpeg File_002 (1).jpeg

    I am getting squiggly lines at regular intervals. I did find a post about bed leveling being an issue, but how could it be unleveled at only those intervals, and on both axis? (See the pictures.)

    Any ideas or suggestions?
     
    #1 robofish, Jul 1, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2016
  2. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    My first thought would be layer height is too high. to figure out how high each layer can be, take you nozzle diameter and factor it by the most common recommendation of .4 to .6 (I actually think you can go between .25 to .75). So that will mean at the default nozzle of 0.4 mm you could use any layer height between 0.1 mm and 0.3 mm (approximately) If you exceed 0.3 you may end up with layers that lay on top of one another rather than adhere to one another.

    In any case, more details of how this was sliced or whether or not you have upgraded firmware needs to be provided for more than just guesses.
     
    #2 WheresWaldo, Jul 2, 2016
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  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Are you using the correct firmware for your printer?
    In addition to what @WheresWaldo said if you get the wrong Z steps (because you loaded the wrong firmware) then it will do this sort of mess as well.
     
    #3 mark tomlinson, Jul 2, 2016
  4. robofish

    robofish New Member

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    I don't think it is the bed level alone per se, because it is only making weird lines at a regular intervals. If it was the bed leveling alone, I would think the whole print would be squiggly.

    As far as the firmware it was printing fine, and then just started acting weird. I haven't changed any code. But I do agree that it is pointing to a bits and bytes issue.

    I don't think it is the bed leveling. It does print some lines straight, and I can see the z-axis rods turn slightly when it goes weird and then see them turn again when it prints straight. So, I agree it is a software issue too, except it came out of the blue. I didn't touch the software at all.

    I powered the printer down, closed MatterControl and restarted it but no joy. We did have a quick power outage yesterday. Could a spike screw up the firmware? I have 2 Robo 3d R1 Plusses and number 2 works just fine. (Which is why I got the second one, for insurance/backup.)

    Also, I am printing the same file on machine machine number 2 and that is working, so I don't think it is an issue with the .stl or the MatterControl slicing.
     
    #4 robofish, Jul 2, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2016
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Not likely the firmware, but we had to ask.
     
    #5 mark tomlinson, Jul 2, 2016
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Try another slicer to be safe and if that does the same thing then we start looking at hardware.
     
    #6 mark tomlinson, Jul 2, 2016
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  7. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    That does sound like a slice failure. If you give me your settings and z offset i can slice your stl in simplify for you then youll know if its matter control or printer.
     
    #7 Geof, Jul 2, 2016
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  8. robofish

    robofish New Member

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    I am pretty sure the issue is the printer. I have 2 printers, A and B. A goes to a Mac. B goes to a Windows machine. So, system A and system B.
    -Printer A to Mac (A) is the one not working. It is the one printing squiggly lines. It is not a bed level issue because it is intermittent, and I can see and feel the Z-axis turning on those passes when it goes nuts.
    -Printer B to Windows (B) does work. (although it has its own z-axis offset issues, from my thread a couple weeks ago, but good enough for now.)
    -Printer B to Mac (A) does work, so it is not a MatterControl or slicing issue.
    -Printer A to Windows (B) does not work. It cannot connect at all to Windows machine (B).

    So it appears something is wrong with the board or firmware (which I have never touched) on printer A.

    Thus, Printer B works (meh) on both computers. Printer A doesn't work on either, it prints squiggly on the Mac, and won't even connect to the Windows machine.

    I really hope this makes sense to not just me. :)

    Thoughts?
     
    #8 robofish, Jul 7, 2016
  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yes, under warranty contact Robo with that data and get the electronics replaced.

    Out of warranty you need a new RAMPS/Arduino pair for that one machine (probably just one of those,but might as well replace both).
     
    #9 mark tomlinson, Jul 7, 2016
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