Answered ABS Printing problems and the Z axis

Mike thanks for all your help. I've run out of time and need to leave for a meeting. I'll work on this again tomorrow.
BTW, where would I find the "Z step per mm" number?

 

If you use mattercontrol it's in the eeprom settings page

 

Good Morning Mike.

You were correct - Stepper per mm: z : 2267.72 e : 723.28

Should I change my z value to what you suggested in your earlier post?

Also, going to do that extrusion test and let you know the results. Thanks again

 

Mike - I ran Tom's extrusion test several times and I was only over the 100mm test by about 2mm.

 

Yes change it to 2560 or flash it to the M8 firmware here: http://help.robo3dprinter.com/Wiki/RoBo_3D_Firmware

You can adjust the Esteps by 2% if you're still having issues, but as mark said it's not a big error

 

Hey Mike and Mark – I really owe it to you guys, to tell you both, how this problem/thread has resolved. First, let me back up and give you a little background. I purchased my first Robo, in November of 2014. It was my introduction to 3D printing. For months, I was learning, testing, learning some more. I designed my first “real” piece in 123D. Let’s call it a very large, multi-layered, puzzle piece based on a grid, that all fits together. I printed my first “puzzle piece”, but was having several problems with that printer (clogs, print-head leaks and broken carriage). Robo 3D was very cool and sent me a replacement printer in February 2015. This one was the new design with the new bed. I continued to print my “grid puzzle”. I printed several pieces and found that one piece was off in the z axis, and was not lining up, and could not be joined to the other pieces in the grid. That’s where you guys come in. You both were correct that the problem was in the “Z Steps per mm: 2267.72”. I changed it to 2560 as you guys suggested, but my calibration prints still were short by 10%. I talked to Brian and Jerry at Robo, and it turned out that my replacement printer was shipped with the old version of the Arduino firmware. Every time I changed the Z steps, it reverted back to the original 2267. We uploaded the new “correct” version of the firmware. Then, we checked the Z steps, and it showed 2560. Brian said that the factory, building the printer screwed up. They built the new version of the Robo, and installed the old version of the firmware. The good news is, now I’m printing dimensionally accurate pieces. The bad news is, that everything I printed, with the replacement printer, was off in the Z axis by 10%. My large piece is now useless and I need to start over. As is, all the other pieces will never fit. I probably have three weeks solid, worth of printing wasted. That was a tough lesson. If I have learned anything, it is; after any big change to your system/printer, always print calibration tests. Don’t assume anything is right, unless you quantify, that it is all working correctly. And now we come to the end of my novel. Oh well, I knew that my travels down the path of 3D printing, would be long and full of potholes. From here, I can only go onward and up ward. Thanks you both for all your help!!!

 

Hey Mark, are you or Mike the administrator of this blog forum? I'd really like to change the title of this post. I messed up and titled it: "ABS Printing problems and the X axis" it really should read "ABS Printing problems and the Z axis". Makes it more accurate, if users are trouble shooting their own printing problems. (Also change the slug name too: helps in the search function)

 

Once again, thank you Mark!

 

Done.

And I see where I could have edited that headline myself. Thanks