Partially Solved General Troubleshooting

Good evening Robo community.

I'm attempting to optimize my current generation Robo3d R1, so I have been reading Trffid Hunter's Guide as well as the R1 troubleshooting manual starting on page 41. Hunter's guide is fairly comprehensive, but I was hoping for some greater help specific to the R1.

So, I was directed to print a couple calibration pieces, the 50mm Calibration Angle and the 5mm Calibration Cube Steps. I found that the greatest success for both was obtained through the Medium settings as it is now, since I have significant difficulty attempting to use the High settings.

Print Setting Information:
R1 - Current Model
Plastic: Robo PLA
Temperature: E=210, B=55
Layer Height: .2mm
Slicer: Matter Control

Current starting g-code:
G1 Z5 F5000 ; lift Z by 5mm
G28 ; home all axes
M565 Z1.1; set the offset for auto-leveling mechanism
G29 ; run 9 point auto-level
M300 S440 P200 ;A4: 440
G0 Z5

Results:
In all cases the x and y axis measurements were extremely close to the designed value, under .1mm difference. However, my z axis measurements were off by approximately 10% consistently between the two parts. How can I improve this so that my parts come out the right height?

EDIT: Changed my z offset, which brought it down to 7% too short. But, it raised my single layer height to .24mm.
EDIT2: Reverted my z offset, changed the EEProm as suggested, and this issue is fixed.

The 50mm Calibration Angle revealed an issue at the corners of prints. As shown in the image, little "mouse ears" are commonly created at each corner. What is causing this, and how do I fix it? Yes, there are some minor stringing problems I'm adjusting the extruder temperature for right now.

The 5mm Calibration Cube Step revealed some bridging issues that I'm currently working through using the general settings, and some overheat at the topmost cube I'm adjusting settings for (since the layers are printing too rapidly), which is apparently very common and part of the reason this print exists. As seen in the image, this print also showed an issue with the top layers I've been trying to correct unsuccessfully: the top layers are not fully covered. I've tried fixing this by increasing the number of top layers with some success, but it doesn't seem to be the issue. Any thoughts on what may be causing this?

I also observed that each time the Robo goes through its nine point autolevel, the table overshoots when moving to the first of the last three points (the side of the bed lacking a limit switch). Is this simply a matter of changing the Bed Size or Print Center values?

I also included for your viewing pleasure what my cat does when I print.

My apologies for the length.

 

Ah shoot I feel dumb now, I remember reading those posts about a week ago and had forgotten. Thank you, I changed that value and am currently redoing a test print, will update with the measurements.

UPDATE: Yes sir that was the issue, part height is now only a difference of 1%, thank you.

Okay, I understand. What I meant by overshoot is that it moves far enough to hit its physical limit and jumps twice, every time, which I imagine can't be good for the belt connectors. I have not touched the bed size and center numbers from the stock install.

Any thoughts on the mouse ears or the incomplete top face coverage?

 

Increase top fill layers. 1.2mm usually works well (12 for .1mm, 6 for .2mm, and 4 for .3mm)

 

Right now my "layers on top" is set at 5 as opposed to the stock 3 with the .2mm layer height. I will increase it per your recommendation and test again. I misunderstood what you had typed at first, so please ignore prior to edit if you saw it.

To Mark, that is correct, it is the Y and not the X. In a quick test the belt does not appear to be slipping/traveling in standard travel, nor does anything appear to be blocking the hard stop opposite the limit switch (the hard-stopped side is the side "bouncing", which is the positive Y direction). I will check more thoroughly when I have some time later to see if something is hitting, or if the belt is slipping as it reaches its far limit.

Thank you both for your help.

 

Alright, finally able to get back at it, sorry for the long delay.

Increasing the top fill layers further helped significantly, and though I seem to have to reset the z steps in the EEprom constantly, the height is working exactly right.

I have looked into the bed going too far: the cable is not binding, so at least that's not an issue, but the bed does hit upon every autolevel. There is nothing blocking the path for the bed, it just seems to go too far. It occurs to me to ask if the bed should have a limit switch for each side, as mine only has one limit switch on one side, but that could be simply by design.

Better description of the issue: When indexing to the last 3 points of the nine point autolevel, the bed appears to travel too far, hit the mechanical (not electrical) stop, which makes the belt sound like it slips twice as it tries to push further. In the settings, my bed is set to a size of 228 and 254, with the center (at the half, as would make sense) at 114 and 127. These are the values that the software started out with, are they wrong?