Heatbed, Powersupply and Z Axis issues.

Filament type: ABS
Extruding Temp: 220
Bed Temp: 100 initial layer, 90 others.

So I received my printer a few days ago, for the most part I have been learning how to print with trial and error. Main problems are the usual, prints not sticking to the glass. Warping in my prints, etc. No success yet, but I am optimistic. Last night I had a few problems I could not figure out.

First off, I noticed my Z axis rod Wobbles as it moves the X axis up and down. Just one of the Z axis rods do this, not both. Should I be concerned with this? I am not sure if this is causing any problems with my calibration when I try to print?

Second, later in the night the heatbed stopped heating. It would get to a temp of about 80 C then just stop.... and start to fall in temperature. It would not ever again resume heating back up to the desired temp. I had to disconnect the printer completely. Turn it back on, and it would then start to heat. But only for a few minutes, then it would quit again and start to fall in temp.
The extruder started to exhibit this same behavior a bit after. I again turned off the printer, unplugged it completely. Plugged it back in, printer started to heat up the extruder and heat bed. Then stopped.

I was thinking maybe the power supply did not like me using the printer for an extended use of time and it was failing. As my X home, Y home, and Z home did not function as well for a moment. It was acting as though it did not have enough power. I turned it off for the night and figured I would just come back to it later.
Any suggestions is appreciated.
Thank you.

 

Have you verified your first layer and subsequent layer temps in Slic3r are set correctly? If it's heating at all then at least it's not a total failure. My heated bed died (completely) due to a failure of the thermistor in the hotend, but that doesn't sound like your experiencing that...

As for adhesion, I had a LOT of issues here at first as well. First off, you HAVE to be SURE your Z height is balls perfect. Also your bed has to be PERFECTLY level. I found that using a business card (at least my business cards) was just too thick, so went to using a much thinner piece of laserjet printer paper. What temperatures are you using for the head and bed for first and subsequent layers? Is it the first layer that's not sticking and it's delaminating or are they the second+ layers that are having issues? Have you tried blue painters tape? What are you doing for your first layer settings in the way of settings? Is your first layer squished NEARLY flat or somewhat rounded? You may need to look with a magnifying glass... but anyway, it should be FLAT FLAT FLAT and stick well. Also you may want to try starting with PLA. It's easier to learn to print with. Once you master PLA, then go to ABS. I've also found with setting my first layer height to 130% I've gotten MUCH better adhesion. Also if printing to the glass, clean it METICULOUSLY each time. There are some tricks like spraying the bed with hairspray I've read about, but basically I found that if I got that first layer laid down REALLY flat, and got "extra" filament extruded, things went a LOT better. I've also found, at least with my PLA filament, that heating the bed to 65c for the first layer helped a LOT, and then I knocked it down to 60c. I also was using 205c for the print head and then reduced to 200c, again, with PLA. I haven't tried any ABS prints yet.

 

Its the first layer that doesn't seem to stick. It will start to peel up off of the glass then start to warp. The other layers adhere to each other fine. the extruder for my ABS was at 225 and the other layers 220.
Yeah, i had been playing around with the calibration it looks to be getting better, now I think If i could just keep this heating plate from turning off and dropping temperature I think I might be able to get this to print. If I can keep the heatbed 85 or above it will stay down, 10-15 minutes into the print the bed just starts dropping in temp until its room temperature. Even though it says the bed is still on and the temp is set to stay at 90. So the print starts peeling up.

I think I may have found the issue for the heating bed by doing some google searching. I found other people had this issue when the control board that connects to the heat bed is not reading the correct resistance so more power consumption to heat the board is required, and the board just does not allow it. Or (and probably related) the pins that control the flow to keep a constant heat are overloaded and no longer working correctly. Causing the board not allowing the correct amount of voltage to flow to the heater. I checked the connection and it does not look burnt, or damaged. Not sure though, its very odd.

 

Well that is the thing though, is the sudden and major decrease in temp on the board. It does not stay heated, it stops and cools all of the way down to room temperature while I am printing. Even though the software indicates it is still set at 90. I Used a thermometer to test the bed. It does heat up and the program is accurate in its temperature readings, stays heated for 10 minutes or so then stops and cools down. Until I flip the power on and off.

 

Should the heatbed not stay at a 85 or above temp during the duration of the print?

 

That's a very interesting idea! You could always mount a small 12v case fan on the bottom of the enclosure and have it blow air out... air would come in and exhaust and likely keep the RAMPS cool enough. You could always print some small feet for the corners of the R3D to sit on to elevate it just enough to get good ventilation. If you put the mounted fan close to the RAMPS board, you should be able to provide enough airflow to keep it operating.

 

A setting??? You mean like in the firmware or repetier or something? I'm not sure what settings one would really change for "keep the bed at 80c after the first layer" other than the one. I've not read the firmware yet tho.

 

Which version of the RAMPS board are we using? I can't see any label on the board which states the revision... and that looks to be rather important to know when uploading firmware for PIN assignments. Hrmmmm. Looks like having the settings somewhere that come with the default config would be nice too! Looking around, I'm not seeing that anywhere... yet.

 

I wonder if it'd be OK to manually turn the heater on, prior to printing... so that it's already at temp prior to your hitting "Run Job". That way, it's maybe sitting at or about 5c under... that way while your setting up the slicer config and board layout for your prints, the bed and hotend be be already starting to warm up to temp, reducing the amount of time needed between Run and actual printing commencement...

Or would having it up at temp, without actually printing, be a Bad Idea(tm)?

 

I'm having the same problem. Heated bed gets up to temperature and then after about 10 layers the heated bed stops working and the temperatures dive......then the model falls off the bed..

 

Undertone, try propping the base up off the table with some sort of spacer and direct some air with a fan in there to possibly keep the electronics coo(er) during the print like Jeff (tesseract) said he was doing... and see how/what that does for you.

 

I think Tesseract was right on with the cooler and the control board. My bed is staying on longer than it did previously. Great suggestion man!

 

Yes that worked. Thanks for that suggestion.