Solved Help! first print, nozzle dragging+scratching bed

I watched the video... everything seemed in order. Sending the printer to home on each axis via MatterControl controls tab appeared to work fine. The print went through a sequence where it touched the bed in several places, which I understand to be how it auto-levels itself. I noticed there was a jerk of the Y-axis/bed during this phase when it reached its max. But the real problem is as soon as it started moving like it might print MatterControl's calibration circle example file, the print nozzle started scratching the bed!

I went into MatterControl and changed the "offset" under Macros to 1, this seemed to be reflected when I sent the Z-axis home, now showing -1.0 instead of -.8, but when I tried to print again, it did exactly the same thing, scratching the bed again.

This is a refurbished R1 plus that I just bought from Robo, my first print on any 3D printer. What should I do now?

 

I have confirmed that it does touch the bed 9 times before it moves to where the calibration circle print should begin, so that's good.

When I added M565 Z-1.5 to the starting G-code before G29, nothing happened, it still dragged the nozzle on the bed.

I also tried adding G1 Z5.0 suggested in a different nozzle-dragging-related post, but that also seemed to also have no effect.

Any other suggestions?

 

Below is a picture of where in Matter Control to set the Z offset in the Custom G-Code. You can get to that under Printer in the Advanced view. Confirm that is where you are setting it. Then lets confirm that Matter Control is listening to you. Remember after you set the custom g-code you have to press save for the changes to apply. Now go back to the queue screen and then in the lower right of that panel, you will see a popup menu called Queue... That is where you can export the gcode to a file. Do that and then open up the saved gcode file with a text editor like Notepad++ or something similar. You should then be able to search for the M565 command and verify it is set to what you are telling it in Matter Control. Don't use G1.

 

I found M565 in the exported g-code:

; settings from start_gcode
G28 X0 Y0 Z0 ; home all axes
G1 Z5 F5000 ; lift nozzle
M109 S210 ; set the extruder temp and wait
G28 X0 Y0 Z0 ; Home Z again in case there was filament on nozzle
M565 Z-1.1 ; set the offset for auto-leveling mechanism
G29 ; probe the bed

 

Great! And is it still dragging the nozzle? Have you updated the firmware lately? If still dragging I wonder if your z steps are correctly set.

 

I have not touched the firmware since receiving the printer, but anything is worth a try, so I downloaded firmware from the Robo_3D_Firmware_Release_Notes page as a hex file for the R1+ (firmware name is R1+ V2, also the name MatterControl reported for the previous firmware). I uploaded it to the printer via MatterControl. No dice, the nozzle is still dragging on the glass.

danzca6 mentioned I should make sure the z-steps are setup correctly, where can I learn more about that?

I also tried changing the M565 value from -1.1 to -2.1, but it did not appear to make a difference, it still dragged the nozzle.

 

Post two things. Pics of your z axis and the output from you sending command M503.

 

Alright, sorry for the long delay to reply, life outside 3D printing caught up to me.

So, again, the problem is when it finishes G29, it doesn't raise the Z axis enough if at all, instead dragging the nozzle across the glass to the start of the print, and it starts trying to print that way, still dragging, unless I flip the power switch.

Here is M503 as requested.
->M503

<-echo:Steps per unit:
<-echo: M92 X80.00 Y80.00 Z800.00 E723.38
<-echo:Maximum feedrates (mm/s):
<-echo: M203 X500.00 Y500.00 Z5.00 E25.00
<-echo:Maximum Acceleration (mm/s2):
<-echo: M201 X9000 Y9000 Z100 E10000
<-echo:Acceleration: S=acceleration, T=retract acceleration
<-echo: M204 S1300.00 T3000.00
<-echo:Advanced variables: S=Min feedrate (mm/s), T=Min travel feedrate (mm/s), B=minimum segment time (ms), X=maximum XY jerk (mm/s), Z=maximum Z jerk (mm/s), E=maximum E jerk (mm/s)
<-echo: M205 S0.00 T0.00 B20000 X17.00 Z0.40 E5.00
<-echo:Home offset (mm):
<-echo: M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
<-echoID settings:
<-echo: M301 P22.20 I1.08 D114.00
<-ok

and some pictures of the z-axis rods at the base of the printer.





When I took these, I noticed the gold-brown nut on the rod on the right side, the last thing on the rod before it goes below the bed, is not buried in the black plastic part above it the way it is on the left side. You can kind of see this in the pictures (the extruder is on the side I am calling "right"). Does that matter?

 

Looks like your Z steps are correct since you have the R1+ with the integrated leadscrews. I did notice that your right side brass nut is showing more than it should. May want to take the bolt and nut that holds the bracket for the z endstops and loosen them so you can make sure the x end caps are as far as they can be on those brass nuts. Retighten and see how that goes. If x is really out of wack compared to the y axis then your G29 routine doesn't always work the way it should. I could be wrong, but just from the pics it looked like the end caps weren't on the brass nuts all the way. Something to verify.

 

I loosened the right endstop and got the brass nut as inside it as the left side was, and re-tightened. M565's parameter finally seemed to make a difference, it printed above the bed instead of scraping it! Then I just needed to adjust M565 as you originally proposed, and I finally got to 3D print something! Thank you guys for your time, comments, and suggestions! Solved.