Solved Help please! Z axis shifting and third layer prints in air!

Could be an overheating issue, I just lifted it and it seemed to improve it a little bit, left it running unattended and failed again probably about 45% done.


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Got a big fan to point at the printer?

Picture of a failure please

 

I plan on installing a bigger fan as soon as I get it. And all the failed prints are thrown out already. I'll try printing more tonight and I will try reversing the the little fan's direction.


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I'm sorry, I got your question wrong, you're talking about a large fan standing next to it and blowing at it. No I don't have anything blowing at it however I thought about turning the AC on to keep the room cooler.


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I can now mark the thread as solved because it turned out to be an overheating issue. I didn't print the platform lifters yet but the printer now stands on unfinished scraps of what was going to be the lifters. I just did an hour long print which came out nearly perfect. Now I have a problem with an over-extrusion but that I'll try to modify myself. Here's the print I just did.


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did you get the auto-level enabled yet? if not in MatterControl it is under settings>custom G-code>Start G-code.

add to the end/bottom of start G-code.
G29 ; probe the bed
G1 Z5 F5000 ; lift nozzle after probe but before printing starts

for the fan on the RAMPS i have mine blowing onto the board pulling the cooler air up (heat rises) it's sort of over the 2nd poly-fuse and sits over the X,Y,E drivers (but mine is the older R1, no bottom cover to it) for the R1 with a bottom cover i would have it blowing in (positive pressure with outside air, the heat and air will find and make its own way out.)

another possibility besides a heat issue is the Z-axis drive rod maybe loose in the coupler (i notice them in one of the pic's as not being the upgraded direct drive screws) if you hold the coupler and turn the threaded rod by hand and the rod rotates the coupler needs to be tightened, if you don't do the set screw mod you will need Teflon tape to make a tighter fit in the coupler.(the rod does work loose over time as well)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pdp1Q3scCQ coupler mod to help explain

 

My matter control is not functional, I have to reinstall it. Currently I'm using cura to upload the G-code to the SD card and plug the card to my XXL full graphic smart controller. I also checked the Z-rods and they sit very tight, they look like they are notched to sit in the couplings or something. Also I think that rather than using teflon tape I would use a nut to tighten the rods in couplings, just simply tighten the coupling and the nut in their opposite directions (usually works at work)

 

using a nut (jam nut) would work if the coupling was threaded but it's not threaded as far as i am aware, adding a nut to lock it in this circumstance would only pull the rod out of the hole. a set screw, keyway or shearpin would work better than the clamp couplings used in the stock printer or the new upgrade with a directdrive stepper ( http://www.robo3d.com/products/lead-screw-upgrade-kit) that just came out not to long ago. mattercontrol just did a new release last week fixing a bug i found along with some other bugs and fixes, make sure you get v1.3.1 as of this writing if you choose to try/use it.

 

Oh! I didn't even know it wasn't threaded. In that case yeah it would just slip the rod out of the coupling. Also one of my steppers is connected different than others. The Y axis connector is turned the other way than the others. if you zoom in you should be able to see that one of the connectors is turned. It came like that, I wonder if this could cause issues. I turned it around but the platform tried moving opposite direction, away from the stopswitch and made loud noise like the stepper was skipping teeth on the ribbed belt. Maybe all the other ones are reversed?


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just note the connectors and how they attach (save that pic for your reference), you'll know somethings up when and if you flash new firmware if they are backwards or not till then just leave them they way the are.

 

Ok thank You, I already flashed it once few days ago and didn't notice any difference at all. Maybe it's supposed to be like that. Although I noticed that when auto calibrating before printing, the nozzle usually doesn't go all the way to the line drawn on the platform for the first three points but moves all the way back to the line on the other side when testing last three points. Is it possible that something in Y axis has shifted? I don't worry about it too much, I'm not printing anything this large yet so the 1" is not that critical

 

which line? left. right, front, back (back being the line closest to the ac plug)

 

1" away from #1-3 towards the back. But stops right at the line of #7-9 with a short noise (like if the Y stepper skipped teeth or something)


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so it does all 9 points right? (the line's on the bed are a ruff guide to the possible print area only) the above pic is a ruff guide to the G29 measuring points and their order.

 

It works alright, just the #7-9 points are a little closer to #4-6 than #4-6 to #1-3


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ok, now for that noise, you say it sounds like it's skipping teeth, at what point does that happen?

 

When the platform moves to a 7th point of calibration moving along the Y axis. 8th and 9th points are OK because then only X axis moves. It's pretty short, like a split of a second. I don't think if I ever will go that far on the platform when printing.


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sounds like your y axis has an incorrect value for the bed length, home all then move the y axis 200, then set movement to 10 at a time and count when you here the noise -10 from count and re home then move 200 again + you count and set movement to 1 and count when you here the noise again -1 and that is the number you need to program your MAX Y for. same would go for the x axis as well, the dimension they give you are a guide but may not be the correct value for your system as every system is slightly different.

another possibility is your y axis has an obstruction in it's path or the rods are not parallel and binding.