Now what?

So here's a little background.
We up-graded to the E3D print head. We really tried for months to get a good print but couldn't get one to finish without clogging up.

We tried everything we could think of from playing with the temperature, to polishing the inside, to taking apart the print head for cleaning after ever use. No luck.

I went back to the original print head supplied with the Robo. We finally got through a few prints! The quality wasn't as good as I would like but we finally got through a few prints without clogging.

Now, I tried to use Matter Control and Pronterface but the quality was really bad. I tried Repetier Host and things went well. Much better prints.

Went out to do another print and Repetier doesn't work. WTF? Nothing changed, now it doesn't work. I load the model, slice it, start the heaters just like I always do.

The temperature gets to the required spot, I hit "Run job", the print head moves to the correct position and doesn't move from there.

Repetier Host reports that the print head is moving (looking at the numbers for the X and Y) but it does not move. Sometimes when I hit the "Run Job" button, the print head heater turns itself off.

I up graded to the latest version of Reptetier Host, no luck.

I really want this printer to print decent models, every time, using different filaments.

I don't want to do what my wife suggests, and that is to take down to the river and throw it in. We've spent a lot of time trying to get this to work. Is there anyone out there that can suggest something we can try?

Cheers,
John

 

PLA and All metal hot ends isn't the best combination. You can usually mitigate jamming by using an inline oiler.

Try cura as well, or use an LCD/SD print

 

Ah ha. We've been using ABS on the Robo. I'll try Cura. I've been trying to print the LCD holder from Thingaverse but to no avail. I have the unit but want the lower holder to prevent any damage to the unit.

cheers,
John

 

What temp are you printing at? On an all metal you could go up to 245-250 without problems with abs.

For a PTFE based extruder you should be fine at 230.

 

Trying the temperature between 225 and 235.

 

Let's see some pics of your prints then

 

Here's a couple of photos. I used black and glow-in-the-dark ABS. The 2 black ones on the left that look good were done with Repetier Host before it decided not to work. The others were done with Matter Control.
Cheers,
John

 

The glow in the dark look like they need more vertical layers. Also the stringing seems to be an issue, probably too cold I think.

 

Down loaded and tried to print with Cura. Granted, I've never used Cura before but as things were getting ready, when the bed temperature hit 115 (where I had it set), I got an error message about the heaters shutting off.
Here's the log:
Recv: T:233.6 E:0 W:9
Recv: T:233.0 E:0 W:8
Recv: Error:Temperature heated bed switched off. MAXTEMP triggered !!
Changing monitoring state from 'Printing' to 'Error: Temperature heated bed switched off...'
Recv: Errorrinter stopped due to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart. (Temperature is reset. Set it after restarting)
Recv: T:233.0 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:232.3 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:232.0 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:231.6 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:231.0 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:230.3 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:230.0 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:229.3 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:229.0 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:228.1 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:228.0 E:0 W:9
Recv: T:227.0 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:227.0 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:226.6 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:226.0 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:225.1 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:225.0 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:224.3 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:224.3 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:223.6 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:223.4 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:222.9 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:222.1 E:0 W:10
Recv: T:221.4 E:0 W:9
Recv: T:221.2 E:0 W:10

 

I adjusted the speeds and lowered the bed premature to 110 and it's working better.
I'll post results.
Cheers,
John

 

love your prof pic

 

I've cut back on the flow rate (to 65%) and it seems to have helped bu things still look messy. It appears that the head is "plowing" through the material that has already been laid down.
Is there any one else using Cura for printing with the Robo who would be willing to share the ir settings?

Cheers,
John

 

OK, now the damn ROBO shuts down as soon as it hit the set extruder temperature. WTF is wrong with this POS?
Do I have to flash the firmware again? Anyone want to buy a used ROBO?

 

hey, with this problem you need to tell cura to raise the head a couple mm before changing positions, i don't exactly remember where it is, you'll have to search around.

 

@Mike Kelly any ideas
@sarge5020 what was the last thing you did to it before it started doing this?

 

Mike Kelly flashed the firmware for me awhile ago. All I did was remove the E3D print head and went back to the one I got with the printer. I was able to actually finish a print until one day it decided not to work any more. I tried Matter Control and Pronterface but the quality of the prints were horrible. I tried Repetier Host and they were much better. Then, like I said, one day I went to the printer, started it up just like I do every time but it decided not to work. Now when I try to print, the extruder heats up to the set temperature and then shuts off.
I'm at the end of my rope with this thing.

 

I'll bet I know what this is.

A. What are you heating it to
B. Did you change your max temp in the firmware?

I believe the printer is supposed to automatically kill the action if it exceeds the Matt mp as a safety precaution.

You need to read this. You REALLY need to read this. @Mike Kelly please link the q and a google doc.

Final note. You should use the e3d its way better.

 

Like I said, Mike flashed the firmware remotely to allow the E3D print head to reach a higher temperature, I think he set it to 290 or 300C. I was trying to reach 235C for this last print.
As far as the E3D goes, it keeps plugging up. No matter what I try, I cannot finish a print so I went back to the print head that came with the ROBO.
I have to tell you that it's been one thing after another with this printer. It's very disheartening as I see the prints that other people are doing with the ROBO but I can't seem to get anywhere near that quality, when I get it to work at all. I'm at the point where I don't want to spend any more money on this thing (or time for that matter).

 

Looks like a loose connection in the heater bed circuit.

Maybe the plug is loose

 

Heater or heated bed. If it's the heated print bed, how does that affect the extruder? I'll check things under the machine anyway.