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Solved Printer slows to crawl arcs and circles

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Wesley Knapp, Feb 23, 2019.

  1. Wesley Knapp

    Wesley Knapp Active Member

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    Printer now comes to a crawl when laying down circles and arcs. Haven't changed anything and happens with 2 different slicers and different models. Also now getting occasional layer shift (x axis) which reverts back to correct position after printing a few more layers. I've checked the x belt and it's not loose. Wondering if stepper or driver is malfunctioning.

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    #1 Wesley Knapp, Feb 23, 2019
  2. Wesley Knapp

    Wesley Knapp Active Member

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    Pic of layer shift and then back to proper alignment. [​IMG]

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    #2 Wesley Knapp, Feb 23, 2019
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    layer shift is always one of a few things:
    1) Loose belt or loose drive cog (check stepper motor drive shaft gear)
    2) Broken or loose mounting to the drive itself OR something is physically blocking the travel
    3) Faulty stepper
    4) faulty stepper driver
    5) Bad control boards (arduino/RAMPS) -- seldom the case.
     
    #3 mark tomlinson, Feb 23, 2019
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    It is a complex machine, but not a complicated one :)
    A gas car is far more complicated to work on.
     
    #4 mark tomlinson, Feb 23, 2019
  5. Wesley Knapp

    Wesley Knapp Active Member

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    Yup, it was the X stepper driver. The heat sink had fallen off believe it or not. I replaced the driver board and heatsink just in case it was permanently damaged. Kind of hard to believe it was overheating even without a heatsink as I have 2 fans blowing across the board perpendicularly. It's working great now. That fixes the slow arcs/circles/layer offset issues, now onto the next issue... layer thickness/consistency issues in retraction areas.

    All 3D printers are a work-in-progress.

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    #5 Wesley Knapp, Feb 23, 2019
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    They require the heatsinks to go above 1amp drive current. It is probably fine if you put the sink back on it. They will self-limit the current if they get too warm.
    However for 2 bucks, I don't invest a lot of time into them :)

    Excellent work sir.
     
    #6 mark tomlinson, Feb 23, 2019

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