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Solved R1+ failing auto-leveling

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by 4sfaloth, Dec 8, 2018.

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  1. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    Hi all,

    My R1+ was printing fine yesterday, but today suddenly it seems like it fails every auto-leveling calibration and then begins printing in the air.

    I have attached a video of the auto-level procedure but basically what happens is it does the first 4 presses against the bed correctly, but then the next 3 seem to trigger the pressure sensors immediately and the nozzle does not even go down. The final 2 seem correct again

    Any ideas on what causes this and how to fix it?

    Thanks in advance.
     
    #1 4sfaloth, Dec 8, 2018
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2018
  2. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    Upload does not seem to be working unfortunately :S
     
    #2 4sfaloth, Dec 8, 2018
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Post the video to imagur/you tube and link to it
     
    #3 mark tomlinson, Dec 8, 2018
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    #4 mark tomlinson, Dec 8, 2018
  5. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    Thanks. The symptons seem a lot like what is shown at 2m18s on that video, except that the carriage goes down on some of the steps, but not on others. But I cannot see anything wrong on the printer (photos in attachment).

    I will try to upload the video soon, but it looks a lot the one you mentioned at 2m18s except that for some of the steps the carriage actually goes down until it presses the bed (as it is supposed to), while in others it seems to trigger immediately
     

    Attached Files:

    #5 4sfaloth, Dec 8, 2018
  6. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    just managed to upload the calibration video to youtube:


    The video start on the 2nd step of calibration
     
    #6 4sfaloth, Dec 8, 2018
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Is it the camera angle or is your crossbar (the X axis) not straight across there?

    If one side is higher than the other that is a fail :)
     
    #7 mark tomlinson, Dec 8, 2018
  8. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    it's just the camera angle, it is straight
     
    #8 4sfaloth, Dec 8, 2018
  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    OK, well rest assured that if it doesn't hit the bed when probing then the RAMPS told the Arduino that one of the switches triggered :)

    Either the switch has a loose wire (because they "open" to indicate triggered or home) or there is a loose connection in the wire or it is loose where it plugs into the RAMPS>
     
    #9 mark tomlinson, Dec 8, 2018
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    While it may seem that way, it is not a complicated circuit .. the two switches are in series in a loop back to the RAMPS and when one opens then the nozzle is "on the bed" and Z is "home"

    It stops going down at that point
     
    #10 mark tomlinson, Dec 8, 2018
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  11. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    I see. Not sure if I can see/access the RAMPS board, but the wires going into the switches seem fine at visual inspection. Is there any way to determine which sensor is falsely triggering? What do you suggest me doing?
     
    #11 4sfaloth, Dec 8, 2018
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Move the extruder around manually and fire off this command (try doing it at the 9-point leveling spots or close) in the GCode terminal :

    M119

    It will give you a report like this:

    Reporting endstop status
    x_min: open
    y_min: open
    z_min: TRIGGERED
    z_probe: open
    filament: open

    TRIGGERED means that the Z endstop is reading HOME (which SHOULD mean the nozzle is on the bed).

    Try raising and lowering the Z in the suspect spots and see WHERE on the Z it starts reporting triggered.
     
    #12 mark tomlinson, Dec 8, 2018
  13. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    My suspicion is that something is making it read triggered before it is on the bed.
     
    #13 mark tomlinson, Dec 8, 2018
  14. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    Thank you again for all your help so far Mark. I believe we may be getting closer to solve the issue

    Indeed running M119 on the suspect spots reported triggered way before the nozzle actually hit the bed. I have since then traced the issue back to the right switch.

    I don't really understand what is going on though. Both switches seem to work well for the first three steps of the calibrations BUT, after the 3rd, I can see the right switch kind dislodges itself a bit and there is a slight gap between the switch and the carriage so that is not being pressed at all for the next steps, and that is why that fail. Then, miraculously, it seems to re-attach itself after the 7th so that the 8th and 9th are correct again.
    I'm attaching a new video which hopefully illustrates this:
    I am sorry for the poor quality (terrible phone camera :S) but I think you can see pretty clearly that, when the nozzle hits the bed for the 3rd stage, the right switch seems to dislodge

    I tried to get the rod as even as possible; running the calibration I Z values around -3.0 for all 3 first positions (the ones that are working). Is this ok, or should they be all close to 0'?

    Any ideas on what may be causing the dislodging of the switch?
     
    #14 4sfaloth, Dec 9, 2018
  15. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    There is nothing to calibrate this is done manually with the power off.

    Lift the Z off the bed. Turn off power and unplug the USB cable. Hold one rod and turn the other to get them to the point where they are both close to the same height. Power it back up (after making sure the Z switches are closed and both are mounted in the same spot, they can be adjusted to be tighter/looser to the crossbar). This should have been covered in the video I linked to earlier as well. When the nozzle is off the bed both switches are up tight against the crossbar, CLOSED and facing the same directions (because if one spins 90 degrees in the mount then things will go wrong).
     
    #15 mark tomlinson, Dec 9, 2018
  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    As far as the Z values reported by the autoleveling they are what they are and will not vary unless you manually level the bed.
    That is an entirely different topic (and while manual leveling is better it should not be required for a working print).
     
    #16 mark tomlinson, Dec 9, 2018
  17. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    I think this may be this issue, the right one is probably not tight enough against the crossbar and then comes loose in the middle. But I did not see anything in the video about how to fix this? only how to level the rod... and that seems level to me
    I managed to get it printing by manually holding the switch as is shown on the video (still printing & hoping it will go well until the end...) but of course this is not very convenient as a permanent solution.
     
    #17 4sfaloth, Dec 9, 2018
  18. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    There is a nut that holds the mount for the switch in place with respect to the crossbar. It clamps the mount against the nut that slides up into the bottom of the crossbar.
    With Z off the bed ...
    Loosen that nut that holds things tight, raise the nut and the mount until the nut is all the way inside the crossbar and the switch is firmly against the bottom of the crossbar. Tighten the nut again.
     
    #18 mark tomlinson, Dec 9, 2018
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    #19 mark tomlinson, Dec 10, 2018
  20. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    #20 4sfaloth, Mar 28, 2020
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