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Solved R1 Plus print problems

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Jato, Apr 28, 2017.

  1. Jato

    Jato New Member

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    The file upload button doesn't seem to be working for me, and this is my first post so I can't post links, but I'm going to try to get around that by just posting the dropbox suffixes for my photos. I hope that works. Anyway...

    I just recently picked up a refurbished R1+, and screwed myself over by wrecking the hotend that it came with. R3D's sending me another one eventually, but because I'm impatient and didn't want to wait, I picked up a Reprap hexagon off of Amazon while I wait for the warrantied one to come in.
    Anyway, it worked fine for a while, but I eventually noticed that it was basically skipping the first layer. The prints came out more or less okay, but that's still not how it's supposed to do things, I think.

    Troubleshooting that led me to believe that the cause was that the first layer was trying to print too close to the base plate. This thread (community.robo3d. com/index.php?threads/z-offset-issue.18268/) had a suggestion of reloading default settings from the firmware with M502 and M500, so I did that, and that's where my troubles really began.

    After a few hours of trial and error with offsets, somehow the following seems to give my prints a decent first layer
    G28
    M565 Z0
    G29
    (dropbox) /s/w7iifpefn6ttpu9/2017-04-28%2001.39.34.jpg?dl=0
    That's a photo of the first layer and half of the second using those settings. I think it looks okay?

    However, by the third or fourth layer, major issues begin popping up with the print:
    (dropbox) /s/4ft1zintml67r1j/2017-04-28%2002.11.57.jpg?dl=0
    That's a photo of the fifth layer of the 40mm test cube off of Thingiverse. The perimeter is broken, you can see that the 3rd and 4th layers are underextruded, and the fifth layer, which starts the diagonal infill, is a disaster. I canceled the print at this point.

    I've now spent six hours trying to get this thing working again, and I'm at a complete loss.
    Here's what I'm working with:

    Filament type: PLA
    Extruding Temp: 210C
    Extruding speed: 30mm/s
    Bed Temp: 50C
    Bed makeup (i.e. what is all on the bed...glass; plexi; tape; hairspray; slurry etc): Aqua Net hair spray on the standard glass bed.

    Also, it doesn't seem like the printer has any issues actually extruding the filament. When I pull the head up, and tell it to spit out 10mm, I get this:
    (dropbox) /s/rifwiva0o1jc410/2017-04-28%2002.14.36.jpg?dl=0
    Which seems fine. I've also used this same spool to print out a few test pieces before I reset it, and those printed out without any issues, aside from the nonexistent first layer.

    Also, ignore the straw on the end of the screw there. For whatever reason, the screw on the print head is a little too short to trigger the x-axis sensor, so I put that there to give it the extra length it needed.
     
    #1 Jato, Apr 28, 2017
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2017
  2. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    It works much better if we don't have to mess with the links to see the images. Dropbox is one of the hardest web storage locations to direct link images from. Your options could be
    1. Lower the resolution and/or crop the images to upload directly using the Upload a File button
    2. Store the images in an online repository that will generate links for forums (imgur, photobucket among others)
     
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  3. Jato

    Jato New Member

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    Oh, was it a photo resolution problem? The only criterion that the upload feature listed was file size, so between that and it being 3AM, I didn't think to resize them. Anyway, here you go.
     

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  4. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Your settings are very far off from all the ABS printing I have ever done, I can't get a consistent extrude at 210°C nor can I ever get it to stick to the bed at 50°C without warping at the corners. Are you sure this is ABS? The first picture almost looks like it is extruding too hot and there is no way 210°C is too hot for ABS.

    There is also way more information needed to even attempt an assessment. what slicer? what profile? what layer height? etc.

    It this truly is ABS, someone else will need to provide more insight since I only print ABS maybe once a year.
     
  5. Jato

    Jato New Member

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    Sorry. More 3AM errors. It's PLA. I've edited the original post.
     
  6. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    We need more answers, please.
     
  7. Jato

    Jato New Member

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    Using MatterControl, other than speed, everything is on the default settings, I think. At least, I hadn't changed anything.
    Slice Engine: MatterSlice

    Quality: Medium
    Material PLA

    General settings:
    Layers/Surface
    Layer height 0.2mm
    First layer height 0.3 mm
    Bottom clip 0
    Outer surface perimeters 2
    Top solid layers 1mm
    Bottom solid layers 1mm

    Infill
    Fill Density 0.25
    Infill Type Grid
    Starting Angle 45
    Infill overlap 0.06mm

    Speed:
    Infill: 30mm/s
    Top solid infill: 30mm/s
    Raft 100%
    Inside perimeters: 30mm/s
    Outside Perimeters: 30 mm/s
    Support material 60mm/s (none used)
    Bridges: 60mm/s (none used)
    Speed for non-print moves:
    Travel: 150 mm/s
    First layer speed 30%

    Skirt and Rafts
    Loops 2
    Distance from object 6mm
    Minimum extrusion length 5mm
    Skipping raft settings because I didn't use one

    I don't understand what you mean by "what profile".
     
  8. Jato

    Jato New Member

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    In case it helps any, or I missed something important, here are screenshots of every settings window.
    The start G-Code is:
    G28 X0 Y0 Z0 ; home all axes
    G1 Z5 F5000 ; lift nozzle
    M109 S[temperature] ; set the extruder temp and wait
    G28 X0 Y0 Z0 ; Home Z again in case there was filament on nozzle
    M565 Z0
    G29 ; probe the bed

    The only change I made was adding M565 Z0, because it seemed to print out the first layer okay when I did that (G28, M565, G29) originally, then when I turned it off and back on it went up into the air again, so I put the change into its startup routine.
     

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  9. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Profile = all this stuff you just provided

    Looking at the pictures I can tell the following:
    1. It may be you are extruding too hot for the rather slow speed you are using. Try something like 200°C or even 195°C to prevent that bubbling seen in image 1
    2. If you printed only layer 1 and measured it's thickness, is it really 0.3 mm thick? My guess is that with no offset (M565 Z0) it is less.
    3. You might be under-extruding in general since default setting for the Robo tend to under-extrude. In the second image you attached you can see that the layers are not sticking to each other, that is either the result of under-extrusion or too big a layer height. Don't beleive it is layer height since you should be fine with any height between 0.10 mm and 0.30 mm if you are using a 0.40 mm nozzle.
    I can't help with MC since I stopped using it about a month after I got my Robo and haven't really looked or cared about it since.
     
  10. Jato

    Jato New Member

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    1 - It started at 60mm/s at 210 and started doing this, so I brought it down to 50, 40, and then stopped at 30. I'll try a slightly lower temp when I get home tonight.
    2 - I don't have anything that would let me measure to see if the first layer is actually 0.3mm, but I've tried several other settings with M565, ranging from Z0 here up to Z-2.0, in 0.1 increments, and at anything higher, it doesn't even seem to fill that space and starts extruding into the air.
    3 - I've tried turning the extrusion multiplier up to 1.1 and 1.25, but that didn't seem to help any. I'll give it another try this evening.

    Do you have a recommendation for a program other than MC?
     
  11. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    I use Simplify3D but I don't recommend it until you have exhausted all the free slicers such as Slic3r or Cura first. Simply based on purchase price and S3D's DRM policy.
     
  12. Jato

    Jato New Member

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    I still don't have a caliper to measure the thickness of the first layer (it's on my shopping list), but the first layer looks to be printing okay.
    Anyway, five tests with different settings all seem to be having the same problem.

    Test 1 - As shown in the original screenshots, but 50mm/s
    Observation: 1st layer okay, but slight pull away at upper back. 2nd layer underextruded and blotchy

    Test 2 - 50mm/s, Infill overlap 0.06mm > 0.1mm
    Observation: Very slightly improved performance on edges.

    Test 3: As Test 2, M565 Z0.1
    Observation: Print head definitely high. Same issues

    Test 4 - Infill overlap 0.1mm, 30mm/s, 200C, M565 Z0
    Observation:
    First layer looks okay, second layer has irregular extrusion.

    Test 5 - Infill overlap 0.1mm, 50mm/s, 210C, Z0, Extrusion multiplier 1.1
    Observation: First layer looks okay, second layer has irregular extrusion.
     

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  13. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    You see those brown spots on your prints, that is burned filament, so probably still extruding too hot, also not enough overlap is the cause of the gaps at the ends of the extrudes, I still think you are under-extruding.

    Try this:


    Also of note, none of these parameters exist in a vacuum. So when you are extruding enough from proper calibration, you will likely be extruding too much in layer 1, because layer 1 is being squished too much as a result of Z_Offset being 0.000. This is why I will ask you to calibrate everything first, so will anyone else that is willing to help. You have to start a a known good starting point. It is pointless to continue without a properly calibrated printer.
     
  14. Jato

    Jato New Member

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    Okay, so I did what he recommended, and I find that I need to change the steps/mm from 723 (current) to 805. I pop open the terminal, check the current status with M503, which outputs all the current settings, send M92E805, but then nothing happens. It actually looks like that command kills the printer completely, because it stops responding to any inputs after that.
    If I disconnect and reconnect, it starts responding again, but M503 again shows that M92E805 didn't go through.
    I've also tried adding it to the start G-Code, but then it just hangs the print when it hits that point. e.g. it'll zero the axes, hit M92E805, and just stop. Or if I set it as the first line, it just sits there after heating the bed.
     
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  15. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    really the correct way to do this is to modify the firmware and upload it...

    (and it would be M92 E805, all uppercase)
     
  16. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Note the mandatory space between M92 and E805
     
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  17. Jato

    Jato New Member

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    The video threw me off, because he left out the space when he hit that part.

    Anyway, I think I found the main issue. In addition to the extrusion rate being about 90% of what it should have been, the Z-axis steps/mm ratio was WAY off. Recalibrated that as well, and it now seems to be back to printing without any problems. Thanks for all the help!
     

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