Solved Robo3D Just won't print reliably

Hi Everyone,

I have a new Robo 3D, Auto, with M8 rods, running v5 firmware. Initially, I had issues that were caused by out of date firmware, after upgrading all seemed well. I was abled to run several small prints (less than 20mm square) and multiple copies of small prints through the Robo without issue. Then things changed on more complex parts...

The problem is that the Robo will print perfectly for one iteration, and then (using identical setup/computer) ruin a print (see attached prints1 and prints2). Details:

(1) Prints 1 and 2 were modified files that printed fine. Print 3 was the result I needed. (see good.jpg)

(2) Then I told the machine to reprint and got #4 result. Notice how the surface is grainy/poor and the Z axis stopped advancing, burning the plastic. I cancelled the print. (see bad.jpg)

(3) Rebooted Robo, computer, etc. Tried again and got 5. Same thing, though the flat wedge portion looks good and it simply stopped advancing Z and burned the plastic in a different location

(4) I then pulled out an old, clean 10.6.8 mac and installed Cura on it and gave that a go. It printed fine; however, it had over-extrusion, banding, etc. (see cura.jpg) I am not familiar with Cura so wasn't sure where to start to see if I can clean it up. The finish isn't as nice as MC (when it works).

(5) To make sure it wasn't a file issue I printed the same file on my Solidoodle 2 (#7, using RH and Slic3r). Printed fine. Not as nice finish as the Robo, but useable.

(6) Lastly, to see if it was just my Mac MC, I tried printing via MC on my Ubuntu 12.04 machine. It had the same problem as 4 & 5.

Very frustrating. Any ideas?

If someone has a suggestion to fix Cura so it won't over-extrude I can run several prints through that to see if it is just MC. Also, I did install Repetier-Host on the 10.6.8 mac and can try that out if someone has some settings they can start me out on.

Jeff

 

Cura is by far the most stable software I have used, that is, if you set it up properly. If you're overextruding in Cura you can either throttle the extrusion flow rate by changing the percentage or update the firmware after calibrating with the Cura interface.

Also if you haven't set Cura up properly issues will come up.
http://forums.robo3dprinter.com/index.php?threads/how-to-cura-setup.4169/

Use this extruder calibration method with the Cura interface and you should be fine.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUPfBJz3I6Y

I had many inconsitent prints with MatterControl, with Cura the only failed prints I get are caused by hardware and human error.
hope this helps

 

Thanks Marquis! I greatly appreciate the help. Thanks to your links, I managed to get Cura set up nicely and adjusted the flow rate to make smaller parts look nice. I tried printing a larger part though and it produced the same result.

At this point I'm fairly sure the Robo is the problem (3 different computers, 2 different software packages, same result). I'll take this up with Robo 3D at this point.

Jeff

 

Fixed. It was a bad z-axis driver. Robo 3D sent me a new one and now the unit works perfectly.

Jeff