Solved Squashed Prints??

I have had the printer for about a week, and all of my prints seem to be shorter in the z-axis than they are supposed to be. Is there a setting that i am missing?

 

you might have the wrong firmware. ensure if you have the 8mm rods, you have the z steps set to 2560. if you have the 5/16ths.. set that to ... whatever that is. I know, you didn't update the firmware. I think they're turning around returns as new. Or are digging in a bin of arduino boards that are supposed to be pre-loaded.
If it's not amazingly short (a couple hundred microns or more) you might just need an extruder calibration.

 

I have been trying to get a 16mm cube to print, but it comes out as 16x16x14mm. I am using PLA currently, but this was happening in ABS as well. I am brand new to printing and I don't know where to find the dimensions for my printer.

 

what software front end? There's usually a place to see your step settings. I have no printer hooked to any computer but in repetier host, there's a eeprom viewer editor. That's where your steps can be seen. Or you can flash the proper firmware and test. Firmware can be found under the support tab or robo 3d page (also repeatedly posted around here). A sticky on what an Estep is and how to adjust is on the troubleshooting main page and how to flash is located on the support page where you get firmware.

 

I had troubles with flashing the firmware and uploading the firmware to the printer. I also cannot find where the step settings are. I have followed all the steps several times with no success.

 

http://community.robo3d.com/index.php?threads/read-me-estep-calibration-faq.4672/
see above link for updating/estepping.

Hmm if you're having trouble... maybe you left your printing software connected?

Pretty simple. Edit configuration.h (as shown) and hit the right arrow (button on arduino).

You may have to power cycle everything to make sure your ports aren't hanging. Must have your printer software disconnected (preferably off) and the usb port mustn't be busy.

2 mm is a bit much for an extruder problem (a lot bit much). I would guess? your z steps aren't 2560. Which they MUST be.
Just had another person with what they thought was a brand new printer have messed up Z steps.

 

I also found out that that it helps to have your printer plugged in to the right port when you are uploading the firmware. It works beautifully now! A bit more process wise than i thought, but re-uploading the firmware did the trick. Any thoughts on why I had to do this? Thank you so much!

 

I have some thoughts. Like back in the 80s/90s, when american auto workers were being paid a lot to make cheap cars. The cost came out somewhere. Turns out it was in QA. I think in this case they may be ordering these things pre-loaded, and since they're mainland china parts, you're going to get crazy stuff. Pre-testing them takes a bit of time. I don't know anything for sure. But I do know a bit about chinese business practices.