Stumped. Help!

Oy. Getting weary of the process. First few layers fine, subsequent not - even when printed at the same temp as initial ones. It is as if it stops flowing properly or becomes partially blocked. I've tried new thermistor (Semtec for e3d) different nozzles, different temps... Printed OK last night with PLA @ 212C. This morning I got "mintemp" fail and discovered the thermistor was broken. Put in a new one. Here's the pic (one of many attempts, with similar outcomes. Actually, this is one of the better ones).

 

So. Hours later. Tried again. Printing perfectly. I have no idea why. I guess I can only hope that it continues as is. Tesseract helped, but we didn't change anything. During the course of troubleshooting, we started it up and it works. Again.
It's crazy. You can't make this stuff up.

 

I spoke too soon. My LCD readout just went wacky. Everything continues to print normally, but my info screen is totally wonky. WTH?

 

So the print is almost done and it looks great. Now to try to figure out what is going on with the display...

 

Looks like a loose connection or you might just need to power cycle your ramps/arduino board

 

Thanks, Mike. After it finished the print, I recycled and it is fine. However, I'm still not printing well. After getting the one print (@212C), it was up to its old tricks: about ten perfect layers, then imperfection and frustration. When monitoring temps, it requires higher and higher demands to keep extruding. The last test cube was printed in PLA at an indicated 229/226 to flow almost normally. When tested at an indicated 200, there is no extrusion. This is filament that I have used in the past at 200/195 with great results. In talking with Jeff J. he said that others are experiencing similar results in terms of good initial layers and later bad layers. Tomorrow I shall revert to an earlier version of Repetier/Slic3r and see if that helps. I am stuck. Yuck. Rhymes with f.. oh, never mind.

 

When it stops extruding, have you pulled the filament and checked the thickness? When my prints do this, it's 99% of the time due to fluctuations in the thickness of the filament.

 

Thanks, Melody, but the results are repeatable. Pics below show four calibration cubes with a pattern of decent initial layers, then getting wonky. The pic is showing them upside down. On the left, normal print temps with an early fail and I upped the temp to get that result. The next two are at similar but heightened temps and show the repeated pattern. The last one is at even higher temps and is warped because I ripped it untimely from the womb. Still, same pattern. Assuming my printer is lubed, calibrated and capable of better, as evidenced by those initial layers, I'm thinking it must be software. Maybe someone could offer up an earlier version number of Repetier that works great for me to try. What version were the printers initially shipped with?

 

Im having similar issue but ive never been there to see it when it happens. My LCD screen did the same thing, so I couldn't see the temps or anything.

I tried at 200c and 210c, both same problem. But, I am sure I can choose another part and it will print perfectly. Yours looks more like it got hotter and melted...mine seems like it got colder and didn't want to extrude.

 

For the latest thoughts and potential solutions to the, see this thread: http://forums.robo3dprinter.com/index.php?threads/frustrating-filament.1687/#post-12651