Solved Z axis has stopped moving up

During my last print and most of the prints before the z axis will stop moving up and continue printing witch results in grinding between the extruder and the print. and if left for a wile the print head will start melting back in to the print and destroying the print farther. I have bought lithium grease and that did not help.

 

its not a lube issue. I believe it to be a communications issue. My first robo did that. would print the first few layers fine, then just drag and drag all the way to the end without going up a mm.

Try printing from SD card and see if it happens.
or, try a different computer.. or both.

 

just printed off of the SD card and nothing changed.

 

yea, I know the problem... I never figured it out. I ended up returning mine because of it. Always figured it was my fault. Mine would only happen after say.. layer 3... Never got an answer from the forum, even had a 1 on 1 for the better part of an hour, never figured it. Used repetier, and it seemed to fix it. then it started up again. Oh yea.. it wasn't my settings or anything.. I returned the robo and got a new one, and the new one worked right out of the box. the stepper motors sounded dramatically different too. Was wondering if it was a funky potentiometer setting throwing things off. I'll never know.
I wonder if you got my old printer?!

 

If you hear the stepper motors "grinding" then it's either not enough current going to the motors (unlikely), or bad motors (unlikely) or a mechanical binding.

I can't imagine how it could be a communications issue. Where's the "positive Z axis move with grind" command?

Check the bed squaring ("Leveling" is a misnomer) Is your printhead the same height all the way across in X?
I use a metal witness block, anything that you have that is hard and box shaped will work. Run the carriage up a bit until your box will just barely slide under the rod on the left side, then check the right side. If different, slowly adjust the right threaded rod till the feel is the same on both sides. Now try again.

Other than that, might be some gunk in the nuts. Check that both spin freely Check that the carriage can be lifted very easily.

Can't think of anything else right offhand.

 

This happened to me when the fan on the bottom cover wasn't hooked back up when I put it back together. It would print some layers fine, then would stop moving up for a few layers, then would go up a few. Very frustrating, especially because I was in the brand-new-machine problems phase of ownership.

Plugging the fan back in fixed my z-axis skipping.

 

The grinding is not the stepper motors I'm %90 sure it is the print head rubbing against the print. and as it grinds over the print lifts up the carriage and that makes the noise.

 

Are you able to easily raise and lower the Z axis with manual controls. What's your Z Offset set to?

 

At one point I did take off the bottom cover but I don't know where the fan plugs in can you tell me/show me by posting a picture?

 

well I found the power for the Fan and it seems to print fine. thanks for the help.

 

Why did it fix it?

 

Well likely when the fan that blows over controller for the X,Y,Z axis if off, the board overheats which shuts off the z axis first, which stops moving. So when the fan is turned back on it doesn't over heat which prevents the Z axis rubbing against the print. Problem solved. Is there a form for best way to time lapse a print, i was thinking mounting a go pro to the print bed?

 

ha go pro... everyone has one of those... got to document ... what?
oh.. THAT fan. yea, I didn't think of that. the ramps board fan. Yea, that would do it. That's one of the reasons mine has a 120mm fan. That and I've gone silent all the way around.

 

$1.99 web cam i hope... The robo hardly needs a 60-$400 ruggedized $5 webcam hooked to it

 

Since the Z-axis is driving two stepper motors, it's usually the first one to overheat.