I’ve been busy all day trying to print my first object. When i start printing everything goes well, i get a nice even surface layed out on my heated bed. But when the extruder moves to the third layer it looks like it goes too high, so it starts printing in the air. It doesn’t go way to high, but just to high to not press the next layer on the previous… so it ends up just being a bottom layer with some black cobwebs on it.
I don’t think so, is there a part in the manual about that ?[/quote]
Not really, AFAIK.
But it’s quite simple.
Mark 150mm on your filament (From where it enters the extruder) and let the extruder extrude 100mm by manual control.
Then measure the distance after extruding.
Subtract 50mm vrom your measurement and you will know the exact length it extruded.
Then change the steps/mm for your extruder, so it will givve you 100mm extrusion length when it’s told so.
I don’t think so, is there a part in the manual about that ?[/quote]
Not really, AFAIK.
But it’s quite simple.
Mark 150mm on your filament (From where it enters the extruder) and let the extruder extrude 100mm by manual control.
Then measure the distance after extruding.
Subtract 50mm vrom your measurement and you will know the exact length it extruded.
Then change the steps/mm for your extruder, so it will givve you 100mm extrusion length when it’s told so.
cheers,
Christian[/quote]
I’ve just tried to do this but it looks like the extruder motor can’t feed the PLA. I can hear it’s trying to turn the gears but unless i help it a bit, it’s not able to get the gears turning. Might this be an issue with the motor? Or could it be something firmware related ?
(I have cranked up the voltage for the extruder driver to 0.55 with the same result)
Check if the extruder gears aren’t set too tight.
If so, the bind and can block the motor.
Also check if the hobbed bolt turns freely and the spring screw is not applying too much force.
[quote=“Paul Compton”]How hot was the nozzle? (measure independently).
When calibrating the extruder you need to feed at a realistic rate. Too fast and the filament may slip or creep and you’ll get false result.[/quote]
I don’t really have any equipment to measure the temp. It was set to 190 in repetier, and when i turn the gears by hand it looks like it has about the right consistancy.
[quote=“Jelath.O”][quote=“Paul Compton”]How hot was the nozzle? (measure independently).
When calibrating the extruder you need to feed at a realistic rate. Too fast and the filament may slip or creep and you’ll get false result.[/quote]
I don’t really have any equipment to measure the temp. It was set to 190 in repetier, and when i turn the gears by hand it looks like it has about the right consistancy.[/quote]
Try to loosen the gears a bit, i think that would do the trick.
[quote=“ichbinsnur”][quote=“Jelath.O”][quote=“Paul Compton”]How hot was the nozzle? (measure independently).
When calibrating the extruder you need to feed at a realistic rate. Too fast and the filament may slip or creep and you’ll get false result.[/quote]
I don’t really have any equipment to measure the temp. It was set to 190 in repetier, and when i turn the gears by hand it looks like it has about the right consistancy.[/quote]
Try to loosen the gears a bit, i think that would do the trick.[/quote]
I did that allready before, at first they didn’t turn at al, now the gears turn during some prints, while during others it doesn’t…
I did that allready before, at first they didn’t turn at al, now the gears turn during some prints, while during others it doesn’t…[/quote]
If you remove the filament and try to extrude, does it run correct then?
Can be you overtightened the hobbed bolt, clamping the ball bearings.
Is it very easy to turn by hand if the gears are disengaged?
If all seems ok, it can be the stepper driver or the wiring.
Swapping out the driver helped. Slicing with cura completely solved the problem. I have printed 3 prints successfully yesterday. Although today, my first print had the problem again (not as hard as before though) is there a way to make the extruder push out slightly more material?
If you followed the manual it says the reference voltage for the stepper motors should be set to 0.425.
Myself and others have found 0.55 works better.
You can go up to 0.60 but anything over that will make the steppers over heat and shut down or just do stupid things.
You should also check the position of the thermistor as well.
Hi, on my test I have done the same thing and now the motor and the big gear is pretty smooth.
Jelath what settings did you use for printing with cura?
I was trying to do that as well but didnt know how to set it up precisely.
Another question for the experts is what I can do for improove the quality of the print? If you modify the mm/h (Standard is 100)and you set like 50, do you get a better wuality print?
Anyone tried that up yet?
Had a problem with printing as well, was fine in the beginning.
I thought a bow-den type feed would be better and solve most of my problems with feed rates so I stripped the extruder feed unit to see how I could modify it. On checking the parts in the extruder feed, [ drive unit feed unit (( the bolt with splines on it driven by the gears and motor )) I found them to be clogged up with somewhat ground up PLA dust which I cleaned up including the framework parts. Then decided to check the BEARING TYPE: 608. Found that these were also jamming slightly on the drive shaft and the tension adjustment bearing. I found this bearing to be completely clogged up with dust and not able to turn at all, cleaned up all the bearings. PITY THEY WERE NOT THE TYPES THAT HAVE DUST COVERS ON. SURELY velleman COULD HAVE PROVIDED BEARINGS WITH DUST COVERS WHICH ARE 608ZZ TYPES, so I have ordered 3 new bearings with rubber dust covers from eBay.
This caused the extruder to give me low feed rates [ mostly lack of feed at times ] causing many a failed printed project to be scrapped. I had spent many hours trying to find this fault, even replaced the extruder with a V6 extruder unit with cooling fan.
BTW The extruder feed unit can be separated from the nozzle by fitting it with bow-den type tubing and mounting the drive unit on the upright just above the CPU Board and remaking the brackets for the extruder unit [if you using a extruder head similar to the V6 unit] being careful to only use the 6mm type fittings and carefully tap out the entrance and exit points for the filament, also turn the spool mounting post to allow the filament to feed directly to the extruder drive unit. This also makes the feeder bar lighter and easier for the z axis motor to rotate easier.
velleman should have provided the extruder with 608 ZZ bearings I’m not saying this is your problem but might help