As the titel says, my X-axis is screwing sometimes, and I just cannot find the cause. It happened to me at the most random moments, and sometimes it is just a millimeter and other times a whole centimeter
I ruled out the following:
- I exchanged stepper drivers, no difference, all are at 0.55V those drivers work perfectly
- mechanical is flawless, that bed runs 4x as smooth as the Y-axis. It is by far the smoothest axis I have.
- I checked if the belt pulley was not slipping, I marked the pulley and the axle with a marker, to see any shifts… nothing.
- I do not have any over-extrusion, so my printbed is not getting friction from the extruderhead.
- The belt is mounted tight so it cannot possibly slip over the pulley.
I really ruled out any potential mechanical and electronic failures. This leaves me with the software. I use latest repetier host but I use craftware as slicer. With craftware I sliced an entire thinderbird 2 which has no shiffting in X-axis and on their forum I get claims that it can’t possibly be faulty Gcode.
This problem is extraordinary present when I attempt to print this item thingiverse-production-new.s3.am … atured.jpg with lots of different parts. It shift in both X directions and it does that alot. I also tried to use the repetier server instead of repetier host, and again no difference. At first I thought it could be some kind of computer lag and corrupted data transfer but computer lag might slow down the printer, I have not seen that such lag would corrupte a print (other than a scorch mark of the extruder).
Spock and Sherlock Holmes said: “If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
As the printer seems to be in optimal condition both mechanicale and electronicle it must be the software which brings me back to craftware.
Tomorrow I will add cooling blocks for the stepper driver (just in case), though my X motor has least to do, and the Y motor never failed me with it’s extremely tight beld
But if anybody has a good thought, plz share it. I just learned to achief ultimate bed-adhesion and I fixed the Z-axis, but now this small last problem stands in the way to “perfection”.
If anybody would like to print a thunderbird 1 and is still in use of the stock extruder with 0.5 nozzle, plz try my Gcode to either confirm or rule out the craftware produced Gcode. I for one would really appreciate it.
I think extra cooling for the stepper drivers will do the trick 
Dylan
It sounds to me that your problem is related to the phenomenon
I have described recently here viewtopic.php?f=53&t=16375
If the gcode was at fault, you would get the same skipping if you printed the same part more than once. You would also be able to see this in the Repetier preview window, as it is displaying what the gcode says, not what it thinks the shape should be. If the skipping is happening at random and the gcode looks right in the preview pane, you probably don’t have a slicing problem.
I think Dylan is on to something to suspect that your drivers are overheating.
[quote=“Dr. Vegetable”]If the gcode was at fault, you would get the same skipping if you printed the same part more than once. You would also be able to see this in the Repetier preview window, as it is displaying what the gcode says, not what it thinks the shape should be. If the skipping is happening at random and the gcode looks right in the preview pane, you probably don’t have a slicing problem.
I think Dylan is on to something to suspect that your drivers are overheating.[/quote]
As tight my Z-axis never ever showed a problem and that stepper driver is now on the suer smooth X-axis it cannot possibly be an overheated driver.
[quote=“merallas”]It sounds to me that your problem is related to the phenomenon
I have described recently here viewtopic.php?f=53&t=16375[/quote]
Yes this was indeed this problem, right now I am again printing my TB-1 and I make sure that I rotate the PLA spool now and than to relax the wire. My print never made it this far before.
But what I just cannot comprehend is why. I mean it was always the X-axis. But I never have seen skorch marks when it happens. When my z-axis was giving me trouble and failed often, I could clearly see a fat rimple in my object or I could see scourch marks before the extruder would make an axis to skip steps.
That the extruder lifts itself a little I understand. I already ordered bearings for a spoolholder, but that only the X-axis skips without any visible scourch marks is just weird IMO. The lack of scourch marks never made me suspect that a I to had a self-lifting extruder.
I think the X-axis is more sensitive for this phenomenon because of the larger mass which has to be accelerated. I believe that it is a combination where the object is touched just during acceleration. That is perhaps why it was sometimes helpfull to change the orientation of the object(s) at the print bed.
