I am about two minutes away from tossing my Vertex 8400 out of the darn window.
I got it about two years ago, and it has been nothing but problems. As soon as I solve one problem, another one appears!
So I am going to give it one last shot. If I cannot fix it, I am going to throw it in the trash. Not even going to salvage it. Just gonna throw it away like smelly garbage. I´ve asked so many people, and NOBODY has been able to fix the printer.
I´ll put my settings at the bottom of the post if that helps.
But anyway, here are my problems:
Prints/Extruder is not centered. All prints are shifted to the left and down.
If I slice something, and center it, it always prints to the left and down. This is especially frustrating as I cannot print anything large.
Here´s an image (Tried to place it to the right and up, but that did not work) of my setup in Repetier and a video of what happens.
It seems to simply ignore the X-direction at times.
-When using Auto Home, the extruder moves a LOT to the right, causing the motor to cry for help. Also, when I use Move Axis, and select X; I can move it more to the right, even when it is at the park position (Causing a lot of rattling). I have cleaned the end stops but it does not seem to solve the problem.*
Video of this issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTxXHkHZvBM&feature=youtu.be
Cannot select second extruder
-No matter my settings, it only uses my first (right) extruder. I CAN however, set the printer to SINGLE EXTRUDER in Repetier, then I can use EXT2. But otherwise, it ALWAYS uses the right one, even if I select EXT2 for the print. Even so, the firmware I have is for DUAL extruders.
Filament not sticking to build plate.
-Not a big issue, but happens too often. Sometimes its the Z-level, sometimes the temp.
If ANYONE has a solution to these I would be forever grateful! Seriously, the printer has been on and off broken for a year now and I am starting to lose hope.
I think the issue is with your “Printer shape” tab options within “Printer Settings” window in Repetier. The print area should say “Print Area Width” = 240mm, “Print Area Depth” = 215mm and “Print Area Height” = 190mm. Just checked my older Repetier settings and the current V1.6.2 repetier and both are set to that (actually my z height is 180mm as I added a heated bed plus cork insulation, losing 10mm).
I think there is still an issue with either the end stop optical sensor, or the plastic tab that breaks the light gate. Worth checking the cable connection from the sensor back to the PCB too? Are X & Y connected to the correct terminals on the PCB? It does sound like the sort of noise made if they were reversed.
I have never come across this before - when the printer boots, does it definately say 2 extruders and does it give temperatures for both nozzles? Within repetier, you do need to highlight the object you are about to slice, select Ext 2 then slice the model using the single nozzle profile and it should allow this. Perhaps take benchy, slice it for us and upload the g-code so we can have a look what repetier is doing?
Filament not sticking is almost always down to bed levelling or bed hygiene. A piece of 80gsm A4 paper folded twice then slid under the nozzles in the left, right and front centre positions so the nozzle gives a little bit of friction gives me the best first layer of print. Before fitting a heated bed, I never used glue stick - mainly printed PLA with the occasional small ABS part. I found wiping the buildtak surface down with IPA Isopropyl Alcohol each time I was about to print helped. The heated bed actually causes PLA to stick a little too well! PLA temperatures need to be around 200C+ - depends how good the temp sensor is on your nozzles. I ended up replacing the factory hot ends with E3D V6 nozzles!
I do feel your pain - I really do. But hang on in there - it can produce good prints with a bit more tinkering.
For the setting of the print area it is always hard to understand the philosophy behind the programs. Furthermore, what I have learned on my trials with my own firmware is, that the real print range in x direction may be a little bit less than 200mm. Depending on the assembly condition the slider will hit the left frame at about 220mm.distance from the home position. So in case you will print the full size of x direction you will introduce a layer shift by this blockage.
Fortunately you will never run into this condition because the firmware will avoid this. Did you try to program negative axis coordinates already? With the firmware settings for the nozzle offset of (0,0) all your prints are limited to the x-range which is accessible from both nozzles: 152 mm. You may drive a sketch for verifying this. This is one reason for my own firmware, on which the offset is handled by the printer and not the slicer. Here the printing range is extended to 190mm in x-Direction.
At the end, most of your issues were reported already and could be solved. So head up, the K8400 isn’t that bad.
