So after all kinds of electronic problems and having to wait for replacement parts for a month I finally was ready to start using my K8400… and… well it’s not doing what it should do.
For my very first print I opted to print a test structure: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:704409. This thing is supposed to be square of 6 x 6 cm, but when it started printing it became a rectangle of 12 x 6 cm…
Homing works fine and everything seems to move correctly exept, when I jog the nozzle around it moves twice as far in X as it does in Y…
I’m running the default settings as it comes with from Velleman, so 134.74 steps per mm for the X and Y axis. when I move the nozzle from home forward it happily moves from 200mm to 20mm but when I try move X from right to left it already hits the far left position when X reads only 90mm (and cannot move any further)…
So after all kinds of electronic problems and having to wait for replacement parts for a month I finally was ready to start using my K8400… and… well it’s not doing what it should do.
For my very first print I opted to print a test structure: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:704409. This thing is supposed to be square of 6 x 6 cm, but when it started printing it became a rectangle of 12 x 6 cm…
Homing works fine and everything seems to move correctly exept, when I jog the nozzle around it moves twice as far in X as it does in Y…
I’m running the default settings as it comes with from Velleman, so 134.74 steps per mm for the X and Y axis. when I move the nozzle from home forward it happily moves from 200mm to 20mm but when I try move X from right to left it already hits the far left position when X reads only 90mm (and cannot move any further)…
Can anyone help me out???[/quote]
Okay, so I tried some more things…
My motherboard has been replaced because the first one broke with a plume of smoke, after the installation of the 2nd nozzle. apparantly the stepper driver of that 2nd nozzle was not ok. Anyway, before the installation of the 2nd nozzle I had not yet printed anything and only tested if everything moved.
So, here is what I tried, I switched around the stepper driver boards and it seems that those may be the problem… Have they also been damaged when the first motherboard died? When I switch the drivers around the problem either moves to the another axis or that axis doesn’t even move anymore just makes a lot of noise…
I’m really starting to doubt if I should have even bought the thing… what should I do?
First thing to do with your stepper drivers is to check their reference voltage (procedure [color=#408040]here[/color]).
The stepper drivers provide 32 steps/mm but there is a way to set them to 16 steps/mm (this would result in twice the distance when you move your axis). Pins 23 to 26 are used to change the µsteps.
I just checked the reference voltage for all the stepper drivers, they’re all within the spec of 0.89V - 0.925V. I checked it the Velleman way and using the procedure you suggested Raby, same results…
Compare the potentially faulty stepper driver with another (functional) one. Check for unwanted solder bridges or other differences (mostly around pins 26 to 26 of the IC).
And my bad : I should have spoken of steps/revolution and not steps/mm for the stepper drivers. The default value for the 8825 is 32steps/revolution.
Ok, so I updated the firmware of my machine fromi M1-V1.1-H2 to the new M1-V1.4-H2 version and now both X and Y axis move the same amount… though now they both move twice as far as asked…
When I do a manual move of 10mm in X or Y the movement I get is 20mm?!? When I do a manual move of 1mm I get 2mm?!? What’s going on here? The Z-axis is however doing exactly as asked, 1 mm = 1 mm of travel.
I’m using the default settings as the were pre programmed…
Without looking at the diameter of the pulleys, I don’t think it’s related to that… I mean before the firmware update my Y-axis was moving 10m when asked to do so and after the update it started moving 20mm when asked to move 10mm.
No hardware changes have been made and my K8400 is dead stock, I’ve only used the parts in the kit and the 2nd nozzle upgrade kit. The biggest difference is that the main board was replaced because the original one broke.
Also, the EEPROM values (incl. the steps/mm), before and after the firmware update have not changed though the behaviour of my K8400 has?!?
Any thoughts when reading this… I would like to see the values other people have, I’m starting to think something might be wrong there… Still, that doesn’t help me understand why only the x-axis was moving twice as much before the firmware update and after X and Y are moving twice as much as intended…
I’m not into 3D printing nor the K8400 for long, but if you can tell me where to look up the values you showed in your earlier post, I’d be happy to verify those against the ones in my printer & software?
I’m not into 3D printing nor the K8400 for long, but if you can tell me where to look up the values you showed in your earlier post, I’d be happy to verify those against the ones in my printer & software?
Let me know?
Cheers.[/quote]
Thanks Harry_D,
These values can be found through the repetier host software you installed on your pc. When connected to you K8400 gop to Config in the pull-down menu and click on “Firmware EEPROM Configuration”. A windows will popup containing these values.
Wirecase, here’s my settings - note that this is the standard firmware as supplied with the machine, I didn’t update to 1.4 as yet.
You’ll find that the settings for x & y are similar to what your values state. Seeing the difference in displacement, it might help to play with the numbers & see what that brings. I’m no expert on this, though. I totally agree, that this shouldn’t be required - the printer should work as designed.
I wonder if you might be able to get a statement from Velleman support on this?
Best regards,
Harry D.
P.s.: weather is clearing up here, so I"ll get back to work on the new front door for our house. Will check back in later.
