kinginnovator

I could try and disable this? Retraction is off atm.. I'm dealing with (2) 3mm filaments that are simultaneously extruding into a dual channel setup with of course a single output head. It is definitely traveling along the entire part's surface as if yes printing a "practice layer"

Hi everyone! I have built an ultimaker printer with a print bed of 4'X4' 5.5' (z) (1220mmX1220mm) .... Its about 8 feet total vertical... Now I'm trying to calibrate most everything on and having some trouble in some areas atm.. Issue one is after a z movement to go onto the next layer the extruder stops extruding and it will follow a total layer path equal to a single layer across the part with the extruder not extruding as if it were Ironing out the part (ironing is disabled). It will then turn back on and print that layer just fine.. What setting could cause this to happen? This giant format printer is not going to play by the rules on the smaller printers. So just keep this in mind. Settings are soooo different.. Any ideas are welcome!

Listen let me best explain it this way. I have forgot to even try and print with it because at this point I've tried in manual jog mode to just extrude it consecutively for say 1-2 minutes to see if it can even do that. What I'm doing is pressing the extrude button in PrintRun which pulses the extruder stepper for a brief halh second and then some material comes out, then I repeat the step once that amount that was extruded slows down, it still backs up. Someone in a scientific way explain to me why I'm able to extrude PLA and not ABS when there are people out there extruding both around the same temp like 240c?? I will even try to do it so slowly by hand and even still it does it. Some comes out the nozel and some goes up and around the incomming filament (sneaks past) and up into the bowden tube... This makes sense because it takes some amount of pressure to push it out the nozel but that pressure is equal everywhere and I know for a fact that the filament diameter is slightly smaller than the hot end hollow brass tube so material sneaks past that small gap too then travels upward and into the larger bowden tube where is solidifies and causes a jam..

a couple of basic questions: [*:2trfv3tg]your filament path is clean&easy? (meaning that there is no bump going from the bowden tube into the brass, when you push the filament through while the printer cold&clean?) Yes, path is perfect because PLA runs great.[*:2trfv3tg]is your thumb screw for the filament tension set to high/low? (it needs to be "just enough")Tried everything, high , low, too high, too low etc. Just even manually letting it sit with no extrusion it starts to kreep up intot the bowden! [*:2trfv3tg]you have measured&set the new E-steps/mm by decoupling the bowden from the cold end, and moving 100mm through? (what value did you get?)I will try this out, not sure if it will help at all but at this point I'm just trying to get it to extrude for a good minute while I manually jog it from the mouse clicks. It will start to backup no matter what I'm doing. [*:2trfv3tg]you have set the packing density in your slicer to 0.85 for ABS (PLA need 1.00)?Yes [*:2trfv3tg]is your thumb screw for the filament tension set to high/low? (it needs to be "just enough")Tried it all. [*:2trfv3tg]ABS prints about 30C warmer than PLA. (at what temp did you successfully print your PLA?)230 have tried it at 240,250,260,270,280,285 [*:2trfv3tg]when you heat up your UM to 230C, how does it feel when you turn the large extruder wheel by hand? (it should feel springy and difficult after a couple of mm of filament, because the ABS is soft, but not soft enough for printing) [*:2trfv3tg]did you increase the temp by 5C, and repeat the previous step, until you get a constant extrusion that has no more springiness? (you should use that temperature as your initial printing temp)

What could I be missing here??? I tried the following: The PLA and ABS both have the same diameter. 1. Lower temp and higher temp. 2. Slower feed from extruder. Is there any difference between extruding the two? Any tricks that I'm missing? The result is the same every time, the plastic is backing up into the bowden tube do to pressure. Is there a successful setting our there for ABS? (extruder steps in EE, temperature, packing density, etc)????

I have the exact material too and have the same issues in different builds. The lite area's are do to colder extrusions, and the speed. I had to increase to 240c and bring my speed way down to 40-70 mm to get a consistent color. When I tried going faster I got real spotty layers. I've noticed that pigments and or none at all, effect the chemistry of the material quite a bit thus resulting in different temps and speeds. Right now I'm trying to figure out abs..

Just under 3mm like the pla. Do you make successful parts at that temp? What speeds are you running? I've checked with others and it seems that 260-265 is better for abs. I've also noticed how when it comes out it doesn't flow like pla, it's harder.. I will try a low temp..

Trying to extrude virgin ABS for the first time through a .4mm nozel at 260-265C. It is backing up into the bowden tube and running amuck.. I've even tried manually extruding it, but it takes a lot and I mean a lot of force to do so.. What is causng the build up in the Bowden beside's pressure?? Do you have to run the extruder and the machine incredibly slow to extrude ABS? Why can't my UM extrude ABS? Any tips?? PLA no problem obviously but as soon as I switch them out and increase the temp bam, a jam... What steps am I missing??? :ugeek:

Try to confirm that the stepper motor drive belts (attached to stepper gears) for the Y and X are close or the same in tension. I had a similar problem and my (y) stepper actually moved from it's original location. It drifted up just a few mm and that was enough to give the belt slack which to the best of my knowledge gives you what you have in the picture.

Try also adjusting your Z acceleration values. When I first got my machine up and running parts were coming out way too short in the Z. Adjusting the acceleration fixed it.

Sorry for the way late reply. Finally found the z codes, they are literally every few hundred lines of code or more depending on the size of the layer being layed down. Thank you!

I got your firmware to work, thank you! Now another question. The http link you gave me that takes me to the marlin page, is that available on my desktop? I downloaded the marlin folder but don't see it in there. There is an exe file but I'm running vista and it doesn't open. Another question, my extruder keeps jamming up with melted plastic in the bowden tube from the back pressure of the extrusion process any ideas? I've increase the temp slowed down the extruder feed rate with no luck. What do you think is happening here?

Hey Daid, just the guy I was hoping would respond, you know everything and help everyone.. Doesn't look like I'm having a short at all but it's hard to see if that is so because of the metal sheathing around the two wires. That being said I don't know how to install your firmware nor how to make adjustments from that program. Is there a step by step to it?

Hey recently during a build my plug came out from the temp sensor to the extruder which caused a catastrophic melt down of the reactor (AKA) Peek upper part. Got a new one and re-installed everything and now I have deduced after many attempts that my sensor was damaged in the event (the bottom aluminum block isn't getting quite hot enough to allow the plastic to flow). I know it works but the max temp that I can set everything to in the program is 270C. I need to set it higher to compensate for the damage. Is there a way to re-calibrate it's setting somewhere? Using print run and skeinpypy.. Is there code for this? Thanks!

Okay got the F and E thank you very much. But there is no Z anywhere in the G code that I can find . I can't find a single z anywhere except in the beginning and end of a program. Any ideas? I can send you the file myself to prove this..

What does (F) stand for and what does (E) stand for exactly? How do I find the Z height?

This is what my gcode looks like. I don't see any info about the Z or how to put in M92 Exxx. Am I in the right area? This is from Print Run under Edit.

I will try this later. Thank you very much Daid. By the way what is the Ulticontroller with sdcard? I'm completely a novice with electronics.

Hey, printer froze during a large build. Any ideas on how to start from the last layer height? I have the last line it ended at and the zheight. I don't want to make it up in cad, print it and glue it on the last. Is there a g-code cammand that can have me start the program from the home position (like starting over) but only from the last layer code/height?? Please help this was a 12 hour build and alot of material... Many thanks! King IV

Worked like a charm! Just loaded new gcode. Machine is very fast, very precise, very happy... King Innovator

Thank you so much! I'm going to give this a shot. I will let you know how this turns out. Thank you again so much.. Let me know if you need any cad done for free sometime... I also have urethanes ans silicones to prototype with. Been making things for over 10 years.. ST

Checked, tried to go up and down with the pot but no change. I need to adjust the motor speeds another way to compensate for the problem. Any other ideas? Do you recommend a better program with other settings? I can always try skeinforge again. Let me know if you have any other ideas. All I know is there is a direct relationship going on between the x and y. It doesn't matter if the part is large or small. The difference between the parts is averaging around .6mm difference. For example if I have a 12mm diameter ring to build and a 12mm wide square one measurement for either would be 12.2mm in x while y would be 11.6mm, an average difference between x and y 6mm. Very strange here. I've build 50 parts so far with a very precise average on this. Tried tensioning the builts in different ways but absolutely no change. ST

I didn't like skeinforge, I spent too much time trying to navigate and tweak settings to get good results, I also had crashes when printing didn't like how it jitterred around turns too. Where would I check motor current settings? Is this in Skeinpypy? Thank you for responding by the way. ST

Hello everyone, first time here. Got my Ultimaker running perfectly just one minor bug to work out. My parts in the (y) direction are coming out too short. All round objects are slightly oval. Triple checked all belts, pulleys, motors, shafts, tensions, etc etc all is tight and sound. Is there a way to adjust backlash in the y?? I'm using skeinpypy and printrun... Thank you!!