larryalc

Problem: Printer head would not center on the build plate. Once a print started it would go off to the side and hit the right wall making a horrible noise. It would also not “Home” (X axis) through the "Advanced" option on the unit control panel. Solution: Through a couple of other posts in the community all of problems pointed towards the end switch. I checked it, the X-axis switch clicked like it should. I turned off the printer and physically moved the head to the center of the plate. I then got into Pronterface (this was a life saver) and drove the head in all directions while monitoring Pronterface’s chat screen. Sure enough, every time I tried to drive the head towards the –X direction (home end switch) I would get a message back from Pronterface saying that I hit the end switch – I was still in the middle of the build plate. That told me I had a bad end switch. Well, long story short, I cut the X end switch out…still had the problem. I opened the bottom of the control panel and pulled the X axis end switch control plug from the controller (blue wires) – problem solved!!! So, somewhere there was a short in the wiring. I pulled the left side of the printer off and found the X end switch wires (blue wires) pinched between the extruder motor and the case. Pulled the wires out, repaired the insulation, and now runs great! Cause: A couple of days before the problem occurred I did some stupid things. I tried to switch different PLA reels, simultaneously, while running a build. This jacked up the extruder. I couldn’t get the material out of the extruder so I pulled the extruder apart. This disengaged the internal servo motor. I did a “touch and feel” to realign the extruder and internal motor so that I didn’t have to open up the cabinet. In the meantime, the X-axis wires (internal with the motor) got caught in the reassembly… and thus the pinch. Everything worked fine for a couple of days because it took that long for the heat of the motor to finally break down the wire insulation so that it caused a short…and the constant positive end switch signal. I'm a newbie, so this was fun to investigate and learn more about the printer. I did several very successful builds until this problem. I’ll probably screw up a lot more in the future with experimentation, but that’s the fun part! This is a very nice machine.