Y-axis printing problems

[robbert 0]

Dear people,

My Ultimaker was working fine but suddenly did almost no moving in Y-directions. Symptoms:

- when printing movement in X-direction seems OK, but in Y-directions only small movements. So printing in lines.

- when starting a print printhead doesn't return home (X=0, Y>0).

- steppermotor Y-axis is working but not at the right times

What I did:

- restarted (printer, cura and computer) many times

- checked belts and pullies - seems OK

- checked cables and inserts at print, OK

- reinstalled firmware

- got some coffee

but that didn't help.

Anybody an idea?

Regards,

Robbert

 

[gr5 1,707]

There are several possibilities. The most likely is a slipping pulley. Try pushing the head in Y direction and make sure the Y stepper is moving. If not tighten all the set screws.

Next the stepper driver. I would swap the printer driver for X and Y. Google about these and where they are located. Remove them very very carefully by prying one side, then the other, then back to the first side. You don't want to bend the pins. Also insert very carefully and examine them to make sure none of the pins bent when you did it.

It's actually quite easy to do if you are patient and have a tool (like a small screwdriver) that can gently pry off the stepper driver. These are also called "pololu" so if you are googling about the stepper drivers you could check for that instead of "stepper driver".

Always add and remove these while power is off.

You can run these for a few seconds with no fan but if anything gets hot it's time to cut power and put the fan on. Particularly that one part that sticks up the most. That gets hot first.

Lastly the stepper itself or the cabling. I doubt it is these though. But if so, the problem will stay with the X when you swap drivers.