What going on with my print?

[RamRoyce 0]

Hello!

I’ve been having trouble with my 3d printer (Anycubic Kobra Max) and I’m at a loss for what the problem is.

I’m trying to print a daredevil mask and whenever I try to print, one of two things happen:

 

1. The print head strays away from the print area as seen in the video for whatever reason.

2. The print makes some progress and then starts printing the helmet at an extremely wide scale, as shown in the attached image.

 

I thought this was just a major case of layer shifting or something but I’m not so sure anymore. None of the belts are too loose or too tight, the printing speed isn’t too high and the nozzle or print head isn’t colliding with any of parts. Everything looks good in the slicer (Cura). Maybe the gcode is faulty? 

Any help or suggestions would be immensely appreciated. If you’d like me to send any files or anything please let me know and I’ll send them. The gcode is attached too idk if that helps or not.  Thanks in advance!

1793070283_DareDevilHelmet_HorizontalOrientation.gcode

Edited October 4, 2022 by RamRoyce

[GregValiant 1,250]

Something is going on with the printer.  This is from the beginning of the gcode file and the numbers are the dimensions of the raft.  No moves go outside of the raft:

;MINX:95.929
;MINY:65.985
;MINZ:0.24
;MAXX:303.999
;MAXY:325.147
;MAXZ:155.09

So those weird moves aren't in the gcode.  

Here is the gcode as it loaded into Cura.  The Cura gcode reader is separate from the slicer so this is what should print.  (The active printer is an Ender 3 so the build plate is smaller).

If you are printing from the SD card try formatting the card.  It can't hurt.  You will need to take a good look at the printer as well.  Those moves don't look like a simple layer shift.

[RamRoyce 0]

Wow, thanks so much for that explanation and the time you spent looking into this, I am really grateful. I'll try reformatting the card or just using a different one, thank you 🙂 If this doesnt work, do you what parts on the printer could be the culprit?

Edited October 5, 2022 by RamRoyce

[RamRoyce 0]

@GregValiant is this supposed to happen? 

 

The model size in Cura is:

x:179 mm

y:229 mm

Z:154 mm

 

Within the gcode, the model size is: 

X:198.04mm

Y:248.41mm

Z:154.95mm

 

This makes sense, since the raft adhesion plate adds some size . What doesn't make sense is why the Max numbers are so big (circled in red on the right). Shouldn't the max numbers be around the same as the model size? Is this whats causing the printer to all of a sudden print the helmet at a really big scale? I've looked through the gcode of some of my previous prints and those max numbers are around the same as the model size. I've attached an updated gcode file if you'd like to take a look. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance 🙂 

1052065580_DareDevilHelmet_HorizontalOrientation.gcode

Edited October 5, 2022 by RamRoyce

[GregValiant 1,250]

This line from the gcode file shows the max Y:

Line 310:  G1 X198.932 Y319.331 E33.38603

and this one shows the max X:

Line 452:  G1 X299.023 Y223.47 E52.02119

Both of those are in the raft.  After the start of Layer:0 all points in the gcode are within the model.

 

Starting with Layer:0 and going to the end of the file I get these numbers:

Min X = 110.7

Max X = 289.3

Min Y = 85.683

Max Y = 314.3

 

Here are the first 1,000,000 lines of gcode up to Layer 306 read into AutoCad so the Cura gcode reader was not involved.  Only the initial move from the Auto-Home position is outside the area of the model.

 

And here once again is the view in cura which is much faster than my macro.

 

So I'm still not seeing any errors in the gcode.  You may be losing your X stepper driver on the mainboard, or the stepper motor itself.

Edited October 6, 2022 by GregValiant

[RamRoyce 0]

@GregValiant Thanks so much again for that incredible response. Its good to know that everything is good in the Gcode. Its just so strange because everything else prints really nicely on this printer, its only this model. I'll look into how to troubleshoot the stepper driver/motor, I dont even know where to begin on that. I'll also try a new SD card. I'll keep you posted, can't thank you enough for your help 🙂

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by RamRoyce

[GregValiant 1,250]

A new SD card is a good idea.  Don't go big as some machines have a 32gb limit.  My 8bit board has a 16gb limit.  Because that file is so huge parts of it may have been written to bad memory sectors on the SD card.  That would do it.  Formatting the card usually fixes things like that.  A quicky format to FAT32 has worked for me.

 

Because the Cura Gcode reader is a separate program it can display a true and accurate picture of the Gcode file.  The slicer side of Cura is not involved in that.  If it's in the gcode it will show up in the gcode preview screen.

Edited October 6, 2022 by GregValiant

[RamRoyce 0]

Literally as I read your message I was pulling my hair out because I got a 64 gb card and the printer wasnt reading it. Once again I appreciate your reponse and help so much. I'll go to Walmart real quick and get a one with a smaller size now

 

Update: Got a new SD card. The smallest size they had was 32gb so I went with that. The printer read it successfully and now its printing. More updates to come, fingers crossed. 

Edited October 7, 2022 by RamRoyce

[RamRoyce 0]

Hello, @GregValiant! Quick update:

 

The print failed 10 hours in, even with the new SD card. It failed for the same reason: It starts printing the model at a much larger scale. The only thing left that I can think of that is wrong is what you said: Something is wrong with the printer. My printer (Anycubic Kobra Max) is still under its 30 day return so I figure I'll just return it and get a new one and save myself time trying to diagnose whats wrong with the printer. I'll exchange it for a new Kobra Max and hopefully that one will print just fine. If it doesn't, then... yikes. 

 

Anyways, I'll keep this thread and you updated, thank you for your continued support!

Edited October 8, 2022 by RamRoyce

[GregValiant 1,250]

Time for a story.

My Ender 3 Pro is going on 3 years old.  When I first received it the mainboard was the 1.1.4 "noisy" board.  It didn't take long for the constant whining to get old and about a month later I ordered a 1.1.5 "quiet" board direct from Creality.

The board arrived and I installed it and everything was fine for about 4 days.  Prints started failing at around an hour in.  I went over everything and re-checked the E-steps/mm.  I had to jack it up from 97 to 150.  Prints were still failing and so I checked the E-steps right after a failure when the board was still warm and I had to jack it up to 350.  At that point I knew that the E-driver on the new board had failed.  I re-installed the 1.1.4 board and at least I could print things until the replacement 1.1.5 board arrived (huge argument with Creality to get that done).  It's been fine since then.

[RamRoyce 0]

Sounds pretty similar to my situation🙂 but in yours the prints starting failing when you replaced the mainboard, so you knew pretty much what part was causing the issue. 

 

It could literally be anything on my printer that's causing these prints to fail. Are you suggesting that I replace the mainboard? 

[GregValiant 1,250]

I don't think it's "printing the model at a much larger scale".  The printer mainboard isn't capable of that.  It reads a line of Gcode and follows the instructions on where to go.  If it says X115 Y115 then it should go to that point in space.  It looks to be either the stepper driver on the mainboard, or a stepper motor is going.  I think the problem is in the X system.

 

Replacing the mainboard without KNOWING what's wrong could be just throwing money away.  Better trouble-shooting needs to be done.

One thing you could try is to swap the X and Y stepper motors.  If the problem moves then it's the stepper.  If the problem stays in the X then it's the board.  Mainboards fail at a much higher rate than steppers.

 

I'll put together a print with no extrusions. It will just run around and pretend like it's printing.  I have a model that is suitable.  It's a simple Search and Replace in Cura.  I'll use the speed settings in that gcode you posted.  

 

I busy for the next couple of hours but I'll get to it this evening.

 

 

[RamRoyce 0]

Thanks for that thoughtful response! Anycubic sent me updated firmware so i'll try that first and if the problem persists i'll figure out out to swap the stepper motors. Thanks Greg and yes please keep me posted on that print 🙂

 

[GregValiant 1,250]

Here's a dummy gcode.  It's an exercise program for overweight printers.  The speed for everything is 75 and it came out to 16 hours by Cura time.

 

By the way, do you have a fan in the mainboard compartment?  My Ender had it's mainboard cooling fan wired to the layer cooling fan.  It isn't adjustable speed, but if the layer cooling fan is off, the mainboard fan is off.  That can be an issue when printing PETG because I didn't use the fan and so the mainboard wasn't being cooled.  I hot wired the mainboard fan to the hot end fan which runs all the time.

GV_CalibrationShape.gcode

Edited October 10, 2022 by GregValiant

[RamRoyce 0]

There arent fans in the mainboard compartment, but there are two in the print head. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what is the purpose of the gcode that you sent? If you cant see any filament being extruded how will you know if the print fails?

Edited October 10, 2022 by RamRoyce

[GregValiant 1,250]

The extrusion didn't seem to be the problem.  It was the movement out of the part.  If the print head starts running from X=0 to X= Max Width then it isn't interpreting the gcode correctly.

It just occurred to me that you'd need to be watching it.  Sorry about that.  I was thinking why throw a bunch of filament at a print that was actually designed to fail?

[RamRoyce 0]

Its all good, I'll run it in the printer and have a printer-watch party 😂

 

I printed another model by the way, the owl calibration model. It failed in the same way (print head goes nuts). So definitely a printer problem, not a gcode/slicing issue

 

Also I opened up the X stepper motor. This fell out. Not sure what it is (a washer?)but whatever it is, it looks bent which im guessing isnt good. 

Edited October 10, 2022 by RamRoyce

[GregValiant 1,250]

"...it looks bent which im guessing isnt good."

Good call.  I have to believe that they rarely put extra parts in just for giggles.

I've never had one apart so I don't what function it could have performed.  It looks like you might possibly have a bit more than a firmware issue.

Edited October 10, 2022 by GregValiant

[ayzal00 0]

Good question and very helpful answer.