Ultimaker Original Z-axis Problem - solved

[brendan-halloran 0]

Hey,

I've been having issues with my printer. All my prints come out squished and of low quality. When it prints I can see that the nozzle is jabbing into the previous layer.

My best guess was that the build plate is not moving as far down between layers as the machine thinks it is.

Using the ulticontroller, I tried the "move axis > move 1mm > move z" command and went from +000.0 to +020.0 while comparing this to a ruler. It seems to move exactly 10mm. I assume this means the plate is only moving down half the distance it thinks it is moving.

I'm sure the solution to this is to simply change some variable using the ulticontroller. I can see that there are a bunch of variables in the "control > motion" menu but I don't have a clue which, if any, would solve my issue.

Here is a photo of the demo robot print:

http://i.imgur.com/4ngs82E.jpg

The one on the left was a quick print at 210C, whilst the one on the right was done at a medium speed at 180C.

Cheers,

Brendan

 

[gr5 2,189]

Easy fix! This is usually caused by the Z stepper jumper being wrong. I even still have a picture in my gallery of it

 

Click on the image above and look at the red circled part carefully. You want yours like that. The right most jumper should be either removed or placed as shown in the picture so that it does nothing (connects the pin to thin air). I suspect your right most connector is in place like the 2 next to it.

 

[gr5 2,189]

By the way - an extreme hack fix would be to stretch the robot vertically by 2X in cura "scale" feature, print with .4mm layers and set flow to 50%. LOL!

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

By the way - an extreme hack fix would be to stretch the robot vertically by 2X in cura "scale" feature, print with .4mm layers and set flow to 50%. LOL!

What about:

M92 Z200*16/3

I would try it if I would not have destroyed some stepper drivers recently... B)

@Brendan: Please, just follow gr5's first advice...

 

[brendan-halloran 0]

Haha, I'll stick to fixing the jumper position for now. If I feel like putting my printer to the test I'll try the other ideas.

You were spot on gr5. It took a second to fix, and I can already see that it's printing properly. Absolute legend!

Thanks guys.