Hi there folks
First post and my first printer I have built. After a load of looking about I went for the Prusa i3. I have built it from scratch sourcing all the parts from across the planet so its not a kit. I have manged to get it all together and Im happy with the build rigidity and quality of the materials. Its a single Alu plate frame from a 6 mm sheet og aluminium. Im using an arduino mega paired with a RAMPS 1.4 board and stepper drivers. I have run all sorts of tests on the electronics before the NEMA 17 motors were placed into the printer.
I'm using Marlin as my firmware, with pronterface and Sclic3r x64-1-0-0-RC1 (when I used x64-0-9-10b I got all sorts of problems as was observed in another post, i changed Sclic3r version as was recommended in the post and it solved those issues). .
In Pronterface and can make the axes go in any direction and do what I want and all seems fine. No skipped steps or the like and the z axis is perfectly in sync.
When I undertake a run in Pronterface just as it starts the z axis motos go mad for a fractrion of a second and buz, they then stop and printer does some warm ups, then they buz again for a fraction of a second. I noted that the G-code Sclic3r was placing in had a stupid high rate for the Z axis. Upgrading to the latest Sclic3r and re-entering the settings for the printer seemed to sort that out.
Current Sclic3r settings
Perimeters 30mm/s
Small perimiters 30mm/s
External perimiters 70%
Infill 60mm/s
Solid infill 60 mm/s
Top solid infill 50 mm/s
Support material 60mm/s
Bridges 60mm/s
Gap fil 20mm/s
Travel for non-print moves 80mm/s
(note Im still doing calibration so stuck with these till I can sort out the step skipping issue)
My problem is this though, as the print runs the two Z axis motors are running out of sync now and then. Not all the time, just now and then. At first I thought one of the stepper drivers was overheating but all is fine when I touch it .. check with an IR temp gun and its not above 30. So I thought that my Ramps board may have a dry joint so I built a small board and placed both motors on the one Ramps board output. Thing is that they still go out of sync. It only seems to happen when its lifting to the next layer during a print, so was wondering,
- do you think that its an acceleration issue ?
- do you think that one of my motors are duff ? but it only happens when printing, when not and just moving about in pronterface they are all angels
- do you think that something is overheating ?
I did notce that my Y axis has now started to skip a step every few layers. Im getting a small fan delivered to actively cool the board. However until it arrives I thought I would ask about the strange Z azis issue I have there.
Any thoughts would be more than welcome.
-Me
First post and my first printer I have built. After a load of looking about I went for the Prusa i3. I have built it from scratch sourcing all the parts from across the planet so its not a kit. I have manged to get it all together and Im happy with the build rigidity and quality of the materials. Its a single Alu plate frame from a 6 mm sheet og aluminium. Im using an arduino mega paired with a RAMPS 1.4 board and stepper drivers. I have run all sorts of tests on the electronics before the NEMA 17 motors were placed into the printer.
I'm using Marlin as my firmware, with pronterface and Sclic3r x64-1-0-0-RC1 (when I used x64-0-9-10b I got all sorts of problems as was observed in another post, i changed Sclic3r version as was recommended in the post and it solved those issues). .
In Pronterface and can make the axes go in any direction and do what I want and all seems fine. No skipped steps or the like and the z axis is perfectly in sync.
When I undertake a run in Pronterface just as it starts the z axis motos go mad for a fractrion of a second and buz, they then stop and printer does some warm ups, then they buz again for a fraction of a second. I noted that the G-code Sclic3r was placing in had a stupid high rate for the Z axis. Upgrading to the latest Sclic3r and re-entering the settings for the printer seemed to sort that out.
Current Sclic3r settings
Perimeters 30mm/s
Small perimiters 30mm/s
External perimiters 70%
Infill 60mm/s
Solid infill 60 mm/s
Top solid infill 50 mm/s
Support material 60mm/s
Bridges 60mm/s
Gap fil 20mm/s
Travel for non-print moves 80mm/s
(note Im still doing calibration so stuck with these till I can sort out the step skipping issue)
My problem is this though, as the print runs the two Z axis motors are running out of sync now and then. Not all the time, just now and then. At first I thought one of the stepper drivers was overheating but all is fine when I touch it .. check with an IR temp gun and its not above 30. So I thought that my Ramps board may have a dry joint so I built a small board and placed both motors on the one Ramps board output. Thing is that they still go out of sync. It only seems to happen when its lifting to the next layer during a print, so was wondering,
- do you think that its an acceleration issue ?
- do you think that one of my motors are duff ? but it only happens when printing, when not and just moving about in pronterface they are all angels
- do you think that something is overheating ?
I did notce that my Y axis has now started to skip a step every few layers. Im getting a small fan delivered to actively cool the board. However until it arrives I thought I would ask about the strange Z azis issue I have there.
Any thoughts would be more than welcome.
-Me