Hi All,
So I had what was essentially a perfectly working printer at one point, and I wanted to add the feature of a z-probe for bed leveling. This involved some switching around of plugs, some soldering, and several edits of the config file. However, I was having trouble getting the probe working correctly so decided to go back to my original configuration sans z-probe and since then every print has massive issues.
I returned all the plugs to where they had been, and started back with a version of the config file I had previously used when everything was working. The prints start normally, but within the a few seconds there will be strange zigs and zags in the XY toolpath. They aren’t large, a millimeter or so, but its plenty to ruin the print. They occur both in the X and Y directions. I haven’t had a print go far enough yet to see if the Z-axis is involved with this nonsense. The zig-zags seem kind of random when and where they happen, but if I print the same model, the problems happen if roughly the same places (although not exactly the same). Curves are particularly problematic as it creates a bunch of strange sharp start/stop - very short lines in a roughly outlined attempt at the curve, although nowhere near within the parameters of the original model, i.e. crossing through other parts of the model that the curve should not have intersected, etc.
I would attach pictures of the failed prints, but it seems I can’t figure out how to upload an image here.
I have tried a number of things including: Using several different SD cards, flashing my smoothieboard with the latest firmware and getting a copy of the latest config file, changing USB cables, changing which port I use on my PC, restarting my PC, several different slicing engines including two version of CURA, one of SLIC3R, and Simplify3D. I have also tried both simplfy 3D and Repetier as Hosts. None of these measures have cured my printing woes. Unfortunately, I’m so far down the troubleshooting rabbit hole that I don’t know what else to do or where to go from here.
Any thoughts? Have I fried my board? I really love the smoothieboard and I want this to work for me. Any advice you have for me would be welcome.
Imported from wikidot
Sounds like there is something wrong with one or more of your stepper motor connectors, maybe re-crimp those and see if it helps ?
That’d be my first bet, there are other things to try if that doesn’t help.
Hey Arthurwolf,
I appreciate the quick response. Before I explain where I am with this currently, I’m not sure if its important to mention that I am using external stepper drivers, (TB6600 Upgraded Version 32 Segments 4A 40V 57/86 Stepper Motor Driver). They are configured the way it is shown in the smoothie documentation and they worked beautifully in the past. So after checking each one of the plugs and crimps on my steppers and replacing until they are nice and snug, I attempted to print again. Still with the odd motion, but I noticed some additional pieces of information that may help figure this out, although I’m still stumped.
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The weird jogs in the tool path only seem to happen when both X and Y motion is happening concurrently. I made a simple square 40mm to a side and 3mm thick and oriented the edges with X and Y, and it actually seemed to print ok.* There were no weird jogs in the tool path as only one axis was engaged in movement at a time.
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The 2nd thing I noticed, which I hadn’t had the opportunity to before since I was not able to get a print to last long enough to bother, is that before the print, LED’s 2 and 3 would be blinking away happily and in unison. When the print got under way, I noticed that LED 2 goes out and LED 3 continues blinking. When the print is finally killed, LED 2 begins blinking again, but not in unison with LED 3. Is this significant in any way? I am printing over USB, not sure if that accounts for the light pattern or not, I just had never noticed it before.
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3rd thing: After the print had been running for a few minutes I smelled burning but couldn’t locate the source. It may have just been a bit of the extrusion waste that had curled up on the printhead and was burning on the ceramic heater, but again, I haven’t been able to get a print to run this long since I first noticed this issue, so I was worried. Could a short on smoothiebooard present like this? And in the event that this was burning smell coming from the board, how screwed am I?
Thanks again for your help
Are your step/dir cables long ? Are they shielded and twisted ? Do you use ferrite ?
Are you sure your power supply has adequate current ?
The LED stuff isn’t significant.
Burning on the board would be noticeable, maybe it’s cables burning ?
The cables to the drivers are quite short, 20-30cm. The cables to the steppers are less than 1m for the Y steppers and probably not more than 1.2M for the X stepper, as it must run through a cable drag chain to reach the far end of the build platform. These cables are not shielded that I know of, just stock 4-wire ribbon cable, (parallel, not twisted). I do use a shielded USB cable with ferrite, but not on the stepper cables. Are you saying ferrite would be helpful with the stepper motor cables?
There should be plenty of current going to those motors. I have two separate 14.6A, 24v power supplies on this build, (it’s a beefy printer). One power supply dedicated to “always on” fans and the heated bed only. The other power supply’s 14.6A is divided through smoothieboard among the two hotends/extruders, their fans, a few LED’s and the XYZ motion system. So I don’t think there should be an inadequacy of current, unless it’s a wire/connector issue.
Glad to hear the LED stuff isn’t significant, that had me worried I nuked something critical.
Figured out the burning… unrelated to smoothie—whew! It was a bad connector on the external heavy MOSFET I use to control the switching for the heated bed. The connector housing just melted a bit where the shoddy connector job was not making good contact. Totally a separate, non-smoothie issue, and easily fixed.