Guys can you help me troubleshoot my printer?
What you see on the left is a GoPro mount that I’ve designed for a friend. It was printed on my MendelMax 1.5 kit in PLA with 0.2mm layer height, sliced in Cura at a relative slow speed, can’t remember the parameters exactly but around 30mm/min for infill speed and 50mm/min for travel.
The black piece was printed on an UP mini in ABS with 0.25mm layer height and normal pre settings.
It turns out the print made by MendelMax was off in height by about 5 mm somehow. The actual height is 60mm, which, by the way, was achieved by the UP mini as it can be seen on the pic, but clearly there are some problems in the z axis which I need to fix on my assembled kit.
Do you have any ideas?
Also, I would appreciate if you could help me in configuring the slicing engine to produce better results in terms of support generation. My goal is to achieve results comparable to the ones we get from the proprietary software of the UP printers.
Thanks
Are your z steps configured correctly?
Are your z screws m5 instead of m6?
might be missiing steps on z axis cos drivers overheating?
Could be incorrect Z steps/mm, but it looks more like either you’re loosing steps or your couplers are slipping. Could also be that your Z steppers are not holding between layers, and the couplers have enough spring that they sometimes move back a full step when the motors deactivate.
The only thing I could think of is the same as the other guys. Check your z steps per mm. Bet that is where your issue is hiding.
I had the same issue with my i3 when I first made it. First it check z steps and while you’re in the firmware make sure the z motors don’t power down (that was my issue)
A precise measure of the prints would be good.
If it’s TPI of your rod 0.8mm instead of 1.0mm then the difference should be 7.5mm (80% of 60mm).
It may be just Z height inaccuracy so needs some running.
As for the finish I believe you MendelMax stepper controller is half the resolution of your UP mini. 1/8th against 1/16 or similar. If not your sites may be misaligned slightly.
Above all, I’ll never put a GoPRo on that support, I think it’d be better to print it horizontally, to have layers perpendicular to the most probably force it have to resist
I had to take care of other things not related to 3D printing this weekend but I will definitely roll up my sleeves to fix the problem this week.
@Bernie_Koestlmaier_C @Jon_Robinson @Whosa_whatsis @Griffin_Paquette @Richard_Mitchell Since my last check the steps per mm parameter for the z axis was correct. In hindsight I should have calibrated it again after I moved back home from Uni a month ago. Will do this monday to see what happens. Thanks.
@Adrian_Ciubotariu @Ritchie_Wilson Yes I am using the M5 ACME screw as the z axis driver. The black part measured 59.9 and the grey 54.6. Don’t seem be exactly the same difference but I suspect there must be something wrong with the steps per mm anyway. Thank you for the tips
@Dario_Marrini That’s a good point and you are right about it. I will need to modify the model to accommodate a change my friend requested so definitely will take your advice into account. Thank you.
I will let you know when I fix it. Thanks!
the old print may have been done with the wrong print bed size in slic3r… I noticed that some of my prints changed scale when i set the correct size values for my printer ( i had them wrong to start cuz i thought i knew better) … is the whole thing smaller in every axis or just short?
Changing bed size should not affect your print. Only scaling your print should.If the bed size changes the slcer should just say its too big.
no, if you tell the printer that the bed is 140 mm and the bed is really 180 then when you fix the sizing and reprint the same object ( without changing any settings) it will resize… its not slic3r, its the printers eeprom that changes
I’ve printed quite a few things with an incorrect bed size. For example slicing for a 170 mm X when the X is really 200 mm. The object prints at the proper size but the position on the bed isn’t centered. Bed size is set in the slicer but it doesn’t dictate the size of the object. It dictates the available work area. The object is sliced as per the model dimensions. The machine firmware controls the operational aspect of the machine and not the object sizing. What you are seeing in Slic3r is the aspect ratio of the object to the bed changing with regards to screen display, not object size.
As the is a 8.9% rather than the 7.5% it would be with TPI I’m guessing steps/mm are wrong. If your extruder is calibrated (steps/mm, diameter, flow - do remember at higher speeds this should increase) then it is only your XYZ.
@Matteo_Pascolini Bed size does not alter steps/mm. Ever. Bed size is set in EEPROM and your slicer to stop crashing into frame and stop you printing things too big respectively.
If it’s just your Z-axis that’s off, check your Z speed in firmware. ran into that issue a couple weeks back. Went from 5mm/sec to 3mm/sec and solved the issue. (custom i3 setup). Then you can play with increasing the motor voltage to see if you can get it back up to 5mm/sec. Also might try changing your microstepping to a lower resolution. You really wouldn’t lose much resolution (if going to 8x from 16x) for the layer sizes used, plus it would increase the moving torque of your z motors.
