Hi community. Well, I have installed a new printrboard. After trying to reflash to try and fix a previous issue I was having, and in the process apparently erasing firmware info and then discovering that the boot loader was the problem, I went ahead and got a new one. Big thanks to +Brook Drumm and the Printrbot team for taking care of me so quickly! Anyway, I am having completely different problem now. After installing the new board, i can connect, move, extrude etc. The issue is in the Z axis. I can manually move Z, via control panel, but when i try to ‘Home all’, X will home fine, then Y will home fine, but when Z tries to home it makes an awful sound and is struggling to move either direction, it just quickly flips back and forth while sounding awful. Also to note, If i try to home Z, using the Z home button, it commands that i home x/y before Z. It’s sounds and acts how i would imagine a messed up motor would, but as i said, when i manually control nit in the print panel, for 1, 10 or whatever, it behaves normally. The next step I am thinking is disconnect and then reconnect the motors to the board and see if that helps. If that does nothing, I am thinking that maybe I should try reflashing, though that had bad results for me last time. lol? Does anyone have any thoughts or better ideas for me? It’s been WEEKS since i have printed anything, killin’ me, lol. Hoping that someone with more experience might be able to lead me in the right direction. Thanks.
It’s possible that you have the homing speed set too high in the firmware, might want to slow it down. Usually the symptom of this is no movement with a grindy noise. Also double check the Z motor connectors, if one of the wires is loose, it’ll make a grindy sound and randomly change directions like you’re describing. If it works fine while manually moving it up and down, it may be that your movement speeds are set low enough but it’s just trying to home too quickly.
@ThantiK Indeed I noticed that it was trying to home to quickly when i tried an initial print after installing the new board. I homed manually and set the print to ‘run’ when it reached temp it VERY quickly moved to middle of bed position and then tried to start the print- which I cancelled. I did try reducing the max accl using M201, I cut them all down but it didn’t do anything for the problem.
Where can I find what my homing speed is set to? It’s not something that I see with M503
M203 Z3 is possibly what you’re after (you may need to write it like M203 X200 Y200 Z3) but it sets the maximum feedrate (speed) for each axis. The Z3 makes it have the top speed of 3mm per second which could still be too high, if it still does it try Z2 etc and see how it goes. This works for Marlin firmware, sorry if you’re firmware doesn’t support this but it should 
YAY. Have been busy the last few days but finally got the time. @ThantiK , @Tim_Jacobsen - Thanks, you guys! I have learned a decent amount over the last few weeks, and you guys are such a great help when i get stuck after trying an trying, or when i just have no idea. lol Greatly appreciated! i had tried reducing the max accl., instead of the max feedrate, and hadn’t done it nearly enough even if i had applied it to the max feed. Ended up M203 Z3ing it, and M500’d it and is good now. So, I have finally been able to print again, and with a nice smooth first layer! which was the initial issue i was having before all of this began and i ended up getting the new board.( it seems to me that perhaps the extrusion issue i was having may have been some sign of the failing board?), but now i have to figure out the best way to fix the mirrored prints happening, which i see is an issue with others lately. will do some reading and see if i can figure it.
“Mirrored” prints are the result of an axis being connected the wrong way. Usually you can flip your connector, and move the endstop. When you home the print, the point the nozzle touches should be at the front left of the bed.
You can also do this in software by inverting the direction, and where the endstop homes (min vs max)