Help identifying huge print quality/calibration problem

Help identifying huge print quality/calibration problem After finally fixing a fuse i'm back to trying to calibrate my prusa i3. The problem is i've been trying to for about a week with no visible improvement on the print objects. A bit of backstory. When i bought the printer the guy who assembled it for me gave me a ramps 1.4 until my megatronics board arrived. This is what a cube i printed with the ramps board looked like As you can see while it wasn't perfect it looked ok and only needed some small tweaks. Fast forward to today i have my megatronics board everything else being the same for the printer. This is what i managed to get after supposedly having all the motors and everything calibrated I followed the calibration tutorial for x/y/z/e from the reprap wiki. Did all the math and i ended up with 160 for x/y which i had to reduce to 80 even though the motors drivers say 32 microstepping it caused all x/y movements to be doubled so i reduced the steps by half. Did the same thing for z and it moves finewith 4000 steps/mm. The motors sound fine EXCEPT for when it moves diagonally when i can hear some screetching from them not sure why. I also did the math for the extruder and ended up at 678 steps/mm. The feedrate i left default for x/y at 300 but i lowered the Z to 2 and the E to 12 as it was the maximum i found before the extruder motor started skipping. Also made sure the filament isn't dug into by the teeth. These are the settings i currently have I'm using Repetier and with both slicer and cura doing the slicing i get the same results. The nozzle isn't clogged. The filament is the same as the one used back when i had the ramps board. I tried increasing flow rate but even at 150% i barely see any difference. Adhesion is fine as i use hairspray and have not had any problems. At this point i have no idea what is wrong since what i get is far worse than anything i have seen in common print problems. For what it's worth the cubes are the right size at 20mm in all dimensions. Any help would be greatly appreciated or even a nod in the right direction. https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602670#msg-602670 Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:47:42 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602799#msg-602799 Re: Help identifying huge print quality/calibration problem https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602799#msg-602799

Quote
seabass07
What temp is the extruder at?

the cube i made with the ramps board was done at 190 (pla obv).

the 3 horrible cubes you see were done at 210 and 190. when i use repetier and tell the printer to extrude the material comes out fine at the width you would expect from a 0.4 mm nozzle (it's an edi full metal nozzle as i was planing on trying the bronze filament from colorfab later on).]]> Ashaira Prusa i3 and variants Thu, 31 Dec 2015 06:48:33 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602798#msg-602798 Re: Help identifying huge print quality/calibration problem https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602798#msg-602798

Quote
paulhurleyuk
You mention calculating the steps/mm for your axis, but those are just the theoretical values. I would recomend following the concept in Triffid Hunters calibration guide and measure the start position, move the axis a set distance then measure how much it actually moved, for all axis (x, y, z and extruder.).

Then adjust the steps/min value using the formula

new steps/mm = old steps/mm X nominal distance / actual distance

so, if your old steps was 80, and you set the axis to move 100mm and it actually moved 85mm, then the new steps/mm value is 80 x 100 / 85 = 94.1176.

For the extruder, do that with the hotend at temperature and marking the filament, extruding then measuring the mark.

Paul.

thats what i used to get my values except that for x/y i had to revert from the 160 the formula gave me to 80. movement seems fine i measured it and it moves as much as i tell it without the motors making any weird noises.]]> Ashaira Prusa i3 and variants Thu, 31 Dec 2015 06:44:50 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602761#msg-602761 Re: Help identifying huge print quality/calibration problem https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602761#msg-602761 Triffid Hunters calibration guide and measure the start position, move the axis a set distance then measure how much it actually moved, for all axis (x, y, z and extruder.).

Then adjust the steps/min value using the formula

new steps/mm = old steps/mm X nominal distance / actual distance

so, if your old steps was 80, and you set the axis to move 100mm and it actually moved 85mm, then the new steps/mm value is 80 x 100 / 85 = 94.1176.

For the extruder, do that with the hotend at temperature and marking the filament, extruding then measuring the mark.

Paul.]]> paulhurleyuk Prusa i3 and variants Thu, 31 Dec 2015 04:57:00 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602707#msg-602707 Re: Help identifying huge print quality/calibration problem https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602707#msg-602707 seabass07 Prusa i3 and variants Wed, 30 Dec 2015 23:27:57 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602670#msg-602670 Help identifying huge print quality/calibration problem https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?406,602670,602670#msg-602670 This is what a cube i printed with the ramps board looked like

As you can see while it wasn't perfect it looked ok and only needed some small tweaks.

Fast forward to today i have my megatronics board everything else being the same for the printer.
This is what i managed to get after supposedly having all the motors and everything calibrated

I followed the calibration tutorial for x/y/z/e from the reprap wiki. Did all the math and i ended up with 160 for x/y which i had to reduce to 80 even though the motors drivers say 32 microstepping it caused all x/y movements to be doubled so i reduced the steps by half. Did the same thing for z and it moves finewith 4000 steps/mm. The motors sound fine EXCEPT for when it moves diagonally when i can hear some screetching from them not sure why. I also did the math for the extruder and ended up at 678 steps/mm. The feedrate i left default for x/y at 300 but i lowered the Z to 2 and the E to 12 as it was the maximum i found before the extruder motor started skipping. Also made sure the filament isn't dug into by the teeth.

These are the settings i currently have

I'm using Repetier and with both slicer and cura doing the slicing i get the same results. The nozzle isn't clogged. The filament is the same as the one used back when i had the ramps board. I tried increasing flow rate but even at 150% i barely see any difference. Adhesion is fine as i use hairspray and have not had any problems.
At this point i have no idea what is wrong since what i get is far worse than anything i have seen in common print problems. For what it's worth the cubes are the right size at 20mm in all dimensions.

Any help would be greatly appreciated or even a nod in the right direction.]]> Ashaira Prusa i3 and variants Wed, 30 Dec 2015 19:00:47 -0500