New to 3d printing, need help, please

Hi, I built a classic Rostock about a month ago. I bought almost everything online except the wooden parts which I made. I am having problems with making it run correctly. I can make it move only slightly before it stops. Pressing any of the home keys (if it is within about 10 mm of the top) sends all the carriages to hit their respective endstops, light the red light then bounce off of it a couple of millimeters. It sounds like it is hitting the stops pretty hard, but that much seems to work. I did something yesterday that sent the end effector continuously downward in a smooth motion hitting the glass before I could stop it, I then changed the direction, and it is back to not moving more than about 10 mm.

I am using Pronterface, if I send an M119 to the printer, it says;
X_MAX TRIGGERED
Y_MAX TRIGGERED
Z_MAX TRIGGERED

It also says:
echo: endstops hit X:588.55 Y:631.20 Z:645.90.
These locations are impossible, aren't they? The max height is only about 400 mm.

It is a classic Rostock, GT2 pulleys with 20 teeth, geared extruder, 12 volt 30 amp power supply, 20x4 LCD display, Ramps 1.4, J-head, mechanical endstops with boards. I am using Marlin, which I got from Github, the delta version. I am using 1/16 microstepping.

How do I turn the trim pots down? There isn't any mark that tells me where it is now. How do I reset the counter to tell the printer its location at the home position? I feel encouraged that it moves at all, but I really want to try printing, and I feel it is close to doing that if I could only cure the small problems.

Thanks for reading this.

It would probably help if you attached a copy of your config.h

Were the carriage touching the endstop switches when you did the M119? If not, this is the reason why your stepper motors will not move in one direction! Invert the endstop logic in your firmware, and test each switch by hand with M119 to ensure that they are only triggering when pressed. Once you have a working home function, the weird position settings will probably cure themselves.....

Hi, sorry for the Word document format. I tried other formats, but they were not really readable. I tried to invert the logic for the endstops, that is when I crashed the head. At the time I send the M119 command the carriages have already hit the endstops, and moved off of them, the red LEDs are no longer lighted.

I realize that I have done something wrong, probably in the configuration.h. If I knew anyone with a running 3d printer I would ask him to help, but since I don't, I really appreciate any help you can give me.

Your smooth rod offset seems wrong. You have 128 when a normal Rostock should be around 175mm.

DELTA_DIAGONAL_ROD 250 mm center-to-center distance of the holes in the diagonal push rods.
DELTA_SMOOTH_ROD_OFFSET 175 mm horizontal offset from middle of printer to smooth rod center.
If your print head is too high or low in the middle of the print surface, adjust DELTA_SMOOTH_ROD_OFFSET by half mm and try again.
DELTA_EFFECTOR_OFFSET 33 mm horizontal offset of the universal joints on the end effector.
DELTA_CARRIAGE_OFFSET 18 mm horizontal offset of the universal joints on the carriages.


Run an M119 and manually trigger the endstops to see if the endstops read "triggered."

Invert the endstops so the machine can move. With the endstops wrong the machine will barely move in the z axis before it stops.

Invert the motor direction so that machine moves up when homing and not down towards the bed. (I copied the following from another marlin config to show you where the motor invert direction is.)

#define INVERT_X_DIR false // for Mendel set to false, for Orca set to true
#define INVERT_Y_DIR false // for Mendel set to true, for Orca set to false
#define INVERT_Z_DIR false // for Mendel set to false, for Orca set to true
#define INVERT_E0_DIR false // for direct drive extruder v9 set to true, for geared extruder set to false
#define INVERT_E1_DIR false // for direct drive extruder v9 set to true, for geared extruder set to false
#define INVERT_E2_DIR false // for direct drive extruder v9 set to true, for geared extruder set to false

Tuning trimpots

[bootsindustries.com]

[reprap.org]


Get yourself a multimeter and follow the directions above to tune the trimpots.

Thank you, all of you that gave me suggestions. I had tried to reverse the logic of the endstops, and the motor direction, but not at the same time. I was so afraid of crashing the head again.

Now that I have changed those settings, the machine homes perfectly. But the weirdness continues. I tried to jog the X axis in Pronterface by clicking on the -X quadrant, but it tries to raise the X even higher, although it was already homed. If I continue to push it, the Y axis runs away toward the build platform! Doing the same thing to the Y axis, the Z axis moves!

I traced the wires and they are all right. All three carriages homed well,X,Y,Z, bang, bang, bang. I manually homed the endstops and they show "triggered" as I push them up. But it still won't move as I believe it should. I cannot calibrate the printer until I can move the effector to a specific location.

Any ideas about what could be causing these problems? I will try anything at this point.

Thanks again for all the advice.

Post a video, so we can see and advise.

Sorry, I can't post a video as small as this site calls for. I tried to post a video to my YouTube channel and make it unlisted so my regular subscribers wouldn't be confused, but that didn't work either, I couldn't embed it.I don't know how to share a video with you.

Oh, well, this may work. This is a video that I put on YouTube. It begins with the printer being at the home position, which it does well now, thanks to you people. Then I try tp jog the X axis downward by using the tab at the 9:00 position. If it push it 4 or 5 times, the Y axis runs away headlong toward crashing if I don't cut the power. If I power up again, it continues toward the glass. The only way to stop it forever is to unplug the usb cable. If I attempt to jog the Y axis, the same thing happens, but to the Z axis. I checked all of the wires and all seem to be right.


I am not pushing my YouTube channel, they only want me to have one channel, so that is where I posted it, you can ignore it.The video is unlisted, so don't share it please.






[youtu.be]

do a test. Lower the Z axis -100 before you try to start jogging the X axis. Also only hit the X right now -10, instead of the -100.

I am telling you tho try this because in an X movement to the -X like X-20, the X tower carriage will go up and the Y tower carriage will go down. However, this will be prevented if you are already at the X tower endstop. So lower the carriage to Z-100 and try to jog.

Hi, Wildcard;
I can't believe that I am so unobservant. I tried what you said, and that didn't work, but I finally noticed something, The Z axis wouldn't go down at all, so I pushed it down. I wondered why it wouldn't move downward, so instead of hitting its tab while watching the carriage, I watched the monitor of my computer. Surprise, the only places that are highlighted are the vertical axis for the +Z and the highlighted area for the Y axis home! Unless I hit home, the only place that sends a signal appears to be the Y axis. The gray segments for how far to move darken in the -X quadrant but the circle saying how far is lighted in the Y axis! I feel like a total dummy.I was able to move the Z axis with commands, but it moved very slowly, like it was binding, but it is free when not under power.

I went back and looked at the video, and you can see how the Y axis is being asked to move in spite of hitting the X axis tab.

Any ideas about what could cause this in Pronterface?.

Thanks for your great suggestions.

I don't use pronterface/printrun, I use Repetier Host, so I am unsure. Hopefully someone who is more familiar with that host can chime in.

Hi, Wildcard;
I will try Repetier, where can I find information about configuring it? i am willing to try anything other than giving up.


Thanks again for all the kind help

Just upload the marlin.ino (not .pde) onto the board and download and run repetier host from [www.repetier.com].


Configuring repetier is pretty straight forward. There are tutorials on the repetier website to get the printer settings correct.

Also don't get frustrated. When I first built my rostock I went from not be able to move it, to being able to print it 2 weeks later. Once I made one break through, things started to snowball and I had all of the issues worked out fairly quickly. Now my machine is a fully functional, highly reliable tool that I use if not daily, multiple times a week.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2014 04:52PM by Wildcard.