Calibration issue- Z travel is different than part height

I am having some issues with my calibration on a prusa mendel with ramps 1.4, marlin 1.0 software. When I check the Z axis and tell it to raise 10 mm in pronterface, it does exactly but when I print a calibration it measures either 6mm or 8mm in height instead of 10. I am also running into issues where everything is quite squashed. My layer height is 0.4 mm on a 0.5 mm nozzle.

Has anyone run into this issue where the travel of the X,Y,Z axis is perfect but the calibration print is weird?

This is a relavent line of the marlin code:
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {62.1127, 62.0591, 2566.85, 570.409} // default steps per unit for ultimaker


Thanks so much!

Maybe the speed you are running your z-axis in gcode is too high.
The speed in pronterface is the Z: mm/min number.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

Thanks for the response Bob. This is what my gcode starts with:

; generated by Slic3r 0.9.7 on 2013-01-24 at 00:06:53

; layer_height = 0.4
; perimeters = 3
; top_solid_layers = 3
; bottom_solid_layers = 3
; fill_density = 0.4
; perimeter_speed = 30
; infill_speed = 60
; travel_speed = 130
; scale = 1
; nozzle_diameter = 0.5
; filament_diameter = 2.81
; extrusion_multiplier = 1
; perimeters extrusion width = 0.53mm
; infill extrusion width = 0.53mm
; first layer extrusion width = 0.80mm

In my Marlin Firmware:
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {56.4661,56.4174,2566.85,570.409} // default steps per unit for ultimaker
#define DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE {500, 500, 5, 45} // (mm/sec)
#define DEFAULT_MAX_ACCELERATION {600,600,50,10000} // X, Y, Z, E maximum start speed for accelerated moves. E default values are good for skeinforge 40+, for older versions raise them a lot.

#define DEFAULT_ACCELERATION 700 // X, Y, Z and E max acceleration in mm/s^2 for printing moves
#define DEFAULT_RETRACT_ACCELERATION 1000 // X, Y, Z and E max acceleration in mm/s^2 for r retracts

Your max Z speed is 5 mm/sec.
Change it to 1 mm/sec and see if that fixes the problem.
If it does then try 2 mm/sec and see if it is still OK...

---

Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

I think I have it! The newest version of slic3r is strange in how it lays out its configuration files. Apparently there are separate files for different parts of the printing so even though I had my settings loaded in for the filament section, it was using default sections for the print settings section. Reverting back to and older version of slic3r fixed this. The whole new layout doesn't really make sense to me so I will be interested to see if someone writes a guide for it or something.

Thanks for the help!

I had exactly the same problem with the new version of slic3r, and here's how you can use it.

1. Setup a profile or two in each tab. For example, in the "Print Settings" I have profiles for "PLA - Fast,Weak" and "PLA - Slow,Full" (with 100mm/s 40% infill and 40mm/s 95% infill respectively). Under Filament I have an ABS and PLA profile, and printer settings I have a single profile called my printer.
2. Depending on what you are going to print, select the correct profile across all sections
3. and this is the important one: Go up to "File -> Export Config". Save this config where Pronterface expects it to be (or whatever your print controller program has it programmed to be)

Voila, the next time you load an STL into Pronterface, when slicing it will use your config you selected in (2) above.

This is a nice feature which allows for saving profiles, however the communication between pronterface/slic3r can't pass which profile you want to use, so you have to "export" the current profile for pronterface.

The alternative is to use slic3r directly, on the first page "plater" you can quickly choose your profiles to export with from the dropdowns.

Hopefully this helps!

#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {62.1127, 62.0591, 2566.85, 570.409} // default steps per unit for ultimaker
this for ulitmaker not for prusa . prusa z aixs use m5 or m6 threatrod
for m5 change like this { xx,xx,4000,xxx}
for m6 change like this {xx,xx,3200,xxx}

upload the firmware ,run prontface prusa z aixs maybe move normally.