3D Printer Returning to X and Y Home and Retracting Randomly During Print

Hi Everyone,

I have a Clone3D K200 3D printer (http://www.clone3d.co.kr/K200.php). A set of problems have popped up out of the blue. During my prints, the printer will run a bed auto level as it always does and begin printing normally. However, seemingly at random times it will return to the X home, hit the limit switch, and return to the print position to continue printing. It also is doing this on the Y axis limit switch. These are annoying, but aren't ruining prints. However, the printer is also randomly stopping movement, retracting the filament extremely quickly which always breaks the filament, then extruding equally quickly (although the filament is broken at this point and nothing is coming out of the hot end), and then it resumes printing. I have also observed it pausing over a single spot for 5-30 seconds and then resuming the print. I'm not sure what is causing this set of problems.

I am printing using SD cards. I have tried 3 seperate SD cards, 2 seperate SD card read/writers, have reinstalled Cura. I have also tried printing files that previously worked that were on my SD card, but the problem persists. I checked the gcode travel paths for the random X and Y movements to home in repetier host and they aren't there. I also unplugged the filament runout sensor thinking maybe that was causing the fast extrusion erroneously. I also did the Restore Failsafe option on the printer interface. None of these things fixed any of the problems.

If anyone has any idea what could be going wrong here, any help would be greatly appreciated. With the current problems I can't print anything due to the filament breaking every print mid-print.

Thanks!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2019 04:28PM by ellis83.

It sounds like the behavior of a printer that has stepper motor drivers that detect skipped steps. The firmware is notified and it will home the axes to resume the print afterwards. Most Trinamic drivers are capable of this.

I can't think of a failure more that will allow the printer continue printing after homing or hitting end stops. That doesn't mean there isn't one though. My Korean isn't that good, can you tell us what board and firmware it has? Does updating the firmware help, or even downgrading to a known stable previous release?

When you say with quick retractions it breaks the filament, do you mean the extruded filament or the filament at the extruder?

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Kind regards
Imqqmi

NFAN CoreXY printer:
[reprap.org]

Hi Imqqmi,

Thanks for the reply. I'm not actually sure what board it is using, but I know the firmware is some custom version of Marlin. I would like to reinstall it to see if that helps the problem, but I don't actually have the custom build of Marlin for this printer. I can try to contact the manufacturer to ask for it. The filament at the extruder is breaking during the quick retractions.

I was looking through the manual. It loads the Arduino IDE and what looks like (from the LCD) an older Marlin firmware. It also loads a REALLY OLD version of CURA, which also makes me think that this is an old version of Marlin.

The printer looks like a Hypercube-type, those familiar with that design could tell you which flavor, I can't...
I got a K200 Kossel for my son a year or so ago. Looked at the firmware and ancient CURA that it wanted to use and threw it all away. I got a new version of Marlin, and the latest Arduino IDE and CURA and re-invented the firmware-software setup. It was our first printer kit, but I am a firmware engineer, and totally fearless at hacking something, so I threw caution to the wind. Not everyone thinks like that...

So...
How brave do you feel?

I'd ditch the whole F/W and software they gave you and start from scratch, kind of. You can get all of the settings you need from the configuration.h and configuration_adv.h files and put modify a new Marlin setup with them. It usually takes a try or two to get all of the settings right, but in the end you have something that you understand and can support!

BUT

This might be something simple. If you are running the printer from your USB port, and your computer isn't a super-fast one, then your problem may simply be that Windows is getting in the way of the gcode transmission to the printer. If you have an SD card on the printer, try writing files to the SD card and using the "sneaker net" to put the card into the printer and print from the SD card. If the prints work fine that way, then you have a computer issue.
The ultimate solution to that is to drop $50 on a CANAKIT Raspberry Pi, micro-sd card and Octoprint image. Put your printer on your house network and send files directly from CURA. That old version of CURA installed may or may not support direct Octoprint connections though. if not, you can still upload the file over the network from the web page connection to the printer via Octoprint.

You have some options,
DLC

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Kits: Folgertech Kossel 2020 upgraded E3Dv6, Anet A8 upgraded E3Dv6, Tevo Tarantula enhanced parts and dual-head, TronXY X5SA Pro(E3DHemera).
Scratch: Large bed Cartesian, exchangeable heads, Linear slide Delta, Maker-Beam XL Micro Delta, 220x220CoreXY.

Hi DLC,

Thanks for the comments. I'm only printing via SD card and have tried three different SD cards, two different SD card readers, fresh installs of the recommended version of Cura. I got the original firmware from the manufacturer and reinstalled the firmware completely but the problem persists. I attached a video of the behavior I'm describing:

[drive.google.com]

Let me know if you have any thoughts. I feel like at this point it has to be a hardware problem of some sort. Do I need a new motherboard or something? This printer is only 5 months old and I haven't even gone through half a roll of filament with it.

Quote
ellis83
Hi DLC,

Thanks for the comments. I'm only printing via SD card and have tried three different SD cards, two different SD card readers, fresh installs of the recommended version of Cura. I got the original firmware from the manufacturer and reinstalled the firmware completely but the problem persists. I attached a video of the behavior I'm describing:

[drive.google.com]

Let me know if you have any thoughts. I feel like at this point it has to be a hardware problem of some sort. Do I need a new motherboard or something? This printer is only 5 months old and I haven't even gone through half a roll of filament with it.

Hmm. Well, here is what I would do.
First, try a new version of CURA and see what comes from that. "Clone" has probably created some custom scripts for startup and ending a print, so copy those from "their" CURA into your new one (3.6, I think). You can find those scripts here:
Settings->Printer->Manage Printers then click on "machine settings" and grab the start and end G-code.
Copy any other profile settings from the old to the new CURA and try some prints to see what happens.

Then, it looks like this is not a kit, but a full built printer. Contact their tech support (good luck) for advice and then contact their sales to get a replacement.
I can't think what is causing that behavior.

DLC

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Kits: Folgertech Kossel 2020 upgraded E3Dv6, Anet A8 upgraded E3Dv6, Tevo Tarantula enhanced parts and dual-head, TronXY X5SA Pro(E3DHemera).
Scratch: Large bed Cartesian, exchangeable heads, Linear slide Delta, Maker-Beam XL Micro Delta, 220x220CoreXY.

I had a similar problem with one of my printers ( a Tevo Tornado) where it would do random X or Y homing mid print, it was like it decided to have a bludge when it thought no-one was looking and take a rest break mid-print. It drove me nuts trying to work out what was going on and I ended posting a question about on the ultimaker forum because I thought it was an issue with Cura.

One of the mods suggested it could be from an intermittent fault with the contacts on the SD card and he fixed his when it had the same problem by blowing the SD card slot out with compressed air. I tried blasting the slot out and cleaning the contacts to no avail but when I tried printing directly from Cura using a USB cable the problem was gone. That was a good enough reason for me to setup an Octoprint enabled Raspi and bypass the SD card and I've never had that problem again.

So try a few prints where you you print directly from Cura and cut the SD card and its socket out of the picture. If the problems disappear then you'll have good reason to suspect that there's an issue with the contacts on the SD card or the card itself. If it doesn't work you will know the SD card and its contacts are not causing your problems.