Mendel 90 initial testing. Extruder feed not working.

I've just finished up my Mendel 90. The build went smoothly, but I've run into an issue with the testing.

When I try to check the extruder, Pronterface gives me this message: Length is 0, not doing anything.

I've never used a 3D printer and all of this software is unfamiliar to me, so I have no idea what that message means. I did send the M302 command because Chris mentions that I might need to override to do a cold extrusion. The message was still the same.

I am using a MAC if that makes a difference.

Thanks.

I think pronterface has a little bit of trouble working with decimal places in values. The standard is for example something like 185.0 degrees for pla. This throws the exception you're talking about. Try full numbers like 185 and it should work. Same is for the length of the filament that should be extruded.
I hope you understand what I mean.

I hope I understand what you mean...

It sounds like you are talking about actually extruding plastic with the hot end on. This test was just to test the extruder motor without actually running plastic through it.

It's this test in the manual:
Check the the extruder feeds forwards when the “Extrude” is pressed and backwards when the “Reverse” button is pressed.. Marlin may prevent you from doing 'cold extrusion'; you can override this with command M302. Make sure you don't have any filament loaded during this test.


Do I need to enter a temperature anyway but not actually turn the hot end on?

Thanks for the help.

No you don't need a temperature but there should be a speed and a distance in boxes near the buttons.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I haven't entered a speed and distance, but it looks like they are set to default at 5mm/100mm per minute.


I'm not in front of the printer right now, but I'll make sure there are values in those boxes when I try again.

Thanks.

Changing the default values worked.

I'm not sure why it wouldn't use the 5mm that was already in there, but I changed it to 4mm and the extruder motor worked fine.

Thanks for the help.

Seems like a bug in the version of pronterface that you are using.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I'll check to see if there is a newer version.

I've gotten it to make the android test print. It looks pretty good.

I haven't been able to make it print from the sd card. I saved the gcode on the card and renamed it with all caps under 8 letters.

When I try to print from the card, I get an error.

What is the error message?

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

This is the error message:

Attempted to write invalid text to console, which could be due to an invalid baudrate
/TRASHE~1/502/ANDROID.G
End file list

That will be a bug in pronterface. Looks like your SD card has a trash can folder on it and that has filenames with characters pronterface does not like.

Removable drives should not get trash cans on Windows. I don't know about MACs. Perhaps you can empty it.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

It's the SD card that you sent with the kit. All I've done is move the files on to my computer.

I don't know if my Mac would just add a trash can to it, but I'll check.

Thanks for the help.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2014 09:42PM by broccolini.

I don't understand then because the SD card we send does not have files like that on it.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

If you are using a mac and delete items from the SD card then a .Trashes folder will be created.
Mount the card in its USB reader again, empty the trash, then eject cleanly. That should clear up anything in the .Trashes folder.

Having said that, I forget to empty my trash can all the time and I have no problems when sending files directly to the printer from the SD or when using Repetier Host. I haven't used Pronterface since setting up the printer as per the manual though.

Quote
QuackingPlums
If you are using a mac and delete items from the SD card then a .Trashes folder will be created.

Ugh. Mac's propensity for hiding files is maddening sometimes. I had no idea it did that.

Do you like Repetier better than Pronterface? All of this software is very new to me so I'm not really sure which is better.

I just settled on Repetier because it fits well with my workflow. I have it setup on all of my machines (a combination of Windows and OSX desktops and laptops) and I keep all my settings within a Dropbox shared folder so that any tweaks I make on one machine are automatically synced across every machine in my house.

I've had *one* job fail that may or may not have been attributed to the USB grounding issue but that's once too many, so to avoid the possibility I now do not print over a direct USB connection.
At the point I finish slicing my plate of objects I either copy the .gcode file to an SD card and start the job from my Panelolu2, or I fire it over to my Octoprint server and start the job there.