Help please, still setting up, not getting far..

I'm still trying to prep for the first print,

I have calibrated the filament feed and added that to the config file.

I then followed through the manual bed calibration, automatic bed calibration and that seemed to work when running the circle.g file, quite impressive really.

I then told it to run an auto bed cal and that seemed to go ok.

I thought I was ready to run the ormaxis.g file but it did not work.

When I home my x axis it seems to park the head off the edge of the bed by about 5-6mm???

The y home seems to park the nozzle right on the edge of the glass plate so that's not right either, I don't think.

When I run the ormaxis.g code it moved about a bit then the head went right to the left park position (off the bed) and the code stalled, had to pause then reset to gain control again.

Can someone identify what is going wrong here please, I've spent five hours today just winding the z axis up and down, making notes of readings and generally not getting far.

I feel it's so close but yet so far away from actually squirting some plastic at the bed

What G-code is on the last line of the output window? (I'm assuming you're using Pronterface)

It's not M116 is it?

This is the start of 'ormaxis.g'

G21 ; set units to millimeters
G90 ; use absolute coordinates
M83 ; use relative distances for extrusion
M140 S65; Set bed temperature
G28 ; Home all axes
G1 Z5 F200 ; lift nozzle
G1 X2 Y50 F2000; Go to wait for warm position
M116; Wait for all temperatures
G10 P0 S205 R0 ; Set extruder temperature
T0; Select extruder
M116; Wait for all temperatures

Note that the temperatures are set and then the code waits for that to be achieved (±5°C I believe). If this never happens, nothing else will.

Regarding the homing, the X home position is with the IR sensor over the edge of the tab on the X motor mount (up and right of the top nut in this view here [reprappro.com])


Kev.


EDIT: BTW, if you are manually homing, you may want to stick a semicolon in front of the G28 line so the print doesn't re-home when you start it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2014 01:30PM by KP.

Ok so the homing might be ok then.

The bed and head were fully up to temp before I loaded the g-code, is that not the right way, should I have left them cold and then loaded the file??

Quote
Davek0974

When I home my x axis it seems to park the head off the edge of the bed by about 5-6mm???

The y home seems to park the nozzle right on the edge of the glass plate so that's not right either, I don't think.

Those are the correct home positions. If you then do G0 X105 Y100 then the head should move to the centre of the bed.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
Davek0974
The bed and head were fully up to temp before I loaded the g-code, is that not the right way, should I have left them cold and then loaded the file??

It doesn't really matter, you may get better results setting up hot as any thermal expansion will have taken place.

I was just looking for a plausible reason for the print not progressing.

Would still like to know at what point in the G-code it's stopping.

Ok, just run it up from cold,

Connected with pronterface, run my setbed.g file, manually homed the z axis, issued a g92 z0 command but the get pos return was not zero for z, it read 0.115 or thereabouts, it would not zero.?

I run the code and it was indeed the M116 waiting that I saw so that's ok, it warmed the bed, then warmed the head, then started printing but it was printing about 3mm above the bed, just spitting out a long filament of PLA.

I paused then reset and used get pos which reported the z axis as being 0.24mm as per code I believe for first layer.

So something I have done is upsetting the z axis, trouble is, I don't know what, I was simply trying to follow the guide.


Any ideas?

Quote
Davek0974
... issued a g92 z0 command but the get pos return was not zero for z, it read 0.115 or thereabouts, it would not zero.?

That's normal for older versions of the firmware, because it's applying bed compensation to your Z0 value in the G92 command. I've fixed it several versions ago in my firmware at [github.com]. Which firmware are you running?

Quote
Davek0974
I run the code and it was indeed the M116 waiting that I saw so that's ok, it warmed the bed, then warmed the head, then started printing but it was printing about 3mm above the bed, just spitting out a long filament of PLA.

I paused then reset and used get pos which reported the z axis as being 0.24mm as per code I believe for first layer.

So something I have done is upsetting the z axis, trouble is, I don't know what, I was simply trying to follow the guide.

Any ideas?

It may be that the bed compensation is not working well for you. The stock IR probe is very sensitive to direct sunlight and quite sensitive to incandescent artificial light. Did you do the G92 Z0 in the centre of the bed, or somewhere else?

It may also be that your z gears are stiff and the z motor is sometimes missing steps. With the power off, does the threaded rod turn easily? Does the z axis move properly in response to commands?

Also you need to remove or comment out the G28 command in ormaxis.g, otherwise your G92 command will be in vain because the axes will get homed again.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

I'm using the firmware as supplied, it matched the file on the web site so I saw no point in updating.

Issuing m561 followed by m556 s100 x0 y0 z0 allowed me to successfully zero the z axis using g92. Z0

I commented out the g28 in the snowman file and made the mistake of loading from my desktop and running it from pronterface not the sd card, it was not happy but I recall reading that somewhere.

I will try running it from the sd card tomorrow.

The test did not stick to the kapton bed anyway, got jammed under the head and ended up in a right mess.

So I'm a bit confused now as to exactly how you start printing files, I have added Mxxx p0 p1 p2 p3 lines to the config file,
Altered the z probe setting in the config file
Created a setbed file,


I'm struggling a bit with this......

Does that mean you are running firmware 057a? Use the M115 command to check.

Direct print from Pronterface only works properly if you patch Pronterface. The patch also speeds up loading to SD card from Pronterface.

Regarding auto bed levelling, either don't use it (level the bed manually instead), or ensure there is no direct sunlight or bright incandescent light on the bed when you run it. LED and fluorescent light are OK. It's best to bring the bed up to temperature before you home the Z axis or run bed levelling.

The Kapton surface needs to be clean, so wipe it with a clean duster or kitchen paper moistened with isopropanol or acetone before printing on it.

See [forums.reprap.org] for more tips.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2014 04:04PM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Yes 057a

I'm not worried about printing direct from pronterface, ad card will be better.

Do I need to undo any settings I have tweaked to use manual levelling or are we talking physically levelling the bed manually?

Levelling or compensation I guess??

Will clean bed before next print test but need to make sure I start out in the right direction.

Quote
Davek0974
Levelling or compensation I guess??

I use both - I have made the bed as level as I can using adjusting screws, and I run the auto bed levelling just before printing.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
Davek0974
When I home my x axis it seems to park the head off the edge of the bed by about 5-6mm???

Did you put a little piece of self-adhesive silver foil on top of the edge the IR sensor drives onto? Doing that fixed any X homing/bed calibration issues for me.

Quote
Davek0974
Can someone identify what is going wrong here please, I've spent five hours today just winding the z axis up and down, making notes of readings and generally not getting far.

At first I had a few problems, too, but making notes is generally not a bad idea. I do this every day to calibrate the Z axis and the heated bed properly. Remember: Without a proper Z axis and bed calibration, your filament will not stick to your printing surface! Take a piece of paper, put it under your nozzle (but clean it first) and lower it until you feel some friction as you move your piece of paper. Then issue "G92 Z0" or write down your current Z position if you're calibrating the bed. This method has always worked for me.

Also, you might want to try dc42's firmware in combination with iamburny's web interface. That really improved my Ormerod, because it is more stable than the official RRP firmware and allows me to upload gcode files via WiFi. In addition to that, Z homing works a lot better (haven't used auto-bed leveling yet), but as already described by dc42, the IR probe is very sensitive to environmental changes and thus may not always be as accurate as a manual Z homing/bed calibration.

I've got another idea of how to get my Ormerod to do a fully-automatic Z-axis calibration, but I will check that sometime soon. Wouldn't it be possible to use the bearing on the X carriage part as a kind of switch? I thought about adding a long piece of conductive foil onto the x axis plate the bearing runs on in order to detect when the nozzle touches the bed.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2014 06:15PM by zombiepantslol.

I think it's probably a good idea (I thought similar a while ago but never tried [forums.reprap.org]), you'd need some sort of brush or wiper making constant contact with the bearing, and probably some debouncing

Cheers

Ray

I will try again today with manual z setting, but will leave the bed compensation as it is, just not issue the auto command yet.

I really don't want to alter the firmware yet until I know what's going on, too many changes in one go is not always good.

The bed does need physically levelling, diagonal is about 1mm out, not chronic but I think it can be adjusted better, I was just aiming to print an object, any object before fine tuning.

I use IPA at work so I'll bring some home for bed cleaning.

I have not put any silver foil on the homing tab, but do have some and will try it.

I think this is the correct startup???

Zero the z axis,
Home x and y,
Run setbed.g,
Load the file (after commenting out any G28 code),
Print from the SD card.

I like the idea re using the x bearing as a switch, one alteration I did make during build was to apply two layers of self adhesive stainless steel shim tape to the bearing running stripe, the head was drooping and just didn't look right.

We use this tape at work, it's very tough and only .002" thick by 1/4" wide, good stuff but razor sharp!

The only downside with using the runner as a switch would be flex etc, by the the time the z has lowered enough to break the circuit, the head would be firmly planted on the bed and not at zero.

Maybe ultrasonics or a right-angle reflection sensor that only sends a signal at one precise distance of reflection would work?

Success!

Just managed to print a perfect snowman!

One of those milestone moments in a project build, picture later.

Just about managed bed adhesion by using a tissue and water, not a drip of acetone or nail polish remover in the house

Later today I'm going to mess with the bed to get her a bit more level then redo my compensation figures and maybe try to get a little more daylight under the fan cowling and iR sensor blocks, they are only *just* clearing the print. Will try screwing the nozzle down a little first as that's the most obvious adjustment.

Quote
Davek0974
I think this is the correct startup???

Zero the z axis,
Home x and y,
Run setbed.g,
Load the file (after commenting out any G28 code),
Print from the SD card.

I recommend doing the setbed before the z-axis zeroing, to make sure the bed leveling does not change the Z zero point. I use this sequence myself:
Run setbed.g
Home x and y
Zero the z axis
Load the file (after commenting out any G28 code),
Print from the SD card

You should definitely home Z and Y before running setbed if you are using IR probing (G32 command) in setbed, otherwise the probing may occur at the wrong points.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

My bed compensation changes significantly (up to +/- 0.2mm) whenever I remove/replace the glass, so I do the Z compensation before every print, entering the figures into "setbed.g" that I have open in notepad, and then running that modified file as the last thing before printing.

Dave
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