Ladies and Gentlemen,
While I have been in the printer industry for a long time working in many support, engineering and product development fields, I am a newbee with 3d printing. I purchased a Migbot Prusa I3 to break the ice.
One can complain about poor (nonexistent) documentation, poor quality of 3d printed parts, Crappy bearings, miss-drilled acrylic parts, no cd, non responsive support, etc., ad on infinitum but that is not constructive and certainly not helpful.... After all what did one expect for so little cost... I must say that support did provide a download of what is in the CD. Fact is that the assembly went reasonably well following the pictures after re-drilling holes and using ABS glue to repair a broken pulley block. C'mon, it supposed to be fun.
After all of this and learning all I could about Mendel firmware, gathering Cura and USB driver info along with all .STL parts and test files. I felt all was in hand. Going carefully forward bit by bit, step by step, all came together and it looked like the picture at the 3dprintersonline.com web site. After double checking all again, I wired the power supply with a heavy duty grounded power cord and plugged it in. ALL came up.. Had to search for a LCD Firmware menu map to see how to make changes and operate the printer. Spent time doing prelim alignment on the bed. After reading all Cura docs I plugged the USB cable and the printer "connected". I found an .STL for a 20mm block test file, loaded it in to Cura and attempted to print. The LCD on the printer indicated printing and the bed and the Hot end were warming to temperature. Once reached, it started to move all X, Y and Z axis points followed the 20mm cube. However, no extrusion.
I have covered all available for setting up the unit but have yet to see a "running" H file that shows the proper complete "Installed and running" config settings for a migbot unit that has the V9 extruder installed and printing properly. I have taken the time to download the Arduino IDE and have started to do the required reading. The no extruder output issue at hand implies one of three possible causes.;
1) the firmware settings are improper for the V9 extruder that came with the MIGBOT kit
2) the MKS Base V1.2 board has a problem,
3) the cable between the board and Stepper motor or the stepper motor itself is bad.
To Isolate the problem source, I did the following:
1) With printing cube I pressed tension lever on the extruder to release tension and forced the PLA filament through and it printed the form of the cube for as long as I forced it through the extruder. Poor quality as expected but it did resemble the expected cube shape
2) Connected Extruder cable to X axis connector on the MKS Base V1.2 board and was manually able to rotate the extruder motor forward and backward using the X 10mm motion control. This proved the Cable and extruder stepper motor were functional. This left probable causes as improper Firmware setting or component failure on the MKS Base V1.2 board.
3) At this time I have pulled down all I can and have yet to find a working Migbot MKS Base V1.2 H file listing for a functional Migbot having a V9 direct drive extruder that shows all of the functional settings. As almost all of the blogs and conversations recorded on the related topic blogs become an open forum for a variety of printer problems and configurations using a variety of software, extruders, various printers and firmware loads despite being a search result for the specific affliction on the specific printer, the overall gleaned help gets me into the church, possibly the correct pew but never the exact seat or specific guidance related thereto....
I can and will figure out the Arduino IDE and look at the firmware currently loaded in the stock unit as it came from the factory. But If I had a currently functional H file with proper settings related to using the V9 direct drive extruder, I could immediately make the needed changes. I would rather not go on a Easter egg hunt and start trying different things that may or may not kill the current level of functionality. One "assumes" that the loaded firmware one received in the kit was properly configured for the version of components included in the received kit. However, based on viewed comments, that is faulty logic that can cause one to deviate widely and make things much worse.
At this time, it's either the firmware settings or the board itself. As all else seems to perform as expected except the extruder squirting the plastic, I believe the higher probability to be firmware settings are the cause. I have reached out to 3dprintersonline.com and Steve replied to leo copy to me, "please contact and help the customer" ... After several days, it is apparent that request went down the rabbit hole or bit bucket.
Clearly all contributors are more hands on knowledgeable about the Prusa I3 and MIGBOT than I am at this point. Any help, guidance or information regarding the lack of plastic extrusion with a V9 direct drive extruder driven by an MKS Base V1.2 board would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!