HIC Tech Extruder issues *Noob*

So I got a HIC Tech Printer off of the ebay. And I have been going round and round with it trying to get stuff to work. Found a thread on here with some steps/mm info that got the 3 axes working, now I need to get the extruder stepper moving. When in the jogging mode I can jog all of the axes but can't get the extruder stepper to jog. I am stumbling my way through this. Have seen that reloading the firmware might be the ticket, but I have not found said firmware on the internets. The control board is says Base V1.3 and really doesn't say anything else on it. I do believe that it is a HICTOP product from what I can gather. Any help?

Also, it came with a perferated sheet much like a printed circuit board. Any insight as to what that is for? I am a total noob on the semi-diy 3d printing thing. Got a fair amount of experience with production cnc machines, but these are a bit outside of my comfort zone.

You can not extrude when the hotend is cold, heat it up first.
or set the "temp for preventing cold extrusion" in the firmware lower.

What gforce1 said is likely the culprit. I believe the min extrusion temperature is 170c for these but it really depends on your min temp setting in the firmware, so what you'll want to do is set the nozzle temperature to that but really if you don't want it to get all messed up set it to the proper temperature for the material you're using to set or test everything with. (I use 190c for my PLA which is lower than a lot I see, some use 200 or 210. its really a matter of tinkering with what you have until you find good temperatures for your hotend and material.)

Another thing to note is that if you're using the LCD panel to do all these moves / tests you won't be able to move the extruder if you go into the "move 10mm" portion of the menu, you can only move the extruder in 1mm and .1mm.

The board that yours came with is most likely a MKS Base 1.3 and yeah its pretty hard coming by any reliable information for 1.3. A lot of stuff for the other versions (1.0 and such) seem to be pretty similar though.

Are you using a computer to control this over USB? If so, what host are you using? (repetier, pronterface, so on...) A lot of the hosts have a terminal view that can show you what exactly its receiving back from the printer so it would show you if it was in fact stopping you from doing a cold extrusion.

Quote
Humantelope
What gforce1 said is likely the culprit. I believe the min extrusion temperature is 170c for these but it really depends on your min temp setting in the firmware, so what you'll want to do is set the nozzle temperature to that but really if you don't want it to get all messed up set it to the proper temperature for the material you're using to set or test everything with. (I use 190c for my PLA which is lower than a lot I see, some use 200 or 210. its really a matter of tinkering with what you have until you find good temperatures for your hotend and material.)

Another thing to note is that if you're using the LCD panel to do all these moves / tests you won't be able to move the extruder if you go into the "move 10mm" portion of the menu, you can only move the extruder in 1mm and .1mm.

The board that yours came with is most likely a MKS Base 1.3 and yeah its pretty hard coming by any reliable information for 1.3. A lot of stuff for the other versions (1.0 and such) seem to be pretty similar though.

Are you using a computer to control this over USB? If so, what host are you using? (repetier, pronterface, so on...) A lot of the hosts have a terminal view that can show you what exactly its receiving back from the printer so it would show you if it was in fact stopping you from doing a cold extrusion.

You all were right. I figured that might be the case, but I have been busy with other stuff and wasn't able to sit down and mess with this thing too much. I got it to extrude once it got hot so that is good. Now I just need to dial everything in and what have you.

I am not running it via computer. I was having issues getting Pronterface to load on my laptop and kind of gave up. I haven't tried Repetier yet but I will see when I get a min. I have some machining that needs my attention right now so some of this stuff will have to wait. last night i tried to run a part on the printer but the first layer was at 2mm above the table so I need to sort that out. I don't have the auto table leveling so I have to do it manually and I think I set the Z home switch a bit too high. But the nozzle when homed is actually below the level of the table. In Cura I have it set to like 0.3mm or something like that. When the part runs the extruder ends up way too high. I measured the height when jogging it, and it appears that the steps/mm are right on the money. Not sure what is up with that but will try to mess with it some when I get a min either tonight or tomorrow night.

Also, the printer came with a perferated board, much like a circuit board with out any traces. It is the same size as the bed but the holes are much bigger than the screws that hold the bed down. Does this go under the bed or something to act like and insulator? just seems kind of weird. Also, this is the all aluminum (and some steel I think) model so the carriage under the bed is metal. Not sure if this needs to be in there as the instructions were the suck.

glad to hear you got the extruder portion working, now its just fine tuning and fun

As far as the leveling goes, that is always the struggle without an auto bed leveling probe. I'm not entirely sure I follow what you mean by the whole extruder ends up way too high. I'd suggest printing out a 20mm test cube, take some measurements and work from there by doing some calculations to make sure your steps/mm match exactly what they need to be. That perforated board thing I have no idea about, I don't have that same model printer. I'd shoot the seller an email and see if they happen to know or maybe take a picture and post it see if anyone can make sense of it.

sorry I couldn't be of much help with this stuff but I did want to make sure to say good job on the whole extruder thing. Progress is progress.