Some assistance please

I've been searching web for a affordable 3D printer kit and I finally found one for around $206.00
Shipping took about 2 weeks to get to me from China.
Assembly took about 4-6hr due to their almost non existing instructions that were pretty much just a picture of the parts and another of it assembled.


2015 He3D- XI3 High Precision NEW Prusa I3 3D Printer kit

RAMPS 1.4+Mega 2560

The problem I am having is that it won't print from the SD card or from the PC.
Everything seems to be working, I can navigate all the menus just fine and move all the axis to their home locations without issue.
I can even see the contents of the SD card.

When I go to print from the SD card it displays printing at the bottom 0% and then it goes away.
When I load something larger the same displays appears at the bottom and loads up to 4% and then goes away as well.

I've tried preheating the head to 190 and the bed to 70 and then tried to print but I get the same thing.

When I try connecting with a PC using (reaper Host) I get a green connection but the commands are just queued. On the printer it just says idle

I'm still pretty new to this and I've been trying to figure out this issue for the last two weeks.
I did find some cold solder joints on some of the pins on the board and since then touched those up.

I've been trying to update the firmware of the board but the files provided by the manufacture don't pass verification I get a missing twi.c
I've tried grabbing the newest Marlin firmware and modified it to work for my system but when I try to update the printer it just times out.


If anyone has experience anything like this I would really appreciate your assistance.

Im no expert but we probably need a bit more info.
The SD card is likely to be complicated so lets start with using the PC.
In RH what communication settings are you using? I can't remember them all but there is only one tab for them e.g baud rate, port. You should have an option on the machine menu that shows its settings. Can you supply those as well - again baud rate is important. I think it shows the port number as well.
Try another USB lead.
When you plugged the printer into the PC did it load a driver OK?

For the SD did you source your own? What size and format is it? Check the filename is valid (name.gco).

Other things to check may include the SD card connector and USB connector on the board as in the past people have reported problems with the soldering etc.

Thank you so very much for taking the time to read my post.

The two Baud Rates I've played with have been (250000 and 115200)
I can verify that the printer is on COM6 when disconnect the printer COM6 goes away.
I'm not at home so I can't check the baud rate on the printer just yet, from what I can remember it was showing 115200

Printer drivers, when I connect the printer to the PC nothing comes up, no indication that a driver was loaded. I do hear the beep that indicates something was plugged in.
I haven't checked the device manager yet. (what and where would I see the printer popup as?) The manufacture gave me USB drivers to install and I've done that but like I said I haven't seen anything pop up yet.


The SD card that was sent from the manufacture is crap.
I'm using a 8gb Kingston micro SD card in a card adapter.
I believe the card is formatted FAT32

I downloaded the STL files from thingiverse 20mm cube and a 40mm cube


When I get home today I plan on taking the board apart and tracing all the pins to make sure they have good connections

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2016 03:22PM by lore7460.

I went into the configuration / General Settings
I set the baud rate to 250000 and then back to 115200 now the PC see's it.
Heating things up now to try a test print.

I'm able to print from the PC now.
Only thing left to do is calibrate it.
Currently the PLA is just balling up under the extruder.

Extruder temp 190
Bed 70

PLA not sticking to bed (i need to pick up some painters tape or something)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2016 08:13PM by lore7460.

So I finally got the darn thing to print and stick to bed very well.
But my results aren't constant.

I can print a 20mm cube with no problem as long as the filament has slack in it.
The resulting print is only off about .2mm so not to bad (19.80)

When I try to print anything else something weird happens. when building the raft 2nd layer the filament becomes very light and then stops extruding, the extruding gear is still turning and the filament is twisting and coiling up inside the extrusion tube.
Almost as if the temperature dropped or the nozzle got clogged. This happens every time right around the second layer.

When I print the test cube I have no issues.

When I pull out the filament it's a ll twisted up like a spring.

I'm using the same settings as when I printed the cube. Nothing changed in the slicer.


I'm printing at E_220c and B_40c


Another issue is that when it starts to print the filament at the tip doesn't start coming out until maybe 40-100mm travel


Nozzel size is .3mm

I had to replace my throat with one that had a PTFE liner. You might also want to check your extruder's steps per mm if you haven't done that yet.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2016 01:32PM by AudaciousTuddle.

Thank you,

I did try doing the extruder's calibration but it was way off.
I told it to extrude 100mm and only about 30mm got fed out so i figured that something else was really off.

also, there seems to be leakage around the heat block, I'll try wrapping some plumbers tape around the threads.

Do you have your microstepping jumpers installed under the stepper drivers? It also sounds like it could be a slicer issue.

Yes I have all the jumpers installed under each driver board.

I find it odd that it works on one print and then jacks up with the other, I'll try re-downloading the file and running it through the slicer and see if i still get the same results.

Sorry for the obvious question but sometimes we can't see the wood for the trees.
Does your slicer have the correct filament size selected? If it was accidently changed to 3mm after you sliced the cube all later prints will under extrude.
Also as Audacious says - ensure you have the PTFE tube in the extruder. The fact that you say the filament twists implies there is room in the tube. Im not sure what the correct size is but the bore should be no greater than 2mm.
Note that you need to ensure the end of the tube is wound in to touch the nozzle and then secure with the lock nut. Don't leave a gap between the tube and the nozzle.
Is 220 high for PLA.
Is the filament from the drum to extruder free? Theres no drum holder shown in the kit. It is supposed to be a direct extruder but the fact that you seem to be observing the filament after the extruder makes me wonder if you have a Bowden extruder.

Thank you for your reply.

No it's a direct feed extruder; I currently have a stand near by that holds the PLA roll (simple wooden one until I can print one and place it over the printer)
I do plan on switching to Bowden extruder later on, but I have seen videos of this style of extruder working.

And I agree that 220 is pretty high for PLA but at lower temperatures I could hardly get any filament to extrude.

As far as I know the filament size is set correctly.

And as for the hot end the nozzle tight up against the heat block and on the other end I have a nut that tightens down heat block.

At one point I did have a blockage in the filament tube and I had to use a heat gun to soften up the filament to remove it.
Perhaps I damaged the PTFE liner on the inside. (but I was able to print the 20mm cube with out issue)

What it feels like to me is that the nozzle hole is to small and the extruder is trying to feed to fast or the extruder isn't getting hot enough.



I have tried to slow everything down in the slicer configuration but that doesn't really seem to do anything.

I'm using Reaper-Host and Cure slicer. I'll see if I can get some image and maybe some video of whats going on.

I was never able to get the cheap direct drive extruder working on my cheap HE3D kit. I replaced it with a gregwades geared extruder. Though I could have just bought a higher torque stepper, which probably would have been the better option.

Thanks for the info.
If you have to run 220 to print and we assume the thermocouple is over reading then the PID may also be off. So when the hot end is turned off by the PID it could be overcooling.
So you could try increasing the temp another 5 degrees and tune the PID. Keep an eye on the temperatures while printing to see how low it goes.
Not sure why your test block would be OK unless theres some upheat from the test block that you don't get from your other prints.
I don't know what are good speeds for a 0.3nozle but I am wondering if the speed/layer height for the raft is different from the cube.
Do you have any retract distance set in slicer? Is it on layer change?

it sounds like the extruder motor is underpowered. Setting the temp at 220 helps because it thins the plastic, putting less torque on the motor. The motor/extruder pair on the He3d machines just don't work.

On the extruder motor being under power.

I don't believe it's that because the extruder grinds away at the filament. The filament just doesn't want to feed in stead it starts to corkscrew inside the extruder throat.
If I try to feed by force it doesn't go anywhere. my guess is that maybe the temperature is to high and the filament begins to melt in the upper area of the pipe and the later cools and doesn't want to feed anymore.

I'm using Hatchbox Filiment (bought through Amazon)
it feels good, not brittle (it claims it's PLA but I guess I should put some in acetone to make sure)

I'll try running some prints today maybe i can get some images or video.

You say "it starts to corkscrew inside the extruder throat." I'm having a hard time visualizing exactly where this is happening. Can you attach a close up photo?
As for assembling the nozzle, you screw the threaded straight piece into the block part way, then screw the nozzle in, BUT not all the way. Leave a thread showing. Now hand screw the threaded piece in until it hits the nozzle and then tighten the nozzle against it. That way there is no gap. Are you sure you have the threaded piece in correctly and not upside down with the teflon piece at the bottom instead of the top?

Also, try to get the threaded piece up as close to the extruder gear as possible to eliminate a large gap where it could curl up.

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Folger Tech 2020 i3 and FT-5 as well as modified JGAurora A5 with direct drive E3D/Titan. All running the BLTOUCH.
Great kits. Having fun and running the heck out of them.
Running Marlin 1.1.0 RC8 on the i3 and FT5. Custom firmware on A5.
Folger Tech Wiki board >[folgertech.wikia.com]