My Z axis has one motor and continuous belt that drives the two Z axis screws. The pulleys, screw pitch, and microstepping of the motor all contribute to the Z axis resolution. I think you're making a common mistake in thinking that bed leveling is equivalent to aligning the axes. Changing plates on the print bed may require releveling/zeroing of the bed, but that does nothing to affect orthogby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
I use a belt drive and single NEMA-23 motor for the two Z-axis acme screws on my printer. It works perfectly. There are no resolution issues- with 16:1 microstepping in the driver my Z axis requires ~395 steps per mm. The main advantage is that the two screws are ALWAYS IN SYNC. People like to point out how easy it is to align the X axis with dual motor drive. Sure the mechanical part of tby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
How did you stick the sorbothane to the flanges? Do you see any new artifacts in prints? Those drivers look like they handle more current and are better made than the pololu step sticks, but they're still limited to 16:1 microstepping. I don't think you'll see any difference in performance compared to the A4988 because they're both chopper type drivers with no intelligence. I use this type iby the_digital_dentist - General
Technically speaking, 4 bearings is an "over-constrained mechanism". Two bearings on one rail insure motion along the rail's axis. Adding a third bearing on a second rail parallel to the first prevents rotation around the first rail/axis, thus constraining the motion completely. Adding a fourth bearing does nothing to further control the motion unless you consider a carriage that is not perfecby the_digital_dentist - Mechanics
I made a spreadsheet for calculating the amount of error and the required correction based on the length of your printer's axes. You can DL the spreadsheet here: You tell it the size of the rectangle you're printing, then give it the length of the long diagonal and it will tell you the error (how far from 90 degrees the axes are apart), and tell you how much you have to move one end of one axiby the_digital_dentist - Printing
When steppers don't turn you need to check the wiring to the individual motors- did you reverse one of the winding's connections, etc., and check that the drivers are supplying sufficient current to get them to move. Also make sure there are no mechanical reasons the motors can't turn.by the_digital_dentist - General
What are we looking at here? You can test the orthogonality of the axes by printing a rectangular object and measuring the diagonals. If the axes are orthogonal, the diagonals will be the same length. That works for checking the Z axis orthogonality to Y and X axes also. Print a rectangular solid and measure diagonals in the YZ and XZ planes.by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Can you post a picture of the machine and one of your motor mounts?by the_digital_dentist - General
You have two separate problems. What is the printer/electronics, and what slicer did you use? If you used Slic3r, did you set a non zero Z offset value? The other problem is the USB connection. I assume you're using a Windows computer. Did you move the connection to a different USB port, away from the one where it used to work? Put it back. This sort of crap is why I try to avoidby the_digital_dentist - General
Actually, the obvious answer is turn down the current to that motor. You have a geared extruder- you should not need to run a lot of current in the motor. Even direct drive extruders only get warm when running. My geared extruder uses 600mA and barely rises above ambient temperature after multiple hours of printing. The problem with A4988 modules is the tiny pot that adjusts current- it's easby the_digital_dentist - General
It depends on what you want to do and what your budget is like. If you want reliable, get or build a simple, unregulated 12-24V supply. The only parts that need regulated supply voltage are fed by a 5V regulator on the Arduino board. You don't need regulation for bed heaters, motor drivers, or motors. An unregulated supply will be reliable, but heavy due to the power transformer. Try somethiby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
How fast are you trying to print? Have you calibrated the extruder? Did you measure the filament in multiple places and put the average value into the filament diameter setting in the slicer? Which slicer are you using? How do you know the actual temperatures vs the set temperatures?by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Check the Z motor wiring and current. Check the screws on the coupler that connects the Z motor(s) to the drive screw(s).by the_digital_dentist - Printing
It sounds like there's a short circuit around the MOSFET switch and when the switch turns on the the short is pulling the power supply voltage down. Monitor the power supply voltage to the RAMPS board and see what it does when the switch turns on and off. Look for solder blobs on the RAMPS board, check the wires to make sure they aren't frayed and shorting or touching anything they shouldn't.by the_digital_dentist - General
You can try a new fuse, but obviously, your machine is taking too much power for the supply to handle. I'd get a separate supply to run the bed heater. Are you using one of the cheap "LED supplies" from Ebay? Did the fan in the supply turn on before the fuse blew? My experience with those supplies is that if the fan is turning on, the supply isn't going to last much longer.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Bed temperature variation can cause Z-artifacts. Are you using bang-bang or PID control? Does the bed temperature remain reasonably constant during printing?by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Filament diameter is never exactly 3mm. Try measuring the filament with a caliper at about 20 places and use the avergae value for the filament diameter Slic3r. Then you leave your flow control set to 100%. Make sure when you measure the filament that you rotate the orientation of the caliper on the filament- it is usually slightly oval and if you keep measuring in the same orientation you wonby the_digital_dentist - Printing
The ghosting of the hole in the center and the corners is related to the current in the motor. If you increase the current that effect will decrease. If you can increase the voltage to the motors it will also help. The pinched appearance of the corners is due to low acceleration. Try increasing it if your machine can handle it. After you've increased the motor current you should be able to pby the_digital_dentist - Printing
Delta vs cartesian: Deltas are typically capable of faster printing, though some newer cartesian designs are getting pretty fast. I've seen a lot of youtube videos of both types of machines printing super fast, but I've yet to see any close up photos of the result. In general, the faster you print the worse the result, regardless of the type of machine. It seems like print speed has become thby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
QuoteTheReprapExperience Maybe I should be more clear... This is why I don't think it is wobble becuase i purchased high quality anti backlash nuts which are far superior to those diy nut traps, and yes, by uncouple, it guides along the smooth rod like that and pushes up the x carriage. The x carriage is in no way attached to the z nuts, meaning I can pull it up and it moves down with gravity Thby the_digital_dentist - Printing
Just as a point of reference, I have a bed that is 12.5" x 12" x 1/4" aluminum plate and it takes about 6 minutes to heat up to 105C.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
You already stated the problem and solution. You bumped the speed up too high. Dial it back a little. It is shifting in the Y axis. The Y axis moves the relatively heavy print bed back and forth- it can't keep up with the X axis which only has to move the extruder carriage. Newton's laws apply! Sometimes when testing speed we do something like test it by printing a square, where all the axeby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Cast aluminum tooling plate makes a great print bed because it spreads the heat out. You put a layer of kapton tape (I like 5 mil thick stuff because it is tough) on it and you'll have no trouble getting ABS to stick to it (you may have trouble getting it to let go!). The kapton tape will last a long time if you are careful not to gouge it while removing prints. A thin piece of metal might warby the_digital_dentist - Printing
OK, testing done and video uploading to vimeo. Result: the Y axis screw drive seems as noisy with the harmonic damper as without. The harmonic damper rattles and adds to the awful noise the printer makes so it is actually worse with it than without it. Video here: and here: Design here: The harmonic damper demos by the CNC machine people that show miraculous results are for fast movesby the_digital_dentist - General
Quotejtoombs Dentist, from your other posts I have seen around the forums you have leadscrews on all of axes, right? I hope this harmonic damper produces good results for your printer. It seems like it has good potential due to the similarities between your printer and CNC machines which this device is used on. Let me know what happens when you complete your tests. Unfortunately, my motors are noby the_digital_dentist - General
Those are essentially the same as the astrosyn dampers that don't help much at all.by the_digital_dentist - General
I like the options available via Slic3r but find it a little buggy and occasionally it crashes when exporting gcode files. Next in line is Cura, not as configurable as slic3r, but faster and generally does support material better. Regarding reliability- the arduino is a computer, it's true, but it is not separate from the printer. It is a necessary part of the printer that makes its operationby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Are you sure the SD card is good? My recent smoothieboard had no end of bizarre problems until I replaced the uSD card that came with the board. My computer could read and write to the card just fine via the USB port on the smoothieboard, but the CPU on the smoothiebaird couldn't read the card properly, it turned out.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
I have tried the Astrosyn dampers on the NEMA-23 motors in my printer and they made no discernible difference in the vibration and noise. They will help prevent vibrations coupled from the body of the motor to the machine frame, but in my case, and probably yours, the noise from the frame is minimal. The vibration in the rotor will still couple to whatever the rotor connects to. I also use Dby the_digital_dentist - General
Since the bed resistance is 1.1 Ohms, and it's drawing 0.25A when the FET turns on, the voltage across the bed must be about 0.25V, which means the FET isn't actually turning on like it should. Does the FET get warm? The FET is dropping about 11.75V at 0.25A = about 3 watts. That FET should be getting nice and toasty. Why did you replace all those parts?by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers