Basically, you turn the trimpot on the driver to adjust the current. See the image. Make sure to use a nonconductive screwdriver to adjust. Using a metallic screwdriver can potentially short and damage the Pololu stepper driver. The usual procedure is this: Gently turn the pot counter-clockwise to reduce the amount of current to it's minimum level. Slowly and gently turn the pot clockwise while uby dexterousfolder - Prusa i3 and variants
Ok, if the extruder is skipping steps then try readjusting the current on the corresponding stepper driver. If the motor isn't getting enough current to hold torque, then it can skip steps and slip. If that doesn't help, then check your nozzle. If you can't easily push filament by hand through a hot nozzle, then its clogged and that may be causing the extruder motor to skip. I really would recomby dexterousfolder - Prusa i3 and variants
Indeed that looks like failure to extrude sufficient plastic. That could be caused by a lot of things, but here's the most common sources of low extrusion: Incorrect extruder steps- Mark 200mm of filament, in 50mm intervals, from where it enters the extruder. Heat up nozzle, give the command to extrude 100mm of filament, and see how much actually extrudes and recalculate steps per mm on that. Insby dexterousfolder - Prusa i3 and variants
Update: I saw another thread about adding a second extruder to a prusa, and it got me thinking. I moved the extruder heater, thermistor, motor, and driver over to the extruder 1 slot, where they had been in extruder 0. Turns out, extruder 1 works just fine, with motor moving and clean extrusion on a short test print. My guess is that my RAMPS board had a bad connection that finally gave up afterby dexterousfolder - Reprappers
Repetier is pretty graphics-intensive. I've noticed that longer prints tend to make my other programs skip and crash, because Repetier is trying to render all of the lines of the print. Try reducing its graphical settings.by dexterousfolder - Printing
Ok, reprappers, maybe you can help me out here, because I'm out of ideas. I was printing some parts for a costume, on my prusa i3. It's a ramps/mega build, with one extruder and heatbed, and some modified framework. It's been working beautifully for months, aside from some small bed leveling issues, but extrusion stopped about 20 layers into this print. I assumed the problem was a clog, but thenby dexterousfolder - Reprappers
What you're doing with M92 is setting the steps_per_unit for the z axis. What are the step settings in your firmware? Because it sounds like your steps for z are too low.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
Right, so I got replacement fuses of the same rating at the one that blew, and swapped one in. Upon plugging into the outlet, with no load on the power supply, an even bigger, louder pop occurred.The new fuse checks out fine, so something else went bad. So, not just the fuse then. darn. Guess i'm buying a new power supply. So changing the topic; what kind of power supply would you suggest?by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
Can you try to measure the opening at the top of the barrel? the hole should be pretty close to the intended filament width. If you have a 1.75 nozzle, and buy 3mm filament, there's no way its going to fit. If you have a 3mm nozzle and get 1.75mm filament, then you should be able to get away with using it if you turn up the flow rate.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
the problem with glue is that its quite messy. as are most adhesion methods. I've found hairspray to provide a good sticking surface, which also being smoothly applicable and water soluble. Just get the unscented stuff and spray on a good layer, then let dry. Prints hold on while its hot, and pop right off when its cool, with a nice smooth bottom surface.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
This is the power supply I'm using. The fan is on constantly when the power supply is plugged in, and kicks on high every time one of the heaters is on.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
Hello reprappers! I have a bit of an event I would like your opinion on. I have your basic reprap setup; mega and RAMPS 1.4, prusa i3, 12v 30A power supply. Only difference is, I have two fans running in parallel on D9, 40mm on the extruder and 60mm on the electronics. Now, this setup has worked for me for about a month, before which i had only printed with PLA and only needed one fan, but tonighby dexterousfolder - Reprappers
I replaced the power supply, and checked a couple connections. A heated bed is supposed to have about 1.2 ohms resistance value, right? That's what is came out as, no shorts, so that's alright. However, when I ran an ABS print on the new bed, I started to smell burning. I pulled the plug before anything could burn out, but the D8 mosfet was starting to look a bit brown around the edges. So it's nby dexterousfolder - Reprappers
Upon opening the power supply and careful listening, it seems the buzzing noise is coming from the large transformer in the middle.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
No joy, the power supply makes that noise when it's plugged into wall power, even when it's not wired to the printer at all. This is really a weird malfunction, as the printer wasn't even running when it happened.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
This issue hit entirely out of the blue. I was sitting at my desk, my printer on the table behind me when I smell smoke, coming from the printer. Panicked, I unplug everything and the smoke stops. upon close inspection of both the mega and the ramps, is seems that the only damage is a toasty-looking D8 mosfet, which was leaning against the D block and melted a small patch of the outside. it didnby dexterousfolder - Reprappers
The belts are as tight as I can get them. They all thrum like guitar strings.by dexterousfolder - Printing
Okay, so this one has a little bit of backstory. To make it short, at my school this guy built a big printer (600x600x600 mm cubed print volume), for the student design center, but then he left on co-op before it was functional. So my team lead threw the project to me as I built my prusa i3 this summer and have been printing things for the project. I got the printer moving, and recently mountedby dexterousfolder - Printing
Sorry for the delay, I can only get over to the design center to work in between classes. Anyway, I tried the autotuning, but it always aborts, with the message "PID Autotune failed! Temperature too high." I tried changing the settings by hand, but that had little effect. I also tried checking the actual temperature of the extruder with a laser thermometer, but since I can only read the outside oby dexterousfolder - Reprappers
So, a bit of back story. At my school, we have a design center where students can work on their teams and have access to tools and supplies, etc. Last semester, one guy started building a large (~70cm^3 print space, ~100cm^3 total size) 3d printer, based on a reprap concepts, for the whole design center to use. However, this semester, he's gone on co-op, with the printer built but non functional.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
Ah, that might be it. I'll get a new MOSFET, replace it, and try that. Better to replace a single component than the whole board. Thanks!by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
I just this morning noticed that the fan on my Prusa i3 was not running. Going further up the wires, I saw that the electrical tape at a splice had caught on the extruder gear, pulling it loose and letting the wires short. I tried several different fans on D9, but nothing works. Everything else on the printer is running fine. (except for an unrelated extruder grip issue) Have I fried a componentby dexterousfolder - Reprappers
Are you running the heated bed? I had a very similar issue of z banding (not z wobble) caused by the heated bed flexing up and down as it maintained temperature, changing the distance from the extruder. Worth a shot, to try a print without the bed.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
Adding a fan for cooling your polyfuse may help, but make sure that all your parts are sound. I had the exact same problem, and it turned out the underside of the polyfuse had a crack running down it. Replacing the polyfuse fixed it, so maybe check that.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
shift? as in, to one side? or is the ridge all the way around? Because the first could be an irregularity in your threaded rods. Are they actually straight?by dexterousfolder - Printing
SOLVED. After some days of experimentation and many calibration cubes later, I found the source of the problem. The heat bed! As it maintained temperature, it was flexing up and down and changing the distance from the print to the nozzle. I turned it off, as I'm printing only in PLA at this point and it sticks just fine to blue tape, and now my prints are lovely and smooth. See attachment. Thanksby dexterousfolder - Printing
So, lately my prints have developed a very unfortunate ribbed look, ruining the finish. see attachments. As the latest in a long line of issues with my printer, I began researching solutions and testing methods. So far, none of the following have worked: Changing the layer heights in case of rounding issues. Keeping the z motors enabled between moves. Loosening the coupling between the z motorby dexterousfolder - Printing
Perhaps the extruder simply doesn't have a good grip on the filament. What kind of extruder mechanism are you using? I had a very similar problem, and it turned out the spring screws on my Greg's Extruder weren't nearly tight enough.by dexterousfolder - Printing
Are you using a RAMPS board? under each polulu, between the rows of pins, there should be six pins, in three pairs. To set to microstepping, You need to take three pin jumpers and connect them. they just slot over each pair.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers
You might also check whether your electronics are overheating. I had a cracked polyfuse on mine that was tripping at much lower temperatures than it should have and cutting power to the bed.by dexterousfolder - Reprappers