CTC print starts too low on z-axis

[mariankeller]

Hi,

just out of the blue my CTC printer decided to come up with some trouble. I’ve made many successful prints with it before, but now it suddenly has this strange issue. While leveling the print bed, it will just drive the build plate to the end stop, where I then level the build plate without any issues to about 0.1mm distance from the nozzle. Same with the jog mode. But while printing, the printer now simply doesn’t wait for the build plate to reach the end stop, but rather starts at about 0.5mm away from the build plate and therefore starts extruding in mid-air. First assumed that it’s a strange issue with the g-code, but it isn’t, as files I printed successfully before now also start with the same problem. Seems like some strange software issue, but I haven’t really found any information about it. Your Ideas and suggestions are very appreciated.

[wirlybird]

What software are you using?

[mariankeller]

The original software from CTC, version 7.1 when I remember right.

[wirlybird]

Not familiar with it. The one thing that comes to mind is to see if you have any Z offset set in the software that might make the printer think it is lower than it really is.

[mariankeller]

No, I didn’t set any Z offset and didn’t touch change any settings of the printer before the problem occurred.

[mariankeller]

I was wrong, it is version 7.4, internal revision 3.

[Gregor_Str_hle]

did you manage to fix the issue? i seem to have the same problem

[mariankeller]

No, it doesn’t seem to be a mechanical issue, and I don’t think that it’s electrical. So next thing i’d try would be to just upgrade the firmware to Sailfish.