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May 2016
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May 2016
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Chris_Gough
May '16

Hello everyone.

Let me explain first, I have had my Da Vinci 1.0 for well over a year, maybe two by now. I’ve printed several hundred hours of ABS with it so it’s no doubt long in the tooth.

The big and weird problem I have at the moment is that I can loan and unload filament into the machine without any trouble but during a print the extruder will skip, bump, click, thump, whatever you like to call it. I have paid close attention to the heater bed height when the print starts and adjusted it so the hot end is not pressed against the glass but this does not seem to be the cause as I have had prints fail to extrude a few layers hours into a perfectly well started print.

I have replaced the entire extruder head including hot end and heating element with another from XYZ with no change, I thought there might have been a blockage or buildup of ABS but this doesn’t seem to be the issue. I’ve been using the same filament roll I’ve used for several months now so it should not be that.

Two of the stepper motor drivers have been replaced with non XYZ parts using this blog ((Da Vinci 1.0 Stepper Motor Driver Replacement 31))
I replaced one several months ago and had no issues for several prints, and have replaces another recently as I believe another of the original motor drivers have died.

I feel I’ve tried everything other than replacing the stepper motor in the extruder but I don’t feel that’s required. I’ve swapped motor drivers around to make sure it’s not a specific driver causing this but no changes.

I use the original firmware along with the XYZware to print, I’ve often printed at .0.3mm height and at a Fast speed but I’ve tried to print at Slow recently thinking this may help but it still jumps and fails to extrude while printing.

This does seem to be a very very common issue with the Da Vinci, I’ve an open ticket with XYZ to purchase their motor drivers to replace the non original replacements I have fitted.

Does anybody have any thoughts?

The only theory I have right not is that due to me replacing two of the stepper motor drivers with non XYZ (A4988ET) parts the board is not able to send enough current or power through the extruder while printing as the replaced drivers are pulling too much current?

I hope to hear back from XYZ soon but their support is so incredibly slow and lackluster these days.

Please feel free to ask anything you may need to know. I am interested in upgrade the extruder to the E3D V6 later.

Many thanks and please do feel free to ask, I will do my best to help :slight_smile:

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    May '16

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copprman
May '16

Something you might check that happened to me, the wiring harness to the x-axis end stop developed a fault. Somewhere in the wire to the end stop the wiring broke down and made intermittent connection. This had the effect of telling the Davinci that the print head hit the stop, even though it hadn’t. Since it would only briefly trigger, the print would continue immediately after, but it would have missed a step or two, causing the layers to print out in a stair step fashion instead of being aligned.

To fix, I cut out both wires to the x-axis end stop and re-soldered in some new wires. Prints great now.

goldfinder
May '16

Hey I got same problem with 2.0A and it’s only A few months old it seem to happen when I tried to print at 100 micron print bed calibration was spot on I thought I could have been the file I was printing was a perfect start up then 45 minute to am hour in bang print fail tried twice again same thing print some other file print was fine

Asuder
May '16

Its a long shot. You should try rubbing your filliment with olive oil. I know that is sounds weird but when you add the oil it makes the melting point lower.

swinson_terry
May '16

You should start by cleaning your filament drive gear. I would guess you have some debris in there that may only really cause issues when it’s hot.

Chris_Gough
May '16

Thanks all for the tips. I will try cleaning the drive gear as that’s not been replaced.

I wouldn’t think it’s printing at any specific microns as I’ve had no problems printing at 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3, speed settings aren’t changing anything either.

I’ll be sure to check the wires though as I have had some melt through before around a year ago. It makes sense that there could be something interrupting the signal as it’s fine when loading filament when nothing is touching.

Thanks all for the tips, I’ll be sure to reply once I’ve tried them and if I get a result.

Chris_Gough
May '16

UPDATE

I’m not going to say it’s fixed just yet, I will update the title after a few long prints.

I believe it is an issue with the extruder, the heatsink and fan were not cooling down the entrance to the hot end enough. This seems to make sense as the filament would feed and extrude fine for a few minutes before the temperature rose too high and the filament would not feed through and start thumping.

I did a successful small print of the star tower preset last night with the side panel removed and the top open, I also removed the metal bracket in front of the fan and mounted it directly to the extruder, I’ve also ordered a 12v 40mm fan with much higher CFM airflow so I’ll hook that up to the 12v rail when that arrives.

It is a little strange though as this had never happened before but it goes to show how temperature and age really does affect things.

next step will be to install an E3D extruder.

Chris_Gough
May '16

Hi, have you fixed your problem? If the extruder thuds or is failing to push the filament through it could well be the cooling issue I’ve had.

13 days later
Chris_Gough
Jun '16

UPDATE AGAIN:

I now have Repetier firmware and am using Reprap, I thought the clicking issue had been fixed but now I feel it’s related to the stepper motor drivers I have replaced. There are small potentiometers on the A4988ET stepper motor drivers, turning the pot higher did seems to fix the issue but during a print it does not extrude at all. I feel the extruder settings for the G-Code from Slicer or my settings inside Reprap are wrong.

What volume per second are you using? I’m set at 12 mm3s.

I should have printed the mounts for the E3D as soon as I had the chance.

swinson_terry
Jun '16

If you want you can give me a call on Skype to try to troubleshoot your issue feel free to do so. I’m -6 GMT, so if you do call please make sure it’s before 10 pm local time. I honestly think this is an issue with your hot end not cooling properly at this point, but it’s hard to say. I’m pretty sure those pots effect steps per mm on your motor btw. My Skype is swinsonterry [[at]] gmail

Chris_Gough
Jun '16

Many thanks for the offer, I may well add you and I do believe it’s the hot end as there’s very little other reasons that could be affecting it, in fact it did seem to be fixed after removing the original fan frame to directly mount the fan.

I’ve got a good 12v fan mounted at the moment but it’s running off the 5v line at the moment so it’s not performing at full power.

swinson_terry
Jun '16

I have an aluminum plate Incorporated between the hot end and the cold end to act as a heat sink as well as a cooling fan placed right at the filament drive gear.

Chris_Gough
Jun '16

Yes that’s what I have, I have better positioned the fan so it is blowing over the heatsink more directly, I’ve had successful prints but about 30 minutes in the clicking resumes, I believe the heat is just slowly building up to that “bad” point. I will have to get a 12V supply for my new fan as I feel the 5v rail just isn’t providing enough power for the fan to be truly effective.