So yesterday i started a print before i left for work, when i got home i had a mess, somewhere along the print something went wrong and the print had shifted to the rear by quite a bit (20-30mm) but the print continued and finished.
I tried printing something last night, and when the print starts you can hear the extruder motor “clicking” i pulled the motor out and clicked extrude, and the motor just clicks, i plugged that motor into the wiring for the “x axis” and it worked fine.
Switched everything back to the way it should be, tried another print, it started fine, then i got a jumbled mess on the lcd display, and the motor started clicking again. i started to eliminate potential problems so i tried 2 versions of Slic3r, pronterface, and Cura. all with the same results, could this be a problem in the firmware? This issues just popped up, i have been printing without issues for 6+ months.
The printer is a Prusa i3 DIY kit from china. If you think it could be a firmware issue, does anyone know where i could find detailed instructions on how to upload new firmware to the printer? I have no experience with this, i do have the Arduino software, but have never really gotten to play with it.
PS. here is a picture of the lcd screen when the issue starts, resetting the board on the printer clears it, but it comes back relatively quick.
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@rajj459 @Mohammed_JD @PCasey212 do you guys have any advice for this?
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which company did you order from ? what is the model name of the printer , also it could be a step stick problem; it is a common problem .
and you should try marlin release , ramps 1,4 (test) then you can know if you have problems in stepper driver (step stick)
If the motor clicks even when pulled out of the extruder, it’s likely either jammed internally (bad) or the stepper driver is providing too low of a current to even turn at all. Since you said it worked fine when plugged into the X axis, I’m going to say it’s probably the latter.
In that case, the first thing to do would obviously be to check the Vref on the stepper driver. Maybe you’ll be able to solve the problem just by tuning the Vref again, but since you said it worked before you may need to reseat or replace the stepper driver.
About the Y axis shifting, that usually happens to me when the print head crashes into a curling part of the print. Just try to prevent any overhangs from curling and you should be fine there.
For the LCD, it may be that there’s a bug in the firmware version you’re using or that some connection is loose between the LCD and the Mega chip. This could be anywhere, from between the Mega board and the RAMPS board, to between the LCD adapter and the LCD itself, and possibly even inside a board (which you would need to replace if that were the case). I would say try new firmware first, but if that doesn’t solve it start tightening the connections.
You can find a tutorial for installing Marlin here.
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OK, i solved it. The connection at the extruder was flaky, it just so happened that when i would remove the extruder motor the connection would be good, then when i replaced it, the connection was bad. Back up and running!!!
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Yus! Thanks for updating us
