Hi,
Just got a makerbot replicatior mini. Tried to print stuff but printer gets stuck at “position found 77%” every time, and does nothing.
I have tried these things
- updated firmware to 1.11.0.541.
- tried newest MakerBot Desktop on WIN7 and Linux
- reset to defaults
- take off the extruder and put it back
- created new user profile (tried friends profile too)
- tried bunch of different files
Any ideas
have you tried a different file to print? is your printer connected directly to a workstation or printing form an SD card? i am not sure the MakerMini uses SD card option because my Rep2x has that option. In my opinion though Makerbot has good printers but in my experience i had so many issues this is why i sold mine and bought a MakergearM2.
Try using a different SD card, reformating the SD card and/or printing via usb. I’ve found that sometimes I need to reformat or swap out cards.
Is this a new Mini with the SmartExtruder+ or the original SmartExtruder. Easy to tell - the + has screws holding the extruder body together while the original has snap tabs. The problem is not files or profiles but is part of the process of measuring the starting position. There should be a tab of aluminum on the left rear part of the platform; also be sure the build platform is completely snapped in place. If this was a used Mini it might have some filament stuck in the extruder - they rely on retraction of the nozzle to measure the bed.,
Also, check the MakerBot support site as they have recently expanded the self diagnosis area. And the reason I asked about which extruder is that the earlier one is far more prone to jamming. Try this: remove the cold extruder and press the tabs on the side together - this releases the filament drive wheel - then gently press on the nozzle. If the nozzle/heater assembly doesn’t move with light pressure then something is jammed/stuck. Reply back what you find and we can go from there.
I know some versions of Makerbots has trouble with loose wiring. I’d check to be sure all your connections, even into the motheboard, are tight.
Move the extruder manually along both axis. Is it loose - or limited - in movement in any way? The extruder carrier is clipped to the belt by a plastic connector. It’s a rare occurence, but I did work on a Rep 5 that exhibited something similar; the broken clip. If so, the machine most often is replaced. There might be a packaging or shipping problem involved.
Just guessing.
Disconnect your robot from Wi-Fi and use USB, when it is connected to Wi-Fi it transfers your file over the internet (via Makerbot servers) because your printer is connected to cloud services and it may take a very long time to start to print. At 77% it is waiting for the sliced file to be transfered.
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Check your network activity when it reaches to 77%.
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Thank you for your advice guys! I will try them after work.
I have tried printing over USB and Wifi, no difference there.
I have tried many different STL files, examples, files from thingverse, my own FreeCad generated STLs.
I got the printer from a friend who hasn’t used it for about a year. It is quite possible that something came loose during transportation, or something is stuck during storage.
I figured out what went wrong. The problem is in MakerBot Desktop software.
When you open a printable file, the software converts it to *.makerbot file and stores it in (windows) C:/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/AppData/Local/Temp/MakerBot Desktop-xxxxxx/file.makerbot
In my case, the name of windows user was “Järjestelmävalvoja” Finnish for Administrator, which contains non unicode character ‘ä’. MakerBot Desktop could not open temporary file because ‘ä’ was converted to rubbish in the file path. From service log:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “python\conveyor-3.8.4-py2.7.egg\conveyor\jsonrpc.py”, line 389, in _invokemethod
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
File “python\conveyor-3.8.4-py2.7.egg\conveyor\server\__init__.py”, line 2579, in birdwingput
return self._server.birdwing_put(machine_name, localpath, remotepath)
File “python\conveyor-3.8.4-py2.7.egg\conveyor\server\__init__.py”, line 686, in birdwing_put
return machine.put(localpath, remotepath)
File “python\conveyor-3.8.4-py2.7.egg\conveyor\machine\birdwing.py”, line 1397, in put
self._client_thread.put(localpath, remotepath, parent_job)
File “python\conveyor-3.8.4-py2.7.egg\conveyor\machine\birdwing.py”, line 2483, in put
return self.json_put(localpath, remotepath, parent_job)
File “python\conveyor-3.8.4-py2.7.egg\conveyor\decorator.py”, line 91, in decorator
return conveyor.util.execute_job(job, timeout, heartbeat_timeout)
File “python\conveyor-3.8.4-py2.7.egg\conveyor\util.py”, line 73, in execute_job
raise conveyor.error.JobFailedException(job.failure)
JobFailedException: Unhandled job failure: u’Could not open C:/Users/J\xe4rjestelm\xe4nvalvoja/AppData/Local/Temp/MakerBot Desktop-Sas3Qi/head.makerbot for reading’
SOLUTION
I created a new windows user: Makerbot. And I was able to print my first piece 
Actually only half of it, because half way printing it came loose and extruder crushed it 
Anyways I’m ready to move to the next problem now.
Geeze; I would have never figured that out. I’ll print that one out for reference. Good job.
That is a sucky work around. But having worked in software I know that unicode will bite you in the butt more times than not. Hope they get this fixed. Probably won’t though.
They’re pretty receptive, I would pass that along to them. The only code i know is C:
I sent an email to Makerbot and they promised to pass the information to the development team. It would be great to get a fix for this bug, because half the world is using non unicode characters.
Having the same issue, the head trys homing off the build platform, any fix???
