Ok so I have been dealing with shifted layers for the last few weeks, it started out of no where. It is occurring on the y axis, I have taken others suggestions to help figure this out, but nothing has helped. So far I have made sure to lube the bearings and rods, all is good there. Checked the pulley on the y axis motor, it is tight. I did have a flakey connection on the y axis limit switch, replaced it. Swapped the y axis motor with one of my z axis motors, problem still occurs. Swapped the wires from y axis with x axis still shifting layers in the y axis. I am guessing the only thing left is a problem on the board, or in the software. Using Slic3r, both a new version, and an older, doesn’t seem to make a difference. Also using Pronterface, have been using this combo since I got the printer about 8 months ago and have never had an issue. Someone please help, nothing worse than having things to print and not being able too. This is a Migbot prusa i3, board is mks v1.3
I’ve had this issue on a mendelmax 2 (similar mechanics to i3). In my case the Y motor was being overworked, leading to overheating and losing steps. It was especially prominent when trying to print fast (>80mm/s).
If you can, feel or measure how hot the motor gets during printing. If it feels really hot that’s probably the issue and you can either replace the Y motor with a bigger one (i.e. 60mm nema17) or add a heat sink to it, or both.
Another option is to play with the acceleration/jerk settings in the firmware to reduce the forces when the Y motor changes direction.
I am currently trying to print a 40x40x40mm cube to see if the layers shift. This will naturally print slower since the print area is larger. If they do not then I know it is speed related
A photo would be great to see what you are experiencing but I have just, finally, completed building a I3 Prusa and I found that the coupler that I have between the motor and threaded rod was not positioned right. I had placed the motor rod and the threaded rod in the middle of the coupler but when I inspected the inside of the coupler I saw that there seemed to be a shorter distance for the motor end than the threaded rod end. I place the couple about a 1/3 of the way into the coupler, you can see in the middle of the coupler where the motor rod should finish, and I now have much cleaner prints. I also have a wobbley extruder mount which I’m sure is not helping in this manner.
What values constitute as being ‘high’? I’m having the same problem. Turned down the speed from the (default in Slic3r) from 80 to 60. Still have that issue. Turned down acceleration from 9000 (Marlin default?) to 7500. Problem persists. Is that low enough? I had a problem with slight drift when I first built it and turning up the current helped. Suddenly the problem returns worse and I returned the current to 0.8. I’ve read Nema 17s can take up to 1.3 but it’s already getting pretty hot.
It’s usually either warp, motor is too hot or driver is too hot. I think you’d know right away if acceleration was the problem. Belts can be too tight, that causes the motors to work harder.
