Hi,
Im having the following problem, After a while some times quickly some times it takes a couple of hours, the printer starts messing up with the layer, it doesnt spurt out much of the filament, im not really sure whats happening because im usualy not around when it does happen.
I have replaced the wires to and from the stepper, and also the driver and the arduino, and ive updated the firmware to the latest, does any one have a clue what else it could be ?
Thanks.
Stepper driver may be overheating.
Check voltages and adjust according to stepper driver and motor requirements. a heatsink on the driver may also help
THe printer is a prusa I3 btw
Oow i forgot to say i put a fan on the stepper driver and a heat sink on each driver too.
Did you dry your filament?
Heat creep on the hot end? As the hot end heats up heat travels up the hot end and starts prematurely softening the filament, which then starts sticking to the side walls and jamming. Sometimes hard to pin down because print speeds, filament quality, room temperature all cause the problem to manifest slightly differently.
The other possibility is poor quality filament - PLA apparently will absorb moisture in a humid environment and start causing intermittent problems.
There’s quite a few reasons this might happen, I’d say top would be (as Nathaniel Stenzel suggests) filament related. Could be damp, could be that it’s not the right temperature for it so as the print progresses it starts to bung up the head until the pressure causes it to clear. Do you hear popping and fizzing when it’s running?
There is no popping sound as far as i know , The filament has been out for a while (havent printed for over 6 months or so) Ill try the stuff that i have stored in boxes with silica balls to see if that works better, but that will be on Wednesday or so. otherwise it would be the voltage the steppers are getting.
Any way to find out what voltage they should get ? I guess after i figure that out i just turn on the printer and put the multimeter against it and turn the nob with a screw driver to the right voltage.
Steppers are current based not voltage based. The stepper drivers will increase the voltage until the desired current is achieved. “Measuring” the current in an active stepper is tricky™. The simplest way to deal with too much current is trial & error: Dial the current back until the stepper starts skipping steps and then increase it slightly until not skipping (either by turning the variable resister on the driver board - with a nonconductive tool - don’t slip and let the magic smoke out!, or I believe some can adjust in firmware).
But that only makes sense if the steppers are really hot (painful to the touch). They can take a lot before they are the cause of the problem.
Sometimes the best thing to do is grab a big cup of coffee and sit there watching it print. I’ve used a Sharpie to mark lines on bearings to confirm they are turning, etc.
@Alex_Wiebe Great suggestions! Especially the ‘grab a big cup of coffee and sit there watching it print’ part, that is the best advice I have seen so far for printer troubleshooting. To understand something, anything, is to have spent time with it observing it. That is how life works.
@Alex_Wiebe so i just statt a print job en then start turning on the nog if i understand correctly. then i just watch and wait.
@AlohaMilton Sadly I don’t need much motivation to sit and watch - it’s so fascinating that literally hours can go by while I watch all the machinations whir, click, buzz away… 
Don’t leave your printer unattended. Cheap kits in particular are huge fire hazards. I recommend treating your printer like you treat an oven with food in it – you can do other stuff while it “cooks” but stay nearby and check it frequently.
Almost certainly an extrusion issue. Could be jamming for a variety of reasons.
@Erik_cramer Pretty much as complicated as that
You want the least amount of current needed to do the job. More current is just wasted heat that causes problems everywhere.
Heat creeping around can take a lot of time to sort out. So be patient.
How are you cooling the hot end?
Then i have one other little problem, it looks like the printer doesn’t save the E steps, i tried to save it with repetier host(under epirom), but after every power cycle I have to reenter the amount of steps.
@Erik_cramer you have to send a G-code line to save your settings. I don’t remember the code; but, you can search it on Google.
You have a steep learning curve ahead of you. Sorry the first time it looked like the pic it looked like the print head shifted which is the stepper drivers. layer adhesion is probably not that. Things you can do. do a cold pull to make sure the nozzle is clean. What hotend do you have is it ptfe lined or all metal. Looks like PLA you’re printing with by how shiny it is. it doesn’t need a heated bed but heat it to around 45’C anyway. when the printer jams and is at temp see if you can push filament through the hotend also when you pull the filament out what does it look like. A dirty nozzle will clog intermittently as dirt is pushed into the nozzle and clogs it. heat creep is when molten plastic moves up the hotend and hits the cold end and solidifies in there.
Thanks Michael,
I dont Have a Strong enough powersupply so No heated bed yet.
When i pull out the filament its Clean Just the tip is melted a bit. Im not really sure what the Hot End is lined with I think it’s metal it came in a kit.
(http://printervalley.com/product/prusa-i3-do-it-yourself-kit/)
When I heat up the head I can push the filament true without a problem. The amount of force that is needed is constant for this.
If it would be the amount of moist in the filament I could also use petg I guess as it’s not influenced by moist as much? If the problem then persists it’s some thing other then the filament.
Erik
Looks like it’s the old designs that had didn’t have cooling for the cold end it was some high temp plastic part. If it’s the same as the picture on the website getting something like an e3d or clone hot end is going to save you a world of hurt. You’re going to want to do some other upgrades as well but that would be the best start. To get some parts out printing without retraction may help as filament wort retract and might not get stuck but you’re going to have stringing and a fair bit of cleanup, the reason I say it is if you get a print head that needs parts you may be able to print them even if not pretty. I’d stick to pla and maybe some canola oil to lube your filament it’s an old trick they used to use with those printheads it may help.
Besides moisture issues and heat creep, some people get partial jams. Knockoff nozzles will probably have burs which will cause crappy results too. Of course, if you had good results with that nozzle for a while, you can cross the nozzle bur off the list of suspects.
