Z not lifting when printing

Hey Guys - Gals,
I finaly got my printer together (MendelMax 2 clone)and the hot end working. Everything works fine when running through & connected with pronterface. Although I havent tried printing through Pronterface even if its possible at this point? My electronics are mega 2560 board with the ramps 1.4. with a reprap discount lcd controler with card reader. The problem statrs with trying to print with the card. My printers z axis stays put. X axis moves around fine and the extruder works fine but my Y axis is what is causing the problem. When I start a print the first layer is fine but then for the second layer the Y axis moves and the second layer starts printing slightly overlaping the first & so on for the next layers. Where should I start looking to get this fixed as I dont really know where to start. Printer setup, Marlin or in the Slicer settings. I'm stumped as to where to even start?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2015 02:16PM by FarmerChuck.

Check VREF for stepper boards.

Its over powered and overheating and causing to stop skip layers.

Regards

Thanks for the reply,
It doesn't or hasnt run long enough to overheat, VREF's are set at X=0.550v, Y=0.621v, Z=0.542v, E0=0.575v. It does it right off the batt. When hooked up to Pronterface all the axis work fine its just when I try to print that things go haywire. For an example it's like drawing a circle then moving down the Y axis about half way from the center of the first circle and drawing another untill all the layers are printed or it runs out of bed space. Its got me stumped as to what to do? Going to try for a slower read on the sd cards after I download Slic3r again as I'm thinking it is software related.

hi

Quote

VREF's are set at X=0.550v, Y=0.621v, Z=0.542v, E0=0.575v.

those seem a little high compared to the 0.40 most set,


[reprap.org]
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"WHEN EVER I CHANGE THE POT SETTING TURN THE POWER OFF to the ramps. then adjust.

in the marlin firmware:
find this line

Quote

#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {101.82,101.44,2611.20,640} // default steps per unit

should be around line #482 " could be you need to adjust those setting
and make sure you belts and pulleys are screwed tight.

OK, Thanks guys.
Started changing VREFS, Set them around 0.4 and motors started getting hot. Set them lower and started acting erratic and growling around. Ended up with X @ 0.443, Y @ 0.500, Z @ 0.800 with the two motors, Now I think all I might have to do is get the Z steps per unit in Marlin set. Z just doesn't seem to want to lift the right way as of yet.

Thanks for teaching this old dog somthing new and getting me headed in the right dirrection. (Old)FarmerChuck