Makerfarm, Weird, Random Axis Movement's. Video.

As far as I can tell after days of looking. This is a completely unique problem. I have ramps 1.4. and a makerfarm i3-12v with a hexagon hotend.

Can you please view this link and give me some advice. Maybe you could just point me to a forum link or something. It’s hard to search for cause I don’t know how to explain it. The head sort of just “goes for a walk”, and then comes back to where it left off. It does this if I have the speed over 80%. At first I thought I might have been over heating the drivers. Because I had them set to .4. So I turned them down to .375 and eventually to .35. But it hasen’t made a difference. I’ve even added a large fan to cool the drivers but to no avail. Trying to print anything past 40mm/s results in it walking all over the joint like in the video.

Things I've tried;
new power supply,
new heavier wiring,
new slicer's, (does it in every version of slicer and kiss)
new firmware and old, doesn't matter.
added 470nf cap at 5A ramps input.
has a heat bed relay to take load of ramps board.

I'm really at my wits end here. it's like it reboots a driver. and just picks up where it left off.
Thanks in advance.


[onedrive.live.com]

Are you using slic3r?

I've seen files sliced with slic3r behave this way (even though slic3r's toolpath preview doesn't show all these weird jogs). It also messes up the extrusion. Does slic3r sve the changes you make to settings when you tell it to save? If not, try deleting your configuration files and recreate them. That usually fixes slic3r for me.

Also, if I'm not in a mood to fix slic3r, I slice in Cura and don't have any problems.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2015 09:07PM by the_digital_dentist.

They fixed a lot of things, including some odd movement in the latest version of Slic3r 1.2.6 experimental.
I think some of it was related to the Avoid crossing perimeters or Extra perimeters as needed settings.

I like the new version a lot, although I have had some crashes. The new 3D interface is very nice, and the new layer preview also.

Now if it just had the Cura method of rotating parts...

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My printer: Raptosaur - Large Format Delta - [www.paulwanamaker.wordpress.com]
Can you answer questions about Calibration, Printing issues, Mechanics? Write it up and improve the Wiki!

Thanks for the idea's, but it isn't slicer specific, It does it with all slicer's as soon as a try to move faster than 40mm/s.

I'm sorry, yes you did say it happened with all slicers.

Too much current on the drivers causes randomly offset layers. That's not happening here, so I don't think it is a driver issue at all - if it was it would not be returning back to the right place.

Are you running from USB? I'd look there - perhaps get a better cable and make sure it's not routed near others. I've had a lot of trouble with USB cables until I tried this one.

If you are actually running from USB, then it may be time to go with a more reliable method, printing from SD, using a common LCD like this one, or a clone. But not a "Graphic" LCD as your 8-bit controller can't handle it.

Hope that helps.

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My printer: Raptosaur - Large Format Delta - [www.paulwanamaker.wordpress.com]
Can you answer questions about Calibration, Printing issues, Mechanics? Write it up and improve the Wiki!

Thanks again, I'm really grateful. But I'm already printing from SD. I'm usually really good at figuring out this sort of thing, but this one is real weird. I'd also like to point out that the extruder motor does the same thing to. Reverses for 2-3 seconds then goes back to where it was and keeps going like nothing happened. My 12v rail is exactly 12.0v. I'm thinking of dialing it up to 12.5, maybe it's a low voltage reset of some description on the drivers.

Can anybody tell me how the drivers and arduino communicate. How "smart" are the drivers. Do they remember positions and zero. Or do they simply get "dumb" commands like "3 steps clockwise".

Thanks in advance.

The drivers are not causing this - the drivers are in fact entirely dumb. All they have for movement is Step and Direction, and no memory of what's gone before.

If the stepper current is too low then they miss steps due to not enough torque.
If the current is too high, then they overheat and do a thermal reset - and in so doing miss steps randomly - causing an offset that can be less than a mm, up to several mm.

So it sounds to me like... configuration of the firmware may be the issue, especially if you are using the same config file with different versions - a config problem could follow.

I'm not a Marlin or Repetier expert (I'm using a Smoothie now), however others here are... so you need to:
- attach your config file,
- attach the gcode file you are trying to print
- Indicate the firmware version you are using.

Hope that helps.

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My printer: Raptosaur - Large Format Delta - [www.paulwanamaker.wordpress.com]
Can you answer questions about Calibration, Printing issues, Mechanics? Write it up and improve the Wiki!

Ahhhh!!!! The problem was getting worse. Then I tried the same file on a different SD card and it ran perfect!!!!. When i put the old SD card in the computer again and tried to reformat it. it wont. just freezes. Could it be? the mystery is finally solved. Random walking off is an sd card read error??? I'll check back soon.

Thanks for the extra info on the drivers. at least i can stop adjusting those damn things and hoping for a miracle. 10minutes in so far. no walking away.

Awesome... what a weird problem, but it makes perfect sense...
Congratulations on solving it.

BTW, there is a specific formatter from the SD Association that may work. See Here.

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My printer: Raptosaur - Large Format Delta - [www.paulwanamaker.wordpress.com]
Can you answer questions about Calibration, Printing issues, Mechanics? Write it up and improve the Wiki!

I'm not familiar with coding on the arduino, but on the netduino, you usually just read it 1 line at a time off the card as you need it. So i guess that's why it correct's itself. It wonders off it the direction it was heading whilst it trys continually to read that line. Then it skips it and picks up where it left off. Hope this thread helps the next poor sucker this happens to. I was about to start spending money on new electronics. Thanks everybody who contributed.

Finally! I've found someone with the same issue that I've been struggling with for weeks now. I had a hunch about the SD card but never acted on it. I'll try a full low level format of the SD card and another known good card with the same gcode to see if I can find out anything.