prusa i3. unable to feed filament into extruder

In manual, I am unable to feed the filament into the extruder. Please help!

Let me be more specific! While in manual when I click the button to manually feed the filament into the extruder it wont go in no matter how hard I push. Does anyone know what to do to fix it?

Is your extruder by chance running backwards? And can you confirm that it turns at all? If this is Marlin, it will not allow the extruder to move at all until the head hits 170 degrees C by default, but you can override that to move filament cold by issuing an M302 . . .

- Tim

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2015 12:23PM by tadawson.

Its probably not feeding because the hotend might be cold.
Does the extruder just not do anything, or does it try to push it in, but it won't go?

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Master Tinkerer

To be honest with you for some reason when I try to operate the printer in manual none of the controls work(except for the homing keys for xyz, and the keys that turn on the heat bed and extruder fan) The temp in the log says that the extruder is reaching the temp needed for printing. You have to put the printer in manual to feed the pla in to the extruder but the manual controls do not work. I went as far as uploading 3d model and letting the printer run through the motions as if it was really printing and everything seems to work fine, all motors are working , but when I manually try to control it (only homing keys work). I cant manually move y forward and back. I cant manually move x left or right. I cant manually move z up and down. I cant manually feed the extruder. I have tried to look through lots of threads on this forum but I cant find anything that sounds similar to my problem.

Have you set the minimum temp in your firmware? If your hotend is too cold, the firmware won't allow the extruder motor to turn in order to protect the components. Find the "prevent cold extrusion" option (may be called something similar) and see if its above the temp that the hotend is heated to when it fails.

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Master Tinkerer

Do you have a heated bed? Is the thermistor of the heated bed installed and connected to the Ramps?
If you don´t have a heated bed, you have to change the motherboard type from 33 to 35.
-Olaf

Quote
jessiebeman
To be honest with you for some reason when I try to operate the printer in manual none of the controls work(except for the homing keys for xyz, and the keys that turn on the heat bed and extruder fan) The temp in the log says that the extruder is reaching the temp needed for printing. You have to put the printer in manual to feed the pla in to the extruder but the manual controls do not work. I went as far as uploading 3d model and letting the printer run through the motions as if it was really printing and everything seems to work fine, all motors are working , but when I manually try to control it (only homing keys work). I cant manually move y forward and back. I cant manually move x left or right. I cant manually move z up and down. I cant manually feed the extruder. I have tried to look through lots of threads on this forum but I cant find anything that sounds similar to my problem.

I have had that happen and if I hit the emergency stop, then push whatever axis away from the end stop switch by hand then it will move using the controls.