Switched from Melzi to RAMPS, getting ugly quality.

Hi all, long time user of a Mendel90 here, recently i switched the Melzi board to a RAMPS and I'm getting very bad prints.
As you can see in the pictures the surface has some kind of wave in a very regular pattern. It seems to be mostly in the y axis.
Dont know what could be the cause of this. Could the voltage of the steppers be the cause? I remember randomly turning the voltage pots on the drivers.

Also where the support material touches the model i get a very stringy surface, as can be seen in the other picture.

I sliced this model with Cura but Slicer gives the same results.

If the current is set too low it won't microstep accurately but I don't know how that would make the prints so bad. You should aim for about 1A which means Vref is 0.4V or 1.6V depending on the Stepsticks.

I can't really explain the prints. They look to have vertical waves which would be difficult as Z should be constant during an XY move.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I have investigated a little more, the problem is in the Y axis. It doesnt have a smooth movement, it's shaky.
I printed a cross and the X axis is perfect but Y is like the pictures i posted.
What could cause this shaky movement ?

Hi,

Does the carriage move freely under manual movement? I am trying to distinguish between motor and mechanics here.

Mechanically, I would check for the bearings binding or the Y bars being out of alignment. Moving the carriage to each extreme and loosening then re-tigthening the associated clamps should fix that.

Binding bearings would make a noise under movement.

Regards,
Neil Darlow

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I try to write with consideration for all nationalities. Please let me know if something is unclear.
Printing with Mendel90 from fedora 25 using Cura, FreeCAD, MeshLab, OpenSCAD, Skeinforge and Slic3r tools.

It seems to move ok manually, however there is some noise
[www.youtube.com]


I tried to record while printing but it's hard to notice on video. I can see the y belt vibrates quite a lot and the platform shakes a little the closer it is to y home.
I guess i should loose and retigthen y axis.

It might be worth swapping the X and Y stepsticks to see if you have a faulty one. Seems like it might not be microstepping correctly.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I have realigned y axis but it's still wavy, there is still some noise close to y home.

Switched the motor drivers but still the same.
Maybe the rods are not completely straight... I have to check it

Have you reconfigure in Ramps !?
If mechanically and electronically speaking are all correctly
set and tested, the only thing that is in variable is the software!
I had something similar when first using my Melzi and had to adjust LIVE the
pot on driver board so I could see and hear the result right away.
( making sure that I don't touch anything else, it you have a
Ceramic screw driver it would be the ideal)
Good luck