What else is going to go wrong now!! Solved.

Hi All.
I'm a 50'ish noob to the 3d printing world, mechanical fitter by trade and can turn my hand to almost anything. Then I got a '3D printer' from 3DKarma off of flea-bay, I'm not moaning about the kit itself everything is fine, the presentation of the kit was great, better than I'd expected. The problems started when I came to commission and calibrate it, nothing was working as I'd expected after reading the PDF, I was systematically working through the problems one by one sorting out the wrinkles, there is a wide range of knowledge to be found on the interweb.

I finally got my printer in a position where I could hit the 'print' button in pronterface this last Sunday and get a result, what came off the bed didn't look anything like I'd designed, wrong scale, to much filament extruded, sorted the scale problem out, I didn't enter the correct settings for the stepper motors on X,Y,Z, no problem, went this site http://prusaprinters.org/calculator/ put the correct info in got what I needed out, re-done the firmware to the 'Arduino' after I'd pulled the ramps board with everything powered down. Put it back together, done another trial and was still getting too much filament out after I'd changed the settings in slic3r, at which point I called it a day, getting tired and frustrated.

So today at work I was thinking through the problem of the excess filament extrusion and what needed to be done to rectify it, I'd deduced that the extruder stepper was 'turning' more than it should have done. I remember seeing the formula for calculating the extruder on 'Triffid Hunters Calibration Guide' http://reprap.org/wiki/Triffid_Hunter%27s_Calibration_Guide#E_steps I even done myself an excel workbook to do the calculations and got the numbers I need, after I'd checked my workings with a good old calculator.

So I thought I was on my final hurdle, wrong. Re-flashed the firmware with the new numbers, connected it all back up, plugged it back into my computer turned the printer power back on, started up pronterface, connected to my printer, re-home all the axis, X was looking good, Y not a bean, zero, zilch nadda nothing, Z was looking good.

Powered it all down swopped the Y stepstick with the X one to verify I hadn't blown it and X axis worked and Y axis same as before. I am now at a loss of enthusiasm, frustrated and totally fed up, if a knowledgeable person would be able to help an 'old duffer' out I would be most grateful.

I'm tired, fed-up and wish I hadn't got the 'thing' now.

Rich

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2015 02:55PM by RichgMd61.

Dear All

Please accept my sincere apologies for my rant last night as I have now got the problem fixed, when I'd removed the ramps board to check if there was any 'dry joints' or anything else un-toward causing the 'problem', one of the negative connections to the board from my power supply was just sitting there all nonchalant as if to say 'did you forget about me', once I'd re-made all the connections with proper crimped spade connectors, plugged everything back in and 'hey presto' I'm back to where I was on Sunday.

So, to say the least I am once again happy.

I can get on with the task of finally calibrating things and get on with doing some printing.

Cheers for now.

Rich

Good to hear you solved the problem. When building my first Prusa i3 there were nights where I had to leave it and re-focus on the issues with a clearer head.
I've probably got a couple of years on you and I absolutely enjoy this hobby.

Steve

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My updated Instructable on our Prusa i3 Build
[www.instructables.com]

So everyone here isn't kids.. I am 60 myself and was wondering if there were some oldsters around.. my first dip into this 3D thing.. after retirement.. something to keep me busy and thinking..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2015 01:47PM by mike3.

Quote
mike3
So everyone here isn't kids.. I am 60 myself and was wondering if there were some oldsters around.. my first dip into this 3D thing.. after retirement.. something to keep me busy and thinking..

You're not the only 60 year old...

Hi Guys
Some of the photographic forums I'm on have a section for the mature 'Tog' and there's even a ladies section as well. To these youngsters its second nature for them, all rush rush gotta get it done, no 'take ya time' and savour the fruits of your labours.

66 here.