Hi,

After solving my last problem a new problem occurred literately overnight (yesterday everything was fine!).The only thing that happened is that I moved my printer to a different location… So there something went wrong - but I cant imagine what

When printing the extruder stepper is moving way to slow. This results In under extruding.

The strange thing is; this happens only when printing. When I use the repetier / proterface manual interface and I click on extrude the printer extrude just fine.

Only when printing I can see that the steps the stepper makes are to small/slow. To the contrariety the retraction seems okay. Strange right?

What I already did:

checked my cura settings

reset my cura settings

changed from SD printing to usb

changed filament (brand)

check tension screw

Okay, I have to admit that I had this problem a few times before. One time I didn’t check the tension screw. Other times I got it mysterious fixed by re-flashing the firmware and an other time by re-assemble the extruder.

Since the despondence here is great I though that maybe someone has a a smart comment about this :slight_smile:
Thank you!

-Mark

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Hmmmm, it appears that i wasn’t the only one. But it only happened to me twice and after that the problem was gone. Would love to know if there’s a solution for it too!

What diameter do you have cura set for? The default is 2.85 and given you reset that can have a similar effect. As I recall the prints it is 1.75

I had the same issue a couple weeks ago. It got so bad that the stepper motor would click during printing. I tried everything from changing the motor current to disassembling the nozzle and cleaning it out. Replacing the hot end ended up being my only solution. I haven’t troubleshoot further but I suspect either debris was somewhere in the hot end or the thermistor was faulty. Before changing the hot end, I was able to feed it manually and by hand. I only got jammed while printing, like you. After replacing the hot end, it was like night and day. I had totally forgot how easy it should be to feed it by hand. The manual feed was also pushing out a lot more than it did before. So my old end was under extruding even when doing it manually, I just didn’t notice.

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Follow these steps and test after each to see if your extrusion is fixed

1. Make sure you have Printrbot’s .ini profile file for your specific maching loaded into Cura. Using Cura’s default setting can cause this problem.

2. Check the tension on the extruder.

3. Attempt to clean out the hot end with some fishing wire or a long needle.

4. Increase the extrusion multiplier in Cura.

5. UPDATE US. This is important, nobody who posts topics ever seems to reply saying that their issue has been resolved

Also are you printing directly from your computer through USB or are you using a host like Octopi? Sometimes the host for sending the Gcode commands can be too slow and can cause this problem. Try printing directly from Cura through USB.

Sounds like you have a jam maybe something got in your hot end or if it has a PTFE liner it may have swelled

hallo mark pull out the fillament from your nozzel made your fillament dust free push few cm fillament manualy treu your heated nozzel an try again

To me looking at the photo it almost looks like the nozzle is too close to the print bed causing the nozzle to drag across the print and lifting what has already been put down.

This sounds like a broken wire in the stepper motor. Have you tried messing with the wires as its printing?

Don’t mess with the wires that’s a good way to wreak the stepper driver But it is a good possibility that the driver is already damaged. test the wires with a meter then Maybe swap the driver with another one

Is the wooden version with the wood extruder? Because it has a lot of issues, make sure that your nozzle is clean and do some extrusions test before each print, try to change the extruder head for a alu head because it works better for pushing the plastic. If nothing works, check all the electronics, maybe something doesnt work well.

Good luck, i have a printrbot simple, i always have something new to learn about these machines lol!

Interesting…! My motor doesn’t click - it only moves too slowly. But that could be related to the hot end of course… I think I’m going to take my hot end apart and completely clean it. I live in Europe so ordering a new one from the US is somewhat expensive - but a good plan B :wink: Thanks for sharing!

Curious that the cleaning the old (removing debris) one didn’t had an effect, but buying a new one had. What do you think is the reason for that? Didn’t your hot end got hot enough?

Oh, forgot to tell; I got the Alu upgrade. I bought it in the hope it would resolve the same issue I had back than. It did, but only till now ^^

I think I’g going to clean out the hot end and nozzle again.

I have my Printrbot quite some time now and I’ve to say that Printrbot doesn’t seem to stand for sustainability and reliability but it’s perfect for a ongoing hobby project (what also could be fun ^^)

I’ve some knowledge of electronics. I have’t meshed with the wires. It there would be a faulty connection the motor would not rotate (completely) and I would see this happening when It retracts (witch it does how it should) or when I extrude manually.

Thanks for sharing this view though! :slight_smile:

only… you can’t swamp printrbot’s drivers :slight_smile:

I thought the same initially - but raising the extruder wont make a difference…

Hi Bulet, Thanks.

I did. And I have a dust remover warped around my filament (sponge) :slight_smile:

If it was jamed - manual feeding would also be a issue I think… No, my extruder does not make use of a ptfe liner :slight_smile:

okay, if this is PLA, you should be using Blue Tape… If it’s ABS, is the bed hot enough? Not directly related, I know, but just to clarify.

This looks like the Jr V2 with the Aluminium Extruder upgrade and I have worked with one of these for ages and they’re quite stable. Have you tried different sliced models? do you have some previously sliced GCODE that you can try and print with?

The first layer does normally print slower, but parts of the print look okay, apart from a little squashed and not sticking particularly well (which is why I asked the first question).

Run the GCODE command M503 and check the line beginning M92. The value for E should be in the 93-96 region. If it is, then the motor should be turning as it should.

Physically, check the screw is not overtight and the temperature not too cold. I normally make sure there is enough tension to provide friction, but not overly tight as the drive gear will start to dig into the filament.

A few ideas there, you may find more answers on help.printrbot.com or by opening a support ticket if you get really stuck

Ian

1: As I said - I did this. I even added a new printer etc.

2: As I said - I did this also :slight_smile:

3: On my to do list

4: Cura doesn’t have a extrusion multiplier (?). Slic3er does though - no improvement.

6: As I said - did this also; both usb as direct SD.

This isn’t a copy-paste message ^^?