I have just turned on my factory assembled bigbox pro. I followed the instructions for first print from the manual but the filament feed seems to judder and will not give me the 100mm extrusion it says it has extruded. I don't understand how the filament tensioner works so am producing failed prints no more that 5mm high. I have changed the filament thickness and also the Esteps. they are now at 1107 for a 1.75mm filament and still only yielding 70mm not 100mm of the calibration test So I guess that it is the tension.. does anyone have any ideas? Maybe a welcome pack was left out of my box or a link to a manual for prebuilt printers, I would have hoped that a power lead could have been included and that the filament could have been labelled. Also the inclusion in the box a sheet of paper spelling out what to check and how to set up and links could have just made it a better initial experience. Any help gratefully received.
There is a video on YouTube somewhere showing you how to adjust it accordingly. I'll see if I can find it.
Thanks for the prompt response Tse, I have seen this video in the 'your first print section' and I am happy with the process which I think is pretty straight forward and well documented , however, its when you don't get the expected results that the problem occurs. It would be useful to have a predicted range of Esteps so that we can say if for 1.75mm filament if your Estep is over 1000 your problem could be tensioning for example. I shall try again this morning. In the cold light of day. Any help on the tensioning of the filament would be great. I am not sure how it works it seems like there is maximum pressure then you wind in to open the jaws but the nut then lifts out. I would really welcome some explanation as I haven't built this. I would also like to point out that this is a great looking well put together machine with a couple of teething problems. It has been burned in and there is a test print showing that it worked.
Maybe one of the BigBox team could shed some light on this, here are my test 100mm extrusion. What am I doing wrong? Esteps | Remaining of the 100mm | Extruded out of 100 | Calculated new Esteps 1200 28 72 1666.7 1000 28 72 1388.9 800 25 75 1066.7 600 32 68 882.4 400 44 56 714.3 200 67 33 606.1 100 87 13 769.2 5 0 100 5.0 current steps-per-mm * 100 / measured value in mm Here is a video showing the clicking, could that be a problem with tensioning? https://goo.gl/photos/Maxnw8tv938c3Hkb9 The Sample supplied was exemplary, my prints fail at 5mm and are increasingly bad. Any comments welcome. The formatting seems to be lost on posting
Can't view the video, the screen says 'Invalid Parameters'. From what you tell, my first question wold be what temperature you have set for the hotend. If the melting temperature of the filament is not reached, it won't go through the nozzle.
210 as per the notes, it is the small reel supplied with the machine, although not labelled I think this is PLA. The video shows the filament feed jumping slightly. Thanks for the reply could you try again or view with vlc as Google said that you had shared it, so it might be the player, when I downloaded it windows media player wouldn't play it but vlc does fine.
Sorry, don't have the time to adapt my computer to all occuring new formats. But I probably don't need that at all, since clicking without filament feed is a sure sign of the extruder trying hard but not being able to overcome the resistance of semi-molten filament in a narrow nozzle. 210°C seems pretty low, specially when the parts cooler does its work additionally. Crank it up to 225 or 228 and let us know what happens. First make sure it is PLA what you are trying to process. If it's one of the new fancier materials, you'll need even some ticks more. Time for a tutorial: how to make my first test cube. Cheers, U.
Fair enough Ulrich. I shall try increasing the temperature and report back, "clicking without filament feed is a sure sign of the extruder trying hard but not being able to overcome the resistance of semi-molten filament in a narrow nozzle" I agree with that its just I followed http://wiki.e3d-online.com/wiki/Your_First_Print and 210 is the guidance. Many thanks again, I shall keep at it.
Well 240 with a bed base temp of 60 worked well, finally. A bit of filament to wedge the glass also helped. I guess that my house is too cold, perhaps a heated enclosure would be worth considering. Thanks for all your help. My next problem is a suitable configuration file for Simplify3d any Ideas?
Thanks chase, as is was built by bigbox am I safe to assume that the e motor driver current is set correctly. I have had good prints at higher temperatures so I suspect that this is caused by filament temperature and ambient temperature.
Ahh, well I've had that problem too, that could mean the higher temps make it easier to extrude which requires less current for the motor to push it through the, worth a try, especially if you have to print pla at 240C
