Clicking sound from bondtech gears  

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

You're not alone.

After assembling the printer worked well, after a short time (runtime ~4 hours) I noticed a clicking noise from the bondtech gears and heavy underextrusion as well. I spend a lot of time to figure out what's possibly wrong, I cleaned the nozzle as well as the hotend, bought a special cleaning filament, disassembeld everything and put everything back together again. I tried PLA (Prusa), PLA (forumfutura), ABS (Verbatim), PETG (formfutura), Greentec (extrudr) filament and spend a lot of time in temperature tweaking, used Prusa Control and slicer (prusa edition) - nothing will work properly.

After all I am not able to use the printer 👿

I am in contact with customer service since 02.apr.18, but they can't offer me a solution.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

try to losen your extruder tensioner (the two screws on the left side of the extruder). the bottom of the screw should be flush with plastic, not the head. i had this issue and that resolved it for me.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

I have put one of the clear washers from the spares bag on the shaft of the idler gear to remove the play. The clicking doesnt seem to be as bad now. I'll adjust the screws so the bottom of the head is flush with the plastic and see what that does as well.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

Hi,

one of the tips from the customer service was to play around with the tension of tensioner, so I did with no improvement at all 🙁

I tried the tip with the spare washer, the clicking sound will be less noisy but it still appears.

First attemp was with FormFutura PETG

Second attemp was with the Prusa PLA to rule out errors with the material and / or Gcode

In booth cases, clicking sound from the bondtech gears and under extrusion.
The temperature is stable without break-ins.

Will be thankfull for any other advice, at the moment the printer is useless 🙁

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

Hi Folks,

it took a while but the customer support send out a new hotend. I received the hotend yesterday and assembled it immediatly. Until now the printer works perfect! Total printing time with the new hotend is about 17h with no issues at all!

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

And the issues comes into play last evening. Starting with slight under-extrusion and a few hours later the clicking sound occurs. Now I'm unable to print again, only clicking and underextrusion no matter what I do, nothing will work.

Disassembled the hot end, checking PTFE tube, cleaned the nozzle, no change at all.

I am very dissatisfied with the situation 👿

Can somebody give me any advise? Am I the only one with this problem?

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

One not uncommon problem is that the shaft of the idler gear can slide out from one of the mounting holes, causing the idler to become loose. Worth checking (and adding a dab of glue to try and stop it happening again if it is the problem)

Edit:
other times I've had this:
[*]Filament sensor died and heated up the filament so much it melted in the extruder rather than the hot end(!)
[*]Filament was bad and varied in diameter up to 2.1mm(!!)

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

And the issues comes into play last evening. Starting with slight under-extrusion and a few hours later the clicking sound occurs. Now I'm unable to print again, only clicking and underextrusion no matter what I do, nothing will work.

Disassembled the hot end, checking PTFE tube, cleaned the nozzle, no change at all.

I am very dissatisfied with the situation 👿

Can somebody give me any advise? Am I the only one with this problem?

I'm pretty much in the same boat.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

[*]Filament sensor died

Yeah, mine just died too, support is supposed to be sending me a new one. Won't get past self test without that working.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

Getting no answer from the support since july, 12 🙁

Maybe it's a coincidence, but the error did not reappear until I activated the filamentsensor. I was prepareing for a over night print job, turned the filament sensor on and since then I'm in bad trouble with the bondtech gears, nothing will work.

I actually lost all confidence in the device.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

[...] Maybe it's a coincidence, but the error did not reappear until I activated the filamentsensor. I was prepareing for a over night print job, turned the filament sensor on and since then I'm in bad trouble with the bondtech gears, nothing will work.

Needless to say, enabling the filament sensor does not normally cause problems with the bondtech mechanism. When you say "nothing will work", what exactly do you mean?

Edit: Reading through the thread, it looks like you've eliminated a couple of these, but this is the "usual list" of things that come to mind.

The biggest complaint I've had with the filament sensor has been erroneous empty triggers using high-gloss or transparent materials.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

This has been happening to me as well. I can print the first 8-10 layers and then I start to hear a clicking. Then after another layer or 2 it gets worse and I notice the filament is not advancing and can see the drive gears are not moving or appear to jump both directions.

After observing for a while I checked the set screw holding the drive gear on to the stepper shaft. it was tight and the alignment of the filament through the 2 drive gears was correct. I played with the tension on the 2 screws with springs both loosening and tightening and there was no change. I even switched filament and both spools were the new Prusa filament they manufacture.

Additionally, this situation usually happens after I've been using the printer for several hours or more. Very seldom, if ever has this happened when I first start a long print job.

Finally, I watched the stepper motor shaft where it faces the front of the machine and put a mark on it with a Sharpie so it was easy to see if it was turning and which direction. As I watched i saw the shaft either not moving or moving very quickly and then stopping or it would turn a little and then jump back the opposite direction and a clicking noise when this happened,

I have a feeling the issue is actually with the stepper motor and possibly after it gets too hot. There is a possibility it's in the firmware and possibly being triggered by bad Gcode but my bet is on a stepper issue. This would also explain why the issue is resolved if the hot-end assembly is replaced. If it is the stepper motor perhaps another fan of the motor or a different motor with a higher temperature tolerance.

Mr. Prusa, what say ye? Or anybody else. Can anybody else confirm the stepper shaft not rotating when this happens? You will probably need to mark the end of the shaft and it can be difficult to tell if it rotates.

I would like Prusa to send me a replacement stepper for the hot-end to see if the problem disappears. 🙂

I have a video if anyone is interested.

Thanks - Steven

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

This has been happening to me as well. I can print the first 8-10 layers and then I start to hear a clicking. Two things are likely this far into a print:

[...] After observing for a while I checked the set screw holding the drive gear on to the stepper shaft. it was tight and the alignment of the filament through the 2 drive gears was correct. There were many reports of similar problems, particularly as we went into the unusually hot summer months this year. There's no one cause. The extruder tension screws you mentioned have been cited (along with stuck idler gears on the extruder door), as well as excessive retractions, PTFE tube fittings and a number of other issues. Warm ambient temps and the use of enclosures also caused problems. Prusa released the re-designed R3 extruder parts, which has helped in some instances. I personally have been able to mitigate the issue with slicer settings. Rather than try to re-type everything here, I've compiled a list of common issues I encountered and attempted to help with here.

Finally, I watched the stepper motor shaft where it faces the front of the machine and put a mark on it with a Sharpie so it was easy to see if it was turning and which direction. As I watched i saw the shaft either not moving or moving very quickly and then stopping or it would turn a little and then jump back the opposite direction and a clicking noise when this happened,Rather than marking up the shaft and squinting, you might want to print off one of the many extruder visualizers. They make it very easy to monitor the flow of filament, retractions and any skipping.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

Thanks for the prompt reply and good advice. I've continued to test and have found the issue is probably related to a particular part(s). I am having consistent problems printing this part from the Bear Upgrade for the MK3 - build_helper_106mm. After having issues with this part I printed several other parts without issue then tried the "problem" part again and it failed. I also tried turning off the printer until the hot-end was cool to the touch and the temps on the display were ambient and retried the part without success.

I've loaded the STL into Prusa Slicer and selected Volumetric flow rate in the drop-down box but can't see the "rate" displayed anywhere, only the part now shows different colors. In the area where the problem shows up it is red so I'm guessing this is exceeding what it should be. Is there someplace I can set the max. flow to 11.5 so that this is reflected in the Gcode? The Slicer is set for OPTIMAL MK3, Prusament PLA and Original Prusa i3 MK3 and I've not customized any settings.

I'm using 1.41.0+win64 so this version may display differently that the version used used in your blog. I also cannot select the checkboxes for Retractions or Speed to tell if there are issues there as well.

All other items in your great checklist seemed to be OK and nothing else stuck out as a potential problem area.

Visual Indicators - I wondered what those were used for.... Duh on my part... 😮

Thank you for your valuable time. If you can help me through using the Slicer and its settings, this will be a great help. I don't know how to identify Flow, Speed or Retraction problems or correct. These seem to be the areas I need to focus on.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

[...] I am having consistent problems printing this part from the Bear Upgrade for the MK3 - build_helper_106mm. After having issues with this part I printed several other parts without issue then tried the "problem" part again and it failed. Can you provide a link to the STL file(s)? I can pull the part up and take a look.

I also tried turning off the printer until the hot-end was cool to the touch and the temps on the display were ambient and retried the part without success.It might just be complex enough to cause heat problems quickly. Try dialing speed way back on the front panel -- I'd say 50% -- as it nears the problem areas. If it succeeds (slowly) then you know it's a fix in your slicer settings that you need.

I've loaded the STL into Prusa Slicer and selected Volumetric flow rate in the drop-down box but can't see the "rate" displayed anywhere, only the part now shows different colors. In the area where the problem shows up it is red so I'm guessing this is exceeding what it should be.Have you saved the gcode file? If not, you'll only see the basic preview:

Save the gcode out and more options are enabled. You'll also see print time estimates and related info:

Is there someplace I can set the max. flow to 11.5 so that this is reflected in the Gcode? The Slicer is set for OPTIMAL MK3, Prusament PLA and Original Prusa i3 MK3 and I've not customized any settings.There are 2 places you can set Max Volumetric Speed (MVS):

The beauty of this approach is that you don't need to fiddle with your extrusion width, layer height or linear speed settings. It will print up to the speeds, acceleration, jerk and other settings you've specified, throttling only when necessary to maintain safe extrusion rates. I've got a lot more notes on this topic here.

I'm using 1.41.0+win64 so this version may display differently that the version used used in your blog. I also cannot select the checkboxes for Retractions or Speed to tell if there are issues there as well.I suspect that's due to not having saved the gcode.

Thank you for your valuable time. If you can help me through using the Slicer and its settings, this will be a great help. I don't know how to identify Flow, Speed or Retraction problems or correct. These seem to be the areas I need to focus on.
It takes a bit of trial and error.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

Thank you... Saving the Gcode was the trick.

Changing the Flow to 11.5 changed the all the red areas to dark green/teal, after saving the Gcode.

I'll try with this version of the part and post the results. The file at issue is from the Bear MK3 Full Upgrade at https://github.com/gregsaun/prusa_i3_bear_upgrade

Sorry but there is no direct link to the parts but the part is builder_helper_106mm.

Thanks again.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

[...] Sorry but there is no direct link to the parts but the part is builder_helper_106mm.
Hmm. That's a pretty simple part.

What settings & material are you using?

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

Yes, agree this is a pretty basic part. Immediately after the last failure I printed a Benchy as a sanity check. It printed perfectly.

I'm using the stock MK3 settings and using Prusament settings. The part was failing at different layers and these layers were the ones that were red in Slic3r with respect to Flow Volume. I changed the Flow to 11.5 per your suggestion and am currently printing the part. It is currently past the "red" areas where flow was an issue and not a "click" to be heard! Knock on wood but since I'm beyond the troublesome layers think flow must have been the issue.

Thanks to your help with this and educating me on how to do some basic reviewing of parts with Slic3r, you have taken me to the next level. The part just completed and is perfect!

Thank you! Your blog is bookmarked.

Re: Clicking sound from bondtech gears

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10Rtop6o8_nNkvcPUgViijg8DbqGxQNA0/view?usp=sharing

My print is also failing and there is a clicking noise when either i print stuff or try to load new filament. It only loads about 9cm of filament before the clicking starts.

Any ideas on why it will not load the new filament???