Help troubleshooting faulty printer out of the box
After 5 days assembling and then batling a faulty printer, it is time to ask for fresh perspectives...
I got a brand new geeetech i3 pro B. Its faulty USB cable was a warm-up exercise, Now that I'm using an old one it responds to commands from the Geeetech's easyprint software.
This was very important because the i3's gt2560 control board is faulty: it does not cycle through the menu when turning the knob.
So far, I have managed to level the bed. I then hit 2 more problems:
- 1. the z axis doesn't drive higher than 2cm. When rotating the threaded rod by hand (power off), I cannot feel anything wrong.
- 2. with the nozzle 2 cm above the bed, I tried to run some filament through the extruder, temperature set at 200degrees. After finding that I need to click e- to drive the filament through instead of e+, I can get the extruder to take in a fair amount of filament but nothing comes out. Driving the filament out, I can see some indentations on the filament where a drive wheel or something bites into to drive it forward.
This cheap printer was chosen as a learning exercise for myself and to find out if my children are keen. I'd rather learn than send it back to the oversea seller. With a view to upgrade to a better quality printer in the foreseeable future, I would rather become a member of this forum rather than Geeetech's.
Could you advise on the following:
What is the best software to slice and to control an i3 clone? (I don't trust GEEEtech's own products at this point)
What am I missing to get the extruder to extrude?
Any simple, flat-ish piece that I can print as a test - cannot be higher than 1.5cm!
Controller upgrade - I might as well order one asap
Finally, any idea about improving the z-axis issue
Thank you for taking the time to read this long post. I am at the point where it becomes difficult to trust what I'm seeing and I would welcome your ideas
RE: Help troubleshooting faulty printer out of the box
You are asking for a lot...
Almost all of us are here because we have Prusa printers, and because we understand Prusa foibles.
You are certainly welcome here, and there is a lot of good information that is not printer specific.
In your specific case though, I do have to recommend you post on the GEEETech forum, for the sole reason
that those folks have experience with the problems you are facing.
You don't have to stay there, just get what information you can specific to your printer.
Stick with FDM printing. Your kids will thank you for it!
RE: Help troubleshooting faulty printer out of the box
@robert-rmm200
Thank you for your reply, I'll give Geeetech forum a try for this problem.
This forum is much more inspiring though!