Extruder motor clicking every 5mins - repeatedly asking for "unload filament"
Hi i'm having some problems.
1) Extruder motor clicking every 5-20mins or so and i get little or no filament pushed through while it's clicking so the print is spoilt.
2) every 10-90mins the hot end will go to front right position, and ask, "please press the knob to unload filament" (even though it's a full roll)
This is occuring with PLA and PET.
I've tried:
speeding up - no difference
slowing down - no difference
increasing nozzle temp a bit - no difference
clearing nozzle with pulls - no difference. So i actually put a new one on (ruby) and it made no difference 🙁
having the extruder gear flap screws loose(ish) - no difference
having the extruder gear flap screws tight - no difference
When i undo the long screws to disengage the metal gears and manually push fillament through is comes out seemingly very well.
i've also looked on the prusa site for where to get more teflon/ptfe tube but i cant find it anywhere.
i wonder if there is some crud in the heat break? when i pull the fillement out it's definitly a touch wider at the tip (like it's got too much room down there??? (see pics)
i have no clue now, i feel like i'm going round in circles! It's very frustrating. any advice would be much appreciated thanks
Re: Extruder motor clicking every 5mins - repeatedly asking for "unload filament"
Had that same exact issue with PLA. Turned up temp to 250 for like 5 minutes. Put needle through nozzle to clear it and then pushed PLA through it for a bit. Cleared it right up. Someone else had same exact issue on Facebook and they followed those steps and it cleared up for them. The high temp just clears everything right out and lets the filament begin feeding properly again.
Note: the raising temp to 250 was advice from Prusa on their Clogged Nozzle guide under "The filament is not pouring out of the nozzle ":
https://help.prusa3d.com/l/en/article/W ... ged-nozzle
Basically the knob you're seeing at the end is caused by a jam. It's not making to through to the nozzle so it gets smooshed, forming that knob at the end, making it worse. My symptoms were exactly the same, right down to the filament sensor errors (at first I thought it was my translucent filament triggering it as that's been known to happen).
Re: Extruder motor clicking every 5mins - repeatedly asking for "unload filament"
Had that same exact issue with PLA. Turned up temp to 250 for like 5 minutes. Put needle through nozzle to clear it and then pushed PLA through it for a bit. Cleared it right up. Someone else had same exact issue on Facebook and they followed those steps and it cleared up for them. The high temp just clears everything right out and lets the filament begin feeding properly again.
Note: the raising temp to 250 was advice from Prusa on their Clogged Nozzle guide under "The filament is not pouring out of the nozzle ":
https://help.prusa3d.com/l/en/article/W ... ged-nozzle
Basically the knob you're seeing at the end is caused by a jam. It's not making to through to the nozzle so it gets smooshed, forming that knob at the end, making it worse. My symptoms were exactly the same, right down to the filament sensor errors (at first I thought it was my translucent filament triggering it as that's been known to happen).
thanks for the help Alan i'll try it at 250 after 5mins. I've got a needle/acupuncture thing coming today from amazon so i'll give it a go later. It's the filament sensor errors that are strange to me, so weird.
I'll let you know the results. thanks again
Re: Extruder motor clicking every 5mins - repeatedly asking for "unload filament"
It's the filament sensor errors that are strange to me, so weird.
Well, if it thinks it isn't feeding (which it's not when it's clicking), it'll throw that error, so it makes sense when you think of it as a clogged nozzle. The sensor detects movement, right? So it can see if there is an issue with movement and feeding.
Re: Extruder motor clicking every 5mins - repeatedly asking for "unload filament"
after 5min at 250C i have cleaned out the nozzle/heat block area with accupunture needle and i'm getting good flow of PLA though.
i then started the Prusa Logo print an all was looking great (nice look to the print) then 4 mins in i got the dreaded....
"please unload filament"
once pulled out and cut off and reinseerted in went another 20mins before happening again. print was looking great though.
I havent heard the extruder stepper motor miss/click yet though! so maybe that's one thing sorted???
anyone else had problems with the hot end moving to front right and asking for filament removal? - like every 5-40mins??
Re: Extruder motor clicking every 5mins - repeatedly asking for "unload filament"
Turn off filament sensor to see if at least the clicking remains gone through a whole print. COuld be the sensor is damaged . If so, turning it off should let you print if the other issue is resolved while you look into the sensor problem. I believe the RC1 firmware has some fixes to the filament sensor but don't know if it's related.
Re: Extruder motor clicking every 5mins - repeatedly asking for "unload filament"
Turn off filament sensor to see if at least the clicking remains gone through a whole print. COuld be the sensor is damaged . If so, turning it off should let you print if the other issue is resolved while you look into the sensor problem. I believe the RC1 firmware has some fixes to the filament sensor but don't know if it's related.
thanks Alan i'll try that.
Re: Extruder motor clicking every 5mins - repeatedly asking for "unload filament"
what tension do you have on the bondtech? if you have it really tight you might be crushing the filament, causing drag and ending up with a clog.