Right side not printing!
My i3 MK3S works very hard, printing most days. Suddenly any printing on the right side of the bed does not print. It is not a bed-leveling issue, but rather the stepping motor feeding the filament makes that "clicking" sound of overload and the filament stops being extruded. When the head gets back to the left side, it prints again! I am at a loss to figure out how this could happen! I replaced the nozzle and checked all the wires in the printing head and nothing seems amiss.
I can easily print, even complex stuff, on the left side but only on the left side.
Any thoughts?
RE: Right side not printing!
I had a problem where the Bondtech idler shaft would move out of its hole and allow the idler to cock out of alignment. This caused a clicking sound very similar to the sound you get when the nozzle is jammed. In my case it would sometimes continue to print, but in others it would not feed the filament.
I can imagine a scenario where as the extruder moves to the right and pulls the filament with it, the increased stress on the idler is sufficient to pull the idler out of alignment if the idler shaft is not in its hole.
Just a thought.
RE: Right side not printing!
Thank you for your thought. I checked the idler and the shaft was barely into one side. But there was no "wiggle" to the idler gear. I still centered the shaft hoping that a "wiggle" was there, just too small to see. Unfortunately, it had no effect at all. One would wonder why Prusa doesn't supply a shaft that is 3 or 4 mm longer so it fits more evenly in the printed part. My hot end party arrive tomorrow, so I will totally disassemble and reassemble the hot end and hope that resolves the issue. My printer has worked perfectly for years until this.
RE: Right side not printing!
I also thought that maybe you might have a cable problem. Have you checked that the extruder motor is turning when this problem is occurring. I don't think the controller would be able to detected an open in the power or ground line to the extruder. I might be wrong about that, but since the cable strain increases on the right side, if an open in one of the wires is present, it could loose contract as it moves over to the right side.
RE: Right side not printing!
I was excited to read your suggestion because the shaft turns fine on the left, but while clicking is jumping back and forth! That is exactly what a stepping motor will do if one of the four wires is not connected (I play with stepping motors for fun). But the wires were fine - I even removed the set and re-plugged them in - and checked the length of them too. When reassembled the same one-sided printing persisted.
Thank you the great suggestion. If rebuilding the hot end does not fix it, perhaps the next thing to do is purchase a new stepping motor and replace it.
RE: Right side not printing!
Lynn, you were correct - it was the Extruder stepping motor itself! I got a new one from Prusa and it arrived today. I installed it and my printer is printing perfectly. I then checked the conductivity of the four wires and found that two of them (Rd & Blue) went from the 6 or so Ohms to open circuit when wiggling the four as they enter the motor. When printing for left to right, it must have wiggled the wire just enough. I will open the motor and try to repair it to have a spare. I am so glad to be back in business.