Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
Recently bought a Core One Kit to build myself. I do love a challenge and well, I should have known better. It was harder than I thought. But now that I have successfully mounted it, I get a slew of problems.
1) First off, getting the belt tension right is next to impossible. The tension webpage, despite me trying it on 3 different phones, always goes to the extremes. There's no rhyme or order to it. Sometimes tightening augments the HZ, sometimes not, and vice versa. I tried it with a friend, and asked my dad, and got the same results with them and their phones. I even took the whole thing apart to make sure the belt was correct.
I also tried getting the Prusa APP on two different phone, where the sound refuses to be picked up. My old 3d printer is busted up because of my cat, so I cannot print any ''testing part'' I see recommended online.
2) I also had problems with my Y axis test. The printer goes to the front-right then goes back and forth in little jumps for eternity, all while banging pretty hard. I somehow managed to fix it (because I had play between the gantry and the XY assembly the first time), and got the printer working! I printed the included Prusa Keychain included with the USB and had a really nice experience watching the printer go brr. I got a nice build!
Now that I had one print, I stopped for the night, and tried again... the next morning, I can't print anything. It says 'Y axis homing failed'', and sure enough, my Y axis problems are back, and the test fails. I suppose this could be because of belt tension, but I changed nothing in between the two days. Could anything else make it fail, after one successful print?
Customer support's solution was telling me I needed to tune the belts better. But it's hard to tune when the tools fail! There was no help for my complain about the tools.
3) Then, there's Prussa connect. It refuses to work. I am not enough of a geek to know how to fix it. I keep getting either ''Connection refused'' or ''Network error'', and the solutions online... are not things I know how to fix. I connect with my Wifi.
I'd really like to get to printing. Is there anything I could try for these 3 problems? Thank you.
Go back to support via chat, they really will try hard to help you.
it's hard to tune when the tools fail!
Apparently some mobile 'phones do better than others, some people have used guitar tuners successfully.
Could anything else make it fail, after one successful print?
Every builder makes a slightly different machine (and every factory built model gets shaken-up in transit).
During the first few prints and for several weeks the printer will be running-in and shaking itself down to a good working state. You will probably find that results drift slightly at first and no matter how well you tune the machine initially it will all have to be re-tuned at your first monthly maintenance session after which the now stable machine should be good for some time and eventually you will only need to retune when nozzles wear.
Cheerio,
RE:
Yet to get the belts site even working on my iPhone X or iPad Mini 5 (running latest iOS) ...its asks permission to use microphone, then nothing.
Only way I could get it working was dragging my MacBook pro to the printer which is a bit of a PITA.
Looking forward to the strobe method that Josef mentioned in his VFA update. Should hopefully take a lot of the pain out of tuning the belts accurately.
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
On my phone (Samsung Android), the "Gates Carbon Drive" app works much better for belt tuning. In Bicycle mode it looks for frequencies up to 100 Hz and picks them up very reliably.
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
I can reliably get a reading with an iPhone and the webapp version if I hold the mic close to the belt and don’t “over pluck” it. In my case, it was to pluck, wait until it registers a reading then pluck again when needed. The mistake I was making was doing it too quickly like I was strumming a guitar. I read somewhere that a guitar pick (or printing one) is more efficient and accurate than using a finger.
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
@gb160 on my iphone I had to tap the "puzzle" icon in the url bar, then the "...", scroll down, enable microphone access explicitly, only then the microphone worked. Better than dragging my mac in front of the printer 😉
Yet to get the belts site even working on my iPhone X or iPad Mini 5 (running latest iOS) ...its asks permission to use microphone, then nothing.
Only way I could get it working was dragging my MacBook pro to the printer which is a bit of a PITA.Looking forward to the strobe method that Josef mentioned in his VFA update. Should hopefully take a lot of the pain out of tuning the belts accurately.
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
The easiest way I found to trick the iPhone is to skip the app and go directly to the web page tool using a browser, push the start button and then give it access to the mic. This has worked every time. There is probably a better tool out there for this, even when the mic works getting a consistent tune requires a bit of trial and error, especially if tension is off by a bit I get higher tones around 190hz picked up, adjusting tension by ear to get somewhat close and then fine tune using the web page tool has worked.
/Anders
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
Hello everyone, thanks for the tips.
I passed several hours with Customer Service, to no avail. I am starting to worry that I stripped the belt tuners by trying to fix the belt, but I still have no proper readings. Fun fact, I now tried 5 phones, and still can't get the prusa website or prusa app to display proper tensioning. I can't figure out why my Y test-fails besides that. The only other thing I did is trying to slack the belt then go by half a turn by half a turn.
I have no play while the gantry is up front, I have no play in the back, I have tried several suggestions found online, and followed Customer support tips and tricks for a long time. Their last bet was that my right motor was defective, but I am not convinced. I can't get over the fact that I did make a proper build once...
I am running out of ideas.
Brew your beverage of choice, relax, run over the options in your head then, bearing in mind that most people presented with an intractable mechanical problem tend to overtighten everything; slacken off the parts you have been adjusting and then re-tighten in baby steps testing by stages.
Have you tried the web app? https://belt.connect.prusa3d.com/
If you are musical you may be able to tune by ear 'though the pitches are rather low, there are web resources that will give you a comparison buzz of any desired frequency.
Cheerio,
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
I can't figure out why my Y test-fails besides that.
Have you checked that the cable to the side filament sensor (inside the right side panel) runs straight towards the back? If the cable got caught in one of its cable ties while you installed the side panel, it will bulge inwards. It easily get in the way of the Y bearing then -- causing rather unexpected positioning and homing errors due to lost steps.
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
Let's try to be systematic:
belt tuning:
- are you using the website on the mobile? If you are using the app, go for the website
- is it an iphone or another mobile? If iphone check the web page (as described in my post above)
- if enabling the mike works, place the phone with the mike toward the belt on the front metal part, pluck the belt and see what happens. If this doesn't work, could you ask someone to take a video of you trying this?
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
Another idea worth checking (if you haven't yet) is the RH extruder cover. On my printer no matter how I flattened or positioned the tiny flat cable underneath, when I tightened that cover it pitched up just a bit. There is almost no room for clearance there, so if it doesn't sit flat, there's a good chance it is striking the RH of the gantry before the hard stop will, which will fail your calibration tests. All I had to do was add a thin strip on the back contact area under that cover panel, and reinstall. Once the back was making contact equally to the front, the panel sits flat and no longer touches the gantry.
-J
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
Nearly at week 2 of owning this printer, and I must say, so far a giant waste of time, money, and passion.
I have contacted customer support for a third time, and got told to lower my right belt tension a little, and it worked! I was able to print a benchy, but I had big issues with layer shifting. I adjusted the belt a teeny bit, and I was able to
Since I was overly tired of trying to fix to problem, I waited 2 days. When I started up the Core One after those two days, my LCD screen suddenly started failing, glitching, flashing, despite me having done nothing at all. Another trip to customer support, and after trying their fixes, they are sending me a new LCD cable. Wonderful... It works, but it flashes, turns to black, glitches, and fizzles.
And then I realized my Y-axis is now misaligned again and I can't seem to fix it again. The gantry now has play in the right side, that isn't going away while trying the slack method.
Posted by: @diem
Brew your beverage of choice, relax, run over the options in your head then, bearing in mind that most people presented with an intractable mechanical problem tend to overtighten everything; slacken off the parts you have been adjusting and then re-tighten in baby steps testing by stages.
Have you tried the web app? https://belt.connect.prusa3d.com/
If you are musical you may be able to tune by ear 'though the pitches are rather low, there are web resources that will give you a comparison buzz of any desired frequency.
Cheerio,
I do not mean to be rude, but I tried the app, the webpage, on 5 phones, (4 samsungs, 1 apple), with friends and family, and none of us could get it to work. I disassembled the belt once and reassembled it to after it be tighter, to no avail. I have no idea how the belt tuner webpage or the app works - because it doesn't for me, nor anyone who tried with me. (I even took a video for customer support).
I can't figure out why my Y test-fails besides that.
Have you checked that the cable to the side filament sensor (inside the right side panel) runs straight towards the back? If the cable got caught in one of its cable ties while you installed the side panel, it will bulge inwards. It easily get in the way of the Y bearing then -- causing rather unexpected positioning and homing errors due to lost steps.
I am certain that's not it, considering I somehow got it printing twice (And then magically it doesn't work the next day)
Another idea worth checking (if you haven't yet) is the RH extruder cover. On my printer no matter how I flattened or positioned the tiny flat cable underneath, when I tightened that cover it pitched up just a bit. There is almost no room for clearance there, so if it doesn't sit flat, there's a good chance it is striking the RH of the gantry before the hard stop will, which will fail your calibration tests. All I had to do was add a thin strip on the back contact area under that cover panel, and reinstall. Once the back was making contact equally to the front, the panel sits flat and no longer touches the gantry.
-J
I am unsure what you mean. The gantry is lower than the right side cover and it would need to sag down to actually hit the RH. Could you send a picture of what you mean?
RE: Slew of problems in new printer, and unable to fix it.
Old school: I printed one of these in orange Prusament PETG, worked really well on my Mk3 and turns out to be useful on the Core One.
https://www.printables.com/model/46639-tension-meter-for-the-gt2-belts-of-i3-mk3s-or-prus