Core One owners regretting their purchase?  

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

I have very large hands and somewhat arthritic. Trying to deal with the belts after they were properly routed was just too much for them and the tiny portion that hung out.  Buy the material and rerouting and having enough my fingers could deal with worked well and that is fine.  I don't think it would kill Prusa to add 10 or 20 more mm to the belts and instruct how to trim.  Not much of an issue hanging out on the left side, but cannot run under the assembly on the right. My 2c

I am not fat and happy!! Loading the proper config files in Slicer instead of trying to fine tune has resolved 90% of the problems!  My recommendations to all having problems with printing!! 

Thank all.  I am a convert!!

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

@mccluskey1, I take it that your post above was more to vent than to seek specific troubleshooting help. If you want to tackle the latter, this forum can be quite helpful. But you would need to take a more systematic approach, give us more details about the issues you are facing, and try the suggested countermeasures one by one. From your post above, your mindset regarding the printer seems to be like the cat in your avatar picture, which is not a good starting point for troubleshooting. 😉  

Feel free to add to one of the existing threads in the "Assembly and first prints troubleshooting" or "Hardware, firmware and software help" sections, or open a new thread if you don't find your issue discussed in one of those.

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

Hi @mccluskey1 -- it looks like the moderators just released two update posts from you (just above) which were not visible yet when I wrote my prior post. Great news! So you can disregard my post above. Thank you for the updates, and have fun with your Core One!

RE:

Glad that it worked. It's a bit of an uphill battle as a first printer.

One comment regarding moisture: A dry box and desiccant is not effective at drying filament. It will only keep it dry. The problem here is that the movement speed of water in the plastic increases strongly with temperature (diffusion process - exponential increase with T). Also, lack of airflow makes it worse.

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  The OG belt sent were the correct length.  I could not get them to stay in.  Ordering the  SAME replacement belts I don't think would help, but I will give it shot.

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

Posted by: @mccluskey1

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  The OG belt sent were the correct length.  I could not get them to stay in.  Ordering the  SAME replacement belts I don't think would help, but I will give it shot.

The belt folds over on itself in the harness so the exposed end has it's teeth meshed with the teeth of the part of the belt entering the harness. This keeps it from slipping out. Open a new topic in "Assembly and first prints troubleshooting" and provide photos of how the belt is routed in the belt harness and we can start from there. 

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

I cannot print anything that approaches the full sheet size.  Smaller things print great, but I want to print the MMU box for the top and can't. the really weird thing is the layer shifts happen on the 1st or 2nd layers and then everything prints fine on top of it.  I am open to suggestions.

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

Posted by: @mccluskey1

I cannot print anything that approaches the full sheet size.  Smaller things print great, but I want to print the MMU box for the top and can't. the really weird thing is the layer shifts happen on the 1st or 2nd layers and then everything prints fine on top of it.  I am open to suggestions.

As in your other thread, you are not going to be able to do sizable prints of any type until you fix the Y calibration issues. 

RE:

Posted by: @mccluskey1

I cannot print anything that approaches the full sheet size.  Smaller things print great, but I want to print the MMU box for the top and can't. the really weird thing is the layer shifts happen on the 1st or 2nd layers and then everything prints fine on top of it.  I am open to suggestions.

As mentioned in another thread, you are not going to be able to do sizable prints of any type until you fix the Y calibration issues. 

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

This the type of shift I am getting right on the start on edge to edge prints.  I have tried the EMI code, other things, turned off teh crossovers...

ANY Suggestions.

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

Useful help from support other than "Check the belt tension," or use the new strobe method (that one guy in support fails to understand it uses the LEDs when I told him I needed to wait until it was dark enough) , or 'take a picture of it', would be helpful.  Right now, it seems to be up to me to figure out.

I am open to useful suggestions.  I have one more thing in the works, but it will be a few days before I can break it all down again.

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

Posted by: @mccluskey1

Useful help from support other than "Check the belt tension," or use the new strobe method (that one guy in support fails to understand it uses the LEDs when I told him I needed to wait until it was dark enough) , or 'take a picture of it', would be helpful.  Right now, it seems to be up to me to figure out.

I am open to useful suggestions.  I have one more thing in the works, but it will be a few days before I can break it all down again.

But have you actually done the recommended checks of the belt tension, and have confirmed that your printer's gantry is aligned? It seems to me that you keep trying to print stuff and ask for advice, but keep ignoring the repeated guidance from everyone that the printer must first pass calibration and how to approach that.

Please follow the belt tuning guide. It is most important that not only you get the two belt frequencies into the right range, but at the same time keep the gantry at a right angle to the Y axis: When you pull the gantry forward against the end stops (motor power off), it must touch both stops. Try to gently push it against the stop on the left, then on the right, so see whether there is still wiggle room, i.e. a small gap between gantry and end stop. If you don't get "zero wiggle", follow the Quick gantry alignment guide in the yellow box on the belt tuning page.

Have you successfully used the LED-based tuning wizard in the meantime? We had that discussion in another thread about what to expect visually, and it was never cleared up (I believe) what you expected to see. Unless the printer is sitting in direct sunlight, you should be able to perform the alignment during daytime without problems.

RE:

Posted by: @mccluskey1

Useful help from support other than "Check the belt tension," or use the new strobe method (that one guy in support fails to understand it uses the LEDs when I told him I needed to wait until it was dark enough) , or 'take a picture of it', would be helpful.  Right now, it seems to be up to me to figure out.

I am open to useful suggestions.  I have one more thing in the works, but it will be a few days before I can break it all down again.

We keep giving you suggestions which should fix this issue. What have you tried so far?

With the manual belt tuner (strobe method), I am easily able to see the belts oscillate even in a well lit room. If by turning the knob to vary frequency you don't see the belts oscillate at any setting of the range then the belts are either much too loose or much too tight. In that case you will not see the belts moving. 

You should not attempt any more large prints until:

• The gantry is square
• Your belts are at the correct frequency
• X, Y, Z and Homing calibration tests pass

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

A suggestion with installing the belts:
Ensure you use the right holes in the extruder holder.

Consider the right hand belt. You have the smooth side of the belt facing you and the teethed side facing the holder. 
You insert the belt into the second slot from the right on the front of the holder, then you poke the end back out towards the you via the first slot on the holder from the right. This loops the belt against itself. When you do that, the teeth on the end of the belt are facing you and mesh with the teeth on the long end of the belt, so that when you clamp it down they're pushed together and make a strong attachment.

You do the same for the left side - in towards the back from the second slot from the left, out from the first slot.

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

My god, that is all I have done, since that is the only response you get from Prusa.  It has become the definition of insanity.  Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results!

I am going ot break the machine down one more time and check everything for square, then run the belts back through and start over.

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

My god, that is all I have done, since that is the only response you get from Prusa.  It has become the definition of insanity.  Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results!

I am going to break the machine down one more time and check everything for square, then run the belts back through and start over.

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

See other post.  I have done everything recommended by Prusa over and over and over.

I will undertake taking it all apart, again, and checking square this time just to see,

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

Posted by: @mccluskey1

See other post.  I have done everything recommended by Prusa over and over and over.

I will undertake taking it all apart, again, and checking square this time just to see,

You don't have to take everything apart. Just loosen the belts until the screws are just about to come out of the tension pulley nut, then check the gantry for squareness and bend it by hand if it's not. 

RE:

Posted by: @mccluskey1

My god, that is all I have done, since that is the only response you get from Prusa.  It has become the definition of insanity.  Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results!

I am going to break the machine down one more time and check everything for square, then run the belts back through and start over.

If you want us to help, a bit less panic and a bit more information would be helpful:

• If I remember correctly, you told us earlier that your printer does not pass "Y calibration". I don't actually have that option in my Core One; there is "Y Axis Test" and "Homing Calibration". Where do you get a failure? What is the error message?
• Have you made the stroboscope-based belt tuner work for you? Do you see the oscillations on both belts?
• What are the frequencies where the oscillation amplitude is at its maximum, for the upper and lower belt?
• Is the belt wizard happy with them, or did it tell you to go back and straighten the gantry?
• If you have already tried straightening the gantry: What was the problem? Is it that you could not get the gantry squared by bending it (still not touching both end stops at once)? Or is it that you think you have it squared, but when you tighten the belts, the tuning wizard still complains?

Please take a few deep breaths and take this slowly and systematically. If you can answer the questions above (to the extent you have the answers), we can provide more targeted advice. 

RE: Core One owners regretting their purchase?

Things are ...better, but still cannot get the Y-Axis to pass.  And yes, it is square.  So I cannot print edge to edge.

Before I completely disassemble the XY carriage and start over, I need a check.  See photo.  On the top right side, with the gantry all the way back, the belts actual appear to touch.  This concerns me.  Is that correct?  I am taking things in steps to see if I have a rub or blockage.

Everything passes but the Y-axis still.