Hi,
Gigabot 3+
PLA filament
Printing via USB from Simplify3D, medium sized object.
While printing the raft in what should be consistently left and right extrusions, the Gigabot is driving itself outside of the brim/skirt and crashing into the lightbar at the front of the frame. Luckily I was present to switch off the power moments before the collision.
Any ideas what could be causing this?
Thought I'd add that it hasn't happened before.
Could you possibly have had a curling print that caused the nozzle to crash?
With the machine only having relative positioning capabilities it is possible for it to lose its position if the head crashes.
Alternatively something else could have caused your stepper motors to "skip" steps but I think my initial stated reason is your most likely culprit.
Daniel A, well, I ran the file again and the same thing happened. I think I found the actual problem:
The thick bottom layers of the raft cause the print head to move very slow, which in turn was causing the firmware to time-out. I was getting the following communication error multiple times:
Warning Firmware Unresponsive. Attempting to force continue...
I googled it and found other people experiencing the same issue of the print head running off course and crashing into the frame...and they also experienced it while printing the bottom (slow and thick) layers of the raft.
apparently there is a setting in simplify3D under the tool -> firmware dropdown menu where the time-out duration can be modified. Mine was set to 30 seconds. I tried changing it to 60 seconds but the software gives me a system dialogue warning about making changes to firmware settings upon hitting the apply button. So I have not actually tested to see if changing the timeout value works to solve the problem.
Instead, my work-around has been to disable the bottom thick and slow layers of the raft that were causing the problem in the first place. I did that and then started the print and have not seen any warnings in the communications tab again.
Daniel, would you mind shooting us over your Factory file to support@re3d.org?
Mike,
Sure, as soon as I get to the office I'll send it over.
Here is a picture of the comm from yesterday when the error happened.
Hey Daniel,
We have seen problems like this with Simplify3D when printing over USB. We recommend printing via MicroSD with the Viki interface. Let me know if you are seeing the same of other problems using the Viki and MicroSD on-board your Gigabot.