Underextrusion issues with Early Adopter Eris

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Axlspinedoc
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Underextrusion issues with Early Adopter Eris

Post by Axlspinedoc »

Hello everyone, SeeMeCNC fanboy here

I have almost been working now for 8 months at a 3D printing shop in Mexico and everything has been fine with our Rostocks. I have been helping as maintenance and assembly department here, and earned the trust of my boss. He just lent me his Eris printer.
He bought it sometime in 2014 at a Maker Faire and got a photo with PartDaddy. I got pretty excited because I have never had a printer for me. I took it home and started testing it. Sadly, I couldn't make it work.
I have worked before with it, and we all new it had "details" (My boss kept it as a memoir and did not use it for our 3D printing services).

The principal problem is underextrusion. After hours and hours of testing, calibrating, fine tuning, temperature tweaking, breeze isolation, and shaman enchantation, I couldn't make it print.

The problem starts like this. I start the print job via MatterControl. The printer moves to the starting point and starts extruding, but 10-20 seconds later I start hearing loud clicks. I see the extruder motor struggling to push the filament, and it is noticable that the stepper isn't giving steps accordingly. Because of the slip in the filament, the nozzle stops making pressure inside, making the filament rather drip instead of being pressured against the plate. This causes the print to come off completely, and finally ruining the 2-3 layers it worked so hard to deposit.

Firmware: I just updated to the newest firmware released on December 2015
Calibration: I used the calibration Wizard and brought it to 0.01 error. When the printhead moves while printing I can see the machine is increadibly well adjusted
Filament: I use Esun 1.75mm PLA not older than 3 months. This filament works on any other Rostock and even on other Eris'
Clogging: There is no clogging issues. I use the Safety thingy on the tube retainer and it sits till the bottom of the extruder. From time to time I extract the tube in order to check for blobs, but there have been none.
Temperature: The extruder is at a constant 210°C. There is no variations

I ran out of ideas, until yesterday we had some problems with a Rostock max 2. I updated the firmware of the machine to 20161227 and noticed the exact same problem: The extruder started skipping. My boss inmediately knew that it had to do with the digipot. He was correct, The machine had Wantai motors that needed more current than the new motors that came with newer versions of Rostock Max 2.

Is there someone who came across with the same problem with these Early Adopter Eris'? Does anybody know if the extruder motor from the new Eris printers are different to the ones that came out first?
I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally want to get this little boy running. I find the Eris fun and reliable, and this one printer has been the only one I haven't repaired till the moment.
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thechewiestbacca
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Re: Underextrusion issues with Early Adopter Eris

Post by thechewiestbacca »

I have also had the same issue, but have solved it by cleaning between the teeth of the hobbed gear, to make sure that there aren't any tiny pieces of chewed up filament in there. And, I also check to make sure that the little M3 grub screw is fully tightened.
Axlspinedoc
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Re: Underextrusion issues with Early Adopter Eris

Post by Axlspinedoc »

I have also had the same issue, but have solved it by cleaning between the teeth of the hobbed gear, to make sure that there aren't any tiny pieces of chewed up filament in there. And, I also check to make sure that the little M3 grub screw is fully tightened.
I had done the same with no significant results. Used a bursh with hard plastic bristles and tightened the grub screw, but the motor kept jumping.
It did work on the other Eris, but it was a newer one.
Thanks for the advise!
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Re: Underextrusion issues with Early Adopter Eris

Post by geneb »

If the motor is skipping, that means that the resistance it's experiencing is a lot higher than it should be. I suspect that your bowden tube has backed out of the hot end a bit and there's filament pooling in the resulting gap.

g.
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Axlspinedoc
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Re: Underextrusion issues with Early Adopter Eris

Post by Axlspinedoc »

If the motor is skipping, that means that the resistance it's experiencing is a lot higher than it should be. I suspect that your bowden tube has backed out of the hot end a bit and there's filament pooling in the resulting gap.
I suspected the same at the beginning and started making frequent check ups of the bowden tube. I rarely find this blockeage anymore now that I push the tube to the bottom of the extruder everytime I reinstall it.
I don't think this might be the problem as I haven't found this type of blockages anymore on any of the Eris I use (the one at work and the one lent to me).

Could it be that the current is to low for the motor?
geneb
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Re: Underextrusion issues with Early Adopter Eris

Post by geneb »

Chances are there's a blockage somewhere. If the machine worked great at one point and now does not, that's the most likely reason.

g.
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Axlspinedoc
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Re: Underextrusion issues with Early Adopter Eris

Post by Axlspinedoc »

Chances are there's a blockage somewhere. If the machine worked great at one point and now does not, that's the most likely reason.
The machine has never worked as well as other Eris' printers. It cannot complete the first layer before suffering from underextrussion issues. We check often the bowden tube at the extruder for clogs, but none have appeared.
We have already dissassembled the filament feeding system searching for anything that could add any drag to the motor, but nothing came up.
We even changed the bowden tube for one of the Rostock's (and even cut it into the lenght of the eris one). We put a new connector fitting and a new security clip for the extruder. With the new tube, connector and security clip, clean gear, clear extruder with no clogs or anything, the Eris still doesn't wanna print :(

This is the second time I have dedicated circa 2 weeks of diagnostics and tests, but the only thing that I haven't done is messing with the firmware.
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Re: Underextrusion issues with Early Adopter Eris

Post by Mac The Knife »

If, as you posted you do, you have access to other Eris printers, I would swap out the whole hotend with one from a working Eris, and see if the problem follows the hotend.
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