extruder randomly clicks like its stuck

[guanu]

as I'm printing randomly the extruder shutters and clicks as if its stuck, if i put my finger and help the rotation along (requires very little pressure to get it going again) it goes fine for awhile... its completely random but if I leave a print unattended it can do that and stop feeding filament.
I have my easydriver pot maxed (set to min due to the wrong silkscreen). but it appears to be my only problem.. Anyone come across this or know what could cause it?
I was considering having the easydriver run a different axis and put the exturder on the 3-axis board for more power, but dont know if anyone has done that... can it be done and just change the pins in mach3 so the code all stays the same?

Guanu

[Polygonhell]

Maxing the pot might make it worse, you need to find the right balance.
I run a RAMPS board and the driver pots on it have to be correct within <1/8th of a turn the axis will stall if the setting is too low or too high.
The easiest thing to try is tweaking the pot when the condition happens to see if you can get smooth movement.

It could also be too low a temperature for the plastic you're printing.
If your PTFE tubing in the hot end is blocked or partially blocked, usually caused by too high a temperature or IME running the hot end for too long,it will also do this.

Or just a particularly weak driver board.

[Chris Muncy]

You also might have too much tension on the extruder rollers. You want just enough to keep the filament going without stalling out the stepper.

[michaellatif]

I had a similar problem where I would get a click or pop from the extruder feed sprockets. I though I had it built incorrectly, but I found that the lettering on the larger gears were catching, I lightly sanded the surfaces and the problem went away. One thing I noticed is that when I speed up the extruder motor the noise happened more often and got a little louder.

[mhackney]

Gaunu,

Since you are running the EasyDriver you are experiencing the same problem a number of us have. The ED just barely has enough umph to work in my opinion. You have to make sure that your gear train in the extruder is turning smoothly and freely. Make sure everything s lubricated. You will have to turn the pot up all the way - BUT be aware that the markings on the ED board are usually incorrect! There is a long discussion about it on the Yahoo group. The issue is that the company changed their supplier for the pot after they printed the boards and the new part is backwards! So, turn it all the way to the other side and check the function.

You also have to make sure that the filament is feeding freely. The ED does not have give the stepper enough torque to pull it from the spool.

Temperature makes a big difference too as Polygonhell mentions.

I don't know if there is a lot of variability from board to board. I purchased a 2nd board from Amazon and it was the same as the first. In the end, I abandoned the ED setup and bought a Chinese 4 axis board. It rocks.

cheers,
Michael

[guanu]

since I'm in the middle of a 2 hr print, I loostened up the tension hex cap screws 1/4 turn, since then its only done the stutter once, seems that I just need to find the sweet spot of tension.
When I built the extruder I had to do a LOT of sanding on the gears to get them to spin smooth.. I have also hobbed my feeders, which helped alot.. looks like I just need to find the right area for tension and it should be all good...

as far as torque I dont think the easy driver all all too bad, I have my filament spool on a pvc tube on a cardboard box until I make a holder for it and it pulls it just fine.. using some homemade abs glue on the blue tape also removed my warping problem so it looks like I'm just about dialed in... now for the upgrades and crazyness!

thanks for all the help
Guanu

[@CiDG]

I've been struggling with the same issue and I took the removable portion of the extruder and I turned the extruder. I didn't realize how much effort it took to turn the gears until now. I found the sweet spot as far as the tightness of the drive pulley bolt and I put a drop of motor oil (I'm out of 3-in-1...) on the bearings, and between the gears where they slide against each other on the driving shaft. Everything works awesome now and I have had no issues in an hour of printing!

Give it a try! I hope it helps!
Gabe

[JTCUSTOMS]

I dont really have a torque issue on my ED, I havent extruded anything yet but I tried to stall it by hand when I was reading about Michael's issues with the ED. It was pretty difficult to get it to stall grabbing the large gears by hand. That was with the ED stock setting I did not adjust the pot at all, now once I try to extrude something it might be a different story

[TKL]

I bought the full kit but I haven't yet used the extruder. But I checked out the ED data and it says 750mA MAX and the Nema 17 Steppers in the kit is 2.5A, so there seems to be a mishmash between the driver and the stepper in their kit. I have now ordered a 670 mA Nema 11 stepper for the extruder.

[zaphod]

I am concerned about my EasyDriver as well. Had the same issues with the clicking during testing with no filiment in the extruder. I noted that I could easily stall the motor with my fingers. I reduced the tension and it improved and I added the filiment and it seemed to pull into the machine (but I haven't tested with a hot extruder yet.) Also noted that the chip is *very* warm to the touch, so much so that I installed another fan and will add a heat sink to the chip as my first attempt to make it work. Given the EasyDriver appears to be underpowered for the stock steppers, I might find another alternative to the EasyDriver and post its part number here (unless others have done this research already? I'd hate to change out the entire controller board for a single axis issue.)
Mark.

[johnoly99]

Hey guys, John Oly here. One of the first things you should check is, pop the gear off the stepper motor on the extruder, and make sure the gear train turns nice and freely. A common problem is, if the bearings aren't seated ALL the way into the combo gears, the gear faces can rub against each other. Double check that the bearings are pressed all the way into the white combo gears and that the whole assembly turns freely without the motor pulley on the motor. I have a feeling you will find some binding at that point. Secondly, the white min/max on the easydriver boards are actually BACKWARD, and max is clockwise, min is counter-clockwise. It was a defect when sparkfun was manufacturing the boards. So, don't use the writing around the pot, just turn it clockwise to increase power to the motor. I have mine around 70-75% on the pot, and it will shred filament usually before it stalls out. Also to note, yes, the easydriver does run very warm. Most small form stepper chips do. A heatsink and a fan are a good idea. I don't have either on mine, and with prob. over 400 hrs of printing on it, it's still working just fine. There are alternatives, sparkfun even sells the Big Easy driver, it's a more powerful chip than the standard easydriver. However, I believe you have another issue first and foremost to fix before resorting to "more powah!". I'll almost bet a build plate that it's the bearings aren't seated in the gears fully, causing the gear faces to rub. Check it out, and post back on here what you find.

John Oly