Maybe Belt/Motor Skipping?

[geneb]

Now that's a LOT better. That narrows the issue down quite a bit.

Try this - make a solid cylinder and slice it with:

.25 layer height
1 perimeter
Check "Spiral Vase"
0 top layers, 3 bottom layers

This should print a single wall, spiral tube. See what the quality is that way. You will see some odd warping on occasion with ABS - it's just the nature of the material unfortunately.

I'm pretty sure your issue has to do with how the firmware is handling "cornering" when printing. Unfortunately, I know nothing about tuning the Jerk settings in any firmware.

There's gotta be someone here that can help in that specific area - you may need to change to Repetier-Firmware however.

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

Now that's a LOT better. That narrows the issue down quite a bit.

Try this - make a solid cylinder and slice it with:

.25 layer height
1 perimeter
Check "Spiral Vase"
0 top layers, 3 bottom layers

This should print a single wall, spiral tube. See what the quality is that way. You will see some odd warping on occasion with ABS - it's just the nature of the material unfortunately.

I'm pretty sure your issue has to do with how the firmware is handling "cornering" when printing. Unfortunately, I know nothing about tuning the Jerk settings in any firmware.

There's gotta be someone here that can help in that specific area - you may need to change to Repetier-Firmware however.

g.

Maybe we should ask that dude who made the RMAX video and stuck it on YouTube - He knows a LOT about jerk settings.

[analog_banana]

Sorry, you've lost me there?

[analog_banana]

As you expected - the spiral vase is perfect.
I agree the problem looks to be with how it handles cornering

I think it's soon time to update the firmware - just in case, but I do want to bear the following in mind:

If NOBODY has really had to use specific jerk settings:
that would suggest that a functional Rosotck Max does not usually require tweaked jerk settings.

THEREFORE, there is something different or malfunctioning about my machine - Other than the idiot driving it

Belts?

[dpmacri]

23.JPG

As you expected - the spiral vase is perfect.
I agree the problem looks to be with how it handles cornering

I think it's soon time to update the firmware - just in case, but I do want to bear the following in mind:

If NOBODY has really had to use specific jerk settings:
that would suggest that a functional Rosotck Max does not usually require tweaked jerk settings.

THEREFORE, there is something different or malfunctioning about my machine - Other than the idiot driving it

Belts?

I think folks have tweaked their jerk settings, the difference being that they've done it with the Repetier firmware. So with your firmware being Marlin, it's really hard to rule out the actual firmware implementation as the difference rather than any specific settings for jerk, etc.

[analog_banana]

Cool! Thanks. I understand, on to repetier installation it is then..

[geneb]

That spiral vase tells me these things:

1. Your stepper motors are good.
2. Your belts are good.
3. Your electronics are good.
4. Your extrusion temperature and feed rate are good.

Now the only thing that can really be a factor that we don't know of yet is the firmware. It could be possible that the settings that your Marlin installation are using may be totally off for a delta printer.

If you install Repetier-Firmware .91 and that printer is suddenly all unicorns and rainbows, I want you to call the guy you bought it from and yell at him for mangling the firmware and then blaming the hardware.

g.

[DavidF]

I still think he should put a couple on the build tray to help with cooling the parts.
Plus then he can play with the retracts.

[JolietDelta]

Hmm... Before you put up Repetier, one more experiment (If you're willing to do so):

Here's a picture of one of my testcubes I'm printing whith every new spool of filament (this is from PLA):

PLA testcube 215°C -> 200°C

As you can see, the corners are fairly round at the bottom where the nozzle temp is obviously too high.
In order to get the right temp I usually start with 240°C (ABS) or 220°C (PLA). I let Slic3r set the initial/starting temperature.

Then I go into the g-code and maunally lower the temp by 5° every 20th layers.

When the machine is well adjusted and no other problems are present, the print will start looking good when the right temp is reached.

Your cylinder is ok from the 10th layer (or so) on. Maybe because from there on the ambient temp cooled down the filament fast enough whereas the first layers got too hot or cooled down too slow (extrusion temp + influence of the heated bed).

This experiment is only working well with cubes, hexagons, etc - evyrthing that has sharp edges.

After every 20th layer you put in your g-code the line "M104 S240" then "M104 S235" and so on.
Speed at 15m/s and no further modifications.

With repetier you can modify that value while your print is running. With some versions of marlin an internal "M109" is issued, this would stall your print immediatelly and thereby ruin the whole experiment. That's why I'm suggesting to modify the g-code.

If the corners are geting more angular from the bottom to the top of your cube - well, then you have gained a bit more time for installing repetier. ;-)
Nd - after seeing your cylinder I think the basic adjustments of your machine are ok.


~Jens

Edit:

I've just noticed that you've done some prints with different temps already and the corners of all of them are not ok at all.
So I'm with Geneb: give repetier 0.91 a try.

[analog_banana]

I have upgraded the firmware to repetier.

I found a pre packaged version here:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:127633

I have changedt the pulley tooth count to 15
I have left PULLEY_DIAMETER untouched at 10 - IS that OK for an old 15 tooth pulley?
and the steps per mm to 106.67 on each axis - just as with the previous firmware..

also:
STEPS_PER_ROTATION 200
MICRO_STEPS 8

So all good except when I do a g28, all the carriages home at once - not the usual one at a time.
Any ideas on how ot fix?

[analog_banana]

Looks like all the speeds are way too fast with repetier.
So something is different.

I'm wondering if it's max feedrate or something?
But the extruder feela bout 10 times faster than it used to,
so I need some kind of global feedrate or stepper speed adjustment.

I think I'm back out of my depth here.

I am of course googling hard, but there seem to be so few if any write-ups of the machine I bought.
(ramps based)

Taking a break for a bit..

[Eaglezsoar]

Your machine being Ramps based has little to do with the problems you are seeing.
Ramps was around long before the Rambo and the Rambo is virtually identical to the Ramps
with the exception of the digipots the Rambo has. Rambo also has locking connectors.
I actually prefer the Ramps, if a motor driver gets fried I can change it easily and inexpensively
it that happens with the Rambo you have to buy a whole new card.

Carl

[geneb]

What have you got set for steps per mm on the main drives and your extruder?

If you check the first edition of the build manual, it SHOULD (I think) have the figures needed for steps per mm for both the main drives and the Steve's Extruder (is that what you're using?).

g.

[JolietDelta]

I have upgraded the firmware to repetier.

[...]

also:
STEPS_PER_ROTATION 200
MICRO_STEPS 8

MICRO_STEPS 8

Sure?

[analog_banana]

Eaglezsoar:
Don't worry, I'm really not disrespecting the choice of hardware at this point.
The tone of my post was more to apologize that I have to ask you guys so many questions.
This is currently the only "instruction manual" I have for this machine. and as such I really appreciate your time!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GeneB: I have sorted out the steps per mm- I had missed the extruder steps setting.

I now have the x y z steps per mm set to 106.67
and the Extr 1. steps per mm to 100.00

This should be the same as it was before the firmware change.
It is now behaving normally - maybe still seems a little bit speedy?

Still to be fixed:
The g28 command makes all carriages home simultaneously - not one by one as before-
not sure if that is an innacurate way to do a g28?

Hotend Temp: I can't seem to get it above 207 degrees.
I have set Extr. 1 PID drive max to 220 degrees, but currently it won't go higher than 206/207

------------------------------------------------------------------------
JolietDelta:
re: MICRO_STEPS 8
That's what it's set to in the firmware I got, the guy who uploaded it says

That setting is in config.h
/** rief Micro stepping rate of X, Y and Y tower stepper drivers */
#define MICRO_STEPS 8
Just change to 16 if that's the way you want to run it.

So I guess I can have either - I vaguely know what microstepping means - I do not know how it affects Repetier's functionality though.

[analog_banana]

Whoa, Delta radius?? pretty messud up. Nearly smooshed the nozzle trying to recalibrate the bed!

[Eaglezsoar]

Underneath the driver boards on the ramps there should be a series of jumpers.
The jumpers set the microstepping that you are using according to this chart:

jumper Yes/No step size
1 2 3
no no no full step
yes no no half step
no yes no 1/4 step
yes yes no 1/8 step
yes yes yes 1/16 step

[geneb]

Don't worry about the G28 - that's just how Repetier-Firmware does it. Make sure that your micro step setting in the firmware matches how you've got the jumpers set based on Eagle's info.

g.

[analog_banana]

Thanks! I'd never has guessed that one.
There were 3 jumpers underneath each driver board so I have set the firmware to #define MICRO_STEPS 16

I'm searching the firmware and eeprom for how to set the delta radius now..

[int2str]

I'm searching the firmware and eeprom for how to set the delta radius now..

It's called "Horizontal radius" in the EEPROM settings.

[analog_banana]

Yes - You would think that!
but I can't see anything like that in the eeprom settings list.
Nothing Horizontal, no radius..

See image:

[JolietDelta]

Hey Banana,

I suggest to set Extr PID Max Val to 240 (this is ok for the SeemeCNC dual-resistor as well as for heating cartridges).
The same for the heated bed (here you can got up to 255).
20.00 mm/s is a good value for the jerk settings
3.000.00 mm/s² is a conservative value for your X/Y/Z acceleration settings.
90.00 mm/s for the X/Y/Z homing feedrate
160.00 mm/s for the X/Y/Z max feedrate

The 100 steps/mm for the extruder... Did you measure that or is this a rough estimate?
With the ezstruder (I'm simply assuming you have one of those) and 1/16 stepping this should be arround 92.65 (I got this value out of geneb's manual and didn't chance it ever since).

One note about the Jumpers on your Pololu (A4988) drivers. Almost every value (steps/mm, acceleration settings) is coupled to your microstepping settings. So they have to be the same on your hardware (jumpers) and in your software. Else the whole machine will start doing funny things. Set both, jumpers (on every driver board) and #defines in your Software to 1/16.
If your hardware is configured to 1/8 and your software is driving it with the number of steps for 1/16 - then you have some kind of time machine. Same ammount of time, double speed and travel. :-)


When you have double checked these things:

Issue a G28; G0 Z100 X0 Y0 F2000; and then some relative movements in Z (+50mm folowed by -50mm, etc.) to see if your settings are correct. I always choose the geometrical middle of the movement space for first steps like these.

Does a 50mm G0 result in 50mm travel?


~Jens

[JolietDelta]

Yes - You would think that!
but I can't see anything like that in the eeprom settings list.
Nothing Horizontal, no radius..

Me again :-)

Did you wipe your EEPROM when changing from marlin to repetier?

To be sure the INIT-Run of 0.91 created all values and pointer correctly do the following.

1. Set "#define EEPROM_MODE 0"
2. compile / upload and start the controller
3. Set "#define EEPROM_MODE 2"
4. compile / upload and start the controller

What ist RepHost saying now (EEPROM Settings)?

Oh - don't forget to export your EEPROM table vie RepHost before doing that procedure.

~Jens

[analog_banana]

Thanks!
This is what hapenned:
Set "#define EEPROM_MODE 0" = eeprom settings are blank
Set "#define EEPROM_MODE 2" = eeprom settings are visible - settings restored to defaults.

I still can't see a Horozontal radius option...

[analog_banana]

Joliet - If you are using Ramps 1.4...
Do you have a Configuration.h that works? - or maybe even a zip of your marlin firmware I could try?