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I went to print a large model off SD card. I'd exported it from MatterControl onto the SD then plugged it into the printer.

It started printing and then printed a straight line right off the glass.

I'm going to try printing directly from MatterControl now once I get it to REMOVE the previous print. It doesn't seem to understand what REMOVE means. Maybe a reboot of Windows is in order.

Let us know what you find out about this.

I started it printing from MatterControl and when it seemed to be running ok I went to bed. This morning found a birds nest, the Bowden fitting had come unscrewed from the extruder BUT the print looks fine up until it ran out of plastic. Well, except for one part that needs support and it tried to build in the air, I forgot I have to turn on support for this part just for that one little bit.

Anyway, I'll try printing from the card later after I get this all wound back on the spool, at least it's not wasted material.

I think that this is the first time on the forum that anyone has reported a bowden fitting unscrewing itself.
At least you can re-spool the filament instead of wasting it like most of the bird's nests that have been reported.

Do you have your z-height set right? I'm guessing that either the home switches got tripped by something else when it was homing, or the z-height is not set in the eeprom but is in matter control?

Eaglezsoar wrote:I think that this is the first time on the forum that anyone has reported a bowden fitting unscrewing itself.
At least you can re-spool the filament instead of wasting it like most of the bird's nests that have been reported.

Could have been worse, I had the whole nozzle unscrew itself one time
[img]http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g446/davidflowers1/Mobile%20Uploads/utf-8BSU1BRzA2ODguanBn.jpg[/img]

DavidF wrote:

Eaglezsoar wrote:I think that this is the first time on the forum that anyone has reported a bowden fitting unscrewing itself.
At least you can re-spool the filament instead of wasting it like most of the bird's nests that have been reported.

Could have been worse, I had the whole nozzle unscrew itself one time
[img]http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g446/davidflowers1/Mobile%20Uploads/utf-8BSU1BRzA2ODguanBn.jpg[/img]

Never had that happen either but it does make a mess. Looks like you caught it before it made to big a mess.

Ok, after having one of *those* days, I finally got back home at 7pm or so (had only originally planned on being out from about 1pm to 2pm). As I didn't get any other useful work done today, I decided to poke at the printer some more.

Findings:

MatterControl doesn't really like the old XP system that much, I cloned it over to the Windows 7 laptop that runs the Afinia and set that on a shelf. It's a LOT faster and can easily handle both printers at once.

I modified my slicer settings a little (changed the infill density) and turned on support. Viewed the layers to verify only that one small bit will have any support generated.

Exported to SD and tried printing from it. The plastic looked bad and then I remembered I forgot to purge it, it had sat in a hot nozzle for hours last night.

Hit HOME TOWERS and they went up and BANGED against the top, then one started going down, up to click the switch, down, up, power off.

Reloaded the firmware (after installing the Arduino IDE on the laptop) and re-exported to the SD card. It printed for a bit and turned off the heat. !!! Hit HOME, BANG... power off.

Printing from MatterControl now, working fine.

So...something about printing from the SD card tips this over some edge. Any ideas?

jdurand, have you tried a different and faster SD card?

I restarted the print from MatterControl using the same part with support-lines turned on. I stopped it after a short bit to peel it up and look at the support. Everything EXCEPT the supported part looked ok.

In the CAD system I drew in my own support and started printing that file with support turned off. Looked fine...until it got to the small passages inside and it was putting infill in the passages and leaving the bunch of isolated closed areas open. *sigh*

Went to bed.