Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

So I've been gone a long time for work and I am finally getting some time to play with my H-1 again, but I have a very odd problem that I can't shake. One day I was printing just fine (other than some minor quality issues) when I had to stop my printing and start over because of a problem with my STL file (I drew a large cantilever that would have needed support material...). When I restarted the print some time later that evening, the extruder was pushing out close to 10x the required material. I would bet that my extruded bead averaged 4mm width and the gcode seemed to be to blame. I later talked to John and verified that my steps were correct, but we never really discussed the gcode issues. First, the gcode would call for a 1mm retraction, but the extruder stepper would retract the filament all the way out of the extruder and then some. I tried to dial it all in by reducing my steps in Mach, but it really made no difference. I've tried a time or two since I talked to John in May and I was working with Lynx a very little bit at one time also (he sent me some files to slice and I sent him the gcode and that's the last I heard from him...).

Anyone have ideas on this? I have a prototype to send off 6 months ago. I'm wondering about the easydriver. It seems like it's multiplting the output but I am not sure. I did the opto mod on the 3 axis driver and I have tried slicing and printing from different computers also.

Help is sincerely appreciated and if new electronics (above and beyond the easydriver) are the answer I need to bail on this. I just can't afford to throw more cash at this thing and then spend all my free time trying to configure it again.

I can send anything you need as needed and I can slice STLs for your comparison also just let me know.

Gabe

What are you using to generate your g-code?

If I had to guess, assuming your Mach settings are correct, the GCode is probably setting inches instead of mm.
If you look near the top of the GCode file if it sends a G20 instead of a G21 then it's setting the units to inches, so 1 would be 25.4x too much.
If it's not sending either you might want to try adding a G21.
The other things that can cause extrusion to be way off in GCode are relative vs absolute and not resetting the Extruder
You might want to cut and paste the first 50 or so lines of GCode so people can look at them.

and make sure "native" mode in Mach3 is correct.

Sorry for the delay in replying to this, guys. I have verified that my native units are correct and I am using Slic3r to generate my gcode. I have used my own profiles and some of the "safe" profiles from John and Steve.

I'm on a computer I do not use to generating gcode, so I'll see if I need to add that G21 to the file before printing. If it isn't needed I'll post some gcode for you all to critique. I'm fine with being wrong. I'm not the smartest with this type of technology yet and I just don't have time pour over all the information out there to figure it out (yet...). I'll have lots of time late winter to get better at this. I just an't believe something could have changed between prints that day, but I do have a curious 4 year old who could have had something to do with it. i print in my basement, but he loves to play with the toy trains down there when he has an opportunity.

Thanks for the help guys and I will keep on top of this when I'm not working!

Gabe

Take the nozzle off, cut a piece of filament, and use the calibration tool under machs settings window. Theres a bug in mach for adjusting A axis steps per when not using the calibration function. I bet thats where its at

I have done the a steps both ways, but I'll give that a shot. The steps are very close between the safe profile and when using the steps calibration.
Thanx John!

No problem. I know theres a bug in mach there, so im sure thats what is happening