When starting the print, or even moving the machine to start a workpiece, the steppers will move 10mm at each press, which it is set to, then all of a sudden, they drop down to about 5mm, but still set at 10mm. i’ve found the only way to solve this is to turn the machine on and off again or reflash the board with the firmware. its not happening all the time. I’ve managed a few successful cuts, but recently, i’ve been trying to cut out a plaque. starting with an engrave bit to clear around the lettering, then when the cut is finished and back to its zero. I swap the bit for a straight cutter, load up my pocket cut and it starts as normal, then all of a sudden its cutting out but at around half the size.
apologies for the delay, been working on other projects.
i’ll get some pictures tomorrow, but this issues happened again today, its intermittent and random.
So i set a piece of pine onto the Lowrider. I started my cut and the router moved down the its start point, cut my first line nice and straight (its for a Plaque with a border). first line was the bottom of the border, then up 90 degrees. as it was working its way up the left hand side rollers carried on as normal but the right hand side rollers started to slow down. Once i cancelled the cut and using the touch screen to move the router out the way, i selected to move at 10mm increments and the left hand side moved along the y axis 10mm at each tap of the button, but the right hand side only travelled about 5mm each tap. this happens with all axis, sometimes all of them at the same time, sometimes, and mostly the righthand side Y axis stepper. Some failed cuts have been half the size they are suppose to be, some have started at the correct scale then mid cut dropped to half scale. occasionally the Y axis will scale down to about 50% while the X Axis continues to scale leading to Long thin cuts. I’ve found that if I reload the firmware it will be fine for a bit, sometimes all day, sometimes 20 minutes and will bugger up again.
Tomorrow i’m going to strip the whole machine, replace some of the 3d printed parts as they look a bit crap. when i reflash the board, should i be leaving the micro sim inserted or remove it once its uploaded the firmware? or does it not make much difference as i use the SD card on the touchscreen for my G code files.
A picture is really helpful. We can often notice things you can’t. Sharing more than you think is helpful can sometimes help is notice things that will make it obvious to us.
But it sounds like you either have a loose grub screw on the pulley, and the motor shaft is turning. Or, you have a wiring issue.
I’m going to potter about with it today so will find the failed cuts and i’ll run it again and see if it starts playing up and get a video if so. I’ve reprinted a few parts which i’m going swap over today and while its stripped I’ll check over all the wiring and just make sure everything’s secure etc. I wondered whether it could have been a software/tech/coding issue. I’ll grab some pictures in a bit and go from there.
I’ve stripped all the wiring today and remade all the connections. I’ve set my end stops up… Apart from the Z Axis which homes upwards where as i’d prefer it to home down. anyway, that’s another days issue. I’m going to run some test cuts tomorrow but while i was playing about with the movement again today, the right hand side Y axis dropped behind. I moved the machine along the table around 1m overall back and forth, then after a while the right hand side started to fall behind leaving the gantry out of square, then after a minute or 2 the left hand side followed suit and the whole thing was on a go slow. If i reset the machine it works ok again. If it plays up tomorrow i’ll get some footage.
i haven’t managed to get a video mid movement but i have managed to get a couple of clips which may be of help but wont seem to upload…
Today i had a test on my spoil board (i’m swapping it) by cutting a sign i designed. the sign is 1200mm wide by 600mm high but the machine cut it at half the size. if i now reflash the board with the firmware it will cut at the correct size until it randomly slows down and then will continue, but at half the size… when its running correctly it seems to move faster too, so not only the scale is halved, the speed seems halved too. could this be something to do with power supply.
I’ve noticed today that when i home the machine, it suddenly stops and on the screen it says “printer halted. Kill() called!”
I will try and get a video uploaded but the file isn’t supported for upload
The first picture is a cut i was doing the other day which i referenced in a previous post. the cut started bottom left, worked across to the right hand side, up the right hand side but not all the way (this messed up on the righthand side stepper when it started moving slower and smaller steps. but as the left hand side was still running correctly, the top line then was out of square. its only slight as the piece of timber is small.
Its confusing as it either runs really well, faultless. or its problematic but i cant see a pattern to what may be causing it.
They are usually over the size limit. It is better to upload them to a video sharing service, like you tube and share the link.
This is so weird. Does it make any extra noise when it slows down? I can’t imagine this is a power supply issue. Have you checked the grub screws on the pulleys?
This will happen if you are too far from the endstops when you send a home. Jog closer first and it should be fine. I think the default is 300mm from the switches or less.
No, no noise, i just slows down and travels half the scale. its really confusing as its random.
Yeah i’ve checked everything, I think its firmware/tech related as if i reflash it, its fine.
Yeah i’m trying to edit marlin to reverse my z endstop and change the bed size but its forever finding faults. coding is way out my league but i hate being defeated.
