I have the entire build completed, double- and triple-checked everything to make sure it works right, got the firmware and software installed and running (took a while and a lot of frustration) and everything working. However, I somehow cannot get the printer to actually work. I have the Benchy first print set up, on the SD card, and loaded into the printer. When I have it start the print, it goes to the 0:0 coordinates, makes a very strange ticking noise, and then flails around for a while. It seems to think it's printing, but it's not actually touching the print surface or extruding. It does extrude just fine, I've tested that already. Any and all help would be very welcome, video included so you can see what's happening.
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Having trouble getting it to actually print
Having trouble getting it to actually print
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I think you should test the endstops with the M119 command again. When manually activating the switches, you should read "triggered" for the coresponding axis. If no endstops are activated all axis should read "open". The endstop for the x-axis is at the base of the printer, for the y-axis it's at the gantry and the z-axis uses the z-probe as endstop. You should also check that the belts are not slipping which would mean you don't have enough tension on the belt.
I don't follow what you mean. When you issue the G28 command it should go over and bump the switch. Does it not do that? I was silly and put in a wrong value in the configuration at one point and had mine going in reverse.
Try this:
In Pronterface issue G28. Should make the tool carriage (the thing with the hotend on it) go all the way toward the back of the printer. It should bump the switch. The build plate should go all the way to the left and bump its switch. Next it will go to the center of the build plate by moving the tool carriage halfway down the gantry to the middle and the build plate will move right halfway. It should dip down once and the red LED should light. Then it will move back up and do this once again real slow.
So movement wise:
Gantry should briefly move up just a little.
Tool carriage all the way to the back
Build plate all the way to the left
Tool carriage moves forward to halfway point
Plate moves right to halfway point
Gantry moves down to till LED lights
Gantry moves up
Gantry moves down till LED lights
Gantry moves up and pauses.
What this indicates:
That all the steppers motors are moving in the correct directions.
That the homing positions are correctly configured
That the printer finds "home".
Next
Try something a little less complicated than the benchy to see if everything is moving correctly:
Very simple to check that the x-axis is on the "x", y-axis is on "y", and so forth.
This will also allow you to make sure that the printer is moving the correct distance that it thinks it is moving. Your printer doesn't know much about actual distance in terms of mm or cm, etc. It knows things in steps. It basically is doing math to say "I need to move this stepper motor some number of steps to go this far as indicated by the gcode". This calibration cube is 20x20x20mm. If you print this you should obviously get a cube that is these dimensions. If it isn't then you know you'll need to adjust the number of steps per mm. That's a bit advanced for now, but also printing this is something even more fundamental, does it actually print a cube! If it prints something that looks like a cube but is all slanted in one direction then you can start to troubleshoot that.
Hopefully this gets you started in a productive first direction to figure things out.
https://vimeo.com/user122964673/review/456601698/1a2af142f5
Sorry, apparently the video isn't uploading, its at https://vimeo.com/user122964673/review/456601698/1a2af142f5