CIrcles Eliptcal, with fla segments on the X direction

mrjoneskod

How to I check this?
Everything looks fine, Should I replace the belts? They look tight enough.

Any recommendations?

Phaedrux

I see you're running a release candidate of 2.02rc3, which is no longer supported now that the full version of 2.02 is out. Please update to 2.02 and see if anything changes.

You config looks out I think. Can you confirm that the problem still is present when using x16 microsteps with interpolation?

mrjoneskod

I will try it and post the results, I had x16 microsteping before and had the same behavior.
Thanks for the help

Phaedrux

It definitely seems mechanical in nature. There are lots of pulleys and belts and rods and bearings in the ultimaker style gantry. Lots of things to go astray. Give it a really close visual inspection while it's running.

mrjoneskod

Well I checked all the pulleys and replaced the belts, adjusted the tension on the small bets that go from the X / Y motor to the 8mm shafts.

Updated the firmware, and reverted the config to 169microsteps interpolated. Got the exact same result.
Printing id very jerky, the slicer does a fast perimeter and them a couple of slow ones, the fast one is very smooth and noiseless but the slow ones are jerky and very noisy.

My Steppers are 1.8º rated for 1.7A, but the one on the Z axis is rated for 1.2A.

This printer used to be very very quite after I installed the duet board and gave me many beautiful prints with no problems at all and a very smooth surface finish.

I don't know if I changed a config that did all this, but I cant find the source cause of the issue.
I have new bearings for the sliders and Extruder cariage. Will replace those and see what happens.

mrjoneskod

Replaced the bearings, Even tough the problem, is not solved, I think the mechanical part of it is. The motion system moves so smooth now, I dont think it has ever been that smooth. The printing results are 50% better. But there is still the jittering. I don't understand.

Well I will keep on investigating. Just FYI the printer has no printed parts other than the fan duct.
I swapped the extruder carriage for a printed part in hopes the softer material would align the rods better, but same result. The previous one was a aluminum milled one.

I will post any changes.

Wyvern

Try printing circles in multiple spots on the bed just to see if it is consistent.

There are no moving Stepper motors are there?

There are two times I had jittering, once was a broken stepper wire, once was when I had stepper amps too low on accident.

If you can see if it is related to one or all axes that would be great (the jittering).

Another thought, make certain that all your stepper pulley grub screws are tight and in the flats of the shafts.

Phaedrux

Could you post a video of it in action?

Are the rods themselves bent or grooved at all?

mrjoneskod

@wyvern I did a very thorough mechanical check and found one belt that was tighten on the slider side and a bit loose on the "free" side (Where it runs parallel to the slider block), As I had a new set of belts and the ones on it a very old give or take 5 years, I ended up replacing them all and adjusted tension on every component.
The rods are straight and I think that the real mechanical problem I had where the brass bushings, that I replaced by actual ball bearings.
That gave me a much better result.
Another thing I did was upgrade the firmware and the config changes suggested above.
The printer runs a bit louder, but reasonably quieter than my older printer. Probably the ball bearings.

I will keep testing and calibrating it. Will post the results.

mrjoneskod

@phaedrux The Rods have no groves and aren't bent (At least to my ability to check it, I am no professional).

The bearings slide free, and if I remove the carriage and belts, gravity alone moves the sliding blocks and the bearings.

I will try to make a video and post it.

Thanks for the help so far!

mrjoneskod

Well I was printing to make a video, but I don't know how yet the problem is gone. I assume so far that the previous 6mm bearings (Brass bushings) where the problem. Printed 6h no problem.

Thanks for everyone that helped! Also if you have a similar printer this link will help you a lot!

https://support.3dverkstan.se/article/23-a-visual-ultimaker-troubleshooting-guide