First prints on Orion

[alxt]

Hi,

Just started using the new Orion and cannot print anything useful yet. I managed to print both models that are on the sd card (vase and blinky) and they came out ok.

However when I try to slice and print something else (using approach described in the manual), I always fail.

I think there are some leveling issues to start with, when the skirt is printed, I can see that it's of uneven height. I tried to "pad" it in places with masking tape, just to confirm that it's the issue and managed to successfully print first couple of layers.

The other troubles start higher up, after 10-12 layers are printed. At that point filament starts coming out really thin and does not stick very well. Sometimes I see even no filament coming out, and nozzle just hovering above the part (looks like layers are getting skipped). The print fails completely soon after.

I have assumed this has to do with the G-Code I'm generating, as I was able to print the parts that came on the SD card. However, I tried many different slic3r and cura settings (including ORIONPLA that's recommended by the manual) and still have no luck.

What am I doing wrong?

[Eaglezsoar]

It sounds as though your Orion got bounced around in shipping and the alignment is now off.
The Orion manual does not cover doing a complete alignment but the Rostock Max V2 manual does cover how to do a complete alignment.

You need to download the Rostock Max V2 manual at http://download.seemecnc.com/rostockmax ... -Guide.pdf

The last section of the PDF tells you how to do an alignment, please use this as a guide to align your Orion.

[alxt]

Hi,

I've spent last 2 evenings calibrating the machine. I completed the calibration procedure described in the manual, adjusting the arms as well as the horizontal radius value. While it seems that calibration was completed successfully (nozzle is at the same height at each arm and at the center with z=0), the prints still come out badly.

When printing a large skirt/brim, it's visible that it comes out in waves (uneven thickness), and the unevenness has some strange patterns - for example, it may be thinner in the center, become thicker as it moves away from the center, and then become thin again at the periphery.

While the thickness of the first layers varies like that, I was still able to (badly) print "thin" parts. Larger prints have another problem, which may or may not be related: first several layers look more or less ok, but at and after 5-7 mm height, it starts to look like filament flow starts to fluctuate, and some layers get very little, while some others get a little more, but still not enough. Looking at the print, it's clearly visible that first 5-7 mm are solid, but the following layers are bad. Usually it fails completely soon after. I suspect that filament may be getting stuck somewhere. Twice it was ground off completely by the cold end feeder.

Are there any other calibration procedures available? Is there anything else that I can tune? I'm beginning to worry that the machine was badly damaged in the shipping.

[BenTheRighteous]

What filament are you using? Can you measure its width at various places and ensure it's not too thick for your machine to handle?

[alxt]

I'm using filament that came with the printer (SeeMeCNC PLA) and also other filament that I bought together with the printer, SeeMeCNC ABS and another PLA spool, and ProtoPasta PLA with carbon fiber. The problems happen with all of these (using correct temperatures per material, and also tried all other kinds of temperatures)

I'll measure the filament diameters later on just to make sure, but I did use 4 different spools.

[Holy1]

This might be worth a quick look. I had some very random problems because of this. http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6373

[alxt]

What I think is happening is that there's too much resistance when unspooling from the spool holder. I have put the spool on the floor below the table and seems to be printing ok that way...

[BenTheRighteous]

Just make sure the spool can rotate as the machine pulls filament. Otherwise you'll be torquing the filament which will cause its own set of problems after awhile.

[Eaglezsoar]

I have an Orion and have never experienced the spool not feeding correctly.
You need to use the two filament guides and make sure that the bearing on the EZstruder is aligned properly with the drive gear/pulley.

[alxt]

I think that it actually gets stuck in the guide holes, I can even see it jerking when getting 'unstuck' there. Bypassing the guide holes seem to solve the underflow issue, but of course the guides are there for a reason...

[jajern]

I'm with you on the spool holder and guide holes. I use them, but occasionally I have to kind of loosen up the filament while it's printing otherwise some tension builds up between the guide holes. Also, sometimes I'll start hearing a ticking from the spool as it gets slightly hung up on the spool holder. I just move it around a little until it stops sticking. I had started to design a new piece to guide the filament along with a spool holder that would use existing holes to attach to the Orion, but I used the cad drawings from SeeMe's github and they are not the most current drawings so the part didn't line up.

[alxt]

The printer just fell apart. While executing the 'Home towers' command, halfway up the arms just started jerking violently like something was getting stuck, and then 3 of the 6 blue arm supports disconnected at the top, with parts flying across the room.. I'm still looking for one of the small white plastic connectors.

When I find it, I guess I'll try to put it back together. This incident seems to confirm that there might be something wrong with my printer.

[geneb]

...and that you may soon be in the market for an exorcist.

g.

[alxt]

I think what happened was that the bowden cable housing caught on the side of one of the cheapskates while that one was going up. There's a bit of a metal rod sticking out there sharply from the side, and it's pretty close to the cable housing.

[RAMTechRob]

Yeah, that happened to me. I now use a rubber band to center the bowden tube in between the uprights.

[alxt]

Here's an update with the resolution so far:

- orion manual does contain a description of calibration procedure (http://download.seemecnc.com/orion/Orio ... -2ndEd.pdf pages 25+)
- it's different than what's described in the Rostock manual, and actually easier. The main idea, though, is the same.
- I was not really able to calibrate my printer using either method. After calibration, the printed layers still are coming out in waves and fail after a few layers
- Tech Support engineer I spoke with suggested trying MatterControl and it's auto-leveling feature.
- That approach helped, I was able to finally produce proper 3D prints. Quality is pretty good.
- Auto-leveling feature measures the position of the bed in several spots, and instead of adjusting the machine to level it, it instead adjusts the generated g-code to compensate for the shape of the machine. This is somewhat limiting as it relies exclusively on the 'calibrated' instance of MatterControl, and the generated g-code is no longer universal (as printer itself is still not true).
- Filament "underflow" issues also seem to have resolved themselves in this context.
- Would be cool to have the auto-leveling feature implemented in the printer's firmware, I think. That would address the concern about dependence on a particular instance of MC and portability of the g-code.
- Still had to fix the bowden tube with a rubber band to one of the towers, as it gets caught by one of the cheapskates anyway.