Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Here ya go.

Eaglezsoar wrote:Here ya go.

woohoo! thanks!

Many of you have not asked me about my avatar. Why three fists? Does that even make any sense?

Finally, four years later, the answer can be revealed. I'd worked up some artwork for a T-shirt, which I never got around to finishing and ordering. But now I have. Here's what it looks like on a model who's much better looking than me.

And here's the discussion leading up to it. http://www.buildlog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2055

This is glorious! Finally, a t-shirt that matches my .sig! \o/


g.

This is mostly a note to myself...

My printer has about 43 days' run time now. That sounds like a lot, but I've had it almost 5 years. So it's only been running 2.4% of the time.

Anyway, it occasionally messes up a print by having the X carriage lose position. Usually, the X carriage goes up too far/doesn't come down. I don't know if the carriage has ever gone too low, usually too high. Occasionally, like maybe three times in a month. Or less.

I've tightened the belts. I've checked the motor wiring. I've torqued on the pulley set screws. Problem still persists.

This morning I searched the Interwebs for new ideas. I found this very helpful advice from KAS:

Turn the printer on and Home it, that should lock the steppers. See if you can grab the carriage and slide it down the tower. If it's loose it should allow the pulley to slip while the shaft is locked by torque.

So I tried it. It was easy to see that (a) the X carriage moves easier than Y or Z, (b) the motor pulley turns when the carriage moves, (c) the movement has the zip/step feeling of a stepper motor rotating.

So if the motor is rotating, that rules out the belt and pulley. So I suspect a bad connection. I removed the motor cable. I pulled the Molex connector apart AGAIN and checked all the crimps AGAIN. (They are all good.) But the connector housing is pretty worn, and the pins weren't staying in place. Fortunately, I had a spare housing, so I replaced it.

Same symptom. So I wiggled the connector on the RAMBo. Symptom gone. (X carriage has as much resistance as the others.)

I think the Molex SL connectors that RAMBo uses are not so good for high vibration long term use.

So this problem is still open.

If it was MY printer, I'd cut replace the crimp sockets - you may have a set that's simply out of spec. I say that because I've got three v1s (all are 2013 vintage) that I've nearly beaten to death and of all the issues I've had, a) all are my own damn fault and b) never a motor connection.

Sometimes a machine that bangs out a million little crimp connectors a day gets it wrong. It could be anything from a worn stamping die, to Mr. Wu trying to see if the machine would like some of his beer. Also keep in mind that the connector shell only contributes two things to the whole system - keeping the crimped on wires from touching one another and in many cases, keeping the shell locked in to the mating connector on the board. It can't affect an out-of-spec socket that rattles on a pin.

On a completely different note, I suspect if you bring a whole pile of Delta Power shirts to MRRF, you'll sell a whole lot of them.

g.

geneb wrote:If it was MY printer, I'd cut replace the crimp sockets - you may have a set that's simply out of spec. I say that because I've got three v1s (all are 2013 vintage) that I've nearly beaten to death and of all the issues I've had, a) all are my own damn fault and b) never a motor connection.

g.

You're probably right. The cable is too short already, so maybe it's time to solder on an extension and make new connectors.