M4rty
1
Hey all, I have a problem which I am hoping somebody here can help me with. I recently purchased a Flashforge Creator Pro, and everything looks like it came alright. I even test printed the dual color cone from the SD card, and it came out great!
The issue I am having is that when I try and print directly from the computer, the extruders go all the way to the top right corner of the machine and start printing, even though its hanging off the side of the build plate! I have tried setting the home offsets to 112,72.5,0 on multiple programs, like ReplicatorG, Cura, and Simplify3D.
Is this a software issue, something I am missing? Or did something break in transit?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: Not sure what is going on now, but when I try to print the traffic cone from the SD card, the extruder goes to the opposite corner of the printer and starts shaking like crazy, looks like it is trying to continue going in that direction.
EDIT: I can get that traffic cone to print, but only in that back right corner, and only one extruder is on the plate. I am convinced that this isnt a software issue anymore, but something to do with the end stop switches maybe? In jog mode, they all stop when pressed in one direction, but in the other direction it just keeps going.
Any help is appreciated!
Perhaps a bad end stop switch. Look for the end stop switches, there should be three, one on each axis. Now, move the print head to the oposite side of the switches using the jog function. Then, do a home all on the printer - and when each axis starts moving, hit the coorisponding ed stop switch. when you hit the switch, the carriage should stop moving in that direction, if it doesn’t, you’ve identified you bad switch. Check wiring first for any switch that doesn’t work right.
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BTW there isn’t an endstop on the other end so it is expected that jogging away from the back right is only terminated by the operator. The starting gcode says move to the back right until you hit the endstops, now define that as x=152 and y=75 (I made those numbers up off the top of my head but they’re close). After that point the gcode just say move to x, y in absolute mm. For example, G1 X0 Y0 would move to the center of the bed, but only after the coordinate system has been defined. The EEPROM has home offsets in it that can be used to define the origin’s location via M132 after homing, though makerbot’s default start gcode just stomps on it with a G92 and always defines the coordinate system per the machine profile. I mention because if the sample cone uses M132 (the x3g equivalent anyway), changing the “onboard preferences” home offsets in RepG would change where it prints. The more probable possibility is a gimpy x endstop. As Jeremy said, test to see if pressing the switch stops the motion while homing (LCD menu, utilities, second screenful). Another not as likely case is gimpy x-axis stepper motor cable but that usually results in not moving far enough (rather than too far). But could interact with the homing procedure to move too far in the opposite direction after skipping steps. There’s a timeout on homing, as I said, it should try to head all the way back and right to find those endstops. If it doesn’t see the endstop in a certain amount of time, it’ll just stop and define that as the extreme right and back.
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M4rty
4
So I tried what you guys recommended, and I used the jog function to test the switches, and they seem to work. The extruder stops moving in the direction when I press that little silver tab.
When I initially printed the traffic cone, it worked great. But when I try to now it just stays at the back right corner but still tries to print it. Is it possible I corrupted the file somehow with bad gcode?
What slicing software are you using? You are printing from the SD card probably. Try using a different SD card, copy the cone to that one. I have sold many FFCP’s and a few of them have had this very problem, first thing we did was switch out the SD card. Or try plugging your computer directly into the printer via USB. Just a thought.
Chris
M4rty
6
I tried Cura,Simplify3D and ReplicatorG. The traffic cone I printed, yes it was straight from the SD card. But the first time I printed it, worked great. The next time with any of the other test prints on the SD card, the same issues came up that started when I plugged it into my pc via USB.
If it is able to jog in all directions smoothly and the switches work then my suspicion is that your home offsets stored in the eeprom are wrong. What are they now? Checking from the LCD menu.
M4rty
8
When I try and check the eeprom settings on the printer, it only gives me the options to upload or download eeprom from SD, and to erase eeprom.
No. All settings you can access from the LCD that persist when you turn the bot off are “eeprom” settings. They don’t all say “eeprom”, that’s just where they’re stored.
From the LCD:
Utilities > scroll down to the third page choose Home Offsets > X
then OK will show Y
then OK will show Z
The LCD will probably call the OK button the M button because that’s what it is on a MakerBot.
My Home Offsets are X=150mm, Y=80mm and Z=0mm
M4rty
10
I read that the erase EEPROM function doesn’t actually erase it, it just reinitializes it. Is this true, or am I risking rendering my machine inoperable?
You can back it up to the SD card before you erase it and then if you don’t like the result, you can restore.
Erase erases it, but that means use the firmware defaults. There are two kinds of erase though. There’s erase to “factory” which leaves some of the settings unchanged. I forget which, there are posts on Google Groups by Dan Newman that say which and then there is full erase which starts over on everything.
OK, that isn’t your problem then. I’m surprised though, it shouldn’t jog smoothly if you’re having cable problems. Maybe take a video with your phone of it starting to print the cone and upload on youtube?
The traffic cone sequence should be: home to back right, home the bed twice, move to the front left and move the bed down 3cm and wait for the nozzles and bed to heat up. Then move to the center of the bed and start printing.
There’s a version of RepG that corrupts some of your EEPROM settings. You should be using the RepG from the sailfish thing on thingiverse:
M4rty
17
I think you were right! So I went ahead and erased eeprom, and then immediately went to test print my traffic cone from the SD. It started printing great! Even the other test files on the SD started great. I didn’t let them finish because I just wanted to see it start printing in the right area, but it looks like erasing eeprom changed it back to factory stock.
Seeing as how I did use Replicator G, you are right about the eeprom being corrupted. I think my best bet is to just stick with simplify and not even connect the printer the PC.
I also tried printing something else I downloaded, and it still printed in the back corner. I think this is because that file got corrupted, so I will try again from scratch with Simplify3D!
You need to make sure Simplify3D is set up with the correct profile for your printer so it generates the right gcode/x3g.
Typical of most cartesian reprap printers is to define 0,0 as the front left corner of the bed. Typical of MakerBot and clones and Delta printers define 0,0 as the center of the bed. The slicer needs to know where 0,0 is so that it can generate coordinates for the object that is in the center. If you use the wrong profile, it’ll get this wrong. Also for MakerBot clones, it’s important that if you don’t have a FlashForge Creator Pro choice you choose MakerBot Replicator Dual (Sometimes Replicator 1 Dual, but it wasn’t called that until the 2 came out). People sometimes think it is a 2 or 2x because of the metal frame, but then the steps/mm are wrong by 6%.
M4rty
19
Simplify seems to be giving me issues. I try and change the origin offsets under the gcode tab in process settings, but it never prints outside of the back right corner. I tried changing my values to random numbers, but it doesnt leave that corner. Is that the wrong place im supposed to change those settings? The plate also doesn’t move from where it is, it just stays at the bottom.
Sorry, I don’t use Simplify3D, but I suspect what you really want is the default FlashForge Creator Pro profile: Flashforge | Simplify3D Software
If you like, you could generate the gcode for say a 20mm calibration cube and put it somewhere like dropbox and share a link here and I can take a look and see if I can figure out where to point you on their website to fix the problem you’re having. Or perhaps a S3D user will chime in with a tip.
My guess is that something is messed up about your slicer settings and you’re getting double offsets. For example, some slicers want to know the coordinate that your printer thinks is the center and the correct answer for your printer would be 0,0. So if you put say, 150, 75 in there, you’d be off the bed to the back and to the right. But some slicers want to know where physically on the bed does your printer think it’s origin (0,0) is counting from the front left. Then the correct answer would be (125, 72), but if you put in 0,0 it would print off the front left, so this is unlikely to be your problem.
In fact, a bit of trivia here, Slic3r used to do it the former way and then changed at some version to be the latter way just to keep everybody on their toes.
But since Simplify3D has well tested and used default profiles, I think you want to start with “FlashForge Creator Pro Right Extruder” and don’t change any of the settings. I think I remember someone asking in the forums, “how do you get back to the shipped defaults” for Simplify3D profiles, so I guess it saves your configuration changes back to the profile? So maybe what you need to do is find that post or something similar to it so that you can get back to the out-of-the-box default profile.
