Printer Shifting Models

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10-13-2014, 08:38 AM
scubaru

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Printer Shifting Models

I work at a Subaru performance shop in the engineering department. We use a Ditto+ for prototyping of parts and what not. The printer has been running great for over a year with at least one print a week. In the past week I've been having issues with the printer. It started with a handful of small parts that all had a shift in some of the layers of maybe 1/32" in the Y direction. The next part (Pictured) was printing overnight, come in to find the entire top of the part was shifted roughly 1/4" in the Y direction. Then today I come in after leaving the printer to print over the weekend to find the extruder still "in" the part, a puddle of burnt plastic around a still hot (215 degrees) extruder head, and the machine reading "Ditto Ready".

Last week I called Tinkerine about the shift issue and they told me to check a few things which all checked out fine. From what I'm seeing with this last print this looks like a software issue if I had to guess. I know most of you don't own a Ditto but perhaps since these printers mostly operate the same way someone can assist in diagnostics on this.

Printer: Tinkerine Ditto+

Filament: PLA

Support Generator: Meshmixer

Slicer: CoordiaOne

If anyone has any insight it would be greatly appreciated. Sorta at a loss of what to do next and I have much bigger projects here at work to worry about then a printer. Thanks!

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10-13-2014, 11:50 AM
richardphat

Typical issue when nozzle/hotend/fan is slamming into the plastic, which result as a brief moment of being stucked. This will cause everything to shift. I've done that several times on my ultimaker. Stupid stock fan had to touch the print!

That carbonized PLA! I've never managed to carbonized any PLA filaments so far! Temperature control must have gone mad!!!

Just make sure nothing might interfere with the printing.

If the slicer is really the cause, I suggest you to use CURA.
10-13-2014, 03:47 PM
3dkarma

Overheating stepper drivers can shut themselves down, causing missed steps. It looks like your Y stepper overheated and shut down until it cooled sufficiently to start up again, resulting in a shift. Is your electronics board getting hot in the middle of the print? Pointing a fan at it can help.
10-13-2014, 05:44 PM
scubaru

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardphat

Typical issue when nozzle/hotend/fan is slamming into the plastic, which result as a brief moment of being stucked. This will cause everything to shift. I've done that several times on my ultimaker. Stupid stock fan had to touch the print!

That carbonized PLA! I've never managed to carbonized any PLA filaments so far! Temperature control must have gone mad!!!

Just make sure nothing might interfere with the printing.

If the slicer is really the cause, I suggest you to use CURA.

I thought about it being the code the slice program generates so I changed the orientation of the part in the printer and thats when the last issue came up. Could there be a corruption in the file? I printed two more parts (smaller parts I know printed in the past) and they printed just fine. They were a lot smaller so either its just luck or there is an issue with that particular file.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3dkarma

Overheating stepper drivers can shut themselves down, causing missed steps. It looks like your Y stepper overheated and shut down until it cooled sufficiently to start up again, resulting in a shift. Is your electronics board getting hot in the middle of the print? Pointing a fan at it can help.

I never even considered this. I can't say how the electronics board feels as its underneath the printer. The stepper on the other hand is easily visible, maybe I'll have to run another big print and look for abnormal heating of that stepper.