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  1. #1

    X-Axis Won't Jog

    Hello all,

    Imagine my surprise when I went to email makerbot support and I've discovered they now charge $100 bucks just to send a flippin' email. Incredible. So I found this board. My issue?

    It's been a number of months since I ran a print, and the last time I ran a print I was experiencing some issues with layer shifting on the X-Axis. Now, months later, the X-axis won't even move when the printer commands it to. I can move it by hand no problem, and all the applicable areas have been lubricated. I attempted to go into jog mode and try that, but the motor acts as though it's jammed when attempting to jog on the X-axis in either direction. It just grinds gears (more-or-less; it just doesn't move), then stops.

    I previously had to have the motor cable replaced, because as is common with these things, it developed a short and I started experiencing similar issues as I am now. Since the replacement, I've let the motor wires hang free and out of the way, so they don't experience the same stress and then fail. I had hoped that would prevent this problem from happening again.

    Any thoughts? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks!
    - Tommy

  2. #2
    Student
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Naples, FL
    Posts
    3
    THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME, too, and I got the same response from Makerbot in that they want $100 just to talk to me, won't diagnose over email or phone and want me to ship the entire unit back to them for mystery diagnosis and repair. With a host of new, comparable printers on the market for at or near $500, what the hell are they thinking? It would be a hair more to buy a whole new printer than it would be to send mine back for repairs.

    At any rate.. rant ended, problem below:

    I had intermittent "skips" in the X axis during prints, which screwed up the whole print, of course. I troubleshot the issue to the best of my ability and determined that the shuttle moves freely and without binding, the belt is tight and is not slipping, and the stepper motor itself is not the issue (as I bought a replacement motor from Makerbot thinking that it had to be the issue.

    No luck with any of those solutions.

    I'm at a complete loss now, but seeing that someone else is having the same issue is giving me hope that this is a quasi-common occurrence and someone, somewhere may have come up with a fix.

    HELP!

  3. #3
    Student
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Naples, FL
    Posts
    3
    Guess I should have done more research online as this looks to be a really common issue. I'll tear into my printer tonight, but the issue appears to be broken wires in the ribbons controlling x-axis movement. Wouldn't hurt to replace the limit switch wires at the same time.

    Detailed instructions:

    https://davenunez.wordpress.com/2014...axis-skipping/

  4. #4
    Heyyo,

    Agreed on the rant In regards to the issue, I don't think that it's the wires this time. As stated, I already replaced them once because I did have the issue you're talking about, and this time, I let them hang free so that they wouldn't be put in the same compromising position again. That aside, the issue I'm having is somewhat different this time. The X-axis won't move at all. It just continually grinds. I tried taking the wires out and holding them in various positions whilst using the jog command to see if there was indeed an issue with the cable and it didn't help. The X-axis just won't move.

    It's going to be hard to get replacement parts now, and I sure don't want to mail them my unit, shipping that thing will be a huge pain.

  5. #5
    Senior Engineer
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Burnley, UK
    Posts
    1,662
    It isn't the position that makes them fail it is the constant movement. Flexible wires are very expensive and so they are rarely fitted. However it hangs it will break eventually.

  6. #6
    Student
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Naples, FL
    Posts
    3
    Well, at this point I don't have anything to lose and the issues that I saw on the other sites and YouTube videos are the exact one that I'm having. I'll give it a shot and cross my fingers for success! If so, I'll post up here...

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Mjolinor View Post
    It isn't the position that makes them fail it is the constant movement. Flexible wires are very expensive and so they are rarely fitted. However it hangs it will break eventually.
    Quote Originally Posted by RCSubGuy View Post
    Well, at this point I don't have anything to lose and the issues that I saw on the other sites and YouTube videos are the exact one that I'm having. I'll give it a shot and cross my fingers for success! If so, I'll post up here...
    Guess I'll just pick up some replacement wires from a third party supplier. These are what I'm looking for, yeah? http://www.robotshop.com/en/replicat...otor-rev2.html

  8. #8
    Scratch that, it's this cable: http://www.robotshop.com/en/replicat...e-x-motor.html

    I played with the wires some more and figured out that cause. When I held the motor cable a certain way, everything suddenly functioned as normal, when I let go of the cable I started having issues again. There's obviously a short in the cable. Problem seems to be solved.

    RCSubGuy, this should help you out too.

  9. #9
    Senior Engineer
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Burnley, UK
    Posts
    1,662
    It is not likely to be a short it will be a break.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Mjolinor View Post
    It is not likely to be a short it will be a break.
    IE an open. Could be either.

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