Quote Originally Posted by printbus View Post
From one problem to another, huh?
lol yea story of my life

Quote Originally Posted by printbus View Post
What happens with the extruder gears when the extrusion stops? If the gears stop moving, focus on the motor. If the motor is getting hot it could be overheating and skipping steps. If the heatsink on the extruder's stepper motor driver is getting hot, the driver chip could be overheating; some add a small fan above the RAMPS board to keep the motor drivers cool. If the set screw on the small gear loosens or falls out, the small gear can start to slip - especially as the printer warms up. Do the gears rotate manually ok, without any catching caused by damaged or clogged gear teeth? If none of these possibilities pan out, maybe try swapping a couple of the motor driver boards around as a last resort.
The motor stoped turning, and just twitched back and forth. When I removed the filament, the motor and gears turned fine. I put the filament back in and manually turned the extruder (using the lcd) and everything worked fine for a little while, but then it started to buzz again. I let it cool for a bit and then started up another print of something I had already sliced (in slic3r), and it worked fine for the first few layers but then it started to buzz again. Could it be that the Idler is pushing too hard on the filament? the filament isn't getting chewed up, and it is feeding ok when the motor turns, so I would say it is a motor problem. I havent checked to see if the motor driver is getting hot, but I will do a few more tests once I get home from school.