XY drift problem with MakerBot 5th gen

[Kyle Green]

Hi,

  I'm having some issues with my organization's Makerbot Replicator 5th generation. It was unboxed last week with no visible damage, and boots up fine.

The #1 issue is that the bot builds drift in one direction on the XY plane as they ascend in the Z axis. The pulley belts do not appear to be loose, and I can find no pinched wires. The gantry does not appear to slip or stutter during movement. Additionally, the first test build from the built-in memory, the chain links, printed correctly. Since then, builds from both the internal memory and from USB connected computers result in drifts. The amount by which each build layer drifts off from the previous one is inconsistent between 1 and ~5 thread widths, but always in the same diagonal direction.

Problem #2 is that the machine cannot autolevel the build plate. When the process is initiated, the Makerbot attempts to unload the filament, and then spins the extruder motor backwards interminably. When I assist by manually forcibly pulling the filament out, the machine does not recognize that the filament is unloaded, and resets the process. The machine also requires manual assistance loading the filament. This may be a separate problem or not, I'm not sure. When the extruder head was unpacked, it had a white plastic on the tip, and its first heating resulted in extrusion of a white plastic, darker than the PLA filaments which I was loading. So, I conclude that there was plastic inside the extruder before delivery.

Problem #3 is that the Makerbot does seem to recognize USB drives plugged into the USB front port. It allows selection of the print-from-USB option, but the sofware hangs when selected, and processes for more than 10 minutes while trying to access the USB. I have not tested this with a wide variety of USB devices. The machine does print from computers plugged in using MakerBot Desktop Beta, but with the above XY drift problem. I consider this problem to be minor at the moment.

The issues have occurred on the firmware it was delivered with, and continue to occur on the current version of the firmware after I successfully updated it through MakerBot Desktop Beta. 

If any of you more experienced users have ideas what could cause any or all of these problems, I'd be glad to try anything!!

[Ryan Carlyle]

The diagonal drift means one of your motors is stalling during motion. So far, Makerbot has required everyone with this problem to return their printer for repairs. You should call (don't email) tech support.

[Kyle Green]

Oh boy. Thanks for the advice - I'll update the thread with whatever results from that, or if I find solutions to the other problems.

[Kyle Green]

Issue with drift solved. Makerbot took the printer back after deciding it had a bad pulley motor for controlling the gantry. 

Autoleveling issues and failure to detect filament removal disappeared with the new unit, no clue what caused them.

The Makerbot still fails to detect .thing and .makerbot files on USB drives plugged into the front port.