Sprite Pro Extruder for Ender 3 V2 - Extrusion issues

[Sophie]

Hi all, I was wondering how many people here have experience with the Sprite Pro as an upgrade to the Ender 3 V2?

(TL;DR: Sprite Pro extruder has just randomly stopped extruding during prints, but does extrude manually via control panel - Any Ideas?)

I did a number of upgrades (Sprite Pro, CRtouch, 427 board) a couple of months ago mainly because I started printing TPU quite a lot, and the bowden cable just wasn't cutting it (unsurprisingly). Along with that, I started using some open source firmware - MriscoC "The Professional Firmware"

It's been working great, honestly the prints just seem so much more accurate, its been pretty much toaster like, particularly when it comes to smaller detail that require a lot of retraction, it just works.

However, I've recently come across an issue that I'm kinda struggling to figure out, and wondered if I could pick the brains of the community here.

 

I was in the middle of a multi print (some panda wall art printed in multiple parts), and it was churning through perfectly part after part, until all of a sudden I put a print on, and it started going through the motions, had preheated fine, but not extruding. No juttering or skipping or blockage or runout, just point blank the extruder stepper motor had stopped (or failed to even start). 

So I stopped the print and unloaded the filament, cut the end off to a fresh bit and manually reloaded. Checked the nozzle with my 0.4 needle gauge - not even a doozy of a block, just smooth and clean in and out. 

I went into the control panel, pre-heated again and went to "move axis" "extruder". There is a menu selection to extrude exactly 100mm (I presume to save time while adjusting stepper motor settings for accurate extrusion). Anyway I went ahead and clicked, and as if by magic the extruder kicked in and filament started churning out for I presume 100mm worth. But the main thing is - it worked! Absolutely fine!

Great - so I went back to the SD card, reloaded the file, and yes it started "working". 

I came back from work at the end of the day and it was still printing, but alas the extruder again had stopped and it was just going through the xyz motions, and I could see about 2 or 3 layers had made it down. 

Since then, the only way I can get it to extrude filament is to use the move axis command, even previous prints don't work (although there was a period of about 20 seconds where one previous print file did get the extruder moving for a bit). But now it wont extrude when any print is selected. 

A thought I've been running in my head is wondering if the ribbon cable could be the culprit? It does get twisted back and forth quite a bit, and that regular motion would definitely be enough to bend a wire to failure.

But I'm baffled by the partial functionality.

Maybe it uses one wire to use the control board to manually adjust the stepper motor and one wire or set of wires to load info from the SD card during the print. And that maybe one of the wires has lost connection? I honestly have no idea. 

Scouring the mighty web has shown some others having the same issue, but seemingly for very different reasons that don't look to be an issue on my setup. 

The main thing that truly baffles me is that is DOES work, perfectly, while using the control panel.  Just not during a print. And I was in the middle of batch printing so all settings have been kept the same even the slicer settings were kept the same, just one in one out - repeat.

Due to the intermittent nature of the issue (especially at the beginning), my first instinct is looking into getting a new ribbon cable to see if that helps, but any thoughts from any one else would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks :)

Sophie

[TobyCWood]

I would doubt it's the ribbon cable. You'd get messages on the UI panel.

Possibilities: the material can go out of tolerance. I.e., it might be thicker than your thermal tube will allow(but you would get stepper stutter). or... Your heater is starting to fail(again you would get stepper stutter). or... check the hobbed gear on the feeder stepper and make sure it's not slipping.

When you unload is there a bulb of material at the tip of the filament? If so it's heat creep, but again you'd get stepper stutter...

You won't get stepper stutter for any of the above if the gear simply ground a dip into the filament, but you would see that,,, or if the lock screw was a bit loose the gear would slip on the stepper.

It could also be simply a mistake in the gcode.

Try printing in another type of material a test block.

[Sophie]

Hey Andy,  thanks for your thoughts on this.

I thought it might be the gcode as well, although it didn't logically make sense because I was in the middle of a multi print so essentially the exact same settings just a different part on the build plate. I wondered if Cura had snuck in a cheeky update or something. 

But I did do a couple of gcode tests to see if it was that. I first tried to print a part that I had already printed previously successfully as I still had that gcode on an SD card. That worked initially, ie it did the start line and then continued to the skirt and I could see the gear wheel turning and it was extruding. I thought great it's ok again, and went back to print the part I actually needed to print, and nothing. I actually then tried the previous print again with the gcode I knew worked, and this time it didn't work!

I re-sliced the part and put fresh gcode on the SD card in case it was a bad copy. This did nothing.

I used a couple of different SD cards in case the card had gone bad. Nope

I changed some settings (increased the infil by 10%), just to force slightly different gcode. This did nothing.

I checked all my settings to make sure I hadn't accidentally changed something dumb like set the flow to 0 or something, but it all looked good.

The only thing I haven't tried so far, is to use another slicer or to slice using a different material. So I'll try these next.

I do also have simplify 3D, so it's a good shout to test the gcode, and using another slicer might help too. I haven't used my S3D for a while so I don't have it dialled in perfectly, but to rule out a potential issue, it will do fine.

Yea absolutely no stutter whatsoever, it either works entirely as it should when using the manual extrude from the control panel, or completely not at all (so it's not trying to move, it just doesn't). When I unload the filament, there is no blob at the end, so I don't think heat creep is an issue.

Tolerance issues with the material I guess could cause issues, but I would have thought it would be more blockage or gear slippage issues if that was the case, and there hasn't been a single stutter (that I'm aware of). Plus the previous 50% of the reel has been producing great quality prints

Also when I take the filament out, it has minimal gear imprints on it, which suggests that the gears are not grinding away trying to push it through, just merely holding it there. As I mentioned before, on the sprite extruder there is a wheel on top that turns when the gears turn, and it isn't moving a single bit. 

I think I'm going to test gcode using another slicer to see if that changes anything.

Also, I do keep my ender in an enclosure but it doesn't get too warm in there to be honest, I mainly use it to stop the drafts from the air purifier and window, it's only a fabric enclosure with reflective on the inside. 

Do you think it could be corrupt firmware?

[Vishal Pai]

The factory S1/S1 Pro cable is notorious for notching itself where it twists and failing middle of the print. However if you are not using the ribbon but the direct drop in replacement for the Ender 3 V2 then you have the direct wire setup with the braided cover. (I could be wrong if there is a newer version with ribbon cable on your setup)

In that case most likely you have the S1 version which has a white Teflon tube inside the throat. Most likely this throat has deteriorated and is giving you heat creep. 

Change the throat,block and nozzle and see if this issue persists. 

Best

Vishal

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[Sophie]

Hey Vishal,

I have the Sprite Extruder Pro, which boasts to be completely all metal hot end. This is the one I have Sprite Extruder Pro
So I don't think it could be a teflon issue as I believe the throat to be titanium?

I can confirm I have the braided ribbon cable going from my Sprite down to the main board. 

I just tried using Simplify 3D to slice and dice - and still getting the same issue. So its not a "Cura" thing...
I am modifying my start code to allow for my CR touch to use the loaded mesh, but I can't see that being the issue as I've been using the same start code for the past 2 months with no problems. 

Another bit of troubleshooting - 

I turn the printer on

Go to control panel - preheat for PLA - Move extruder 100mm - Extruder moves and shoves out filament perfectly.

Go to control panel - play around with the filament change settings (unload and load filament) - extruder expels filament and loads filament as per commands.

Insert SD card - Start print - Pre-heat, home and load mesh sequence - Printer begins xyz gcode and moves correctly, but no extrusion.

Cancel print and home all axis.

THEN

Go to control panel - preheat for PLA - Move extruder 100mm - Extruder DOES NOT move!

Go to control panel - play around with the filament change settings (unload and load filament) - Extruder DOES NOT move!

Turn off printer - Turn on printer

Go to control panel - preheat for PLA - Move extruder 100mm - Extruder moves and shoves out filament perfectly.

Go to control panel - play around with the filament change settings (unload and load filament) - extruder expels filament and loads filament as per commands.

By starting a print where it fails to extrude, just sends it into dumb mode and that's it, extruder wheel wont move again period until i turn the printer off and back on again

Just really confused right now. 

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Hmmm… it could be the cable. Try swapping cables around.

[Dan Flemming]

I could be the sd card reader.

Can you use a USB cable and print directly?

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[Sophie]

Just for completeness, wanted to report back - 

I first tried running a print using the usb cable directly from PC and still had the same issues.

So now I have replaced the ribbon cable from the Sprite to board. 
And EUREKA, its working again. All I can guess is that the movements of the gantry and actually probably all axis (some worse than others), have slowly worn the old internal ribbon cable wires causing a bad connection.

Word of warning - I purchased my new ribbon cable from AliExpress - While I was identifying the connectors, and specifically the power ferrules - I noticed that the cable labels were incorrect. They had labelled the FAN - (GND) twice. One of the labels was correct and the other was actually Heat - (GND). I had to do some double checking to make sure I was sticking the pins in the right place - especially for the fan. 

Anyway, all good for now, and seems to be printing again, and more importantly, extruding while printing again.

Thanks all for your tips and advice and helping me sound out the problem to figure it out.

Sophie