5 Axis Maker

[Margaretha Palone]

Caution: if you have soft limits disabled all the time, the sled can drive off the left, right, top, or bottom of the spoil board and the z axis has no limits, so self-assured destruction is a possibility. Please be careful.

I have a first gen maslow with the Arduino Mega. The only way I could figure out to send a command like $20=0 to the Arduino was to make a custom button. Seems to have worked as I got an OK back (screen shots).

have you tried the wipe settings button in the lower left to start with? If the wrong motors are moving, is the shield plugged in completely and the motors connected to the outer plugs M1 and M3 with the z axis connected to M2?

Success, downloaded the source, from opened in Arduino IDE export compiled binary and transferred HEX file to Arduino in WebControl. I had to re-enable the Z-axis. Everything worked well in WebControl. I then switched back to Makerverse on RPi and everything worked well.

Thanks I have a new one on order! The gear box was good when I took it off and then took it apart to check the motor. I could easily stop the motor by pinching it with my fingers and when I put everything back together it vibrated When I used the Z axis. I tried both ground control and Makerverse and in Makerverse I had to use reset to stop the vibration and in GroundControl it would stop on its own as if it had completed the task. Think that is strange.
Anyway thanks for confirming my suspicions!

Get connected and calibrated machine: Done but no z movement
Removed the motor and gearbox, tested both motor and gears: motor runs in forward and reverse with a 12v dc supply. Gears spin freely.
Took out an oscilloscope and checked the encoders on the z motors: Good
Checked the Motor Shield for the mega: No burnt-out Mfets or anything: passes Visual inspection.

Personally I like the sytem curtis used, I think the double plated x-plates with the extra v wheels is a huge advantage over the single plate design. With that, the new x makerslide is obviously more rigid then than the stock (un-bracketed) Y-rail and paired with lower secondary y-brace should be pretty rigid, but how much stonger is it? The problem I have with this is that the new maker slide leaves little room for added support for future upgrades or stiffening.
Phils system on the other hand, utilizing the L brackets from the base to the y-rails seems to be a pretty hard system to beat. It is simple, effective, and has the ability to be modified, changed as needed. I would also guess that the L brackets offer more rigidity to the flex of the y-rail than the new makerslide alone. To me the down side to this is not having the duel x plate.

Would it be possible to use 40x40 linear rail instead of the new maker slide? Such as Open Builds V-Slot 40x40 Linear Rail Aluminum Extrusion Profile
along with the Open Builds OpenRail Linear Rail - OpenBuilds Part Store to create your own version of the new maker slide. It is available in sizes greater than 1000mm.

My plan was to get two more Xplates and use them instead of the little plate I have on the inside. Put some bolts and spacers in the top between the two of them. Then you can bolt the xrail to the inside plates.

Hi, I have a k 40, but I have a problem with the axis, y moves with difficulty while x is not recognized in any way.
I replaced the board, now I use a Mini gerbil but the problem persists. could anyone help me? could it be a hardware problem related to step motors?
In the link below you will find a video that demonstrates the problem.

So to the problem at hand. After assembly, the Z-axis would not move under the motors power, it was binding and after inspection, I figured out it was because the lead screw was out of alignment with the coupler. This prevents the motor from moving the lead screw.

After setting up the artisan, we were able to use it for one day. Next day I went to start another print and at this time the printer was never shut down. we heard a really loud ratcheting sound as the printer head dove into the printing bed and scratch across it.

I then decided to try and recalibrate using auto mode. Every time I started auto home the printer head would dive into the printer bed hard and it would stop, at which point I tried to manually move the printer head up on the Z axis but it would not move vertically due to the error of it diving into the printer bed. I tried auto home again, this time it drug the tips across the glass leaving deep scratches, since it auto homes X and Y first. Manual mode did the exact same thing. I cannot get to manual mode with out it driving the tips into the glass.

So I did a factory reset. same issues. z axis dives into the printer bed
and now I cannot get to the main menu on the artisan because on start up it drives straight into the glass almost immediately.

I can double check, It is weird that it worked for the first day just fine and I was able to get one good print off of it. I am trying to figure out what could have changed over night.
I have a 350 as well with the dual extruder and I was thinking of trying its printer head to see if it is a sensor issue on the tool its self.

Another option I was considering after reading a few forums, is the back plate that is attached to the tool head may be in the wrong mounting holes. I am trying to find images to confirm that, if anyone has an image of the holes being used that would be great, so I can confirm the mounting location.

I have similar issue, where with my artisan printer head crashing into bed, leaving behind a first time memory of a deep line grove while performing calibration on XY axis. Turns out the issues was the Z2 axis was faulty straight out of the box. Discovered the Z2 axis was not going moving full height, nor would it move up at all, would only travel down.

Thanks for the information it was a huge help. It looks like that is what the issue is and I am in talks with tech support now and they are coming to the same conclusion at this time. I just sent them a video and a picture of the settings screen you have shown.

An unrelated issue but quality issue on the other module was a connector where the lock was cracked, when I went to check if it was seated the connector broke as soon as I touched it. and you can see it laying in the bottom of the module.
z module 2480640 72.2 KB

-Mechanically the printer seems sound. Belts look fine and are tensioned appropriately. Linear shafts are all still in their bearings. With the steppers unpowered, both X and Y move fairly easily without binding for their length of travel.

Can you take a video of the homing issue? 90% of the time it's a limit switch. Put the head near the center left side and do homing and then put the head near the top center and do homing. This will help you see which axis is the problem as it only does the Y axis issue when the head is near the rear and only the X axis bounc when the head is on the left side.

As far as boot, yes you can get a "olimex serial cable F". Although I don't think this works with S5's built in the last year or so but if it's reasonably old then yes you can watch the boot sequence through the serial cable. I detail how to set it up here:

If you have an S5R1 (release 1 - side panels have robot; release 2 - side panels have big "U") then there are deadly voltages exposed under the printer so be very careful not to kill yourself. Please.

You can use my guide to find where to connect the olimex serial cable F and if the pins are there then the cable will work. If UM doesn't have the pins anymore on your board then you are mostly out of luck. Although I guess you might be able to solder in 3 header pins? Not sure what the latest boards look like now. Probably don't even have an olimex computer anymore.

It's possible that one of the limit switch cables isn't reaching the circuit board underneath the printer. Maybe the cable fell out. Maybe the cable got pinched and broke. This is pretty rare. Most likely the limit switch is (sometimes) just barely beyond reach on X or Y axis.

I just noticed on my S5 go to "maintenance" "diagnostics" and there is "test limit switches". You can then push the head around and when the head hits a limit switch it changes color on the display. I have older firmware - hopefully this feature is still there.

Yep, was one of my first steps. I also replaced both limit switches, and the problem persists. I wasn't able to get it on video last time it happened as it occurred when the printer paused itself due to a nozzle clog. The serial cable should help me pin down the boot issue at least.

I'd uncover the bottom of the printer to make sure you have the correct connectors before ordering. Also read the instructions on the olimex website where it has the description of the cable. It talks about baud rate and how to hook it up. It's not what I thought at first - I think you connect serial in on the cable to serial out on the printer. Sort of backwards from intuitive.

While the Maker Select and Wanhao Duplicator i3 are well built machines overall, they do make use of low grade parts to cut costs at the sacrifice of some quality. The linear bearings are a perfect example, often creating a grinding noise during movement or rough transitions as the plate travels. While this can be improved with lubrication, replacing the linear bearings is a cheap and easy upgrade that will slide silently and smooth the movements during printing.

This particular upgrade is most frequently done while also Replacing the Y-Carriage Plate. You will have direct access to both the Y-axis rods and bearing housings, meaning less work to swap out the linear bearings for better quality variants. To take it one step further, you can even do several other free upgrades at this time, such as aligning the Y-axis pulley and removing the belt spring tensioner. As these are simple to do and require relatively little effort, I will include them in the instructions below.

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