Makerbot Rep 5 - Shifting

[Jon Wong]

So I work at a middle school and we've been using the Rep 2 all year long. I've had many battles with the Rep 2, but I'm at a point where I can disassemble the dang thing and fix whatever problem there is (eventually). My district was so pleased with the results from the Rep 2 that they went ahead and ordered the Makerbot Rep 5. I knew the Rep 5 had a ton of problems prior to ordering, but I thought I would just work through them, just like I did with the Rep 2. 

Anyways, I've been getting some nasty shifting in prints. I have no idea why this is happening. I did a search, but I don't really understand what others have said about tying a clip to the belt? It seems most of the problem lies with the Y axis. I will say, when I first opened and made two test prints, they came out flawless. The third was the PUMA Case that is attached, and the next was a failed project from one of the students. I updated the Firmware to the newest version and it seemed to have gotten worse. Any solutions or ideas? Thanks!

Just to add, I haven't had any clogs yet and I have leveled the plate twice prior to the first print. I haven't re-leveled since.

[Jon Wong]

Here are two more pictures

 

[Jetguy]

KNOWN issue with the 5th gen design. The belt clamp that locks the extruder carriage and system to the belt has likely broken an lets the carriage move in relation to the belt.

Unfortunately, this is VERY bad because all previous users with this problem had to ship the ENTIRE machine back and wait for a new one to arrive.

Maybe they ship the clips now but have not done so in the past.

Contact MakerBot support via PHONE. Do not email, do not wait around.

On Wednesday, June 4, 2014 4:59:43 PM UTC-4, Jon Wong wrote:

[Jetguy]

Here's a thread, exact SAME problem https://groups.google.com/d/msg/makerbot/iAB2ZVwOB3Y/xyL4YE5cJ7oJ

[Ryan Carlyle]

Note, there appears to be two different shifting problems. Shifting on the X axis is a broken belt clip. Shifting on an XY diagonal is misalignment around one of the steppers (causing skipped steps). 

Both require sending the bot back to MBI to my knowledge. Contact tech support.

[Jon Wong]

I did a test print today, a small model of an owl, and it actually came out perfectly. If there were issues with the XY belts, wouldn't it be more consistent? Or is this normal, where some prints come out just fine whereas others are just plain garbage? 

[Ryan Carlyle]

Probably speed related. Small prints never reach top printing speed because it doesn't accelerate that fast. (Just like you can't get your car to 100mph in your driveway.)

[Andre Bynoe]

This seems to be a timely thread... I just got a Replicator Mini yesterday and sometimes during the homing procedure the extruder assembly/carriage (the whole thing) wants to move to the left, but there's a barrier there preventing the extruder from moving beyond it the print area. So when the extruder assembly impacts the barrier it causes some of the threads on the x-axis stepper to slip. At least that's what it seems to me with my problem. Looking into this folks say similar issues are caused by a carriage-belt clip being broken. So I want to investigate that....

So my question is how does a "carriage-belt clip" look? And where should it go?

Because then I might be able to design/print my own.

[Ryan Carlyle]

It's the thing that connects the carriage (the thing the Smart Extruder attaches to) to the belt.

Note that usually when the bot is commanded into the edge of the machine, a motion stepper just stalls harmlessly.