New MOD-t ... new to 3D Printing ... these things work?

[UncleMoki]

Got a NIB MOD-t from a friend who has had it for years but never opened.  Wondering if anyone has ever figured out how to get these MOD-t's to work reliably?  It was working for a few initial prints (the mfgr  test print and basic stuff I put together in TinkerCAD)  but now it seems every print I attempt has some sort of problem, even the test prints.  The latest two issues are 1) the extruder will throw itself into reverse for a second or two so that filament stops flowing for a few passes leaving gaps in my print … and 2) with STLs provided by others (Thingiverse and Adafruit) the print will just stop mid print and the hot-end burns a hole wherever it sits … I now have two holes in the build plate and a few ruined prints as proof.  As an added bonus, when the head stops it usually also clogs the extruder and the only way to fix is to open the head and clear the filament out of the feeder (which is pretty easy to do, fortunately … in one week, I've had to do it 3-4 times so I'm a pro now :)).

Anyone have any advice on how to get these to work reliably?

BTW - The same issues happen in two different configurations:

SW - 15.2

FW - 9.0

Cura 4.1 with settings/profiles provided by tripflex on GitHub (https://github.com/tripflex/MOD-t).

… and most recently … 

SW - 15.5

FW - 1.0

Cura 4.1 with settings/profiles provided by energywave on Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1535333).