Troubleshooting Your Thing-O
Contents
1. 10 24 12 5 19 PM Misadjusted Idler Wheel Tension Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Misadjusted Idler Wheel Tension It s easy to get the tension in the Idler Wheel wrong If the Idler Wheel is too loose the drive pulley won t grab and push the filament We had difficulty with our Idler Wheel tension because we tried to adjust the tension after fully assembling our Plastruder with the Plastruder electronics in place It turns out that it s hard to get a wrench in the right place if the Plastruder is fully assembled Instead it was useful to adjust the Idler Wheel tension with the Plastruder on a benchtop with the electronics off to the side Initially our team was concerned that making the Idler Wheel too tight might be problematic We found that we were able to fix the Idler Wheel at its closes position to the drive pulley and everything worked great The plastic filament was crushed between the pulley and idler wheel but this turned out to be a good thing The pulley applied good constant pressure to the filament One word to the wise do be careful when tightening down the nuts holding the Idler Wheel in place acrylic cracks easily under pressure Using washers to properly fill the space along the Idler Wheel bearing is crucial to having a snug fit without breaking the acrylic 10 24 12 5 15 PM Filament Slipping Off Idler Wheel Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Filament Slipping Off Idler Wheel On one Plastruder we2. choose Extruder Controller and click Next Choose the version of the firmware you want to load from the list Choose the serial port You may need to mess with the reset sequence same as listed in the hard firmware update procedure above If ReplicatorG fails to load the firmware and the reset sequence doesn t help you may have to reload the bootloader too with the programing cable included in the delux kit also it s a good idea to switch to using shielded cat5e cable to help keep the firmware from becoming corrupted in the first place 10 25 12 9 19 AM Plastruder Temperature Is Not Stable Or Not Heating Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Plastruder Temperature Is Not Stable Or Not Heating Signs of this could be subtle but the most obvious is that immediately after aborting a build due to a stalled extruder the temperature in control panel is much lower than it should be for the cooling time between abort and opening the panel The wires on your nozzle may be damaged To test this turn off the system and measure both the thermistor and the nicrhome heater The heater can be measured easily without disconnecting it Turn off the machine and measure the voltage across the nicrhome terminals It should be zero with the machine off but there may be some residual voltage for a short while If the voltage is zero switch to resistance and check if the nichrome measures around 6 8 ohms as it did when it was built You can also d
3. Heater Board Thermistor reads 1024 1024 is a built in error message coded into the toolhead firmware that means this sensor is not connected correctly First thing to check is whether your thermocouple thermistor is patched correctly into your Extruder Controller check the Electronics Installation page for cable routing diagrams The Heater Board plug can easily be pulled out of the A6 port of a Gen4 Extruder Controller when closing your bot check carefully for that one Once you have your boards correctly re patched make sure to reset the boards and close and re open ReplicatorG before testing again for a 1024 message In particular the thermistor will always return 1024 until the toolhead is booted with the thermistor plugged into port A6 the correct way No matter what I do cannot get my Power Supply Unit to turn on Check the brand of power supply included with your kit If you have a Sparkle or a Coolermaster then you will need to make sure that a jumper is soldered across two of the pins on the back of your MakerBot Motherboard so that the board provides a strong enough voltage trigger back to the PSU to kick it into life The details are listed here SOFTWARE REPLICATORG Where do get the software need to run my bot slice my models We use ReplicatorG as the application to control your MakerBot Included within this software are the Skeinforge scripts that you will use to translate your STL model into a linear
4. page 3 If the axis moves freely then 1 check that your stepper motor for that axis is plugged into a stepper controller 2 check that there is a power connector plugged into the stepper controller 3 check that there is a 6 pin ribbon cable connected from the stepper controller to the appropriate socket on the motherboard a You may want to try swapping cables with another axis to make sure your cable is good 4 If you re still having trouble see the next item There s a grinding noise when my axes move I m losing steps 1 Shut down ReplicatorG and turn off power to the machine 2 Try oiling and aligning the bearings as in the previous item 3 Try increasing the power on the offending axis by following the directions on the calibration page Automated Build Platform can turn the belt on from the control panel but the belt doesn t move when turn on the build platform heater or the belt turns on and off intermittently The most likely cause is that you ve hooked up your heated build platform backwards See the heated build platform heater section of the electronics installation document for an illustration of the correct connections Where to Get Help There are a few different places where people can help you out The Thing O Matic support forum is a good place to start or you can email support makerbot com if you need immediate personalized help 10 24 12 5 18 PM Flossing Teeth Troubleshooting Your Thing
5. 24 AM Now you re good to go connect your electronics up normally
6. O Matic Flossing Teeth The plastic isn t going into the extruder can hear the motor turning but nothing comes out e Sometimes after some printing the teeth of the extruder pulley inside Plastruder accumulate some plastic This prevents the pulley from gripping the plastic filament and pushing it into the heater barrel e Problems elsewhere in the plastruder can cause the filament to jam which then increases the pressure until the extruder pulley strips the filament This is the most common way plastic accumulates Once this happens future stripping can be caused by the accumulated plastic itself To repair this issue follow these steps 1 Move the Z axis platform as high as it will go so the Plastruder sticks out the top 2 If the circuit board is mounted in front of the Plastruder remove it but don t disconnect the wires You can safely re mount it to the left and this allows you to see the Idler wheel 3 If you have the fourth screw attaching your motor to the Plastruder you must disassemble the Plastruder Don t use that screw when you reassemble the Plastruder Make sure during reassembly that you are careful not to over tighten the hex nuts and crack any acrylic components Otherwise turn on heater element to 240 220 may work too and set the motor to reverse to back out the filament Set temperature back to zero Cut off and discard the mangled filament Unscrew the idler wheel and move it to the left The extruder pull
7. observed the plastic filament slipping to the side of the Idler Wheel The filament would then be pushed against the wall of the Plastruder where it would jam Some customers were able to adjust the position of the Idler Wheel by moving washers from one side of the wheel to the other However my team resolved this problem by taking two Idler Wheels and super gluing them together creating a two panel thick Idler Wheel This Idler Wheel was easier to position and worked perfectly the first time Note we don t recommend using this technique on mk4 or later extruders See a more detailed discussion of this technique here DoubleldlerWheelDiscussion 10 24 12 5 20 PM Unable To Program V1 1 V1 2 Motherboard Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Unable To Program V1 1 V1 2 Motherboard When you attempt to program the Sanguino based generation 3 motherboard you may see an error like this avrdude stk500_getsync not in sync resp 0x48 avrdude stk500_disable protocol error expect 0x14 resp 0x48 Due to a problem with these boards the Sanguino does not always automatically reset itself when programming begins To get around this you ll have to reset the Sanguino manually when programming It can be a little tricky to get right you ll need to reset it just as it begins programming the chip Since the Arduino environment recompiles everything from scratch every time you try to program a chip this means you ll have to wait about two or th
8. of which of the X axis options you ve chosen Is there something missing in the instructions Drop us a message to update the guide Quick test did you notice that the left side of the Y axis doesn t use linear bearings If you missed that read over the instructions one more time carefully Sanding parts You shouldn t have to force any parts ever When in doubt grab some sandpaper or a file and get to work Usually just a few passes will make things go together much more smoothly If you begin to wonder if the parts you re working on go together double check the instructions X Y Axes Alignment Check to make sure that you have aligned your Self Aligning Bearings The X and Y axes should slide with only a little effort it s best if they slide when the bot is tilted Check out this video about bearing alignment Belts should not have slack but they also shouldn t be so tight that you can t press them together with your fingers If your X stage belt is too tight you may need to slit the belt between the clamps There s a demonstration starting at about 2 07 in this youtube video Tape your nuts This is an old chestnut for the T slot construction used throughout the MakerBot kits tape in the m3 nuts This is especially useful if you think that you re going to be disassembling part of your bot For example it s almost always a good idea to tape the nuts that hold on the bottom of your Thing O Matic because it s good to be a
9. 10 24 12 2 11 PM Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic This troubleshooting page is for the MakerBot Thing O Matic For help with The Replicator go to The Replicator Troubleshooting page on MakerBot com Table of Contents This troubleshooting page is for the MakerBot Thing O Matic For help with The Replicator go to The Replicator Troubleshooting page on MakerBot com Basic Rules TESTING Here is the basic method for testing your bot to make sure that you re OK to print ASSEMBLY Read the instructions Sanding parts X Y Axes Alignment Tape your nuts ELECTRONICS FIRMWARE I m having trouble connecting to my Motherboard continue to get the Null version reported error Connect to the Internet while using ReplicatorG right before updating board firmware Calibrate your Stepper Driver Boards My Thermocouple Heater Board Thermistor reads 1024 No matter what do cannot get my Power Supply Unit to turn on SOFTWARE REPLICATORG Where do get the software need to run my bot slice my models What software can use to create models Where can get models I m uploading a model to my SD card why is this taking so long My copy of ReplicatorG is not behaving as described elsewhere in the wiki cannot generate G code or gives file access errors PRINTING just started my first print and my toolhead started printing above the platform One of my Thing O Matic s X Y or Z axes is moving twice as far as want it to
10. My model will not stick to the platform The corners of the raft curl up or the part curls I ve set my z height but I m tearing up my platform tore up my Automated Build Platform belt or it s really warped from printing so many awesome things How do change my filament Extrusion problems Software and firmware problems General printing problems Basic Rules 1 Don t panic Nothing is ever FUBAR 2 Sleep on it Frustration will only compound mistakes 3 Persistence and patience debugs all things 4 You are not alone Others can help you TESTING Here is the basic method for testing your bot to make sure that you re OK to print 1 Turn on the PSU 2 Connect in ReplicatorG You should see a message like this 17 12 00 Motherboard firmware v2 8 Thing O Matic 17 12 00 Toolhead 0 Extruder controller firmware v2 8 Extruder If you see a line like this Toolhead Not found Make sure the toolhead is connected the power supply is plugged in and turned on and the po l 1 Then you have a problem Go to the electronics section for troubleshooting advice Open up the Control panel Jog the axes around make sure that they move the correct direction and distance Test the endstops Make sure that they stop the correct axis and direction Now let s move on to the extruder First look at the current temperature Is this something reasonable around 20 30 C If this is OK try heating your hot e
11. ay it may slip off the platform during build or warp and peel off or the first few layers may be too loose and not adhere to each other e The next several loops are too flat and are overlapping if things are left this way too long the pressure in the nozzle will build up and the filament will strip and jam Even if it doesn t jam a raft this thin will be difficult to remove from the platform e The loops on the right are just about perfect somewhat flattened but not overlapping Working without a raft Curl is tricky says Emmett in a forum post and gives these suggestions A heated build platform HBP will be a help If the plastic is curling off of the build platform e Make sure the build platform is as level and sticky as possible kapton tape makes a great surface especially if cleaned with rubbing alcohol e t can help to blow on the print for the first few layers it can help break the warpage cycle You shouldn t have to blow any more once the corners have stopped curling e Failing that you might need to change the temp settings of your nozzle and HBP Foxdewayne adds e You are probably not smashing your first layer down onto the platform hard enough You want a nice wide extrusion However making it too thin and flat causes other issues as mentioned above e Another thing you can try is to sand your platform so that it is rough e highly recommend that you get a heated bed and you will have little trouble wi
12. ble to get to the electronics easily 10 24 12 2 11 PM ELECTRONICS FIRMWARE I m having trouble connecting to my Motherboard continue to get the Null version reported error Most communication errors can be solved by repatching power and data connections and making sure you are using the latest firmware for both Motherboard Stack and Extruder Controller Some customers find they have more luck connecting to their MakerBot control boards by downloading the FTDI drivers directly from the manufacturer Particularly customers running Windows XP Connect to the Internet while using ReplicatorG right before updating board firmware ReplicatorG needs to connect to the Internet to download the latest firmware for uploading to your bot Don t skip over the Thing O Matic Firmware Installation section of the instructions you want to make sure that your control boards are already running the latest firmware before you attach them to your MakerBot Calibrate your Stepper Driver Boards The Thing O Matic Calibration stage has a number of important features not the least of which are instructions how to use a multimeter to tune the REF settings of your Stepper Driver Boards Should you overlook this stage your stepper motors will run using undesired settings you may notice loud struggling noise or other sounds that at worst can overheat to create damage to themselves the operator or the bot as a whole My Thermocouple
13. case look at it under some bright light If you have a magnifying glass or loop get it and start examining the boards Look for solder bridges discolorations missing or broken solder joints burnt chips or any other visible abnormality Examine the SMD solder joints on the pins of the chips for solder bridges 6 If you see any unsoldered joints you can try soldering them yourself If you see joints that look strange or discolored too small or uneven that could be a problem Carefully reheat and melt the solder or add more solder to close any gaps You may want to push the item you are soldering to seat it better while you solder the joint on the other side o This is a known problem and an unfortunate consequence of soldering sometimes solderjoints fail or there are bridges Finding and fixing solder joints and bridges has saved many boards from the garbage pile 7 Try upgrading the firmware to the latest version if you haven t already 10 24 12 5 18 PM Lube Rods And Adjust Stepper Driver Trimpots Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Lube Rods And Adjust Stepper Driver Trimpots Overheating the Stepper Driver MakerBot 000001 experienced an issue during fabrication where sometimes the X axis stepper motor would fail to fully complete a motion causing the print head to be displaced ruining fabrication It turned out that this problem was caused by the stepper driver chip overheating Jas diagnosed this failure by first groundi
14. djust it a bit when get started Getting this right takes practice 4 Wrong version of Skeinforge If your bot goes through the motions but nothing is extruded check GCode gt Choose GCode Generator and try a different version of Skeinforge Start with Standard Click the Model tab then click the Generate GCode button at the bottom right If that doesn t work move down the list to Skeinforge 40 Skeinforge 35 and so on Each time you try a new skeinforge go back to the model and regenerate the GCode each time otherwise you ll just be using the same old code 10 24 12 5 19 PM Overheating The Stepper Driver Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Overheating The Stepper Driver MakerBot 000001 experienced an issue during fabrication where sometimes the X axis stepper motor would fail to fully complete a motion causing the print head to be displaced ruining fabrication It turned out that this problem was caused by the stepper driver chip overheating Jas diagnosed this failure by first grounding herself by touching the metal power supply and then touching the back of the driver chip on the stepper controller board The chip was noticeably hot to touch during operation We resolved this issue in two ways First we adjusted the drive strength of the stepper driver by adjusting the potentiometer on the stepper driver board It turned out that we had the drive strength set too high causing the overheating Second we lubricated th
15. e rods of the MakerBot with a dry silicone grease to reduce the amount of work done by the stepper motors This completely resolved this issue for our MakerBot 10 24 12 5 20 PM Troubleshooting The Stepper Motor Drivers V2 3 Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Troubleshooting The Stepper Motor Drivers V2 3 Symptom Your stepper motors are unresponsive When you go into the control panel one or more of them do not respond 1 Restart ReplicatorG Make sure that it indicates that it has connected to the bot 2 Open the control panel and press then enable steppers and disable steppers buttons Watch the stepper drivers If green and red lights turn on when you press enable and off when you press disable the problem is probably related to the endstops 1 If you are using the v2 firmware or later open the Machine gt Onboard Preferences menu Select the correct endstop type or No endstops for your machine Click commit and then reset your bot 2 Make sure that the endstops on the axis you re using are not triggered 3 If the lights do not light up the problem may be related to the connection between the motherboard and the stepper driver 1 Visually examine your cords and cables Are plugs are attached and seated snugly Each Stepper Driver should be connected from the socket marked INTERFACE on the Stepper Motor Driver board to the sockets on the Motherboard labeled X AXIS Y AXIS and Z AXIS respectively with a rainbo
16. ey isn t blocked by the idler wheel or filament Unscrew the motor Check to make sure the extruder pulley really is free as you can easily pull it apart if it is not Remove the motor and place it on the z stage You shouldn t have to disconnect it even Use a pin a small pointed knife dental pick or other fine object to clean the extruder pulley Re insert motor and fasten Use rod to reposition idler wheel Turn up temperature to 240 Set motor to run forward Insert filament D a ee E E S BRWOWNAOCOOOANDYN 10 25 12 9 16 AM Burning Plastic Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Burning Plastic If the ABS plastic burns inside the Plastruder it can create an oxidized ABS plastic byproduct that will occlude the Plastruder print head This is difficult to repair and can be caused by setting the temperature of your Plastruder too high The ideal temperature for melting ABS plastic is around 220 degrees C Avoidance To avoid this condition Every time you remove the ceramic tape visually inspect your nozzle and make sure the thermistor is well placed and not peeling off Validate that your thermocouple works You should see the thermocouple reading change soon after turning on the heating element Be suspicious if your thermocouple reading does not change Don t set the target temperature for the Plastruder higher than 225 Hypothetically the ABS plastic could get scorched if the plastic filament
17. feed gets stuck and the same chunk of plastic heats in the print head for too long a time In practice however we ve cooked ABS plastic in the print head for extended periods 10 20 minutes without adverse effect But don t run this risk unnecessarily Repair This can be fixed by totally disassembling the heater barrel and nozzle and cleaning out all plastic and other debris from the nozzle and barrel And remember that if your repair doesn t go well you can always buy separate replacement parts from the Makerbot store Gentle manual cleaning If you are lucky You can get a large amount of the plastic out of the barrel using the heater itself Carefully unmount the extruder head from the drive assembly and then remove the PTFE insulator from the barrel Place the whole assembly on a heat resistant surface and connect it back to the plastruder controller Carefully bring it up to temperature to melt the plastic and then gently push a rod down the barrel a 3mm bamboo stick for instance manually extruding the contents of the barrel out This might be easier if you hold the assembly by the retainer washer with a pliers or something Note that if this is easy you probably didn t have a blockage and may not have needed to do this If it is difficult you may have a blockage If this is very difficult this method might not get you anywhere at all If this doesn t seem to be getting anywhere try removing the nozzle from the barrel First remo
18. http arduino cc however the MakerBot motherboard is an Ardiuno derived board called Sanguino found instructions at http sanquino cc for downloading and installing some patches to the Arduino kit that enable it to support the Sanguino hardware and then everything compiled perfectly When compiling the extruder controller firmware e g to drive a stepper driven extruder you may see errors like this o In function vector 11 C DOCUME 1 HENRIK 1 LOKALE 1 Temp build6615072793951871476 tmp Timer1 cpp 9 multiple definition of vector_11 C DOCUME 1 HENRIK 1 LOKALE 1 Temp build6615072793951871476 tmp Servo Servo cpp o C Programmer arduino 001 8 libraries Servo Servo cpp 103 first defined here This occurs with arduino 0018 and later and a workaround since we are not using servo motors is to find the following section of code at about line 100 of Servo cpp and comment out the underlined portion ifndef WIRING Wiring pre defines signal handlers so don t define any if compiling for the Wiring platform Interrupt handlers for Arduino if_defined _useTimer1 SIGNAL TIMER1_ COMPA vect i handle_interrupts timer1 amp TCNT1 amp OCR1A i endif Other Compilation errors error stdint h No such file or directory This means you are missing some core libraries required for compilation Simply run apt get install avr libc to install them 10 24 12 5 20 PM Printing Pause But Ex
19. ing to make sure the drill bit doesn t get stuck Also as long as you are careful with this method 10 25 12 9 16 AM and TAKE THE NOZZLE OFF FIRST you should have no problems You may have to heat the assembly up first to get the nozzle off Using a blowtorch to clean the nozzle is dangerous as the point of it is to burn all the plastic out of the nozzle This should not be done inside and even if done outside you should avoid breathing the toxic smoke 10 24 12 5 18 PM Insane Plastruder Controller Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Insane Plastruder Controller Occasionally the plastruder goes insane possibly because it loses its firmware This is characterized by messages in ReplicatorG like Error Payload is not big enough and the temperature reading in the control panel is zero even when the thermistor has the correct resistance Other more subtle signs may occur before this like the control pannel extruder stop button not exactly stopping the motor There are two ways to fix corrupted firmware The hard way is to follow the Plastruder Firmware Update instructions You could also update your thermistor table or firmware version at the same time The easy way is to use ReplicatorG itself to update the firmware as follows Power off your cupcake and disconnect the ethernet cable from the plastruder controller Connect the usb ttl cable directly to the plastruder controller In ReplicatorG choose Machine gt Upload new Firmware
20. isconnect the wires and measure it which may be a bit safer After you ve initially measured gently wiggle the wires from the loose ends to the nozzle and make sure that the reading doesn t fluctuate If the resistance jumps higher you have a intermittent connection somewhere As the nichrome doesn t solder the joint between the wires and the nichrome is a likely spot If the resistance drops lower the insulation has probably flaked off the nichrome and it is shorting against itself or the heater barrel Either problem will require a rebuild of the heating element The easiest way to test the thermistor is to check the control panel with the power on Check if the temperature reading is reasonable If the nozzle is cool heat the thermistor directly with your finger not on a hot nozzle and see if you can get the temperature to change by a degree or so Gently wiggle the wires and see if the temperature jumps If it does you have an intermittent connection somewhere If the thermistor temperature is not reasonable with the machine off disconnect the wires for the thermistor and check the resistance directly A room temperature nozzle should be 90k 110k ohms If it reads as open circuit or short circuit your thermistor could be damaged or the leads to it touching etc If it looks ok when measured directly but wrong in the control panel your extruder controller might be damaged or insane try reflashing it See Insane Plastruder Controller
21. ll go ahead and eject the SD card from the bot and copy the s3g files for printing directly from a computer How you do this is to generate the G code for your print double check that the z height maximum in the Homing section of the G code is 10 24 12 2 11 PM correct and then click the button Build to File The resulting s3g file can be dragged from wherever you have saved it directly to your SD card attached to your computer Then eject the SD card re insert it into your bot and use the ReplicatorG command Build from SD card to print your item It might help to create an S3G folder on your computer so that you can quickly load your favorite models to your SD card for using the Build from SD Card button or selecting with your Gen4 Interface Board Kit My copy of ReplicatorG is not behaving as described elsewhere in the wiki cannot generate G code or gives file access errors Are you running the application from a disk image mac or unextracted zip file pc Investigate how you can create a local copy of the entire contents of the ReplicatorG file not just the ReplicatorG app or executable file The other folders include the drivers example files and other references that you will need to print and tune your bot PRINTING just started my first print and my toolhead started printing above the platform You ve skipped a very important step setting your Z height Make sure to measure your bot s Z height with a scri
22. nd enter 225 as your target temperature and watch to see if the temperature rises 6 Do these last two steps for the heated platform as well but use 120 as your target temperature there 7 If this is all working do a test extrusion at the proper speed for your extruder This should be 255 for DC motor based extruders and 1 98 for a stepper based extruder like the Stepstruder MK6 8 If this works then you ve tested all of your axes and your extruder try a test print BRON oa Another way to verify if a part is good is to test the electrical circuitry This only works for a handful of parts on the Thing O Matic but it can be helpful in diagnosing your current problems You will need a multimeter to test the below values Component Sub Component Resistance Q Wires 0 02 Heater Cartridge 3 5 Thermostat Room Temp 0 02 Thermocouple 20 22 NEMA Motors Red to Gray Leads 30 Green to Yellow Leads 30 Heater Board 12V to HEAT Pins SIG to 5V Pins 4 6k 5V to GND Pins 115k SIG to GND Pins 115k MOT to MOTOR Pins 0 02 ASSEMBLY Read the instructions Having trouble with a certain step Do you think you are missing a part Take care to check which build instructions you are reading Start here for Thing O Matic or here for the Cupcake CNC If you re building a Thing O Matic make sure that you re building the right Plastruder for your bot MK5 or MK6 and also keep track
23. ng herself by touching the metal power supply and then touching the back of the driver chip on the stepper controller board The chip was noticeably hot to touch during operation We resolved this issue in two ways e First we adjusted the drive strength of the stepper driver by adjusting the potentiometer on the stepper driver board It turned out that we had the drive strength set too high causing the overheating NOTE from Bre I found that the optimal position for my trimpot is just past the center of it s travel So if you find the middle and call that 12 o clock go to between 1 and 2 o clock and start there e Second we lubricated the rods of the MakerBot with a dry silicone grease to reduce the amount of work done by the stepper motors NOTE from Bre Lubrication is one of the main causes of frustration You can also use 3 in 1 oil Be warned that if you travel with your MakerBot in the USA the TSA will take your bottle of 3 in 1 oil Luckily it is available at most drug stores This completely resolved this issue for our MakerBot 10 24 12 5 19 PM Maintenance and Upkeep Keep your Bot Running The Thing O Matic does not require much maintenance Once you have it built and running it will provide you with many hours of hands off printing However some of the Thing O Matic s mechanical parts especially the ones in constant movement are subject to wear and should be tuned from time to time The following list are things you
24. onstantly producing designs to improve your bot You will find a big list of ToM upgrades at http Awww thingiverse com thing 6443 10 25 12 9 24 AM Coolermaster Power Supply Fix Note The MakerBot Motherboard v2 5 does not require this fix This issue affected v2 4 boards only The Problem The recent batches of CoolerMaster and Sparkle ATX power supplies as well as some others if you re using a different PSU don t like the way our motherboards tell the board to turn on But don t worry we ve got a solution Check your board to make sure that we ve already applied this fix for you Some of the 2 5 boards do check the resistance between pins 13 and 14 before you start The solution Here is our beloved motherboard We are going to be making a modification near the white ATX power connector on the right hand side in this picture We are going to connect two pins numbers 13 and 14 on the motherboard with a small piece of wire and some solder te Se ee ii 4 La gt 4 1 99 PE G i i 222 Here s the thing we are going to make the connection on the back of the board Solder a small bridge between two of the pins on the power supply connector Looking at the motherboard from the back the pins we want will be the 3rd and 4th pins from the right on the inside row which are circled in red Use a piece of tinned wire or a small piece of solid wire to make the connection 10 25 12 9
25. pt and then insert it into the line like this in the proper start gcode G92 Z80 Set Z axis maximum Change Z80 to ZWhatever you measured If you don t want to add that to the start gcode you can also add that into your gcode for each item you print WHERE Either way works One of my Thing O Matic s X Y or Z axes is moving twice as far as want it to It sounds like one of your stepper driver boards might have switched to 1 4 stepping from our default 1 8 stepping If your bot is brand new get in touch with us about this If it s been in service for awhile more than a month of printing then your board may have been damaged by static electricrity or hard use and we won t be able to send you a free replacement However all is not lost you can adjust your configuration and you ll be back up and running Open the thingomatic xml file in the machines folder in replicatorg Find the entry for the driver that you re using That will look something like this lt name gt Thingomatic w ABP and Stepstruder MK6 lt name gt Now let s make one small change to the line in question for the affected axis For example if it s your X axis it ll be this line lt axis id x Length 106 maxfeedrate 4000 stepspermm 47 069852 endstops min gt lt Pu In this case we re going to cut that stepspermm number in half changing it from 47 069852 to 23 534926 If this were the Z axis the numbers would be slightly diffe
26. ree seconds after hitting the build button and then hit the motherboard s reset button It will probably take a few tries to get this right If you re running the Arduino software from a console you ll usually see a message like this Binary sketch size 13180 bytes of a 63488 byte maximum after hitting the build button in the Arduino software This indicates that the build is done when you see this message you should hit the motherboard s reset button 10 24 12 5 16 PM Firmware Compilation Errors Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Firmware Compilation Errors When first attempted to compile the MakerBot controller software encountered compilation errors similar to this sd_raw cpp In function uint8_t sd_raw_init sd_raw cpp 165 error DDRA was not declared in this scope sd_raw cpp 165 error DDA7 was not declared in this scope sd_raw cpp 166 error DDA3 was not declared in this scope sd_raw cpp In function uint8_t sd_raw_available sd_raw cpp 265 error PINA was not declared in this scope sd_raw cpp 265 error PC7 was not declared in this scope sd_raw cpp In function uint8_t sd_raw_locked sd_raw cpp 276 error PINA was not declared in this scope sd_raw cpp In function uint8_t sd_raw_write uint32_t const uint8_t uint16_t sd_raw cpp 587 error PINA was not declared in this scope It turned out that the issue was that had downloaded and installed the Arduino development kit from
27. rent but you d still divide it in half My model will not stick to the platform No problem Most likely your Z height is just a bit too high Once again find this line in your start gcode G92 Z80 Set Z axis maximum And then increase it by about 2 mm You can also do this in the gcode you ve generated for printing this is actually a good way to test Keep in mind that the MakerBot s lasercut plywood will change shape just slightly with temperature and humidity conditions The corners of the raft curl up or the part curls When building on a raft the first line segment is the most critical point of time during the build If the first line segment adheres nicely to the build area you re pretty much guaranteed that the rest of the build will go smoothly if your object is buildable On larger parts if the first and last segments of the raft are too loose the part will warp and peel off much sooner than if they were flatter To control this you ll need to readjust your Z height This is how to do it on a Thing O Matic 10 24 12 2 11 PM On a Cupcake you can adjust the Z stage height while it is building the raft to fine tune it and get it exactly right Do this by turning the Z pulley or moving the Z belt or build a crank or knobfor this In this image note from the left e The second and third loops are way too loose and are nearly lifting off the build platform already If the entire part is built this w
28. ruder can hear the motor turning but nothing comes out o See Flossing Teeth Burning Plastic Insane plastruder controller Plastruder temperature is not stable or not heating Misadjusted Idler Wheel Tension Filament Slipping Off Idler Wheel Software and firmware problems 10 24 12 2 11 PM e Unable to program v1 1 v1 2 motherboard e Firmware Compilation Errors General printing problems e Printing Pause But extruder keeps Extruding e Extrusion Stops But Build Surface keeps Moving 10 24 12 4 59 PM Troubleshooting MakerBot Industries Thing O Matic 3D Printer Thing O Matic Assembly Instructions User Manual Troubleshooting Table of Contents Stepper Motion My axes won t move There s a grinding noise when my axes move m losing steps Automated Build Platform I can turn the belt on from the control panel but the belt doesn t move when turn on the build platform heater or the belt turns on and off intermittently Where to Get Help Stepper Motion My axes won t move 1 Shut down ReplicatorG and turn off power to the bot 2 Try moving the problematic axis by hand If it s the Z axis turn the screw by hand It should move without too much force being applied If it doesn t 1 check that your belt isn t super tight 2 apply machine oil to the bearing rods on that axis 3 try wiggling the platform to align the bearings See the align the bearings section of the body assembly
29. s cables from receiving noise and the motor cables from emitting it i e twist both The ethernet cables are already constructed this way internally 10 24 12 5 14 PM Extrusion Stops But Build Surface Keeps Moving Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Extrusion Stops But Build Surface Keeps Moving When it stops extruding one of a few things could be happening 1 Heat settings or nichrome not adjusted right Did you measure the Ohms of your nichrome If it s too long it won t heat the plastic up fast enough to continue printing it will heat it up slowly so you ll get a bit of extrusion and then won t be able to keep up with it You may also need to increase your temperatures in the raft settings Make sure you re heating it up for a good 5 10 minutes before do your first print of the day Also try running the extruder and running plastic through it for 10 15 minutes to get everything warmed up and happy 2 Gear and Idler wheel adjustment At this point you ll need to floss the teeth and clean the gears in the extruder since it will have worn a groove in the plastic That could also be the problem you re facing If the plastic doesn t get a good enough grip then it won t extrude reliably Did you use the measuring stick to set your idler wheel 3 Height of extrusion It looks like your levels are just a bit too low and the build surface may be blocking the nozzle Print with a raft and lift up your nozzle just a small bit always a
30. should be mindful of while using your machine Belt Tension If the belts curve down and the sides flatten they are likely too loose Symptoms of loose belts may include skipped steps backlash see below or infill that doesn t reach a printed object s inner shell surface When the motor switches directions there is a certain amount of movement it must do in order to pick up the slack on the other side before it can actually move the axis This backlash causes the constructed part to be inaccurate For more information on tightening belts see the proper belt tensioning page Keep X Y and Z Rods Lubricated If your machine is very loud and seems to vibrate a lot when moving you probably need to lubricate the rods All three Thing O Matic axes rely on 3 8 diameter precision rods to ensure smooth linear travel without any wobbling Adding lubrication will clean the rods reduce friction and minimize long term wear on the bushings as they slide along these rods Grab a clean rag apply some lubricant to the rag and run the rag up and down each rod Tighten Your Bolts The bolts on your machine can vibrate loose over time This is particularly true on the X Y and Z axes Loose bolts can lead to failures or extra noise If this happens take your hex key out and tighten any bolts that feel loose Upgrade Your Bot One of the great things about a 3D printer is that it can print its own upgrades and the Makerbot community is c
31. th curling and wont even need a raft For more answers check the forum I ve set my z height but I m tearing up my platform OK no problem Just reduce that number by 2 or 3mm the opposite of the above item tore up my Automated Build Platform belt or it s really warped from printing so many awesome things Don t worry You can get replacements in the store or you can make your own belt like this or this How do change my filament To remove the current filament and start a new filament feed first heat the chamber of the hotend to 220 degrees Celsius so that you can easily pull the filament back out of the chamber If you have just completed a print the chamber might be warm enough for quick removal otherwise open the Control Panel to manually set the hotend to 220 225 degrees Celsius Additionally for 3mm MK5 and MK6 toolheads you will want to loosen the bolt pressing the Delrin plunger against the filament The MK6 toolhead with 1 75mm plates does not have a plunger Pull out the filament by hand or set the extruder motor to reverse to advance the filament back out of the thermal chamber Next insert the new filament and drive it forward into the thermal chamber pre heated to 225 degrees Celsius If you are changing colors it might be a good practice to print a noodle of filament for long enough for the color to shift from previous color to the new color Extrusion problems e The plastic isn t going into the ext
32. toolpath for printing written as G code What software can use to create models You need a solid manifold watertight STL formatted file for importing into ReplicatorG Many if not all solid CAD tools offer an STL export option If your tool doesn t offer this then you can search for 3rd party export plugins or use MeshLab and similar 3D swiss army knife tools to open and convert dozens of file formats into an STL file For design software start here There are a host of powerful free and open source design tools available Favorites include 3dtin com Sketchup OpenSCAD Wings3D and Blender We have heard about but not experimented much with FreeCAD HeeksCAD POVray and Art of Illusion apps that have serious fans in the 3D printing world For commercial solid CAD apps Rhino Autodesk Autocad and Inventor Creo and SolidWorks are expensive industry standard options while Alibre Personal Edition Cheetah and bonzai3D are more affordable but capable modeling CAD tools Where can get models There are a number of places online that allow you to search for and download printable models The best option is to visit Thingiverse com where MakerBot Operators share and download MakerBot printable objects as well as other projects models and files I m uploading a model to my SD card why is this taking so long The data transfer speed to your bot s SD card is infernally slow This is why most of us at the BotCave wi
33. truder Keeps Extruding Troubleshooting Your Thing O Matic Printing Pause But Extruder Keeps Extruding This is commonly thought to be a communication error on the Motherboard There a couple of methods to fix this Swap ethernet cables Switch out the ethernet cable to the extruder with another one Better yet use shielded cat5e cable instead It ll save you a lot of headache trying to figure out why everything is behaving so weirdly Print from an SD card Information can run into a bottleneck thru the FTDI chip going into the Motherboard Having the gcode loaded onto a card in the SD slot on the Motherboard will prevent this Turn off the Control Panel when Printing Having the Control Panel open when printing causes more information to be sent back and forth to the computer Which can slow down the info sent to the Cupcake Reduce EMI Use shielded cat5e cable Physically separate and isolate communication wires and sensing wires from power wires and motor wires Twist related wires together in pairs thermistor motor heater Add noise reduction circuitry to the motors Electromagnetic interference may be leaking into the communication cables Compact fluorescent lights are rumored to cause this The motors themselves generate a lot of noise Try to separate communications cables from motor cables and other noise sources Twist together pairs of feed wires going to the same device where possible This helps both the communication
34. ve the thermistor to prevent it from being damaged Then put two M6 nuts on the barrel tighten them together so they grip the barrel well Heat the barrel up carefully and use an M10 wrench to hold the nuts and an M8 wrench to hold the nozzle and carefully unscrew the nozzle This will become easier as the nozzle approaches the plastic s melting point but note that the wrench will cool the nozzle while they are in contact Dissolving the plastic chemically If you use this method you almost certainly will need to totally remove and later replace your heating element and rebuild the entire extrusion head Also note that most solvents are highly flamable and you should only start this after the parts are all cool Acetone and several other solvents dissolve ABS but very slowly and only with some physical help This may take several hours to a day with frequent agitation and prodding It helps if you can get most of the plastic out via a manual method first More violent methods Other more violent methods including drilling and blow torches are known to work but should be taken at your own risk If the threads of the nozzle are clogged with plastic use an M6 thread tap to make the threads perfect again This works quite well and as long as you re careful it should be very safe for your nozzle If the barrel is clogged with plastic drilling works well to get the plastic out Just make sure the drill is spinning fast enough at the beginn
35. w ribbon cable The Power cords from the corresponding axis motor should be connected to the socket on each board labeled ABCD And the main power from the PSU should be connected from the large narrow socket with Stepper Motor Driver written above it 2 Examine the rainbow ribbon cables power cords and motor cables Are the connectors on both ends attached the same way When you hold the connector on either end with the alignment tab facing up are the colors on the cable in the same sequence Do they seem damaged or are the heads loose a s there any visible wear exposed melted wiring or discoloration around the plugs heads The number one problem people have with stepper motor response is they have either put their rainbow cables together wrong or they look right but there are connections missing Replacing the rainbow cables solves most problems 4 Start alternating the connections on the Stepper Motor Board If you have one axis which is giving you trouble try switching in the cables and cords from an axis that is working and try triggering the stepper Motor with those parts connected Continue alternating the available cables until you identify in what combination the part fails This process of elimination can help identify a bad cable motor or board in not much time 5 Visually inspect the Stepper Motor Driver PCB Remove the attached cords and cables loosen and remove the hex nuts Once you can take the board off the bot
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