I often check on a print using my iPhone and all to often when I am pinching and zooming around the screen I change the extrusion amounts, speed, etc. on accident. For mobile views (assuming they are separate as they appear separate) can you make those drop downs as the slider is hard to adjust to a desired value but easy to move on accident?

@kskiff7034 Using the same method, check across the cable. So one side at the connector at the bltouch (or the connector right before that to be able to disconnect it, and the other side the through the connector. do this to make sure you have continuity down the entire cable.

You set z to 2.5 after it hits the end stop with the G92. This means the bed will be able to travel "2.5" beyond where the endstop is that could lead to colliding of the bed and nozzle. Have you tried printing with the G92 Z2.5 commented out with ";" in front?

The key is to set it such that Z = 0 when the nozzle touches the bed as simplify 3D will usually move the bed -.01 per .1mm by default, so .18z for a .2mm layer height. If the nozzle touches at 2.5, then the bed will move 2.32mm at the start of each print to get to the z = .18.

I had this problem when I first started out. In simplify3D you can also set the first layer height.

@zov I have that nozzle and to be honest I have better luck with my hardened steel tip from e3d. Print tons of cf parts and none have issues. Yes the nozzle works on the smart effector (that’s where I used it) but not any more. The issue is eventually the nozzle gets dirty and despite cleaning it carefully I notice I would get an uneven filament flow rather then a smooth line. Never figured out what caused it, I just know that after using my hardened steel nozzle for twice the time I have yet to encounter the problem.

I can confirm that fixed it. Thanks!

@coreyz I think I see what you are trying to do, unless I am missing something. The issue is that you would want to tell it its really at -2.5mm. The reason is that if you open the gcode file you will see that z is set to "0.18" for example. That means the printer sees that it is at 2.5mm and moves the bed closer to the nozzle to get it to 0.18". at -2.5mm it will move the bed down 2.5mm+.18 to get to position. I personally find it better level the bed to .1mm at z-0 and then let the slicer do the rest.

@bpislife Ok, to close this post out. I was able to repair the traces. What I did was short the broken traces out at the very top, so 5 lines were essentially shorted together. I figured this was better then simply breaking the circuit. I did this in the two places where I had damaged the trace. Turns out the washer had been dented when I removed the e3d hotend and it dug into the PCB when I torqued down the nut.

Anyways, the smart effector works like a champ now.

So an update in case others face this issue. It turns out that when I was changing the top pulley wheel of the front right tower that it didn't feel smooth when i turned it. I put the belt on it and moved it (disconnected from everything else) and I could feel as if the pulley developed a flat spot, always had it, well whatever it was there. Definitely seems like the culprit. I didn't notice before since I didn't have a new pulley to compare it to. It is subtle but you can feel it. Since I never just do a simple repair, I am upgrading the pulleys on all towers to the 16 tooth version, replacing the linear rails, new carriage, belts, 16 tooth gear on the stepper motors, and since I am essentially rebuilding the entire printer, I am also upgrading the motors to 0.9 degree motors.

So yea I definitely think it was just the pulley, but since I already ordered all the parts I am upgrading everything else.

Once I am done replacing everything and re configuring the printer I will re-run the test and post the progress.

Success!! After adjusting the pulley on the motor on the X tower I adjusted the pulley on the right tower as well. There were two set screws and I had both torqued down. There was a lot of play between the pulley and the rod without both, but it turns out using both set screws offset the pulley so that its oblong when secured to the motor shaft. After only using 1 set screw on the flat portion on both motors, the major bands are gone. This is the first time I ever printed this tall without those thick bands.

Now the next thing I need to do is clean up the smaller bands on the printer.

Finally, I get to close out this post!

The thin banding in previous pictures went away with the frame rebuild. The thick banding went away when I tightened the bed's feet up against it so there was no chance of movement.

The result, a perfect print with no banding.

Forgive me if this was already discussed, but playing around with the pwm connectors, the wiring diagram says that pwm_3 is connected to E4 which I think associated to heater 4. In any event PWM3 is controlled by turning off Heater 5 (m307 H5...) and control the pwm 3 by calling heater m280 P5...

This is extremely confusing and not intuitive. The wiring diagram for the servo connector says e4, which is H5 to control pwm3.

The error is that it should at least label Heater 5 along with PWM_3. Heater 6 with pwm_4 etc.

@bpislife Ok, to close this post out. I was able to repair the traces. What I did was short the broken traces out at the very top, so 5 lines were essentially shorted together. I figured this was better then simply breaking the circuit. I did this in the two places where I had damaged the trace. Turns out the washer had been dented when I removed the e3d hotend and it dug into the PCB when I torqued down the nut.

Anyways, the smart effector works like a champ now.

Ok, turns out I damaged the traces on the PCB. Looks like I am going to be ordering a new one. I do plan to attempt to repair the traces, but we all already know how that's going to end.

@veti it did work fine with the e3d hotend but may try swapping it back in just to see.

@dc42 it happens anytime the sensitivity is set below 80 regardless of the hotend state. This problem also seemed to have steadily crept in as the light makes more false triggers then normal. Like I said it worked well enough. Now I am running G32 with the hotend off just to rule out noise or interference from the hotend or fans.

Thinking deeper, what sort of things would effect the sensitivity? Noise I know, but what about bad ground, broken or out of spec part (if so, which ones in particular) etc?

Also what force would you expect needs to be seen for it to trigger at 85? Doesn’t seem that far off from 50 in a scale of 255, but event 6000 federate doesn’t trigger it properly.

Just to add a little more detail. If I change the sensitivity to about 85 it stops the LEDs both when its still and when its moving. The issue is even with a feed rate set to 3000 the nozzle hits the bed and skips. Any ideas?

@bpislife I did change from a 35W to a 50W heater cart. Is there something I need to calibrate out for it to work. The hotend already turns off when it goes to probe but the green light still goes crazy.

I am hoping someone can help me figure out what’s going on with my smart effector. Worked for over a year and nothing changed, EXCEPT I changed over to a mosquito. I noticed the green LED goes bananas even when sitting still. Went to run its first print and at all probe points I received “probe already triggered”.

Did I break something, crush something, etc? Just not sure where to look.

I often check on a print using my iPhone and all to often when I am pinching and zooming around the screen I change the extrusion amounts, speed, etc. on accident. For mobile views (assuming they are separate as they appear separate) can you make those drop downs as the slider is hard to adjust to a desired value but easy to move on accident?

Also forgive me for assuming you don’t know this but I figured I would mention it. Make sure each lead of the pair is plugged into the same same side of the pt100 boards not mixed. I had an issue with my pt100 and I had cross leads and clearly that didn’t work right.

I would check your solder joints where you are tying your pair to a single lead. I would also use a DMM in continuity mode to test that wiring to make sure you didn’t cross a pair somewhere. On the PT100 board make sure jumpers are removed to make it a 4 wire measurement, and then check you config file to make sure you are telling it to use the PT100 board and not the thermistor pins. 4 wire should be fine for that length as the idea is the extra impedance from that long run should be cancelled out. That said there may still be a practical limit. I stress MAY.