After packing away the Snapmaker 2’s 3D printing module for several month originally to wait for firmware updates, then a number of life issues took up way too much time. Finally got the 3D module out today to restart some unfinished projects and play with the update firmware.
I tried to load the filament but the extruder apparently wanted more of a break and wouldn’t pull the filament. I opened the panel and checked the channel, it appeared clean and as second check I was able to push the filament down manually with the door open and I was able to get PLA to come out the end of the hot end by gently pushing. Closed the door and tried a printing…no extruding. Tried using the Control / Nozzle / Unload feature and nothing.
Anyone encountered their extruder just decide to not work like that? Only had about 20 hours of printing use on the module too.
I did preheat the extruder via the console screen. The load command was done via the control screen that is part of the Snapmaker 2. I am running all commands and actions via the A350. My external systems are only being used to slice the STL file and the resulting gcode file was being transferred via USB stick.
The extruder does not appear clogged. I can gently push filament through and I have extruded filament when I manually push and the nozzle is heated. Also when I manually loaded the filament via heating the nozzle and opening the access panel on the 3D printing module there is a minor amount of material coming out the bottom of the nozzle. Thus there is room enough for material to come out of the nozzle indicating there shouldn’t be any heavy clogging of the nozzle.
There is no noise or visual clues of movement from the extruder gear when it is expected to be moving during loading, unloading or during printing. I watched it multiple times when issuing the load and unload commands from the A350 control panel.
Hey, I am not sure right now but I guess there is no load/unload control on the touchscreen of the SM2.0
If you did this with Luban, try to preheat with the control near the load/unload buttons in Luban.
If you preheat with the touchscreen, with manual control, the communication might be blocked to the print controller, this would cause that you can’t load filament with luban.
Have you tried to print something and see if the extruder gear rotates?
The SM2 A350’s control screen does have a load and unload feature. You can reach it via the Controls -> Nozzle menu. When one heats up the nozzle and it reaches the temperature set, the Load and Unload commands are enabled.
It appears something is wrong in the E stepper or the assembly from it to the gear that pushes the filament. There is no movement and power is being supplied to the fans and the nozzle / hot end. I hear the fan running at times and feel the air being pushed out and the nozzle does get hot - I can feel it by bringing a finger near to it. Thus power must be getting to the 3D printing module.
I will attempt this same activity with Luban and report back when I can. I have a software release tomorrow for the company I work with so it may bump things if any more issues arise.
I am unable to connect Luban to the printer. Wi-fi wise I keep receiving timeout errors for 3000ms and I have the printer in an area that while I can connect to my Wi-Fi sometimes, it is in a shop so there is a lot of interference if certain doors are closed. Serial connection between my Macs and Windows machines are not possible at this time so unless I can get past the timeout errors I am seeing, I am unable to test loading and unloading initiated via Luban (in addition, I do not see any controls in the Luban interface for load or unloading - jogging and current position I do see).
If it helps determine the problem - on the first attempt yesterday, when the loading would not work, I manually loaded the filament into the module by opening the access door and feeding it into the lower whole, closed the door and tried a print run. The A350 executed the print commands, tracing the expected path, but no extrusion of material. There was no grinding or wear on the filament so the gear that feeds it could not have been active.
Interestingly enough…and a little concerning, but glad it is working for now - after several unplugs / replugs while powered done and different days, while I was trying to get a movie of the stepper gear assembly in the print module “not” rotating it rotated. Working well so far.
The programmer in me is concerned because it is better to know the reason why something is not working, but at least I can speed up the big printing project I started.
Resurrecting this somewhat… I seem to be having a very similar issue. I just bought a new FDM tool head from the recent sale. Plugged it in and powered up… and it updated the tool head firmware (probably relevant!)… the nozzle heats up, I can control heating and get temperature telemetry… but the load and unload buttons do nothing: the drive gear doesn’t turn. I’m also a software guy and this seems like a software issue. I think the firmware update has gotten something confused. I was looking for a way to factory reset the tool head but am not finding one.
Did you say this resolved itself by hot-plugging/hot-unplugging the tool head? You might wonder why I bought a new FDM head… it’s because I fried my last one doing just that (though really because in doing so I plugged the cord in backwards, which let the magic blue smoke out). However, before you point fingers, since then I carved a large CNC project, which worked just fine, so I’m pretty sure only that old FDM head was damaged.
Any way to shake up the tool head to maybe get it to snap out of it?
Have you tried commanding it to feed filament via command line? Connect via Luban and first input M83 this puts the extruder in relative mode. Then input something like G1 E100 F100 which tells the extruder to extrude 100mm of filament at 100mm/m. See if the drive gear turns. If it doesn’t move while taking direct gcode, then it’s hardware related (assuming you’ve tried downgrading and upgrading).
@Skreelink Interesting, I had not tried that, good tip, thanks. No dice though.
Of note, i realized I was on v1.14.1 and v1.14.3 was available, so I upgraded firmware via USB… that went fine, everything seems to have upgraded. But behavior is the same. And trying the suggested commands didn’t move the extruder gear.
> M83
M83
ok
> G1 E100 F100
G1 E100 F100
echo: cold extrusion prevented
echo: cold extrusion prevented
ok
others < new E target temp: 200
> G1 E100 F100
G1 E100 F100
ok
A few notes on the transcript above… first try was before I did anything on the touchscreen… hence the cold extrusion prevented message. So, not knowing the Gcode commands to warm up the nozzle, I set it to 200 using the touchscreen. After it was warmed up, I tried the commands again. interestingly, the “Load” and “Unload” buttons on the touchscreen greyed out while this command was running. No gear movement however. But it seems the system thinks it’s moving when it’s not.
I haven’t tried a downgrade/upgrade, though I’ve tried an upgrade as mentioned above. How do I downgrade/upgrade? Load two versions on a USB drive? Any trick to the procedure? Should I go all the way down to v1.13? Further?
Downgrade to the last version of 1.13, which I think was 1.13.2? The gcode to set hotend temp is M104 i.e. M104 S200 sets the nozzle at 200. There’s also M302 that can disable the cold extrusion check.
To downgrade, just slap the bin firmware files for both on the USB and flash them via the file menu. Power cycle after downgrade, then again after upgrade.
@Skreelink Great stuff, thanks. Went through all these procedures and still not rotating. Tried the GCode commands under 1.13.2 also, no change. Back up to 1.14.3 and no improvement. I get oks from the terminal but nothing happens. Looks like it maybe hardware in this case.
Yes, however after that I did a CNC job for 6 days with no issues. And the head is recognized and talking (can warm up the nozzle and see the temperature), so it really seems like the controller is fine.