J1s First Use - Calibration Failure, possibly need to factory reset?

Snapmaker J1/J1s
1

Hello, I’m scratching my head trying to figure out where to go from here. All help from support or experienced users would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve attached a link to the video of me reproducing the problem here:

I ordered a Snapmaker J1s about 2 weeks ago and it arrived at my house yesterday. I unboxed it according to the instructions, connected it to wifi, and began running through the first use wizard. The first odd thing I noticed was during heated bed leveling. The left extruder went to the datum and right points just fine, and then went to the left point. The left point seemed way too high, or the extruder is too low - the extruder was really shoving down on the bed and pushing it out of calibration and I had to crank the knob to get it green and quickly hit “Next” on the touchscreen. On each “up and down” motion the left extruder never really left contact with the left point.

I did the Z offset calculation, which seemed to go just fine.

I finally am stuck here - I’m running XY offset calibration over and over again and everytime, the left extruder moves to the middle, goes down into the XY center area of the heated bed, and then reports a failure and returns home. It seems to go too low into this hole and touch the bed with the side of the hot end. I can’t get past this step.

I tried running the offset print as a next step to just see if I could print anything at all and get past the first use wizard (there is no way to exit this wizard until all the steps are completed.) That only gouged a line into the glass build plate from the left extruder, where I had to quickly power down the machine.

What I would like is any ideas on troubleshooting the height of the left extruder or left build plate motor, any way to factory reset the machine to start completely from scratch (maybe make sure the latest firmware is installed), any other tips J1 users have for me. And I need a way to do this while soft-locked inside the first use wizard, which does not have an option to exit (that I can see.)

The last thing to note was on unpacking my J1s, the left extruder’s belt clip was not fastened with a zip tie like the instructions said there would be. I noticed this belt clip was shifted from the right. This could have some effect on the situation. Also, many of the belts looks frayed on this machine like they were rubbing up against stuff in transit, or possibly old and non-flexible?

2

@StealthyTurtle Did you try turning the knobs all the way down so that the springs are under max compression before starting calibration? Also you might want to make sure that the toolheads are firmly constrained to the rail and not wiggling… Thats all I got. Hope you get it sorted!

3

If you are adjusting the right extruder, you should not turn the table adjustment knobs any more. Instead you need to adjust relative position of right extruder against already adjusted table. This is done by adjustment wheel, see picture below:
image
First you unlock extruder with two bolts as you have done already (just release them a little bit so you can move extruder by adjustment wheel, do not make them too loose), then adjust relative position of extruder and when done, tighten the two bolts again.

4

Thank you both for the helpful responses, @Karass3D I will remember to do the Z-offset correctly when I get there again.

@Rwide I’ve tightened up all 3 springs under the bed and re-ran heated bed levelling. Now, there is a new set of issues as detailed here:

Now, heated bed leveling fails after probing the left point. I’ve noticed that the datum point is probed in the very back of the point instead of the center like I would expect, which made me think there’s an more issues than just the bed. The printer now (after tightening all 3 knobs) touches down and completely misses the left point and reports a failure on leveling.

I noticed the X-axis rail is skewed where the left extruder is farther back than the right. I posted that in the second video. This surely is impacting things, any guide on how I can fix this rail?

5

Oh yeah, something that very well could have impacted this - When I ran the first onboarding steps, the swiveling filament guide on top of the left extruder got jammed against the side of the frame (it didn’t clear over the top of the frame) and I had to grab it and move it out of the way when I realized. This could have knocked the rail out of alignment.

Snapmaker should update their instructions to warn users this piece can get jammed.

6

If thightening the bed springs did not fix the problem, perhaps you want to loosen them a bit and do the z-offset correctly so you get past the wizard…

But regarding the x-rail not being aligned properly. You could try turning the printer off and then press the x-rail gently against the back so it becomes perpendicular to the y rails…

7

It seems that gently pushing against the back doesn’t change anything, it’s rigidly unaligned. @Snapmaker-Support how can I fix the alignment of my X rail on a J1s? See the above video for reference

8

Left extruder almost missing datum point (moving too deep backwards) and surely missing left contact point is because of mishap with left part of X-axis rail. Axis misalignment at datum point is about 1/2 of total mistake (it is in the middle of axis span) so at the left corner you see the full impact.
In such a case I would rather inquire Snapmaker support for their in-house instructions on initial X-axis alignment during machine assembly process! This is not rocket science but they know what reference points they use to get X-axis squarely aligned against Y motion - surely within good practice this should not be done “by eye” :slight_smile:
X axis is driven by one stepper motor with protruding shaft with synchro belt pulleys on both ends. In such a case you have succeeded to do a mechanical misalignment that can not be compensated any electronically. In fact I can imagine two things that have happened - either toothed belt skipped one or some more teeth over the left pulley or pulley has been turned around over shaft end. Pulleys are as in picture:

image
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The most likely the latter has happened as with new and properly tensioned belt tooth skip is very seldom. So to my mind it is about releasing two set bolts in left pulley, moving left part of X-axis where it has to be and re-tightening set bolts again. But - better to contact Snapmaker support first - probably they can share some good lifehacks on this.

9

I agree with @Karass3D but instead of releasing the set bolts in the pulleys, it might be easier to release the tension on the y belts by unscrewing the two screws in the backside of the printer and then see if you can align the x rail with y rail.

Another way to go would be to push the side of the xrail that isnt touching the backside a little harder… :upside_down_face:

10

I have not checked way the X-axis belts are tensioned - luckily had no necessity yet. If two bolts on the back panel (one for each side) are for the purpose, than releasing bolt on left side might give a chance to skip the belt over pulley for one or more teeth (tooth pitch seems to be 2 mm?) and hope this move will bring alignment back.
If pulley have been turned on shaft by excessive force, it is not maintaining it’s position safely any more and set bolts on it need to be re-tightened anyway. If this is not done, all history of 3D printing faults will fall on users head :slight_smile:

11

Snapmaker support responded to my support request. We haven’t covered aligning the X-axis rail yet, but they did show me how to escape the Wizard:

https://support.snapmaker.com/attachments/token/LDLIP11ufiJmqSHo3Q3EZ3IJV/?name=J1+Jump+Out+Wizard+20230509-103254.mp4

12

Copied reply here from Snapmaker which unblocked me:

Phenomenon

Getting a stalling sound from the Y axis. / Failing to trigger the photoelectric sensor on the Y axis.

Possible Reason

One of the belts on Y axes jumped teeth due to some impact during transportation, which caused the X axis to not perpendicular to the Y axes. The limit bar (in position 1) blocks the movement, and the machine fails to trigger the photoelectric sensor (in position 2) on the Y axis.

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Solution

  1. Power off the machine.
  2. If you have removed the limit bars on the Y axes, please install them back to the original places.
  3. Use a screwdriver (H2.5) to loosen the two screws on the coupling on the X axis.

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4.Move the print heads to the center of the X axis and push them to the front of the machine to make it against the upper frame of the machine.

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5.Check the angle of the coupling. Manually turn the coupling to an angle as the following photo shows if it’s not in this angle previously. This check is to ensure that you can tighten the screws on the coupling.

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Pay attention to the details below. Make sure that the end face of the optical shaft is not visible in the middle of the coupling, which means that the coupling and the optical shaft are fully coupled.

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  1. Press the print heads tightly to make sure they are against the upper frame of the machine. At the same time, use a screwdriver to tighten the screws on the coupling.
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Have a nice day!

13

Great to see and hear your machine is back to life again!
I thought as well it was better to do realignment on coupling, just noticed it there later. Pulleys should have been secured by set bolts one of them against flank notch on shaft end but coupling secures position on round ends of shaft.

14

Yeah and unfortunately one of the belts was not tied down when I received my unit. This probably made things worse.

15

Hope initial troubles are in past now! Happy printing!

16

OMG, found this and it solved my issue, thank you