Geeetech

Hi

I am new to 3D printing and I have a Geeetech A10. However I coud not manage yet to have a proper print.
I have big under-extrusion problem :
On my first try of printing (test dog gcode) filament wont got out.
With multile tries I fanally managed to have material going out of the extruder, but only a few. I let the print go anyway.
30min in, I heard clics from the extruder stepper. soon after no material would come out of the nozzle. I then stopped the printing. the resul in on the left of the picture : The filament had been grinded by the extruder. In unglogged the nozzle and tried multiple other manual extrusion and printing at different temp while staying in the limit of my PLA temp range (190-220°C). It was a failure Everytime, the extruder eventually forcing on the filament. Everytime I took the filament out, I could clearmy see that the filament was forced down the nozzle (or just above), it curl like a spring or has a big buldge : I finally anaged t got a print without a blocage buT I had to got the temp up to 250°C. And even tthen the impresion show clear signs of extreme under extrusion (the cube on the right of the first photo). first layer was good thought : I changed the nozzle to see if it was plugged, but it still wont work.
Plus I saw something strange, last time I tried (with the new nozzle), went i took the filament out to unclogg it had not formed a buldge nor a spring but it had a small ring of matter that formed around it between the nossle and the begining of the bowden tube I think.

Where those problem can come from ? any Idea ? 250 is way to high for PLA, but it was the only temp where I coul get what looked like a print.

If you search on some of the posts I (and others) have made, I have had similar problems.

If you're still on the stock firmware, I'd look hard in to trying either Vert's Marlin 2.0 or even the newer 1.1.9. Also look in (search posts) for the gentleman who had a decent Cura profile for the A-10(m)... The combination of both took me from severe under-extrusion to very nice prints.

There seems to be a reason many reviewers are calling this printer a great value -- but NOT for beginners... or the faint of heart.

Good luck!

make sure the bowden tube is fully seated in the hot end.

Well it seems that I had a combinaision of problems,
Frist, I made extra sure that the bowden tube was all the way down to the hotend. that took care of the force the stepper had to do (and the bending of the filament).
Then I checked Esetp/mm and, man, that was waaay off, I had to add 161 setps/mm for it to be correct.

printing is still in progess but looks really fine, I'll post the result when it will have finished.

Thanks for the help guys

Oh and by the way, I cannot update the firmware at the oment, the USB on my board does not work, I'll build a ISP to perform Jtag reflash unsing one of my other arduino later.... when i'll have time and motivation.