A10 - total beginner - help! Please :)

[alienbraincookies]

I was given an A10 for my birthday by an equally old man who likes choosing fun gifts

I built it today, mostly using YouTube because the instructions are... less than clear in some parts. Do the ribbon cable before you bolt it to the thing, etc.

Anyway: I have a few issues, and some questions that are probably very stupid. Please indulge me and help if you can?

Issues:

After finishing the build I followed the two-page instructions to level the bed: Home the printer (auto home) and then disable stepper motors to do the bed levelling.

First stupid questions:
If I disable the steppers, does the printer "know" where it is as I move the extruder around to check the levels?
What does homing do anyway - it seems to park the extruder head off the build plate and lower than the plate can actually go.

After doing that first level, it looked like the extrude head was too low: it was pushing against the plate, and a red light seems to come on if that's the case.

More stupid questions:
Does that light come on to indicate a problem?
Am I supposed to use the little clips to fix the glass to the underneath bit? They get in the way of the levelling process, and I've read that some models glue the glass thing to the thing underneath.

So, I started again and this time used the level corners option in the menu. Eventually I got all 4 corners so that I could pull a sheet of paper underneath the nozzle and feel a bit of friction while doing it, which I suppose is the plan.

Everything seemed good, so I tried to print the dog file on the SD card. The printer seemed to send the extrude head to the home position, while it was heating up. I assume that is normal. Once it hit whatever temp it was aiming for, it commenced printing... which was a sad drizzle of plastic that didn't stick to the print bed, or really flow at all. There was a bit of plastic emerging but then it stopped. So I stopped the print, and tried a couple more times... when no filament was extruded at all.

After some googling I decided the nozzle was clogged, so I removed it (not clogged, but looked dark inside compared to the spare one). I replaced it with the spare one, during which I made sure the filament could actually get through the hole where the nozzle goes (it could), and tried again.

This time, when heating up, it created a stream of filament that wrapped itself unhelpfully around the nozzle, so I removed that while it was reaching the correct temp. When it started the print, nothing came out, and after a few seconds of movement of the bed, the motors made a god awful noise so I hit the reset button, and the noise stopped.

I have no idea what to do next, except ask for help. Please!

Even more stupid questions:
Is it best to use the printer standalone, using files on the SD card (this is what I did during the above) or is it better to run it from a PC?
During the corner setting process it was clear that the printer doesn't really know where the corners are. Is that a problem? Can I fix it?

Sorry for all the asks. Thanks!

[alienbraincookies]

Hmm, well I haven't made any progress so far.

Here's an example of a successful print (in as much as some filament came out). Most of the time it produces nothing - filament just sticks to the nozzle. I have cleaned the nozzle (and yes I do clean the bed too - that example is a bit dirty but it seems to make no difference either way).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek4rY4R0lbo
(not the most exciting video in the world but if you spot anything... )


Here's the awful noise it makes on homing (sometimes):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Dvd8mhXQY

I agree, tinkering is the thing, but it would be nice to be tinkering with print quality rather than getting the thing to print ANYTHING :]

I've tried using Cura too and it's the same thing... either nothing is printed or it just doesn't stick. I have levelled and levelled, cleaned and cleaned... any ideas?

Thx
abc

[wotor]

In my opinion, nozzle is still to far away from bed. About noise, it is not normal and I think it is coming from Y stepper. I would check Y home switch. What Marlin your printer is running?

[alienbraincookies]

Thanks. How much friction should there be on the bit of paper you use to level the corners? I can slide the paper while feeling some resistance but not so much I have to pull it hard.

That noise isn't normal? Phew. How would I check the Y home switch?

I'm running 1.1.8

[wotor]

If you can move paper with some resistance it should be ok. Bed might be warped and that's why filament does not stick properly. To check switch use multimeter (it is regular switch on/off). If you know how, change that stock firmware (it's known for quite few problems) for Marlin 2.0 from Vert. He optimized firmware for the a10m and a10. If you can't, find someone who can help you.

[alienbraincookies]

If you can't, find someone who can help you.

That's why I'm asking here

[Jarda3d]

Printer need to be aligned and tightened once again, shipping is brutal killer. Then it will work.

The strange sound is step loss.

[alienbraincookies]

Video 1 clearly shows what happens when the bed isn't level

Video 2 is proof that geeetech settings are total garbage and extremely to high.

Heh, thanks Vert. So I guess I will do more levelling. Do you think, when I print and no filament comes out, that means the bed is too high, perhaps?

As for the settings - I am trying to compile your v2 firmware - will that help? Or should I totally ignore the Geetech controls and set everything in software, Cura or whatever?

The strange sound is step loss.

@Jarda3d - ok, thanks. Now I have to find out what step loss means.

[alienbraincookies]

Your firmware certainly feels more "thorough", @Vert

No horrible grinding noises from the motors so far. But still no luck printing. I am very confused: I saw a post somewhere about the need for the cooling fan to work properly otherwise the filament won't extrude properly - the sense I got was, that if the extruder was too hot, then there would be no consistent flow as the extruder gear pushed. But if that were the case, surely I'd end up with filament just spewing out at random... what I get is, no filament. The extruder gear is pushing. The nozzle is hot (ouch). WHere is it all going? I removed the nozzle and cleaned the assembly and it was pretty clear.

VERY CONFUSED.

[William]

Hi, You can try heating the nozzle to 200 ° and then manually push the consumables to see if the material can be discharged normally.
If the nozzle is blocked, it needs to be cleaned in time.