Bugs /Feature request

#1

Issues:

  • When adjusting position with sliders, it is possible to jump too far of a position; reaching the end of the axis and forcing continued motor drive (grinding). Dobot already confirmed this as an issue on Mooz 2’s

  • When adjusting Z height, Mooz will automatically adjust position increments from 10mm to 1mm to 0.1mm as it gets closer to the build plate, however when pressing up, it will keep the original selection which is a slight nuisance when you want to nudge the head up and down to confirm position is ideal

  • When levelling build plate for Z, Mooz will drive X & Y axis (to move to positions 2 & 3) however, it either does so without adjusting Z, or Z is done at the same time. If the Z points are done tight to the build plate or the build plate isn’t perfectly level, nozzle head can drag along build plate?

  • Mooz is advertised with a build volume 130mm cubed, however build plate is exactly 130mmx130mm, so even though it can certainly print 130mm cubed, anything that prints against the boundaries may print off-edge. Future build plates should be increased in size slightly; above advertised print dimensions.

  • The “stop printing” button does an absolute stop on the printing and causes grinding of axis on faster prints, please “wind down” to a safe speed and stop.

Feature requests:

  • I think Dobot could do a lot more with the screen. The calibration “page” is slightly cryptic in operation using symbols only with no feedback to the user in respects to what is happening or required from them, yet there are only 3 actual options?
  1. Level Z bed
  2. Zero Z
  3. Set X/Y origin (i.e. for CNC)

Why is it we don’t have simple, “plain” options such as above and remove the xyz sliders (xyz sliders are unnecessary by default), and then give a guided walk through on the screen in respects to what you are supposed to be doing, i.e. to level Z, zero Z, set origin?

I’ve been away for 4 days (I work away) and while I remembered the Z bed levelling process, I forgot the Z zeroing procedure already, and it seems silly I have to get the manual out when it could be on screen? I know there is hardware limitations but I certainly see this as possible.

Motor grinding and fast printing.

I previously mentioned to Dobot that at 80mm/s printing, there is an apparent grinding sound with quick changes in directions. At 160mm/s printing this is only much more apparent.

I believe Mooz can certainly print in excess of 160mm/s with little to no loss of quality (my 160mm printing, albeit short, looked exactly the same as =< 80mm/s and adherence /strength was perfectly fine) , but grinding is an issue and likely not good for the overall health of the printer.

is there anyway mooz can be updated to “slow down” when approaching a direction swap or generally stop the grinding? this should also lower vibrations and increase print quality. Hammering an 80mm/s left print directly into a right print seems to be the current approach based on the grinding.

please note, while I say 160mm i can only say i set it to 200% on an 80mm print. I asked for confirmation on exact maximum speeds but only got told that ‘yes the motors can go faster’, however motor pitched changed with each increment so presumably it was 160mm.

#2

Issures:

  1. Will be fixed in the next version of firmware.
  2. Will be fixed in the next version of firmware.
  3. It will go 10mm above the next point, so I don’t think this is gonna be an issue, unless on the current point, the nozzel is already stuck in the heated bed.
    4.Noted.
    5.We will test it to see if it needed to be optimized.

We will take serious consideration into your feature requests, but they are gonna take a lot of work.

#3

Couple of other issues

  • Mooz 2’s (or at least mine) X/Y axis for 3D printing is off by a few mm (left most and bottom most edges). On a 130mm sized print, or one with models positioned towards the boundaries, it prints off edge on the left and bottom sides and the right /top side has a large space. (head is on correct position)

  • The touch device often glitches and shows text in wrong areas briefly, for example, when dialling the bed or extruder temperature up, instead of showing the current temperature and target temperature, it’ll flicker briefly showing the x/y/z coordinates. The printing screen can also show the name of another file on disk being printed

  • when adjusting Z (and I presume all axis), if you’re set to 10mm increments and press to move several times or hit the slider, a large increment happens quickly, and occasionally you can hear the stepper skip and so accuracy may be out of alignment? The manual says Z shouldnt go faster than 60 or 50mm otherwise risk of skipping, but maybe that isn’t honoured on this menu?

  • on the laser, if you stop an etch the machine does a motor calibration twice whereas on 3D printing it does it only once? I would say this is probably unnecessary entirely anyway - by all means, raise the head to the corner and bring the plate towards you for better access, but the calibration should be done just before any printing.

  • A laser set to just “5” (lowest power) is still very bright when focusing it down to it’s optimum focal point (with glasses on). Is there no way we could have some kind of template that we could print off (i.e. two circles, one inside the other) and set the larger, out of focus dot within these circles and have mooz calculate the focal point for us?

  • The screens “buttons” are always blue. This gives the impression of it being “on”, however for things like the heated bed and extruder, should be blue to indicate they are on? and grey when off? Similarly, the motor lock button doesn’t give clarity if the motors are locked or not, always shows “unlocked”. I haven’t doubled checked this on the new firmware.

As per things taking a lot of work /time, can you say what you are running on the handset for firmware? I could probably write a new one for you if it’s in something im proficient in. :stuck_out_tongue: . Same for the main firmware too…

#4
  1. We will check and fix it, it is an X/Y offset deviation problem.
  2. We will try locate the problem and fix it, though it won’t affect normal use.
  3. Sorry, I can’t quite follow you, maybe explain it more clearly?
  4. The machine will perform homing actions after stopping printing, lasering or cncing, it is the same actions, no difference between lasering or printing. `Adding homing actions after stopping is a temporary solution for a bug remain to be fixed: the machine will lost it coordinates after sudden stopping.
  5. We will try to offer lower power options for focsing, maybe “1, 2”. Another things you should know is that the focal point has a range of 10mm, there is no need to set to 0.1mm step intensity for focusing.
  6. Issues noted, we will fix it when we have time.
    Thanks for your suggestions.
#5

in regards to point 3:

When positioning the Z axis (such as to zero it), if you do a large movement (several 10mm increments or jumping a large gap with the slider) sometimes the motor will skip. I assume this is related to the speed as the manual made notes about keeping the Z axis under 50/60mm/s. I also assume in the case of a skip, the axis would then be out of alignment when you define a zero point (but this depends on whether you count down after the home, or count up after the zero).

In regards to point 4:

This is fair enough if it’s in place to maintain coordinates. However the laser does the homing twice when stopped and not just once

#6

I just tested V1.3.9, it will only home once

#7

Are you sure it will skip? Because the default speed is 20mm/s inV1.3.9

#8

I’m currently printing a piece but I’ll try get a recording of it happening tonight if i can. It doesn’t happen every time though.

is it possible to detail how to correctly disassemble the axis? Do the end caps just pop off? It might be that one of my Z axis’s is off or similar.

edit:

With the latest firmware, I cannot reproduce the issue with the Z axis so this is likely fixed now. I do believe jumping a large gap with the slider does move the axis very slowly (20mm?) but doing several 10mm increments appear to drive it faster.

Also, with the fast printing (i.e. 160mm plus), it seems the slicer software can be set up and tuned to handle this via jerk /acceleration controls to some degree. I initially thought “jerk” forces a deceleration to a certain defined speed but that is not the case, rather we can just set a softer jerk to smooth the transition somewhat?

So I do wonder what the motor driving profile is like, in respect to slowing down closer to the target end destination?

#9

The #1 X & Y offset: I have to set to 7,7 when setting z home position to get the mozzle over the bed, but zero all does not set X or Y to zero in 3d print mode. I had to reduce the build volume by 7mm per side in Cura to keep large (or multi item) prints on the bed. This produces a 116mmx116mm build area…

Feature request: Delete gcode file from the touchpad (manual, not automatic).

#10

There’s only a Z zeroing procedure for 3D printing, x & y are intentionally designed to not get changed.

You can set up a start code in Cura to set your own offset. The default start code in cura is:

28 ;Home
G1 Z15.0 F6000 ;Move the platform down 15mm
G92 E0
G1 F200 E13
G92 E0

if you add:

G0 X7 Y7 ; adjust to print bed corner
G92 X0 Y0 Z15 ; Set current location as 0, 0, 15

Can’t try it on mine as it’s all packed away now.

#11

Expand the build volume will work, since the travel distance of each linear guide is about 139mm.

#12

This may work, but the codes must be added after “G1 Z15.0 F6000 ;Move the platform down 15mm”, and the “X7 Y7” should be a negative, and the coordinate “X-7 Y-7” may have exceeded the machine limit. Expand the the build volume is more easier.

#13

I can confirm the “double homing” is a result of attempting to print bad gcode (in my case, I was pulling my USB stick out before gcode file was finished saving).

Effectively, the printer will be set to “printing” but nothing will happen. As soon as you press stop I assume it does the initial homing it should have done for the printing stage, and then another for the post-print stage.

So this does bring up the question, in the instance the file is bad, and the printer will “hang”, is there no way to identify and tell the user this?

I also had a print “air print” yesterday. I’m not sure what it was but heard the printer make an unusual noise from down stairs so checked up on it and found it was printing in the air.

I stopped the print and just checked that the offset was properly recorded by being able to move the Z axis towards to bed as per normal. restarted print and all was OK. No turn off was done.

I believe this was a fresh power-up, but could have been after the bad gCode mentioned above ^.

On a side note Sunger, I haven’t been to happy with a noise on my Y axis and it is hard to describe the noise it makes, I thought it might have been the leadscrew not being true and grinding only at a particular position giving a inconsistent grinding noise, especially as I could see a bit of “wobble” on the open-ended tip end when it was running .

I’ve checked over all my axis (dissasembled, cleaned and relubricated and adjusted the leadscrew) so it runs smooth, and I swapped my Y axis for one of my Z axis - when it moves down everything is fine, but when it moves up it does click a few times.

Do you have any insight on this? I’m wondering if the linear slide is bad or maybe bent from overrunning? as i recall my Y axis did make a few awful overruns grinds on earlier firmware from just “stopping” a print so don’t know if this has the ability to mess anything up?

#14

I think the click sound is produced by the steel balls inside the linear guide, it is normal since we used heavy-preload linear guides to ensure accuracy.

#15

Can confirm, initial power up + print from USB stick = air printing.

If you stop the print it forces the motors to “home” and then initiating the print again goes as per normal. I suspect this is because on initial power up /printing it’s not homing the motors and priming the printer.

#16

I will check it up, thanks for the feedback.

#17

Nothing like you mentioned happened, I thinke it could be a USB disk problem.

#18

I’ve been doing all my printing from a USB stick so possibly?

But a powered up machine > navigate to Udisk > select items > click print icon

…has resulted in an air print on a couple of occassions now. However it coule be from the last powered on state?

Normally after I’ve finished a print, I just turn the machine off, so the last position is just above my model (or whereever i slide the motors to if their in the way), so maybe it’s from that? As there is no “homing” procedure after a finished print or before a new print, unless one is forced by stopping a print for example or re-doing level z…

#19

if there no homing procedure afte selecting a new file to print, check whether there is G28 in the first several lines of your gocode, there should be, otherwise it could cause air pirnting

#20

Somehow the G from G28 was missing in my Cura start up gcode. Must have done it when I copied the above as that is also missing the G!

Many thanks Sunger!