Taz4

Hi… ive just brought a Taz4 and getting use to it printing a number of taz parts to get use to it… Im using ABS @ 230 Nozzel & the bed set at 80… It all worked fine with all expected problems setting it up from info off this group helped me sort it out with sticking but thats seams to be ok now and dont have any issues as such printing the taz stuff out…

Anyhow… during the following week i has issues with the printer, first the bed was going upto temp quite fast and a couple of degrees before the target temp the heating would slow down to an almost stop, The Taz4 just displayed Bed Heating for maybe half an hour before printing? maybe on the next print it would start straight away as soon as it gets up to temp??
This has been intermittent over the last few days of testing…
To add to the problem now the printer sometimes locks up half way through a print, Just over an hour into a print? its done it a number of times and after restarting the printer and computer it works for a bit and does the same again… After cleaning the bed and setting up again after this happens its starting to be an issue with trying it again on a small print first without problems and then doing a larger print after this and failing again.

I have gone to the length of using another pc running Windows 7 and the problem started again after a couple of small prints?

I have also printed direct from the SD card to rule out issues with the PC… i have use different Gcodes also?

Ive been printing from printrun and also the sd card. I will give any more info need to help sort this out?
I have checked all the connections and all those are fine… ive gone over the printer a number of times also for loose connections what would be causing any issues?

Many thanks Dean

  1. Is the fan in front of the control board spinning.

  2. If you print from the SD card with the USB cable unplugged from the printer does it still hang printing.

  3. if #2 is a yes contact support.

  4. The bed heating times may be due to air currents hitting the bed surface and cooling it.

Don’t set the temps in your slicer software! Instead have the slicer temps set to 0 and set the TAZ temps up manually using the LCD screen. Once the machine comes up to temp hit print.
This is a known issue with slicing software–almost all from what I’ve heard.

Which slicing software are you using? Are you using a Lulzbot created profile?

Some slicing software add g-code which waits for either the hotend or bed yo teach a stable temp. If you can look through the options, disable the wait for the bed to reach temp. I usually like to preheat the bed and nozzle manually before starting a print:

  • start the bed;
  • when the bed reaches 50C, start the nozzle.
  • by the time the nozzle reaches 230C the bed should be about 85C.

Can’t explain the print stopping after an hour… Check that there are no background applications running on the PC. Don’t use the PC while printing. And make sure its not hibernating or doing some sort of power save feature.

As mentioned above, upload your gcode to the printer’s SD card and print direct from the LCD. Make sure the PC is unplugged from the printer.

Thanks for the help…
I was using printrun & was just printing the designs what come with printer on the SD card to get use to it…
I have since downloaded Cura and straight away i got her working without any problems and printed out a couple of parts with good results :slight_smile: as far as the locking up its not done it so far and this morning i will print out parts for 5 hrs to see if this is also free from locking up?

Many thanks… i will keep you updated with my result…

Dean

Hi Folks
I printed from Printrun doing a 5 hr print & 2 hrs into the print the printer locked with no response from the taz or computer?? I then restarted and saved all the Gcode to the SD Card and left it to run for the 5hr print again without the lead connected and direct from the Taz…
I did complete it without any fail from the printer this time :slight_smile:
I changed settings and saved and it on the SD & printed small/quicker parts also with the settings and it worked again ok

The computer i am using is a new computer with very little installed and it crashed on it a few times & i also installed on another computer with the same sort of issues both running windows 7…

The fan on the front board is running kmanley57
The power supply 24v makes a bit of a noise every now and then but moving it cures it for half hour…
The Bed is also free from Breeze to effect the heat build up… from the normal heating most time heats up without problems and pretty quick…

I disabled my screensaver and switch it to “NEVER Turn Off Hard Drives” …

Im happy with the printers performance when it runs without issues

I have a PC here i was going to run Linux on? what would be the best distro of linux would give me best results with the printer if this is a windows issue?

The setting should be at:

Windows > Control Panel > View By [small icons] > Power Options/settings/etc > Advanced > look for something that says “Turn off USB ports”

I’ve turned off the USB suspend and i will try print again over the holidays :slight_smile:

Happy Printing

If you’re confident enough to load a Linux distro, get a raspberry pi and load octopi. Make it your dedicated print server / g-code streamer.

You’ll have to save the g-code to a file from the slicing software and upload (drag and drop) to the octopi web interface. Monitor the print through an optional USB cam. No need to tie up a PC attached to your printer.