Hi all:

I use Skeinforge to create my gcode files and run them to the printer using repsnapper. I have Gen6 electronics and a v9 .35mm hot end bolted to a Prusa Mendel.

I've configured x,y,z, and e for 100mm of travel in the firmware when I ask for 100mm of travel. My numbers are all within 5%.

My hot end temperature is set to 200 deg Celsius.

While printing I very often break the filament. Very very often.

I'm assuming that skeinforge is setting my feed rate and speed so I haven't changed that in repsnapper. Speed is set to 3000 and length is set to 150. Is this what's breaking my filament?

Or is it this. Except for my z-axis stepper motors all my other motors get very hot. Is it possible that the extruder motor is getting hot enough that the heat from the motor is traveling through the shaft to the extruder gear which is making my pla soft then breaking it? I am using the fan that came with my v9 hot end.

I'm close I can tell. But there are times when I'm completely lost here.

First of all, look if the filament goes straight through the Extruder in the hotend. The extruder motor should not push the filament in a curve (this was my mistake in my first attemp )

Second forget repsnapper, use pronterface it is better (But this has nothing to do with the breaking, i guess). But what firmware do you use? Have you installed the latest Marlin-Firmware?

What Speed is set 3000? I have at this moment a Main Feed Rate (mm/s) of 60.0 (I use sfact, for easy settings)

Looks like my e stepper motor could be a bit better aligned but it's pretty good and the filament has no trouble feeding down into the brass shaft. I'll take the feeding mechanism apart and align it a bit better.

I'm going to pass on implementing pronterface until after I fix the breakage (stripping?) issue. One problem at a time is frustration enough. Though it looks pretty cool.

I'm not sure of the version number but the firmware date is 20110107. It's the only one on the Mendel-Parts site that seems to work for me.

Since I'm using a direct driver extruder I set E0_STEPS_PER_MM 152.8930446.

I don't use the same computer I print with to generate my gcode. I'm using an MSI Netbook to print from and a much faster and user friendly desktop machine to create my stl models (Autodesk 123D) then skeinforge to create the gcode. I then put the gcode files on a network share and load them into repsnapper on my netbook.

I have my skeinforge settings set up as I've seen others here do. I let repsnapper control the hot end temperature. I don't recall having set any of that in skeinforge.

Pronterface has at least one feature I whole heartedly love. Being able to tell the printing software how much travel your x,y, and z axi have is a good thing.

Hi all:

I'm still concerned about stepper motor heat being part of the problem I'm having. What voltages are you running your stepper motors at?

Here's what I have currently:
X 1.7vdc
Y 1.8vdc
Z 1vdc This is on a pair of Nema 14 motors wired in parallel. Should this be higher?
E 1.5vdc This was initially 2.5vdc, this seemed way too high so I turned it down.

Hi all:

I think my problem is solved. I successfully printed a 10mm cube. Well it was actually 11.64mm-x, 10.4mm-y, and 10.34mm-z. I'll have to work on that.

At the end of the process, which takes some time with a .35mm nozzle I have a cube that is very cube shaped, and the e stepper motor is warm but not hot.