My new JG Maker Artist-D (pro)

[Lowteck]

I got brave enough to unbox my Artist-D last night. After many hours, I completed putting it together, double checked the cables to make sure I did not forget to put one in its proper slot. I even put the white male into the black female and vice versa. The first thing was to heat the nozzle. I then checked the motors. They all seem to work. At this point, I proceeded to level the bed. No Go!! I could not get extruder 1 to drop to the limit switch let alone to the bed. I struggled with this for over an hour. At one point by cutting the printer off and physically moving it down to just above the bed, I turned the printer back on. As long as I did not tell it to go to location 1 it worked fine. I went around the table about three times. When I told it to go to location 1 (center). It raised at least 3 inches and each time I pressed this button it repeated. Manually moving it down, it would drop to about 2 inches above the table and limit switch. Oh! one thing. The first time I tried to move the extruders, it made a loud noise like on my other printer where something is blocking the full movement. I checked and there was nothing obstructing. I powered off and on and it stopped. I will play with the printer to see if I can solve the problem, If not I will box it up and send it back and look toward something else.
If any one has experienced a problem like this please share how you solved.

[Ender5r]

I even put the white male into the black female and vice versa.

Is that the way they are now? If it is, it's wrong. In my thread on the Artist D Pro, I pointed out:

WARNING!!! the Z Limit Switch & Filament Runout Sensor wires can be confused. On my printer there are 2 connectors on the left side: a white 1 (Z limit) & the other black (filament sensor). There are also 4 receptacle connectors: a white & a black on each side. The black ones can be hard to see as they're a bit hidden inside the metal blocks. The connectors are color co-ordinated: white into white, black into black. This means the white connector on the right side goes unused.

You can find the entire thread at https://forum.makewithtech.com/forum...ist-d#post9809.

[Lowteck]

I watched a video where the small sensor plugs were reversed. I guess in the pro versions that has been corrected. I changed them back to the black white color code and it works. Now I am trying to keep from mashing the head into the plate. I think I got it corrected on center when the phone rang and I thought I would post this. I have noticed that the gantry seems to be leaning forward. If true, that could cause problems in tall prints. Also, one of the screws would never tighten. I finally gave up figuring that it was stripped.
A note, like you said about the extruders, I should just put things together and assume some comments are a one time thing until proven otherwise.

[Ender5r]

I doubt that the wiring is that much different between the non-pro and pro versions, that the plug colors would be reversed. It seems more likely that the video is incorrect.

The Z clearance at center is controlled by the Z axis limit switch at the back of the left gantry upright. The corners of the bed are controlled by the wheels under the corners of the bed.

For sure a non-square gantry is a problem for all prints, not just tall ones.

I would not leave that stripped bolt as is. If necessary, I would order a larger diameter bolt and, if I didn't have one, a tap to match the bolt. Of course, since it's brand new, you could ask JG Maker for a new piece that's not stripped.

[Lowteck]

Yes, I agree with you on the screw. I definitely will fix it if I keep the printer. On the video, there was a 110/220 volt switch on the side. Mine does not have a power switch except the power on/off. Also there were two other differences. One was the filament bar on the top of the gantry. His bolted on, one was a wheel screw like the leveling of the bed and the other was a regular screw. On mine there was a slot in the cross member without a way to screw it on.. On the sweep tray, his bolted on from the bottom. Mine has a slot where you can bolt it on from the front or the back.
I started to print the two color block that is in Cura test prints. I noticed that along with the X and Y axis to match the (T0) extruder and (T1) extruder to do this two color cube the flow rate was very low or the T0 head is two high!?! At that point I stopped and tried to communicate with the printer over a USB cable. My computer would not connect. At the same time it quit recognizing the SD card. I was in the process of trouble shooting this problem when I had company bring plates of food from one of the fire departments in the county. We went out on the back deck and ate and I had a customer with problems that I had to talk him through. I am now free and before I install the serial driver back into the printer I thought I would fill in what progress I am at. Wish me luck.

[Lowteck]

Here is the post that was unapproved:

Yes, I agree with you on the screw. I definitely will fix it if I keep the printer. On the video, there was a 110/220 volt switch on the side. Mine does not have a power switch except the power on/off. Also there were two other differences. One was the filament bar on the top of the gantry. His bolted on, one was a wheel screw like the leveling of the bed and the other was a regular screw. On mine there was a slot in the cross member without a way to screw it on.. On the sweep tray, his bolted on from the bottom. Mine has a slot where you can bolt it on from the front or the back.
I started to print the two color block that is in Cura test prints. I noticed that along with the X and Y axis to match the (T0) extruder and (T1) extruder to do this two color cube the flow rate was very low or the T0 head is two high!?! At that point I stopped and tried to communicate with the printer over a USB cable. My computer would not connect. At the same time it quit recognizing the SD card. I was in the process of trouble shooting this problem when I had company bring plates of food from one of the fire departments in the county. We went out on the back deck and ate and I had a customer with problems that I had to talk him through. I am now free and before I install the serial driver back into the printer I thought I would fill in what progress I am at. Wish me luck.

I could not connect to the machine using the printer port:
So I used the menu and told it to extrude 100 mm after measuring. It only extruded 30.mm
I changed the flow rate to 200 of extruder 1. I did the money cat and it looked perfect but it came loose from the base about 60% finished.
I checked the bed to nozzle and started again using the purple glue. This time it finished. It was not as clean and shinnies as the first and the top ear was very distorted.
The USB stick that houses the SD card to connect to the computer is defective. I have to use a card reader that has all sizes. It did work the first time. That could be a problem on my computer.

[Lowteck]

I have been working on the printer all day, The printer has locked up 3 times in the middle of the print. I had the SD card in the computer and wanted to delete a couple of test files to place new ones of the same thing that had been sliced with different perimeters. I was using the E2 extruder, had not experienced this on E1.. I tried to move these files to a temp folder on the computer and they would not rename delete or move. So, when I got the good files moved I did a format of the SD card. I did print a phone holder a friend wanted, it came out acceptable, but not perfect. The formatting of the SD card seems to have fixed this problem. I will when through this test test the USB adapter, hoping this solved that problem [email protected] have you had to formatt your SD card? I also at this point have the Flow on E2 at 150%. I am having trouble with the brim. Seems that it only makes one line and keeps covering the same line making an awful mess. I switched to a skirt and it does the same. But only 3 lines so that can for the time be acceptable.

[Ender5r]

Here is the post that was unapproved:

Yes, I agree with you on the screw. I definitely will fix it if I keep the printer. On the video, there was a 110/220 volt switch on the side. Mine does not have a power switch except the power on/off. Also there were two other differences. One was the filament bar on the top of the gantry. His bolted on, one was a wheel screw like the leveling of the bed and the other was a regular screw. On mine there was a slot in the cross member without a way to screw it on.. On the sweep tray, his bolted on from the bottom. Mine has a slot where you can bolt it on from the front or the back.
I started to print the two color block that is in Cura test prints. I noticed that along with the X and Y axis to match the (T0) extruder and (T1) extruder to do this two color cube the flow rate was very low or the T0 head is two high!?! At that point I stopped and tried to communicate with the printer over a USB cable. My computer would not connect. At the same time it quit recognizing the SD card. I was in the process of trouble shooting this problem when I had company bring plates of food from one of the fire departments in the county. We went out on the back deck and ate and I had a customer with problems that I had to talk him through. I am now free and before I install the serial driver back into the printer I thought I would fill in what progress I am at. Wish me luck.

I could not connect to the machine using the printer port:
So I used the menu and told it to extrude 100 mm after measuring. It only extruded 30.mm
I changed the flow rate to 200 of extruder 1. I did the money cat and it looked perfect but it came loose from the base about 60% finished.
I checked the bed to nozzle and started again using the purple glue. This time it finished. It was not as clean and shinnies as the first and the top ear was very distorted.
The USB stick that houses the SD card to connect to the computer is defective. I have to use a card reader that has all sizes. It did work the first time. That could be a problem on my computer.

It's not unusual for there to be a 110/220 switch on some electric/electronic devices, because different jurisdictions (i.e. countries, counties, etc.) have different rules in their electrical safety codes.

As I believe I mentioned before in another thread, you have to get the BAUD rate and COM port settings correct in order to connect to the printer's serial port. If you're using Pronterface, you can pick the first COM port in the list, then try each of the entries in the BAUD rate list. If it's the right combo, you will see "Printer online" in the terminal window on the far right. If none of the BAUD rates work for the first COM entry, move on to the next and repeat the procedure. It only takes a few seconds to test each one. Eventually, you should hit the right combo. When you do, you will know what BAUD rate to use in the future, even if the COM port changes (the BAUD rate does not change).

Only extruding 30mm when you commanded 100 is an issue. There may be an issue with the extruder, as has been discussed in other threads. Other than that, you do not fix underextrusion using Flow Rate, at least not initially. You use the extruder's stepper motor steps/mm setting to get close to 100mm, usually within 1mm. Then, you fine tune the extrusion rate using Flow Rate. A Flow Rate of 200% is actually ridiculous, as I discovered for myself recently. I think you are discovering the kinds of issues that can crop up when extruders are not calibrated properly.

[Ender5r]

I have been working on the printer all day, The printer has locked up 3 times in the middle of the print. I had the SD card in the computer and wanted to delete a couple of test files to place new ones of the same thing that had been sliced with different perimeters. I was using the E2 extruder, had not experienced this on E1.. I tried to move these files to a temp folder on the computer and they would not rename delete or move. So, when I got the good files moved I did a format of the SD card. I did print a phone holder a friend wanted, it came out acceptable, but not perfect. The formatting of the SD card seems to have fixed this problem. I will when through this test test the USB adapter, hoping this solved that problem [email protected] have you had to formatt your SD card? I also at this point have the Flow on E2 at 150%. I am having trouble with the brim. Seems that it only makes one line and keeps covering the same line making an awful mess. I switched to a skirt and it does the same. But only 3 lines so that can for the time be acceptable.

SD cards can be an issue. Yes, they should be formatted before being used in a printer.

As I mentioned in my last post, a Flow Rate of 150% is way too high -- the extruder must need further calibration.

Not sure what's going on with the skirt and brim. It almost sounds like the X and Y axes are not moving properly, but I don't really know.

[Lowteck]

Yes, I wish I could communicate with my printers with the cable, both printers will not connect. On the pro I did close to what you suggested up to Com 15 without connecting.
After formatting the SD card, I tried to use the USB stick to plug into the computer without it showing drive D, does recognize something plugged in but will not read the directory. If it wasn't for the fact that the card reader working on the same USB port I would think that the port was bad on the computer.
I have deleted and reinstalled the serial USB drivers twice, they came from ACER for my computer by logging my sn# into the web page.
Using the cub off Cura that has the X,Y,Z letters, the first print was the best. Reading about the ghosts on the faces and how to correct, I have made it worse.

[Ender5r]

COM15? I've never heard of a Windows machine having COM Port #'s that high. Are you typing them in or just selecting from the displayed list?

Have you tried the drivers I attached to this post: https://forum.makewithtech.com/forum...1599#post11599?

[Lowteck]

Sometime late last night, or early morning, I got my computer to connect with the Artist-D. But, with a very short printer cable, and trying to get my notes on commands, I pulled the cable out and it would with 3 tries not reconnect. I installed and uninstalled the serial driver. It takes a minimum of 30 minutes each time the computer restarted to allow accessing. I didn't say there were 15 com ports, just for good measure I went through that many port tries. When it connected it was at Com4 at 115000.After I gave up on that, I took the SD to USB card apart and there is a missing pin. Apparently I tried to force the SD card in upside down and damaged the adapter. I tried to repair, but could not. I marked one on Amazon for the next order add on to make it faster to work with. I also printed 6 cubes and finally got back to where I was on the first one. I have a lot of ghosting. This is at 130 flow and I started at 150, on E2 only. When I give up on E2 or get it where I want it, I will switch to E1. I started on E2 because of the leveling challange I needed to solve and stayed with it. E1 will be a challenge in itself.

[Ender5r]

If you get the bed 'level' for E1, it should be level for both. Now, that said, the Z Offset could be different for E1 and E2. I have that issue right now with my Artist D. It's a PITA to get the Z Offset correct on E2.

At least to start, I would stick with E1. Get everything right with it, then take on the extra complications of E2.

It really sounds like COM4 @ 115,200 is you golden connection combo, and those settings make a LOT of sense. They're the right combo for many hobby printers.

I am wondering why it takes 30 minutes or more to reboot the computer and connect. It seems to be a VERY long time. On mine it takes less than 5 minutes to reboot, and I consider my computer to be pretty slow. It's using an old hard drive and really needs to be updated to an SSD.

[Lowteck]

I cannot explain why it takes so long for the computer to start, probably too many running in background apps. It is an i7 Intel core with 12 gig of ddr3 memory with 1000g HDD. All I know if I try before half an hour to run a program the cursor just circles for about 30 seconds and nothing. I am accustomed to waiting even though if I click on the icons more than once, when they do start it will open multiple apps, so I go do my thing somewhere else. I did start with E1 and get the beds level with it. Then I started on the Z offset with E2 and stayed with it. I did print the ?money cat? the waving cat on E1 and it looked acceptable, but not 100% after the first one broke off the table.
Another note, I noticed that JG Maker has a 310 X 310 glass bed. its not marked for the Artist-D but they have it on their web page. After getting used to a glass bed on my Geeeteck, I am seriously considering one for the D.

[Ender5r]

1. if I had a computer with those specs running that slow I would probably reinstall Windows from scratch. I would never put up with a 30 minute wait.

2. I recently settled on PEI coated spring steel sheets as my print surface of choice. I use them with DimaFix or Magigoo. They work very well for me. The prints stick well at print temp but release easily once the bed has cooled.