Ok, so I finally have some time to revisit a couple of clone MK3s+ printers that have been giving me issues for a couple of months (since I got them).
I am having the same issue on two printers -- Basically these print fine outside of the enclosure but lose Z-axis steps when I try to print with them in an enclosure. After a few inches of print (seemingly random layer / height) the print head starts grinding into the print since it has not risen sufficiently. I also thought I was having an issue where the printer seemed to lose track of the z-axis calibration (and was grinding into the bed when I started a new print). However, now that I am looking at the printers with fresh eyes I actually think that all the grinding into the print unscrewed the heatbreak from the heatsink a little which dropped the hotend enough to hit the bed. I actually stopped messing with these since they were also suddenly printing with tons of ringing / layer shifts. Turns out that they hotend was totally loose in the heatsink so at least that problem is fixed.
I was assuming that the stepper drivers were overheating but I just swapped boards, since I was replacing bearings on another unit, and the problem persists even with a new main board (the replacement board came from an original Prusa that has been working fine in an enclosure for several months).
So the question is -- if it is not the driver / controller board, what would be overheating to cause z-axis step loss (or is there anything else that could cause this)?
I am assuming that it might be the stepper motors and thought I could try putting heatsinks on them or replace them.
One other option I am kind of considering (although seems less likely to fix this) is to increase amps sent to the z-axis motors << assumes the issue is not overheating but them not having enough power in an enclosure to make the needed steps (not sure why that would happen).
Thank you in advance if anyone has advice.
I am having the same issue on two printers -- Basically these print fine outside of the enclosure but lose Z-axis steps when I try to print with them in an enclosure. After a few inches of print (seemingly random layer / height) the print head starts grinding into the print since it has not risen sufficiently. I also thought I was having an issue where the printer seemed to lose track of the z-axis calibration (and was grinding into the bed when I started a new print). However, now that I am looking at the printers with fresh eyes I actually think that all the grinding into the print unscrewed the heatbreak from the heatsink a little which dropped the hotend enough to hit the bed. I actually stopped messing with these since they were also suddenly printing with tons of ringing / layer shifts. Turns out that they hotend was totally loose in the heatsink so at least that problem is fixed.
I was assuming that the stepper drivers were overheating but I just swapped boards, since I was replacing bearings on another unit, and the problem persists even with a new main board (the replacement board came from an original Prusa that has been working fine in an enclosure for several months).
So the question is -- if it is not the driver / controller board, what would be overheating to cause z-axis step loss (or is there anything else that could cause this)?
I am assuming that it might be the stepper motors and thought I could try putting heatsinks on them or replace them.
One other option I am kind of considering (although seems less likely to fix this) is to increase amps sent to the z-axis motors << assumes the issue is not overheating but them not having enough power in an enclosure to make the needed steps (not sure why that would happen).
Thank you in advance if anyone has advice.