MakerBot Industries

I thought of moving the z-nut that but it seemed like it wouldn't give me enough extra, but I will try it.

How did you mount the HBP onto the build platform? Bolts from the bottom or bolts down from the top?

I did bolts from the bottom. Makes it easier to level the surface, and you can sit it higher, closer to the ends of the bolts:

I did bolts from the top. Bolts from the bottom seems like a much better idea, I will do that instead. Thanks for the tip!

Sorry, we are just seeing a lot of people skipping steps in the directions lately-and if you missed this step, it begs the question what else did you miss? Please, go back through step by step and ensure you hit them all. I'll be the first to admit it is a painful process, but you have to do it.

Second issue I have is the temp readings seem to be correct at room temperature. I am getting 24c. I put in 50c and it went up to 115 and I got kind of worried so I set it to 0.0 and it started falling. Then I put in 220c like the instructions say to and it heated up to 87c and stayed there refusing to get any higher. My driver is "Thingomatic w/HBP and Stepstruder MK6", I did not see a MK6+ option. I did update the firmware on both boards before I started.

There is no driver different for MK6+, it's just a different heater. MK6 indicates a different motor, but because the heater is the functional equivalent of a lightbulb, it doesn't matter one bit what we change it out to. All the matters is it gets hot.

You must press enter after putting in the numbers to send the command.

When you did that-you will see the line rise to the set (AKA target) temp in the graph (there are 4 lines 2 target temps and 2 actual temps)?

Don't stress, the new MK6+ has full safety protection to prevent severe overheating. The bot wan't "running away" on you, it must get to 220C to extrude properly.

Also, the relay lockout only resets when the temp is lowered so the extruder controller turns off, then when you enter a new temp it will come back on. (the safety relay test).

I just get the feeling you are not catching the details and they are very important.

My z-axis looks exactly like that picture. Clothbot suggested switching the z-axis nut to be on top to fix the height issue. I'm not sure what detail you are referring to me missing concerning this. I know new people like me frustrate experts like you, but to be fair to me, the instructions are a mess. Pictures can show one thing and say something else. Pictures don't show the right version, links do not always go to the right place or show the right options, a few places it talks about new parts being shown a certain way even though my bot is new it clearly has the old cutout, pictures show steps being done in a different order, instructions say to test things that cannot be tested until other parts have been finished, etc.

As for setting the temp, I pressed enter and also tabbed out of the box.

The reason I was concerned: I set the temp to 50c (as the directions state) but it went way past that number. If this is normal then that is good to know.

The graph had 4 lines. The two I set for the target HBP and the heater go straight up to the temp as expected. The other two lines for actual temp were gradually increasing over time like they should. From your response I take it it has to cool down all the way before it can heat up again and that is why it was stuck at 87c when I tried to get it to 220c?

Yeah, I initially mounted the Z-nut as pictured and it worked, but then I took my ToM out for some demos and the Z-stage fell off a few times in transit. Mounting the Z-nut on top gave it enough extra anchorage length that it hasn't happened since.

Ok, and sorry for the misunderstanding. I have 2 T-O-M with the HBP and they didn't require me to switch the mounting (although it's close).

Your description of the heater situation has too many unknowns to really diagnose from what you posted.

Second issue I have is the temp readings seem to be correct at room temperature. I am getting 24c. I put in 50c and it went up to 115 and I got kind of worried so I set it to 0.0 and it started falling. Then I put in 220c like the instructions say to and it heated up to 87c and stayed there refusing to get any higher. My driver is "Thingomatic w/HBP and Stepstruder MK6", I did not see a MK6+ option. I did update the firmware on both boards before I started.

My answer was also unclear.

So, first, the heater should never get hotter than the set temp by more than a few degrees (less than 10 and hopefully less than 5). It's nearly impossible to do that anyway unless you cross wired the heaters so the controller is sensing on one and heating the other. Flip that and say that's what really happened, then, you might have tripped the overheat and locked out further heating (but not at 115C!). MK6 is not anything horribly complicated either, so the fact the thermocouple was reporting temps is good. What's not clear is if you actually wired the heater in correctly, or somehow don't understand the control panel and looked at the wrong temps, or you had a com glitch.

Telling it to go to 50C and it hitting 115C is bad, but so is 220C and 87C, and while that (the lower 87C) might have happened with a failed resistor on the older MK5, it's not a normal possibility on the MK6+. Either the heater works or it doesn't. it's either climbing or falling, but not steady at 87C.

My take is that either you have a serious wiring issue, or you just are reading it wrong. The fact that it turned on and off, means something is working so you are in an total unknown situation by me. I know the extruder controller circuits inside and out, and your scenario is far outside any logical explanation I can come up with.

I had the same issue with the z nut, until i found out that it was the nut was higher on one side - it originally was about 15mm too short until i turned the nut over - (it was mounted the correct way as per picture ie but the nut was just upside down) - and when you rolled it over it fits exactly.

I used to figure that it was a bad design but then i realized it has to be this way. If you ram the extruder it into your board - it will disengage from the threaded rod and at least be a bit better than having a completely broken machine (after it bends the heated board a little bit).

So i thought it was a good detail.