Printer bed is offset to the side

[JackDark]

I have a PowerSpec Ultra (FlashForge clone) and just tried printing a large item only to have it try printing part of it off the bed. In Simplify3D the model is perfectly centered on the bed. During my research I found this post, so I'll answer the questions listed there first: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3445#p15077

First, open the machine control panel and click Home All. Where does the toolhead go to (i.e. front left)

Back right.

Then, click on the Communication tab and send the command "G1 X0 Y0 Z0 F3000". This will move the toolhead to (0,0,0). Does the head stay put after sending that command or does it move somewhere else?

The head moves towards the center, but it's offset to the left of the bed (reads [0,0,0] in position readout).

Then click on the Jog Controls tab and jog the X, Y, and Z axes using the buttons that are labeled +X, +Y, and +Z. Which directions does the toolhead move for each?

+X: Head moves right
+Y: Head moves back
+Z: Bed moves down


Any help would be greatly appreciated. Apologies if I don't answer your questions accurately or have trouble finding things. This is my first printer and I'm still working to learn everything with both it and this software. Thanks!

[CompoundCarl]

Well you provided a lot of information and did some research already, so that makes it much easier for others to help! Everything you posted actually looks correct, so that's a good sign. The only thing that might be useful to explain more is what happens when you move to 0,0,0. The PowerSpec Ultra has 2 toolheads, so in this case you might need to add an extra step

Open the machine control panel, then:

Home All
Select Tool 0 from the active toolhead drop down
Send G1 X0 Y0 Z0 F1800 and take a picture of the position of the head relative to the bed

Then do the same thing, but choose Tool 1 this time

Home All
Select Tool 1 as active head
Move to 0,0,0 and take a picture

That will help others see exactly how far offset the head is, since that's really the only issue left to figure out. Once you know the exact offsets for each toolhead, you should be ready to configure everything.

[JackDark]

Thanks for the response, CompoundCarl.

It was the weirdest thing. I was setting everything up to take the photos like you asked when this time punching in the code centered the extruders perfectly! Wanting to figure out why this occurred I decided to test some things out in the hopes that I could post a solution for the next person with this issue. I realized that this time I had actually told the head to HOME via the LCD touchscreen on the printer, so I tried telling it to home in the software and then try the G-Code again. I couldn't see why it would make any difference since they seemed to be going to the same location, but I was on to something! I took those steps and BAM! It was offset again!

Feeling pretty good about myself I wanted to replicate my findings and told the printer to HOME from the touchscreen again and punched in the G-Code. It was offset this time... "Odd" I think. "Better try going to HOME from the software and entering the G-Code." Offset again. Well.. nuts. So now I'm back at square one and I have no idea why.

Home All
Select Tool 0 from the active toolhead drop down
Send G1 X0 Y0 Z0 F1800 and take a picture of the position of the head relative to the bed

Then do the same thing, but choose Tool 1 this time

Home All
Select Tool 1 as active head
Move to 0,0,0 and take a picture

Here's a picture I took of the large part that started printing off the bed and caused me to go down this rabbit hole.




Thanks for all your help!

[CompoundCarl]

Your pictures make it look like you are really close actually! It seems like it's only off by maybe 5mm, which I think is actually to be expected, since that machine doesn't have a perfectly centered origin anyways. So your pictures actually make it look like everything is really close, if not completely okay.

So the only thing that looks really bad is that one print that you did. Perhaps the issue was with how that print file was created, and not with your firmware...

[JackDark]

Thanks for following up, CompoundCarl.

The weird thing is that sometimes things are perfectly centered. I actually printed a PLA temperature calibration tower last night on the right extruder to test my new cooling duct and it was perfectly centered.

While writing this, I actually loaded up the large print on the left extruder (loaded the file in from scratch), and it printed off to the side again. Figured I might as well test the right extruder with the same file and it was off the the side too, but at least fully on the build platform (by 1mm). If you'd like to run your own test (just to print the outline), I'm trying to print the "stand.stl" file from here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1153855/#files (rotated X: -90, Y:90 and uniformly scaled to 90%)

Unfortunately, this is not the first file to print off the the left. I had noticed it with multiple other files, but they were all small enough that it didn't matter. I figured maybe it was some quirk in the software since I was always using the left extruder, and it would be fine when printing something larger.


While we're troubleshooting things, S3D almost always continues to show that I'm printing after the print has completed or been cancelled. It can stay that way for hours (sometimes I'll start a print before bed and it still reads as printing in S3D when I wake up). I have to go into the Machine Control Panel and disconnect/reconnect. It's not every time, but I'd say about 80%.

Speaking of the Machine Control Panel, is there any way to remove the Bluetooth port or at least set USB up as the default? I never remember to change it when I connect the first time (Which I'm surprised it doesn't connect automatically. Maybe because it's defaulted to Bluetooth?) and then I have to wait for it to fail the communication attempt before I can swap it over and retry.

Thanks again for all your assistance.

[CompoundCarl]

If the machine control panel isn't updating anymore, it almost always means that your printer connection has been broken. That can happen if your computer tries to go to sleep/hibernate, or with a lot of the power saving "features" on Windows or OS X that tries to put the serial ports to sleep even when they are still active. So that's the most likely cause.

I don't know of any way to hide the bluetooth ports. Frankly, you could actually setup a printer on a bluetooth port if you wanted using a dongle, so I'm sure there are some people that use those.

[builderguy]

I've been having the same kind of problem with the offset roughly equal to the extruder offset. 34mm in my case.
Under the FFF gcode settings there is a global offset, separate from the other offset settings, which did not help. My print only required the left extruder. When I set the global offset to 34mm, it solved my problem. Why??? IDK

[CompoundCarl]

I've been having the same kind of problem with the offset roughly equal to the extruder offset. 34mm in my case.
Under the FFF gcode settings there is a global offset, separate from the other offset settings, which did not help. My print only required the left extruder. When I set the global offset to 34mm, it solved my problem. Why??? IDK

Well reading through the posts above would be a good starting point. There's plenty of information to explain things. Most likely your firmware is configured incorrectly, so you're getting stuck having to try to manually fix things by offsetting values in your gcode file

[Printsmith]

SOLVED!

hey friends, I have the same printer. the long end of the short watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYPUAqT4UyI

It's likely you have the two boxes checked in the "process" and it's overriding your firmware. I had the same issue tonight. double check your build volume matches your printer... I.E X= 230 Y=150 Z=140 also your origin offset should be x=115 and y=75.

I ended up clicking help---> reset all settings

then setting up my printer as a flash forge dreamer instead of a power spec ultra.

Pro Tip:
The flashforge dreamer profile has always worked better for me than the PowerSpec Ultra profile that is preconfigured. It even lets you change the LED lighting behavior in the G-Code tab (M146)

Hope this solves your problem and gets you using both extruders again!

[JackDark]

That did not solve my issue, but I did find a solution myself recently. Simplify 3D has the dual toolhead offset programmed at 34mm, but the printer itself also has a set offset which is being added on top of the 34mm. Your actual offset is going to be closer to zero +/- 0.5mm in my experience. You'll have to do some calibration prints to narrow it down more on your own machine.