Basic Troubleshooting for your Hero

So your Hero is acting like a Zero - not printing or printing very poorly.

While I cannot promise that all can be fixed, there could very possibly be a mechanical fault, some users have reported broken step motors, faulty working thermostats, missing limiter switches, broken glass plates, the list goes on. 

I seemed to have been one of the lucky one's and received a working blue model mid December 2016, so below are a few things I have picked up form the Facebook group which MAY resolve some of the issues you may be having.

Is the printer on? 

This may sounds funny however when the USB cable is plugged in the red LED lights up, regardless of the switch position and power supply being plugged in. So make sure that the printer is in fact on, easiest way to check is to remove the USB cable and mark the switch in either on or off position (or both).

Make sure all the cables are connected securely, double check all your plugs, the build quality of this printer is fair so you could easily have a loose connection causing problems.

Filament feeder

Also covered in the getting started guide https://101hero3d.blogspot.co.za/2017/01/getting-started-with-101-hero-3d-printer.html, make sure the filament is all the way in, the "door" screws must be tight but be careful not to strip them, and also check the bearing, a little bit of lube could make all the difference, adding lube to the pylons also won't hurt the printer and is recommended as the motors are very delicate and anything we can do to help reduce the stress on them should be done.

SD card size and formatting: 

It is recommended to use a 16gig or smaller SD card formatted in FAT32, larger cards are tricky to format in FAT32, and since you can only have 1 print file on the card named "101hero" without an extension there is no need for anything larger than 4gigs

Printing bed:

Also in the getting started guide https://101hero3d.blogspot.co.za/2017/01/getting-started-with-101-hero-3d-printer.html, get some painters blue tape and use it instead of that yellow stuff that came in the box, in addition you can use some glue or hairspray on top of that tape for extra adhesion.

Calibration:

Calibrating this printer is tricky the calibration screws are difficult to work with, I have replaced mine with Allen key screws, this makes small adjustments much easier. Ideally, you want to slide a piece of paper between the nozzle and the print bed. To bring the nozzle down you need to unscrew (make the screws taller) and similarly raise the nozzle by turning the screws in a little. There have been reports that later printers already Allen key screws already in place. I print the star file off the official hero site using the SD after every adjustment until I am satisfied that the print is even on all sides.

Hope you find the answers you are looking for, post your comments and questions below I will try to answer them, Happy Printing.