1 Topic by RTRyder (edited by RTRyder 2015-12-24 02:16:31)

  • RTRyder
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Topic: How hot did it have to get for this to happen?

Went upstairs for a quick bite to eat shortly after starting a print job, just as I was finishing up caught a whiff of something odd, came back downstairs to find this...

http://soliforum.com/i/?YTwCore.jpg


Printer has been running with the Chimera since the first or second batch made it to the USA and up to now no problems at all. Controller is a Azteeg X3 Pro, best guess is something on the board smoked allowing the hot end to go into thermal runaway, quite surprised to find the heater block becoming a puddle of slag, how hot does it have to get to melt aluminum!?!?!?!

Now I have to haul it out of the enclosure and open the bottom to check out the controller, hope I don't need to print anything larger than the SD3 can handle till I get this sorted.

2 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: How hot did it have to get for this to happen?

That looks like a runaway heater to me. The thermistor was no longer sensing accurate temperatures which led to an increase of temperature.

I'm glad you, your family, and you home are ok!

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3 Reply by elmoret

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Re: How hot did it have to get for this to happen?

It has to get to around 550C. Possible with a 40w heater, not possible with the 25/30w heater E3D ships by default unless it is being run at more than the rated voltage.

My guess would be hung firmware/failed MOSFET.

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4 Reply by RTRyder

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Re: How hot did it have to get for this to happen?

Ahhhh.... since this machine uses 24 volt power I didn't swap the heaters when I did the switch, left the fairly new 24 volt units that were already installed in the previous dual print head setup. I originally intended to install the Chimera on a different printer so didn't request 24 volt heaters when I ordered it, wound up ordering another for that other printer after I used this one doing the conversion to 1.75 filament from 3.0mm.

Guess I'll be ordering some new 24 volt lower wattage heaters along with whatever else I need to get the beast back up and running.

5 Reply by elmoret

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Re: How hot did it have to get for this to happen?

25w heaters become 100w heaters when the voltage is doubled. I bet you had some sensational warmup times, though!

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6 Reply by RTRyder

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Re: How hot did it have to get for this to happen?

The heaters are (were) the correct 24 volt parts from the printer manufacturer though I have no clue as to what watt rating they are. I've seen 12 volt units hooked to 24 volts, yup the warm up times are impressive!

7 Reply by elmoret

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Re: How hot did it have to get for this to happen?

Oh gotcha, I misunderstood. They're 40w units then most likely, which top out at 550C or so.

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8 Reply by RTRyder

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Re: How hot did it have to get for this to happen?

Replaced the heater block with one from my spares box, installed new thermistor, and dug up a used but working 24 volt heater (yes they are 40W according to the package). Opened up the bottom of the printer and gave the board a close examination, did't see anything obvious like a burnt component or trace so I powered it up and everything appears to be working as it should. As soon as the bed gets to temp I'm going to run a test print to see how it goes but you can bet I'm going to stand there and watch the entire print just in case!

I checked the stats in the Repetier firmware and this printer has run for a total of 2180 hours with close to 21 kilometers of filament having been extruded in that time, this is the first instance of it acting up and I hope the last, fingers crossed, about to click Start Print...

9 Reply by elmoret

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Re: How hot did it have to get for this to happen?

I'd guess a case of hung firmware then. Can happen from something as random as a power blip.

Filastruder - the robust, inexpensive filament extruder
E3Dv6 All Metal Hotend - the premier 3D printing hotend