1 Topic by TinaMarieF

  • TinaMarieF
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Topic: Extruder stopped heating?

I've been happily printing for a few days now, and this morning halfway through a print, I started getting errors that the temp was too low to extrude.  I stopped the print, but now my extruder won't heat back up - it dropped to room temp and stayed there.

Unplugged everything for an  hour, just in case, but it didn't help.  Having the same issue in Repetier and Pronterface, so I don't think it's software.  The bed is heating up fine, just not the extruder.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

2 Reply by lawsy

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

The wiring is very fragile for the extruder heater and thermistor.

Check where the two sets of wires come out of the hot end and into plugs. The connection there is just squeezed in, make sure one of the wires come out.

I recently rewired both sets of wires from the heater and thermistor all the way down to the electronics to avoid these issues. The thermistor wire was jiggling loose for a split second and triggering an error mode, instantly halting the printer.

lawsy's Website

3 Reply by TinaMarieF

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

lawsy wrote:

The wiring is very fragile for the extruder heater and thermistor.

Check where the two sets of wires come out of the hot end and into plugs. The connection there is just squeezed in, make sure one of the wires come out.

We checked the wiring tonight, and it was getting power.  But the resistance of the heating element seemed very low to us (around 60K ohms)  - anyone know what it should be?

4 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

TinaMarieF wrote:
lawsy wrote:

The wiring is very fragile for the extruder heater and thermistor.

Check where the two sets of wires come out of the hot end and into plugs. The connection there is just squeezed in, make sure one of the wires come out.

We checked the wiring tonight, and it was getting power.  But the resistance of the heating element seemed very low to us (around 60K ohms)  - anyone know what it should be?

6.8 ohms. The lower the resistance for a given supply voltage, the more power is used. ( P= IV, V=IR, so P=V^2/R)

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

5 Reply by lobosolo

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

did you get your extruder heating again ? mine just stopped heating today and i am not sure what to look for.

6 Reply by lawsy

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

lawsy wrote:

The wiring is very fragile for the extruder heater and thermistor.

Check where the two sets of wires come out of the hot end and into plugs. The connection there is just squeezed in, make sure one of the wires come out.

I recently rewired both sets of wires from the heater and thermistor all the way down to the electronics to avoid these issues. The thermistor wire was jiggling loose for a split second and triggering an error mode, instantly halting the printer.

lawsy's Website

7 Reply by lobosolo

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

I checked it out and all looks connected and i reseated the connections to be sure. is there any way to tell using a mulitmeter if there is power being delivered to the head ?

lawsy wrote:
lawsy wrote:

The wiring is very fragile for the extruder heater and thermistor.

Check where the two sets of wires come out of the hot end and into plugs. The connection there is just squeezed in, make sure one of the wires come out.

I recently rewired both sets of wires from the heater and thermistor all the way down to the electronics to avoid these issues. The thermistor wire was jiggling loose for a split second and triggering an error mode, instantly halting the printer.

8 Reply by lawsy

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

You should be able to measure 12 volts at the connectors for the heater. The thermistor should measure 5V.

In my case, I had both of these at the board but not up at the end of the plugs. Don't know what went wrong but rewiring has made it a lot more reliable.

lawsy's Website

9 Reply by TinaMarieF

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

I didn't get mine to work - I ordered a new hot end, so we'll see when it gets here.

I have a friend with a RepRap, and he's going to print me out the other new extruder parts (won't let me link, but the jigsaw replacement from the hacks forum), so I'm going to replace that too while I have everything apart.

10 Reply by lobosolo

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

i did measure 12 volts at the connectors for the heater and 5v at the connector for the thermistor. I spoke to solidoodle support and they suggested I purchase a new heater head. so like Tina , I will be ordering a new one as well.

11 Reply by lawsy

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Re: Extruder stopped heating?

Why not take the chance to upgrade to a better hot end?

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/571/repl … end-guide/

You can see from the first image in that thread the potential for the original heater to fail.

lawsy's Website