Does anyone know what part exactly is used by Solidoodle? Or at least a part number/name (so I can buy it locally) that will work? since there is not a lot information about the supposedly fitting resistor on the qu-bd shop.

Thanks!

Considering the shipping costs (Austria to USA) and the long waiting time I think it's cheaper and quicker if I buy a new 2 Euro resistor myself and have it fixed by the end of the week.

However, as you noted, it's probably the core that is dead.  You can reuse the wires and connecter going to the core, so you only need to switch out the power resistor.

In which case, the resistor from qu-bd should work, or their heater cartridge. You'll need to rerun the PID tuning as detailed in some other threads, after you put in the new resistor.

I should add that although the heater catridge is much less liable to burn out, I actually had the wire fatigue and break on mine as the junction, so I'll be switching to the regular resistor soon if only because it's cheaper and evidently the catridge is not much more reliable (I wont switch if I can manage to reliably resolder it with what wire is still protruding). When you buy the resistor from qu-bd (or wherever you get it), make sure to also buy a bit of the high temp heat insulation.  On the bright side, this replacement part in sum is still less than 10 dollars in cost.  Not fun, but better than it also being costly.

I had this happen to me just now. I'll find my multimeter and do the checks elmoret and Tomek suggested.

Update:

So it looks like the heat core is broken.

elmoret's tests went as expected: 1.) 12,69v 2.) 0v 3.) 12,69v

Tomek's tests: 1.) can't get a measurement / no continuity 2.) continuity 3.) continuity

Could anyone tell me what exactly the connectors are called and what kind of cables i should get to fix this? I'll try writing to Solidoodle support but I'm not too hopeful even though I had my printer for only 17 days.

As always: thanks so much for the great support from the community!

Thank you again Tomek!  I wish they had a "thanks meter" like on XDA or other forums and I could vote you up!

I guess that I need to take the extruder assembly apart to find out, eh?  Looks like a power resistor is like $1. The heater cartridges are $15.  The heater on the solidoodle store is also $15.

I guess I need to take apart the hot end to figure out which heater I need.  I have a Solidoodle 2, brand new, if that helps.  Maybe I should take the opportunity to do a dual-extruder nichrome wire upgrade?  Hmm, maybe not yet...

Haha, you're the nicest person.

I'm sorry I never responded earlier.   I hope solidoodle has responded to you by now- if not, have you tried contacting them on skype or IRC?  It sounds like you might not be too comfortable with manually replacing it (will require some soldering and heatshrinking).  The power resistor ($1) would work, and the heater catridge is just a fancier thing that's less likely to burn out. A lot of 3d printing people use just the cheaper resistor, though.

  You simply benefit from buying the solidoodle store heater, because I assume they use the same connectors and sell it to you with connections and everything already setup. Saved effort is often worth it. 

In terms of upgrading, I think you should wait until you have everything else settled .  The heater element is not the biggest limiting factor at the start.

-regards

I guess that I need to take the extruder assembly apart to find out, eh?  Looks like a power resistor is like $1. The heater cartridges are $15.  The heater on the solidoodle store is also $15.

I guess I need to take apart the hot end to figure out which heater I need.  I have a Solidoodle 2, brand new, if that helps.  Maybe I should take the opportunity to do a dual-extruder nichrome wire upgrade?  Hmm, maybe not yet...

I would email them right away.

Do you have the kind of extruder that has a brown clay ball that is the heater, or the kind with a metal block and what seems like a resistor?

If you're on a time crunch, as it seems, I would not rely on solidoodle though I'd still ask for their support, but I'd also pick up at minimum a spare resistor ($2 or something) from http://store.qu-bd.com/.   You'll have to deal with changing the extruder pid settings, but thats not a big deal.  I think qu-bd will ship USPS so since its a small envelope you can get quite cheap shipping.

Yes! next you want to check for resistance between

(1)the connection at the extruder that goes to the heater (so there's a quick disconnect at the extruder. Check between the two pins that lead wires into the extruder block)
1.94MOhms

(2)both ends of the two wires that lead to the extruder. I.E, one of the pins that goes into the electronics PCB and one of the two pins that the extruder heater (see 1) connects to. You won't know which of the two pins to try, but try both, and you'll get resistance (continuity) between only 1 or them, or neither.
Continuity

(3) Do this for the other pin that connects in the electronics PCB board as the extruder heater.
Continuity

So the conditions I'm checking for with these checks are

(1) Is the heat resistor dead?  It will die and either show no continuity, or very high continuity. Usually the former.

(2)&(3) are the wires that go in a bundle to the extruder broken? There are a few solidoodles who have found the wires fatigue and break and so power never gets to the extruder resistor.

It sounds like the heater is dead.  Thank you so much for your help Is there anything else I need to diagnose, or should I just go looking for heaters?  I've seen power resistors and nichrome wire adaptations, etc... 

Maybe solidoodle will just send me a new hot end since I only had it for a few days before it broke...?

Thank you so much!!!

(1)the connection at the extruder that goes to the heater (so there's a quick disconnect at the extruder. Check between the two pins that lead wires into the extruder block)

(2)both ends of the two wires that lead to the extruder. I.E, one of the pins that goes into the electronics PCB and one of the two pins that the extruder heater (see 1) connects to. You won't know which of the two pins to try, but try both, and you'll get resistance (continuity) between only 1 or them, or neither.

(3) Do this for the other pin that connects in the electronics PCB board as the extruder heater.

So the conditions I'm checking for with these checks are

(1) Is the heat resistor dead?  It will die and either show no continuity, or very high continuity. Usually the former.

(2)&(3) are the wires that go in a bundle to the extruder broken? There are a few solidoodles who have found the wires fatigue and break and so power never gets to the extruder resistor.

Positive probe of meter on terminal circled in green for all tests.

Test 1:
Negative probe of meter on terminal circled in pink
12.77V

Test 2:
Negative probe of meter on terminal circled in blue, extruder heater off
0.0V

Test 3:
Negative probe of meter on terminal circled in blue, extruder heater on
12.74V

Results for each test?

Thank you so much for outlining this and taking the time to draw the picture.  I could have sworn that I wasn't seeing any change in voltage from extruder on to extruder off, but apparently i was wrong.  And to confirm that there is a problem, after reconnecting the heater, the voltage is still present, but no heat at the tip.  Must be a broken wire or heater, eh?  Now I start looking for bad wires, right?

Again, thank you so much for your help!

Positive probe of meter on terminal circled in green for all tests.

Test 1:
Negative probe of meter on terminal circled in pink

Test 2:
Negative probe of meter on terminal circled in blue, extruder heater off

Test 3:
Negative probe of meter on terminal circled in blue, extruder heater on

Results for each test?

Unfortunately, I don't see which pin ought to be ground on the connector... Do you mean "V-"? The square one?

I found the board ground from the power supply.  Neither pin is reading any voltage when plugged in (heater off).

Thank you again for your help!

http://reprap.org/mediawiki/images/f/fa … to-top.jpg

the terminal next to the "PWR1-TIP" label is ground.

probe the +12v and the ground provided on that connector. +12v to normal ground should always show 12v if the board is plugged in, +12v to ground on that connector should only show +12v when the extruder is on.

I just barely received my solidoodle last week and am just getting it up and running, finally with some pretty good 0.1mm results! (RepetierHost is the bomb.com by the way)

The problem is that the board is not supplying any voltage to the extruder (I checked at the connector on the board with a multimeter - pretty sure I got the right one - the one on the bottom further from the USB-B connector marked "PWR1-TIP).  I believe that the extruder heater is still good.  Nothing really caused the problem, it just stopped heating after a job and slowly declined to room temperature.  I haven’t gotten any heat since.  Everything else seems to be working great.  I don't see anything on the board that looks suspect (like blown up or burnt capacitors, resistors, or power supplies).

It is a little urgent because my friend (for whom I am printing a couple of parts) has an art show this week and I need to get him the parts as soon as possible.  Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks! You guys are the best!!!