1 Topic by sfgorman

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Topic: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

I've been using my printer for months without issue. Was using it for hours today without issue, several prints. And then something strange happened.

If I connect Repetier Host to the printer, the connection seems fine. I can move the X, Y, and Z axes on the printer with no problems. But if I attempt to heat the extruder or printbed, the printer suddenly becomes unresponsive. It might be ok for a few seconds after clicking Heat Extruder or Heat Printbed. But after no more than a few seconds, and without fail, the printer will disconnect. I will usually get the message "The heaters are still on. Disable them?" as if I had tried to manually disconnect. After I get that message, no other commands go through; e.g. if I try to move an axis it will say "x Command Waiting" and commands just keep piling up. Only if I disconnect and reconnect will it allow me to communicate with the printer again. I can then move the axes, but as soon as I try to heat the extruder or printbed, it disconnects again.

This behavior is consistent and repeatable. Printer responds fine until I attempt to heat the extruder and printbed, then I get  the message "The heaters are still on. Disable them?" and the printer stops responding. I tried this 10+ times in the course of troubleshooting, same thing every time.

The other strange thing is - the extruder and printbed actually do continue to heat up after I click Heat Extruder or Heat Printbed and then get disconnected from the printer. If I wait a while before reconnecting to the printer, then when I reconnect I'll see the temps reached my designated settings - 195 extruder, 95 printbed. But as soon as I reconnect, the heaters are turned off and the temps start going back down.

May be unrelated, but I also noticed another odd behavior - on a few occasions, the LEDs inside the printer started flashing faintly. I noticed this once before a few weeks ago.

Need less to say, this has rendered my printer unusable. Any idea what is going on here? Anything I could do to troubleshoot further? I am in the middle of a design project on a tight schedule, bad time for my printer to crap out on me! Really appreciate any help.

2 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

Sounds like a PSU issue to me.  What board do you have?

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3 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

wardjr wrote:

Sounds like a PSU issue to me.

+1
The flashing LEDs are indicative of this.

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4 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

I agree.. does sound like a power supply dropping out from the load of the heaters. They draw much more current than the motors do.. So the power supply drops out enough to make the board reset and that causes the disconnect.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
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Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

5 Reply by sfgorman (edited by sfgorman 2015-07-27 05:06:35)

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

Not sure what board. It's a SD3, and I bought the printer in April 2013. I actually had the PSU replaced in June of last year, the original one failed outright. Attached is a partial photo of the motherboard I took when documenting the PSU issue last year. I can take another if this does not make it clear.

I may have misspoken in the original post - it now seems to be just the printbed heating that is causing the printer to disconnect (I may have always been enabling both in earlier testing). I can heat the extruder no problem, the printer stays connected. I tried printing without a heated bed, unfortunately as expected I can't get prints to stick even with Aqua Net.

I got creative and was able to get one small print done - heated the extruder and printbed, the printer disconnected as expected, but rather than reconnect I let the printbed heat up for a while (as noted below, the heat command goes through and the printer heats after it disconnects, it just stops heating when I reconnect to the printer). Then reconnected and quickly started a print while the printbed was still hot, only heating the extruder. The printbed stayed hot long enough for the base layer to adhere for this small print.

At one point while disconnected, Windows gave me an error that the USB device had malfunctioned. And every time, in order to get Repetier Host to reconnect, I had to unplug and replug the USB. It seems that the printbed heater causes a glitch (voltage drop?) which causes the serial USB connection to break.

The LED flashing is intermittent, only seems to happen when both the printbed heater and extruder heater are on, or extruder heater and motors. No flashing with just the extruder heater, or no heaters at all.

Still sound like a PSU issue? I'm thinking yes. It's been a little over a year, will solidoodle replace the PSU again?

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6 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

Still sounds like a power supply. The bed usually pulls 7 plus amps while heating. It is the highest current draw on a machine.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

7 Reply by sfgorman

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

Appreciate the input. I have opened a support ticket with Solidoodle.

8 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

That is a Sanguinololu board and the good news is you can easily test if it's a power issue.
Got a car battery laying around by chance?
You can also try a new USB cable just to rule that out.
You have a PSU issue and SD isn't going to do anything about it.  Your machine is two years old and you certainly don't want to buy a replacement from SD.  This is a $20 fix.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D7CWSCG/re … Tvb8RY9DX7

Printit Industries Model 8.10 fully enclosed CoreXY, Chamber heat
3-SD3's & a Workbench all fully enclosed, RH-Slic3r Win7pro, E3D V6, Volcano & Cyclops Hot End
SSR/500W AC Heated Glass Bed, Linear bearings on SS rods. Direct Drive Y-axis, BulldogXL
Thanks to all for your contributions

wardjr's Website

9 Reply by sfgorman

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

Thanks a ton, I will get that PSU of Amazon. Red and black wires from the PSU to the SD3 motherboard - red is positive, right?

Steve

10 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

sfgorman wrote:

Thanks a ton, I will get that PSU of Amazon. Red and black wires from the PSU to the SD3 motherboard - red is positive, right?

Steve


I wouldn't bet on it, seems to me they aren't what they seem.  Either way the board should be labeled and it wouldn't hurt to check with a meter to verify.

Printit Industries Model 8.10 fully enclosed CoreXY, Chamber heat
3-SD3's & a Workbench all fully enclosed, RH-Slic3r Win7pro, E3D V6, Volcano & Cyclops Hot End
SSR/500W AC Heated Glass Bed, Linear bearings on SS rods. Direct Drive Y-axis, BulldogXL
Thanks to all for your contributions

wardjr's Website

11 Reply by jagowilson

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

Positive (+) is closest to the USB port, or red in your picture. From my experience replacing the PSU on an SD2 with a Sanguinololu

12 Reply by sfgorman

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

Yes, confirmed with a meter that red (closest to USB) is positive. Also did  quick measurement at the motherboard terminals with the heaters off and on:

all heaters off - PSU delivers >12 V to the motherboard
extruder heater on - PSU delivers ~11.3 V to the motherboard
extruder and printbed heaters on - PSU delivers ~8.8 V to the motherboard.

Sure looks like a PSU issue. Will report back once the new one is up and running.

13 Reply by jagowilson (edited by jagowilson 2015-07-27 18:31:22)

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

yeah that is dangerously low voltage. not good for your board, the drivers or the motors. when your Supernight comes, check its output voltage. it has a little trimpot you can adjust -- make sure it's at 12V or a little over before powering your printer with it. they usually come from the factory set correctly but it never hurts to check.

14 Reply by osmanharac

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Re: Printer disconnects when send heat extruder command

any update on this one?
I have the same problem