1 Topic by Cognoquest

  • Cognoquest
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  • Registered: 2013-06-12
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Topic: Power Supply Warranty & Support

Hello all I have not had any replies from the following email to support, sent two days ago:

SD3 Power Supply issues
Hello

Since I purchased the SD3 I have had random issues with the unit where the
SD3 would stop printing properly but recently more frequently. Could not
pin point the issue until yesterday when the unit flickered and started
printing erratically. Researched the problem, sorry if this is old news to
you but looking at the forum all indicates that the problem is an issue
with the power. I excluded the source of the power supply as a problem
since the unit runs on a U.P.S. I re-seated all the connections on the
board, the problem did not go away.

I think I may have found the problem? I decided to open the power supply
(f.y.i. one of the post for the screws was broken) had a look inside and
found this splattered white thick liquid inside, see attached picture?
From the looks of it I believe the transformer blew up. I know that
purchases are provided without warranty. I am wondering if this can be an
exception? I am open to your thoughts and or suggestions.

Regards,
Cedric

Order ID: 12599 SD3
Date Ordered: 22/05/2013
Date Shipped: 12/06/2013
Date Received: 26/06/2013

On a better note I wish to share with you that the SD3 has been more
useful than expected. I am a second year university student at University
of Ottawa in Canada and was lucky enough to win a research scholarship for
this year. I am using the SD3 to facilitate my research and I thank you.

I might be too much in a hurry. Any thoughts or suggestion on how I can get some form of traction on the subject from support at solidoodle.com? Hopefully I am not opening a can of warms, how long should I wait for a reply or should I just bite the bullet and get a new power supply?

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2 Reply by ronsii

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

Hi Cedric, sorry to hear about your troubles. The white thick liquid you are seeing is normal it's just an adhesive the manufacturers use to secure the components from moving around... sometimes they put it anywhere and everywhere smile normally the problem in the power supplies is the solder joint on the bottom of the plug for the incoming power from the wall cord... which is what could cause the 'flickering' you have witnessed this also could be caused by other problems in the powersupply that may not be repairable by the average user.

3 Reply by ronsii

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

I should add that flickering can also be caused by loose or faulty connections at the main board where the power comes in from the powersupply to the back of the printer and also a short in the wiring at the hotend or bed.

4 Reply by 2n2r5 (edited by 2n2r5 2013-11-27 18:07:58)

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

^ as stated above, white stuff is totally normal. Looks like they may have been a bit excessive with it. Also, +1 to the check for other things in case the supply isn't your problem.

If you decide to get a new power supply then I would suggest your take the opportunity to upgrade to something like this.

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Regulat … wer+supply

If you plan on doing any upgrades to the electronics, bed, steppers, fans , etc...  in the future then you will want something beefier than the OEM supply anyways.

SD3 w/ mods:
Glass bed with QU-BD heat pad upgrade, threadless ballscrew w/ 8mm smooth rod, spectra line belt replacement, lawsy MK5 extruder, Lawsy replacement carriage, E3D hotend, Ramps 1.4 w/ reprap discount controller, DRV8825 drivers, 12v 30A PS, Acrylic case, Overkill Y-idlers, Filament alarm, Extruder fan + more.

2n2r5's Website

5 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

Cognoquest wrote:

Hello all I have not had any replies from the following email to support, sent two days ago:

SD3 Power Supply issues
Hello

Since I purchased the SD3 I have had random issues with the unit where the
SD3 would stop printing properly but recently more frequently. Could not
pin point the issue until yesterday when the unit flickered and started
printing erratically. Researched the problem, sorry if this is old news to
you but looking at the forum all indicates that the problem is an issue
with the power. I excluded the source of the power supply as a problem
since the unit runs on a U.P.S. I re-seated all the connections on the
board, the problem did not go away.

I think I may have found the problem? I decided to open the power supply
(f.y.i. one of the post for the screws was broken) had a look inside and
found this splattered white thick liquid inside, see attached picture?
From the looks of it I believe the transformer blew up. I know that
purchases are provided without warranty. I am wondering if this can be an
exception? I am open to your thoughts and or suggestions.

Regards,
Cedric

Order ID: 12599 SD3
Date Ordered: 22/05/2013
Date Shipped: 12/06/2013
Date Received: 26/06/2013

On a better note I wish to share with you that the SD3 has been more
useful than expected. I am a second year university student at University
of Ottawa in Canada and was lucky enough to win a research scholarship for
this year. I am using the SD3 to facilitate my research and I thank you.

I might be too much in a hurry. Any thoughts or suggestion on how I can get some form of traction on the subject from support at solidoodle.com? Hopefully I am not opening a can of warms, how long should I wait for a reply or should I just bite the bullet and get a new power supply?

I spoke to support. They will have someone speak to you promptly.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

6 Reply by Cognoquest

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

Wow all these replies ... Thank you all.

normally the problem in the power supplies is the solder joint on the bottom of the plug for the incoming power from the wall cord...

The solder joint looks fine to me,

loose or faulty connections at the main board ... short in the wiring at the hotend or bed.

Ron before I opened the power supply the first thing that I checked was the connection to the main board. Short at the hot end or bed do not know how to verify this. The failures are very short and random. I include a picture from a failed run.

Frederick Thank you for the link

I did get a reply from support to send the power supply back. Now the response that I got here is leaving me perplex and I am not sure anymore if this is a power supply issue? Sporadic failures such as these sure makes it difficult to find the source of the problem.  What I do not understand why would the manufacturer have used adhesive to bond the heat sink to the transformer. Is it possible in doing so that the transformer would overheat and cause these interruptions? I guess I could do a run making sure that the heat sink is not resting against the transformer but I thought I should just ask as I am in unknown territory.

Note: The previous photo that I attached is not showing the heat sink resting against the transformer. During my poking I already pried it apart.

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7 Reply by Cognoquest

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

Or possibly I have it all wrong and the adhesive is meant and used to have the transformer stick to the heat sink to cool it.?

8 Reply by ronsii (edited by ronsii 2013-11-28 03:56:54)

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

Hey Cognoquest, I know what you mean about intermittent problems...  they can drive ya nuts ..... anyways I have ripped apart thousands of electronic doodads and the main thing they use the white goo for is securing heavy components(caps and such) that can move and are only attached by thin flexible leads to the pcb... this prevents then from flexing around when dropped and whatnot so they do not break away from the board wink as for the common powersupply problems they stem from faulty solder joints on the line plug connections and usually show up because of repeated plugging/unplugging of the powersupply from the cord... but this was mainly a problem on earlier orders( I think before yours) now as of late I have seen a few other people complain of faulty powersupplies but I am guessing with a different issue than the plug problems... so this could still be the problem with yours.

On the early units you could wiggle the plug to the brick and the lights would flicker on the printer indicating the bad connection.



EDIT: I guess and easy way to test the p/s would be load test it with some lights(auto headlights) or whatever you can find that would draw as much or a bit more than the printer and see how long it stays on...

9 Reply by Cognoquest

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

Ron I appreciate the feedback:

the white goo for is securing heavy components ...  to the pcb

Interesting, strange that they ended up gluing the metal shield what I have previously called the heat sink and an electronic component what I called the transformer, see pictures? Is this normal? If those heat sink are going to get hot that electronic component is going to be challenged?

On the early units you could wiggle the plug to the brick and the lights would flicker on the printer indicating the bad connection.

I double checked and I believe it to be sufficiently solid.

... with some lights(auto headlights

Yikes I am not certain my father would appreciate me disassembling his car... but I get the idea. What might be easier for me is to rig my computer ATX to run the SD3. I quickly checked the output of the 12v rail and the output is 17 amps, 200 watts + should be good enough? and see how that goes.

Note: I am not throwing the towel on this issue, but I have to be careful on the amount of time I spent resolving this. This is exam time for me so I may not respond as quickly but not from lack of interest or appreciation.

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10 Reply by ronsii

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

Hi Cognoquest, I understand about the time issues smile that's the beauty of the forums... once posted you have all the time in the world to get back to it wink

So with that said all the round objects in your pics are capacitors(330uf...) the main transformer is the sort of squareish thing with the yellow stripe and 12v on it.

Yes the atx p/s will work fine a lot of people use atx's for this very purpose, one thing to note is when loading the atx that much on the 12v rail you will see the power drop below 12volts... for most things this won't be a problem but it will limit how hot the print bed gets... to keep the voltage up 12v plus you will need to put a small load on the 5V rail of the p/s nothing special just half an amp or so... again headlights work great for this wink don't worry cars usually have more than one so your father shouldn't miss it... j/k

Good luck on all of your exams and hopefully this sorts out the sd3's problems smile

11 Reply by Cognoquest

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

Ron thks for the info. I am sure this is no big news to all but the 3D printing world is addictive and I could not wait.

Quick update: I decided to give it a run yesterday using another power supply. I just wish to rule out that this is not a printer problem. I rigged my ATX Power Supply to feed the printer. It is definitely a little slower to get the heaters going. Ran a few prints ‘touch wood’ no flickers, all seem to be stable again.

I found an interesting site about converting ATX Power Supplies, especially about when to load he +5V rail vs. the +12V rail:
Converting ATX Power Supplies.

Before returning the defective SD Power Supply I am going to see if I can fix it. Will keep you posted.

12 Reply by Cognoquest

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Re: Power Supply Warranty & Support

I was hoping by straightening the metal shield from resting on the capacitor might fix the power issues. Regrettably this did not help. The positive is I know that I have a defective power supply. I have sent the SD3 power supply back for a replacement.

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