1 Topic by laird

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Topic: Heater isn't heating

I've had the heater occasional not heat, until I power cycled the Filastruder and then it heated, and now it's not heating at all. The thermistor is working, and the controller is trying to heat (the LED lights up) but there's no heat.

When I opened the 'struder I noticed that the top connector on the motor switch had pulled off, tightened it and put it back on. I don't think it's related, and just pulled loose when I opened the unit, but I'm mentioning it in case it's somehow related in a way that's not obvious to me.

The wires all look reasonable.

I'm guessing that it's something inside the control unit. I saw your note that there was an internal connection that could come loose. I pulled it out, but didn't see how to open it. Perhaps I need new glasses? :-) Any suggestions? Is there anything I can check?

2 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Heater isn't heating

Sounds like a failure of the PID unit. You should be able to swap one out with Rob. I've emailed him alerting him to this thread.

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

3 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Heater isn't heating

Just wanted to follow up on this - did OS Printing get you sorted out?

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

4 Reply by laird

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Re: Heater isn't heating

Yep, he sent a replacement, and I'm sending the failed one to him to analyze.

5 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Heater isn't heating

Perfect, thanks!

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

6 Reply by laird

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Re: Heater isn't heating

Though apparently it's taking me nearly a week to get around to extracting and shipping him the bad one. :-(

7 Reply by laird

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Re: Heater isn't heating

Replacement PID controller is working great. Yay!

8 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Heater isn't heating

Glad to hear it!

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

9 Reply by OSPrinting

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Re: Heater isn't heating

Great! Let me know if you run into any more issues.

10 Reply by laird

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Re: Heater isn't heating

The replacement worked great for a few days, and died last night.

The failure mode was a bit different, so I'll describe it in case it's useful.

I replaced the previous PID, and it ran for perhaps 10 hours so far, over a few days. I only run it when I'm home from work and awake, which limits how much time I get extruding.

The first sign of trouble was that last night when I powered on, the temperature didn't stop at 180, but kept going up. I noticed it around 215, when I turned it off, then back on, and it then cooled down to 180 and stayed there.

It then extruded, for an hour, but slowly. I am guessing because of the excess heat doing something to the plastic to thicken it. But it extruded a few feet of 3mm filament.

Then the temperature started dropping, which I noticed because the motor started getting slower (due to the resistance). Power cycling didn't recover the problem. I shut off the motor, but kept trying to heat, power cycling, but not seeing any heat. (And touched the nozzle to verify that it's really not heating, rather than a problem with measurement).

Opened it up, all of the contacts look fine - screws are tight, wires look fine.

Is there anything I can look for or check? One failure feels random, but a second failure in a few hours operating makes me wonder if there's something else going on. Is there anything external to the PID that could cause this?

Now I have two units to send you to analyze. :-)