Heater Shutting Off mid Print.

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G-Force
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 6:56 pm

Heater Shutting Off mid Print.

Post by G-Force »

I've been running my Geeetech i3X for about 6 months without any issues.

Now I'm getting a problem where the heater appears to turn off in the middle of a print. At a random point in the print the temperature starts dropping all the way back down to room temperature. Once this starts happening the print fails as plastic is no longer melting. For reference I'm printing ABS at 220 degrees.

The problem happens both when running a print from OctoPrint as well as running directly from the SD card.

It seems like the heater is loosing its connection but after pulling it apart and reassembling I can't see any evidence of the cable being damaged in any way.

Any idea's or things to try to try and resolve this?
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William
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Posts: 6340
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2016 9:38 am

Re: Heater Shutting Off mid Print.

Post by William »

G-Force wrote:I've been running my Geeetech i3X for about 6 months without any issues.

Now I'm getting a problem where the heater appears to turn off in the middle of a print. At a random point in the print the temperature starts dropping all the way back down to room temperature. Once this starts happening the print fails as plastic is no longer melting. For reference I'm printing ABS at 220 degrees.

The problem happens both when running a print from OctoPrint as well as running directly from the SD card.

It seems like the heater is loosing its connection but after pulling it apart and reassembling I can't see any evidence of the cable being damaged in any way.

Any idea's or things to try to try and resolve this?
So,i wanna ask a question,did it print normally again when you restart it after the shutting off?And it always happens or only once?Here are some tips in my mind:
1.Check if the DC output is approx 12V with a multimeter and if it is stable when you're printing.Maybe you're running some High Power Electric when you're printing,which may affect it.
2.Did you replace some parts like the bed\the heater?
3.If you didn't,check if the heater cable has some issue,maybe it is not plugged tight enough or the heater cable itself has some broken parts.
4.Measure the the resistance of heater with a multimeter to see if it is normal:
The resistance of the heating cartridge is about 3.6ohms.
-Keep your mind and try to test it. :)
-Everything will be fun!-Support all Getech printer.
-You can ask me the questions and I will kindly reply.
-Respect others is the best way you can get help!
G-Force
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 6:56 pm

Re: Heater Shutting Off mid Print.

Post by G-Force »

So I think I located the cause of the issue.

Power supply was 12V and was fine but the resistance on the heater was jumping all over the place. pulling back the protective sheath I found that one of the cables was loose in the crimp connector right by the heater block. I've re-crimped the cable and the resistance is staying steady now (although I was getting closer to 4.5 ohms instead of 3.6).

Running a test print now which has already got much further than the failed prints without any sign of the heater disconnecting.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
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