MK4 > MK4S Upgrade - Heater Calibration Failed
Hello,
Back in December I completed the upgrade of the MK4 to the MK4s. Everything went fine, but when setting up the printer again it fails on heater testing
I'm on current firmware, 6.1.3. I tried downgrading, no fix, I tried 6.1.4 from github, no fix, I tried the latest beta firmware, no fix
If I tell it the sock is on, but take it off and run the test, it then works. But thats not really a fix
Hotend thermistor is 113k ohms at 70f room temp. The heatbed thermistor gave me identical results
Heater is 15.1 ohms
Voltage for the heat bed is 23.5 when pre-eating for PLA
I contacted support and they sent me a new love board which did not solve the problem, and now they circled back asking me yet again for resistance values and pictures of me taking them. I've been going back and forth with them since December 30th and it always seems to take a good few days to reply with no real progress
Other posts of people with similar issues had replacement heaters, and thermistors which solved the issue. Does anyone have idea ideas if that might just solve the issue? Even if I have to pay out of pocket for them I will, I just need the printer to work again
Is there any more logging in troubleshooting? It seems odd that all you get is a red X and no real error code or log of what went wrong and why it fails.
Thanks!
RE: MK4 > MK4S Upgrade - Heater Calibration Failed
I'm at a point where I just replace thermistor/heater when I see this error message. They're cheap, and it tends to take less time than extended troubleshooting which has never taken me any other place than replacing them anyway after all.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
RE:
Do you go OEM or aftermarket? There is plenty on Amazon for cheap, but not OEM of course
I'm in the US, so shipping from Prusa is expensive
RE: MK4 > MK4S Upgrade - Heater Calibration Failed
I'm in the US as well, and I would suggest partsbuilt.com even though I have bought 3d party stuff off Amazon as well without issues.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
RE: MK4 > MK4S Upgrade - Heater Calibration Failed
I went ahead and just ordered the whole hot end with nozzle, which of course will be the older nozzle so I'll just swap mine in
Fingers crossed I'm back up and running soon! I almost wish I never bothered with this upgrade, everything worked fine before... No idea if it would have always failed the calibration or if something had gone wrong, but I never had problems printing
RE: MK4 > MK4S Upgrade - Heater Calibration Faile
Can't claim I'm happy with the upgrade. The new shroud is an abomination compared to the elegant old one and only gets in the way of observing the model. Maybe it is theoretically better but it makes no difference for any of the models I print.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
RE: MK4 > MK4S Upgrade - Heater Calibration Failed
Yeah, and the new Loveboard cover didn't fit my printer. Comments on the upgrade guide page seem to suggest its a common problem. Was that never tested? Very odd.
Support said just use the old one. Well, in that case why did we even bother with a new one that we all paid for?
Back on the topic of the error, I was reading through other posts and a lot of people seem frustrated with the speed of email support and suggest chat, so I did the same and did chat. Sadly, it left me no less frustrated. If not, I'm more frustrated. They were quick, but I didn't really like the answers if I'm being honest.
Keep in mind, my printer passed the test when I got it just under a year ago as a stock MK4.
I got told to ignore the error...
If I ignore the error, how do I know if I really do have a problem or not? I pointed out that surely every new MK4S out the factory isn't failing this test, so there must be something different on my printer. Whether that be firmware or parts, something must be different.
They said it was probably because of my ambient temperatures that its failing. Apparently 70-74 degrees (21-24c) is not within the operating window for a Prusa printer? I told the rep the ambient temp at the get go, with my thermistor readings, so it wasn't just a shot in the dark.
Lets face it, we both know that is complete BS. Anyway, I tested it again. my room right now is 74 degrees, and I pointed a 1500w heat gun at the hot end of the printer, from about 12 inches. Now that completely removes the fact my room is too cold, right? Well it still failed, shocking no one...
In my opinion this says there is 2 possibilities
1. My printer is defective.
2. Prusa is shipping defective printers to every new customer buying a MK4S
When I pushed further and asked about potentially being firmware I got told, quote, "there were very little reports of similar behavior all seemingly related to the ambient temperature". So by their own admissions, this is not a widespread issue. So that seems to rule out a firmware bug, and points to my printer being defective in some way.
However, they did then say that this "issue" is being worked on not in the next release, but the one after that. So it is a firmware bug? I'm very lost
I pushed further, as clearly there is an issue, I asked what is different about my MK4S and a new MK4S, because new ones are not failing left and right, by their own admission. And got told, quote "Because due to the inherent nature of modern manufacturing, no two products are going to be the same"
I thought this was a precision machine? I guess not. Surely the calibration test should be designed to pass with all of the variability of the parts they chose. To me, this reads like Prusa is just picking random parts and shipping printers and hoping they work.
Then I got told "the only reason why the printer might be failing the test might be marginal differences in the specs of the hotend heater and thermistor"
Well, then surely mine is defective? Right? Why did I not just get sent a new heater/thermister?
Then, "but it's taking a few seconds longer to do so in the place where it currently sits, falling short of the arbitrary outlined "pass" condition."
Again, isn't this marketed at a precision machine? Why is there arbitrary test procedures at all? Why when they wrote the software did they even bother with this test if its arbitrary. There has GOT to be a reason that the writers of the code and the designers of the machine chose the temps they did.
If my new hotend I ordered fixes this printer, I'm never buying another Prusa printer again. This is a real joke for a company that tries to sell such an accurate and precision machine, as their marketing claims