Too cold to start?
I've had my printer in the garage all summer and have been running it with no issues. Now it's starting to get cold outside. I had a print finish early this morning and was finished and waiting for me when I woke up. Now, when I try to warm up the printer (set bed and nozzle temps for a long heat up pre-soak) the printer goes into an instant watchdog reset. I'm guessing that it's because the unit overall, and the thermistors specifically, are too cold?
RE: Too cold to start?
Joan mentioned that a member of a group she works with puts a cup of hot tea near the extruder on cold mornings to help it get started. While not a great technical solution, I do appreciate the civility of that approach.
I believe new firmware releases are lowering the MINTEMP required to start warming and provide a few other tweaks to help cold starts on winter mornings.
and miscellaneous other tech projects
He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
RE: Too cold to start?
Yeah, I'll likely need to move the setup into the house which will thrill my wife to no end </sarcasm>. Looks like an enclosure with soundproofing just became a priority.
RE: Too cold to start?
Yeah, I'll likely need to move the setup into the house which will thrill my wife to no end </sarcasm>. Looks like an enclosure with soundproofing just became a priority.
That or start drinking tea!
and miscellaneous other tech projects
He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
RE: Too cold to start?
I've had my printer in the garage all summer and have been running it with no issues. Now it's starting to get cold outside. I had a print finish early this morning and was finished and waiting for me when I woke up. Now, when I try to warm up the printer (set bed and nozzle temps for a long heat up pre-soak) the printer goes into an instant watchdog reset. I'm guessing that it's because the unit overall, and the thermistors specifically, are too cold?
With a stable ambient temperature between about 20 and 30 degrees C. you may be able to save yourself some problems. I use my printer in my study in a soundproof and odour-proof housing. This does not disturb my wife.
Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.
RE: Too cold to start?
I ran into this last week, the first week of colder weather and temp was 12C in the morning. I got the MINTEMP error and Prusa support told me the same thing. Warm the printer up with hair dryer so it is 20C+. I waited until lunch time with higher temp and printer worked without any issue.
I mentioned to support that they should put that in the MINI knowledge base so people at least have a chance to see the cause and solution if they search there.
RE: Too cold to start?
Yup. I went and warmed the heated up with a heat gun until it was above 25C then started the heat bed with no issue. Once that was going I moved the nozzle to the home position and placed it in the center of the bed which brought it up above 25C in a short time. Then I was able to temp everything up with no more alarms. I let everything soak at 60C/170 for about 30 minutes then started a print (which added another 5 min soak) and everything started working normally. Going to need to move the whole unit inside though going forward.
RE: Too cold to start?
@alexhung
As far as I know, the lower temperature limit for the Mini is 15 degrees C.
Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.
RE: Too cold to start?
@alexhung
As far as I know, the lower temperature limit for the Mini is 15 degrees C.
Ok. Prusa support says 21-26C
/shrug
RE: Too cold to start?
@alexhung
Prusa Mini firmware 4.2.0 (Marlin):
Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.
RE: Too cold to start?
Does anybody know if the Prusa team is working on that issue?
RE: Too cold to start?
Does anybody know if the Prusa team is working on that issue?
They have worked on that issue. Its why the mintemp is now 15 and not around 25 degreesC like it used to be. The function is there as a safety function, they are not going to remove the limitation. Its why they lowered it due to feedback.
RE: Too cold to start?
The mintemp on 4.3.0 RC firmware is 10deg ( https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy/pull/688 )
RE: Too cold to start?
Lowering mintemp is one thing, but it is better to create a warmer environment with low humidity to get stable and good printing results. 10 degrees C. is certainly the lower limit.
Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.
RE: Too cold to start?
I experienced a big change between summer and winter printing. Even if the Mini started ok, quality was not so good in a large unheated room in the house in winter. Moving to an upstairs small room, and adding a convector heater to keep the room at a minimum of 20°, gave me the same great results that I’d seen in summer. It helps that the Mini’s room also contains a NAS (storage) and is next to an airing cupboard with a hot water tank. The Mini benefits from the heat byproduct of both.
RE: Too cold to start?
I ended up moving the Mini inside to a stable room. It was a little cooler being at an unused side of the house (Vents closed), but was printing much better. I got the new SuperPINDA installed on it this morning and recalibrated everything and now it's printing flawless first layers straight away without needing the 5 minute heat soak ahead of time.
RE: Too cold to start?
This happened to me in the two MINIs that I have. (I think I'm a little weird). Change the PINDA in one of them with the SUPERPINDA. Equal MINTEMP error result.
When trying to preheat or print, MINTEMP. Then it occurred to me to tell the MINI to unload the filament and halfway through heating, I turned it off. And voila it worked correctly !!
I can leave the machines in their place, without making tea cups, without hot turbines, or taking them to the living room.
All happy!
Hopefully this is resolved soon !! But meanwhile...
RE: Too cold to start?
@la-vega..
That was the fix for the mini????
"Then it occurred to me to tell the MINI to unload the filament and halfway through heating, I turned it off. And voila it worked correctly !!"
strange thing, to turn it off halfway at unloading ?
RE: Too cold to start?
@toz
I have explained myself wrong. I mean telling the printer to unload the filament. And halfway through heating, as you see that it goes from 16-18 degrees, I cancel the process.
The error occurs when the temperature is 15 degrees or less.
RE: Too cold to start?
I have this problem now as it's gotten colder near me and I keep my printers in a room I close the vents in. The only solution I've found that works well is to keep a heat gun (or hair dryer) near it and heat up the bed and nozzle a bit before printing. It's really annoying - is there perhaps a way to turn down the min temp in the firmware somewhere for those of us in cooler (but not sub zero) climates?