OctoPrint suddenly no longer able to heat up hot end / extruder
My OctPrint and Monoprice Maker Select IIIP (A Wanhao i3 Duplicator Plus clone) were working fine, but suddenly today the hot end won't heat up anymore. I tried disconnecting the OctoPrint USB and resetting the printer power, and it still couldn't heat up the extruder, such as through the filament menu.
But then it got weird.
I left it off for a few hours and turned it on to see if it was getting 12 V to the hot end, and it was heating up again! So I plugged in the OctopPrint and we're back to square one, the extruder has just been cooling down. I know the thermistor is working, because it's accurately following the temp, such as following the cooldown after the heating stopped working again.
Is it possibly I have a dead hot end and for some reason it temporarily started to work again? Maybe an intermittent short?
I guess the next step is to open up the base and look at the connector to the motherboard, and or measure for 12 V greatpeople
Stress Fracture.
The wires to the Hot end, are part of the bundle from the Rambo case to the back of the X axis carriage,
these wires flex every time the carriage moves from side to side.
repeated flexing can work harden the wires and cause them to be intermittent continuity.
or removing a blob of doom , can similarly damage the wires near the heater...
options are to replace the entire heater and wire (especially if you think the damage may be near the heater cartridge, )
or replace the wires from the fixed part of the X carriage, into the rambo case
I would use 16AWG flexible silicone wire to replace this section of the wiring if I believed the issue was in the flexible section of the wire.
I would use solder and heat shrink sleeve to join the wires!
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK