ESD protection? My printer died...
So, it is winter where I live, the air is dry. Static electricity has therefore been more prominent around my house. I've zapped a few door knobs, my tvs, several of my laptops, my A/V receiver, and a few light switches over the last month.
I zapped my printer once or twice too. The first time, I was touching the screen knob and it zapped from my finger to the screen surround. from that point forward, I have been touching the upper right hand corner of the frame where the steel screw from the motor and the steel bar both attach with the plastic piece to the frame, to "ground' myself and at least put the zap somewhere other than the screen.
One time i touched that spot and zapped the printer ...and something different happened-- the screen went all hieroglyphics and wouldnt respond. I hit the reset button, and it rebooted but the screen had a problem. See this photo, the upper left hand corner is barely visible, "gray" silhouette that makes it very difficult to read.
After that, it would not print, either .. it stopped after the #9 calibration saying the sensor activated too late. So I calibrated Z and started the print again.... that thankfully got it running again.
But the screen is still shot...
1) I bought this less than a month ago ... is a new screen covered under warranty?
2) What kind of ESD protections/grounding does this printer and it's components come with? No other electronics have been damaged in all the years of dry winters that I've been shocking things. But my pritner could not handle more than 2 shocks without self destructing. Beware!!
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
bump. dont let an innocent zap kill your investment !
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
bump
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
I'm afraid nobody here is able to help you. You should contact PR support via live chat, describe your problem and ask for replacement or other solution.
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
i would suggest to order a new lcd 2004 module for little money from china or hong kong. for my spare lcd it took between 2 and 3 weeks (hong kong -> germany).
but take attention: the exp1 & exp2 connectors are assembled in the correct orientation (so the red wire of the ribbon cable indicates pin#1).
dem inscheniör is' nix zu schwör...
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
thanks Guys.
I have chatted with them half a dozen times, each time they said they will ahve someone reach out to my email address, and no one ever does.
I've emailed Prusa again and also uploaded this video: In here you can also hear the bad bearings that have sounded like this since the day I got the printer.
Hoping to get some customer service or else I will be posting in other 3d printer forums about how prusa doesn't live up to the name..
Will post an update here if i ever get any help
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
Have you tried re-flashing the firmware? The static discharge may have caused its corruption?
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
FYI - I zapped my display board with static the first week I had my printer - walked across the room, touched the knob to start a print and, zap! The screen was just a random mess of lines after that. I emailed customer service and they were very responsive - had me try a few things and then got me a new part right away.
The machine is very sensitive to static which confuses me. Even touching the frame to ground myself first can cause the screen to freak out for minute.
It would be great if there were some way to better ground the machine. Right now I'm thinking I'll just mount a separate grounding strip in front of the machine that I'll always touch or hook up to first. Any other ideas or anything you've heard on this topic?
Thanks!
Jon
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
Yeah I am happy to solder and run wires but I dont know enough to know what changes to make. i might cover some things in foil /aluminum tape and ground that?
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
Here are some videos showing my bearing failure. I am in touch with support now by email, they want to send me a new screen. we are still talkign about the bearing noises.
I have loosened the screws and showed the effect on the sound. I didn't hear any effect at all
Prusa i3 mk2 original - problems with X-Axis bearing failure - Noise
Compare this noise to the Y axis.
Prusa i3 mk2 original - problems with Y-Axis bearing failure - Noise
It is similar, but much worse. In both cases you can see me put tension on the bearing and feel/hear it move side to side on the bar. I believe this shows the bearing is not tight onto the bar and has failed.
Do I need new bearings? Do I need new bars too?
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
Well,, I rebuilt the printer per supports suggestion (read entire email thread below). It made no difference in bearing sound and looseness.
I have also experienced a suddent failure of the LCD almost totally. The printer is now unusable and one big paperweight
I have not heard from anyone at prusa sicne Feb 8th, after repeated pings ..........and my printer is now fully out of commission !!!!! . Prusa support said they would send a replacement but i havent been told a word about it being on the way.... not a happy camper. This is not fun
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
Have you tried re-flashing the firmware? The static discharge may have caused its corruption?
http://www.prusa3d.com/drivers/
Yes, Tried that tonight with the latest firmware. It applied fine and rebooted, still the LCD is the same. USELESS
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
After no response from Prusa I chatted with them. Chat could not help, he said he would ping internally to get someone to help me.
In the meantime since my printer is not functional, does anybody know what replacement LCD I can buy off of Amazon? Prusa support has been dragging their feet and I feel stupid just sitting here and waiting on them even longer. I also asked several times how can I modify the printer to protected against future ESD zaps and not one word has been advised to me.
Feeling totally alone... should have bought a cheap chinese clone instead of this one which cost me 4x as much......
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
Is your printer calibrated? If it is, you can still print via USB and Pronterface/OctoPrint/whatever until you get new LCD.
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
Is your printer calibrated? If it is, you can still print via USB and Pronterface/OctoPrint/whatever until you get new LCD.
Yes I am calibrated however I do not have a dedicated PC I can leave there for hours.
After speaking to prusa, I still have yet to hear back from anyone there. Typical
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
Today, I've been sitting in their chat for over 20 minutes at this point. A gentleman named "Blas" appeared in the chat, said hello, and has been sitting there not answering me ever since. LOL. What crappy support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I very much regret buying this from Prusa...
from a very helpful soul on my youtube video of the LCD problem, we have soem info about how to modify the printer to protect against this kind of damage. This stranger has been 100x more helpful to me than PRUSA SUPPORT!!
bytebender23 hours ago (edited)
As there are at least 3 cases of ESD damage to the display (the two other guys from the forum and you), I took a quick look at the design data available to me.
Suggested workaround: Discharge yourself with an neon indicator bulb ( found in mains tester screwdrivers, the ones that light up if you touch phase) or an 1meg resistor (everything 10k to 10 meg will do) to the printer (an ground connected part, like the power supply housing) instead of touching it directly (and zapping it).
([!!!] The following notes are just based on pictures/PDFs from the internet, that do not necessarily match the actual printer, there might be other ground connections I am not aware of or the used layouts/schematics might be different)
For the display board ( http://www.reprap.org/mediawiki/images/7/70/Controller_final_reprapdiscount.pdf ) I see absolutely no protection circuit, just one 1uF decoupling capacitor for the display. Zapping to the metal can of the display (or SD card socket), the spark will jump either to GND or to one of the signals on the display board itself. This board is connected by ribbon cable (big coupling between signals, "relatively" high impedance) and there is just one ground pin (Look how they did IDE/parallel ATA pinout for comparison). No clamping diodes, no good ground connection.
For the controller board ( https://github.com/ultimachine/Mini-Rambo/blob/1.3a/board/Project%20Outputs%20for%20Mini-Rambo/Mini-Rambo.PDF ) I see the traces from the display/front panel connector going right to the microcontroller without protection components. Zapping the display might end up at the microcontroller and finally getting conducted to (board) GND by the protection diodes inside the microcontroller. I/O pins might get damaged.
Other from this, I do not know exactly how the different board grounds are connected, or if the power supply is isolated or the negative output is connected to mains ground. I do not know if/how the metal frame is grounded.
This will make an interesting assembly / improvement as soon as my i3 mk2 arrives :-)
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
here is today's chat.
*SIGH*
Me10:44
hey
Me10:44
i spoke to you yesterday, I mentioned that I've been trying to contact you guys for weeks over an LCD that went bad. My printer is out of commission, I need help now. You said someone would get in touch with me, no one has....
Blas joined chat
Blas10:46
hello
Me10:46
hey
Me10:46
im hoping you can help finally
Me10:53
hello?
Me11:00
HELLO?!
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
well, I have to say that the gentleman in the chat has responded, and got Tim involved. Tim is sending me new bearings and an LCD to fix this problem. I also suggested that Prusa Research acknowledge and provide a fix (if even a documented DIY fix) to help us all protect our investments against the Electrical Static Discharge threat this machine definitely suffers from in its current form.
I will provide an update here if they ever do provide a documented fix. Until then, try to understand and use bytebender23's gracious findings to modify your printers. I know I am doing so ASAP (while I wait for my spare parts most likely)
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
well, its been less than one month with the new screen. Again, a small ZAP occured (Despite my obsessive precautions) and the screen decided to go belly up on me. See the video of new symptoms here: (photo linked below as well)
This occurred right as I was demonstrating the printer to my friend, I was raving about the printer, my friend was cautious about spending the money, and then this occurred right in front of our faces. Needless to say, he will not be purchasing a prusa!!!
Below is the email and photo I just sent into support. Again, I am asking for a replacement and a permanent fix to this common problem. I will keep this thread updated with any/all replies I receive.. hopefully this replacement will be faster than last time (it took over a month last time)
-----
Thank you so much for this LCD screen and the bearings, Tomas.
The bearings fixued the issue. So did the LCD.
HOWEVER--- see this video and the attached photo. It has been less than one month and yet again my LCD screen has eaten a shit and become completely useless to control the machine. I will need yet ANOTHER replacement.
I have also not heard anything about addressing this problem in a more permanent sense, despite asking several times.... has there been any news on that front? Once I am out of warranty, I will not appreciate having to replace the screen with a new one every month during dry times of the year.
Please let me know about a replacement. If possible and available, I would like to purchase the $50 MK2S upgrade kit to be shipped at the same time. And possibly maybe even the 4 color add-on kit...........
I'd also like to know about a fix ... is there anything I can modify to stop this?? Can you modify it and provide the fix to me??
Re: ESD protection? My printer died...
What part of the world do you live? I am curious what type of weather is typical for you? I am in the southeastern US and atmospheric static is rarely a problem around here due to higher humidity (most of the time). But, after seeing your experience, I would definitely be interested in taking steps to avoid the same problems.