Einsy popping/clicking/weird noises (drivers?)
Hi everyone,
First time issue here that I can't seem to find anyone else has posted about. If I'm wrong, please feel free to link the thread.
Have had my MK3S+ for about 4-5 months now, and has been printing pretty much every day. It is in a v2 lack enclosure, and is modified. I will list the modifications just to make this as clear as I can:
- 50W heater + PT1000 thermistor + Slice Engineering copperhead block + dual filament fan
- Dual mounted LED light
- LDO-42STH40-1004ASR motors for the z axis (rigid couplers w/ 300mm t8x8 lead screws)
- External Einsy (cooling fan and heat sinks over the drivers), PSU and LCD
- Y axis MGN12h linear rail upgrade
- All printed parts are polycarbonate
Today during a 10 hour print (printing at 250c extruder, 115c bed), about 7 hours in, I started hearing some popping/clicking sounds coming from where I have the Einsy mounted on the enclosure. It seems to only (or most frequently) happen when making 90 degree moves. I am attaching a video of the opened Einsy housing where you can hear it happen (apologies the video is all warped, not sure what happened during conversion, but the audio is not impacted).
https://forum.prusa3d.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_9963-4.mp4
The print is completely normal looking and printing completely normal. I do not see anything visually or functionally happening that is out of the ordinary, and it looks like it is going to finish completely fine in about 10 minutes. It just has a weird popping/clicking/clonking sound that happens. I have not encountered this before myself, and it is something I would have noticed as the printer is in my office with me all day. So, does anyone have any inklings as to what the noise happening could be? Any help or insight is greatly appreciated.
Check connections
I had difficulty hearing the clicking well but would suggest that you check the tightness of all the screw connectors on the EINSY and perhaps do some wiggling of the wires to make sure that the crimps on the connectors are good. I'm thinking that motion on the wire bundle might be causing some arcing in the are a of the connectors which is not good!
jwv
Connections checked
Hey jwv,
Thank you for the suggestion! I just went through all my wires and connections, as well as the screw terminals. Everything seems to be in good shape. I left the printer off for the night and will be running another print to see if it is persistent, and I can try to take a better recording. You’re right, arcing would not be a good thing! However, I do find it weird that arcing would occur during something very specific (90 degree moves between X and Y) and then be not present any other time. I’m not an electrician so maybe I’m wrong there…
Update - trying to reproduce
I did a print with many 90 degree angles (a few boxes) with PLA settings of 210c hotend, 60c bed. Print was 5 hours long. Was not able to reproduce the popping/clicking sound. I am now going to run a similar print as before but printing in polycarbonate like before, when the issue first came around. Will update with results.
Thumbs up
Glad it is working like it should again.