Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 3 months
I was wondering what should the life expectancy of the heater cartridge on the i3 MK2? Is 3 months reasonable?
What happened was very strange. I started a long print job last night and when I came back from work the print job was done. I started a new print job and about 10 minutes in the printer stopped and displayed a Thermal Runaway error. In OctoPrint I saw this weird graph:
I moved the extruder away from the print bed and restarted the printer. The extruder no longer heats. I checked the fuses and verified that the Rambo provides 12V to the heater connector, The Thermistor seems to be OK.
I ordered a couple of replacement heater cartridges and Thermistors for good measure. Now I just need to wait for them to arrive.
BTW, can someone point me to instructions on how to replace the heater block?
Re: Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 4 months
Is this what you are looking for?
Re: Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 3 months
➡ check if there is a problem with the cable or the connector at the rambo board.
maybe you've got your cable broken inside the cable trunk (due to continuous movement over the three months).
💡 i would expect that the heater cartridge would last considerably longer than 1/4 year.... but even with a mtbf > 1 or 2 years, there will always be some outliers.
dem inscheniör is' nix zu schwör...
Re: Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 4 months
Is this what you are looking for?
https://wiki.e3d-online.com/wiki/E3D-v6_Assembly#HotSide
Yes, thank you!
Re: Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 3 months
➡ check if there is a problem with the cable or the connector at the rambo board.
maybe you've got your cable broken inside the cable trunk (due to continuous movement over the three months).
💡 i would expect that the heater cartridge would last considerably longer than 1/4 year.... but even with a mtbf > 1 or 2 years, there will always be some outliers.
I disconnected the cable on the Rambo side and when I check the resistance with an ohmmeter I get no reading and the continuity check remains silent so you are probably right. To see if this is the problem I probably need to cut the wires to the heater far enough so I can solder wires back if needed and measure at that point. If I get a proper reading than I'll need to solder new wires. Does this sound right?
Re: Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 3 months
... If I get a proper reading than I'll need to solder new wires. Does this sound right?
yep. but you can just measure the resistance of the heater cartridge directly at the hotend. if you got a high-resistance there, then the cartridge itself rests in peace and you need to replace it entirely.
by the way, it might be a good idea to get some cheap spare heater cartridges directly from china... if you don't need them immediately (takes about 14 - 21 days delivery here to .de ).
dem inscheniör is' nix zu schwör...
Re: Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 3 months
by the way, it might be a good idea to get some cheap spare heater cartridges directly from china... if you don't need them immediately (takes about 14 - 21 days delivery here to .de ).
Good idea. For now I ordered couple of E3D heater cartridges from filastruder in the US for about $7 each so that I can be back in business next week. I also ordered a couple of Thermistor cartridges for $6 each, just in case.
At least I still have my Ultimaker 3 Extended to keep me busy while I wait for the replacement part.
Re: Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 3 months
yep. but you can just measure the resistance of the heater cartridge directly at the hotend. if you got a high-resistance there, then the cartridge itself rests in peace and you need to replace it entirely.
It looks like it the problem is a breakage in the wires because I can measure about 4.2 ohm on the cartridge.
Do I need any special wires? It seems I will be able to solder the wires far enough from the cartridge so heat from the extruder should not be an issue.
Re: Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 3 months
...
Do I need any special wires? It seems I will be able to solder the wires far enough from the cartridge so heat from the extruder should not be an issue.
💡 ah, 4.2 ohms is quite good, so the heater cartridge itself is still ok.
➡ you don't need any "special wire", but at least it has to provide about 3 amps of current. so i would use at least 0.75mm² cables ("speaker cable" will do).
and you've noticed already the problem: you can't solder the wires directly at the heater cartridge... because it will disconnect (unsolder) itself when heating up.
maybe it's possible to use some lustre-terminals and fixate them at the backside of the extruder carriage with a screw. which would make a later cartridge exchange much easier...
dem inscheniör is' nix zu schwör...
Re: Heater cartridge gave the ghost after 3 months
Good news. The breakage in the heater wires were on the crimp connector connecting the heater to the wires going to the Rambo so I cut the wires at the connector and soldered new wires to the crimp pconnector. Put everything together and the heater works! The hard part will come tomorrow when I will need to calibrate the machine and the PINDA again and go through the complete testing and calibration.
On an unrelated subject. While I had the extruder cover dismantled I also replaced the extruder fan with the Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX. Wow, what a difference does it make from the original fan. It is whisper quiet, just amazing.