My "MK1" heat bed connector fried - Any tips on soldering the leads back?
After a year+ of faithful service, the heat bed connector on my controller board melted / burned. i was hoping to get through with printing on a cold bed for a while, but the print quality took a bit of a hit, so I'm goin' in and plan on soldering the leads directly to the back of the board this weekend. Hopefully my weekend won't end with ordering a new board 🙂
So, any tips or tricks on soldering the leads?
From reading the manual, it doesn't appear that it matters which lead is connected to which of the two pins.
Once complete, anything special I should do to stabilize the wire besides to zip tie it back down?
While the manual is great, I plan to document all the work configurations before I start so I make sure everything is reconnected.
I did see that someone in the Mk2 area covered their solder with silicone - would that just be silicone caulk?
Anything else?
Re: My "MK1" heat bed connector fried - Any tips on soldering the leads back?
Hello Ray!
The leads are sensitive to orientation - because the leds on the heat bed won't functioning with reverse polarity. I would buy leads with copper strands in the neighbourhood of diameter of 0.07 mm or less. A wire with small diameter have a resistance agains fatigue and will tolerate bending with smaller radius.
And a tip worth recommending is also to open up the Rambo board to be able to tighten the screws for the sockets for the nozzle heater as well as the heat bed often, to minimize the risk of intermittent contact - causing arcing and later melting sockets/housings.
/Henrik
Re: My "MK1" heat bed connector fried - Any tips on soldering the leads back?
The leads are sensitive to orientation - because the leds on the heat bed won't functioning with reverse polarity.
Not so with the Mk1. The heat bed has 2 LEDs in reverse polarity, so it doesn't matter.
It's just a matter of soldering the existing leads to the underside of the RAMBo; don't try to remove the connectors on the top of the board. Just be careful not to bridge the pads with solder, use leaded solder and tun first.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…