How does the broken filament detection work?
I'm getting a repetitive "broken filament" on one of my extruders. When I check the extruder, the filament is fine. I remove it, then re-insert it, and it returns to printing. Not sure why this is happening, but how exactly does the extruder detect the broken filament? Understanding this may help me figure out how to troubleshoot this issue.
The most likely cause of an intermittent error like this is a loose or broken connection. Unplug and replug the connection at both ends - this alone might be enough.
Cheerio,
RE: How does the broken filament detection work?
I had intermittent problems with the extruder filament detectors when I accidentally switched 2 extruders during maintenance. The problem was that the initial calibration does not switch with the extruders, it stays with the tool number. The solution was to recalibrate the filament sensors. Since then, the only other detector issue I have had is when one got stuck and I had to disassemble it. Try recalibrating them and I hope that helps.
RE: How does the broken filament detection work?
Just posting to continue to push for an answer to the questions monkfe asked in the original post.
but how exactly does the extruder detect the broken filament?
This is not the first post where this question was asked and so far it hasn't been answered.
RE: How does the broken filament detection work?
Send prusa an email?
RE: How does the broken filament detection work?
Maybe the original poster should better describe what message the printer is giving. I have never had a message saying “broken filament”. Is he just having broken filaments? That’s a fairly common thing. If it seems to happen on only 1 extruder perhaps the Bowden tube is being pinched. I had 1 extruder where the zip tie at the base of the tube was too tight which caused filament jams but could cause fragile filament to break.
RE: How does the broken filament detection work?
It just popped up during a print, but the filament was not broken. I had to remove it then reinsert it to get it to work....so I'm wonderning how the actual mech determines its broken. Is it looking only at the filament sensor?
RE: How does the broken filament detection work?
I suspect the problem is that the side filament detector is intermittently detecting no filament during the print cycle and since the extruder’s detector detects filament the printer concludes that the filament is broken. Try disabling the side detector and see if that stops the problem. You can recalibrate the detector too. I have removed the side detectors completely since they provide no benefit and cause many problems. The extruder detectors detect filament runout and truly broken filament just fine. Spool joining works just fine with only the extruder detector as well.