Extruder cables get tangled
I am having a serious problem with my multi-tool XL. The problem is that the extruder cables lean too far forward (instead of leaning backwards) and when I print with one extruder and it reaches over to the side of the build plate, it snags on another extruder's cables and dislodges the other extruder. Also the print fails and gets filament all over the printer. Does anyone have a solution for this? It has been like this since day 1, and Prusa won't help.
Senior Life member of IEEE.
Can you provide a picture showing just how much the cables lean?
Cheerio,
RE: Extruder cables get tangled
Sounds like the black plastic spring was installed backwards/reversed or is just faulty.
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You are likely to be right but there's also the possibility of docks not being correctly installed so a picture would be valuable.
Cheerio,
RE: Extruder cables get tangled
Hi,
Maybe you have to reseat the cables.
Lose them and Try to pull them a little bit to the Docking Ports.
So they will geht stiffer and not lean to the Front. Reattach an hopefully done.
Sometimes twisting the cable ist enough.
It seems the op has opened two threads on this one, see:
Cheerio,
RE: Extruder cables get tangled
Thank you, but this doesn't solve my original problem.
Senior Life member of IEEE.
RE: Extruder cables get tangled
Well, I got the cables so the straps on the toolheads go perpendicular to the bed, but when #1 TH reaches across the bed close to the other toolheads, #4 and #5 get snagged and pulled out of their dock, and the print gets destroyed.
This seems to be a really bad design with the bed this big. The original E3D toolchanger had a much smaller bed and Prusa just copied it. Really bad design by Prusa. I think I found a way to pull back the toolhead cables (using a spring I found on McMaster-Carr). If it works, I'll post it here.
Senior Life member of IEEE.
RE:
What's all the zip ties?
Here's a picture of mine after almost 2 years. I've never had a dock come off. I do have the parts suggested above installed.
RE: Extruder cables get tangled
Perhaps you have been lucky, or perhaps your prints were such that TH#1 didn't come close to the other THs. That's what mine looks like. When I print something where TH#1 doesn't come close to the other THs, I get decent prints. When TH#1 gets close to the other THs, the cable snags.
Senior Life member of IEEE.
RE: Extruder cables get tangled
Maybe, but after 7000 hours of printing I'd think if there was a systemic problem I should have experienced it at least once.
Good luck. Maybe study my pictures and see if anything stands out. Hopefully you can solve it.
RE: Extruder cables get tangled
Perhaps, but it highly depends on what you are printing. Your picture looks like my XL with the cables flopped forward. I used a bungee to pull them back, and got better prints. The problem comes about when TH#1 gets close to TH#4 and 5 and snags the cables.
What version of the firmware are you running?
Senior Life member of IEEE.
RE: Extruder cables get tangled
I'm running the latest firmware released on the Prusa website 6.2.5.
Have you tried replacing the first wire clip with the one suggested above. I'm using that one on all heads. It shifts the main bundle in front of the wire support near the extruder. You'll also notice I didn't have the ptfe tube in the last clip near the extruder. That had nothing to do with snagging, it just gives a gentler path for the filament into the extruder.