Prusa XL Multi-Toolhead – None of My Extruder Gears Are Spinning (Even After Successful First Load)
Hi everyone,I’m running into a pretty frustrating issue with my brand new Prusa XL (multi-toolhead setup, firmware 6.2.5). The printer is only a few days old and hasn’t successfully printed anything yet.
(If you need pictures or videos I'll send them to you)
The Issue:
None of my extruder gears are spinning on any toolhead.
The Full Story / Timeline:
After initial assembly and calibration, I tried loading filament into Toolhead 1 – it worked perfectly.
Then I tried loading into Toolhead 2… no filament came out. Same with Toolheads 3, 4, and 5.
I contacted Prusa Live Chat. Their first suggestion: Loosen the idler screws → Tried that → Still nothing (have a picture showing that for reference).
Next step: I swapped Toolhead 1 and Toolhead 2 (to check if it’s a toolhead issue or cable issue) → After the swap: → Neither of them worked (even Toolhead 1, which had worked before). → Swapped them back to original positions → Still none worked.
Opened the idler hatch to check the extruder gears:
When feeding filament directly into the extruder (white filament video): It stops at the extruder gear. Not sure if this is normal?
When feeding filament the normal way (red filament video): It doesn’t even reach the extruder gear.
Checked if the extruder gear spins at all (with filament in the sensor and a heated nozzle) → No movement. Even when it should be extruding.
Live chat support then asked me to check:
Cable management: Sent them pictures.
Electronics board: Sent them pictures. They said everything “looked fine.”
Tried manually moving the extruder using the Move Axis > Extruder option on the LCD:
First attempt: It said the nozzle was too cold (video).
Heated it up, tried again: Still no extruder movement (video).
As another test: Tried “printing” something (with filament in the sensors, nozzle hot, idler latch open) → The printer was clearly running the gcode (it was supposed to draw a circle) but still, the extruder gear did not spin (video).
Then went back to manual movement on the LCD, this time with the nozzle hot → Still no extrusion (video).
I’ve since:
Factory reset the printer
Flashed the firmware again
Redid all calibrations
Unplugged/replugged every dwarf cable in the Sandwich and Splitter board → Still no change.
What I’m Trying Next: I’m currently printing new dwarf cover connectors (on another printer) just in case there’s a contact issue (I saw two YouTube videos about potential connector issues, but I’m not convinced that’s the problem in my case).
My current hypothesis is: Something on Toolhead 2 was faulty after my first successful filament load on Toolhead 1... and when I swapped them, it shorted something on the Sandwich board... now none of them work.
My Question for the Community:
Has anyone experienced this before?Any ideas on what else I could check?Do you think it’s likely to be the Sandwich board, the splitter, wiring, or something else entirely?
Any help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!
RE: Prusa XL Multi-Toolhead – None of My Extruder Gears Are Spinning (Even After Successful First Load)
Hi,
Have you tried to lose the PTFE tube and Push the Filament while feeding?
RE: Prusa XL Multi-Toolhead – None of My Extruder Gears Are Spinning (Even After Successful First Load)
Those the feeder gear move? Open the feeder of the loaded toolhead and move the E-axis
RE: Prusa XL Multi-Toolhead – None of My Extruder Gears Are Spinning (Even After Successful First Load)
Nope nothing moves as I try to move the extruder in the control setting (temp and filament sensor are okay)
RE:
yes, I even disconnected the tube and tried feeding it directly. nothing moves IMG_8250
Is it normal to run in that kind of resistance, I found it odd
RE: Prusa XL Multi-Toolhead – None of My Extruder Gears Are Spinning (Even After Successful First Load)
Thats resistance is normal. It should Grab the Filament and Feed from there on.
If you move the E-Axis it doesnt Turn?
RE: Prusa XL Multi-Toolhead – None of My Extruder Gears Are Spinning (Even After Successful First Load)
nope doesn't turn, the printer also doesn't give an error message so I think the printer thinks it's moving. Prusa is gonna send a new sandwich and splitter board, hopefully that fixes it but i'm not sure
RE: Prusa XL Multi-Toolhead – None of My Extruder Gears Are Spinning (Even After Successful First Load)
The XL boards get very hot. The default hood is closed and there is no venting. Please consider a hood with venting (e.g. improved-prusa-xl-buddy-cover) and some heatsinks on the chips.
UPDATE SOLVED
Update: found the problem after lots of testing. the dwarfboards of TH1 and TH2 are not right. swapping them with working ones, did the job! Only weird thing is that while those boards were connected to the printer all of them stopped working. If you're having the same problem I recommend to try different combinations of toolhead, cables and docks. if you found the toolheads that are not working, try to swap the dwarfboards. thanks for all the help!
RE: Prusa XL Multi-Toolhead – None of My Extruder Gears Are Spinning (Even After Successful First Load)
Thank you for the feedback.
happy printing!