FAIL 7: Extruder 2 Stopped spinning again ... again
It happened again ... after pretty exactly one week, my extruder 2 "stopped spinning" again ...
- Wasted time: 16h
- Wasted filament: 276g
- Wasted Energy: 2,7 kWh
I am really dissapointed with the XL again. There are so many issues with signal integrity (USB drive, Display resets, ...) and power integrity (flickering LEDs, stuttering stepper motors, ...) that the problems can't be solved by software completely any longer. Thermal issues might also be an issue, but this is nothing I can confirm up to now.
There are a lot of things you can do with firmware ... reseting buses, reinitializing regularely, ... but sometimes things get messed up ... and it looks like this is one of the basic problems of the XL ... developed by unexperienced engineers running into a lot of beginners traps ... This is an opinion based on some meaurements and 20 years of experience in High-Speed Electronic Design ... So no offence to Prusa engineers (I assume a pretty young one) included ...
What bothers me is the fact, that the error shows up before tool head 2 even is picked up ...
- Printer finishes print with tool 1, wipes the nozzle and parks tool 1
- Tool 1 is parked and the slid backs out
- The slid is not even moving to the position of tool 2
- The printer resets (display can barely be seen in the video, but the startup sequenece is visible)
- After booting the error code is shown and the LEDs of all five dwarfs show blue color
Here is the video as a link (embedded doesn't seem to work with Firefox) ...
Any suggestions ... I will contact support and keep you up to date.
- Made by me -
Follow-Up on Fail 7
That's a positive experience now ....
Support will send me five new cables and cable covers ... that should solve the issue with the reoccuring not spinning Extruder(s) ... Can't wait to change them to have a relyable printer again.
- Made by me -
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
Make sure you also install the new updated plug covers that screw in. This helps prevent a lost 3 connection to the boards on the print head.
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
The 17536 error on a recently docked toolhead has now been confirmed as a FW bug
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
Ok ... In the meantime I did get the replacement cables and the new screwed on cable holders / plug covers. Before that I had another failed print due to extruder 2 not spinning, but I didn't post that one since I started a print with the still old cables. So I saw this as a kind of my fault ...
Now the cables are installed (new cables as well as new plug covers.
But guess what ... that did not help 😭
- Made by me -
FAIL 8: Extruder 2 Stopped spinning again ... with new cables and covers installed
I printed one 2-day print without issue ... then with the second print roughly 8 hours in extruder 2 failed again. This time it happened quite early in the print though ... so the losses are not that big (besides my trust in my XL and dropped and my stress level raised again a significant level) ...
Here is a link to the video of the fail tonight: Extruder_2_Fails_Again_-_2025.04.10
- Wasted time: 8h
- Wasted filament: 128g
- Wasted Energy: 1,4 kWh
I've read above that it is supposed to be a software bug ...
If you're fixing the software already ... by don't you at least try once to do a kind of brown-out or black-out recovery from the fail? Just resetting the printer, showing an error message and turning of bed heating is the worst option of all in my opinion. The print then is ruined for sure.
And is it a real software bug or are they trying to solve hardware issues with software querks ... again? I don't know ... but the XL is a pain in my ass since I got it. If only there was an alternative for my kind of projects.
- Made by me -
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
If it gets the error on a docked toolhead you should downgrade Firmware to 6.1.3 - that fixed it for me
The instructions here https://help.prusa3d.com/article/how-to-downgrade-firmware-mk4-s-mk3-9-s-mk3-5-s-xl_725930 on how to downgrade are wrong - you must double-press the knob at boot to flash old firmware.
Next firmware release should contain a fix for the error on docked toolheads
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
Try going back 2 firmware releases.
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
New RC out for FW update addressing your problem:
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
New RC out for FW update addressing your problem:
That's good. I never had that error, but started getting it after the previous firmware. I reverted and hadn't had the issue. Hopefully this new version will fix that.
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
I installed the RC1 of Firmware 6.2.4 ... And started printing again. I really hope that the print works out this time ...
Support told me that I might have to change the dwarf board in case the firmware change does not work properly. Let's hope for the best 🙂 ...
- Made by me -
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
For some reason part of support keep sending parts while others informs to downgrade FW (prior to the new version) - strange... since the issue of the error on docked toolheads seems to have been known by the FW group for a while.
Really hoping the new FW fixes your problem 🙂 I had as well and it was driving me crazy
RE: Serious Trouble in finishing projects with my XL
For some reason part of support keep sending parts while others informs to downgrade FW (prior to the new version) - strange... since the issue of the error on docked toolheads seems to have been known by the FW group for a while.
Really hoping the new FW fixes your problem 🙂 I had as well and it was driving me crazy
To give a little background I had like 1500 hours on my machine and never had an issue. After upgrading the firmware it happened on the next print. Downgraded and it never happened again. That's why I'm thinking at least in my case firmware.
In others cases it may very well be hardware related, just not in my case.