My printer is not reaching temps

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SellingMiami
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My printer is not reaching temps

Post by SellingMiami »

Can these machines get viruses?
I ask because 2-3 weeks ago, I downloaded a "gcode" from Thingiverse and when I clicked the file to print, the printer made some weird moves and noises and began printing - without the printer warming/heating up.
After turning the printer off and waiting several minutes, I turned the printer on, homed the towers, I tried printing a different file.
While waiting for the printer to warm up (using the manual "Preheat ABS" setting) I noticed that the target bed temp was way off (90 degrees, instead of 60 degrees), so I adjusted it manually and the printer has been printing fine (some noises, can't recall if they are normal noises).
Last night was the latest, I was printing and when I turned to check the status of the print, I noticed that the printer was moving up (the hot end was about 3mm above the part) but no filament was coming out (the temps were not at the required: 210/60). I used the cancel print method, cleaned the little mess on the bed and tried printing again. I noticed the temps is not going up (above 160 degrees) as earlier in the evening.
What's going on?

I have a standard out of the box Orion Delta, no upgrades at all.
Thank you in advance for all your help.

JC
Really bummed out that I'm not printing this weekend :( .
Polygonhell
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by Polygonhell »

They can't get viruses per se.
However it is possible for GCode to change, the EEPROM settings, but someone would have to be intentionally malicious.
When you say you downloaded a "gcode" from thingiverse, what thing exactly?
I think 90 is the correct bed preheat temperature for ABS, PLA is 60.
If the temperature is not reaching the target, most likely you have a dead resistor in the hotend, you can check it easily enough, by unplugging the heater wires from the board and checking the resistance with a meter, it should be. Around 3Ohms if both resistors are good.
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Eaglezsoar
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by Eaglezsoar »

Polygonhell wrote:They can't get viruses per se.
However it is possible for GCode to change, the EEPROM settings, but someone would have to be intentionally malicious.
When you say you downloaded a "gcode" from thingiverse, what thing exactly?
I think 90 is the correct bed preheat temperature for ABS, PLA is 60.
If the temperature is not reaching the target, most likely you have a dead resistor in the hotend, you can check it easily enough, by unplugging the heater wires from the board and checking the resistance with a meter, it should be. Around 3Ohms if both resistors are good.
Please turn off the power and I prefer unplugging the printer from the wall before unplugging or plugging anything back into the Rambo.
Polygonhell knows this already so this is more to the benefit of SellingMiami. :)
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IMBoring25
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by IMBoring25 »

gcode is not portable from one machine to another. If you run a gcode that someone else made for their machine, unless it's identical (including configuration) to your machine, the results will be unpredictable. Even without any malicious intent, several gcodes do completely different things depending on what firmware you're running. If you post the gcode in question someone might be able to figure out for what type of machine it was written and what it might have done on an Orion.
SellingMiami
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by SellingMiami »

Polygonhell, Eaglezsoar, IMboring25,

I appreciate you guys taking time on a Sunday to reply.

Polygon,
Once the printer acted that way and thinking it may be a virus, I deleted the file; including from the harddrive.
After I deleted the file and I relaxed, I realized I should have written the name of the file to report it. My Bad.
My printer since day one had the Preheat temp for ABS set at 210/60.
Seeing that I do not know much about this printer and the printer had been working perfect since I began printing, I never questioned the setting.
I will check the resistors during the week. That is a 3 ohms correct?

Eagle,
Got it unplug the printer from the wall. Thanks for the heads-up.

IM,
Thanks for the clarification on gcodes and the different printers and their firmware.

Once again thanks a bunch.

JC
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by Xenocrates »

As far as how to change the resistor, my suggestion is actually to not change the resistor if you've ever worked with metal, have a drill press, or a corded drill. Even better if you have taps. If you haven't worked with metal, it may be a good idea to learn (But if you don't have a corded drill or a drill press, and can't borrow one, just go ahead and change the resistor. I'll leave some instructions at the bottom of this post).

I suggest upgrading to a ceramic heater cartridge and a threaded thermistor (You could also just add a threaded hole for a screw to retain the thermistor, Ala E3D).
To do this you will need (Links are just a convenience, you can source equivalents elsewhere):
A 12V heater cartridge, 8.99$ USD http://www.amazon.com/12v-40w-Heater-Ca ... B00I50FUTI
An M3 threaded thermistor, 11.99$ USD http://www.amazon.com/Modular-Thermisto ... 00THZJIY8/
An M3 grub screw, 2.86$ USD http://www.amazon.com/Bolt-Base-Stainle ... B00B3RIS3A
An M3 Tap set: 7.79$ USD http://www.amazon.com/Metric-Flutes-Bot ... B00VGEG5GM
A 2.5MM drill bit

Use the drill bit to drill a hole through one side of the aluminum by the resistor, through to the cavity, being careful to not go further. Then proceed to use the taper tap in the hole to produce a threaded hole. (In theory, you can just keep spinning, but I prefer to go two turns forward and half a turn back for ease, and to ensure long tap life, especially when working without tapping fluid) Go all the way through the hole, and make sure your grub screw fits all the way in. If it does, that's good (It should screw in, not fall through, mind you. Had someone do that for me once). It will retain the heater cartridge in that side of the hotend. Don't insert it now, since you have a little more work to do.

Drill out the thermistor hole carefully, so as to not change the depth. Once that's done, use the bottoming tap to tap the hole to accept the thermistor. Then you can go ahead and screw the thermistor in, insert the cartridge, and tighten the grub screw (You may need to ream/drill out the resistor hole if the cartridge is to large.) Then change the temperature sensor setting in the firmware to match the sensor type (There's a list in the firmware, or you can google the right one for repetier), and retune the PID. You are now done.

Otherwise:
Buy two new resistors, butt connectors, and likely thermistor from SeemeCNC. Find/Buy Permatex Ultra copper RTV and kapton tape elsewhere, alongside solder and iron if you don't have it. Strip old RTV out of hotend. Try to keep old thermistor in one piece, and in the hotend. Fail utterly. Coat resistor bodies in RTV. Insert into old holes in hotend, do same with new thermistor. Despair at the mess you've made and that it's not nearly as neat as the factory job. solder old leads onto new thermistor, and then bend together and crimp the leads on the resistors to the power leads going to the hotend. (One lead per resistor to each wire, please). Wrap the hole mess in Kapton tape, and hope it holds together for a while. Reinstall in 24 hours, and resume printing.
Machines:
Rostock Max V2, Duet .8.5, PT100 enabled E3D V6 and volcano, Raymond style enclosure
Automation Technology 60W laser cutter/engraver
1m X-carve router

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SellingMiami
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by SellingMiami »

Xenocrates,

I will look into this idea too. Looks like a bit more work than I would like to do since I am not a professional designer/maker, but I do like having my equipment work at its best, decisions... decisions...

Thank you.
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by AlanZ »

Xenocrates,

I currently have the stock hot end, and a E3Dv6.
They evidently have the same thermistor settings.
I am going to modify my stock end to use the cartridge heater and screw in thermistor that you mentioned.
Do you know if the settings need to be changed for this thermistor? If so, how do I determine which setting is correct? I would prefer to be able to easily swap hot ends, so having two with the same settings would be ideal. I have two of the screw-in thermistors, and could potentially replace the one on the E3D to match the one on the modified stock hot end.
Your thoughts?
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by Polygonhell »

They'll be close (+/- 20C) as long as your using a 100K thermistor which pretty much everyone does now, you don't need accurate temperatures, you just need to know what to set it to for a particular material. You do need to be careful if your operating anywhere near maximum temperatures for the hotend that your taking into account the temperature offset.

I usually use a custom thermistor in the firmware and tweak the Beta values to get them to match my thermocouple, but you don't need to do that.
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by AlanZ »

Thanks, I just measured the resistance of all the thermostats and they are all very close to 100k
Xenocrates
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by Xenocrates »

I would personally go for a solution such as using the two threaded thermistors, as you can reduce part count slightly (Threaded thermistor replaces screw, washer, thermistor, and sleeving), and having the same thermistors, so that you can count on the profile being fairly accurate, and can use the same temperature settings for the hotends you have, without needing to re-patch the firmware.
Machines:
Rostock Max V2, Duet .8.5, PT100 enabled E3D V6 and volcano, Raymond style enclosure
Automation Technology 60W laser cutter/engraver
1m X-carve router

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Eaglezsoar
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by Eaglezsoar »

If you use the threaded thermistor specified by Xenocrates, no changes to your firmware should be necessary.
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Windshadow
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by Windshadow »

in the E3D one reason to use the supplied method (and I have modified my SeeMe hot end with the threaded one using Gene's youtube video for the update (can heater will go in when the resistor heaters die)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvXKt3xDt4E" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
is that the epoxy bedding used( I am told) bakes out if the hotted is used above 290c for some time and as i intend my e3d for high temp filaments i thought it best to stick withe provided system from e3d.
Last edited by Windshadow on Sat Mar 19, 2016 5:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
AlanZ
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by AlanZ »

As I suspected, one of the resistors in my stock hot end had failed, and that's why it was taking a long time to come up to temperature, and why it wouldn't reach ABS temps with the peek fan on.

Recently, I have been using the stock hot end to print wood filament (the .5mm nozzle is more forgiving than the .4mm on my E3Dv6).

So I 'upgraded' the stock hot end with a 40w cartridge heater, a screw in thermistor, and a BerdAir cooling tube (let's see if it can replace the 3 fans I was using for even cooling of PLA layers)

I tried securing the cartridge with a set screw but the grip was very tenuous because of the thin wall. So I dabbed in some RTV gasket maker to take up some of the (very minimal) free space around the cartridge. I will give it some wraps of kapton tape to fully secure the cartridge once the RTV cures.

I'll make some photos of the finished setup soon.
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Windshadow
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Re: My printer is not reaching temps

Post by Windshadow »

Gene did a great job describing the process and i used this video of his
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvXKt3xDt4E[/youtube]
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