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Solved Error:Extruder switched off. Temperature fell too much during print!

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Mirko3D, Mar 27, 2016.

  1. Mirko3D

    Mirko3D New Member

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    Hello!

    I've been having issues with failed prints due to errors with the extruder temperature (shown in red below). Even though it looks as if the temperature is just fine (shown in green below). I've searched this forum but not found anything that has helped.

    In the logs it shows a minimum reading of 209.1C. I've printed as low as ~200C. What is the temperature that the extruder has to fall below to generate this error?

    EDIT: I'm using PLA.

    Does anyone have an idea as to what I should look at?

    <-ok T:209.1 /210.0 B:69.5 /70.0 T0:209.1 /210.0 @:83 B@:127 [1364.140]
    ->N8746 G1 X95.66 Y111.21 E1197.88751*92 [1364.141]
    <-ok [1364.149]
    <<< lines deleted >>>
    ->N8759 G1 X98.88 Y113.18 E1198.03308*83 [1364.244]
    <-Error:Extruder switched off. Temperature fell too much during print! [1364.841]
    <-Error: Printer stopped due to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart. (Temperature is reset. Set it after restarting) [1364.905]
    <-Printer stopped due to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart. (Temperature is reset. Set it after restarting) [1365.046]

    <-ok [1365.459]
    ->N8760 G1 X99.35 Y112.92 E1198.05088*80 [1365.558]
    <-Printer stopped due to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart. (Temperature is reset. Set it after restarting) [1365.567]
    <-ok [1365.567]
    ->N8761 M105*31 [1365.568]
    <-ok T:209.8 /0.0 B:70.0 /0.0 T0:209.8 /0.0 @:0 B@:0 [1365.574]
    ->N8762 G1 X99.42 Y112.88 E1198.05348*86 [1365.575]
    <-Printer stopped due to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart. (Temperature is reset. Set it after restarting) [1365.586]

    Thanks,
    Mirko
     
    #1 Mirko3D, Mar 27, 2016
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2016
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  3. Mirko3D

    Mirko3D New Member

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    Hi Mark,

    Thank you for your reply.

    If you look at the output that I included you will see that the extruder temperature reading before the error was 209.1C and after it was 209.8C. How does that point to a problem with the thermistor?

    BTW, I have looked at the firmware source and it looks like the error is triggered if the temperature falls 20C below the target temperature. That answers part of my question. As you can see in the output my target temp was 210C. The lowest it got was 209.1C which is well within that 20C threshold.

    I might try and modify the firmware to dump some of the temperature values that are available exactly when the error happened.

    -Mirko
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    No, the lowest temperature it recorded in the console was 209. It has to see the temp fall 20c to generate the error. even a momentary drop that is not logged will do it. The temperature graph is a little easier to see this with since it will spike.

    This is not an uncommon thing :) One of those numbers is at fault (loose thermistor is the most common)
     
  5. Mirko3D

    Mirko3D New Member

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    Great. So I haven't even had my printer for a week and the thermistor is already bad. How often do these things go bad?

    I have seen the post about the replacement thermistors. What I have not seen is how one goes about replacing it. I did try to examine mine for loose wires but was not able to remove it from the extruder. It seems as if it's in there pretty good. is there a video or some step-by-step instructions?
     
  6. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Measure the resistance. I doubt it's bad, unless a lead breaks they're pretty fool proof. Probably just a loose connection. Occams razor and all
     
  7. Mirko3D

    Mirko3D New Member

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    I measured the resistance and got about 93k Ω. The ambient air temperature is about 25C. I'm not sure what resistance value to expect. I don't usually go around measuring the resistance of thermistors.

    I cannot find any shorts in the wiring. I unplugged/plugged the connector at the board. That's where I checked the resistance. So we'll see what happens.
     
  8. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    That's a reasonable value. I think it's 100kohms at 20C

    A loose connection will cause a short drop causing it to "Temp Fall"
     
  9. Mirko3D

    Mirko3D New Member

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    After checking all of the extruder thermistor wiring, I did two prints totalling 14 hours and did not have a temp fail. Yay! I'm still not sure what the issue was. I did unplug and plug in the extruder thermistor connector on the RAMPS board. Maybe that was loose? It sure didn't seem loose to me. It was rather difficult to remove.

    So the 1st of the two prints I notices that the bed leveling was not perfect. It still printed ok. On the 2nd print the bed leveling was way off. It turned out that the crimp terminal connector on the Z Switch was not crimped properly and the wire just slipped right out. After giving it a good crimp bed leveling was working again. So what else is going to come loose on me? These are not the only two things that I've had to fix on the Robo3d. I've had to repair three other things already and I've only had the printer for 7 days. Geezzzz.

    Thanks for the help Mike & Mark!
     
    mark tomlinson likes this.
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Good catch. If you are paranoid (or smart) go ahead and loctite all of the stepper motors drive cogs.
    They have a tendency to get loose :)
     
    Geof likes this.
  11. MarieClaire

    MarieClaire New Member

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    I'm having the same problem that is mentioned here and I'm planning to start troubleshooting the thermistor. But, silly question, where is the temperature graph? I'm using MatterControl 1.5 with an R1+
     
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Can't help you with MatterControl.
    Don't use it.
    Docs are over here:

    http://wiki.mattercontrol.com/Main_Page

    Most software has a page where you can see the temperature graphs for the hotend and bed (usually the same screen).
     
    Geof likes this.

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