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Unanswered LED's flickering during use. Power Supply issue?

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Ryan Doyle, Nov 24, 2015.

  1. Ryan Doyle

    Ryan Doyle New Member

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    The LED's on my new R1 Plus are flickering during preheat and during prints. All standard settings in matter control printing ABS. Bead temp: 80c and Extruder temp: 235c. Seems like a lack of sufficient current... Any suggestions?
     
  2. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Probably not current but noise. How severe of a flicker is it? Do they go completely off or just visually flickering.

    Adding a low-pass filter is a fix, but usually it's fine to ignore
     
  3. Ryan Doyle

    Ryan Doyle New Member

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    It's a dimming flicker, not a complete on off flicker. Nothing has changed in the print room, it seems like a 60 cycle dim flicker similar to a 60 hum you would hear in a radio. But since nothing has changed, it leads me to think that the PSU might be on its way out.

    Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
     
  4. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    I doubt that. Has to do with the PWM cycle on the heaters. When the heater is running it pulls current which affects the voltage from the PSU. A pretty minor drop in voltage will show flickering.

    Like I said, adding a low pass filter will stabalize that. But like I said, it's not worth worrying about.
     
  5. kain0r3D

    kain0r3D New Member

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    I'm seeing flickering LEDs on my R1+ also. Worse however is that if something else in the house like a ceiling fan gets turned on or changes feed it will make the printer timeout. It seems the smallest variation in the power and the printer PSU can't hack it.

    Are there known premium 12v 30A supplys with a bit more tolerance? I've been looking at a line interactive UPS as an alternative, not sure which road to go down.
     
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  7. kain0r3D

    kain0r3D New Member

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    I've ordered one to see if it fixes the issue, see what happens.
     
  8. mjones0216

    mjones0216 New Member

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    Mine flicker a little bit while heating up, but I haven't had any negetive issues. I originally had it in the dining room and moved it so we could have company lol. Even after moving it remains. I don't notice it as much while printing though.
     
  9. kain0r3D

    kain0r3D New Member

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    Installed the MeanWell Power Supply, made 0 difference.

    I'll try a UPS.
     
  10. robocad

    robocad Member

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    PSU isnt going to affect that, its what above posters said, power draw will affect other components on the line when using DC. Power source wont fix that either though PSU can save a print and the meanwell is still alot quieter than the robo psu (i havent used it on the robo but i have one for another project).

    If its really bothers you just disconnect the lights.

    edit: read your (kainor3d) post again, ceiling fan affects the functionality of your printer? That sounds like something wrong with the wiring in your house. Does it affect any other electronics you plug into the wall?
     
  11. kain0r3D

    kain0r3D New Member

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    Yeah occasionally it will have an effect on the home theater although exactly which component I haven't bothered to pinpoint as it just cuts picture for a second. It's no doubt the wiring/fans but if I can get a line interactive UPS to fix it that's a significantly less painful procedure.
     
  12. robocad

    robocad Member

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    Id be more concerned about the possible fire hazard you have there, a properly wired building should not do that
     
  13. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I have an r1+ and the LEDs always flickered. I just re wired the ramps to take the generic cheap ramps and getting rid of the pin connectors and wiring to the 12v bus fixed the flicker
     
    Mirko3D and mark tomlinson like this.
  14. Thomas

    Thomas Member

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    Question: is there any possible correlation between flickering bed lights and possibly a failing or on its way out heater? As Mike Kelly mentioned earlier the heater pulls current affecting voltage from the PSU.

    My Robo R1+ recently died. A print finished, the lights flickered, extruder went to home, and then it completely shut down never to turn on again. Print was not effected. Bed felt much warmer than the set temp of 60. Let it cool down overnight and still dead next day. Day 2 tried Novice Experts trick of moving the bed back in forth like a DJ mixing a record and this caused generation of energy resulting in bed lights turning on. Novice Expert used this trick to help confirm a bad PSU. I contacted Robo support, we talked through some troubleshooting. With laptop connected via USB I could get control. A new power supply unit and fuse were sent under warranty. Installed them today. Printer turned on. I set extruder temp to 210 to warm and extract previous filament. Lights began to flicker moments after reaching temperature. I quickly removed the PLA and shut the machine down. Fuse looked ok. I'm afraid of a problem with the heater exists and don't want to risk blowing another PSU. Any suggestions on how to proceed?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  15. robocad

    robocad Member

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    If its under warranty you may have to send it in for a new bed heater. Or forgo that and use petg + pei sheet which doesnt need heat. Looking underneath the bed it looks like its taped on with magnets holding it all together.
     
  16. Thomas

    Thomas Member

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    I don't think it is the bed heater but maybe the extruder's. So I went ahead and tried a print. It powered on ok. All seemed well. I tethered to my laptop and performed a bed level with simplify3d and manually adjusted . Loaded a card into my screen controller and set temps for 210/60. I noticed that as it got closer to reaching 210 like around 170-190 the bed lights began to flicker. So I turned it down, turned off and tried again. Same thing as it extruder temp would rise it would begin to flicker the lights. So i decide to keep going forward and notice as I turned the dial on my control screen it acted as a PWM dim effect on the flickering of the lights brightness. Like it as drawing more or less power as I turned knob to start the print from inserted card. Well it started ok. 18 minutes in I heard odd new electronic tones from the machine. 19 minutes in it stopped in its tracks but remained on. Screen said error for temp failure and I saw extruder temp at 165. Then I snapped this pic to show. Any thoughts?[​IMG]


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  17. robocad

    robocad Member

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    Extruder temp failures come from bad thermistors, as most of them are junk expect to have problems with them from time to time. I get similar issues if the thermistors happen to make contact through their sleeving or burn or break or fail. So in this case if your thermistor isnt working 100% then it will let you print but will not regulate the temperature causing massive temperature fluctuations and power draws. I'm not sure why your knob affected the lights i never used a lcd controller before.
     
  18. Thomas

    Thomas Member

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    Thanks robocad, yes, it did allow me to print, so bad thermistor, you suspect? Okay, well looks like back to emailing Robo about my warranty. It is still good thankfully.


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  19. robocad

    robocad Member

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    Well it could be the control board too but unless you smelled burning electronics or had a crazy surge without having a surge protector on it its unlikely.
     
  20. Thomas

    Thomas Member

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    Always use a surge protector and I did have burnt electronic smell when it had totally crashed with power loss at the end of a print last week. This is what lead to contacting Robo, the over the phone troubleshoot with tech support, then on to call back by engineer who ordered the new PSU and fuse for me based on more over the phone troubleshooting. Today i installed those and now temp failures. Curious during the troubleshooting the printer responded from being powered via USB from laptop which makes you think the board was ok


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