Beware of cold solder joints!

After 3 days of frustration with amazing prints but then the thermocouple would drop, I decided to take a look. Upon investigation it seemed like the connector was bad, but after trying 3 different connectors I ruled that out. I was just about to give up when I thought of cold solder joints (These boards are of chinese quality), so I went through the pain in the behind of getting the entire RAMPS board off and getting the shield off, to find: one cold solder joint sticking up!

If your having intermittent problems with a pin or function (Motor, thermocouple, etc) This may be your problem!

As dave from the EEV blog would say: Look at that bugger!

 

Thanks, and to fix it Harry you would need a soldering iron and maybe some solder. If you feel adventurous you could try a small butane torch or a lighter, though I don't recommend it. Just heat it until it reflows onto the pad.

 

This and other posts regarding problems with the printer begs the question: What are those of us who don't want to stick our mitts into the guts of the printer, or try soldering a circuit board? I don't recall seeing anything about a warranty for the printer. Is there one?