Printer stops during printing.

mt690ju

I've been printing from an SD card and after about 300 hours of printing it is randomly stopping during a print and the LCD freezes. When I turn the power off and on again, it will not resume print but indicate it cannot read the file. Thinking that it might be a card error, I tried another SD card and it again stopped mid print, but a little sooner. I tried again using Pronterface and loaded the file from the laptop when it quit this time, it indicated a thermal run away error and then shut down. The temps showed that they were all spot on prior to the error. I have the original firmware Marlin 1.1.6. Any suggestions?  Jim

mt690ju

So, I tried to load a test file in Pronterface and this time the hot end was not heating up. I stopped the print and tried to manually pre-heat the heater cartridge. It took several attempts and finally started heating. Tried the print again and the hot end would not heat up. Looks like a failed heater cartridge, I assume.

Samuel Pinches

Hi @mt690ju ,

Firstly, welcome!

the heater cartridge is usually pretty robust - often it is wires flexing that snap, or having the insulation wear through and then the 24V line shorting out on the metal frame. I would check the wiring first, personally.

mt690ju

Thanks, I'll check the wiring first.

mt690ju

After looking at the wiring, I found the Thermistor wires were being pressed against the screw in the hot end. I shielded the leads and re-installed the plate and screw and allowed a little more room at the screw. I've run one 3 hour printer through the laptop and another 3 hour print with the SD card. Everything is working well. Thanks, again!  Jim

Samuel Pinches

@mt690ju
Great to hear, thanks for the update Jim, and happy printing!