My 3d printer restarts on its own...

[tunder26]

Hi all!

I'm Zack and I'm new to 3d printing. I have a problem with my printer. It either restarts on its own, or the words disappear leaving the LCD display on but empty. This happened when I tried to rush some models for a friend and I began printing at 60 mm/s for inside, outside perimeter, infill and bridging prints. The extruder temperature at 240C and the bed temperature at 85C. It was doing fine in the first 2 days but at the end of the 2nd day, the printer restarted and halted my print halfway.(There was a bug stuck at the PEEK fan but I don't know if there's any relevance) The restart gets more and more frequent over time until It can only print half an hour at most. The F1, F2, F3 fuses are not blown. My instincts is telling me that the arduino circuits got fried but is there anything else I should check or look out for?

And the print seems to be slanted in the first few layers, is there any relevance to the above problems?

Thanks

[Xenocrates]

That sounds more like the PSU is your error source. Did you assemble it yourself? If so, does it have the computer power supply (The one with all the wires pre-attached) or the industrial PSU? If it's the computer one, then it may be that it's entered a unfortunately regular failure mode for them, which is that it hits either overtemp or overcurrent limits, and shuts down.

For the prints being slanted, there's probably something binding in the belt path, or one of the carriages/arms are not moving properly.

[Eaglezsoar]

I agree with Xenocrates but I feel more info is needed.
How old is your printer?
Can you send a closeup picture of your printer so that we can see what type arms you are using?
Thanks!

[tunder26]

That sounds more like the PSU is your error source. Did you assemble it yourself? If so, does it have the computer power supply (The one with all the wires pre-attached) or the industrial PSU? If it's the computer one, then it may be that it's entered a unfortunately regular failure mode for them, which is that it hits either overtemp or overcurrent limits, and shuts down.

For the prints being slanted, there's probably something binding in the belt path, or one of the carriages/arms are not moving properly.

Yes, I assembled myself. The PSU I used is the one provided in the DIY kit from SeeMeCNC. Will changing to a computer one be a better choice? And is there a good way to reduce the overheating problem, for long term considerations?

Thanks for replying
Zack

[tunder26]

I agree with Xenocrates but I feel more info is needed.
How old is your printer?
Can you send a closeup picture of your printer so that we can see what type arms you are using?
Thanks!

The printer is around half a year old but it was only recently a couple of weeks ago that I decided to start using it again. Also because I'm helping my friend to print her model, I pushed the machine for a few days.

The arms are the stock arms provided in the DIY kit from SeeMeCNC. (attached some photos in the post) The print was pretty okay until the last day when the machine couldn't last for more than half an hour and the print was slanted in the first 2 layers for some reason.

Thanks!

[Xenocrates]

Edit: Looks like you have the industrial power supply, now that the pictures loaded. Disregard what is in the spoiler tags for your case. I would take the acrylic covers off, and the mellamine panel that has nothing on it off, and point a larger fan through there. It's a little hard to tell what the issue is with that being the case. It may be the voltage adjustment is off. Do you have a multimeter available to hook to it?

Spoiler:

Would you mind taking the rear acyrlic cover off the base and taking a picture? I suspect you already have a computer (ATX standard) power supply, as that would be what was supplied around that vintage of kit. However, I'm not sure. that will confirm it.

If you do, replacing it is easy, and it's been known to happen where the power supply was the problem. I would suggest getting a PSU such as the RM550X http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139144, or the AX760 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139042. Both have more than enough power to drive the printer, as well as being stable machines with modular cables (So that you can still claim a warranty if you need to on them). I use the AX760 myself (Having cooked a CX750 with the elevated temperatures from my heated chamber). You could also buy SeemeCNC's industrial power supply retrofit kithttps://www.seemecnc.com/products/12-vo ... supply-kit, but that requires opening the printer base, which can take a while to do and undo. (But it's cheaper).

Don't order anything until you make sure you have the right sort of power supply. Taking a picture behind that panel, or wherever the cord plugs in, or of the very bottom of the printer would confirm it.

As far as the slant, it looks like your endstop screws on the carriages aren't in very far, so they could be shifting. it is also possible that belts are slipping (Have you retensioned them recently?). The endstops themselves could also be loose.

Reducing the overheating problem is pretty easy if you don't care much about looks. Just leave panels off the printer, and point a fan through them. If you want it to look good, you will need to print the covers with fan mounts (Unless you have access to a laser cutter, in which case you can just laser cut a fan grill in the panels). You could also use a hole saw bit to drill out an opening for the fan, and then drill mounting screws, but the result will be a bit ugly.

[geneb]

With the two fans in the power supply chain (one built into the power supply, one on the side of the machine), I highly doubt there's an overheating issue with the power supply itself.

g.