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Hello All, I've had nothing but questions lately.. Hoping to be able to contribute soon. If my target temp is 230 the hotend will hover between 224-226 and maybe 227.1 at times. If I set a target temp for 240 the temp will then actually go to 227-229 but not higher. Has anyone had this happen and have recommendations for what I should do to remedy this? It's fine when printing PLA as I only set temp to 200 and no problems at all.. Bed is maintaining consistent temp at 90c. I have a new EVGA 650w power supply.
Thanks

Easiest fix would be to wrap it in Kapton, if you don't think the power supply is your issue. Or replace your resistors with a ceramic heater insert.

Check that the thermistor is still inserted all the way into the hotend.

Measure the resistance of the resistors if you are using resistors on the hotend. If you have a disconnect for the heating resistors that is the place to measure the resistance.
Normal resistance is around 3.4 ohms. (MAKE SURE POWER IS OFF BEFORE MEASURING RESISTANCE VALUES)

Also you can search your configuration.h file to find a line that reads MAX_TEMP or something close to that ( I don't recall the exact syntax) but it could be set to 230 thus
limiting your hotend temperature.

If you are using a cartridge type heater in the hotend measure the resistance of it, it should read about 3.6 if it is 40 watts at 12 Volt.

Thanks Eaglezsoar and Bentherighteous, I re wrapped the hot end with about 6 more layers of 1/2 inch Kapton tape and the difference is night and day! I really can't believe that it made that much of a difference. The first time I re wrapped, the Kapton fell off due to an insufficient wrapping job, the temp then went down again and wouldn't stay at target. I re wrapped again and all is good so far...

Ceramic heaters are the bomb.

Mac The Knife wrote:Ceramic heaters are the bomb.

I agree and they would be quite useful for jram, they perform better than resisters.
Jram, if you are interested you can find them in a lot of places like Ebay just look
for 40Watt Ceramic Cartridges. You only need one for a standard Seemecnc hotend,
the other hole would be empty.

cartridge dimension you would be looking for is 6x20 mm.

Mac The Knife wrote:cartridge dimension you would be looking for is 6x20 mm.

Good point. I will have to remember to add that in future replies.
Thanks for adding that!

Thanks for the help guys. I just looked on ebay and I'm finding an abundance of options from Hong Kong and China, I'll order a few from them if all else fails..Any chance that any of you may have a link to US based source?

jram wrote:Thanks for the help guys. I just looked on ebay and I'm finding an abundance of options from Hong Kong and China, I'll order a few from them if all else fails..Any chance that any of you may have a link to US based source?

Put 40 watt ceramic cartridge into the search box on Ebay and make sure the United States is checked for the search.
It brings up several USA dealers like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/5pcs-Reprap-12V ... 3a90da635c

The link above has 5 cartridge heaters for $10.92 and free shipping and is in the USA. Order quick.

Thanks! I Completely overlooked the U.S filter

I had this same issue. The version of the manual I built from didn't mention the tape. Wrapping the hot end with tape fixed things.

Thanks.

I used some high temp silicone tape, in the Air Force we called it F4 tape. It also keeps the heat away from the led ring.

Remember to re cal your hot end after adding any tape to it.