Saturday, December 21
Shadow

The other side of DIY… FIY (Fix It Yourself)

Well,  after a year of trouble-free service, my 3D Printer finally broke down yesterday.    It started with an airprint

First thought was a fried coil in the extruder motor : the motor is a small 0.5A stepper that need active cooling to prevent overheating.  However, I was surprised to find that both coils where ok.

 

Next was a check on the controller driver output : I swapped the connectors of the gamma motor with the extruder (after lowering the current to 0.5).  The extruder motor ran fine but now the gamma motor was dead.

Brain of my 3D Printer

So my diagnostic is that the driver failed on my Azteeg X5 Mini V2, which unfortunately have  a glued on heatsink for all 4 drivers.  I will contact Panucatt today about how to fix or replace the board.  They now have a V3 with modular drivers which would make this fix way easier (and cheaper). I also have a Polulu driver board around, which I may use if I can get the pulse/dir/enable signals on the X5

Meanwhile, I’m like a kid with a broken toy : I want it now!!!!

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