Salutory tale.... Quiet not always best...

For some reason, (i didn't think related to new install of Marlin 2.0.3!) a couple of prints started suffering from poor extrusion some time into the print...

After a bit of head scratching and sleeping on it overnight....

I realised that Noisy fans can be an asset!!

If I had kept the stock cooling fan on my Ender 5 instead of a 'silent as a quiet mouse' Noctua... I might have noticed that it wasn't working...

Turns out that the extension cable that was hidden by the sheath had come loose!!

E-Stepper was burning up and probably why it became so unhappy 20 mins into the print!

Fans on again, connections taped securely (don't trust JST to hold tightly!)

:-)


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To me that says more about sheaths covering cables than it does about noisy fans.

The extruder/hot-end is by far the least reliable, most often changed part of any 3D printer. I know it isn't pretty, but keeping everything out in the open where you can see it and reach it without having to take a bunch of "professional" looking plastic covers off helps prevent those problems and makes repairs and upgrades/changes to components much easier.

Here's an old photo of the extruder carriage in UMMD- it's a lot shorter now. The cables coming out of the drag chain all have connectors for individual functions- fans, heater, thermistor, motor. The wires from those parts run up to the drag chain and they are secured with velcro tape. The connectors are all visible and easily reachable:



Every once in a while I think maybe it's time to design and print some pretty covers, and then I decide to change something on the extruder carriage again and realize that it would have been silly to make covers.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Quote
the_Digital_Dentist
and then I decide to change something on the extruder carriage again

True... can't stop fiddling!! :-)

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