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Printer Stops Randomly(RAMPS1.4)

Posted by mrmuffin 
Printer Stops Randomly(RAMPS1.4)
October 18, 2015 06:45PM
Recently I have been designing a robot, just for fun, and I've been having some issues when printing my models. Every now and again I print out the model to see the changes I've made but I haven't been able to do so recently. After about one and a half to two hours my printer just shuts off. It's fairly consistent with it's shut offs, they all happen at about the same time and place. When it stops however the LCD remains on and functioning. It even continues to measure how long the print is taking. At the same time however the motors stop dead and the fan and heater turn off. The fan is directly connected to the 5V on the ramps board coming in from the power supply. Oddly though a jiggle or poke of the yellow square looking pieces and a sparking noise gets the printer "going" again. By going I mean it rams into the print, knocks it self out of place, and begins to make plastic spaghetti. I am currently running marlin, I have a Kossel Mini with an SD card reader on the LCD, and I am using slicer to make my g code. Smaller projects seem to work fine though when things get taller and more time consuming it starts to fail. I am certain that no wires are crossing where they shouldn't, nothing is coming out of place and everything seems to be working as it should aside from the ramps board. Is there a quick fix for this problem or am I better off just buying a new ramps board?
Re: Printer Stops Randomly(RAMPS1.4)
October 18, 2015 11:14PM
Those yellow square boxes are the poly fuses on the ramps board that protect electronics.What is happening is your system is drawing too much power through the ramps board which is setting off the fuses. You can replace the fuses with automotive blade type fuses however if your electronics are still drawing more power then the fuses can handle they will continue to break. Make sure your power supply has at least a 20amp supply and that its fuse isn't being tripped as well.

You may want to just buy a new quality Ramps with proper sized poly fuses (15amp, 5 amp) and that should solve your problems.


Prusa i3 Rework - Ramps 1.4 - E3d Lite6 - Full Graphic LCD Controller
Re: Printer Stops Randomly(RAMPS1.4)
October 22, 2015 01:57AM
I found out that my power supply only puts out about 6A not 20. I took off a fan I used to cool the ramps board and turned down the power on the extruder stepper. This fixed about 70% of my problem but the prints still got a little wonky at the same point. The print head dips into the print and the hot end begins to jam. It powered through but only just. I can post some pictures if you need a better idea of what i'm describing.
Re: Printer Stops Randomly(RAMPS1.4)
October 23, 2015 04:18AM
When the nozzle dips into the part, it is a sign of over extrusion. Did you try to reduce flow or increase filament diameter in slicer? ( same effect )
The Ramps cooling fan won't take much current, but is important for a successful print. I'd leave it on. ( Maybe run the fans from a separate 12V wall-wart PSU )
-Olaf
Re: Printer Stops Randomly(RAMPS1.4)
October 24, 2015 03:30PM
If anything I would figure that my printer is under extruding. I have calibrated my extruder and my z height so that my nozzle is about one paper thickness from the bed. Whenever I print I usually find that my top and bottom infill aren't as smooth as I would like. On the top of parts the surface isn't flat and smooth. It's stringy and rarely covers the surface evenly as if enough plastic isn't coming out. The bottom is smooth only because the first layer defaults to 200% extrusion rate. The parts come out with the proper dimensions but if I were to move the head further from the print bed then I start to get poor first layer adhesion and quality. I feel like if I reduced the amount of plastic coming out my prints would just get worse. I'll try later today and see how it goes.
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