BIQU B1 by BigTreeTech - This things neat

3D Printers
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The question is, can you manually push filament through it when the nozzle is hot? If you can, then you don’t have a blockage, you have an extruder grip problem. Also, a clogged hot-end or otherwise stuck filament will generally produce a clicking sound in the extruder as the extruder tries to push it through, builds up pressure, and then slips starting the cycle over again.

Is this one of those infernal machines with a plastic extruder? Hopefully not, but if it is, check it for cracks and replace it with a metal one. A plastic extruder with a crack can’t apply enough grip to build up pressure so it continuously slips, silently.

Is your Bowden tube pushed all the way into the hot-end? If there’s a small gap, the filament can get stuck on it on the way in.

Let’s see… what else is there? Does your Bowden tube have a kink in it? That will bind the filament.

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The extruder is all metal on these. It shouldn’t be hard to find where the problem is. If you look at the extruder, is it taking filament while you are purging? you should be able to see it all moving one side of the extruder and see the wheel turning on the extruder itself (there is a gear and bearing that should turn together, I put white marks on my bearing so I could see it turn) all there is left to do if the nozzle is hot is to wait for the melted filament to come out.

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No clicking and when the tube is pulled out of the hot end (when hot) the filament extracts and retreats per the replace filament controls on the printer. The only time filament comes out is after the cleaning drill is extracted and then it stops. I managed to trigger the thermal runaway warning twice today while trying to remove the nozzle. No wonder it’s not working. I can’t get it to auto home on the build plate either, even when using Pronterface. But that’s another story. I’ve been using it in Marlin mode with great results after having given up on the touch screen months ago.

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Sounds like gunk in the hot end. Did you try a cold pull? If not try that and then test a different filament. Poor size stability could jam it up too. You don’t need to use nylon if you don’t have any.

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I have not tried this technique, thanks for the video! The BIQU has been cranking out quite a bit of stuff lately using a new matte filament that gets amazing results, but looking at the nozzles also leaves behind a lot of junk. I’ll try a different filament and see how it goes.
Thanks again!

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No problem. I love matte filament. I have been printing a fair bit of pla matte and a bit of petg.

I might add something I have found. If you find there is stringing with settings and filament that were not before and prints start getting kinda ugly when they were fine. i have found this to be worn nozzles. Personally for the sake of a few dollars I would rather have good prints, I change (or did) change mine frequently and I usually use brand name not cloned nozzles. I found them to print better and cleaner. I switched some time ago to X nozzles by E3D they are expensive for nozzles but it has been quite a while and I have not had any issues. I had before that been changing every KG or two.

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I’m using Hatchbox’s new matte Ash Gray and it is incredible. The details are amazing with the standard BIQU 0.4 brass nozzle but I seem to be using them up very quickly. My CR 10 S Pro v2 and Ender 3 V2 both have Micro Swiss nozzles and they take what ever I run through them, though the CR 10 did need a new one this past week. I’ve been doing quite a bit of 24 plus hour printing in the last few weeks and I’m sure that’s what did in the BIQU and the CR 10 nozzles. I’ll check out the E3D nozzles, thanks!

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Any good pointers on leveling this thing? No matter how many times I use Pronterface and set up the G28 followed by G1 and the correct x and Y positioning, followed by M500, when I auto-home it stills goes about 5 or 6 mm X and Y off the build plate.

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Disregard the leveling question. The thing stopped working completely, wouldn’t even turn on. Something cooked it and my patience is at an end. Time to cut the money pit losses.

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Disconnect the hot-end heater and bed heater and re-test. Those are the two main power drains and the most common cause of a system failure.

If that fails, disconnect the controller board from the power supply and test that the power supply is still putting out approximately 24V. If it’s off by a bit, there is (usually) a fine-adjustment
at the left or right end of the power supply’s terminal strip.

If the power supply tests OK, unplug everything from the controller except the display then reconnect the controller to the power supply and re-test.

If that fails, disconnect the display, such that now, only the controller is connected to the power supply. Connect a USB cable to the controller and see if you can connect to it via a terminal communications program on your computer. If you are using Octoprint, it has a terminal, otherwise the Arduino IDE has a terminal and there are many, many others to choose from.
The exact port you use is dependent on the operating system and the current phase of the moon. Otherwise, it’s 115200 Baud, 8-bit, No Parity, 1 Stop Bit (usually referred to as 8N1). Type “M115” in the send window and you should get your firmware version and capabilities in the receive window. This is just to test that the board is alive and communicating.
If it doesn’t communicate, try different baud rates but if nothing works, the controller is likely dead.

If the controller is communicating, plug the display back in and re-test.

If the display is OK, plug each item back in, one at a time, and re-test until you find the one that caused the failure.

There is a slim possibility that a stepper motor has failed, but a shorted stepper motor usually just triggers the stepper motor driver to go into overload protection and doesn’t take down an entire system. Then again, I don’t own a BIQU B1 so I can’t tell what corners they may have cut.

If, while testing, you find a component that you can confirm has failed, and the unit is still under warranty, call BigTreeTech and get it covered. If it’s out of warranty, post further questions here and I’ll walk you through it. We Wilhelms have to stick together.

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Your B1 died or the CR10?

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Thanks for making the time to put this together, very much appreciated. But I think it fried itself electronically. After the first two print-failure-no-heat-please-reset alerts, I did the requested resets and when it happened the third time I went to turn the machine off, and when pushing the power switch to ‘off’ there a sudden and very audible hiss followed by popping sounds accompanied by that unique and unmistakable odor that only an electrical fire can create. I pulled it off the table very quickly and got it into the garage leaving a lite blue plume behind me. When I popped off the plate, it didn’t take much to see it really had cooked itself. Very similar issues that the very early CR6 SEs were having that had a tendency to catch fire. I’m glad I was home. So this is the end of my BIQU experimenting. And to really make my day complete, I had a very nice print going on my Ender 3 V2 when my better half came running downstairs (that in itself is never a good thing) and said I better check on the printer because it stinks very badly and is making a pile of steaming spaghetti. It too cooked and I just installed a third brand new complete hot end today.
I am thinking I should just have stayed in bed today. It would have been cheaper and less wear and tear on the ulcer.

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Wait, BOTH your machines died at the same time? Am I reading that right?

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The BIQU cooked early in the afternoon, the Ender about 45 minutes ago. We (me , ma and the dog) went out for a nice long walk and just got back in. It’s a beautiful Colorado fall night with some overcast and a very lite drizzle. Very peaceful which I can use a lot of right now. I check our circuit box for the house and there are no blown fuses or any indication of a sudden power surge or sudden drop. It was the machines. So after I calm down I’ll need to decide if I want to replace at least one of them, or stick with my CR 10S pro v2 and the Mono x along with the Photon Mono SE resin printers.

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Prusa. Made better tested and works out of the box or you can build your own with excellent instructions and gummi bears. It is hard to beat in its price range. There is reasons why they have the reputation of being the best. No corners cut. no cloned junk.

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Wow. Just, Wow. I have to remind myself that it is statistically possible to have two of any types of equipment (cars, appliances, etc.) fail, for completely unrelated reasons, in the same afternoon.

Maybe they had a suicide pact.

Still, remind me not to stand near you in a thunder storm.

On a serious note, start testing with the power supplies as mentioned above. With any residual luck, maybe only one component on each machine died.

If the components that died were different, you may be able to get away with swapping good components. Say a power supply died on one machine and a motherboard on another. Take the power supply out of the machine with the dead motherboard and put it in the machine with the dead power supply. That will at least give you one working machine at no immediate cost.

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No Kidding on the storm! Both are on the same table and were working on pieces-parts for a customer when I think the BIQU told the Ender; wanna have some fun and see his face turn purple? Watch this…
And the Ender, seeing how successful the BIQU was at causing pronounced facial contortions and visible temporal artery throbbing followed suit. But wait there’s more…a few minutes ago I fired up the CR 10 watching it heat up only to se it reach the needed temperature and then suddenly drop five to seven degrees, then shoot up 10 degrees and back down like a yo-yo. Time for a new thermistor. And it’s only Wednesday.

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are you having brown outs there? I had trouble with places in the eastern US with this in very old areas

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Hi Glenn,
Out here our utilities don’t like to use ‘brownout’. ‘Temporary minor outages’ sounds much better. Much like our state legislature. They no longer enact or raise new taxes. They call them ‘fees’. That way there’s no public vote. Clever.
Les

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sounds like Ontario, your 200.00 power bill came with an additional 200 in charges fees and BS. I was at a meat plant in Boston setting up machines and the power there dropped to 78v in the middle of the day on the 115v lines. They had to fix it before they could open the factory and the utility denied any problems. I think the frequency was all over the place too.