Ender 3 controller issues

1

Good evening all,

New to the forum and hoping someone here will be able to help me out. I’ve scrolled through and have not been able to find it in any previous topics, however if I missed it I apologize.
The other day I was levelling the bed of my Ender 3 and after auto-homing the controller began constantly selecting leading to the a cycle of auto-homing. After rebooting the machine, the selection cycle started again between the info and prep screens.
I swapped the ribbon cable thinking it was possible damaged when moving recently, however that wasn’t the case.
My thinking is that the knob it pooched, but hoping someone else may have some better ideas.

Thanks in advance

2

I havent heard of this issue, but what are the chances the knob is pressing in on the encoder (rotary switch). You should be able to pull it off snd use the encoder without it. See if with some gentle wiggling if that improves. If that works out then you should be fine to put the knob back on.

Just a guess anyway. If you were to change/replace the screen its maybe $20. Or if your near oakville i have a spare im not useing anymore.

3

Thanks for reaching out Doc, unfortunately the knob isn’t the culprit. The encoder looks fine on the outside, all connections are still intact and no jams (on the outside anyway). When the near constant selection does stop, and movement of the encoder start it up again. Thinking it’s a mechanical issue at this point so ordering a whole new controller might be the best bet.

Thanks again!

4

I’d try some contact cleaner or similar on the potentiometer portion. If that doesn’t do it then ya maybe a replacement part is in order.

5

Thanks Gerk! tried cleaning today but to no avail. Looks like it will be a replacement.

6

UPDATE: not the rotary switch.

I got my hands on a new switch and plugged it in only for the screen cycling and ticking to begin again.
Saw online that a firmware update might fix so tried both Marlin and the most recent creality release, but again the problem remains.
It should be worth noting that I got a thermal runaway error a couple weeks back, but after a day of going over the hotend thoroughly and a superficial look at the mainboard I couldn’t find and issues with the wiring or thermistor. Cleaned up the hotend and it was running fine until this roadblock.
Lifted the mainboard out and all connection for the ribbon cable look fine to me.
At this point I have a rather large metronome.