Extruder not extruding

1

I was printing a multiday print this week. after a day of printing. the printer continued on with out extruding any more filement. Many empty layers.

I stopped the print and restarted. Started up ok but only got about a 50 layers done and extrusion stopped again.

Stopped the print and did an atomic pull to check for clogs. Adjusted the grip of the extruder. Started up again. It also only did about 50 layers then the extruder stopped again.

I checked the load filament with purge more and was able to get it to reliably feed. Started print again and now nothing is being extruded. It is a head-scratcher. No grinding noises just moving around without any extrusion.

2

@SeriesIIa I know how frustrating this can be. When the extruder stopped can you manually push the filament though the hot end (when it is at temperature) ?

If you can and if you do not believe there is a clog, is the stepper really hot?

I had a similar issue and traced it all back to a over heating stepper it shuts down when it gets too hot.

I could be similar, or just junk of the filament causing a clog. Hard for online blind diagnosis.

3

Yes i was able to push filament through with out a problem. It was also able to feed filament using the load filament menu. Didn’t notice the stepper as feeling hot. I touched it to double check the wiring was connected. I have turned the printer off for a day. Will start it up again soon and see if it is in the same situation or the stepper has cooled down.

4

I had a bit of a simmilar issue, for me it was heat creep. Have you rebuild you hotend or changed the nozzle latley?

Does the extruder motor still move while its printing nothing?

5

Got a new direct drive swiss hot end in December. I don’t notice the extruder motor moving during this failure. no grinding sound.

6

ok now it won’t feed even with the change filament menu. It just stutters and the gears just shake back and forth a fraction of a mm. I can push filament in and it comes out the nozel fine.

Does this indicate the servo is fried some how?

7

It’s a stepper motor. A servo works on a very different principal. I doubt it’s burned out. That takes quite a bit of heat and you’d have smelled something.

Steppers work based on the timing of the signals on their input wires. The behaviour you’re describing sounds suspiciously like what you would get if the cable connector was loose or one of the wires servered. Check your cabling closely all the way along.

It’s also possible that the output of one of the stepper drivers on the controller has failed. If your motherboard has stepper drivers mounted as separate units, that’s a fairly cheap and easy fix, but most have them integrated into the controller board.

Try this test:
Use the control panel to move each of the steppers (X, Y or Z) as well as the extruder’s stepper. Do they all work in both directions?

Presumably the extruder stepper won’t. Unplug the extruder stepper and plug the cable for the X, Y, or Z stepper (whichever is long enough) into the extruder stepper. So, let’s say you moved the X stepper cable over: on the control panel, try moving the X stepper forward and back. Does the extruder move accordingly? I’m guessing it will which will disprove the “burned out stepper” hypothesis.

It’s a bit of a pain, but if the motor checks out and you can’t visually see a problem with the extruder cable, try to plug the extruder cable into one of the other (X, Y, or Z) stepper motors, whichever one it will reach. Then, from the control panel, try moving the extruder motor. Does the X, Y or Z axis that you plugged the extruder cable into move?

Plug the extruder cable back into the extruder and whatever axis cable you swapped it with back into it’s respective motor.

If the answer is no, it’s a bit more of a pain, but you’ll have to open up the controller housing (you don’t have to take it out) and swap the extruder cable with one of the other stepper motor cables. Now go back to the control panel again and try to move the axis you plugged the extruder cable into. If the extruder moves then the extruder cable is good and the problem is the controller board.

I hope I’m making sense. It’s 3AM.

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8

thank you that sounds like an excellent test to try. I will work on that later today.

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you are a more sturdily built human than me … heh

10

seams to be a bad cable extension from extruder motor. It has an extension cable from going to direct drive. i by passed it and was able to direct drive the motor from the menu. out of everything it could be this is probably the easiest of plug and play type of fixes. I will have to order a new one to get back up and running.

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11

Glad you made relatively easy and cheap progress.

12

I bought micro Swiss direct drive conversion and had same issue. Bought new stepper motor which didn’t work. I will also have to get new extension cable to try to fix.

Thanks for the post.

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I managed to get a couple months use out of the extension cable before this problem showed up. I should get out to the shop to get the cable in the next couple days to confirm it fixes the problem.

14

This is what the extruder was doing when advancing filament from the load filament menu using the extension cable. https://youtu.be/vV2b0olJ3kE When I bypassed the extension cable it seemed to work fine.

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15

seems to have ceased being an extruder

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