The last time I used the printer it worked fine. Today I tried to use it and the extruder motor has the “jitters”, it doesn’t rotate. The drive gear on the stepper motor spindle just vibrates back and forth a bit instead of extruding. This is frequently a bad wire, can it be something else? I would lime to remove other potential problems before sending for a new motor.
Is it safe to say from this you pulled the motor away from the other half of the extruder housing with the gear and pulleys, and you’re attempting to advance it with no “load” so you can see? The only thing I can think of is a bit of debris jamming it, but that looks to be a very well sealed motor based on the video at the top of this page DREMC Support K1. Can you use a continuity test (DIODE) on a multimeter to see if each line on the cable is good? Not familiar with how hard it is to get to the other end of the cable..
Those are my best ideas atm.
Good luck!
Everything else in the printer seems to work fine, so a bad wire looks guilty. These wires come loose from the connectors very easy and are hard to fix, ask me how I know? It isn’t a Creality problem it is the nature of the JSA connectors used in printers. They are small, a pain in the butt to unplug and even harder to plug in with out generally buggering them up. If one of the wires comes loose then the control signals can’t get into the motor and it has a stroke. It “jitters”.
Anyway I ordered a new motor, should be here Tuesday. Now can I get to then without getting the printing withdrawal shakes.
would something like this kit jst pins and crimper help to have on hand, assuming you don’t already? just curious. I have the pack of JST connectors, just not that crimper.
It might help some of the time. The connector that originally failed was probably irreparable so I bought new connectors with wire leads installed. Then I soldered the new connectors wires onto the wire stubs of the old one. This was not fun, these wires are very small and hard to hold were they need to be. It would seem the repair failed, after a years or so, in the night when it wasn’t even being used. I suspect it was gremlins … again.
The hardest part was actually finding which connector I needed, there are many that are almost identical but so slightly different.
I hear you. That’s why I bought the kit of diif sizes, but I also know the pitch of the pins matters. My tadpole trike conversion to electric motor also uses JST stuff for some of the signal lines, so I bought spares from the company who’s controller I went with in case I have an adventerous mouse chew on things. That way I know I have the right ones already here and don’t have to flail around reverse engineering things.
Much harder with companies like Creality
The new motor has arrived, I will install it today and hope it works.
I installed the new motor and the printer is working fine. Maybe some day I will dissect the old motor to see why it betrayed me.
P.s. the new HEPA filter that is ducted out of the printer enclosure took all the smell out of the room. I might survive this printing thing after all.
That connector pain is real - the crimp pins back out of the housing if you look at them wrong, and finding the exact one among near-identical pitches is half the battle. Since a jittering stepper is almost always a signal-wire fault rather than the motor itself, the new motor should sort it - but it’s worth keeping that crimp kit handy, because the next gremlin is usually another loose pin rather than dead silicon. Fingers crossed the swap clears it - report back once it’s in!
The new motor works OK.
Another problem with those $%^&*( connectors that I had was the one for the laser. I had to remove the front cover once and to do that the laser connector has to be removed. Naturally the connect on the circuit board broke and I always received a A.I. Laser error from then on. As I was putting the print head back together I futzed around with that connector and the laser now works again. I am now back to 100% capacity, A.I. levelling is now operational.
All in all I am happy with the print head even with the connector problems. I have not had a heat creep problem the “Unicorn” (yes that is what it is called) nozzle it works great. There is a lot going on inside the head, compared to older models like the Ender 3, so there are a lot of fiddly screws to be removed to service it. If Creality is looking here it could use some design changes to make it simpler.
Great to hear the new motor sorted it, and of course the laser connector picked that exact moment to act up. That “pull one cover and something else breaks” chain reaction is the real tax on these denser print heads. Nice save getting the laser and AI leveling back with a bit of futzing rather than another parts order. Good to hear the Unicorn nozzle is keeping heat creep away too; that’s been the standout upgrade over the older hotends. Totally with you on serviceability though. The Ender 3 was a joy to work on by comparison, and all those tiny screws add up fast. Glad you’re back to 100%, and thanks for circling back with the result.
Next time the front cover has to come off I’m going to cut a small slit in the left side where the slot for the wire for the laser passes through towards the back. This will allow the cover to come off without removing the laser control wires. Less chance for another screw up.