2 dollar hardware fix to stop the dreaded flooded printhead head?

[JASON128 6]

why not  simply put a thermostat in line with the existing thermoresister on the print head.???

these things trigger at 70C, so will only trigger when the melted plastic hits them.  the open or short circuit on the thermosister will stop error  and stop the printer before it becomes a disaster.

 

they are small enough to fit behind the print block.

 

this would cost Ultimaker nothing to add to future print heads- its something 3d systems had years ago on their (awlful) cubepro printers to ensure the heatsink was never over temperature.

 

Could even be easily added on by anyone with a soldering iron.  im very tempted to do this myself, with the right little plugs could be a plug on add on to the printheads

 

https://nz.rs-online.com/web/p/thermostatic-switches/2532723/

 

 

anyone got any thoughts???

 

[geert_2 551]

I think the basic idea is excellent, and worth trying out. But maybe an optical sensor or mechanical switch might be more reliable? I would fear that a thermal switch could cause false alarms, e.g. when printing hot and slow without cooling fan, so there is no airflow. Then it might get too hot and trip. Or it might miss real leaks when printing fast, cool and with full cooling fan, if the air blows directly on the sensor, and it cools the outer shell of the leaking plastic too fast. Such a sensor should never give false alarms and abort a good print, nor miss real events: that will be the most difficult point, I think.

 

[neotko 1,417]

Shouldn’t be easier to use the camera to actually detect that....? If the area around the nozzle become block send an alert... check every z change or nozzle swap, and done

[Jasonjason 3]

I was thinking the sensor inside the cover of the print bay, or tucked up behind the hot block.  This will not be effected by part cooling fan speed at all.

my thinking is if the plastic if the print core hits 70 something is going wrong- most likely molten plastic touching it.

it won’t stop it before it happens, but al least stops it going on too far.

picking the right location for the sensors is the hard part- has to be in the path of the flooding plastic

 

as for camera- I can’t that see that being a easy solution at all-  not compared to two wires of a thermal switch.