How do I troubleshoot/repair an Ultimaker 2? (ERROR – STOPPED temp sensor BED)

[mandyrosler 0]

Hi,

I got my Ultimaker 2 today and it worked fine until I accidentally unplugged the power cord while it was printing (stupid, I know). Now when I turn on the printer I just get an error message that says "ERROR – STOPPED temp sensor BED". I can't dismiss the error message so I don't have access to the menu. How do I troubleshoot this? I don't even know how to open up the printer since I can't find any instructions for it.

Please help!

- Amanda

 

[gr5 2,172]

That sucks. It's hard to believe this could be caused by unplugging it. I would try turning it off, unplugging the power supply for a LOOONG time until that blue LED goes out. Might be 20 minutes. Then plugging it in and *then* turning it on. There are weird fail safe circuitry in power supplies sometimes.

If it still gives the error than it is almost certainly a loose wire between the printer bed and the circuit board. The main circuit board is under the larger cover. You only have to remove 2 screws. Most of the connections are pretty well labeled. Test the wires and connectors for print bed temp sensor on both ends (under the UM and where it goes into the bed). I think someone had a loose wire related to the heated bed on their new UM2 recently.

Also consider calling support on Monday. Or emailing them.

 

[gr5 2,172]

The other thing is your arduino may have been damaged. This is a very inexpensive and not difficult part to replace. If you are in USA I would spend $20 (includes shipping) and get one through ebay. Don't get one that ships from china though.

 

[mandyrosler 0]

Thanks gr5! I'm going to have another look at it today, I'll let you know if I manage to fix it.

 

[IRobertI 520]

I think someone had a loose wire related to the heated bed on their new UM2 recently.

 

Yup, that was me.

 

The other thing is your arduino may have been damaged. This is a very inexpensive and not difficult part to replace. If you are in USA I would spend $20 (includes shipping) and get one through ebay. Don't get one that ships from china though.

 

If it had been an UM1 then that would've been true, the UM2 has everything on one board "unfortunately".

 

[mandyrosler 0]

I tried unplugging the power supply and waiting for the blue led to turn off, and after that the printer seemed to work again until I tried printing. Then I got the same error message again.

I've checked the wires and I didn't find anything wrong, so I tried a factory reset. Now I get the error message a short while after turning the printer on. See video on youtube:

 

[gr5 2,172]

That make sense if there is a loose wire. When the bed moves down the wires flex a little and so something is probably loose where it connects to the heated bed in the back. I haven't taken apart my heated bed yet and I haven't seen any photos of anyone else doing it either but most things on the UM are easy to take apart and examine.

I guess you should contact support like it says on the screen. They will be available Monday but of course they will have a whole weekend worth of tickets to deal with.

If it were me I would just start taking it apart (the bed). There should be 4 wires in the back somewhere - two thick ones to supply the heat, and 2 thin ones for the temp sensor. It's the temp sensor.

Be aware that when power is off you can just turn that long vertical screw by hand in the back and your bed will go up or down. You will get grease on your fingers but you can wash that off.

[mandyrosler 0]

OK, I took the bed apart and checked the wires with a multimeter. They seemed fine, so I put the printer back together again and now... it works! Seems completely random, but at least I can print stuff again so I'm happy . Thanks for all the help!

 

For further reference, these are the five screws that you need to remove in order to take apart the heated bed:

 

edit by gr5: There is a mistake in this picture - instead remove the 2 screws on the black cable hold down slightly above the 2 screws circled together. The other 3 screws (leveling screws) is absolutely correct.

 

[Daid 306]

The full message is:

 

ERROR - STOPPED

Temp sensor BED

Contact:

support@ultimaker.com

 

It indicates a major problem with the temperature sensor of the heated bed. Which is why you cannot discard the message, as it would be a problem safety wise (heating up without proper temperature measurements is a fire hazard)

As for removing the bed, you do not need to remove the top 2 screws near the wires. Those only keep the connector in place on the board.

 

[mandyrosler 0]

Hi Daid, the error message doesn't show up anymore, do you still think it's a problem? I have contacted support about it btw, but I haven't received any reply yet.

Yeah, I know that the two screws at the top keep the connector in place, but I removed them to get easier access to the wires.

 

[gr5 2,172]

do you still think it's a problem?

 

Go to the advanced menu and go to the part where you can set the bed temp. In there it shows the current temp. If the current temp matches the temp of your room (anywhere from 20C to 30C) then you are good to try heating it up.

 

[vincentchazal 0]

hi

i just received my printer and "bam" the same error message!!!!

i read your post yesterday and tried all procedure (loose cables,...)to fix my so long waited toy... and gasp!!! still not working...

i contacted today the um team for support and they just asked me to install a new firware through Cura !!!!! nothing happened!

please if you have an idea before i get mad

(sorry for my poor english by the way)

 

[simon 1]

Same just happen to me also. Got my UM2 last week but with the wrong PSU. New PSU arrived today. Plugged it in, heated the bed, which seemed to get very hot, and error, contact Ultimaker. Damn I was really hoping that the new PSU would mean I could finally start printing. I'm really thinking that this beautiful unit is going to have to go back. So frustrating!!!

 

[vincentchazal 0]

hi

I'm a disgusted new UM2 owner based in Paris France...

I have the same problem since i unpacked the printer...everithing started great, but as the bed moved ...bing : fatal error on screen !!un fortunatly for me nothing changed even after checking all wires connected, my clients are waiting, the support only asked me to install a new firmware on the printer (gasp !! the error message make it impossible !! and it really look like a hardware problem)and the don't answer to my flow of mail...

2000€ for that

please if you have an idea help would be welcome !!!

(by the way sorry for my english..

 

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi Vincent and Simon,

Thank you for your posts.

It can be 2 various reasons why you get this message.

Please let me explain about the options:

1; a cable could be loose, and you have a bad connection.

2; there is a defect in the screw terminals on your heated bed.

1; this can be easily solved. Remove the cable restraint from the bed and loosen the cables from the heated bed.

Make sure to place the cables back and secure them in the terminals. The thick ones need to be on the left, and the think wires need to be on the right.

2; If you have a multi-meter, you can isolate the problem.

First you open the screw terminal, and take out the cable. Then close the screw terminal completely, and read the front of the terminals. The parts that are being lowered by closing it.

You should reed approx 106-108 Ohms. It shouldn't matter where you put the + or ground.

If you read a deviating value or nothing, you are in need of a new heated bed. Please contact our support team for further steps.

 

[gr5 2,172]

Make sure you got the correct power supply also - a few people got the wrong power supply but I think that should have been all cleared up. Still check that it is rated for 9.2 Amps or 221 Watts. If it is 5 Amps then that is the problem.

More likely Sander is correct. Some wires probably got moved during shipping.

 

[Daid 306]

All the orders with bad power-supplies should have gotten their replacements already. But, just for reference:

http://daid.eu/~daid/IMG_20131217_170635.small.jpg

The left one is the wrong supply, the right one is the proper supply.

(The bad supplies have also been moved from the warehouse to the R&D storage, so this mistake won't happen again)

 

[SandervG 1,521]

And if you have a different power supply, your entire Ultimaker 2 will shut down, instead of giving the error.

So I do not think it is the same problem

 

[simon 1]

Ok, unfortunately I don't have a multi meter. Maybe if I better describe the failure mode we can determine the error. When heating up in pronterface (set to 105C) you could see the graph rising over time and the bed was getting hot correctly. At about 70C it seemed to flattened off for a few minutes then started to oscillate up and down by about 20 degrees very quickly. Then it went out of control up to 1125C, although it was actually about 70C. Just as the graph went through the roof, the display panel on the printer came up with the error. The heated bed wasn't moving at the time and I have checked the cables and connections before. To me, this seems like a component failure rather than a loose wire. The component was probably failing at the 70C point when it started to oscillate rapidly. Does anyone agree?

 

[gr5 2,172]

1125C? or 112C or 115C?

Let's see - I'm guessing this is a thermistor as that is very common with heated beds.

There are two ways to hook up a thermistor: One way an open goes to 5V, the other way it goes to 0V. Either way, an open is similar to very high resistance and thermistors get higher resistance when they are cold. So if it was +1125C then that implies a short in the wiring. The two wires are probably touching where they are exposed (where there is no insulation).

I don't think you need a multimeter. Just turn it off, remove the bed, remove the connector and look at the 4 wires. The 5 screws to remove are shown in the photo above. There's a picture of the 4 wires here:

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3735-a-fix-for-ultimaker-2-heated-bed-not-working/

 

[gr5 2,172]

If that doesn't work check the other end of the cable. It goes into the larger box on the underside. That is held in by only 2 screws.

 

[simon 1]

It’s definitely some kind of component failure. I have been able to get the heater to come back on but as soon as it gets to about 70 C + it becomes unstable and starts oscillating rapidly and then goes out of control and reports 1125C. I don’t know if the failure is on the heater plate or somewhere else in the system. I’m a mechanical engineers rather than an electrical engineer so I don’t have skills or equipment to debug it. I have checked the value that the PT100 records using a thermal imaging camera and it seems to be working properly. It seems to report the correct temperature up to about 70 C but then becomes unstable. Like I said, this could be either the PT100 or something else.

 

All the connections on the back of the plate look really neat and I don’t believe it is a failed solder joint. I also can't see any stray wire strands or missing insulation.

 

But thanks for the help anyway :smile:

 

[simon 1]

Ok, great, I was wrong. The bit about it being a solder joint. It was a solder joint. You really can't see it with the naked eye but with a magnifying glass you could just about pick it out as looking a bit dodgy. It was one of the connections for the thermometer. My soldering isn't the best, but it seems to be heating up and holding a steady temperature now. Thank you gr5 and Sander, I wouldn't have found this problem without your help, it was too easy to over look.

 

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi Simon,

Please keep me up dated about your Ultimaker and how it behaves.

If you do find it becoming unstable again, my offer still stands and I can send you a new heated bed.

I am very curious to hear about your experience with ABS!

 

[tore-efteland 1]

Hello.

I found this problem with our printer

 

Loose connections?