S5 having trouble extruding

[AddMan 2]

I'm going nuts! All of a sudden both nozzles on my S5 are printing like they are blocked. I've done hots pulls, cold pulls I'm now pulling my hair out. They are both clean and extrude fine manually. I can even see light through the nozzle so I assume it's ok, but not long after the print starts the filament stops feeding. The extruder is trying to feed, if I let it go long enough it starts grinding. I've tried three different brands of PLA filament including a brand new one. As I write this it has just thrown up an error that the print core is taking too long to warm up and has crashed. If the print core has trouble keeping temp then that could explain why it can't extrude, but when I look at it manually there hasn't been any temp issues.

 

All this started after the last firmware upgrade. Has something changed or is it just coincidence? Any help appreciated.

[SandervG 1,519]

Hi, thank you for your post. 

 

Do you also have a material station?

You could inspect of the small pcb on the back of the print cores are still intact, and clean? You can try to clean the contact points with a cotton swab and some alcohol.

 

Nothing has changed in the firmware for an Ultimaker S5 stand alone that could be related to this, as far as I know. 

If you set a temperature (like 220ºC) on your print core via the menu on your Ultimaker S5, does it reach it? It should increase by like 5ºC a second or so. 

 

[AddMan 2]

Hi SandervG,

 

Thanks for your quick reply.

 

No material station, it's just a standalone S5. 

 

I've cleaned both print core pcb's, although I assume these are independent of each other and unlikely to both fail at the same time.

 

If I change the filament t extrudes correctly. If I remove the bowden tube I can feed it manually. I can feed it through the controls on the front and it extrudes. As soon as I try and print something it stops extruding and grinds the filament. 

 

It comes up to temp quick enough, about the rate you suggested above. It seems to hold this during printing and I assume the displayed value is measured not calculated so this should suggest the temperature is correct. 

 

It feels like a temperature problem, especially as a couple of times now it failed to reach temperature for a hot pull, but I can't pin it down.

 

Thanks for your help 

 

 

[Smithy 1,141]

Can you check if your front fan is running when the core heats up over 40 or 50°C ?

 

How fast do you print? And do you use one of the default Cura profiles?

[AddMan 2]

Hey Smithy,

 

You're a gun!

 

The front fan had stalled! I gave it a nudge and it's back in action.

 

I must admit I had noticed it wasn't going, but for some stupid reason I dismissed it because I thought it was the linked to the print cooling which is off for the first couple of layers. Of course it's for the cores and not the print. I should have noticed the familiar whir was missing. Not sure why it was stuck, I keep it really clean. I'll keep an eye on. 

 

SandervG/Smithy, thank you both for jumping on this so quick, I really appreciate the support and help.

 

Cheers, stay safe.

[Smithy 1,141]

I am glad it helped and you are back in business 😃

Keep an eye on it, maybe you need to replace the front fan if it happens again.

[guna 0]

I am also facing the same issue but i can able to print with ABS cant with PLA

[AddMan 2]

Hey guna,

 

Do you also have an S5?

 

Is your problem under extrusion? And the filament ends up grinding because it can't feed through, like a blockage, but when you clear it, it seems fine?

 

Interesting that ABS works and not PLA, but that may be explained by the different temperature requirements. 

 

In my case it was definitely because the front cooling fan was not running as identified by Smithy. Since I got that going everything is working perfectly. Check your fan is running once the print core gets over 50 degrees. You can check this through the front panel.

 

[SandervG 1,519]

7 hours ago, guna said:

I am also facing the same issue but i can able to print with ABS cant with PLA

 

Have you ever tried to clean your print cores? Perhaps it is clogged with ABS or some high temp material, which makes way for ABS but the usual operating temps for PLA are not high enough to pass?

[AddMan 2]

Would you need to use Ultimaker cleaning filament for this or will a PLA hot/cold pull clear an ABS blockage?

[SandervG 1,519]

7 hours ago, AddMan said:

Would you need to use Ultimaker cleaning filament for this or will a PLA hot/cold pull clear an ABS blockage?

 

Yes, that would be recommended. You can find the instructions here: https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011620800-How-to-perform-a-hot-and-cold-pull