2+ Ext random resets

[angelus0313 0]

Hello,
 I was wondering if anyone help me try and figure out a problem. I am having random resets of my 2+ ext at weird times. Sometime during the start up phases of a print and sometimes X amt of hrs into it causing it to fail. Have tried different files to see if it was something to do with the files. No luck, along with heating the bed and nozzle up separately to see if one of them causes the same issue. Again no luck. It hard to replicate when it does reset due to it happening at different times but the two mention times are the most common. 

 I have also explored the option maybe it was the power outlet I had it attached to, but have relocated it to a different plug and tested the original plug for any faults.

 It had been working fine till after I took the feeder motor off to do some daily maintenance on it due to filament dust was mixing with the grease, thus why I took it apart and cleared the caked up gunk and relubed the gears.

Short of taking it apart to get to the board underneath other test or avenues I need to explore.

Edited October 31, 2022 by angelus0313

[gr5 2,177]

It's almost certainly the power brick.  Some things you can do to lower your power consumption:

1) Raise the bed temperature.  It is counterintuitive but the resistance gets higher as the bed gets hotter so the max current it can pull down is reduced when it is at a higher temperature.  Or turn the bed off completely and use blue tape.

 

2) oil the X and Y axes.  Just one drop on each of the 6 rods (count them.  six).  Push the head around before and after to feel the difference.

 

3) Install tinker Marlin.  It has a power budget system.  If you do this make sure the power budget is smaller than the sum of the bed and nozzle power.  That way when everything is on it will restrict the bed a little bit.  TinkerMarlin is what I use on my 3 active UM2 printers and is here:

https://github.com/TinkerGnome/Ultimaker2Marlin/releases

[gr5 2,177]

If it were me I would do #3 to prove that it is the power brick.  These things do indeed go.  And when you are convinced this is the problem then get a new one.  There are two types:

GST220A24-R7B
GS220A24-R7B
 

The GST one is almost certainly what you have and puts out a little less current so I prefer the GS one.  But the GST has some improved safety features.  But again - puts out a little less power.  Even though they are both rated for the exact same power, the GST turns itself off when you surpass a threshold and this threshold is lower for the GST.

 

More info about how to setup the power budget in the tinker firmware:

 

 To me the power budget feature is very simple but it seems to confuse people.  The power budget feature does not know how much power each element uses so you just tell it.  Tell it how many watts everything is and what the budget is and it will make sure heaters are turned off or turned down a bit when they would exceed the budget.  The bed gets lowest priority.

 

In this version of Marlin is a power budget system.  Set the bed to 150W (that's what it's supposed to be I think) and set the nozzle to 25W (if you have 3rd party nozzle such as 3dsolex then set this to what is truth - what nozzle actually is).

 

Then if you set the budget to 175W (150+25) the power budget won't do anything and the printer will work normal.  If you lower the budget to 150W then the power budget will lower the power to the bed when the nozzle is on.  This changes many times per second (adjustments of power to nozzle).  All the remaining power goes to the bed if the bed wants it.

 

So for example if you use 150/25/150 as I mention above and the nozzle is on at 50% (12.5 watts) then the bed will only be allowed 12.5 watts below budget (150-12.5 is 137.5 watts) and so the bed will never exceed 92% power at that time.  This changes 20 times per second (nozzle asking for more then less power, bed occasionally restricted a little bit).

[angelus0313 0]

thank you for the replies, once I have some time I will test the options you outlined. Thank you again for the reply.

 

[gr5 2,177]

time versus money.  If you'd rather just spend the money then just get another supply.  4 years ago they were about 90 euros/dollars  🙂

 

[angelus0313 0]

Finally got around to testing out the printer with tinker marlin, it worked as it did not reset anytime during a 7 hr test print. I am going to assume it was the power consumption. I know it could be seen as a bandaid fix to just keep using tinker marlin over buying a new power brick. But, it works for my finances atm over having it just sit unused in my work area.

thanks again for the recommendations

[gr5 2,177]

So did you also setup the power budget?  If you don't mess with that then it was just chance it didn't power off in those 7 hours.