X or Y axis stuck or limit switch broken (Ultimaker s5)

[FordRover2 0]

Hello,

 

I am running into some issues with the Ultimaker S5 placed on my work. Yesterday the printer started malfunctioning and it does not print. Whenever I want to print something it shows a E33 error: The X or Y axis stuck or limit switch broken. I went to the  Ultimaker Support page and followed the instructions. I found that the limit switches were fine. However, when I went to test the print head movement and pressed: Home Print Head the same error code popped up. Does this mean that there is a defect in the motor? I included the log files as well. 

 

Thanks in advance,

 

P.S. I would also like to mention that yesterday it showed a different error: An unspecified error has occurred in the motion controller. Restored to default settings. This error started coming up simultaneously with an error in the flow sensor. I was wondering whether the error could be caused by the bug described in the following thread:
 https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/35937-need-help-about-to-throw-this-s5-out-the-window-motion-controller-200euro-reward-to-who-can-fix-it/
But today the error changed so I decided to try to tackle that error first. 

logs-ultimakersystem-0030d623354e-7.1.3-20190214111740.zip

[gr5 2,094]

1) When you press "Home Print Head" does the head move at all?  Does it make any noise at all (in addition to just before you press the button)?

 

2) Is your S5 in a hot environment?  Is the airt temp of the room it is in over 80F/26C?

[gr5 2,094]

I just read the ER33 notes and it mentions 3 VERY DIFFERENT failure modes when homing the head.  Which do you see?

1) The head doesn't move at all

2) The head only moves in one axis

3) The head moves in both axes but it doesn't quite reach the corner

4) The head reaches the corner but makes a loud shaking sound and flops violently like a dying fish for a few seconds.

[FordRover2 0]

No it does not! It does not move and no sound.

[gr5 2,094]

Okay so the limit switches have nothing to do with it.  Well the servos are tough as hell so it's the servo drivers.  Is it in a hot environment?  Servo drivers get very hot and can die.  But it seems unlikely you would lose both X and Y at the same time (separate components).

 

I'm going to look at the circuit diagram but I think you lost your 24V somewhere.

 

[gr5 2,094]

Please check if you can heat up the print bed.  On front panel go to middle menu on left and choose the bed and set the temp to say 40C and see if the temp slowly increases.  If you 24V is gone it will not heat up at all.

[gr5 2,094]

If the bed won't heat up then it's the relay K1 on the servo controller board.  If your printer is out of warranty there is a really easy fix involving a soldering iron where you can bypass K1 (I did this years ago and no issues).  If it's still under warranty they can send you a new board.  The board is not cheap but I guess work will pay for it.  What country are you in?  If you are in the USA, contact support@fbrc8.com and send them the serial number and explain that the servos don't move at all when you tell it to home the head and tell them about the bed heater working (or not) as well.

 

If you are not in USA, contact your reseller right away (where you bought the printer).  I'd also do a support ticket immediately in case your reseller is not quick at helping customers.  You want someone to mail you a new board today.

[FordRover2 0]

Oh wow the bed does not heat up! It shows the same error! That was some kick-ass troubleshooting! 

Maybe a bit of a dumb question, I'm new to all this, what does losing my 24V mean?
 

[gr5 2,094]

There are 2 major boards on the S5.  One of them has the linux computer which is a powerful computer similar to those found in an old iphone.  The other has an arduino computer which is pretty wimpy.  The firmware on the linux computer is a full operating system with millions of lines of code and not good for real time stuff.  The arduino computer has much simpler code (still probably 10k lines of code) and is well understood and works very dependably for controlling servos.  The firmware is called "Marlin".  Anyway it's the same board with just a few changes as on the UM2 printer.

 

On that board are the switches for controlling the 3 heaters (2 cores, one print bed) circuitry for some of the fans, and all 4 servos.  That board gets 24V which is lowered to 3.3V or 5V (not sure) to power the arduino and most of the electronics.  Also it reads the limit switches but that's not relevant here.  The 24V (after powering the lower voltage) passes through a critical relay.  It's the biggest part on the board I think.  It's the only relay so it's K1 (there's no K2).  That relay can fail.  It failed on my first UM2 printer.  I could wack the relay and suddenly the printer would be fine until I power cycled it.

 

The symptom is interesting - almost everything works - the arduino is powered up and happy so it talks to the linux computer fine so the linux computer things everything is fine.  It can talk to the arduino fine.  If not you would get a "motion controller error" on the S5 when you booted up.  Every time.

 

But that 24V, after going through K1 only powers a few things - mostly things that use more power:  all 3 heaters, servos, and I think some of the fans. 

 

I thought of K1 because it happened to me.  And many other people.

 

I spoke to one of the founders about it and he said "you can just bypass k1 with a wire.  It was for a feature that we never actually implemented where you could connect it to a smoke detector or something to cut all power to things that might be causing a fire".  It was never implemented in the S5 either and is still just a wasteful point of failure.

 

So I just put a wire bypassing it.  But this is a work S5 and your company can probably afford to just get another "motion controller board".

 

I do have photos and such of how to fix/bypass K1 in another post.

 

 

 

[FordRover2 0]

Oh weird enough I tried the heating bed this morning and now the bed does heat! (maybe I jumped the gun a bit too quickly yesterday). 

 

[FordRover2 0]

Does that change the conclusion a bit?

 

[gr5 2,094]

If it's a k1 issue it may be intermittent.  Did you try doing home (without power cycling)?

 

It only changes the issue if you want to fix this yourself.  If your company is going to pay then just get a new servo controller board.  Contact your reseller (the company that sold you the printer).  If you don't know the reseller you can ask Ultimaker as they should have records for every serial number I believe?

 

support.ultimaker.com  and click "submit a request" in the top right corner.  Well a bit left from the top right corner.  Maybe the 4th thing in.