Ultimaker S5 Very frustrating and confusing print quality/extrusion/unknown issue.

[Torgeir 243]

Hi @jsw,

 

Something like this have been reported before and was caused by a partially blocked or faulty front fan.

This will start heat too climb into the upper "cold" area of the print core, softening the filament and limiting the feed..

Tiny strings of filament tend to collect up into this fwd fan, so make sure that this fan is working.

Also, -the wires that power this fan can break right where the front door is hinged and where the wires bend every time the door is opened.

 

Just a small tip..

Edited December 17, 2022 by Torgeir
Typing error.

[gr5 2,176]

I just jumped into this thread for the first time and didn't read much of the posts (sorry) but I have 2 important points:

 

If the border is perfect and the interior not great then it's probably not a leveling issue.  Also this printer has active leveling which, if it doesn't fail with an error message, usually works perfectly every time.  Again - if border is good - leveling should be good.

 

Failures a few minutes into the print are usually caused by the front fan failing or an issue with the teflon in the core either not long enough, or interior diameter too large either of which can cause the filament to get stuck in the teflon section (inside where the cooling fins are on the print core).

 

Don't get the front fan confused with the 2 side fans.  The front fan cools the print cores.  The side fans cool the plastic part you are creating.

 

[jsw 19]

thanks, will do

[jsw 19]

Thanks for the responses.

 

before I dump the logs, i will inspect and carefully clean the front fan.

Edited December 21, 2022 by jsw

[jsw 19]

Thanks, GR5.

 

As you will see from the photo, the one wire to the fan had broken off, obviously rendering it inoperable.

 

I resoldered it and the fan spins up properly on a bench supply.  I also removed various cat hair and other environmental gunk, and it spins freely.

 

Now, as I removed the assembly, I neglected to write down the order in which the sensor and the fan are connected to the rear of the print head assembly.  Even with a dental mirror I can't see obvious markings.

 

Would you please be kind enough to tell me the order (looking at the print head assembly from the rear) the fan and the sensor are connected.  I don't want to get these backwards and risk damaging something.  The two side fans are still connected, I just need the left-to-right order of the sensor and fan that are in the print head cover.

 

I tried googling for the connections, but came up empty.

 

Thanks again.

 

[gr5 2,176]

Since you seem to be in the USA I would email support@fbrc8.com.  They assembled your printer (they assemble all the printers sold in USA) and have some really smart people there.  People like @fbrc8-erin who might answer directly here but the safe bet is to email them.  Include your printer's serial number for faster response.  Erin and other's often go the extra mile and will likely either already know the answer or will be able to check since they have these parts in their stockroom.  They'll also know the history of if/when the part changed and things like that.

[gr5 2,176]

For other people reading this thread - you don't have to inspect the fan to know if it's working.  If you heat either core above 60C the front fan is supposed to be spinning (it's more complicated - it will turn on sooner if you are heating and turn off when the temp goes below 60C when cooling).  So just open the door and look at the fan and then heat either printcore in the menu.

[jsw 19]

Thanks, but I think I have the mystery solved.  I was using the low-tech method of a dental mirror and flashlight in an awkward set of positions, and I finally realized that if I would simply slip the phone in there, turn the flash on, I might be able to capture the markings on the board, which I did.

 

As you can see, the second connector from the left is clearly marked 'Sensor', so when I get a chance this afternoon or evening I'll be able to put the thing back together.

 

Thanks again.

[gr5 2,176]

I completely misunderstood.  I thought you were saying there is a 3rd sensor wire from the fan.  But now I see you are talking about the "active leveling sensor".  This is from the UM3 print head PCB which is almost identical to the S5 but is slightly wider.  J7 is the bed sensor (active leveling).  J1,J2,J4 are for the 3 fans.

 

[jsw 19]

Well, it looks like the fire may be out.  Thanks to everyone, in particular to gr5 and Torgeir.

 

It looks like the culprit was the fan, and I'm actually surprised that I did not notice that the fan was not spinning.

 

At least the trivial print printed as expected.  Now to try some 'real' prints.

 

Thanks again.

Edited December 21, 2022 by jsw

[Josnoww 15]

Thanks @jsw for sharing the end result with us! And thanks to @gr5 for supporting :)

 

I am glad to hear that all the issues have been resolved! Happy printing :-)

[jsw 19]

1 hour ago, Josnoww said:

Thanks @jsw for sharing the end result with us! And thanks to @gr5 for supporting 🙂

 

I am glad to hear that all the issues have been resolved! Happy printing 🙂

 

You're very welcome.  This was a quirky one, and a lesson learned in overlooking what should have been obvious.  I'm usually very confident in troubleshooting 3d printers, but this one had me stumped.  Thanks again to those who helped out.

 

On 12/17/2022 at 7:13 AM, Torgeir said:

This will start heat too climb into the upper "cold" area of the print core, softening the filament and limiting the feed..

 

 

This explains another quirk, which I did not include in my original item simply to avoid overloading and what I thought may be confusion.  Again, lesson learned, all details may be relevant.

 

Once when I was changing filaments, the filament would not unload.  When I removed the bowden tube from the print head, it was obvious that the reason it would not unload was that there was a bulge in the filament, preventing it from moving through the tube upon an unload request.  (Photo below, look closely.)

 

It only happened once, and now I realize that in the other cases I removed the filament before things cooled down to the point that the deformed filament was solid.

 

In this case I obviously waited a while and the filament cooled and prevented the unload from happening as expected.

 

Thanks again.

 

Hopefully this exchange will be searchable and will help others with similar problems.

 

[Travis7s 25]

Shoutout to @gr5 who doesn't even read the thread and just casually solves it.

All 3 fans are so critical to quality prints that I really wish there was some onboard diagnostics to catch issues.

[Josnoww 15]

@Travis7s Thank you for your feedback, fortunately this happens very rarely,  and I think it might be difficult to add that to existing printers. However I will make sure your will reach the team! 

[Dadkitess 19]

This topic helped me figuring out that, indeed, my last days issues were all about the front fan not running anymore... Black wire got disconnected. No feedback for the user, damn 😕

[jsw 19]

Yes, mine was a disconnected wire too.  Lesson learned.