Tractus 3D 1250 - Y-Axis Stopping & Cooling Fan Issue

[JJJJ]

Hi everyone,

I have a Tractus 3D 1250 printer, and I've recently encountered some major issues.

Issue 1: Y-Axis Stopping Mid-Print
A few days ago, my printer failed on a long print because the Y-axis stopped moving
(I have a video of it failing but I cant share links in this post)

I initially suspected motor overheating, as I had the current set a bit high.

To be safe (and since the motors were old), I upgraded to Nema 17 stepper motors from oozenest (118oz) and installed new belts. After the upgrade, I reprinted the part, and everything worked fine.

However, I started a 2-day print yesterday, and when I checked this morning, it had failed badly.

I didn’t record this print, but I assume the Y motor stopped again. When I cleared the material off the belts and tried to home the printer, the Y motor didn’t move, suggesting it was the cause of the failure. All the failed material had built up on the same side where the nozzle fell last time, reinforcing my suspicion that it was the same issue.

After turning the printer off and on again, the Y motor worked fine. I suspect the stepper motor driver is overheating, especially since the driver controlling the Y motor is the furthest from the cooling fan. The stock cooling looks inadequate, so I decided to install larger fans.

Issue 2: Cooling Fan Failure
To improve cooling, I installed bigger fans, wiring them in parallel to a buck converter outputting 12V.

(arguably I went overkill on the fans)

When I turned on the power, there was a pop, and now none of the fans work, and there is no output from the always-on fans either( I plugged in the buck converter and there is no output).

It appears that the fuse has blown. However, I can't remove the fuse—I've tried pulling it out, but it feels stuck, and I don’t want to damage the board.

Is there a specific way to safely remove this fuse?

So in summary, my questions are:

• Could the stepper motor driver overheating be the cause of my Y motor randomly stopping?
• What else could cause the Y motor to stop mid-print but work fine before the print when homing and after turning off and on the machine?
• How do I safely remove the 1a fan fuse?

Any advice or troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[JJJJ]

@JJJJ I have got the fuse out, but i have not got a one amp to test yet.

[droftarts]

@JJJJ said in Tractus 3D 1250 - Y-Axis Stopping & Cooling Fan Issue:

Could the stepper motor driver overheating be the cause of my Y motor randomly stopping?

Yes. Particularly if you have the current turned up, the motor drivers can overheat. Depending on what version of RRF you are running, you may be able to detect a driver error event and pause, see https://docs.duet3d.com/en/User_manual/RepRapFirmware/Events

What else could cause the Y motor to stop mid-print but work fine before the print when homing and after turning off and on the machine?

Not much, unless there's a wiring issue. It may take a while for the driver/board to heat up.

How do I safely remove the 1a fan fuse?

You just have to pull it out straight, they can be in quite stuck in! Use some pliers for a better grip.

I have got the fuse out, but i have not got a one amp to test yet.

The 1A fuses aren't common. You can use a 2A (which are generally more available), but I wouldn't use much more. See https://docs.duet3d.com/en/User_manual/Troubleshooting/Parts#blade-fuses

PS I've upvoted your posts, so you should be able to post links. Part of our anti-spam measures, unfortunately.

Ian

[JJJJ]

@droftarts Thanks for your reply. That makes sense about the spam, here is the link to the video: https://youtube.com/shorts/F0TtCY8WHq0?feature=share

Yes. Particularly if you have the current turned up, the motor drivers can overheat. Depending on what version of RRF you are running, you may be able to detect a driver error event and pause, see https://docs.duet3d.com/en/User_manual/RepRapFirmware/Events

The stepper motors are at 1.8 amps, I naively thought to set the current to 90% of what the motors can handle. their max current is 2 amps. But I imagine this is too high for the drivers then. I am going to order some heatsinks for the motors as well.

The motors: https://ooznest.co.uk/product/nema17-stepper-motors/

I am currently using version 3.5.1. I was going to ask how to set up a failsafe to prevent more failures like this before they get to a dangerous position and wasted filament.

Not much, unless there's a wiring issue. It may take a while for the driver/board to heat up.

Both failures happened a good few hours into the print so that makes sense.

The 1A fuses aren't common. You can use a 2A (which are generally more available), but I wouldn't use much more. See https://docs.duet3d.com/en/User_manual/Troubleshooting/Parts#blade-fuses

I have ordered some 1 amp fuses online as the lowest we have is 5 amps, but I put the fuse in and now I am getting continuity between the VIN and the v fan junction pins.

Would the fans I used cause the fuse to blow? the polarity was correct.

Thanks again for your reply.

[droftarts]

@JJJJ said in Tractus 3D 1250 - Y-Axis Stopping & Cooling Fan Issue:

The stepper motors are at 1.8 amps, I naively thought to set the current to 90% of what the motors can handle. their max current is 2 amps. But I imagine this is too high for the drivers then. I am going to order some heatsinks for the motors as well.

So the drivers were set at around 1.6A? I would have thought they would be okay, but it would also depend on air flow, ambient temperature etc. Our general advice is here https://docs.duet3d.com/Duet3D_hardware/Duet_2_family/Duet_2_WiFi_Ethernet_Hardware_Overview#cooling

Would the fans I used cause the fuse to blow? the polarity was correct.

The fans are 12V/4.2W/0.35A, so two of them would be 0.7A, plus any other fans you have connected, may be quite close to 1A. I think fans also pull a bit more current at startup.

Could you post your config.g and config-override.g? Or even better a zip with all your config files? It might help out the Tractus3D T650P owner in this loooong thread: https://forum.duet3d.com/topic/37440/
Now Tractus has disappeared, it would be good to archive working configurations.

Ian