Duet 3 keeps blowing the breakers in my house when powered on!!!

A Former User

Not sure about anything with my breakers, I rent so that info is unknown to me.

Take a picture, someone in the same parts of the world will probably be able to tell. 115v and "weird" colour coding suggest you're in the US?

1st off I would like to know how could this board being drawing that much power to overload the breakers, vs the WiFi board, that works and is wired exactly the same?

My initial thought was that "it can't" at least not without leaving you with some clues to see, hear or smell .. which makes me think its a ground fault issue as they trip at much lower current to keep humans and buildings (relatively) safe.

Your bed wiring is most likely not quite right as the Duet3 has a separate input for the bed power, i.e. the two unused screw terminals are for the input to Out0, but that alone can't be the fault.

eddygara

@bearer just removed the bed wiring all together, so no power is being drawn in from the bed. Breakers still blew. Again not sure what my issue could be?? So strange that this thing could be drawing that much power!

Here’s a pic of my breaker terminal if that help!

https://i.imgur.com/LV4RTOI.jpg

A Former User

Some of the breakers are labeled as GFI which is short for ground fault interrupter, which breaker is tripping?

Odds are there is a (mains) wiring fault somewhere, so be careful till you find it.

eddygara

It's the same breaker my other printers are on. Again can't fail to mention that all of my printers are wired exactly the same. Same PSU's, same power cables, same wiring config, the only difference is the V3 board, being introduced into the mix. And they have never had an issue where they trip the breakers and cut power to my room.

Is it code related? I failed to mention that this board is brand spankin new, and I'm stuck on the wiring portion of this build, which is the thing holding me back as my breakers keep getting tripped.

fcwilt

Disconnect everything from the power supply except for AC in and GND.

Does it still blow?

Connect the power supply to the Duet and remove all other connections from the Duet.

Does it still blow?

Frederick

eddygara

@fcwilt

Just tired that. Crazy thing still blew. I then tried to route the power directly from the outlet to the printer bypassing the on off switch. My power socket sparked! Scary shit man!

One thing I noticed the prong for the cable labeled N on the power socket for the printer is charred, as well as the N female socket for the power cable that receives power from the wall outlet. So must be something from that? I don’t see how as the cables are perfectly safe and wired correctly, again the same as my other printer, that don’t have this problem.

Pics of the fired power cable and outlet

https://imgur.com/gallery/SFfP6Bc

Phaedrux

Do you have the two black wires for + and - flipped? Probably want to mark which is which.

Is it a fused IEC outlet you're using?

Can you try wiring direct to the PSU without the switch?

Also, be incredibly careful as you're dealing with mains here obviously. If the breaker is tripping there's a short somewhere.

Are you using a GFI outlet? I'm thinking not otherwise it would be tripping and not the breaker?

Phaedrux

@eddygara said in Duet 3 keeps blowing the breakers in my house when powered on!!!:

Pics of the fired power cable and outlet
https://imgur.com/gallery/SFfP6Bc

Looks like a bad connection in the socket.

eddygara

@Phaedrux It was perfectly fine until it was plugged in directly. This happened after I removed all cables to the PSU and connected everything.

I figured out the problem thanks for helping me troubleshoot, turns out, one of my connectors to the power socket was bad. You guys rock!

eddygara

@Phaedrux
Ok so it’s not fixed,

This is getting out of hand. At one point it worked perfectly fine. Once everything back connected to to the board the entire things blows my breakers again.

I’ve switched out power connections, cables, removed and re did all my wiring.

The board will blow my home breakers ever time it’s powered on.
My other printers which again are wired exactly the same, (minus the new board) do not do this at all.

Phaedrux

Can we get some more photos of your current setup? Are you still getting blown sockets?

A Former User

@eddygara said in Duet 3 keeps blowing the breakers in my house when powered on!!!:

The board will blow my home breakers ever time it’s powered on.

with the risk of repeating myself - its very unlikely to be the board, but rather the mains wiring.

dc42

What breakers are blowing: current limit breakers, or RCD (aka GFCI) breakers?

I had a problem last year that the master RCD breaker in the consumer unit would trip whenever I turned on the laser printer in my office. Suspecting a faulty class Y capacitor (the ones between mains input and ground that help suppress EMI), I replaced the Class Y capacitors in it. A little while later, the problem returned. Eventually I realised that it only occurred when both our new induction hob and several pieces of equipment in my office were turned on.

What was happening is that the leakage of the hob plus mains wiring capacitance plus the class Y capacitors in all my office equipment together created enough current between live and neutral to trip the 30mA RCD.

I fixed it by relocating the hob/cooker circuit to the non-RCD-protected side of the consumer unit, using a RCBO (combined current breaker and RCD) on that circuit instead of a plain current breaker.

I've since read that induction hobs are renowned for tripping RCDs. I guess they have larger class Y filtering capacitors than most other devices, because of the amount of EMI they would otherwise generate.

Phaedrux

@dc42 said in Duet 3 keeps blowing the breakers in my house when powered on!!!:

RCD (aka GFCI) breakers?

Based on the photos earlier no, they look like standard north america breakers.

A Former User

Some of them were tagged GFI - does that refer to protected outlets in the circuit?

dc42

@Phaedrux said in Duet 3 keeps blowing the breakers in my house when powered on!!!:

Based on the photos earlier no, they look like standard north america breakers.

Here in the UK you can get RCBOs, which combine a current breaker with a RCD (aka GFCI). Might it be one of those?

EDIT: the ones with TEST buttons are RCBOs.

whosrdaddy

I had an instance with one of my printers where the IEC connector fuse would blow after 10 minutes.
At first I thought that the fuse had died, but after 2 additional fuses died, I replaced the fuse again and
monitored the printer while powered, at that moment I realized that the IEC connector was getting really hot!!! (It was a crappy chinese one, bought via Amazon). After replacing the connector with a better specimen, the problem was solved, for some reason there was a bad connection inside the connector causing sparks and resulting heat.

Long story short, check your IEC connector (and get one with a fuse)

A Former User

One of the IEC connects were questionable to say the least.

dc42

@eddygara said in Duet 3 keeps blowing the breakers in my house when powered on!!!:

@bearer just removed the bed wiring all together, so no power is being drawn in from the bed. Breakers still blew. Again not sure what my issue could be?? So strange that this thing could be drawing that much power!

Here’s a pic of my breaker terminal if that help!

https://i.imgur.com/LV4RTOI.jpg

Which of those breakers trips?

Phaedrux

@bearer said in Duet 3 keeps blowing the breakers in my house when powered on!!!:

Some of them were tagged GFI - does that refer to protected outlets in the circuit?

Yes. In North America any ground fault protection is typically present in the socket at the point of use rather than at the breaker.