Best posts made by jrwaters2

I finally have some closure on this topic. Until recently, the motor in question has been working just fine. So I assumed it was some form of user error.

Recently that same motor stumbled. Upon inspection, I found that the motor would work fine but if I touched the wires near the entry to the motor, it would stumble.

Unfortunately the leads are hard-wired into the motor so this is not something I could repair without dis-assembling the motor.

The good news is that I finally have resolution and this one was not my fault. All of that practice crimping made the replacement with the new motor uneventful.

@dc42 - since 3.4.5 is still the latest version, is it worth removing this comment from the release notes on the main github page (https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/releases/)?

Important! Some users have experienced issues with the printer failing to complete homing in this release. This is under investigation; in the meantime please revert to version 3.4.4 if you experience this issue.

Best
Jack

I got my first print with my Duet AM8 (thats what I call it now that my Anet A8 is an AM8 with a Duet processor). Thanks everyone for your advice and help. Especially, @nhof , your basic guide was so helpful. It may seem simplistic to you but topics of polarity are helpful to the novice.

It took me a loooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg time but I took it slow as suggested. Also, I converted over to 24 volts in the process which meant new power supply, hot end, heated bed. Never thought I'd be Googling about Ohm's Law.

Learned a lot of things during the process and I hope to be able to help some others with the same conversion. Mostly, thank you all!

Jack

@phaedrux Ok. "It’s a UNIX system! I know this!". I mean, ok, between the wiring diagrams and the advice about polarity and the other guides, I think I can do this. Been costing out the AM8 as well. I'm going to take my time here and do this carefully. I'll let you all know how it goes but really blown away by you all!

@veti - ok, I have finally completed my AM8 conversion. Yes, it took me this long! But, I double and triple checked everything, printed extra parts, etc. Wow, what a huge difference. It's a different beast now - fast, quiet, stable. I've just ordered my Duet and I'll be trying out all the advice and tips you guys provided . . . hopefully within a couple of weeks (traveling at the moment). Anway, I wanted to post here because others reading may want to know how impactful the AM8 upgrade is.

@zapta and @veti - thanks guys. I'm so glad you asked :-). I can't believe this was my Anet A8 when I was first posting here.

@T3P3Tony Roger that. What a great group!

@jay_s_uk thanks - I ordered one today so will see how it goes.

@phaedrux, I really appreciate your insight.

Its a painful conclusion for me. I'm "that guy" who needed extra crimps because I find the crimping so difficult. I'm great with software, clumsy with hardware. But I thought I had turned the corner after so much practice.

At this point I'm going to assume - and probably should have from the start - that it was poor crimping (though I swear putting it on extruder seemed to work 100%) and . . if I can get it to happen again I'll re-crimp and take pictures and keep this group posted.

You all are awesome - thank you again!
Jack

@jay_s_uk I did not! I read another post and that didn't come up.

knowing there is a fuse a) makes me feel a bit dumb and b) makes me very excited. I'll check that today!

@jay_s_uk it was the fuse - thank you so much! I never thought I would be so lucky that the thing that failed was because of a fuse. With my first duet I had experienced a failed mosfet leading to an always-on fan. But in another post I read that "If all the fans have stopped working then you have fused the via in the trace between the VIN pin of the fan jumper selection block and the +VIN power input terminal. You can add a wire on the back of the Duet to connect them together again.".

So I assumed the worst. Lesson learned.

I didn't have a spare fuse but I obtained supplies today and replaced the fuse with a 2 amp fuse because I read on the duet parts list web page that "PCB revisions 1.03 and later have a 1A mini auto blade fuse protecting the fan circuits when the fan voltage selection jumper is in the VIN position. You can increase the fuse rating to 2A or even 3A if your fans, air pumps etc. draw more than 1A in total."

I turned on the system and my hot-end fan came on - great!!! Then I enabled my cooling fans and within say 5 seconds, the fuse blew. This is actually also great - because now I get to find the real root of the problem.

I replaced the fuse again and removed the Mechatronics fan. I've left the system up with fans on for about 5 minutes. It seems like this is the culprit because removing the other fan but leaving the Mechatronics will also blow the fuse. I put a multi-meter on the connectors to the Mechatronics fan (the terminals that plug into the duet so that I'm checking the full fan and wiring) and checked the resistance and I see about 16 Ohms of resistance. What I read said that this is a typical expected range. I would really like to find the root cause of the root cause so that this doesn't happen again. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you all for the help @jay_s_uk and @oliof and have a wonderful weekend.

Final update (I edited above a few times). I've cut the connectors off the Mechatonics fan and I used a 9V battery to try to get the fan to operate with no luck.

I always test with a 9V battery before installing and this fan was working previously. Its has < 50 hours of usage. So, something internal to the fan but have gone wrong. But, I have no idea what triggered it. A little unsatisfying. I have a second of the same model which works fine with 9V battery. At some point I'll wire that up and put it in production.

Jack