Diagnosing a dead 3D printer controller

[@motrebal]

It is so refreshing to watch someone on KZbin that actually knows what they are doing and make fresh original content. Well done Clive you are in the minority but very much appreciated as is your humour.

[@nicewhenearnedrudemostlyel489]

Agreed. In addition i'm sad that it is the case that youtubers that know what they're doing are the minority.

[@neilsiebenthal9254]

Clive is a living legend.

[@MadeWithLayers]

Clive, let me know of you're ever in need of more 3D printers to play around with!

[@caraffa3621]

wow why aren't you verified

[@MattBruman]

I'm in need of more 3d printers to play with. 😉

[@munzlp]

Me too! Got a few broken skr boards as they suck! (I'm an enthusiast with a watercooled corexy) have a good day!

[@eiv-gaming]

Now this is a collab I would pay money to see :)

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

If Clive doesn't want them, I'm happy to play with the printers haha ;) Tschuss!

[@barrelracer318]

It was actually pretty cool seeing the solder pads changing as the leftover solder cooled off. Still was cool to see how quick you diagnosed the issue too.

[@phils4634]

My rather "mature" Geeetech dual head printer has the BIG advantage of having all the driver (motor / heater) boards as entirely replaceable modules, which of course means modification and repair of "power" sub-assemblies is simple and pretty cheap! The trim tools I use are all ceramic - from "our favourite suppliers" for a very reasonable price. Means you can play with powered-on assemblies with a much reduced risk of "unfortunate accidents"!

[@assassinlexx1993]

Yes but at times watching the magic blue smoke is satisfying when the old board is going to be replaced.

[@EcoHamletsUK]

I've got two Geeetech boards that were blown up by a fault in the power supply (a little ball of solder found it's way to the wrong place inside it!). There are some lovely burn marks on the boards, and I suspect lots of trashed components, so they're beyond my abilities to attempt repair. If I hadn't noticed in time, I could have had some lovely big burn marks on my house too!

[@rpavlik1]

The downside of the modular stepper drivers is they do less good of a job dissapating heat: drivers might not need a heat sink when integrated into a board but do so if it's modular, or might need a fan if modular.

[@clynesnowtail1257]

I was gonna add I have a ceramic magic screwdriver I use for tuning front-ends on radio equipment. Its annoying to use metal as there it changes the circuit significantly to have a big metal rod on the inductor or capacitor. So it becomes tweek, lift off and listen, try to get the screwdriver back on and tweek again, lift.... takes forever.

[@assassinlexx1993]

@@clynesnowtail1257 That sound like really cool tool. A Royal Doulton screwdriver😆

[@swp466]

Trimmer screwdrivers with ceramic tips are the bee's knees. I like the "Welcom" message on the display :)

[@balls2bone]

I keep about 5 ceramic screwdrivers in various convenient locations!

[@Milkex]

3d printers and cnc machines are my life. Love your videos and so happy to be able to watch something so close to my heart get diagnosed!

[@twocvbloke]

When playing about with a cheap booster circuit thing bought off ebay in a pack of five, I trimmed the pot too far one way as I'd gotten "lost" with where the voltage was going, and ended up burning out a resistor, which was an impressive sight as it emitted a bright white light, so I'd invented the light-emitting SMD resistor, but it only glowed for about half a second sadly... :P

[@JamesChurchill3]

Every chip is an LED, once.

[@infernaldaedra]

Buck converter

[@TestSpaceMonkey]

It gets better: if you do a good enough job, it's also a speaker! Once I hooked up a 150W buck converter backwards. Not only the power transistor light up, but the force of cracking the ceramic package let out a loud "pop" along with a bit of smoke. Single-use multi-sensory reverse polarity indicator!

[@twocvbloke]

@@infernaldaedra boost converter, cos it takes lower voltages and boosts to a higher voltage, buck does the opposite...

[@Alacritous]

What do you think the old photography flashbulbs were? Resistors that were expected to catastrophically fail after a single use.

[@MrglMrgl]

the fact the a8 failed without it ending up engulfed in flames is impressive in its own right

[@caraffa3621]

i put it into dremel cnc project Instead of arduino

[@mr_sheen_airsoft]

I reflashed mine with Marlin, worked perfect for a while until it started smelling like burning plastic, the green hotend heater connector just melted, de soldered it and replaced with XT60 worked well, but needed more outputs and better stepper drivers so now my Anet is controlled by an Arduino Due with RADDS shield. Cheap printers are not so cheap after all.

[@MrglMrgl]

@@mr_sheen_airsoft cheap printers are great for people who want them as a hobby (not so much for use as a tool), but the connectors on the bed and the board are woefully inadequate(the bed one on mine started going black). it ended up with an Arduino mega and a RAMPS before I salvaged the whole thing for parts for another printer :P

[@mr_sheen_airsoft]

@@MrglMrgl , definitely agree, and yes the bed heater connector burned first, I just soldered the wires directly, connectors are definitely the weakest link.

[@SwervingLemon]

@@MrglMrgl The connector body itself is rated for an appropriate amount of current. Shame those bastards decided to save money by only using half the contacts. I won't even get into the nonexistent strain relief or the fact that the first A8's had thermal runaway protection disabled but the whole thing adds up to a shameless and dangerous money grab. Fuck Anet.

[@zonedigitalandreiu21]

Cool to see the same board I had failing on my A8. In my case the printer had suddenly died during a print. After desoldering all the IC's, I've found out that a ceramic capacitor near one of the motor drivers have shorted out and so on took out the 5V rail. Removing an replacing it with a 10uF cap fixed the damn thing. Quality-wise components are the cheapest one possible, however the pcb handled well the desoldering and resoldering of all the driver ics.

[@AmusementLabs]

That's the Z axis stepper driver. Which is surprising cause usually the extruder driver is the first to go since it's always engaged and has the highest Vref. Maybe they were constantly turning the lead screw of forcing the bed down. That'll break those over time.

[@jakegarrett8109]

If you short it against something like Clive said, it will instantly fry them and they'll heat up like that. I've done it to the same drivers (mine were thankfully replaceable kind on a ramps board), and our intern did that recently with newer TMC 32 bit silent stepper drivers, took him a whopping 5 seconds or less to fry one... I had to adjust the rest because we didn't have spares, but its easy to do if you aren't careful as basically anything metal around it will short it out in an instant.

[@Jim-si7wz]

Thank you Clive for pointing out once again you can have the fanciest and most expensive tools in the world and they are all useless without the knowledge.

[@craigkoehn9253]

I have an A8 and had a similar experience. Though in my case, the hotbed MOSFET was toasted. It has since been replaced by an SKR mini e3 and now sits on my shelf of failed boards.

[@DocFr4nk]

That's a very common issue with the A8, the MOSFET can't properly handle the current required by the hotbed. Another common issue is burning hotbed connectors. If not done already you should consider soldering the wires straight to the hotbed instead of using a connector if you still use the original hotbed I suppose

[@Cracked1ce]

yeah same thing happened to mine. I bought an R3D printer to replace it. its a CR10 clone that i got for 200USD.

[@welshdave5263]

I found info that shows the traces/ spokes on the ground connections are a week point, I'll be adding extra conductor to these pathways on my 3 A8 boards.

[@BitwiseMobile]

Same here - the hotbed MOSFET smoked after about 10 prints. I ended up replacing the controller with a genuine RAMPs controller with a genuine Arduino 2560. I have replaced the extruder, the hotplate, the power supply, and all of the stepper motors. I also replaced the bearings on the cross bars. I think the only thing I have that is still original is the wiring and the worm gears on the side :).

[@SwervingLemon]

Amazingly, my two first-gen A8's are still alive and running well. Reflashed with Marlin. Directly soldered the heatbeds. Moved the current for the beds and hotends off the boards with SSR's. Added a proper ground for the display so it doesn't get corrupted by peeling tape in the same room. Threw away the "heatbreak" fan on one. Switched the other to an E3D V6/Titan head on a carriage I designed. Other than that, though, bone stock! /s

[@ElmerFuddGun]

*STOP!* And watch each solder pad individually solidify at 4:23. That looked pretty cool as they _"randomly"_ solidified and the light reflection changed. :-)

[@hullinstruments]

I almost instinctively blew on the screen… to cool it off. 🤔😂 I’ve often found myself blowing on the screen when watching woodworking videos with shavings, Chips, or dust from a hand planes or other woodworking tools… I always feel like an idiot because I just instinctively blow on it without thinking.

[@hullinstruments]

Come to think of it… My ex was the same way. Always blowing on anything she could get her hands on…..😬😁🤘 I’m sorry for the crude joke I couldn’t help myself

[@hullinstruments]

Mr. Clive I know you are super busy. But would love for you to do some more general troubleshooting videos. Similar to the few that died gone wild is done on ATX power supplies. There is a huge lack of general troubleshooting videos on KZbin. You are the greatest teacher and explain things so well! You are greatly appreciated by your subscribers!

[@zachbrown7837]

Some of the older style boards put the motor drivers on a separate pcb that fit into a socket on the main board. That way if you fried one, you could just yoink it out and put a new one in. Looks like they're optimizing for cost over repairability.

[@lordjaashin]

they're following the footsteps of Apple and Tesla lol

[@elvinhaak]

This board is a lot older design then most of the RAMPS boards ;-) They have been around already very long with the same design and have changed pretty recenty to the next generation which still has no changeable drivers. I have some around so I can just pull parts off them and solder on other boards when I make a fault an blow it up partly. By the way, older ones were just 12V (A8), newer boards can handle also 24V as input but also still work on the 12V of the original A8. They are build in for example the A9 and A8plus.

[@muflah]

@@lordjaashin Doubt that. I would say that when they started, they lacked the expertise to design and produce the circuit so they used premade breakouts from China or somewhere.

[@pen25]

lots of these old boards also soldered directly to the board because it was easier and cheaper. my expensive printrbot f5 has non-replaceable stepper drivers and i bought it in 2016

[@William_Hada]

I love the technique of using a thermal imaging camera to diagnose circuits. Thanks for sharing!

[@florence9231]

A cheaper method I used to use before thermal cameras were so common was to freeze the board with an upside down air duster then see where the frost disappears first.

[@tncorgi92]

@@florence9231 there's always the finger test... similar to how Clive checks capacitors for discharge. ☺

[@elvinhaak]

Too bad those camera's are more expensive than 3D printers of this sorts....

[@Mister-Gee-9999]

The FLIR camera since about 2001 has been one of my primary fault detection tools helping me zero-in without testing each component with a meter or scope. I just wish they were a bit cheaper and there was a "nice" phone with one built in.

[@multiplyx100]

I'm wondering if it's possible to make one out of an old phone by removing the IR filter from the camera? I was thinking this was what Clive had used, but I guess not?

[@multiplyx100]

Actually, I think Clive's using the CAT phone which has built in FLIR, but it is possible to make your own thermal imager out of an old phone. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmLCoox_oa6lns0

[@Mister-Gee-9999]

@@multiplyx100 I use a flir-one plugged into a Samsung galaxy A3 and made a rudimentary wrap around case. I've tried FLIR phones like the CAT/Ulephone/Blackview and found them disappointing compared to a Flagship and a plug in camera.

[@snakezdewiggle6084]

Nice recovery Clive. A tiny dot of glue and an old shirt button, on those micro trim pot's. The bigger the diameter, the finer the control.

[@simonscott1121]

You brought back memories of when I was a kid and my dad made a set of plastic screwdrivers (for pots etc) out of knitting needles.

[@stevenspmd]

Thermal cameras are awesome; I'm looking at buying a Uni-t 690B. Not cheap but very useful.

[@FauxFauxes]

@@ts757arse Those things are shockingly inaccurate; the laser is a rough indication of where it's reading, not actually anything to do with the temperature measurement.

[@BitwiseMobile]

@@FauxFauxes they give more of an average temperature reading for sure. It will tell you that *something* is hot, just not what :)

[@jeffm2787]

I have some hard ceramic screwdrivers for that task. The drivers on my 3D printer have software adjustment for the drive current which is nice. Duet 2 WiFi.

[@Triptweeze]

Saw the thumbnail and insta said, I bet I know what board that is lol! As someone who owned an A8 , and went through three boards, I can tell you that the boards had a tendency to just die for no reason. Even when everything was working correctly, chips would randomly decide that they no longer wanted to be part of this world. The company was very nice and would replace the boards with no problem as long as you could document the issue that you were having.

[@SwervingLemon]

It wasn't "no reason", though. It was repeated iterations of a poor design compounded by those bastards using every cost-cutting measure they could think of. The traces for the hotends and the heatbeds we're both completely inadequate for the current they were expected to run, and that's just the tip of the iceberg for their problems. I was given several A8 printers. It was kind of fun to watch the board evolve as they would release yet another "fix" while ignoring the real problems. Last board I got: They literally heaped solder on the bed power traces to try to increase their functional cross-section, but still didn't use all the pins on the JST connector for the bed. I haven't the vocabulary to properly describe the incompetence at Anet, but "assclowns" comes close.

[@Triptweeze]

@@SwervingLemon *shrugs* For a bunch of "assclowns" they ended up getting a LOT of people into 3D printing though. The machine was a tinkerer's delight. Your mileage may vary, but the reason that I had to get replacement boards were due to QC issues. The components that were used were adequate... They were just faulty lol. It could have been done MUCH better, but still... For the price of that machine and the fact that it was a direct drive it was good... You just couldn't trust everything to work out of the box. It absolutely NEEDED safety upgrades.

[@OldCurmudgeon3DP]

I didn't want to wade thru 200 comments so I'll repeat if it's been said already... Those trim pots are for setting the vref (power level) for driving the stepper motors. It's a good thing to have a metal tool as you can measure the voltage to ground while adjusting it. The nominal value escapes me since modern drivers can be set via firmware commands. Still, proper handling of any metal object/probe is critical to maintaining the correct operational capabilities of an electronic device.

[@jeremydavidevans]

Thank you! Seeing this kind of troubleshooting process is so helpful and broadly applicable.

[@tituscassiusseverus6303]

Repaired on or two of these, I tend to use an external stepper stick and make or buy an extension board, even if that chip has knocked out a couple of data lines you can usually repurpose another, but that means diving into firmware, but it's well documented.

[@brucewilliams6292]

Hi Clive, I so love your videos on repair. What would be ever-so-helpful would be a series on how to diagnose power supplies. I feel like half my life is spent finding and replacing them. Thank you for all your videos.

[@jesuschal3802]

On the other hand, using a metal screwdriver with a DMM connected to it aids to accurately tune the target value on the fly.

[@piconano]

I've designed a number of stepper motor designs with this chip back in 2003. Since it uses synchronous rectification, it will burn out if the motor is suddenly disconnected while powered. The solution I found, was to put Schottky diodes on the out put. A total of 8 diodes. 4 to Gnd, and 4 to supply. Not only the chip ran cooler (due to not having to deal with recoils), it would also not blow up if the motor connection was interrupted. This is what happened to this unit imo. Either that, or it displays the exact symptoms. I bought an Anet A6 last year, and throw away this exact board right away, and installed my trusty Arduino mega running Marlin + RAMPS 1.4 from my de-gutted Prusa 3 clone.

[@Icefumy]

Marlin 2.0 + octoprint is my way. easy as, well.. pi.

[@zrobotics]

One other easy thing to do, if you don't have one of the non-conductive screwdrivers, is to use a wooden dowel. Bamboo skewers work pretty well for this, but any dowel that is ~1/8" or ~3mm will work fine. Just use a knife to cut a rough screwdriver shape into the end, it doesn't take a lot of force to turn those trimmers so a makeshift screwdriver works just fine.

[@yodaco]

Also those pots have a habit of the dial coming clean off if you turn it too many times especially while the driver is hot. Always actively cool anet A8 boards.

[@cgapeart]

Those A4988 drivers are easy to burn out, even without shorting them. Many 3d printer control boards mount them on replaceable carrier boards.

[@JosepsGSX]

I have that particular board and display in a drawer, as I moved my Frankenstein Anet to a fancy TFT display and 32bit board (plus plenty other stuff as I upgraded to 24v). Funny thing, the new board only has 1 Z-axis stepper driver and connector, so I´m actually using a T adapter to power my 2 Z motors. Working like a charm for a couple of years now. If you´re going to use it for a homemade printer there are nice compact designs with just one z stepper. You can also just experiment, as you can flash that microcontroller and screen to do virtually anything, as they are fully supported and documented in Arduino. I wouldn´t bother replacing that driver if you don´t need the extra channel. As always, a joy to watch. :)

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

You can get ceramic screwdrivers for very little on ebay, and they are much more durable than plastic trimming tools, and the phillips ones fit those teeny tiny trimmers pretty nicely.

[@davros1971]

back in the day(late 1970's) when i was an apprentice for a TV company in Australia you had to adjust the convergence the pal decoder etc and we all had a set of nylon adjustment tools it even had a small flat blade with a metal tip that was only about 3 mm wide and 5 or 6 mm long with all but the last 2 mm embedded in a nylon shaft nice tools lasted for years

[@JunctionRunner]

I had essentially the same issue on the same board, moving the motors too quickly manually sends current back into the driver and cooks them. I can't speak for everyone, but in my case replacing the stepper driver resulted in full functionality. Be careful when moving your printer because that bed has a lot of mass and can easily move fast enough to kill it if you don't keep it secure while moving the printer. In my case it actually killed the processor on board as well. Since then I've upgraded to a different board entirely (SKR 1.3), but with fast shipping from places like digikey, and the cost of the part, this is a good way to get your machine up and running much faster than waiting for a new board. If you aren't on a time crunch or tight budget I'd suggest upgrading to a different board for safety reasons, but the skr also has modular steppers so repairs or upgrades are a lot easier. Just be warned it means a lot of firmware tweaking which can be a pain. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZ3EnqysmceNp5o

[@victortitov1740]

i remember having fun powering up the printer by moving one of the axes rather fast.

[@alexbrown4023]

If that board is ever going to be used again it’s worth giving the screw terminals some attention. The solder joins in mine where so bad after years of rattling I could just pull them straight off the board.

[@michaelturner4457]

I like the way it states "Printer ready", and it's not even connected to the printer. So much for a self test?

[@carlubambi5541]

Great diagnostic work with the thermal imaging phone, amazing how fast you can troubleshoot with it. I used to program a Huntron Tracker probe in the mid 90sto do the diagnostics on boards. Now I use thermal imaging that just plugs in to any phone and its come in hand so much trouble shooting controls and relays and motors, great work!

[@tinplategeek1058]

Oh a faulty Anet printer controller board. I guess there is one Bjorn every minute.

[@electr0maker436]

What a coincidence, I have the exact same printer! The mainboard on mine also failed but I didn't replace it with another original board. One of the stepper drivers stopped working but the rest of the board was still fine.

[@RobertoColi]

Very interesting video, since I had several 3D printers. I prefer much more "repair" videos than just dismounting devices. One risky things repairing those boards is that you must have always the motors connected or in case of attempt to activation of the drivers, by the CPU, the internal current driven without proper motor return, can immediately blown up the chip.

[@Sebazzz1991]

Yes, though that depends on the type of stepper motor driver. TMC drivers are not so sensitive to not having the motor connected, as long as you don't disconnect it while the motor is powered.

[@RandoWisLuL]

Never once had that problem on the Anet 1.0 and 1.2 boards, SKR E3 2.0s, BTT Octopus, or the MKS Robin.

[@williamhuang8309]

I thought this was only a problem if you disconnected them while the motors were running?

[@beware_the_moose]

I actually had no idea about that!

[@tomsixsix]

Running the driver without the motor connected is not harmful. If you pull the connector out while it is running possibly the back EMF from the interrupted current could kill the driver.

[@NicksStuff]

I presume there is a "heat transferring pad" on the other side of the driver: could you apply heat there to desolder it?

[@tin2001]

I quite like that the stepper drivers on my Anycubic printers are modular... Which, BTW, is a cheap source for those chips. The modules are just $3.30AU from China. Some disassembly required.

[@hullinstruments]

I always try a little drop of alcohol or acetone when removing those glued heat sinks. The adhesive is usually similar to the battery glue strips Apple uses on the iPhone battery.

[@peterzeboroff7448]

Excellent video, I too am a bit surprised that the controller did not have some sort of hardware check before powering up.

[@jarrkozero9570]

The problem with tht Anet A8 is they are running some of the chips pretty close to their maximum. I've had mine for about 5 years still running on the original main bored. I was worried about the reports of failures so I swapped in a power supply I actually trust not to go up in flames, a mosfet board for the heat bed, and some crimped on wire end. Recently upgraded to marlin firmware and added auto bed leveling. Now I'm at the end of what the board can do.

[@mgancarzjr]

Reminds me of an FPGA board I shorted. "Hmmm I wonder if I can find the damaged component? Ah, finger is burning. I found it."

[@DanPowersGoSubaruGoGoGo]

Mmm, it's even running the flammable firmware! I have the Marlin firmware loaded on mine. It is supposed to stop the thermal runaway issues of the stock firmware.

[@SwervingLemon]

Have tested, can confirm. Marlin does indeed fix the thermal runaway issue. What pisses me off is that Anet didn't just omit thermal runaway from their firmware. They DISABLED it AFTER including it. Assclowns!

[@refusesack4897]

Wow, looks exactly like the CTC i3. All these Prusa i3 clones seem to share a massive number of components. My own printer with that exact board randomly decided it's Z axis didn't want to work, luckily could fix it by adjusting the litte potentiometer. Wonder what went wrong though.

[@elvinhaak]

Look at the board on that CTC. It has the Anet board so yes, the same. I have some CTC i3 's here tooo besides original Anet's.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Maybe just a bad potentiometer contact.

[@bradhoward9701]

i think they flex a bit as they warm up. may be enough to disturb the pot and cause a bad connection and thus zero current through the drivers. dont quote me though. over the last few years i have replaced almost every part bit by bit, so its been a while. theseus' 3d printer!

[@refusesack4897]

@@bradhoward9701 interestingly it's stopped again since writing the comment. At this point a new a non cheap board might be an option, alternatively a better printer altogether like an ender 3.

[@tonysouthern3017]

Fascinating watching the freshly desoldered chip pads “wink” as the solder cools down again

[@DeputatKaktus]

Oh, the dreaded Anet A8...this was also my first printer. It worked reasonably well but the build quality was abysmal & the print quality was not something to write home about. Creaky, wobbly acrylic frame, and the stepper drivers made the thing LOUD. But for 130 Euros shipped I am not complaining. Eventually I decided to do some upgrades which then escalated into a full rebuild. New aluminimum frame, control board, stepper drivers, linear bearings - the full works. The only Anet components remaining are the motors and the PSU. The learning curve was...steep. Now the parts fan is the loudest component on the printer. (And yes, I did put Marlin on the original printer first thing and made sure thermal runaway protection is enabled).

[@SwervingLemon]

Weirdly, all of my A8's got really quiet after I flashed Marlin. It's almost as though those assclowns at Anet didn't have the firmware configured properly for the stepper drivers... Amongst a host of other problems... My experience with them, though, is that the print quality is every bit as good as my Prusa... after fixing all the safety issues. :/

[@DeputatKaktus]

@@SwervingLemon Seems like it. After tinkering with Marlin a bit, I was able to shave a few dB off the A8’s noise level and get it from “unbearable” down to “annoying”. But switching to a 32bit board and TMC drivers made a world of difference.

[@TheDementation]

I have to get myself a thermal camera. And a Big Clive :-)

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

Clive finally features something I see around me other than the GoodKnight mosquito repellant. I have an A8 with that exact same version board, running fine for 4 years now in our extreme tropical climate. Everything is a bit corroded and dull compared to this one though.

[@channelsixtysix066]

Good one, Clive. Look forward to seeing it operational.

[@rowlandstraylight]

Whilst plastic tip or ceramic screwdrivers are useful for circuit board potentiometers, those on stepper drivers carry a voltage you need to measure whilst you adjust and there's usually not another convenient place to get the voltage off the board.

[@superslammer]

My A8 is in the closet. I bought a Flashforge Adventurer 3 and never looked back. After the Anet printer's bed connector started to burn, I figured it was time to just put it aside until I had more time to upgrade the wiring and connectors. But that never came to be. You can probably find those boards on Ebay pretty cheap. :)

[@Fratm]

The plastic screwdriver for the trimmer pots, my brother always called them a diddle stick :)

[@stridermt2k]

F this. I have enough problems with the 2D with ones. You rock man! One can also use some shrink on your screwdriver to protect it.

[@BRUXXUS]

I'd use my 3D printer to print on paper if I could. 2D printers are so much more annoying and expensive than 3D printers. 😂

[@mgancarzjr]

@@BRUXXUS took me 3-7i weeks to troubleshoot my 4D printer. Worth it though.

[@Blooest]

@@BRUXXUS Theoretically, you could. The kindling point of paper is about 230c, so I don't think it would immediately catch fire if you're using PLA temperatures...

[@BRUXXUS]

@@Blooest It's pretty easy to make a pen holder to allow a 3d printer to work as a plotter. Something I've wanted to try for a while.

[@rondlh20]

Good job, "Welcom to Anet", brilliant. I would have removed the pot first... these drivers don't break easily

[@jakegarrett8109]

I've had a few of those drivers break, I don't think they were just the trim pot as its the chip that seems to heat up, but are you saying the pot dies and then somehow that's causing a short in the driver chip? I've had this happen to those exact type and also newer TMC 32 bit silent stepper drivers where the screwdriver slipped and shorted the trim pot to basically anything metal (not all were my fault, some I witnessed like the last example).

[@rondlh20]

​@@jakegarrett8109 The pot is easy to diagnose and replace, while replacing the drive is difficult, especially if you don't have any spare parts, so I would try the pot first. It's kind of suspicious that only 1 driver is heating up, which would point to the driver having a problem.

[@neilsiebenthal9254]

@@rondlh20 when in use all the driver heat up. But yeah it heating up not in use would be a good sign that it's bad. Those a4988 drivers are the cheapest and worst ones.

[@MostlyInteresting]

You can use these for many things. Basically a Arduino with stepper drivers, high current PWM for the bed and hot end. 2 temp sensor inputs. and so on. They can be flashed with the Arduino IDE through the USB. But you might have to do a boot loader flash first because some of the Anet boards didn't come with the BL.

[@harshbarj]

That board REALLY needs a firmware upgrade. It has the default firmware. I have an A8 and with a few physical upgrades and the firmware upgraded it's a very safe and reliable printer. I have had mine now for about 4 years. Never been a problem.

[@memylastname9972]

Removing SMD's, using lots of flux, adding leaded solder and cleaning up the pads… for a minute I thought I was on Louis Rossmann's channel still. Lol.

[@jasonkuehl639]

I wonder if it would work to replace the A4988 with a TMC2209... both my machines came stock with the A4988, and the steppers could be heard through the entire house. TMC2209's made them so quiet, all you hear is the cooling fans when in the same room as the printers. Oddly, you can pick up aftermarket main boards cheaper than the individual chips sometimes. All I saw was "dead 3D printer controller" and I was hooked! If postage wouldn't be outrageous, I could send out a Melzi board with a really curious defect. It reformats the SD card after every print, due to someone wiring power in to the heated bed power out contacts, and popped the thermistors like tiny firecrackers. 😆

[@WacKEDmaN]

they also have ceramic trimmer tools.. ..good for tuning old tv and radio trimmer pots/caps.. plastic ones ya can get some inductance... so you dont need a graybeard with his tounge at the right angle to get it just right before the tool is removed!

[@admiralrevan9838]

thats an impressive bit of troubleshooting!

[@andymouse]

Another problem with those tiny pots is you can turn them to either end a bit to hard and they can short or give crazy resistances, I'm sure you will check this before replacing the chip, how hot was your heat gun ? as the chip was well gone and the flux still boiled off !.....cheers.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Heat gun was at around 330C.

[@MJMC56]

The plastic adjuster tool was known in my distant past as a 'twot piddler'. Spooner has a lot to answer for.

[@ATMAtim]

That was a pretty cool video, Clive. You made it look so easy.

[@Nathan_Whaley-g8m]

Just came from a louis rossmann video. Right to repair is a wonderful thing.

[@Rok_Satanas]

You can get an accesory breakout board to stepstick adapter and pluck an extra driver to the 2nd accessory port and use it that way and simply set the pins on Marling to the accessory pins. (The port above where the display is connected

[@DavidSGrop]

As always I have no idea what you're talking about but I enjoyed hearing you say it.

[@testbenchdude]

I've got an ANET A6 that has a similar board. I believe I fried it by back-driving either the X or Y (or both) steppers while it was powered off. Ended up replacing it with a completely different board from BIQU. Those ANET boards from several years ago are not great.

[@evensgrey]

The frequency with which the stepper motor drivers is one of the two main reasons that some 3D printer control boards have them on daughter boards. The other is you need to change the drivers to use much more (or less) powerful steppers, such as for building a 3D printer that can print large things, like chairs. Not chairs for doll houses, chairs for your house. Or, for that matter, the more experimental printers for doing whole buildings. So far there's no provision for installing plumbing and wiring by machine (getting the structure to reliably print properly is the current objective of most projects) but even if it just eliminated most of the labor from putting up concrete walls, it would be a substantial savings in labor.

[@kennyfication88]

Ah. The good old Anet A8 mainboard. When I first started with 3D Printing back in 2014/15, I bought my first printer - It was an Anet A8. I modified it quite a bit until the board randomly died. It looks like this happened quite often, but the prblem this one had, I never encountered. I also got a second A8 for free from a friend who moved and didn't have the space for a 3D Printer anymore. Guess what - This mainboard also died. I got a few replacement boards over the years which I accumulated. They're literally piling up here.

[@tncorgi92]

I'm holding out for the day when I can use one 3-D printer to make replacement components for my other 3-D printer. I understand the von Neumann Company is working on this.

[@phils4634]

You'll also be looking at autonomous resupply of filament. Be careful - if you are successful we may end up with a macroscale version of the "Grey Goo" nightmare scenario! :-D

[@dimitar4y]

@@phils4634 oh, no, it's "CREAM"

[@jg374]

At one point I assembled a 3d printer from a kit and every so often some part will go brittle, break or melt and I have to patch it up well enough to print a replacement part. the fiddliest temporary fix was probably to bolt the extruder mount back together using a bit of roofing iron so that I could print out a new (much improved design) one.

[@wyattsitt8374]

I almost bought an anet a8 but decided on an ender 3 instead. I always need to know what goes on inside all my stuff so thanks for the video.

[@thetezz0001]

Yes clive hope all is well, nice to se a new upload

[@RustyorBroken]

I, for one, appreciate your undulations.

[@robames1293]

Old plastic knitting needles filed to a screw driver tip make good alignment tools too

[@weaselbox6746]

I'm playing your videos today all day while I fix my ceiling . 💜💜💜 I've missed a bunch..

[@rajatmond]

I have killed a4988s and drv8825s exactly in the way you speculated. And you need to measure the voltage at the potentiometer while adjusting it so people end up attaching a multimeter to the metallic screwdriver. That's why when it slips it's a disaster.

[@Roy_Tellason]

Is there a name for that middle green connector on the left side of the board? I'm running into those a bit more often these days...

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

Normally these drivers fail when someone shorts pins when turning the potentiometer. This is an extremely common issue. This also happens on boards with removable drivers. People use a metal screwdriver to turn the potentiometer.. The best way to do it is to use a ceramic screwdriver. But nowadays there are many drivers such as the TMC2208 and TMC2209 that you can configure through UART. Very useful, no more physical tuning. Another way how people short pins is because they use a multimeter to measure the vRef, and accidentally short pins with the probes when they slip off of the vRef pins.

[@baronbarbaron]

I have Anet :) the same board... I had no issues with it, but I read about known issue with the heating mosfet.. I Added a quite powerfull one and also for the extruder heater... For the selftest depends of the firmware version ( my is with Merlin now ) in the begining of the job, the printer do "HOME" positions. It doesn't move before that, unles you use the manual movements, for calibration and etc...

[@muflah]

One thing you got wrong is about the data lines. I have played a lot with these stepper drivers. There are no data lines, all control pins are like switches, even the step pin takes a square wave to operate. Speed of the motor is a function of the input frequency.

[@beware_the_moose]

Isn't the anet a8 a bit incendiary at the best of times?

[@doman-on]

This driver gets hot when this small capacitor near it is faulty (shorted or open) too. Worth checking. Maybe it will work after capacitor replace. That was it in my case anyway.

[@richardsmith4992]

Good show - what's the thermal camera app/product you use?

[@bigclivedotcom]

My phone has a Flir thermal camera in it with the matching app.

[@stevetobias4890]

Excellent job Clive!

[@legalsolutions07]

I just watched your Simple Guide to Electronic Components and I enjoyed the clear explanations. Question: Suppose you have 220v three phase current that is powering a 220v three phase 3/4hp motor that drives a pulley but is directly connected to some circuit boards that run out to a power cord. Can you tell me if the values of the electrical components on such a circuit board are dictated by the 220v three phase current that is powering the motor? I'm trying to determine if I can use the same circuit boards for the same application with the same electrical components but power them with 110v single phase current and replace the motor with a 110v single phase 3/4hp motor?

[@bigclivedotcom]

The supply voltage will dictate a lot of the circuitry. One modern option for motor control is VFDs Variable Frequency Drives. They can take in single phase and convert it to three phases at adjustable frequency.

[@legalsolutions07]

@@bigclivedotcom Thanks for the info. I just tried one of my VFD's and it didn't work on this motor. I think it's because the motor is an AC servo. The motor drives a pulley that's connected to the pulley on my industrial sewing machine. I think the servo conflicts with the variable speed control on the VFD. I thought I could find a step down transformer but I can't find a mfg that builds a phase converter/step down transformer. The last resort is to try a 110v servo motor and plug it in the three prong plug connected to the main board. My thinking is that because the components are virtually the same on both wiring diagrams the 110v motor may power the boards 🤞🏽.

[@the.real.stunt.man_manslau4623]

Going this deep is why I watch your chanel !

[@berencam]

Could I send you a 3d printer board that displays the wrong temp even when the thermistor is unplugged I suspect a bad pull up resistor but I can't figure it out.

[@williamhuang8309]

The thermistor is unplugged?

[@berencam]

@@williamhuang8309 when unplugged it will still read 20-30c. Plugged in it will read 50-60 at room temp

[@bigclivedotcom]

Also suspect any filter capacitors in the sensing circuit. the little MLLC capacitors can fracture and behave like resistors.

[@williamhuang8309]

@@berencam Maybe the thermistor isn't calibrated properly? Because the thermistor outputs as analogue. Normally when you unplug the thermistor, it shows a weird negative number or something like that.

[@berencam]

@@williamhuang8309 on these mobos when you unplug it it goes to 0 when it's working properly.

[@johnjoyce]

nicely done. great example of solder braid cleanup, probably could have masked off with aluminum/aluminium foil the other components

[@welshdave5263]

FYI, an advert is using a screenshot of one of your videos, I would recognise that workbench anywhere! I'll try email you info.

[@welshdave5263]

Posted in your recent FB post with image and link.

[@memejeff]

nice video m8, those tiny pots are a huge trap for young players. The horror stories of adjusting are endless

[@TechGorilla1987]

Did you hear the report about the freighter that ran aground on Isle of Man? I just saw the video this morning. Apparently they dragged it off the beach and in to a port for inspection.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Yeah, it was in the news here.

[@rysacroft]

Sorry Clive et al. Yesterday I bought a second-hand Honda ride on mower. It was not cheap. I'd like to fit it with one of those 12V electrical hour timers so that I can plan oil changes etc. My problem is that I don't know what to search for. Any advice would be most welcome.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Elapsed hour counters?

[@rysacroft]

@@bigclivedotcom Thanks Clive. It seems that my brain cannot always engage gear :( I'm now looking at hundreds of these devices on eBay. I'll buy you a coffee. Keep well, if I'm ever in the IOM I would be very happy to treat you to a meal.

[@DumahBrazorf]

The 4988 was a crappy noisy driver. I had by manufacturer on my cheapy chappy chiny ctc i3 clone. At least in 2017 drivers were mounted on separated boards so in this case it would have been matter of seconds to diagnose and repair the fault. I wonder if the firmware on that board has thermal runaway detecting enabled...

[@Icefumy]

short answer; no. ANET didn't bother. Best is to flash like Marlin or replace the whole board.

[@idahocreator2491]

I had one of those 5 years ago. Great starter printer but mine failed at the power insert because the pin soldered in didn't make good contact and caused a short. it burned up all the power traces to the Atmel chip and burned a hole in it.

[@DrTune]

Cute how at 4:21 you can see the PCB pads rapidly change reflectivity as the solder goes back under the liquid temperature