Faulty Ender 3 3D Printer | Can I Fix It?

[@chuck2501]

urk, it won't extrude when cold and annoyingly doesn't seem to inform you!

[@BuyitFixit]

Hmmm, I just powered my old ender 3 up, and it doesn't even show an option to move the extruder, just x and y but it's from when they first came out. I would have thought it would have shown a message but you might well be right. I even flashed different firmware as I did suspect a firmware issue, so the driver I replaced may well have fixed the original issue. Thank you for commenting!👍

[@sallyjardine6873]

I was screaming all the way through the video to say heat the extruder.

[@BuyitFixit]

It's a bit of a rubbish firmware if it doesn't say something such as an error and just displays the measurements as if it's actually moving. The new board did say hot end too cold.. the original driver chip was definitely faulty. I thought it did seem odd which is why I thought software issue possibly and tried flashing different firmware. I'm sure my old ender 3 just extruded hot or not, as you could load new filament that way and the extruder motor just used to judder a bit if it couldn't push the filament.

[@OH8EFI]

@@BuyitFixit That info message about needing to warm up was luckily added on Ender 3 V2 Neo that I just got a week ago. Otherwise I would have fallen to the same trap!

[@russelldicken9930]

Boy it’s hard to watch! The extruder feed motor won’t move as it has no filament for starters. Secondly there’s a safety cutout in the firmware to prevent forced feeding if the head is not up to temperature! Painful.

[@marklewus5468]

I recently discovered your channel and just wanted to thank you for your great content. I have been repairing everything from mechanical clocks to cameras and cell phones as a hobby for about 50 years. Like you, I am the guy my friends call when they have something that’s broken. I found much commonality between your approach and mine, but I’ve still learned some things from you. Thanks!

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍keep up the great repairs too 🙂

[@martinnash007]

Kudos to you. Nice to see someone actually using a scope to diagnose faults. Most fixing videos seem to rely on inspection, multimeter readings and guessing. Subscribed.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Martin, I've used it I a few other videos too like the Milwaukee fan video when looking at the PWM waveform, and a few other ones (I can't remember which though 😂😂).

[@markusallport1276]

The difference is night and day with the silent motor controls. I am not a huge fan of Creality printers because they are not so accurate. I wasn't aware of this until I bought a Sidewinder X1. So so quiet and very accurate, with print speeds far exceeding Creality. I am very please I sold my Creality, and went with different printers. I now have Elegoo Neo 3 Pro, the Sidewinder X1, Lotmaxx dual and a Sovol 6 Plus. I am selling off the Sovol due to noise as well. Benchys on the SWX1 take about 38-40 minutes, the Neo about the same.

[@BuyitFixit]

Interesting, thanks for sharing 👍

[@logothaironsides2942]

Good opportunity to upgrade. Mine is a generic printer and I found updating the firmware was like having a new printer. Hopefully your friend paid you back for the new board.

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, and yes he did. I did buy a faulty ender 5 to repair but it also had the 8 bit board so I just upgraded it, I did have a nightmare with firmware though and had to end up compiling my own.

[@mikeydk]

Did you heat the hotend up while testing the extruder? The firmware running on it is most likely set to prevent cold extrusion below a set temperature. If you set the hotend to 180c you should be on the safe side while testing extruder.

[@BuyitFixit]

No, the new board gives a message saying hot end not hot enough. The old board which is the same as the one in my ender 3 doesn't show this message and just lets you move the extruder regardless of the hot end. Partly why I tried the older version of firmware just in case.

[@BuyitFixit]

Appologies, another viewer commented that it doesn't show a message, so it is a possibility. I fired up my ender3 from when they first came out and it doesn't show the option to move the z or extruded only x and y, so you may well be correct👍

[@mikeydk]

@@BuyitFixit I only had one of the early versions of it, so I was unaware the later ones show a warning. I see how that can lead to some confusion.

[@Dutch_off_grid_homesteading]

Heya, nice repair the owner will be glad to have it back and working sound lessly too

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍

[@BrevTech]

Just found this channel and love it. It ticks all the boxes for me - electronics, with some reverse engineering and a sprinkle of infosec. Having spent time making similar videos, I know how much time and effort goes into making these, so really well done!

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍If you like reverse engineering check out the medical ultrasound scanner I looked at or the two video's on the solar inverter I looked at (one is the fix) then next is when the company wouldn't give the the engineer password, so I had to reverse engineer their software and write my own password tool 😂😂😂

[@dogastus]

I was surprised how you didn't resort to the scope earlier. When I troubleshoot, it's always the first piece of test gear i go for. I like to see what's happening (or not) on those pins!

[@BuyitFixit]

Good point!

[@bogdan_n]

I don't see anything wrong with his approach. He chose to start at the business end and then proceeded to check the chain one link at a time. Starting at the µC end and replacing it (had it been available and at a reasonable price) without checking the driver first, could have resulted in more than one faulty controller (although these devices have voltage clipping diodes, their typical source/sink capability is around 20mA - just enough for a LED/optocoupler/small MOSFET - so overloading the output easily results in failure)

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Bogdan👍

[@standishgeezer]

A fix AND an enhancement 👍

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍

[@inothome]

Good to see you double check the customer / friends work. We've all be burned at least once by the prior persons troubleshooting. Odd that Atmel took a dump, they are usually hard to kill and awesome that replacement board costs what it should! Almost makes trying to fix it worthless, but it's the challenge, not he money that makes it worth trying to fix. And having three other exact servo circuits to compare to makes it easy to troubleshot.

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, atmels are usually hard to kill, but I also had a similar one fail on a ECU type board that runs a diesel engine on a welder. The output pin just gave up and actually measured short to gnd of about 6 ohms.

[@simontay4851]

Why does a welder have a diesel engine.

[@inothome]

@@simontay4851 That was a different repair, but same brand MCU. And a lot of mobile welders are diesel, since no mains power available large enough.

[@BuyitFixit]

It was big industrial portable? Mig welder. The whole unit was just slightly smaller than the generator I just looked at. The engine controller that failed was called an 'ECG Controller ' part number TPN 652. I still have it here. The chip with the shorted output line is an Atmega32-16AU.

[@Enjoymentboy]

As someone with multiple 3D printers I commend you on your troubleshooting and ultimate solution. With these things it is often just better to replace with a newer and upgraded part instead of spending the time digging through the minutia of what could be wrong. The silent drivers alone will be something the son will very much enjoy. Thank you for getting this thing back in order for him.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks👍 I since bought myself a faulty ender 5 pro with BL touch. I was going to do a video on that but I just ended up replacing the board as it was the old 8 bit one. I did have a nightmare getting it to work and ended up having to compile the latest marlin FW for it and getting all the settings right. Works great now though 🙂

[@chrissavage5966]

I'm a latecomer to the Buy it Fix it party, so forgive the comment on an old vid...... I have an early Ender 3, printing something this very moment in fact. I had it about 2 weeks before investigating a new controller board for it ;) Over a few years I went through a variety of driver modules (the new boards had plug in stepper drivers) and many many iterations of Marlin. I stopped messing with it maybe a year ago, perhaps more, and just use it when I need to print something. Yes, it is basic, but it works well enough for me and my use is so infrequent I can;t see me bothering to replace it any time soon, despite the new machines from a variety of sources look to be so much better.

[@BuyitFixit]

No problem and welcome 👍after looking at this I bought an ender 5 pro, but it had the 8 bit controller board that was faulty like this one. I decided not to do a video on it as it was just pretty much replacing the board and I usually do a lot more in depth repairs than just board swapping. I did end up having to compile my own firmware for it as the BL touch it came, and the 32 bit board weren't supported very well on the ender site and was giving lots of probably. Eventually I got it all sorted and printed a large wendigo skull for my daughter to wear 🙂

[@chrissavage5966]

@@BuyitFixit Board swapping isn’t really fixing is it. I worked in an electronics based industry for quite (cough) a while and towards the end, there was very little kit that could be repaired - all board swapping or return to manufacturer. Bit of a contrast from when I started.

[@ope501]

I hope You checked the fan also. I have same printer, fan stopped working and main board was ruined. Bought one like You and wired a new fan so that it is always on when printer is on.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks, yes did the same. I recently bought an ender 5 pro with BL touch to do a video on, but it had the old 8 bit board so I just replaced it. Didn't bother doing a video on it. Turned out to be a bit of a nightmare as I ended up having to compile my own firmware to get it to work properly. Works great now and a bargain at £70 🙂👍

[@stephanbauch4074]

Good Video. For a quick test of the Z axis you could also just swap one of the X or Y axis connectors with the Z to check if it is the board or maybe the stepper motor..

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks, yes I tried that on the video, so did the owner before he sent me it.

[@stephanbauch4074]

😌Sorry, missed that in your Video@@BuyitFixit

[@fouroakfarm]

Wow those drivers really are silent (I have an old Ender myself but exiled it into the workshop where I dont have to listen to it)

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, I still have one with the old board, I remember adding rubber mounts to the steppers back then to reduce the ewwweewwwweee 😂😂😂

[@murderdoggg]

I respectfully question the use of HT silicone adhesive between the IC chip and heat sink. That stuff is rubbery and not very heat conductive.

[@BuyitFixit]

I would have thought the same, yet they had used silicone to adhere the original, unless it's some special thermal conducting silicone? But the chip is also soldered to the board via a large thermal pad on the bottom.

[@bigfilsing]

@@BuyitFixit Typically they use thermal cement to attached the heat sinks

[@buck_rrogers8067]

Hi. I was watching your video and I noticed something. At minute 11:12 you measured a resistance with the label "010", which means 1Ω. You measured 10KΩ. You may be able to check this again. By the way, I think your videos are great, especially the systematic search for the error. I love repairing things instead of throwing them away. Keep up the good work!

[@buck_rrogers8067]

Hello I have realized that it should be called "10C". That is of course 10KΩ You never stop learning.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks and thanks for commenting. I read your later comment too. Glad you like fixing things too 🙂👍

[@oldguy8177able]

man the things you achieve its unbelievable you are a god

[@BuyitFixit]

😂😂😂Thanks 👍I'm no God, just a regular guy who likes fixing stuff 🙂

[@chrisbartlett6022]

Great upgrade video, all about the last bit 🙂

[@treeturtle9378]

The little trim pots next to each stepper driver adjust current limit. Maybe the one for the extruder needed a tweak?

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks for that, yes I already knew as I built a CNC some years ago which used the stepper driver modules. I compared the voltages on the output of the pot to the other steppers and it was around the same as the Z axis which would probably require a bit more current than the X and Y. Thanks for the suggestion though, your feedback is appreciated 👍

[@AndrewAHayes]

I had that pin 27 board for a BL Touch and could not get the lid back on without it causing issues, I ended up having to print a new cover that raised above the pin 27. I ended up upgrading the board and adding a second leadscrew and motor

[@BuyitFixit]

Nice 👍

[@Sidman723]

I'm not too familiar with that particular 3D printer, but most bowden type printers have a function that allows you to load filament into it. You could try that and it may even feed the filament even if the extruder is not at a high temperature. The other possibility could be that the extruder filament driver chip is waiting for an enable signal from a sensor that detects if filament is loaded or not. I know that my printer has a sensor looking for the presence of filament. That one could be similar. Maybe the filament detector sensor is hard-wired into the driver and the driver will not get the enable signal until it sees the filament.

[@BuyitFixit]

These don't have a filament sensor as standard, I think it's possible to add one though.

[@Mik_S]

There was probably nothing wrong with the board. As others have said it won't move the extruder while the hotend is cold. This is a safety feature in Marlin firmware, but may not be enabled on all firmwares. You can enable cold extrusion by connecting the printer to a computer via USB and using a program like pronterface and send Gcodes via the terminal. Cold extrude is M302 You were right in your testing for a faulty driver. Swapping the motor plugs on the motherboard then using the screen to move each axis. If the problem moves to the other axis then you know its a faulty driver (as the plugs are swapped on the board then it eliminates other possibilities). If it does not then it could be the wiring, the motor itself (very unlikely as they are built like tanks), or something mechanical. I had a X driver fail on my Aquila board just after doing my very first test print. I was sent a hew board but at the time the chip (H32) it had did not support custom firmwares so I nicked a driver off it to fix the original board. First time I changed a QFN chip and it was fairly easy thanks to watching Louis Rossmann. Other things in case you didn't know. Temperature reading as -14 means there is no thermistor attached. If this was reading some other abnormal reading even when the thermistor is not attached then the main chip has been damaged, most likely because of a short from the hotend thermistor and heater which can happen when working on the hotend while its powered up. If the fan control is anything like the Aquila (a clone of the Ender3v2 so might have copied this design choice) the motherboard fan is connected to the part cooling fan. If you are not using any part cooling (like when printing PETG) then the MB fan will not be on either. This can then lead to overheating. I always suggest people to rewire their MB fans when they print PETG to the same place as the hotend fan. As it was an old 8bit board I think the upgrade was the best thing to do, just for the silent drivers alone. Might be a good idea to upgrade the screen next to the colour one, then try a custom firmware like Mriscoc ProUI.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks MIK, the original board was definitely faulty as it sent power to the extruder motor constantly, even at very first power on. None of the other motors did this. After replacing the chip it powered it was not locked anymore. The printer didn't display any errors or messages when trying to extrude, where the new board said hot end too cold. So I'm not sure if the old firmware supports this? But I would have expected a message or something and not it to just pretend to move the extruder 🤔 Thanks for your comments some things that I didn't know 👍

[@murderdoggg]

Pretty much everything wrapped up here in this post. I appreciate all of it.

[@tubeDude48]

I like how much quieter it is! 😀👍

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes 😂😂😂👍

[@wisher21uk]

Lovely boat and a great fix thanks 😊

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Cucumber Man 👍

[@colingill9317]

Great presentation. I have an airwork station but never really got on with it. What nozzle, temp and airflow do you use. Maybe you could do a tutorial on airwork stations. Would be really useful. Keep up the great work. Cheers.

[@BuyitFixit]

I'm really no expert, I usually use the medium size nozzle, 450c and a medium airflow.

[@colingill9317]

@@BuyitFixit Your skills are legendary, learning so much. What diameter is the nozzle you use. Cheers.

[@snipersquad100]

The microcontroller for the extruder pin will not go high unless the heater has come to temperature. The extruder can't push plastic through until it is hot, so the microcontroller checks if the heater is up to temp first.

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, the new board indicates this, however the old board does not and I didn't know at the time. After making the video and receiving comments about this I did test the old board again using some resistors to fake the temperature, and it still would not extrude.

[@bienhelado204]

I enjoyed watching the process

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍

[@stupossibleify]

Nice video. Do you know if the new mainboards from Creality now have thermal runaway protection? I have an old driver board which I upgraded to Marlin for that safety feature, but unsure if the same firmware upgrade path is possible or necessary with the latest official board.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks. I'm not an expert when it comes to 3d printers, but I'm pretty sure if it hasn't got that feature there is marlin build for that board.

[@saddle1940]

There I was crying at the screen your x and y were swapped and the extruder not feeding when the hot end is under temp, before you swapped the chip. KZbin videos never seem to heed these warnings! You'd think some warning would occur from the software telling you about the limitation. Nice fixit video though.

[@BuyitFixit]

The extruder stepper permanently was energised at power up until I changed the driver.The software showed no warning and happily said it was moving the extruder motor. The new board however displayed a message of hot end not hot enough, so perhaps this was not implemented in the older software?

[@mrjsv4935]

Very interesting machine and cool repair :)

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Mr JSV 👍

[@jimb032]

Good job! Honestly if it were me, the second I determined the board was faulty, it would have been in the bin. I would not waste .00001 cent of electricity with the scope. There are sooo many affordable upgrades for no money it makes no sense to faff around with an antique 8 bit board, unless you actually have the part in your stock to fix it and you are really really really desperate for something to fix. Its like trying to fix an arduino nano at this point.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks, yes I thought it might have made an interesting video but as you said it was better to just upgrade it. I bought an ender 5 pro for spares or repair with a faulty board hoping it was the 32bit, but it was the old 8 bit one so I just upgraded it straight away and didn't bother doing a video on it.

[@Vo0d0o2009]

i have this chip on a atemega 128 original efa black card used long time ago in dishnetwork bell expressvu receiver to have wide open tv channels but its a part of my mini museum with my tdk sa-90 cassette

[@BuyitFixit]

Nice, yes they don't seem that common now. It all ended good anyway and upgraded so it's all good 👍

[@NicksStuff]

Where did the idea of the gasket sealant to stick the heatsink come from? I thought this was mostly silicone (thus a good thermal insulator)

[@BuyitFixit]

It came from when I was looking at replacing a thermal heater in an ultrasound. The manufacturer said use thermal gasket to attach the heat plate to the tank. www.allendale-ultrasonics.co.uk/spare-parts/benchtop-system-spares/mannol-9914-gasket-maker-red-85g-tube-heating-pad-adhesive

[@NicksStuff]

​@@BuyitFixitThat's interesting. But I would imagine the manufacturer advised it because it resists both heat (300°C) and ultrasounds, not because it's great at thermal transfer. Brute force (more heating pads) will still get the job done, so they don't worry. But you can't brute-force heat dissipation in the same way. There is thermal epoxy and thermal double-sided tape for heatsinks. In a pinch, I might consider cyanoacrylate because it's very thin.

[@ranger175a2w]

Howdy from Texas USA. If I'm not mistaken your name is Michael? Do you own or use a 3D printer? From what I understand a person can purchase all the necessary part to build a 3D printer. You seem to be a very knowledgeable gentleman. What sort of 3D printer would you say is a quality setup? Also I really don't understand why your channel doesn't have more subscribers you're outstanding at what you do.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thank you kindly sir! Yes "Mick" .I've got one of these printers myself, and a few months back bought a broken Ender 5 pro to do another repair video on.The display just lit up blank, and it was the old 8 bit board so it just ended up in a board swap so I didn't make a video on it. I'm probably not the best person to ask on what's a quality 3D printer as I'm not too experienced in the field. The ender 5 pro I've got is a lot better than the ender 3, but apart from that I'm not too sure what other advice I can give you.

[@ranger175a2w]

@@BuyitFixitMick, thanks for the reply.

[@DigBipper188]

There's a safety in Marlin (the firmware Creality uses on their machines) which stops the motor being driven on the extruder if the print head's not heated. it's enabled by default to prevent the extruder trying to pull or push filament through a cold extruder causing it to strip the filament. Heat the hotend up to 160*c and it should let you spin over the extruder motor.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks, yes a few people mentioned. I did try soldering a 470ohm resistor across the NTC input for the hot end which showed a temperature of 230c on the display, fitted another new driver chip and it still didnt extrude...

[@kardnewt5296]

yea you must heat the hot end to 160-210 before the firmware will allow the extruder motor to move its a safety setting

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks for that, see pinned comment and replies.

[@cajuncoinhunter]

Dream Boat Annie's Boat ...... Love the band Heart , great job Mon Ami , Too bad about the chip..... Digi-Key had some MU not AU chips on sale for a buck apiece ....

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Cajun, yes I looked at digikey but time you add shipping to the UK we were getting close to the price of a replacement board.

[@bruceholtermann9646]

What do you use to protect other parts from heat when heat gunning the IC?

[@BuyitFixit]

Kapton tape, but you should be able to use aluminium foil if you haven't got any.

[@user-mv5bu2kk8b]

On my bucket list

[@johnhammond3482]

been waiting for this i did enjoy watching i now know how a 3d printer work's thank you for uploading this video

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks John 👍

[@zetorek83]

i bought the A20t by geetech even with that board the cooler was too noisy always preheat extruder dont expect to work that fast

[@bigfilsing]

DId the replacement board come with ABL firmware? ( for the BL touch sensor) Typically they don't. If you upgrade your own machine maybe try a BTT E3V3 They are made for this machine! ( hence the E3 in the name)

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks for commenting👍 I had to re-flash it with the BL touch firmware via the SD card. It just came with standard firmware (but I'm not sure what version). Thanks for the advice regarding my printer. I bought it about 2 or 3 years back, printed out a few things in the first few weeks and it's been gathering dust since.. 😂😂😂

[@Mymatevince]

Great to see the scope in action! I bought a faulty one of these from eBay a few months back so hopefully this video may come in handy 👍👍Cheers, Mick

[@BuyitFixit]

Cheers Vince, I'm just watching your Rolls Royce PT44, saw you found a 5p and some Earpods and an earring 😂😂😂 You're busy doing the front drivers seatbelt at the moment 🙂

[@Mymatevince]

@@BuyitFixit Haha, at long last the car is giving me something back!

[@xConundrumx]

Next time before ordering a chip, check the voltage on the turnpot next to the driver. That turnpot is for adjusting the amount of amps the driver sends to the motor. If it is bad or was adjusted too low the stepper motor will not work either. Just stick a metal philipshead screwdriver in the turnpot and measure between ground and the shaft of the philipshead screwdriver. It should be about (off the top of my head) 1.0 to 1.3 volts

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍yes the current adjust is supposed to be around 1.3v or so if I remember. The stepper motor seemed to be constantly powered at power up on the extruder output as the motor would not turn when the machine was switched on.

[@xConundrumx]

@@BuyitFixit that means the enable is active. This prevents gantries and such from descending on their own due to gravity. There is a menu option in marlin to turn the motors off so you can manually turn them for things like unloading filament. It's also possible the owner tried upgrading the machine firmware with a custom or incorrect version... Since marlin can be configured for a miriad of main boards an incorrect setting can cause issues too..

[@BuyitFixit]

@xConundrumx yes that's why I thought I'd try and refresh it with a couple of different versions, but he said it was working fine and then failed while printing and the extruder would no longer move.

[@Karthor.]

Haven't seen everything yet but i'm wondering if it's a protection thing that it won't extrude if hot end isn't hot enough but still it should display something i would think

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, the new board said hot end too cold, but nothing displayed on the old board.

[@kokodin5895]

it is always nice to see i am not the only person who get confused with fixing the hardware when the problem is obvious to a vetaran of the field probably many people said it before but older versions of marlin used on board didn't warn you about extruder being required to go aboe 180 degree c before motor would move building never version of marlin for the oryginal board would probably give you that message but oryginal firmware was cut down and simply might not have the warning i am seriously wondering if the oryginal board was perfectly fine after swaping that first motor did you cut out the part you heat up the hotend before testing extruder ?

[@BuyitFixit]

After all of the comments, I got the old board back on the bench and used a couple of resistors on the thermocouple input to fake temperatures on the hot end and bed. Still no output on the stepper. The original owner said it failed mid print and wouldn't extrude any more. I suppose it's one of those things when you try to fix a large variety of things and don't know the nuances of every device.

[@kokodin5895]

@@BuyitFixit yes somethng like that is a great troll , did you try to change pinout of the board in marlin configuration to get output on a different probably unused output or write an arduino sketch to test the output? i belive you could save it even if microcontroller is faulty and not board itself if you complile custom firmware for it downloading arduino "core" for bare microcontroller should help with troubleshooting anyway there is quite a lot of hardware on that board and it would be a shameto trrow itaway

[@BuyitFixit]

@kokodin5895 I've got two faulty boards now lol, one from the ender 5 too 🙂 they'll come in handy for parts if nothing else 👍

[@kennypelling7631]

I would have upgraded the board too a v2 board & installed marlin. Runs so much better then. Great repair though.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Kenny 👍

[@GapRecordingsNamibia]

A question.... Does using gasket sealer between the chip and heatsink not insulate the chip from the heatsink? Also, Marlin stops cold extrusion it does this so that the filament is not accidentally chewed. I have a direct drive setup though and not bowden, so, I am unsure of exactly how that works, I am sure though that there should be an allowed amount of loading to be done to get the filament to the hotend ? Nice workflow and fault diag.... Subbed.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Gap, it was only a very thin layer of gasket sealant, the stuff they had used also appeared to be a silicone based adhesive. The chip is also thermally bonded via being soldered to the large ground plane under it. A few have mentioned about the hot end temperature, but after these comments I thought I'd try faking the temperature to the mcu with a 470 ohm resistor. I fitted a new driver again, but unfortunately there was still no movement on the extruder even though the lcd displayed a reading of 240c from the faked NTC.

[@GapRecordingsNamibia]

@@BuyitFixit Nice, Like I say, I like your fault finding methodology....

[@devttyUSB0]

Not a fix, but goes to show that fixing stuff must not come at all cost. :) The printer's sure worth the 35 dollars & effort! Thanks for sharing!

[@BuyitFixit]

Cheers 👍although if a garage fixed your car by replacing the alternator, but they didn't actually replace the diodes and regulator in the original alternator would your car not be fixed? It got to the point on this one where it just seemed better to replace the 8bit board with a newer 32 bit and the quieter stepper drivers than keep going with it.

[@conernedcitizen2898]

To continue - With this set up the and being in Touch-screen mode the screen would have advised you the minimum extrusion temp had not been reached! You mus heat the Hot End before you are able to extrude!

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks for commenting. I am aware of this now (see pinned comment and replies), the old board / software did not display any such message and just showed on the display like it was moving the extruder. When I first looked at the printer, the extruder motor was energised as soon as you powered up the printer (even before the screen booted) and you could not move it by hand. It had been working fine, but then it just stopped extruding during a print (or that's what I was told). After a few people mentioned about the extruder temperature, so after receiving comments about it, I tested the board again after fitting another new driver chip and faking the hot end NTC with a 420ohm resistor (display showed hot end temp of 230c). Unfortunately it still didn't move the extruder motor after doing this too.

[@kokodin5895]

one thing about ender 3 i find annoying is that the cheap supliers of stepper motors i have localy have all the motors with different pinout like 2 coils are crossed on creality printers, plugs are the same just 2 wites ate crossed and cheap motors don't work either unless you swap the middle 2 wires when i read the describtion and saw firet few minutes of the video i instantly thought the extruder motor has been replaced along with the extruder to get a longer shaft motor there , since most new ender 3 extruder motors have pressed in gear and short shafts my 2nd thought was just to ditch the stepper driver and either reprogram marlin to use different stepper driver if it has one spare or just refire step stick in place of the broken driver and see what happens then

[@BuyitFixit]

Interesting about the cheap steppers. I didn't know about that. I recently bought a broken ender 5 pro with BL touch from ebay for £70. It had the same 8 bit board so I just replaced with then 32 bit. I then had loads of issues with firmware and ended up having to configure and compile my own as using the version from the creality site it was homing to the back right and thought that was 0,0 instead of thinking front left was 0,0 and printing in reverse (others had the same issue) It all works great now but it was a few hours work to get it all sorted.

[@kokodin5895]

@@BuyitFixit printing in reverse is simple fix, you just have to swap the a and b coild in the motor, esentially fliping the plug on the board controller upsde down i don't know if reversing the coils itself would also work but most people just reverse the plug and motor is in reverse , when i made my first ramps diy printer i was supper self concious about direction of the motor coils but in a scenario you connect one coil wrong motor just buzz in place and that is it so fliping one coil then make it moves again regardless which then fliping the plug 180degree changes the direction. it is harder to explain than just do it

[@BuyitFixit]

@@kokodin5895 Thanks for that. It was a known issue with ender5 pro bl touch firmware. It was quite and old version too. I just downloaded the latest version and after setting all the options and then a bit of tuning it works fine now. And 0,0 is at the front left of the bed like on the ender 3, and not at the back right like it was.

[@kokodin5895]

​@@BuyitFixit funny part is i am not an expert either that just a stuff i picked up along my way of swaping expensive 3d printer parts with ebay used junk and i am not an expert in a sense i was 3d printing only for 2 or 3 years , so take as you will i also think exclamation mark in the code of the printer could reverse direction based on a c++ codebase of arduino shield but i last compiled marlin a year ago so i might be a bit rusty, last time i used arduino i tryed to downsize dcc decoder code to fit on single chip microcontroller :P anyway, have a nice day and happy printing

[@vwgolffancarreviews7111]

Look like expensive bit of kit 😮 you might need a bigger blue matt

[@BuyitFixit]

Luckily it wasn't as expensive or as big as the generator a looked at the week before. That definitely wouldn't have fit on the mat!😂😂😂

[@mikecass8306]

Thanks Mick very interesting video 😃

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Mike 👍

[@blurtmenow]

What do you reckon the trim pots to the right of the driver chip were for?

[@BuyitFixit]

They are for adjusting the current to the stepper motors.

[@bigfilsing]

Each axis wont move in a negative direction until the axis has been homed ! ( Marlin anti crash feature)

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks, something else I didn't know. I try to fix a wide range of things so I'm no expert on each and every device 🙂

[@skysurferuk]

16:30 It might be an idea to mention that chip has a specific orientation. 👍

[@marcyd2007]

Hey Mick, did you consider just taking a chip off a cheapo Arduino board? Could have programmed it first and then unsoldered it possibly? Nice fix again though! Oh and just a suggestion, you could play with the boat in the bath with your little ducks 😉

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, I looked but the arduino boards are atmega 328p, I'm sure there used to be a board that had the 128 on it, but I couldn't find one. Lol @ ducks 🦆🦆🦆😂😂😂

[@jessenorris1672]

hi there i have an ender 3 motherboard that popped the resetable fuse i cant seem to find a replacment for it, do you have any ideas of where i might find one. im just learning micro soldering so i would love to get this board working again

[@BuyitFixit]

I'd try Farnell or RS, you might even be able to get one on eBay. Can you still make out any numbers on it?

[@jessenorris1672]

@BuyitFixit yes i can it, it says T20

[@NicksStuff]

I see you tried various things to see what was wrong with the original board, even after the video when people told you it must have been the thermal protection that prevented you from moving the extruder while the nozzle was cold. ...have you gone as far as writing an Arduino code turning PWM on all the pins that support it and flashing the MCU with it? If the one driving the driver was actually dead, maybe (almost certainly) the MCU had another one available and you could have rerouted that one? And then edited the Marlin firmware (which is very easy to do) to change the extruder pin.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks for the idea, but it really ended up not being worth it. It had the old noisy stepper drivers and was only 8 bit. The upgraded board is a lot better. After this I bought a faulty ended 5 pro from ebay that had a fault with the board, but that too turned out to be the old 8 bit so I just ended up buying a 32 bit and didn't to a video as thought a board swap would probably be a bit boring. I did have quite a journey with it still as it had the BL touch and the stock firmware doesn't work properly with it, so I ended up having to compile marlin myself and tweaking everything to get it working properly!

[@carltonlane8931]

Thanks for video.

[@BuyitFixit]

You are welcome

[@thetraindriver01]

Nice fix 😊

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍

[@bunnylove273]

Hey bud l have a new upgrade screen if you want it might have to upgrade the marlin firmaare

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks for the offer 👍it's not my printer 🙂

[@paulstaf]

I would have started by checking the inputs to the driver chip instead of just replacing it.

[@BuyitFixit]

I just thought it was the most likely point of failure. The driver chips often seem go in these devices from what I've read.

[@599miata]

That was a good one. 👍👍

[@BuyitFixit]

Cheers 👍

[@alexejschepeljanski9677]

could it be thet it does not extrude because hotend is cold? It is protection in the firmware.

[@BuyitFixit]

No, the new board prints a message saying hot end too cold. The old board just let's you extruded regardless. I've got the same old board in mine. I even flashed old fw to see if it was something like a setting or something in the firmware, but thanks for that 👍🙂

[@BuyitFixit]

Appologies, another viewer commented that it doesn't show a message, so it is a possibility. I fired up my ender3 from when they first came out and it doesn't show the option to move the z or extruded only x and y, so you may well be correct👍

[@Nathan1975Liggy]

for the extruder to work the hotend needs to be up to temprature

[@BuyitFixit]

See pinned comment

[@ianhelsbyservices]

Where there any unused io pins that you could move the extruder to?

[@BuyitFixit]

Possibly, but then recompiling firmware etc... and I know the ram and flash was crammed on the old chip as they had to remove some features, at least no such issues with the new board and also it's almost silent compared to the old one.

[@zetorek83]

I never had problem with that board 8bit but i put that 32bit in mine but i gave it to my friend

[@BuyitFixit]

Nice, the 32 bit board seems a lot better, and quieter! I'm sure your friend is well pleased 👍

[@zetorek83]

@@BuyitFixit yes sir just the power supply fan is so loud compared to my A20t

[@TallynTech]

it's crazy how far we have come in the 3d printer world seeing now that same benchy model will print on most new printers in under 20 mins

[@BuyitFixit]

Interesting, I didn't know they were a lot faster now. I might see if I can pick up a broken one if you have any recommendations?

[@jonasohrfeldt1495]

Extruder only works when hotend is above about 160c degrees.

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, I didn't know this at the time, see pinned comment. Quite a few people mentioned this. I did try putting a 470 ohm resistor across the NTC input so it faked a temp of 230c, still no output on the extruder motor even after replacing the driver yet again with a new one.

[@XXXXIndices]

CHeaper source of the chip is to sacrifice an Arduino. Had the same thing myself with a Chinese printer caused by a blocked print nozzle and the filament feed could not drive.

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, I had thought of that, but thought with it only being an 8 bit processor with not a lot of ram, upgrading the board seemed like the best way forward. Thanks for your input 👍

[@jum7324]

Looks like the ATMEGA chip is damaged. You should try replacing the ATMEGA chip.

[@alexanderzawydiwski9534]

I have recently had my shooter motor fall on my ender 3 pro and it turns out it was the driver built into the board that failed so I have to buy a whole new main board

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes I think motor drivers fail fairly common on these boards.

[@simon1171]

You do not need an arduino to install firmware just direct from pc or save firmware to an sd card and place in the printer. As stated by someone else it will not extrude when cold and it should say this on the screen.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Simon, the 8 bit board unfortunately doesn't display a message possibly due to lack of memory on the MCU, it also can't be updated via SD. It may be possible to update via USB but you need to flash a bootloader first via an arduino. The 32 bit board I fitted however does display the message and is upgradeable by SD (this is how I got the BL touch working on the new 32 bit board). The extruder doesn't extrude as you say if the hot end is too cold, I didn't know this at the time as it shows no message on this old board to say so. I did have another look at it after people brought this to my attention and faked the hot end temperature using a 470ohm resistor which made the board think it was up to 230c. After doing this and fitting a new driver it still didn't extrude...

[@DAYZ585]

yes the board can be updated just make sure its not named the same as the one on the board the board just needed a update i have the same board i changed my board out for the bq board silent steppers and a few more options the board can be updated from the sd card @@BuyitFixit

[@christophermartin5226]

My printer has an issue with the extender motor the e axis just clicks and duse not feed any filament at all I have replaced the motor for a brand new one and still have the same issue is there a way I can send you my board to see if there are shorts ect to fix for me

[@BuyitFixit]

If it's the 8 bit board, it works out better to just upgrade it for the 32 bit one. They have much more memory / features and also have silent stepper motor drivers for not a lot of money.

[@0xba5]

Could have done with a low pass audio filter and turning off the dynamic volume. The noise is terrible and deafening if you're not talking.

[@BuyitFixit]

You're the first to mention that. I might have another look at my audio setup. I'm not sure if it's in the editing software as I've got a compressor / leveller set up to aim for -10db so it does automatically increase the volume so that may be it.

[@richardorourke4243]

marlin 2.1 is much better. would love a 32bit board :) my cr10s is 8 bit on marlin 2.1 x. i also got couch out with cold extrusion stopping me lol

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, I think a few people were right with the cold extrusion thing, but a few days back I tried faking the temperature by soldering a 470 ohm resistor across the hot end NTC input on the board. I also refitted the driver chip and the extruder motor still didn't move even though it thought the temp was 240c 🤔

[@eliasbourozrrrs8585]

Nice dear

[@BuyitFixit]

Thank you 😊

[@valthernielsen3409]

I know this is very late. there is a firmware setting of a minimum temperature at which it will extrude. Also, yu are confusing the X & Y axis. X is left right Y is front back

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks, yes I got mixed up at the time because the printer was sideways on my bench. At the time I didn't know about the temperature either, but after making the video I was curious and used a couple of resistors to fake the temperatures of around 210c on the hot end but it still wasn't extruding with the new driver chip installed.

[@UnCoolDad]

This is where the ender cuts costs - soldering the drivers onto the main board instead of using socketed ones.

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, when I built a CNC a few years back I used an arduino and socketed drivers 👍

[@UnCoolDad]

@@BuyitFixit my Anycubic i3 Mega (predates the ender 3) has socketed drivers.

[@FelipeGonzalezHerrera]

@@UnCoolDad almost all printers come with soldered drivers. Also a lot of aftermarket boards do.

[@UnCoolDad]

@@FelipeGonzalezHerrera Mine didn't.

[@xXKisskerXx]

no offense, i own a Ender 3 myself, but - they are pretty 'garbage tier' in today's standards. in 2019, great for the price, but now, not so much, and no - not even the newer models. the best thing about these is - the absolute amazing modding that people have done to them and documented. So if you really like it or don't want to upgrade to a better printer (and get off that terrible moving bed system) - it's pretty cheap to upgrade. almost all of them have tinned stranded wire jammed into terminals - which can be a great hazard so... using proper ferrules can drastically help safety measures. looks like they got a "bl touch' like auto homing system, on the old 8bit board - which requires the breakout board and such - (honestly never bothered with mine, always seemed to be too much effort) the board should have labels (mine does) for each Axis, and E for extruder - and the cables should have little yellow clips identifying them.... so that should be pretty easy to rewire. and yes, if it wasn't answered before - the system is designed to not extrude unless the hotend is 'of temperature' usually about 150C (sometimes higher), this prevents filament from stripping and clogging the gears when it is too cold to actually print. It is a 'safety' feature, but yes, it would be wonderful if it said so in the firmware (which, may be limited due to the insanely small amount of memory it has in the first place) Enabling Auto Homing with that touch sensor required turning off several functions of the printer to begin with, to have enough space to compile the code to work. (ender 3's are absolute bare bones space and specs to 'get the job done' and have very little room to improve beyond actual hardware upgrades) The original problem of "Z not moving" - could be a variety of things honestly, including firmware changes. Such things include - wires coming loose, (this is a problem with ender 3s especially power - since they can cause fires) overheating the motor, not properly snugged leadscrew, binding lead screw, dirty lead screw, rough (non lubed) leadscrew, the Xgantry is too tight (preventing rollers from rolling, allowing it to go up/down) too much weight on the x gantry (usually with wheels too loose, causing not enough friction to climb) etc. etc. Since everything seems to work after a new mainboard - I would lean on a bad compile of firmware, as the 8bit way up updating is both long-winded, a pain in the butt, and even a small change can be devastating to results (I once reversed my directions on accident and had to recompile the entire thing just to fix it again, taking hours) With new board - the owner will need to change the firmware to accompany things like the bltouch auto homing sensor and any other 'non standard' modifications that would affect print height or homing, etc. personally I love my ender 3. but I am planning to make a new printer - and get rid of the 'bed slinging' design. I plan to keep my E3 as both a relic, and a noisemaker - because I actually like the sounds they make, it sorta seems like machine-music to me. (I plan to Air Print things while I print other things on better systems) and simply use the E3 as a backup printer (like needing a replacement part to the other printer, and it not being able to function without it)

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Kissker. No offense taken 🙂 Yes a few people mentioned about the extruder temperature which I was unaware of at the time. The printer was working fine then just stopped extruding in the middle of a print. I did ask if they had flashed firmware before it stopped but was told no. The extruder motor seemed to be powered permanently as soon as the power was applied. After people mentioned about the temperature, I did have another quick look to satisfy my curiosity, so soldered a 470 ohm resistor across the NTC input to fake a temperature of 230c (this is what it showed on the LCD). I also replaced the driver chip again too, but still got no movement on the extruder, but it was not constantly powered at this point. Anyway my friends son is happy as he now has a working and upgraded printer. Thanks again for your thoughts and commenting 👍

[@Popeyes66]

As Louis Rossmann say's " I hope you learned something " Well i certaintly did learn something . . . . That new board was cheap John .

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes it was 👍🙂

[@Uterr]

This chip probably had spare legs you can redefine in the firmware

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, certainly possible. Similar to the RGB laser I looked at (video on here) which I had to use an earlier version of firmware I found (that someone managed to dump out of a slightly different version) and then rewire the I/O to different pins.

[@kalin666]

Kapton tape, but I keep thinking Captain tape . . .

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes same here👍😂😂😂

[@wherami]

Ohhh man nice. Can’t wait to find out

[@jamiejoker118]

4.2.7 board swop it out Way better Or bigtreetech board 32bit alot quieter

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Jamie, that ended up being the eventual outcome, but I do try and repair things down to component level 🙂

[@VolkanTaninmis]

Btt Skr mini e3v3 mcu board would be a better option for this thing. Instead of spending 1 hour of effort, I'm talking about a much better card that costs about 30 dollars.

[@BuyitFixit]

Good call, I did end up replacing the board with the 32bit ender one, but I also enjoy the challenge of getting to the bottom of why things aren't working. So the hour of effort is still worth it for me as normally I end up learning something 🙂

[@audibell]

Nice

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Audi Bell👍

[@muppetpaster]

If the board isn't burnt out , this is an easy fix...Not to say very easy.

[@pintokitkat]

Why not simply pinch the atmel chip off a cheap arduino mega?

[@BuyitFixit]

The only mega's I had at the time are the Mega256's.I think It turned out a better solution to upgrade it with the 32bit board with the quieter stepper motors.

[@shanepearce1629]

it is not going to even try to extrude with the hotend being cold it needs to be at least 180 to extrude

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, a few people mentioned in the comments. The printer displays mentioned nothing of this, and still acted as if it was trying to move the motor. The original motor driver had failed because there was constant power to the motor even before the board fully booted so the coils were energised constantly. The new board however displays a message of hot end too cold, so was this feature implemented in the old boards or firmware?

[@nunopereira6092]

​@@BuyitFixitit's firmware, a feature enabled by default in the latest versions. You can even compile Marlin in a way that you'll be able to turn that feature on or off directly from the LCD.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Nuno, yes I meant it might not be supported in that version of software flashed to the board, not the actual hardware itself as it's just a microcontroller at the end of the day. If you're into software you may like the solar inverter video I did called no password no problem where I repaired a solar inverter and the company weren't willing to help me change a setting which requires an engineer password. So I disassembled their application, reverse engineer the algorithm and wrote my own keygen or perhaps the ultrasound video where I unlocked a ton of hidden features and run doom on the thing 😂😂

[@JohnAldred]

Did anybody mention that printers won't try to extrude through a cold nozzle yet? 😂

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, I pinned the comments. The original driver chip sent power to the motor straight away as it 'locked' at power on. It could be that after I changed the chip it was repaired, but it showed on the screen that it was moving the extruder when turning the knob with no error or anything showing. The replacement board displays hot end too cold.. so did the old board support this function? As no message was displayed..

[@nunopereira6092]

​@@BuyitFixitall boards support it, it's a software feature, not hardware. It just needs to be defined in the Marlin firmware before compiling it in Visual Studio Code/PlatformIO. Most of the recent Marlin versions already have Cold Extrusion Prevention enabled by default.

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes I wasn't meaning hardware, it's why I ended up flashing different versions as it's I thought it was unusual for the microcontroller i/o pins to die. They are usually pretty robust unless you feed a high voltage into them. I've done a fair bit of programming and making things with arduino and the like over the years.

[@nunopereira6092]

@@BuyitFixit They were tough, especially the 1.1.3 and 1.1.4 versions with the Atmel ATMega 1284P chip. In my experience with Creality printers from years past, the first thing to go were usually the cheap power supplies that they fitted on most models of the Ender 3, Ender 5, and CR-10. The second thing that failed the most was the plastic extruder arm, it was poorly designed. Other than that, great printers for the money.

[@henrikstenlund5385]

the extruder motor refuses to move until the tip is heated enough

[@BuyitFixit]

See pinned comment and replies...

[@henrikstenlund5385]

@@BuyitFixit My Ender does nothing with the extruder until the temperature is at the minimum to melt any filament. Then it allows moving it.

[@BuyitFixit]

@@henrikstenlund5385 Yes, as I explained in the pinned comment I didn't know this at the time and the printer doesn't inform you of this. The new board does. After I was told this I connected a 470ohm resistor across the old board to fake a hot end temp of 230c which is shows on the display. I also fitted another new driver, and the extruder motor still didn't work. Originally the motor was ON permanent at switch on and you could not move it.

[@henrikstenlund5385]

@@BuyitFixit Yes, good work

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks, bloody printers 😂😂😂

[@KJW648]

Alot of 8 bit boards around, as many have upgraded to 32, I have 2 you could had for free. 🤣

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks. I just thought I'd have a try first as a board swap wouldn't have been too interesting 🙂

[@DOpuls]

So by the video you want to say that new board let you to move extruder while hotend was cold? Was painful to watch as firmware won’t let you to move extruder while hotend is cold, the line will just stay on hold. A bit misleading for someone just starting with 3d printing.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks for your comments. I've not had a lot to do with 3d printers, the new board displays a message saying the hot end was too cold. The old board didn't show any message and acted as it if was moving the motor. Originally the extruder motor was energised constantly (before the board booted properly) and would not turn even manually while the power was on. Changing the driver chip stopped it from being energised constantly but it still didnt move. I actually tried faking the hot end temperature today by putting a 470ohm resistor across NTC input on the old board which faked a temp of around 210c and it still didn't move with a new driver chip installed.

[@kinggreene]

I thought you were going to rob the chip off your Arduino. Could have done that just to prove a point.

[@BuyitFixit]

😂😂😂

[@Hogwarts.Failure]

I would replace the whole board for a much better one. This is a old rev. board. They are really cheap

[@BuyitFixit]

That was the eventual outcome..

[@RockyBMusic]

just wanted to shout... heat the nossle first, then test the extruder Motor. That is how it is set up in marlin for savety reasons, because you cant press Filament through a cold nozzle.. works as intended, Nothing wrong with the circuit board.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks RockyBMusic, I've replied to a few people who mentioned the same. The extruder motor was permanently energised, even at power up and before the machine booted up and it wasn't working for my friends son who had used it previous. After changing the driver chip, the motor wasn't permanently on, so it may have cured the problem. I was unaware about the hot end needed heating, the printer didn't print a message or warning and just acted like it was supposed to be moving the motor on the display. The new board I fitted however when you try to move the extruder does display a message of 'hot end too cold' so I'm not sure if the old board had that safety feature enabled.

[@RockyBMusic]

@@BuyitFixit That wasn't meant badly either. Look at it positively, you now have an up-to-date board with quieter stepper drivers. And a more recent Driver version

[@BuyitFixit]

@@RockyBMusic Thanks RockyBMusic 👍