As you all know I thought my right (second) extruder was broken because it was heating up, but the stepper motor was not turning. So here is what I learned, most of it from people in this group and by breaking stuff. I am sharing this to help other readers.
I discovered my problem was a firmware user interface bug.
The front panel filament load and extruder movement command control only the left extruder when your printer is in duplicate mode. So if you are trying to load filament in the right extruder, you think it is broken. The temperature controls do work properly, so this led me to believe my stepper motor was either broken or the cabling, etc., was the problem.
I understand how this coding error could occur and even understand the programmer may think this is correct. However, if you want to change filament for a duplication print job, you need to switch back to the auto park or full control mode.
Here are some pictures of the inside of the printer you may find interesting.





Continued in the next post .... attachment limit reached.
- The cable breakout boards on the top of the right and left extruder are different, and the board in the Artist-D and Artist-D Pro are different.
- If you mess this up, you will smoke your ribbon cables, which is a lot better than damaging your main controller but still quite disturbing.
- To remove the bottom cover of the printer, you need to heat up the area on the bottom around when the gantry bolts go through the bottom. There are foam blocks under the back panel that is glued to the panel and the printer. After you remove all of the small bolts, this glue will hold the panel in place.
- After opening up the printer, I was impressed with the quality of the build. All cables were tied down and neatly arranged. The power supply on my Pro model was a Maxwell power supply. The main power leads we in connectors and properly attached to the power supply.
- Since I did not know what was holding the back panel in place, I removed the gantry (four bolts). This is unnecessary, and putting these bolts back in is painful since the printer is heavy, and it is hard to get the bolts to line up.
I discovered my problem was a firmware user interface bug.
The front panel filament load and extruder movement command control only the left extruder when your printer is in duplicate mode. So if you are trying to load filament in the right extruder, you think it is broken. The temperature controls do work properly, so this led me to believe my stepper motor was either broken or the cabling, etc., was the problem.
I understand how this coding error could occur and even understand the programmer may think this is correct. However, if you want to change filament for a duplication print job, you need to switch back to the auto park or full control mode.
Here are some pictures of the inside of the printer you may find interesting.
Continued in the next post .... attachment limit reached.
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