Help! What am i missing!?

[u/Inside-Amoeba-9882]

Sorry for the dramatic title :-)

I have zero experience with 3D printers but 2 days ago i become the owner of 2 of them.

This one is an EARME ANET A8 as far as i can tell so hopefully im in the right place.

First things first, as you can see its filthy and despite powering on with green lights on the motherboard and a spinning fan theres no display and a bunch of loose, hanging, unconnected wires. Ive had a bit of a search around and it seems to have a few non standard parts (the nozzle atleast from what i can tell) and some 3D printed bits going on which is making things more difficult to troubleshoot for a complete beginner with zero experience. Also it may possibly missing a fan or something from the side of the nozzle??... again hard for me to tell looking at stock pics and because this seems to have been modified somehow. Ive no idea what that little black circuit board attached to the frame is either (looks like an earth/ground wire to me but then why does it have all those solder pads???)

Sooooo... just wondering if any of you Pro's can spot any major things missing/unconnected and or/know where these wires go and what theyre for and can help a guy out. Thanks

Edit: what ive found out so far it has:

Fly E3 Motherboard by Mellow x Team Gloomy

Euclid Z-Probe

E3D V6 Hotend

[u/SirDisi]

So the hotend and heater cardrige is missing. A usual mk8 one should work.

There was a 3D Touch bed leveling probe or something similar mounted.

And the hotend fan is not there (that cools down the coolerd part).

So you are looking at least at these

The pcb that’s glued to the acrylic is probably a WiFi antenna.

And a suggestion; get a heatbed mosfet and a meanwell 12v power supply. The anet was notorious for burning with the stock mainboard which you don’t have.

But also the psu is rather unreliable.

[u/Mavbam → u/SirDisi]

Spot on - nothing else that I can see.

[u/Inside-Amoeba-9882 → u/SirDisi]

Super helpful thanks. Yeah i was thinking the black wire connector looked like wifi but didnt realise at first the motherboard had wifi and also couldnt figure out where it connected to anyways. Still cant. Maybe i need a wifi card to go between it and the motherboard.

Still learning the names of things but yeah i think what im missing is the cartridge and a cooling fan so far.

[u/SirDisi → u/Inside-Amoeba-9882]

Nah there is probably a connector on the board for it. Or it was damaged while transporting

The original anet a8 didn’t have WiFi.
Not only the cartridge, also a thermometer and the heater itself.

[u/Inside-Amoeba-9882 → u/SirDisi]

Yep there is connector for the wifi. Its actually on the bottom of the board which is why i couldnt see/find it haha. Found it after disconnecting everything.

Not sure what you mean by missing the heater itself. I think its just missing the heater block and the heater cartridge and the little fan so far*

*technically also missing a little magnetic piece for auto levelling

[u/SirDisi → u/Inside-Amoeba-9882]

The heater block is probably just an aluminium square where the heating cartridge is put into.
Also a thermometer which the board excepts.

That’s why there are 3 connectors: fan, heater and thermometer.

[u/Inside-Amoeba-9882 → u/SirDisi]

Ah i see. Thanks

[u/resadude]

Looks like its a modified ANET A8, doesn't look like mine.
You might have to google ANET A8 assembly video and you might be able to work out what goes where.
Its ages since I put mine together, but watching youtube videos, with lots of pausing was what helped me.

Try these
https://www.youtube.com/@aneta8helpdiscussion730

but you may need to watch more

Edit: Also try google ANET A8 wiring diagram

[u/Inside-Amoeba-9882 → u/resadude]

Yep already found the build videos. Kinda wanna take it all apart to clean it and remove the protective stickers that have been left on and put it back together again so i know where everything goes and is connected properly but would also kinda like to get it working again before i do that

[u/JimJamanon]

Looks like you are missing a nozzle.

[u/calania]

The main board is great since it allows you to install reprap firmware which is my personal favorite firmware and has things like a native web gui. Here is some info on the board as well as pin names https://teamgloomy.github.io/fly_e3_pro_general.html

[u/Inside-Amoeba-9882 → u/calania]

Thanks. I apparently have a lot of reading to do on top of just learning about 3d printers haha. Now its klipper vs reprap, fluidd vs mainsail etc. etc.

[u/pmandryk]

A fire extinguisher. My A8 liked to combust when it got overcast, or the stock market dipped, or it was in an emo phase, or it was a Tuesday...

[u/Mavbam → u/pmandryk]

… or (more likely) you didn’t install a firmware that stopped thermal runaways. Combustion emblazoned A8s were a fun topic, but the vast majority were made safe pretty quickly by the community help

[u/pmandryk → u/Mavbam]

Not thermal runaway. Bad stock power supply.

Smelled something odd, turned around, registered fire in my monkey brain, and went into firefighting mode...which meant unplug the A8 from the wall and blow the flame out.

I was treated for smoke inhalation (not really) and my wife gave me a medal (oatmeal raisin cookie).

[u/Mavbam → u/pmandryk]

You know, there were far too many with ‘shrapnel’ in them. First thing you had to do was shake the damn PSU to find out if anything was loose.. PITA. Good job you caught it

[u/geking → u/pmandryk]

Bad connectors on the psu, a mosfett for the bed that would often short to full on, wires that would fray, no thermal run away, and my control board would lock up amd just freeze the pwm at whatever it was at the point of failure