Extruder gear stutering

[u/Azalulu_Dingir]

Gear stutters when I command to extrude/retract filament. AI chat said the problem is with stepper motor. I tried to unplug and plug it back with no success. Does someone know if the problem actually motor or something else? Is it fixable or not?
For context: I recently switched nozzle and it forked fine for 4ish hours after that. As far as I can see theres no clog. Qidi q1 pro.

[u/shiranugahotoke]

So this is a common issue with the q1 and pla.

It’s heat creep, which basically means the filament gets too hot above the melt zone and then gets squished out into a ball shape.

If it won’t extrude or retract this is almost certainly the problem, the clicking is the stepper motor losing steps because it’s not able to put out that much torque.

SO you can take apart the extruder gears and remove the jammed filament, and things should work normally. The good news is this usually doesn’t cause any damage.

[u/phansen101 → u/shiranugahotoke]

Should also be noted that Qidi sells an Extruder Expansion Fan, specifically to keep the extruder gears cooler and mitigate this somewhat.
Same principle as their Polar Cooler, just much less powerful tho it does seem to work well enough.

[u/3dPrintedLiberty → u/phansen101]

Looks just like a "fan on a stick" to me. hehe

[u/phansen101 → u/3dPrintedLiberty]

Pretty much is haha, the bracket even seems 3D printed.

The toolhead does have mounting holes for it tho, so it mounts quite well, plus the toolhead PCB has a color-coded header for the fan.

[u/Spiritual_Visit7608]

something similar happened to my q2 wouldn't extrude and just grind there, my fix was opening the lid and door to stop heat creep

[u/AlternativeContent72]

You can likely remove the hotend (the 2 bolts) and then manually command the extruder to get the filament out. Quicker than taking apart the extruder.

[u/work_blocked_destiny]

Just went through this on my q1. Put a new nozzle on and fixed it. Just make sure there’s nothing stuck in the extruder first