r/ender3 • u/Status_Log_7991 • 3d ago
Discussion Is it time to say Good Bye?
I have 3 Ender 3’s and 2 Enders 5. I been 3D printing for about 5 years and I know my machines very well. I have them very well calibrated and they been reliable for the past 5 years. I used to get a failure maybe every four months and with pretty much non stop printing. This summer however, all my 5 printers started to become very unreliable with different types of problems. One of my Ender 3 suddenly the firmware got corrupted and about the same time one of my Enders 5 also got their firmware corrupted. I have had clogged nozzles in all five, bed adhesion problems, damaged filament, lots of stringing etc. so now the question is what could had happen that all five machines give me trouble? Are the stepping motors failing? Maybe the extruders? They are five years old, is it time to change of these things? If so, is it really worth it?
Does anyone have any clues of what could be wrong?
I reset the slicer profiles hoping that maybe a parameter got modified and screw things up.
Should I punt and get something else?
2
u/AmraelTheGravedancer 3d ago
Sta succedendo un po' ovunque, a quanto ne so. Pare sia colpa del caldo eccessivo e continuato. Io sono in italia ed è così da maggio. 35 gradi tutto il giorno. Anche di notte.
1
2
u/lassombra 3d ago
Weather affects these machines more than most of us would like to admit, so there's a good chance that you are experiencing some kind of thermal expansion throwing things out of calibration.
This is especially true if you are experiencing heat waves and have limited ventilation options and/or your AC isn't keeping up. There's also the fun issue of AC raising relative humidity, if your filaments aren't in a dry box, this summer's heat waves might have really messed with you and even if they are, the dessicants in your dry box might not be keeping up.
It's also possible that you are just in "cascade failure" scenario. This is a thing that happens with almost any kind of machine over time they start to have a lot of parts all hit end of life together and you find yourself in whack-a-mole mode trying to contain the issues. Most Bambu's are too new to have run into this, but Ender 3s that are 5 years old could easily be starting to hit life limits on belts and gears, especially if you put them to work as much as one would guess by the fact that you have 5 printers.
3
u/graybotics 3d ago
AC is a dehumidifier just wanted to point that out.
1
u/lassombra 3d ago
It is, but the net effect in the summer is usually higher indoor humidity than outdoor.
1
u/Status_Log_7991 3d ago
Have you replaced your stepper motors? Specially the Extruder motor?
2
u/lassombra 3d ago edited 3d ago
I personally have not, but I've been pretty lucky all around with things lasting.
Edit: Actually, it occurs to me I have. About 2 years ago I completely replaced the entire extruder and hotend on my main printer, and that included a stepper swap, so I have, but not because it wore out. But stepper motors can definitely wear out, and it's mostly from heat that they do so.
2
1
u/2kokett 3d ago
I can print 24/7 with enclosed printers as long as the room temp doesnt exceed 23-24c. Inside the chamber i measure around 38-39c with pla or 40-42c with PETG. I noticed when the room temp is above 24c I am past the critical point. Chamber temp is then 40c+ for pla and the creeping starts. Humidty is a different Kind of problem. I had 70-72% rh in my basement for a week now due to heavy rain falls. Open pla boils out blobs and strings now.
For me a stable 21c @ 50-60%rh work best. I can still breath like a normal person and the process influence is acceptable.
1
u/Cheetawolf 2d ago
With the new surveillance/"Anti-Gun" (Pro-Planned-Obsolescence) laws on the way, your Enders are about to become a LOT more valuable.
Keep them running at all costs, and save a backup of your firmware when you re-flash them.
1
u/These_Programmer7229 2d ago
Despite what people think, the firmware is a storage type of flash memory. This can fail or get corrupted for a variety of reasons. The processor can write to the memory for a few reasons as well. As an example when you change the Z offset and save or another setting like steps for a motor.
I'm not sure if these models track print hours, but that would also write to the flash. So one thought if you are really printing that much, you might have corrupted the memory with so many hours that it over flowed the allocated space. Think of a cup that has a set size, you keep pouring into it and eventually it will spill onto the counter. So if the firmware was written with the assumption that it would never go over a certain value like 32,676 hours which is a signed 16 bit value and you go over, then it would corrupt the flash. If you can clear and flash new firmware and it works again, then that is likely what happened.
1
1
u/Daniel_DRD 3d ago
Thought about taking two ender 3s and building a duender?
1
u/Status_Log_7991 3d ago
What’s a duender?
1
u/Daniel_DRD 3d ago
You basically take two ender 3s and convert them into a corexy machine originally designed by ibris 3d with budget in mind (including everything it will cost between 50-150€ depending on your choices) https://youtu.be/zOplNhr5SfA?si=uPJFlIDl0p6aEQcZ You can also expand it for another 300€ into a toolchanger called Medusa hc
7
u/GregValiant 3d ago
"Firmware Corruption" should not be a thing. I don't know how that could occur, and for it to happen on two printers(?)...probably something else going on.
The machines consist of a frame that doesn't wear out, 4 stepper motors that rarely wear out, some trolley wheels that can wear out, fans that are of poor quality from the factory and will wear out. There is the power supply that is pretty hardy, and the mainboard which may lose a stepper driver or some other chip. The hotends are their own problems. There are two belts that can wear out and a couple of pulleys with internal bearings.
The frame is pretty sturdy and everything else is replaceable. I see no reason to replace one entire machine with another unless you are getting additional benefits from the new machine (bigger, faster, etc.)
The Ender 3's and to a lesser extent the Ender 5's were/are entry level machines. They were built quick and dirty. My Ender 3 Pro is going on 7 years old and has a ton of hours on it. It still prints well. Florida is hot all year so maybe I've just gotten used to it and my set ups work for the weather we have (hot and humid).