MakerBot Industries

You're not the first person.

http://wiki.makerbot.com/forum/t-350685/

http://wiki.makerbot.com/forum/t-332648/

http://wiki.makerbot.com/forum/t-346037/

You're not the first person.

Weird. Power cycling the bot made the temperature sensor regain its bearings. I sure am glad it's not something as grave as any of the things you posted! Thanks for the info anyway.

No wait, it just happened again. And then power cycling the bot another time made it go away. :(

Did you insulate your thermocouple when you installed it?

I did not. The instructions specifically say: "No need for Kapton tape, thanks to the new cartridge heater, which has electrical isolation of the heating coils built in."

Is that wrong? I have a Mk6+, BTW.

Yeah I think most on here would agree that it should still be insulated. Wrap a piece of kapton tape around it once or twice, but not more then that.

Haa! I think found out what the problem was. Quite simple, really: the thermocouple's negative wire had become loose and was only sometimes touching its contact on the extruder controller board. Tightening it all up has banished the problem again, for now at least.

I modified the directions myself several months ago and just checked to make sure it was still there.

Ensure that you use a layer or two of Kapton tape wrapped around the thermocouple end to electrically isolate the thermocouple from the metal extruder body (Picture does not show the Kapton tape isolation).

http://wiki.makerbot.com/stepstruder-mk6-plus-assembly-3mm

OK, so I can now guess you built the 1.75 filament config because it did not have updated instructions. Sorry- I just fixed it too for future MakerBot operaters.

BTW, most of us agree you want to run 3mm filament most of the time. 1.75 is prone to jams and doesn't really offer a huge advantage over 3mm. In fact, I've personally yet to seen even one advantage of using 1.75mm filament IMHO.

Aarrrrrrrgh! This kind of thing is really frustrating! If 1.75mm filament isn't ready for prime time or even offers no advantages, then why does it exist? Simply to trip up people like me it seems! ;-)

Iv been running 1.75mm filament for the past several months. Doing several tests with it and talking with MBI about some of my findings. The biggest advantage to 1.75mm is that it requires less torque to move. This opens up a few more options for extrusion mechanisms. The 1.75mm setup also doesn't require the screw in tensioning system.

Its definitely experimental so be prepared for some issues. My prints for the most part are the same as they were with 3mm this is of course after several months of tweaking. However the biggest disadvantage right now is reversal it just simply doesn't work as well with the 1.75mm filament as it does with 3mm. So there will be more cleanup after the print then there is with a well tuned 3mm setup.

You can still get it to print well, and Iv still got half of 2 rolls left, but once there done I will be switching back to 3mm.

Thermocouple: Possibly for consideration - the Thermocouples are best to be isolated with Kapton. The bots are not fully grounded between electrical (currents) and plastic (static) parts. Find Ed Nesely's old article about grounding (and others). For only this reason, if you isolate the Thermocouple during build any transient charges/currents can not find a path not designed to carry current and thus cause electrical problems.

1.75 mm - Or smaller….
If you think about it - The 3D printers' components will have to become more compact and the printing plastics also. This will allow the build areas to become larger to what ends up being the optimum sizing for home use and the plastics less cumbersome. The plastics will need to be relatively compact and easily storable. The 1.75 mm is more flexible than the 3 mm due to its smaller diameter so the spools can be smaller in diameter while holding a large volume. The flexibility will also allow the bot to move faster distributing plastic over a wider area with less strain and have the plastic routed through more bends.

Many in the bot community are inventors and innovators. The use of this open source is to mine the brain power of many and apply advancing and evolutionary ideas to our machines. If we were directly directed to a path we would not help the economics of companies voluntarily without pay. So, we have some interesting materials injected which peak interests without commanding. And thus, we voluntarily put forth time and work to provide better solutions for others to capitalize.

All very true. It was my frustration talking up there. I'd had the bot for almost two weeks but hadn't managed to print anything yet! All's good now, though.