I have a similar problem of my CTC 3D printer not turning on or printing normally. I bought this printer three weeks ago and had normal operation for long prints up to 6 hours each. However, now I am experiencing a new problem. It does turn on into the screen dialog mode, but as soon as I get it to select a X3G print file, it turns off (sometimes flickers and then turns off) and restarts to the same screen dialog mode as before, but does not continue doing the print. It sometimes flickers before shutting down indicating that it is attempting to print and start the bed and extruder but they seem to not start as expected.
Does anyone have a solution to this issue, like the controller board failing, or the power supply not working normally? I think the solution is simple here but I don’t have the time to diagnose this issue in depth. Thanks for any reply or response.
You may have a failing endstop cable on your x axis, you may have a loose connection somewhere.
I looked for any loose cables but could not find anything loose or broken. Where do I find the X-axis end-stop cables? I checked that the switch is functional by pressing down the metal tab to close the circuit, and the LED activates. I read elsewhere that the X-axis cables go frequently. Is there a utility that checks for these issues on the screen? Would be better than doing this myself.
Hmm sounds power related. Selecting a file to print causes instant power draw spike as it begins heating and moving all steppe motors at once.
It sounds like this power spike it causing something of a brown out.
Start by making sure the x and y steppe Motor connectors and fully plugged in and then turn the printer over and access the underside
check all cabling is secure in sockets
Then try printing again
if still fails try the jogging option in the menu. Manually move the x and y axis from this menu and check if it works without rebooting/browning out
Checked out the jogging modes and they worked correctly. I redid the start-up script and for a while the printer worked normally doing a small print. But after 10 minutes the printer quit again and everything went cold (no motors and no hot extruder and bed). Seems that the problem is that the fan for the drivers is not ON any more and the whole printer shuts down. The fan does work because it starts up with a loud noise but eventually goes off for some reason. Is this bad firmware? Does anyone have this experience with the same CTC printer?
It’s not a firmware problem. Your running the same firmware as 1000s of other people
it will be hardware and probably wiring. If you fan stops spinning it could be the fan wiring or even the fan itself
I had a similar sort of issue that I traced back to one of my Steppe motors wires
It was wire fatigued from it bending with axis movement, causes printer to reboot randomly
I checked the fan closely and it appears to be running all the time, and no wiring issue. Not a stepper issue because the XYZ positioning always works again in jogging mode and when the print is repeated the steppers do their job for a while. However, it will intermittently freeze in a print, and go cold. Sometimes the screen will stay ON like it rebooted, or go OFF completely, or flicker for a while until it goes OFF completely. I checked the X bending wires but there seems to be no issue there.
