MakerGear Forum

Hotend suddenly stopped heating--no obvious wire breaks. Is there a dedicated fuse?

hi chuck, does the bed heat up? the fuse on the rambo board is for the hot bed. i dont recall off hand if the extruder pulls power through that circuit as well. if the bed heats then thats not it. give us some more info. do you have the v3 or the v3b hot end? do you have a voltmeter you can check for power at the molex connector where the hot end plugs in?

Thanks Jim--bed heats; hotend is v3; don't have a voltmeter handy.

well the easiest way to troubleshoot this is to check voltage right at the molex connector for the heater core. if you have power then the heater core is shot and its time for a new hot end.

Might want to check that you have not selected the wrong extruder in the software by accident. I had an accidental click using S3D and disabled my hot end. Took an embarassingly long time to diagnose.

Briefly worked again, and then stopped heating when I got ready to print, so thought it might be a software issue per Will, but I also had no luck with heating the hotend via Viki, so doesn't sound like software.

Confirmed power at the molex and tested for breaks in the wire from the molex to the hotend (none), so sounds like either a break in a wire further in the core, or something else in the core is shot (but if not a semi disconnected wire, I can't think of anything that would explain it briefly working again).

yeah it sounds likes the wire inside is broken giving an intermittent connection. i had the same thing happen long ago. its time for you go go ahead and upgrade the hotend to the current style with the cartridge heater.