TOM Heated Build Plate stopped heating

[Deane Woods]

I am a High School Teacher with an original TOM, made from a kit by the students in my class. We have a MK7 extruder and a heated build plate set up.  It's worked great for a couple years. My students love it! We're running ReplicorG 0034. I haven't tried upgrading firmware or anything since we got it working. It's been doing a great job, and my approach has been "If it ain't broke - don't fix it!". Well- it's broke now! And I'm not sure what to do...

Yesterday, the Heated Build plate just STOPPED heating. There seems to be a burn mark on the connector to the HBP (see the second pin/black wire in photo below)

I tried turning on the HBP using the control panel in ReplicatorG. No errors reported in the software. Still have control over everything else. But the little red LED that usually lights up when the heater comes on DOESN'T turn on any more. And the control panel shows the HBP just staying flat-lined at room temperature.

I'm not sure how to trouble-shoot this. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Deane

[c f]

The connector isn't rated for the current that actually flows through it, so the contact area between the pins and the cable gets very hot (hence the scorch marks). The repeated heating/cooling (and it also looks like your cable is not strain-relieved in any way! There are many strain-relief widgets for the ToM on thingiverse!) and tugging from movement has likely lifted the actual contact pads on the heated build plate that the connector is soldered to. I had this happen to me twice.

If you can find a replacement platform, that's probably the most expedient thing. Otherwise you can try to find a way to solder the connector pins to the traces on the board that are broken (lightly sand away the red coating covering the copper traces, and then apply solder), and then use high-temp epoxy to secure the black connector to the heated build plate. I successfully did this once (verify the traces/pins are connected with a multimeter before potting everything in epoxy!), but it's definitely not an ideal solution.

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[Deane Woods]

Thanks for the reply.

Ouch! That sounds like something to try when I have some time available (which never seems to happen!)

Does anyone have an idea where I could get a replacement platform? What would it be worth?

Deane

[Dan Newman]

Deane,

Are you in North America? If so, I'll mail you a replacement board gratis.
It won't be an "official" MBI board, but will be an assembled and tested on
of these,

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16958

However, I do not have spare wiring harnesses. I suggest you contact
MBI via the phone -- I can give you their phone number if you need it.
They should have spare wiring harnesses available as this is a common
replacement part on ToM's and Rep 1's.

Regards,
Dan

[Andrew Shoben]

I called them recently about wiring harnesses and they swore I got the last one..

But maybe theyre still making them...

[Erwin Ried]

Best solution is just to solder the wires http://cl.ly/P2dS

No more issues.

[Deane Woods]

Dan, you are the MAN!!!

Thank you so much. Your package arrived last week. I was on a 4 day canoe trip with a group of students, and just got back to school yesterday. The board looks great. I see that your design is "beefier" than the original MakerBot part.

I assume I should get some "thermal paste", to put between the board and the aluminum plate (as per the original design). There was a piece of amber coloured plastic sheet between the board and aluminum when it arrived. Was this just for protection during shipment, or does it serve another purpose?

Given the challenges of obtaining a replacement wiring harness, I think I'll solder the power wires to the board (as in Erwin Ried's post below) That looks like a nice solid solution, and with some heat-shrink over the wires/solder connection I'm hoping their will be fewer problems in the future.

Cheers,

Deane

[Deane Woods]

Thanks Erwin! I'll give that a try.

Deane

[Dan Newman]

On 27/05/2014, 9:55 AM, Deane Woods wrote:
> Dan, you are the MAN!!!
> Thank you so much. Your package arrived last week. I was on a 4 day canoe
> trip with a group of students, and just got back to school yesterday. The
> board looks great. I see that your design is "beefier" than the original
> MakerBot part.

Yes, it should hold up better. Just orient it so that that wiring tab is
aimed toward the bot's front. Some folks mounted their HBPs with the
wiring harness on the left.

> I assume I should get some "thermal paste", to put between the board and
> the aluminum plate (as per the original design).

That's up to you. MBI supplied them with a tiny amount. It helps but is
not critical: the heat does diffuse through the entire plate.

> There was a piece of amber
> coloured plastic sheet between the board and aluminum when it arrived.

That's a non-adhesive sheet of Kapton. I just put them there to protect
things in shipping. You can actually use that as an electrical insulator
between the plate and board and forego using thermal paste. It will
slow down the heatup time though. You may be best off sticking with
what you know and using thermal paste. However, be warned that the
expensive "artic silver" sold in Radio Shacks does break down overtime
and become conductive. (The directions for it even say to not use
when you need electical insulation.) As such, do not use Artic Silver.
The Artic Ceramique is, however, okay. Or pretty much most other
vanilla, run of the mill thermal greases.

> I'll solder the power wires to the board (as in Erwin Ried's post below)
> That looks like a nice solid solution, and with some heat-shrink over the
> wires/solder connection I'm hoping their will be fewer problems in the
> future.

That is an all around better solution.

Enjoy!
Dan

[Emory Stagmer]

Dan,
   Do you still have any heater boards available? (Yes I realize this was a year ago!).  Just ripped the connector off my HBP board for the 2nd time.  Would like a more permanent fix if possible :)
(Yes I'm Maryland USA)

-- Emory

[Dan Newman]

On 21/06/2015 1:17 PM, Emory Stagmer wrote:
> Dan,
> Do you still have any heater boards available? (Yes I realize this was a
> year ago!). Just ripped the connector off my HBP board for the 2nd time.
> Would like a more permanent fix if possible :)
> (Yes I'm Maryland USA)

Replied to off list. (I actually have one spare left.)

Dan