Join broken heater cartridge wire

[Matt Saeger]

Hi, 

I have a break in the wire going to my heater cartridge. I would rather not run the wire all the way through to the board. What would you all recommend to fix the break? I have read to not just solder it and I should use some kind of crimp. The heater and thermistor have female jst connectors on them and the wire running to the board has a male. The break is close to the female one. 

Thanks 

Matt 

[TobyCWood]

I’d first find the root cause for the break. If it’s related to cable motion I’d replace the heater since it’ll probably break again, as well as rework the cabling to make sure all motion is spread across the entire cable bundle length and not at one spot.

[LukeH]

I agree that you should be looking at your strain relief - heater cartridge wires shouldn’t just spontaneously break.

It is also weird that the heater wires have a JST connector, since more often than not, screw connectors are used. That means if you replace your heater cartridge you have to add a connector to the wires. Even though JST connectors are supposed to be good up to 3A (and should technically be fine with a 50W cartridge, as long as you have a 24V system - 12V systems would draw way too much current), that would rely on your crimped ends being perfect.

In any case you can join the wire using solder, or those solder inside heat shrink things (where you just stick the wire in each end and heat it up and the wire is mechanically and electrically joined). Personally I  use a screw terminal block connector (and bootlace ferrules) somewhere close to the hot end on my printers to nake replacing the heater cartridge and thermistor super easy, and not require me to snake new wires all the way back to the control board,  so I guess that would also be fine as a repair.

[Matt Saeger]

The break is right at a cover that goes around the hotend from it rubbing on the cover. Probably from we not getting the wires in there as good as they originally were when I have been messing around replacing fans. 

If there isn't a intermediary connector between the heater and the board it would be a big pain to replace the heater! This thing is all enclosed and the boards are on the bottom so the wire runs from the hotend through a wire loom down the back to the bottom. 

I was only questioning soldering because I remember on my e3d v6 them saying you couldn't solder the connections and needing to use some crimp on ones. Today I cut the connectors off and joined the wires with some crimp connections to see if it would heat up. It heats up but I think I need to figure out how to run pid auto tune on this creality thing because the temp isn't stable. I did use a new heater cartridge and kept the original thermistor. 

I ordered a jst connector kit and a crimper (never put them on before) as well as another creality heater cartridge with the long wire so I decide if I want to run it all the way to the board or put a connection in there. 

My old reprap was much easier to replace stuff on. 

[Edward Simpson]

I've had to replace heater cartridges a couple times before,  just used the red 18-gauge but-crimp connecters from my local hardware store, they seem to work just fine after PID tuning for the new heater.