Anyone know what size / type connector to order to replace the head bed connector end? I've got about 5 cables that need to be repaired and they only need a new heat bed connector. Tired of paying 60 plus dollars for these things. Thanks
You're gonna need a precision crimper with replacable dies. Those things go around 400 bucks new. The only thing the el cheapo 20$ ones are good for is stress relief. How many cables are you planning to rework?
Or you can bodge it together with duct tape and hope that once it catches fire you'll be around to put it out.
I don't have a problem spending the money on a crimper. I have several cables to rework. Do you have any information regarding this?
I would browse the Mouser or Digi-Key catalogs, shouldn't be too hard to find a Molex or TE Connectivity (formerly AMP) replacement. And I'm sure you can use a decent hand crimper at a reasonable price (<$50) if you google around a bit.
This is the one I use, it's quite good:
http://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/connectors/tools/crimp_dx/
As always Julia you're a life saver!
I'm just wondering, has nobody else experienced this issue and what do you do? Order a new cable? That's what I've been doing. I treat the connections very gingerly, even going sofar as putting heat shrink on the connection to maintain them and still have this problem.
I'm surprised that the big connector would ever fail, it's so heavy-duty. My printers are 2-1/2 years old, heavily used, and never any problem with this one. The small sensor connector on my v1 did finally go, but I was fiddling with it a lot at the time. That one is a nightmare to change, don't even bother trying to crimp it, just get tweezers and solder. Most of my prints are only very lightly adhered, so I it's not necessary for me to remove the bed when removing prints.
Its the real small white connector on the wire coming from the mainboard to the top plate. The big one that hooks onto the heat plate hasn't given me any problems on any of my printers, (I have 10 at present), it's that little white one that fails. Due to the type of stuff I'm printing, I am required to remove the heat bed every print so the little white connector gets removed and replaced at least twice daily. We are VERY gentle with it but it still fails. I ordered the crimp tool but am still trying to properly identify that connector so I order the correct one. Bout to get dizzy from looking at em all...LOL
Oh, this thread is entitled "Heat Bed Connector", so I thought you meant the big connector that goes to the heater. The little connector is for height sensing. The parts for the small connector are listed here:
http://forum.zortrax.com/index.php?/topic/1151-bed-sensor-connectors/#entry16650
As I said, don't bother trying to crimp those teeny tiny contacts, you're better off soldering, but it's a real tricky operation.