I’m at a loss. After changing material and shutting down, the M300 throws the error code #032
“Check the main extruder cable and restart the printer”, and refuses to boot.
I unplugged the main extruder cable and plugged it back in, to no avail.
How do I even start looking what the culprit is, before I order the wrong part…
One thing I noticed is that it took abnormally long for the extruder to heat up to change the material. But before I replace the heating element, any other possible culprits?
Thanks in advance!
Update 1: I found it to be the thermocouple.
at the two cables coming out of the thermocouple, I measure a resistance of 18 Ohm, but at the connector, there’s an open circuit. There must be a fracture somewhere in one of the cables, or in the connector itself.
I’ll replace the heater and thermocouple, and see if this fixes it.
Update 2: I replaced the heater and thermocouple unit, the printer works again! Also, the continuity test on the extruder cable indicated no faults in the cable itself, which makes sense because the fault didn’t lie there. Thanks for the help.
When facing error #032 - most likely either the extruder cable or extruder PCB is at fault. Please, refer to our support center.
However, in specific cases - yes, the heater&thermocouple might be respnsible for the issue as well. Resistance is too high, it should be around 15-16 Ohm. Also, you noticed that it takes longer to heat up the extruder and change the materal - this could indicate the heater’s failure.
As for the extruder cable - you can do the continuity test. There are multiple paths inside the cable - set a multimeter to buzzer and then check every cable’s path at a time. If the path is fine, the buzzer will beep. If not - this means the path is broken and the cable should be replaced with a new one.
Thanks for getting back to me. I will do the continuity test as well as replacing the heater & thermocouple unit.
Can I do a continuity test on the PCB itself?
I believe its only functionality is guiding the different paths to the correspondent pins of the other connectors on the PCB, is that correct?
No, checking the continuity on the PCB will not provide accurate results. Thus, it is worth checking the heater&thermocouple and extruder cable to exclude their failure. Still, you are right when it comes to the PCB’s functionality.