Airprint, extruder clicking…
Just came back to do some groceries to find that my print failed about 95% done… Was airprinting and extruder was going click click click…
What the heck coule be causing this ! Done 2x 2h long print yesterday and today no problem then boum…
Almost look like the filament is breaking inside the extruder…
Clog? Pot too high? Temp too low? Sometimes a fan on the extruder motor helps. Ymmv
@Brook_Drumm Already have a 40mm fan on the top of the extruder motor and it does help. Printing PLA at 200C. Like I said I did 2 prints of about 2h yesterday and this morning with the same spool.
I’m starting to think inventing some sort of meter that can see if the filament is being used and maybe to a pause on OctoPrint if it detects that printer may be doing airprint. A rotary encoder may be able to do the trick.
I just had a similar failure myself (about 18 hours in to a 30 hour print) and was thinking along the same lines. An auto-pause would be awesome.
@Patrick_Ryan the electronics and software would be pretty simple. Could probably be done with old ball mouse parts I have been saving. These mice had a minimum of 2 rotary encoders.
Wire the pulse output to the RasbperryPi on a GPIO. While printing there should always be a pulse if the pulse stops then your into a possible air print situation.
Biggest thing is making the rotary encoder wheel roll with the filament. Had to pinch enough the filament but not too much so that the extruder has to force pull the filament.
Or you could just figure out what’s causing the issue and fix it. Auto pause sounds cool, but why not just fix the root cause?
@Evan_Nguyen Because you never plan for shit to stop working, yet it occasionally does. It’d be nice as an insurance policy.
Nothing against Brook and printrbot, but I stopped having these problems once I got rid of the Ubis on my 2 Simple’s.
@Evan_Nguyen Care to enlight us on your miracle Ubis replacement ?
No miracle. I have an ED3 v6 on one and a J-head on the other. Ubis prints exceptionally well and then degrades after about a month or two. There’s also no way to know what type of replacement you’re going to get whether it be the nicrome or the cartridge type heater. I understand these hotends all get clogged, jam and whatnot, but I’d rather pay a little more and not have to worry about failed prints as much. Almost everything I’ve been printing is in the 6-12 hours range. I’ve logged over 900 hours on the ED3 and over 1000 hours on the J-head. I’ve had my fair share of failed prints throughout that time, but the hotends were not the cause.
Interesting, and how is the retrofit to get a ED3 or J-head on a Simple ?
I made some adapters so they can still sit below the induction probe. So far it hasn’t been an issue.
I think it is a clog. The filament that gets out of the tip is much smaller than it should (0.4mm tip). I’ll swap it with a clean/new one.
What is your advise on cleaning the tip (only using PLA). Bath in acetone for a day or 2 ? Then good clean ?
Have you tried the nylon cold pull method? Acetone doesn’t dissolve PLA, but it should soften it up a bit so it might work if you can afford to let it sit for a little bit.
@Andre_Courchesne1 I’ve had good results with a torch and a micro drill bit. Burn it clean with the torch, gently ream with the bit.
@Patrick_Ryan Sounds like a good enough excuse to get myself a torch !
As if one were needed? 
Whenever mine clicks it’s typically a filament jam.
$8 tip should fix it. But your call. Jams happen with all tips. I never clean them, I just replace but my unlimited supply spoils me.
All hotends are a heated tube, so not sure how one hotend could have an advantage over another on jams.
Btw, all hotends are the ibis ceramic (nichrome) - have been for months. Soon, we will cut over to our all metal hotend for everything. A high performance version will follow for 300C+ and (very much) faster extrusion. The high performance will give up a little on the z.
Tease: I think everyone will like our new price on our all metal extruder.
Brook
@Brook_Drumm haha I dream for the day that I have an unlimited supply of hotends. Oh the perks of being a 3d printing company owner… 
