Q*bert times 3

While trying to troubleshoot the molten ball on the top row,  I had the extraction fan and lights all working. I noticed it took longer than “normal” to heat the bed. I had adjusted the heated bed temperature to be approx 100 degrees but it was slow. heating up, I thought this was odd, previously using my old mark 2 heated bed it was taking approx 18 minutes to reach 115 degrees C. Now it was taking 30 minutes to reach 100 degrees.

It was a nice day outside so the air at the end of the extraction tube should not be detrimental to heating the bed. My first thought was that the fan was making turbulence or cool wind inside the enclosure. At this point I disconnected the  tube and turned off the fan. I added some thermometers into the enclosure and noticed it was just room temperature.  Where is all the heat? This is really not what I expected. It seemed that the bed was just heating extremely slowly the surrounding area was not getting warm at all. I had turned down the heated bed to 100 degrees when printing my Q*bert calibration print and did not notice it was taking so long to heat up until now.

I did some research for some similar issues and found that most people were suggesting check the voltage value at the connection at the bed. I removed the bed from the mountings turned it so I could access the terminals and turned on the printer and measured 10.5 volts, I was shocked and stunned that the value was this low.

I remembered how on the old bed that these terminals were easy to access and had previously  measured around 11.7 volts on the MK 2 board.

OK, there is something wrong. The poor printing was not my only issue. At this point I wish I had not changed so many things at the same time.