Thermal Runaway error

Sieo · Post by **Sieo** » 26 Jun 2018, 12:30

The last few weeks the printer would stop between 1 and 4 hours into the print showing the error message THERMAL RUNAWAY.

Any ideas what could be the issue?

It may be coincidence, but winter started a few weeks back, with temperatures dropping below 20 degrees C.
I did notice tonight when it was printing, that after 2 hours, it was showing a temperature of 189 degrees, when it should have been 205. When it started it did have a temperature of 205.

MrDoom · Post by **MrDoom** » 26 Jun 2018, 15:36

Hello Sieo,

that kind of temperature should pose no problem when printing.
Make sure you have installed the latest firmware for the helloBEEprusa as the heating parameters were improved in one of the updates.´

If that doesn't work you will need to tune you PID (temperature control loop). I made a mini tutorial here viewtopic.php?f=8&t=719&p=2861&hilit=PID#p2861

Another possibility, which might be the case if either the temperature reading sometimes reads 0 or 999 suddenly o the temperature starts dropping a big ammount during printing relatively quickly but then quickly recovers after a few seconds, if so it meansbthat you have a bad connection on your heating cartridge or temperature probe and the printer is shuting down due to safety, if that is the case make sure all the cables are correctly tightened to the motherboard.

Sieo · Post by **Sieo** » 29 Jun 2018, 08:12

Thanks for the help.

I had the latest firmware. Have had problems with it loading/unloading filament, would get close to temperature, then go into a cycle cooling and heating but never reaching the required temperature.

Re-ran the PID tune, and it came up with different numbers. Checked the connections to the board, reseated some of them.
Didn't make any difference. Hours into the print it would stop with the same error.

I ended up swapping the sensor and heating element between the blocks which has fixed it. The printer is just over a year old, but never had much success dual printing, so the second extruder has been barely used.

So looks like a fault in the sensor or heating element. Visually I couldn't see any problems.

MrDoom · Post by **MrDoom** » 04 Jul 2018, 18:38

Hello Sieo,

most likely it broke due to the extruder moving back and forth while printing together with a loose cable, make sure the cables are all well stuck together after leaving the extruder, otherwise one of the cables might be taking most of the bending force instead of distributing it between them all.

Happy printing

Warnerhoalk · Post by **Warnerhoalk** » 13 Jan 2019, 09:49

so, my printer has started throwing thermal runaway errors and forcing a re-start, even though I havent changed any firmware or installed the sensor yet. is there an auto update feature that may have downloaded it? how can I fix this?

Post by **DomingosRodrigues** » 14 Jan 2019, 11:14

Hello Warnerhoalk,

the printer only shows a thermal runaway error if either a sensor is reading incorrectly or if you are using a temperature the printer is being unable to achieve.

Check all your thermal sensor wires, bed, E0 and E1, and also verify if your heaters are corretly screwed on to the motherboard.

There is no Auto-update feature. But you should install the latest firmware as the last update makes the bed less sensitive to such errors especially on higher temperatures.

If possible describe the situation where the problem happened a little better, what material are you using, hotend temperature, bed temperature, etc...

Best regards
Domingos Rodrigues

Champ49 · Post by **Champ49** » 16 Jun 2020, 17:39

Been having the same issue
This is not an issue with the "hardware" or "loose wires" for me. I had my stock ender-3 board installed with th3d and the bed heated fine and i never got this thermal shutdown error. After installing the skr mini with the latest marlin firmware is when i started getting this error. It happens from time to time (not always) but it happens. I got another skr mini board e3 and got the latest marlin firmware. Exact same issue. I swapped again back to th3d with stock board to see again no issue. I am asuming that alot of these thermal errors are either from the configuration of marlin or the mini skr board. I checked all wires. and the heated bed is properly soldered, nothing loose.

If anyone can skip the loose connection suggestion and tell us a config that works that would be more helpful.

Xander · Post by **Xander** » 26 Jun 2020, 23:07

Same issue here. I decided to stick around and watch the print leading up to the error. I saw that it was reading temperatures like 185 (when trying to print PLA and a set temperature of 205), but the PLA was smoking as it came out of the hot end, and I could smell the PLA burning. This tells me that it was at a MUCH higher temperature than the readout. This issue actually started when I was running PETG, but was fine with PLA, so I switched to just running PLA and a week later started having issues with PLA. It is intermittent though, sometimes functions just fine and sometimes errors out.

Post by **DomingosRodrigues** » 01 Sep 2020, 14:06

Hello,

the problems you describe appear to be caused by a damaged thermistor on the hotend, the failure isn't complete but a connection problem inside the thermistor glass bead hence the intermittent result you are getting. The first test should be using the other extruder and seeing if the issue still exists on E2, if not most likely the sensor on E1 needs replacement.

If using a custom firmware ensure you use the correct thermistor table otherwise the read temperature will be incorrect.

Best regards
Domingos Rodrigues

BEEVERYCREATIVE