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Anet A8 with Cura. First time use. The extrusion temperature is set at 190 °C for PLA but the temperature never quite gets that hot, e.g. 189.2 °C. So the printer never prints.

The bed temperature is fine.

Any suggestions on how to fix?

0scar
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RetiredBill
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  • Have you run a PID tune since you got it? – Granny Feb 05 '18 at 14:30
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    Did you manage to solve your problem since you posted the question? If yes consider upvoting any answer that helped (and select as "accepted" the one that solved the problem if any), or alternatively, consider writing your own answer explaining what the problem was and how you fixed. This is so that other users can benefit from your your question and the answers too. Thanks! – mac Feb 15 '18 at 23:05

6 Answers6

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Two common problems to look out for in this situation:

  • Make sure that your part fan (the fan that is supposed to cool the filament you just extruded, and that does not start spinning until the print starts) do not blow air on the hot end of your extruder.
  • Make sure that your hot end is well insulated. If available for your printer, silicone sleeves are the best:

silicone sleeves

otherwise the most common, universal and low-cost solution are cotton pads:

enter image description here

mac
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  • Neither of those is capable of limiting a hotend this drastically, when typically a hotend can be driven to over 240 degrees C. – Carl Witthoft Feb 05 '18 at 13:47
  • @CarlWitthoft - The fact you haven't experienced it does not mean that it can't happen. That was a common problem one some batches of the Trinus, solved exactly with the sleeve (iirc that was actually the reason why they start selling them) – mac Feb 05 '18 at 16:53
  • ...although, to be fair, I don't remember what was the temperature it failed to reach (may have been 200°C rather than 190°C) – mac Feb 05 '18 at 16:59
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    I am up-voting this because it turns out that it was because my extruder was not insulated. I purchased some cotton based insulation and wrapped it around just like the picture above and my temperature became stable again. – Razor Feb 17 '20 at 09:39
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    My hotend was touching extured motor metal holder. After giving distance between them it started to reach correct temperature. I also supported the situation with silicone cap and cotton insulator. – Sami Onur Zaim Apr 10 '21 at 11:44
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It could be as Carl Witthoft said, that the thermistor is broken. But it looks like the PID is not calibrated correctly. It probably can reach higher T's but stops, because the P portion is not high enough. Anyways, before printing use a software of your choice (Repetier, Pronterface...) and perform a PID tuning specified here:

http://reprap.org/wiki/PID_Tuning

After that everything should work out fine.

Tobias Zech
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Take a careful look at the thermistor in the hotend. If it's defective it might well not be providing correct temperature information back to the control board. As a very quick check, try swapping the thermistor from the bed (if possible), or buy a replacement thermistor and drop it in.
I'm not familiar with the Anet controller but possibly there's a calibration pot on the board; if so it may be causing the digital hardware to mis-read the actual sensed temperature.

Carl Witthoft
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0

Often it is the filament. Most PLA filaments start melting at 190 °C and have a good print consistency up to about 220 °C. If filament is ever getting stuck in the extruder, up the set temperature.

Greenonline
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Carson Tracy
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Please check that the power supply's (SMPS) output voltage is 12 V (while loaded).

Note: Be careful while measuring, as there is a hazard of shock.

In my case, the voltage was 10 V with one supply and 8 V with another supply. I bought a new one with 12 V and the printer is now running fine.

My printer Tronoxy i3 (Prusa i3 Mk-II).

Hope it helps you too.

0scar
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Bineet Kumar
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I had the same problem.

If your mains supply is 110 V, then make sure that the voltage selector switch of your PSU is set to 110 V... it should then print.

If the voltage selector switch is set to the default of 220 V, and the mains supply is only 110 V, then the PSU will not provide enough current.

Note: If your mains is 240 V then changing the voltage selector to 110 V will damage your PSU or worse.

Greenonline
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Tue Nhan Bhikkhu
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    ***This could be dangerous, destructive advice***. If the OP's mains voltage is 240 V then doing what you suggest will fry the PSU, or worse. We don't know what the OP's mains voltage is. You should [edit] your answer to clarify this. Just to clarify, do you live in a country that uses 110 V as a mains supply? – Greenonline Apr 01 '22 at 08:05