[0:00] It’s time to do a bit of 3D printing.
[0:02] Or maybe it’s not time to do some 3D printing.
[0:06] This feels like a great chance to try out my infuay P2 Pro camera.
[0:09] I brought this after seeing it on Big Clive’s channel and got the
[0:12] recommended macro lens attachment as well.
[0:15] Let’s have a look at the connector when we start heating the bed and extruder.
[0:19] I’ve set the extruder to 200 and the bed to 60 degrees centigrade.
[0:23] As soon as you return on the heaters, we can see that the points where the wires
[0:26] go into the connector start to get hot very quickly.
[0:30] This spreads into the connector and down the wires.
[0:32] It’s not a pretty sight.
[0:34] We can get in a lot closer with the macro lens.
[0:37] The connector is still pretty warm from the previous test.
[0:40] We can see that it’s not really the connector that is getting warm though.
[0:43] It’s connections to the connector that are getting hot.
[0:46] At this point the camera did warn me about pointing at things that were too hot for it.
[0:50] We’ll have a deeper look at the P2 Pro later.
[0:54] First, let’s find out what’s going on with the connector.
[0:57] Now apparently this is a known problem with Ender 3 printers.
[1:00] Everyone was talking about it five years ago, but somehow I completely missed it.
[1:05] XT60 connectors should be rated for 60 amps, so there’s no way we should be seeing this problem.
[1:11] In the infrared video, we saw that the heat started where the wires connect to the XT60 connector.
[1:16] Looking under the microscope, we can see that someone has crimped the connectors.
[1:20] This is not how you are supposed to use XT60 connectors.
[1:24] The wires are supposed to be soldered on.
[1:27] The connector doesn’t really come apart anymore, but I was able to crack it open.
[1:31] To use a technical term, it’s completely buggered.
[1:34] I’m actually amazed the printer has been working at all.
[1:37] It’s really crusty and carbonized.
[1:40] It can’t have been making a good connection.
[1:42] Now I could just connect the wires directly,
[1:44] but let’s do things properly and wire up a new XT60 plug and socket.
[1:49] So I watched a few videos on YouTube, and they all made this out to be really easy.
[1:54] First, you just tin the ends of the wire.
[2:01] Then, stick the wire in the socket and reflow the solder, adding a bit more.
[2:06] It couldn’t be much easier.
[2:08] The problem is, there’s not much space to work in, and the wires are pretty short.
[2:13] I did get one side done without too many problems, though I did melt some of the nylon.
[2:17] And I even remembered to put the heat shrink on first, which is normally the mistake I make.
[2:28] So we got one side done without any problems.
[2:31] The other side turned into a real pain.
[2:34] There simply wasn’t enough room to really get in there.
[2:36] I messed it up twice.
[2:38] This one we could probably salvage, but this one I’ve really wrecked.
[2:42] So in the end, I did what I should have done in the first place
[2:44] and took the power supply off and removed the wires.
[2:48] This made it a lot easier, and I was able to solve the negative wire without any problems.
[3:00] Of course, with the positive wire, I completely forgot to put the heat shrink on first,
[3:04] so I had to do it twice.
[3:05] But with them both soldered up nicely, I got the heat shrink done.
[3:22] Reassembling was pretty easy.
[3:24] I did remember to take a photo of the connections before removing them,
[3:27] so I knew exactly where to put them.
[3:30] And finally, we’re able to plug things back together and hit the power switch.
[3:34] But first, a quick plug for the channel sponsor, PCBway.
[3:38] You know who they are, and you know if you want some PCBs,
[3:41] you should go straight to them.
[3:42] They really are great.
[3:50] After a brief moment of panic, I remembered I’d unplugged it.
[3:54] So we have success.
[3:55] It all powers up again.
[3:57] Let’s see if our new connector actually works.
[3:59] I’m running the same experiment as before.
[4:02] We’ll heat up the hot end to 200 and the bed to 60.
[4:14] Well, that’s looking much better.
[4:16] I’ve run it up so that everything is fully heated,
[4:18] and we’ve only gone up to about 30 degrees.
[4:21] I am thinking it might be worth upgrading the cables to something a bit better.
[4:25] I’m not sure the current cables are actually copper,
[4:27] so we’re probably losing a bit of power.
[4:30] The macro lens on the camera is really good.
[4:33] This is the little driver board for the LEDs that I’ve got around the frame of my printer.
[4:43] Here’s the heated bed, and here’s the hot end.
[4:46] I think this infrared camera is going to be really handy.
[4:50] I’ve put a link to it in the description.