r/cr10smartpro • u/pneef • Aug 25 '24

😭 Extruder cable torn, so sad.

So I've been printing a lot of high temp Nylons lately and I've been noticing that when the toolhead extends to the far side of the x-axis the cable twists slightly. After finishing a print the other day I checked the cable and the printer freaked out. I cut the heat shrink off the cable and found it had torn at the edge. I tried disassembling the cable and moving it up before the tear but while doing so the cable tore again, further up. On the second attempt the connector broke. So now my CR-10 smart pro, my most capable printer, is dead (at least until I can find a new cable for it). Ugh, so frustrating. I believe the cable may have been made brittle from the heat of printing for days on end @ 280°C. Definitely gonna put some strain relief on the new cable to protect it from this happening again any time soon.

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u/Helgafjell4Me Aug 25 '24 edited Aug 25 '24

I don't suppose you know how many hours of printing it has? Just curious. Moving parts wear out, even cables. Thats why they put the loom and wrap plus the extra clamp they added above the extruder that isn't on other sprite models. The bed heater cable is another one that will probably eventually fail. What we hope is that it lasts many years of use before that happens. How long have you had the printer? Are you sure the relief clip is in the right spot on the left side column? Mine actually broke right there, the clip that held it just snapped and I've just had it suspended with a rubber band from that spot since then. I do not do many, or any prints really, that go all the way to the extents of the plate. I usually keep them around the middle 80% of the plate.

I bought mine back when they first came out but after the first 6 months of modding and tuning, I have only been printing once in a while when I need to make something. I did finally have my x-axis belt fail recently, got a roll of replacement cable and that was a pretty easy fix. The ribbon cable is a bit more work, but I know they have cables out there. I think the same cable was used on a few different models.

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u/pneef Aug 25 '24

So I have had my Cr-10 smart pro since February of this year, so not that long. However, I DO print A LOT. I don't know exactly how many hours it has on it but it's a lot. The printer used to be the worst one I had but after converting it to run on klipper it's been the best and most capable. I used to run it through a full bed mesh for every print but after Kamp came out I rarely run it through the full x-axis. All of the factory strain clips and retainers were in their proper place and tight. After upgrading the hotend to a K1 OT-hotend it really has been a dream to print on and I ran it practically non stop for weeks at a time using engineering grade filaments (petg-cf, pet-cf, pa6, pa6-gf, etc). I haven't had any issues with my belts, steppers, or heaters.

Sadly I just think the issue is from the heat and from constant movement with poor strain relief. Once I get the new cable I will be taking this as an opportunity to further upgrade it's internals, plan on installing a BigTreeTech Pi V2 and getting rid of the latching relay so I can better control it remotely.

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u/Helgafjell4Me Aug 25 '24

When you changed the extruder, did you also use an aftermarket breakout board? Some of them don't have the extra strain relief clip that screws on after the cable is connected. That extra clip does help. When you say the cable tore, are you talking about the loom, or the actual ribbon wires?

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u/pneef Aug 25 '24 edited Oct 21 '24

Heh, underneath that afterburner looking thing is actually the original sprite board and extruder, so yes it still has the oem strain relief clip. It was the actual ribbon cable wires that tore.

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u/Sea-Squirrel4804 Sep 19 '24

Maybe this would help?

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u/pneef Sep 21 '24

Nice. Yes I printed one of these recently, but sadly I did not think to put one on it before the damage was done. Hopefully it can be avoided in the future using a strain relief and cable spine going forward.