Heads up for crispy Rex-C100 knock-offs 
Posted by Dirty Steve
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Heads up for crispy Rex-C100 knock-offs September 08, 2013 11:45AM |
This happened at about hour 44 of a 48 hour print. Luckily, my plans to be out of the house this night changed and I caught it before anything else went up in flames. Yes, the controller was actually on fire, not just melted. Only other damage was some black smoke marks on the inside of my enclosure, and melted the thermocouple leads at the controller.
It's a knock off Rex-C100 sourced from eBay.
Note that I have been using this PID controller heavily over the past year, and have replaced the output relay a couple of times without incident, last time a few months ago. Same printer electronics enclosure I have been running all along, with vent holes and fans.
I have also had several print runs that have lasted for 5 full days unattended without issue.
I believe these knock-off controllers have some type of over heat protection as I also have one of these on my filament extruder that would power off when over heated. I had overlooked adding vent holes in my electronics enclosure.
Replaced it with a Mypin TA4, now back to printing, and the Mypin actually seems to have a tighter high\low swing from set temp, +/- 1C, much better than I could get with the Rex, +/- 3C at it's best PID settings.
Just sharing my electronics failure for anyone that may be using a Rex-C100 knock-off.
Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2013 12:57AM by Dirty Steve.
It's a knock off Rex-C100 sourced from eBay.
Note that I have been using this PID controller heavily over the past year, and have replaced the output relay a couple of times without incident, last time a few months ago. Same printer electronics enclosure I have been running all along, with vent holes and fans.
I have also had several print runs that have lasted for 5 full days unattended without issue.
I believe these knock-off controllers have some type of over heat protection as I also have one of these on my filament extruder that would power off when over heated. I had overlooked adding vent holes in my electronics enclosure.
Replaced it with a Mypin TA4, now back to printing, and the Mypin actually seems to have a tighter high\low swing from set temp, +/- 1C, much better than I could get with the Rex, +/- 3C at it's best PID settings.
Just sharing my electronics failure for anyone that may be using a Rex-C100 knock-off.
Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2013 12:57AM by Dirty Steve.
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Re: Heads up for crispy Rex-C100 knock-offs January 10, 2017 06:48AM |
Old post but I just had an incident with one of these. It was not regulating it's temperature at all, regardless of what tyou set it at, it would continue to climb up to 400C and possibly higher. I took apart the RKC PID, found it was wired incorrectly (the casing was for a different controller).. I fixed it all up, poked around all the menus setting things up again, then hit go and BANG. The relay exploded. Fair to say it was not ACTUALLY rated for 5A and 12V as it implied. Knock offs are potentially deadly, happy travells fellow cheapskates, hope you dont end up on fire like I did 
Please note in my attatchment, that is not a transformer - that is the burned out husk of a relay. Good times.
Please note in my attatchment, that is not a transformer - that is the burned out husk of a relay. Good times.
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