RepRap Tricolour power connector heating up

Hey all,

While printing today, I ran into an issue with with the power connector between the power supply and RepRap heating up to burning temperatures (hot enough to brand my finger. Ouch!). I've been trying to diagnose some Y-Axis jittering, and turned up the potentiometer on the Y-Axis a bit. Could that have been the cause of the overheating? I've pulled the plug before, and never had it get even warm.

John.

It turned out that the potentiometer was the cause. Turning down the Y-Axis (and the X-Axis a tad to fix jittering) stopped the overheating.

John.

What type of controller board? Ramps? If the power wires going from the supply to the controller are getting hot, you are using too small of wiring and I can not see how a pot adjustment would affect that.

Assuming you are using Ramps, it will draw up to 16 amps under normal conditions. If something were to fail and if the stars aligned, the fuses would allow it to draw up to 32 amps before they trip. The fuse that powers the motors, hotend, logic and everything else EXCEPT the heated bed is an MFR500 which is rated to sustain 5amps and trip at 10amps. So theoretically that line can draw 10amps before it shuts down.

I find it really hard to believe that the pot controlling motor amperage is affecting the power supply wires and if that minute change in amperage is causing the wires to overheat than you really need to upgrade them or you are at a fire risk.

This website can help you determine what size wire you need. [www.powerstream.com]

It's the Melzi controller that came with the kit. The wires are the 20A wires that come with the kit.

Back to my previous statement, something else is wrong.

I will keep an eye on it, and continue to measure with the temperature probe on my multimeter.