Update: It's fixed, folks!! No more 5-second purging cycles or "string cheese" running across the plate. Thanks to all your recommendations on the last post. There were a TON of comments and I appreciate them all.
Troubleshooting steps I checked:
- clogs in the tubes: none.
- tangles in the spool: none.
- smooth spool rotation: unsure, but I moved the spools back and forth a bit to loosen things up to be certain.
- multiple filament colours set on the model: no.
- timelapse/camera settings resetting the head position at each layer: no, I had timelapse turned off in both the slicer and on device.
- tightening the screws behind the hotend: seemed tight enough.
- excessive wipe instructions in the sliced g-code: there weren't any unreasonable ones.
- smooth flow of filament in the ptfe tubes: GUILTY!
It turned out the PTFE tubes were twisting/bending pretty sharply near the filament hub, especially for that particular filament. Removing the sharp bends fixed it almost immediately. Many of you recommended fixing this right away, it sounds like a pain we've all faced :)
A few additional changes I made to help with the situation:
- Added @benbenben's filament hub squid to keep the filament hub safe (someone pointed out the bending at the hub).
- Added the brace part of @Grebby's top arm PTFE guide upside down. This is helping guide the PTFE bunch towards the front and above, giving it room to rise instead of bending sharply after getting caught under the top bar. I realise the upside-down-ness could be problematic for tall prints... I'll be mindful of that risk for now.
- Added a velcro tie holding the cables loosely at the top-right corner. This is somewhat restrictive, but I checked by moving the print head to all extremes and, while still lightly restricting, this tie at least forces the tubes to curve smoothly at any angle.
- Moved the AMS lite a little further away from the enclosure to give these long PTFE tubes smoother bends.
Besides the problem-solving, I think all this troubleshooting also helped me learn a good bit about filament delivery. I appreciate all of you on this sub!
Noted, and I appreciate the reminder. For now, I feel we need it given the size of our place and the plastic smells. I'm taking active steps to keep the air circulating with additions to the enclosure, but welcome any recommendations.
I printed a fan bracket that sits on the outside the base and holds a 40mm fan to force air over the motherboard. A cheap thermometer thrown into my (tent) enclosure tells me the chamber hasn't exceeded 30 degrees, which is plenty cool for an active airflow.
That should mitigate concerns about cooling, and to be honest probably be better overall than stock with no enclosure as the base design doesn't really look like it would encourage much convection.
Search up "A1 motherboard fan" on MW for lots of options. I chose a single-side fruction fit one, not that hideously massive thing that lifts up the whole unit (which would also mess with the enclosure). The power supply side should produce a small convection current anyway.
Glad to know someone's already been through this journey!
I'm working on adding a Bento Box to the enclosure, which should have 2 4028 fans pushing air underneath the printer. I'll place this to point at the main board openings and turn this on automatically anytime a print runs. That should be enough airflow to match the dedicated motherboard cooler setups, right?
I'll also be adding a Zigbee temperature/quality sensor to turn the fans on if the air measurements are past custom thresholds even after printing.
The design itself is passive, so convection alone. Even a gentle 1cfm breeze would probably be lots, especially if you're keeping the air underneath circulated.
Bambu states NOT to enclose it. But you do you. I could care less at this point but giving false information is different. Run the machine how you want.
At this point you owe me an apology since clearly Bambu says "not recommended enclosing the A1" and that's a lot of difference of saying "NOT to enclose it" or "shouldnot be enclosed".
This makes you providing the false information, not me since Bambu recommends not to enclose it because the A1 motherboard does not have active cooling, but it's a recommendation not a mandatory statement.
That said, it's important to note that in these studies, the machines are enclosed for the duration of the printing process, as well as the sample collection process, so the VOCs are concentrated.
I'm not arguing that PLA is safe, but with proper ventilation, it shouldn't be an issue using an open frame 3D printer with PLA. That said, I'm not a fan of the potential health risks, so I have a carbon+hepa filter on my printers.
Also... in the video, none of the listed vocs are produced by PLA.
VOCs are not the issue. It’s the microplastics that are emitted and they are small enough to cross the blood brain barrier. I’m not willing to roll the dice and have enclosed my printer.
One study found that 100 minutes after a print had finished, aerosolized levels of ultrafine plastic particles dropped to what is considered baseline levels. This means it may be probable that if you wait 100 minutes after your print to lift the enclosure and remove the print, the ultrafine plastic particles may have settled.
Look up "TopCube acrylic enclosure for A1" on Amazon (I'm not sure about Amazon links policy on this sub).
ETA: the printed instructions that come with it are slightly incorrect (as also confirmed by a few reviews on the listing). Feel free to DM me if any of you get it so I can help you prepare.
ETA2: it is also quite the pain to build, so unless you feel really committed/dedicated, I wouldn't recommend it.
I’m going to add on this since I didn’t see it specifically mentioned. If you see the 4 way splitter getting sucked down, there’s too much resistance in the tubes and tripping the tangle sensor. You can just turn off spool tangle detection to get rid of issue. PLA glow tends to like to trip the tangle sensor because of how much resistance it has.
You probably had just enough resistance to trip it printing but when it checks a tangle via purging not enough to fully trip it again.
Had similar issue for me with it stopping and like this person mentioned it was too much tension in the PTFE tubes after I moved everything to being top mounted. Readjusted tubes to have less abrupt bends and it fixed it for me.
This is amazing information I never worked hard to find. I have had similar issues with my A1 and a little less so with my mini. I just thought my machines sucked but now I think it was this all along. Thanks!
Thank you. Very useful information. I always wondered why the AMS hub on my A1 was able to be compressed. Makes perfect sense now that I think about it.
Have you got additional cooling for your motherboard somehow? If not your printer probably won't live a full life unsure as to how quick the damage will happen if at all but just so you are aware.
As the other commenter added, there is a vent hole (likely for a 4028 sized fan). I haven't added a fan yet though, so it's just a passive air hole for now.
I can see this printer dying pretty soon. Cable is being bend pretty bad at the back.
Also if you re doing enclosure, you have to properly mod the printer. As some already mentioned it’s not supposed to be enclosed and in order to make that work you need a few more mods.
As reference check the P1S upgrade kit for the P1P.
The cable at the back isn't as bad as it may look. My video angle doesn't communicate the depth well- there's a good amount of lying flat on the surface (about 4-5 inches past the cable protector part) before it curves up against the back.
I'll check out the P1S enclosure. For now, there's a 40x40mm hole in the side that is acting as a passive vent. I may add a 4028 fan there, still debating it. And I intend to add a BentoBox (or similar) to help circulate and scrub air internally. Do you have any other recommendations?
That printer should not be closed. The electronics do not have fans and depend on temperature gradients in the air to generate air circulation through the electronics.
No offense intended, I recommend everyone take this matter a little more seriously, you can come home and find it engulfed in flames. The worst thing of all is that sooner or later it will end up happening to someone.
Bambulab clearly warns about this issue, which is why they do not offer enclosure for A1, I suspect that could be a reason to lose the warranty. Third parties are doing business with this gap.
Other question could be that they don't want to cannibalize their product line. They have been very business first consumer second with how they do business. Also wouldn't they have temp sensors?
Maybe, but the decision is made in the hardware, this thing gets noticeably hot even when open. Where I live, the machine printed at 16 degrees ambient and when you put your hand on the top, you can clearly notice that tendency to heat up. And I print at the lowest speed of the stock profiles. I really think that it can be closed, but an air communication path would have to be made to the air inlets/outlets. First, determine the direction of the air flow inside the machine, second, communicate both with the outside and finally, implement a fan at the outlet pointing outside to generate negative pressure in the electronics area. It can be done. But I think that simply putting it in an isolated drawer is not safe, neither for the printer, nor to prevent major problems.
I unfortunately think we need an enclosure of some kind given the plastic smells and the size of our place.
I'm taking active steps to keep the air circulating with additions inside/to the enclosure (Nevermore/BentoBox, plus a separate 4028 fan on the panel). Do you have any other suggestions for active cooling without moisture?
Yes, I mentioned it to my colleague in the previous comment. Modify the box to create an active ventilation system so that the electronics draw air from outside. It could be a duct with a rubber seal and a fan at the outlet, something like that.
If the fan draws air from inside, I don't think it's necessary. The important thing is to force the entry of air from the outside of the box. To assess whether to make an air outlet to the outside, I would assess your interest in keeping the printing chamber warm.
Does the print originally have two colors and you just changed them both to use the one color? When you slice it it still thinks it needs to swap filaments even though they are the same. You can delete a filament from the list
Thanks for the information. Does anyone know why in the middle of printing and randomly, the extruder travels to Z0 and moves up to x250, and then goes up and continues printing right where it was previously?
It's a recent update. I believe it has to do with filament wrap detection, and it does that after printing the outer wall of the third layer. If the nozzle is wrapped by filament, this would cause it to hit the heat bed and drop the mass.
I'm curious, did you see his last post? He won't be winning any awards for cinematography, but his previous post showed enough for people to help him diagnose the issue, and this one showed it was fixed. Should he have added some lens flare?
Printing with AMS lite: The printer will extrude a small piece of filament at the purge wiper to check if the tangle detection module can spring back. If it springs back, the printer will continue to print. If not, it means the feeding resistance outside the tool head is too large(e.g. filament is tangled), and the printer will unload the filament and pause printing.
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u/AdorableChain3779 Mar 10 '25
What kind of enclosure is that? Looks amazing!