20 conductor Cetus Mk3 heat bed cable with vaporized center trace.Big Mama Cetus blew her cool again right in the middle of a normal print. This Hot Mama is going to be sent to a quite religious Convent where she can live the life of a reformed sinner… with no more hot flashes.
Good thing I was sitting right in front of the printer, when about halfway through a normal operating print, the heated bed ribbon cable suddenly burst into a large puff of smoke. This is the second time, so I knew exactly what was happening. I immediately lunged for the “power off” switch on the side of the printer.
A power trace in the middle of the ribbon cable had again (2nd time) vaporized the plastic coating.
I took micro-photos of the cable ends. The problem originated in the controller board end of the cable and NOT at the heated bed. The picture shows a group of “cooked” contact points.
The cable connectors and the cable itself is NOT CAPABLE of sustaining the load of the high power that it is required to pass. While multiple traces in parallel are used to distribute the power load in the cable, it is clearly evident the tiny terminal contact points are not intended for such power loading long term. In my case rather short term.
If I had not been present when this happened, I could have easily suffered a tragic fire and perhaps severe loss of property and worse case, life.
The Tiertime Cetus III Heat bed system is a serious defect in design and engineering and all users should disconnect the ribbon cable immediately and cease heated bed operations.
An outstanding minimalist printer has become a possible life threatening monster with the upgrade to the high power heated build plate. IT IS DANGEROUS!
I will continue to use this printer without the heated bed ribbon cable. All other functions and control have tested normal, and no collateral damage to the printer has been detected.
I have suffered two (2) exact same cable failures on the Cetus Mk3 high power heated print bed. There will not be a third.
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| Heat bed end, no apparent damage. | Controller end. Severly overheated connection traces. |
UPDATE 8/26/2020:
Tiertime (Cetus) has contacted me. They will replace the damaged controller board and failed 20 conductor cable under warranty. This will be the third board and cable. This repairs the damage. Not sure that it will cure the problem. Best they can do for now. Thank-you Tiertime.