Ender 3 V3 SE - Head crash during auto-level

Hi Community.

After 2 months of awesomeness in 3D printing and me really enjoing it as a new hobby, now my Ender 3 V3 SE makes some trouble:
During Auto-leveling the print head heats up, and then keeps smacking the nozzle into the bed, already burned + pushed some wholes in the bed…

Sadly not an april-fools joke…

See video:

And now i’m waiting support to get back to me.

There goes my easter weekend without any printing :frowning:

Already did a factory reset, which makes me stuck now totally.
After selecting the language after factory reset, first thing is of course a bed-level process automatically starting, which ends up, as you can see in the video… :frowning:

Anyone any ideas or suggestions?

Hi
From that video the pressure sensor on the bed is NOT functioning.
I suggest you unscrew the 4 bed screws under the bed plate, gently lift it up and check the connections from the sensor to the circuit board and from the circuit board to the printer. it is possible one of the connectors has become detached.
You will see the pressure sensor at the front left of the steel bed support plate.
Have you recently removed the bed or removed the base plate under the printer?
If you have a multimeter and know how to use it you can check the load sensor to make sure it is working.
When you put the bed back there are 4 standoffs, 3 the same and 1 shorter. the short standoff goes at the back left

Hi Kevin,

thanks for the fast reply and the suggestion.
Yes you could be right.
No i have not removed the bed or the base plate.
I would assume when I do that, that I would void my warrenty, no?
As far as I can see from looking “below the bed and the base” from the side, the connectors to the (i assume it is) the pressure sensor look fine.
Seems also they are glued with hot glue, so would be hard to get loose by itself.


They might be hot melt glued in but they can still get dislodged. I don’t see how lifting the bed to check will void the warranty. I can’t think of any screws on the machine that have a void if removed sticker. Like most FDM machines there is a fair amount of DIY to using one. i would also check the CR touch sensor connections, they have been known to come loose despite the hot melt glue.

Thanks for the fast feedback, guys!

Cables and connectors look all fine and firmly attached as far as i can judge.
Nothing loose, nothing obviously broken or so.

I do not have anything like a multimeter to do some more detailed checks, so hope that support will get back to me soon.
(with something more than asking for the serial number and the proof of purchase that I’d send them twice so far…)

I’m kinda relieved already, that you guys had some suggestions to check some things, and nothing too obvious that I might have done wrong as a 3D-printing newbie!

1 Like

Has cambiado el nozzle?. Puede ser que no este muy apretado, a mi me sucedio, se solto de nuevo recien comprado y se me soluciono al apretar el nozzle. Pruebe a ver si…

Does the CR touch look like it is popping the probe out like it should? I know the BL touch on my Ender 5 plus has been known to get stuck, I presume the CR touch can also get stuck.

The Nozzle is tightly screwed into the heat block.

It looks to work ok when the printer does the first “touchdown” in the mid of the print-bed before moving to the left front of the bed, starting to heat up in preparation of the auto-bed level process => see video

You should be instantly shutting down power when you hear the stepper motor noise! Jamming the stepper motor can damage your belts, etc…

As Kevin_Eames mentioned it is your strain gauge sensor not operating or a component on the main board not being able to process the the strain gauge’s signal and thus the Z axis stepper motor just keeps on pushing down.

Your probe behaving like a limit switch is working because the nozzle isn’t touching the bed at the centre of the bed. Then the head moves over above the strain gauge to determine the difference in height between the nozzle that just kisses the bed and the probe that touched the bed earlier.

Exactly what i did…since this does not sound “healthy” at all.

Just had to “force” it again to be able to create the video for the support case…

Since then the printer is OFF and stays OFF until the issue is resolved.