Replacement Control Board

Share your hardware improvements for your HIC i3, the good and the bad!
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m00se
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Joined: September 12th, 2016, 4:39 pm
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Replacement Control Board

Post by m00se »

Hi everyone! New to the forums. Bought my hictop about a month ago and have been enjoying it.

I noticed the connection for the hotbed was fried this morning, and am looking for a replacement. I was wondering if anyone had upgraded their control board. I was looking on amazon for a replacement, and it seems like the hictop control boards are like this in general (no circuit protection).

Hictop Control Board

The reviews are mixed, but the 5 stars are people saying that it's a good spare.

In one of the 1 start reviews, someone recommended getting a board from 'OSOYOO'. I found this Control Board, but wanted suggestions from other hictop owners.

I will probably upgrade my power supply and wire at the same time (I was looking at the one that Chip Luck posted in the power supply upgrade post).
m00se
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Re: Replacement Control Board

Post by m00se »

After the initial post, I went home and at my control board to see what it looked like. Well, it definitely wasn't pretty.

Image

I ordered the new board and have been extremely happy since. It is smaller than the original board, but the screw holes are in the same place, so it can easily be swapped out. To give an idea on the size, the screw holes are in the 4 corners of the board.

When installing the new board, I realized just how much damage had been done as I wasn't able to unscrew the negative wire for the heat bed. The cable had started to oxidize too. I ended up having to cut the wire. Here is the final result of the board being removed.

Image

Chip - thank you for the help with the firmware in the other forum post.
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LePaul
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Re: Replacement Control Board

Post by LePaul »

Ouch! I hope that popped while you were home and about to use the device. Otherwise....scary
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Chaco
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Re: Replacement Control Board

Post by Chaco »

glad ur back in business.... i feel the same as you... like i know the stock hictop board "get the job done", but would like to know more about what other alternatives are out there on boards that are better quality.
if mines were to fry today, i would likely just buy the same again just to get me back on the road ASAP... but i been hearing about the smoothieboard.... and just not sure if its just overkill
m00se
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Re: Replacement Control Board

Post by m00se »

The smoothie board looks great, and I definitely want to look into that. But...it was a little too much for me to consider at the time...especially when I'm looking for an immediate replacement. I'm looking into building a printer from scratch in the next month or two, so I will probably get one then. I can provide feedback on the board then if you're still interested.

As for the board that I got as a replacement, I'm super happy with it. I can definitely tell an improvement by how well the printer works, but that could also be because I was forced to upgrade the firmware...
AndrewJLLeather
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Re: Replacement Control Board

Post by AndrewJLLeather »

I'm looking for a good replacement board too. Just a half an hour ago my board caught fire. Freaked me the hell out. Thank god I was sitting next to it. Something tells me the screw terminals are not up to snuff
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Chaco
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Re: Replacement Control Board

Post by Chaco »

when i built my hypercube, i wanted a board like the hictop one... 24V, all in one... So i got the OSOYOO MKS Gen v1.5 off amazon for like $38.... been working great for me and i have over 350 hrs of print time so far...
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Roberts_Clif
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Re: Replacement Control Board

Post by Roberts_Clif »

m00se wrote: September 29th, 2016, 9:16 am After the initial post, I went home and at my control board to see what it looked like. Well, it definitely wasn't pretty.

Image
After purchasing my 1st Hictop 3DP11 I noticed that the mosfets were getting a little to hot so I added a heat shield (Heatsink).
Using the heat shield TO220 Heat sink Mounting Kits. The mosfet on my board that was getting hot was for the nozzle.

Contents included in kit (1 of each)
- Insulator
- Shoulder Washer
- Flat washer #4
- Hex Nut
- Pan Head Screw
- Lock washer, No. 4

Image1.jpg
Image1.jpg (8.07 KiB) Viewed 13042 times
Controller 1.jpg
I have also add a fan Bezel to cool the controller mounted in a snap together case.
New Case Layout1.jpg
Did not place holes for fan, drill where you want or modify before you 3Dprint to include the fan mounting holes.
I mounted a 60mm Fan drilling just 2 holes you may want more.
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Hictop Cover.stl
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