Manually enable heater

Does anyone know if there’s a way to manually enable the heater on the Form 3 or start pre-heating before actually starting a print?

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Doesn’t it do the heating before the mixer check? You could ask it to start a job with the mixer arm disabled/missing. Then it would heat up and throw the mixer check.

No it seems to mix & dispense resin before heating. I’d like to be able to pre-heat the tanks so that they get mixed better - specifically when temperatures are low and you’re using resin like Rigid that is viscous and needs a good mixing.

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Perhaps the only way to do that would be to take the resin tank out, and put it on a heat pad before you start your print.

I think it’s a shame what here is offered by formlabs. In my opinion is this feature definitely a part of the function “prime”! It’s pointless to mix the cold resin and then heat. Of course, it would be even better to be able to start heating separately via the menu but meanwhile we know that formlabs users are potentially fools :wink: and must not to decide for themselves what the printer should do :wink:

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@leonhart88 that’s a really good suggestion, I agree a way to manually turn on the heater (e.g. tied to a 30 minute timeout) would be helpful.

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Hey everyone! (and @leonhart88 :slight_smile: )

Thanks for taking the time to contribute to this thread! It’s a terrific question!

Currently there are no manual pre-heating features(outside of Priming) on the Form 3. That being said, it’s on the roadmap and is currently being worked on by our software team. I can’t give any specifics on release date, but let’s say sooner rather than later.

While I also can’t give specific details on how it will work, I think it’s pretty safe to assume it will be similar category of pre-heating features available on the Form 2. Specifically that means actions like opening the cover or using the touchscreen will automatically push the printer to start heating, whether there’s a print coming or not.

Sorry I can’t give more details at the moment, but we hear you on this one, and it’s in the works. :slight_smile:

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Thanks @DKirch for the update! This will be a great feature addition.

Thank you for your information. A preheating option through the prime function or through a touchscreen function would be highly appreciated!

Preform 3.13.0 changes the pre-print sequence so heating comes before mixing. It also raises the temperature from 31ºC to 33ºC.

Unfortunately my Form3 had a weak heater that was not able to warm thr=e printer above 31.7ºC.

I think the pre-heat before mixing is only on certain resins. I only have Rigid 4000 and Color resins to test, and new jobs sent with Rigid 4000 do pre-heat before mixing, but the jobs where Color resin is selected do not.

What behavior are you seeing and with what resins?

I developed the same issue. Heat Gun blowing under the unit does help though. Be nice if a new heater could be bought for replacement.