Creator (wood): Is my motherboard toast

I've had my Flashforge Creator for a while and have used it with great success, however today I was cleaning it and I know I broke something, I just don't know what.

I was cleaning under my heated build plate, and here's the part I now know was stupid, I was using my metal bed leveling shim to knock a piece of scrap out of the way and I touched the contacts for the heated bed and saw a spark.

Now my display is blank and the machine doesn't respond. All power seems to be showing (display backlight, board has lights, etc), but no response from buttons.

Is there a checklist somewhere or do I just go right to ordering another Mightyboard? And is direct from Flashforge the most reliable route?

The board label says:
2012 ff3dp.com
Designed by FlashForge
based on Makerbot mightyboard

Flashforge Creator
Rev B

Start with disconnecting the hotbed see if that changes anything, most likely you fried your hotbed mosfet.
This is an easy fix if you know how to solder on circuit boards. And this is the reason I purchased a spare controller!

ok. I unplugged the connector from the back of the hotbed and same thing.

Do I need to desolder the MOSFET to know if that's the culprit?

You should also check to see if the that the bed wires are not shorted between the controller connector bed pins. Have seen the wires touching outside of the connector before.
(If this is a new 3D Printer it could be as simple as too much solder around the mosfet causing it to short, or i could be a shorted circuit board trace.

In this picture the trace was open I simply soldered a bridge across the trace.

Attachment 11192


You can simply ohm the connector pins for the hotbed, if the resistance across the pin is low resistance then it could be shorted.

You can also measure the resistance between the mosfet pins to see if it is shorted. Then you can remove and the mosfet.

I'll check the resistance across the MOSFET pins tonight. I've also got a loaner printer coming from a friend tonight as well to help me diagnose further.

I'm holding out hope for a simple MOSFET swap, but if it's a board I may just pull forward my plans to move on to another printer.

I am sure you will find a solution, and most likely it is the mosfet.

And I have printed many 3d Models in PLA without having the heated bed on.

or you could use an external Digital high temperature controller

Here
or
Here

Supply Voltage for thermostat (4 options): 12VDC, 24VDC, 110VAC, 220VAC

Quote:

---

Now my display is blank and the machine doesn't respond. All power seems to be showing (display backlight, board has lights, etc), but no response from buttons.

---

not just the heat bed and not a new printer.

Useful to read the original post, just saying ;-)

Yes, I don't think it's the mosfet. I measured resistances of the HBP mosfet and the others, and it did not seem dramatically different. I think the current got back fed into another part of the board.
I've got a loaner board now and may not mess with a full troubleshooting.