Greetings,
I have a P1S and after a failed print, my whole Hotend was enclosed in a giant PETG Blob. I could remove the blob, however the filament baked on to the hotend, turned black and greasy etc.
What is the best way to clean the hotend (not the nozzle!)? Is there a solvent for PETG I can soak it in? Brass brush?
I actually did use the search function but was amazed to not find anything related. If there is anything already, please point me to it.
Heat. Really, Heat and a little elbow grease.
This is the only way I have ever been able to do this. Depending where it is (no wires) you can use a brass brush as well.
Run the nozzle up to 220, get a wet cloth, once nozzle is hot, wipe off nozzle(similar to the way you clean a soldering iron tip). Be careful not burn your finger.
Whatever remains, use a brass brush. Turn off heat on the nozzle and once cool enough to handle, pull off silicone boot and clean it inside and out(pick anything stuck to it off with your fingernail or possibly a plastic pick of sorts.
Been there, done that. About 3 times now, with both Bambu HF and once with basic. First two times seemed to be a couple days worth of printing apart. Then it stopped for a couple weeks, out of the blue, it did it again.
Should have added some pictures right away. A cloth won’t do anything here I guess.
When I had blobs with my other printers in the past I usually was able to let them cool, heat them up quickly and then remove it as a whole. But now I have all this black residue, whatever it is.
Did anybody tried freezing it ? I wonder if PETG will become brittle and break apart from the metal. Also It should contract at different rates.
Amazing the information a picture will impart.
Given it is has made its way into where the wires are, I wouldn’t want to use this again as it appears far too difficult to do with a wire brush, impossible with a cloth.
I would give that a go as you might be able to chip parts of it off where the wires are. If you can, re wire brush and cloth could be used to try and clean the rest up.
Where it is on the metal, don’t be too fussy about it looking perfect as it won’t matter. Where the electrics start and the tip (around 5mm) are the important parts if you do wish to salvage the hot end.
If you have a spare, move on and chalk it up to experience.
Now what I’d do isn’t really a best practice, but I’ll share it.
First I’d decide if I need to save the heater & Thermistor. If not then don’t worry too much and just go full balls on and use hot air to heat the end, use pliers to remove the clip when it’s freed. If you work fast you’ll be able to use a cloth to wipe what’s hot. Don’t use a microfiber, no need.
Be careful. I shouldn’t have to say this, but it’s hot.
Now if you want to save the thermistor & heater, there’s no guarantee.
Place on something silocone. Mat, oven glove, kids toy, personal toy, whatever is resistant to heat.
Instead of full on you want to heat the clip gently, not very slowly but just enough to see the plastic melt. If you have a way or someone to help you have them hold the heat on it while you use tweezers or needle nose pliers to do the following. The clip has a seam. Try to split it at that seam carefully. IT’S HOT, remember. Open it up like a clam. This shoud, if done carefully, free it from the wires.
After you remove it you should be able to gently remove the thermistor and heater out of the way.
Now you can go full tilt with a wire brush or hammer, you’re tool of choice.
I am not responsible for burns. I mean, you applied the heat so if you can’t figure out it’s hot, not my fault 
Update: I heated up the hotend without silicone sock to 290°C and I could very easily clean it with a paper towel. The big chunks could be removed with pliers before.
I also had another clog which filled up the silicone sock and I slightly headted it up (100 something degree) and could remove the “fresh clog” together with all the burned plastic in one piece and now also the sock is clean again 
Please tell me that you will monitor your printer more closely while it prints and clean the build plate thoroughly.
Two big clogs this close together suggest you are not using support when needed or the model is coming off the plate during the print.
Listen.
The Oracle has spoken. Sternly.
Yeah, I’m not used to clogs mostly but with 0.2 mm nozzle printing is a little bit harder, and I often forget it since I am mostly printing with 0.4 mm. Also, I’m dialing in a new filament and the print detached from the plate after 60% or so, which was a point I didn’t expect any failures anymore.
Upgradable spaghetti detection on the P1P/P1S would be cool, but AFAIK the electronics inside can not cope with the needed calculation power.
My view on upgrade ability is, someone built it, so someone can swap a part.
The main circuit board on the P series isn’t as powerful as the one in the X series, yet I bought a more powerful processor to play around with at home the other day in it only tens of pounds (I’m not using it to run a printer).
It could easily run a printer though as printers do not need much processing power to achieve that. Most printers still run on entry level Arduino processors.
Where the X series exceeds the capabilities of the average processor is the need for the simultaneous processing power to detect video feeds for spaghetti issues and if the model being printed appears as expected.
This is sometimes achieved by using a main processor to handle the printing tasks with an interrupt pin to take data from a secondary processor that handles the detection stuff that if it spots something it fires down the interrupt pin of the main processor.
But, again those chips are relatively cheap.
Back to the upgrade question.
The chassis for the P & X series are identical. So, the camera could be replaced and the boards be swapped. The real issue though is the ÂŁ600 price difference when purchased between the two, is far greater than the cost difference of the electronics. Only so much can be set aside for the fully metal vs partly metal case costs.
Essentially, the X series costs more than it should if the P series had the electronics of the X series.
Adding an upgrade path to get the P to the X wouldn’t close to cost half that difference, but, there is no way they could cannibalise their X series by offering a realistic cost for the upgrade parts as everyone would by a P series plus the parts as would cost less than the X series by far.
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