Re:Worst Computer Bugs in History: Therac-25 (2017)
by ioquatix on Sunday August 12, 2018 @08:47AM
(#17744117)
As a 3D printing enthusiast, I can confirm your fears. It's all in software and while there are good control systems, nothings perfect. I had the hotbed fail and it was smoking when I found it.
I'm much more worried about the heating element. Its temperature is usually controlled by the same cpu that also does motion control and g-code parsing. If anything locks up the CPU the heat might not be turned off in time, and (because you also want fast startup) there is enough power available to melt something. At the very least you would get nasty fumes from over-heated plastics, and maybe even teflon tape, which often is part of the print head. At worst it could start a fire.