First Print on PB Jr v2 with new board

[djsloanau]

Hello, I ordered my Printrbot Jr (V2) kit back in January. After a few weeks waiting, it arrived and I started painting and assembly. After 4 days it was all finished and ready to go, but as soon as I plugged it in, I knew there was something wrong as I could not get the driver to load. After much time spent messing about in hyperspace, I determined that the USB cable was faulty, and then found that the printrboard was also faulty (while attempting a reflash, the board failed the blank test). So I asked for a replacement, and it arrived today.

After rebuilding and verifying that all cables were in the correct plug and orientation, I nervously plugged it in and went through the getting started procedure. YAY, IT WORKED. So the faulty board shouldn't have been because of anything I did.

Ok onto the first print. after homing, setting up and testing, I downloaded the 5mm calibration cube from Thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24238. I ran it through slic3r and it came up with 80+ layers (84 I think), I started the print run and it waited until the bed and extruder were up to temperature, then it proceeded to print the first layers. From watching these I could see that the bed was lower at the back than at the front (I only did a rough level, enough to make sure the head wouldn't dig into the bed) but after the 2nd layer it was running fine. Then on layer 17, the printer just stopped moving, the time due on completion stopped at 15 mins 33 secs. It kept extruding for a short time, but then just didn't do anything. After a couple of minutes I hit cancel and powered everything off from the Repetier panel and shut it down. Does anyone have any idea what happened? It was going so well and there doesn't seem to be any reason for it. I have attached some photos.

[RetireeJay]

What computer are you using?
Did you check to make sure the USB cable didn't get dislodged?

[djsloanau]

Hi RetireeJay, the USB cable is fine, nothing was moved on or around the printer. I am using a self built core I7 windows PC with windows 7 x64, 16Gb RAM and ssd and hybrid drives (Win8.1 on SSD, Win7 on hybrid). Once I had stopped the print, I could still manually move the axis motors from the repetier program. I was wondering could it maybe have been a slic3r hiccup?

It is 1:15 am here, so I will attempt to print a different object tomorrow after I drop my son to school. If it happens about the same area again I will have to review program and printer settings and look closer at the print layers in repetier. I forgot to mention the settings I used were as per the getting started v2 guide, but with 195C for the extruder for the first layer, and 190C for the rest. Bed was at 70C as per the guide.

[RetireeJay]

It almost sounds like the Repetier "Pause" button got hit accidentally. It's very unusual for the print to stop, but still leave you in communication with the printer and have the ability to control the printer.

1:15AM? Eastern Australia?

[thawkins]

It almost sounds like the Repetier "Pause" button got hit accidentally. It's very unusual for the print to stop, but still leave you in communication with the printer and have the ability to control the printer.

1:15AM? Eastern Australia?

Check that you dont have a powersave functiin that is shutting down the usb when screensaver is activated, they will often try to reconnect when comming out of screensaver, and that disconnect/reconnect can cause printers processor to reset.

[djsloanau]

Hi guys, RetireeJay, it was 1:15 am Adelaide. I didn't press pause on repetier as I was sitting on another PC and nowhere near the printer or it's PC.
Thawkins, thanks. I forgot that USB can have auto disconnect just like network connections, so I went into the power settings, and indeed the USB selective suspend setting was set to enable, so I have disabled that, and am now going to level my bed properly, set my x, y, and z measured limits, set my feed rate, and then I'll try again.

Oh and as for screen saver, I don't use them. If I am in front of the PC I am using it, when I go away, I turn off the monitors. I have found that sometimes screensavers can cause havoc with running programs like 3D animation and video editors.

Thanks for the help guys, hopefully this will sort out the stopping problem. I'll updater when I get the next test done.

UPDATE I just tried the same object again after turning off the USB disconnect option, and this time it got to layer 35, the first layer of the 3rd level of blocks, and it stopped again so it shouldn't be anything to do with USB timeout. I am going to try the same object in prontrface

[djsloanau]

Well the same thing happens through prontrface, it stopped around layer 33. I am getting very frustrated now as it seems to work well then just stops. Next I will try changing from the USB hub it is on to a spare USB2 or USB3 direct port on the PC. After that, I will be at a loss as to what to try.

Update Ok I changed the USB cable to one not supplied by printrbot, I plugged it into a direct USB 2 port on the PC, and I put a small fan blowing under the printer where the printrboard is, and it worked. It finished the print to the end. It only took 4 prints to get there. I then thought I would try the makerbot robot, but it got part way through the feet, and once again stopped. Once I killed the job, I was once again able to control the printer. The only difference there was that I had turned off the external fan. Is there an issue with printrboards heating up and freezing? I will try to lift the printer onto 2 plinths so I can get more air onto the board and see how that goes.

[worldfree512]

what a great technology, thanks for sharing such a beautiful news

[evanalmighty]

Check your cables management. With the printer off, just slide the X & Y around and see if something is getting in the way of each other. Do this at different Z heights.

[thawkins]

Well the same thing happens through prontrface, it stopped around layer 33. I am getting very frustrated now as it seems to work well then just stops. Next I will try changing from the USB hub it is on to a spare USB2 or USB3 direct port on the PC. After that, I will be at a loss as to what to try.

Update Ok I changed the USB cable to one not supplied by printrbot, I plugged it into a direct USB 2 port on the PC, and I put a small fan blowing under the printer where the printrboard is, and it worked. It finished the print to the end. It only took 4 prints to get there. I then thought I would try the makerbot robot, but it got part way through the feet, and once again stopped. Once I killed the job, I was once again able to control the printer. The only difference there was that I had turned off the external fan. Is there an issue with printrboards heating up and freezing? I will try to lift the printer onto 2 plinths so I can get more air onto the board and see how that goes.

My first printrboard did this, I live in a hot country, ambient is about 31-32, I discovered my board stopped dead in its tracks when the temp hit 33. In fact as the temperature went from 33 to 35, the machine went slower and slower until it stopped. And strangly if you gave it a squirt of areosol freezer spray, it would start up again and continue printing (which tells me that avr pocessors are static, not dynamic, and can be clocked down to zero)!

There are several possible reasons for this,

1. A dry solder joint somewhere that opens up as temperature rises.
2. A hairline crack in a track that also expands and contracts with heat.
3. A problem with the ceramic resonator chip that is the clock source for the board.

PBHQ replaced my board for me and all was well after that, the old board I was going to junk, but decided to try poking around with it, I discovered that reflowing the solder surrounding the ceramic resonator fixed it. So I use it as a spare now. If I have an issue where I think it may be a problem with the board, i can swap in the spare (that was until I blew all the stepper driver chips

[djsloanau]

Hello again, Just responding to the latest comments.
My cables are fine, not binding or catching anywhere, and the ambient temperature in the room is about 21.9C so that shouldn't be a problem. I still think it may be code or Slic3r related. I watch for any problems, and every time it pauses for a second I think "Oh no here it goes again", then it starts up again, but eventually stops. I have checked the motors aren't getting hot, filament is not binding. I just don't know what is the problem.

Update Ah, I tried the makerbot again, and it stopped 2 layers after joining the legs, I clicked on the OK button in the manual control panel, and the print continued. WTF???
It continues after I press ok every time it stops. I think I will try saving the Slic3r gcode to the SD card and try running it from that. It appears to be a problem in repetier host.

[thawkins]

Hello again, Just responding to the latest comments.
My cables are fine, not binding or catching anywhere, and the ambient temperature in the room is about 21.9C so that shouldn't be a problem. I still think it may be code or Slic3r related. I watch for any problems, and every time it pauses for a second I think "Oh no here it goes again", then it starts up again, but eventually stops. I have checked the motors aren't getting hot, filament is not binding. I just don't know what is the problem.

Update Ah, I tried the makerbot again, and it stopped 2 layers after joining the legs, I clicked on the OK button in the manual control panel, and the print continued. WTF???
It continues after I press ok every time it stops. I think I will try saving the Slic3r gcode to the SD card and try running it from that. It appears to be a problem in repetier host.

That definatly sounds like some sort of usb timeout.

[djsloanau]

Yeah, but it isn't caused by the PC or the USB settings. I have been looking at the repetier host troubleshooting forum and it appears that this is a common problem with versions 0.9 and above (I run 0.95F). I am attempting a print directly from the SD card to see if this fixes the problem

[djsloanau]

Ok, I have tested printing directly from the SD card, and this seems to get rid of the pauses and the stopping... 95% of the time. I have still had the printer lock up for no reason, and unfortunately when printing from the SD card there is no way to give an OK command as from the manual control panel in repetier. I have also downloaded the latest version of slic3r, but that hasn't made any difference as my last print I attempted last night with the new slic3r from the SD card (makerbot robot, arms up) it stopped at the start of the bottom of the arms. It also sometimes decides to do a step to X zero or y Max for no readily apparent reason leaving long strings of spru hanging off the side of the object. It doesn't show up in the gcode path when it was sliced.