I need help! my machine has been working great before but now I have been having issues with it moving from place to place. It seems to either stop or move extremely slowly and this happens randomly through both gcode and jogging. I notice it does it on any line or command and once it finishes it, albeit very slowly, it moves on normally. I have tried it on Laserweb 4 and Visicut and have had the same thing happen in both. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Are the stepper driver chips getting too hot (thermal shutdown)?
Double check the wires and connectors for the motors. I had a similar thing g happen when one pin worked it’s way loose from a connector block and another time when a wire started to come loose from the connector crimp.
I thought they might be getting hot too they get a little warm but cool enough to touch I do also have a fan blowing on it. I checked my connections and they’re all tight as well.
I also noticed that the second LED Light stops flashing and goes out but all other lights are normal.
I’ve seen that before and it did help but now its just the number 2 LED that goes out 3 flashes normally. Would that mean its something with just my config? or the firmware as well?
That is strange as LED 2 is the heartbeat LED and is turned on and off and on (etc) in the mainline so if it is not flashed, the Smoothie has got stuck somewhere deep in the code.
Does the pattern match the two “crashed” LED patterns?
Can you still communicate to Smoothie via you host?
After the machine stopped only the number 2 stopped flashing while the number 3 still flashed. the only command that gets through is the abort from laserweb and when I do that it then crashes the firmware. Its strangely inconsistent though because I can run a file with no problems then I can run the same file immediately after and it stops.
That is extremely odd.
The LED patterns indicate Smoothie is stuck somewhere in its firmware.
LED 2 is the main loop heartbeat (which calls the main_loop and on_idle “processes") and LED 3 is the Slowticker which is used for monitoring temperature, end-stops, etc and that is alive.
If could be you have discovered a weird G-Code combination that crashes Smoothie, or perhaps the firmware is corrupted, or even there has been a spike on the power supply and caused a brown out.
Can you reflash to the latest Smoothie firmware from github?
Does it reliably crash at a particular place in the same job?
Do you have the Watch dog timer enabled in your config? This is ‘reset’ during the “on_idle” process so if you have it on, then smoothie should “crash” given your scenario and go into debug mode where you can follow the instructions http://smoothieware.org/mri-debugging http://smoothieware.org/mri-debugging and upload a dump and someone on the Smoothie core team can try to work out why the firmware crashed.
Cheers
Douglas
I have reflashed the firmware several times but nothing seemed to have changed. There are a few spots it hangs up on some times but more often than not it happens randomly on any line even when jogging it too. And the Watch dog timer was at 10 and i changed it to 0 but there was no difference.
I am beginning to suspect and electrical issue that is upsetting the hardware.
Can you post a wiring diagram, e.g. do you have any items (laser etc) that use a lot of power, or large motors and what is the capacity of the power supply?
My system is fairly simple I have 3 nema 17 motors 1.7 amps each plugged into the smoothie board with a 12-24V 4.5A power supply. The laser is on its own separate power supply
Is it possible to try it without using the laser and it’s power supply?
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I have tested it with the laser power supply on and off with the same results.
I’ve read that one thing that caused smoothie board to freeze was long ribbon cables going to a display http://forum.smoothieware.org/forum/t-1692885/smoothieboard-freezes-after-1-hour-of-printing. I don’t have a display but could my problem be similar? i.e. too long power supply wires or usb cable?
http://forum.smoothieware.org/forum/t-1692885/smoothieboard-freezes-after-1-hour-of-printing
That is a good point, I have heard of and seen issues with cheap USB cables that were not properly shielded; do you have a good quality cable you can try?
I have been using one from a printer that was a bit old so that could be it but also what is the likelihood of the wires crossing each other being the cause?
Noise and RFI can affect lines, I would start with a new quality USB cable, also separate and route power and high current wires away from data lines.
And lastly look for ground loops, I.e where something is earthed or grounded in more than one place, ideally they should have a “star” topology where they all connect to a single place, or failing that a “tree” so there are no loops of that makes sense?