At first I thought it was my controller board. I have run an Azteeg X5 mini 3 on my Kossel Pro Modified, for many years now and all of a sudden I started getting disconnects from Simplify3D v4.1.2 printing over USB. I tried a different computer with the same results. I swapped out the Azteeg X5 mini3 for an Azteeg X5 GT which I bought and never used, also a few years ago. Turns out I get the exact same thing happening. I can print via SD card in either the Azteeg X5 GT or from the Viki2 SD card slot with no stops or pauses, successfully. Here is a few lines from the S3D terminal screen showing heaters getting up to temp, then like always, I extrude 10mm of plastic prior to hitting the Begin printing over USB button in S3D. Printer never does anything and I actually have to reset it to be able to communicate with it again.
Does anyone know what the above info means? This happens on both the new controller and the old and both tried on 2 computers with the same results. I have the latest smoothieware firmware installed and the sample config from Panucatt for the X5GT as a starting point currently.
If this is a Microsoft Windows machine then the first thing I would check even before controllers would be the USB driver. Has it been changed on you without you knowing it? Any part of the USB subsystem on Windows change recently?
If not Microsoft Windows then the thing to check is the USB cable and connections. You always want the best USB cable you can get for communications with 3D printers, Laser cutters, etc which can ask for as much bandwidth on the cable as it can get. Also make sure you don’t have power cables running in parallel with the USB cable, perpendicular(crossing cables) is ok.
Thanks but I have never installed usb drivers as per the smoothie documentation. Windows 10 find the controller without driver installation. It has worked for years with only the odd pause during a print, which I have read lot’s of people get when printing over usb. I have bought a good new USB cable but that made no difference. What does the READ: rs NO response mean? This has to be a clue to what is wrong. The weird part is I can manually move the axis’s around with no issue. I ran soft endstop calibration from S3D terminal to setup the X5GT when I swapped boards so it does talk over USB. @Arthur_Wolf do you have any thoughts on what might be going on?
here is the section of the gcode file saved:
G90
M82
M106 S0
M140 S65
M190 S65
M104 S245 T0
M109 S245 T0
G28 ; home all axes
G90 ;set absolute coordinates
G1 Z300 X97 Y-87 F7000 ;move to front right corner
G1 Z[first_layer_height] F7000 ;move nozzle to 1st layer of print
G92 E0; reset extrusion distance
G1 E4; Anchor
G1 X80 Y-75 F7800 ;wipe
; process Process1
; layer 1, Z = 0.300
T0
G92 E0.0000
G1 E-3.1000 F2700
As you can see the next line is a normal G90 code.
This file saved on the sd card of the printer prints fine from the Viki2 LCD controller. I am trying to find the usb drivers for windows 7 for smoothieware but all links I have tried fail. I was going to try using my old windows 7 laptop to see if the problem goes away. Any links that work for the smoothieware usb driver for windows 7?
Problem is solved! Not sure how or when I cleared a checkbox in S3D Gcode page to Update Firmware Information and the Firmware type dropdown had the wrong firmware set. Checked the box and selected the correct firmware in the drop down and all erratic behavior stopped. All I can think of is I had that window open and maybe bumped my mouse button against something on my desk and it made the change but now it is printing like a trooper with no issues over USB. I’m a happy camper again!
