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Answered M999 Temperature Fell Too Much During Printing

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by gearprinter, Mar 23, 2023.

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  1. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    Can I override this code and force it to keep printing regardless of potential consequences?
     
    #1 gearprinter, Mar 23, 2023
  2. fred3d

    fred3d Member

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    Rather than attempting to circumvent something as important as what you've described, consider to determine the source and resolve it. I've seen this on a couple of R1+ printers which had the part cooling fan pushing air over the heater block. Using a silicone sock on the heater block may also help.

    If you want to pin things down, set your part cooling fan to a lower value. If the error goes away, you've narrowed the problem.
     
    #2 fred3d, Mar 24, 2023
  3. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    Thing is there's seemingly nothing wrong with the printer. I click preheat bed and nozzle. They hold stable at 210 / 50 for 10+ minutes. I click print then it throws the error. The cooling fan is supposed to be off for the first 2 layers and it crashes before then. I can manually feed filament without issue.
     
    #3 gearprinter, Mar 24, 2023
  4. fred3d

    fred3d Member

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    That's useful information. Are you monitoring the temperatures? What software is connected to the printer? Is the temperature drop created by a genuine temperature drop or by a faulty thermistor reading?
     
    #4 fred3d, Mar 24, 2023
  5. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    Just monitoring in MatterControl, when I click preheat temp remains stable, I click print, it homes, right before extruding it gets the 999 crash then the temp drops immediately.

    Most times the print nozzle won't extrude anything, but maybe 1/10 times it will extrude for 5 seconds before crashing.

    Not sure if there's any useful info in the log

    https://pastebin.com/pPaB2daJ
     
    #5 gearprinter, Mar 24, 2023
  6. fred3d

    fred3d Member

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    Nothing in the log jumps out as being helpful. Consider to check the wiring on the main board. For the thermistor, remove the plug on the board and push it back in, perhaps a couple of times to "wipe" the contacts.
    For the extruder, remove and reconnect the wiring, but also check the bed heater connections as well. R1+ models will occasionally cook the power connector for the bed heater and one cannot determine that without separating the connector.
     
    #6 fred3d, Mar 25, 2023
  7. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    I ended up fixing the problem by bringing the bundle of wires in closer to the thermistor. For some reason that lets it print normally.

    Appreciate your help and advice.

    1 other quick question if you don't mind: when I move a model around on the bed in matter control (to the top left section of the bed for example) it still prints in the center. Any idea why?
     
    #7 gearprinter, Mar 25, 2023
  8. fred3d

    fred3d Member

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    I've run into just that aspect of the slicer with a friend. This within the not-recent version, and the settings have to be advanced. In the settings panel, General, Output Options, look for "center on bed" and remove the check mark. If you're using the more recent version, it's likely to be similar.
     
    #8 fred3d, Mar 25, 2023
  9. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    ^ Thanks boss. Really appreciate the help!
     
    #9 gearprinter, Mar 25, 2023
  10. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    Update: was finally getting some prints done with the printer, results looked nice! Then it just stopped mid print and was unresponsive.

    I tried unpowering it, unplugging it, restarting the laptop etc. Nothing works, now it's just unable to connect to MatterControl. Any advice on how to troubleshoot this? The power supply fan is running so it's getting power.
     
    #10 gearprinter, Mar 25, 2023
  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You need to find the communication log (sometimes called terminal) in whatever program you use (MatterControl in your case) and see what errors it gets trying to connect to the Printer. Start by cycling power to the printer in case the Arduino is hung up.
     
    #11 mark tomlinson, Mar 27, 2023
  12. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    All it says in the terminal when I click connect is:

    Lost connection to the printer
    Failed to connect
     
    #12 gearprinter, Mar 29, 2023
  13. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    I noticed the fan around the extruder is working, the power supply seems good (green light and powering parts of the printer) but the fan that cools the arduino isn't running. From what I remember that should be working as soon as the printer is powered on. Any advice?
     
    #13 gearprinter, Mar 29, 2023
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You need to dig into it a bit. Get a multimeter, set it to read 12v DC (for example use the 20 v DC range or whatever is greater than the 12) and see what the power supply voltage is to the Arduino/RAMPS boards. At a guess I would suspect that the voltage is fine, but that one or both of those boards has a problem (but confirm the voltage is correct first).

    This is the RAMPS board -- top one, the Arduino is underneath it -- flip the printer over (or turn it on one side and remove the bottom (there are a few screws that hold it on). Pay attention when you do that because there is a small FAN on the bottom of the R1+ that is plugged into the RAMPS and you will disconnect that when you remove the bottom if you are not careful. In fact before removing the bottom briefly turn the power on and see if that small fan is running -- if it is not that is a real problem. You DO want to disconnect it to access the electronics, but you need to know where to plug it back in :) Once you see where it connects you can disconnect it from the RAMPS board (note the orientation so that you can plug it back on correctly -- nothing will explode if you plug it on backwards, but it will not work correctly.)

    This is the top board with labels:

    Annotated Ramps.jpg

    The connector at the top right is where the power comes in from the power supply. Here is a wiring diagram (in this the connector is flipped to the bottom left) you can see how the two 12v rails are attached (1/+) . Turn the power on and (carefully) read those two rails to make sure the 12v is on both of them. If so then there is a problem with one of them or the wiring.

    Do those checks and we can go from there.
     
    #14 mark tomlinson, Mar 29, 2023
  15. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    Thanks, appreciate you sharing that info.

    I have a different version of the ramps board. I checked both the RAMPS power rails (yellow/green and red, yellow and red) and they both read 12v

    The RAMPS fan was wired right into that power rail and was totally fried. Tried removing the fan and connecting to MatterControl but the result is the same.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    #15 gearprinter, Mar 30, 2023
  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The fan keeps the RAMPS and Arduino from overheating ... if the fan is not working then replace it (step one) and then you may have to replace one or both of the others. With the printer bottom open and on its side, can you power it on and get a connection? If not then it is time to move to replacing the Arduino and the RAMPS. You can swap one at a time to see which of them (or if both) have failed.
     
    #16 mark tomlinson, Apr 1, 2023
  17. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    I'll pull the arduino and try to connect to it
     
    #17 gearprinter, Apr 2, 2023
  18. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Excellent idea. That will verify the USB can talk to the Arduino computer and if that works when attach the RAMPS to the Arduino and try connecting again. Sometimes the RAMPS outputs die and when then die they short the 12v line and in that case the Arduino can't run because it shares the power from the RAMPS. If it fails when you add the RAMPS then you know it is just the RAMPS card at fault OR one of the (4) STEPPER DRIVER BOARDS mounted on top of the RAMPS. I would suggest if connecting the RAMPS kills the communications to remove all of the stepper drivers and see. Those are simple current driver boards and sometimes they fail ON which will pull down the power as well. PLUS if one of those has failed they are <$3 each from Amazon. Cheap and easy fix.

    https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-Stepstick-Stepper-Printer-Compatible/dp/B07BND65C8
     
    #18 mark tomlinson, Apr 2, 2023
  19. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    The arduino seems to be ok. I uploaded a blink test file to it and it worked without issue. It has a solid green LED and blinking orange one. I connected it to the RAMPS board and both LEDs functioned. The RAMPS also has a solid green LED.

    I tried to remove the stepper drivers and I'm really worried about breaking something.

    The tiny screws all stripped like they were made of aluminum foil :D please don't tell me that was a potentiometer haha

    I ended up getting them all off and tried connection to mattercontrol, I installed the latest version. I'm now getting an error: "startup failure the type initializer for mattterhackers.mattercontrol.slicerconfiguration.profilemanager threw an exception"
     
    #19 gearprinter, Apr 6, 2023
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2023
  20. gearprinter

    gearprinter Member

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    Oh, also I'm not sure if I deleted anything important off the arduino? All I did was upload a blink test, but from quick research it seems that overwrites everything?
     
    #20 gearprinter, Apr 6, 2023
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