Looks like an electronics issue

So my most recent prints have been starting and then failing shortly into them with Firmware loss of communication to the printer. Simplify reports the dropped comm and goes into a retry loop (that never recovers). Repetier is less well behaved.

I have swapped the USB cable and am doing more retries, but in anticipation of defeat I already ordered a RAMPS 1.4 Arduino Mega pair from Amazon (I am well outside the warranty). I even swapped over to the newest firmware (with some selective un-tweaking of specific changes they made that I did not like). Not bad given that this was an original KS Beta and has been working pretty well for the past 8-12 months. Cheap enough fix.

If I can sort out fixing the existing combo (and it is probably the Arduino at fault here, not the RAMPS) I will have some ready spares.

 

Not that it couldn't have worked well initially (well, at least after all of the screws were loctited) but hey! we all gotta learn...

 

Something funky on the USB comm side. It drops the communications after a window of printing (30 minutes or so).
That was what sent me down the path of getting in a new cable and reloading the firmware (which I needed to get up-to-date on anyway).

It is currently printing again without having died...yet. I think I will go ahead and do the swap anyway. Don't want to find out mid-print that it is still broken. I'd rather be proactive and nuke it from space.

 

Hah, looks like it finally finished the one (rather small) print. Too late printer! Too late!
New parts on order... Seriously, not that much cost to just gut and replace them. I'll run a library of tests on the Arduino board when I get it out and see if there is anything repeatable there.

 

My original Arduino mega board has been in the junk box for months. The dupont pins on those boards were poor quality and corroded over time > intermittent failures. Original Ramps is still ok.

 

Thanks @Ziggy I knew it was quality lacking... That sounds a lot like (I imagine) what I am seeing as well.