Printer "freezes" on long prints

Printer: Prusa i3 with RAMPS 1.4
marlin modifications: motherboard 33 with heater pin set to 9 * (fan to 10, no fan installed), baud rate unchanged at 250000
using slic3r and repetier host 1.5.5
Printing using USB cable (not SD card)
Filament: PLA at 200C hotend, 70C bed

* = I switched the heater to pin 9 because pin 10 wasn't getting any voltage, which as I understand indicates a faulty RAMPS board.

When doing a print longer than 1 hour 30 minutes (approximately), the print will "freeze". It doesn't stop 100%, as it will still perform one move every 5-10 minutes.

Repetier host log gives the following error message:
"Communication timeout - reset send buffer block"
This message will repeat every few minutes.

My USB cable is 2m long (extended) which is longer than recommended, but I don't think this is the case, as shorter prints work perfectly.

It stops whether I run other programs on my PC or not. For the last print I tried, I hit the print button and didn't touch the PC until it failed.

I've tried lower speed settings, but it still stops at about the same time.

My PC should be beefy enough that it isn't a performance issue: 3.60GHz i5 with 8GB ram and a radeon 7950 graphics card. On shorter prints, I play games and watch videos while the print is running and it has no issues.

The USB connection isn't lost, I can still send commands, but it still waits a few minutes between them. For example, if I pause and +10z, it will wait a few minutes and then raise.

The hot end is not clogged; after reconnecting I am able to print normally.

The next thing I'll probably try is to buy the SD card attachment, but I'd prefer not to have to.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Currently trying pronterface; hasn't had any issues with ~1hr prints yet, just started a 3hr print to see how it behaves.
EDIT2: Same issue on pronterface, died about 90 minutes into the print with exactly the same symptoms.
EDIT3: On to cura!
EDIT4: No luck with cura.

Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2015 01:54PM by iron_dinges.

do you have active cooling (a fan) on the RAMP?

Yes.

80mm fan connected directly to the 12V input and mounted right next to the electronics, blowing directly on to it.

Try Marlin . . . it's one of the few variables left.

- Tim

Quote
tadawson
Try Marlin . . . it's one of the few variables left.

- Tim

What do you mean, exactly?

I am currently using marlin. Should I try a different version? Edit it?

Try new usb cable

Quote
iron_dinges

Quote
tadawson
Try Marlin . . . it's one of the few variables left.

- Tim

What do you mean, exactly?

I am currently using marlin. Should I try a different version? Edit it?

My bad . . . I read too quickly and thought I saw that you were using Repetier, but rather it's Repetier-host . . .

My thought was that if you eliminate the interface (Pronterface, etc), the firmware (Marlin, Repetier) then the problem is either hardware (maybe) or Windows being Windows (likely) . . . So, start with easy and cheap and work backwards . . . firmware/interface change, cable, etc. . . . although it really does sound like a driver choking on your PC to me . . . Granted, not on Windows, but I run jobs 18+ hours to a RAMPS/Arduino on USB, and have *never* (that's right *NEVER*) had a print fail or choke due to a comm error (using 250000 as well . . . ) Forgetting to plug the laptop in and having it fall over 5 hours in, regrettably, yes . . . :-) :-).

- TIm

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2015 12:25AM by tadawson.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try those next.

Tim will disagree with me, but IMO sending large jobs over a USB link that gets converted to a serial link without any link-level flow control is asking for trouble. You only need to lose one of the OK responses sent by Marlin or one of the commands sent by the host for data transmission to fail. Print from SD card instead, or use a dedicated host such as Octoprint, and/or get decent electronics with a native USB port instead of USB to serial.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

For now I've swapped the cable, and I'm installing ubuntu (the only linux I have any experience with) on a second PC. If all this fails, it's probably time to go grab that SD card attachment.

UPDATE: Successful 1h36m print.
Changes made:
swapped usb cable
disabled the usb setting "automatically turn off this device to save power"
EDIT: Another fail. Playing with some more usb settings on windows.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2015 09:30AM by iron_dinges.

Update: Got the ubuntu PC setup and did a dry print (removed filament, clicked print as normal, turned off both heaters), and it completed the 4 hour job without disconnecting or hanging.

Looks like Windows' USB was the issue.

Quote
iron_dinges
Update: Got the ubuntu PC setup and did a dry print (removed filament, clicked print as normal, turned off both heaters), and it completed the 4 hour job without disconnecting or hanging.

Looks like Windows' USB was the issue.

Lots of people connect over USB from Windows without the print hanging. However, connecting the printer via USB creates a ground loop, and ground transients are then a common cause of hanging. There are a couple of ways to mitigates the problem:

1. Power the printer and the attached PC and nothing else from the same power distribution block.

2. Put a ferrite bead around the USB cable, if it doesn't already have one.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

hi, did you ever got to work the long print.
i have the same problem since a moved from a melzi 2.0 board to a ramp 1.4 and update winows 10 ,
well tonight i add my lcd screen with sd card and i add a ferrite block around the usb cable, i made a dryrun test of the object that freeze up and when repitier-host say communication time out , on the Lcd screen pop up waiting user a click it the knob and the printer resume the work till the end .. don't know why but it work it. got any idea why does that .. i am lost with this marlin firmware 1.0.2

Quote
dc42
Power the printer and the attached PC and nothing else from the same power distribution block.

Indeed, I had a similar issue when the printer was installed on a plug in my kitchen; then I installed the printer in the living room and everything was solved.

Quote
magnetos
hi, did you ever got to work the long print.
i have the same problem since a moved from a melzi 2.0 board to a ramp 1.4 and update winows 10 ,
well tonight i add my lcd screen with sd card and i add a ferrite block around the usb cable, i made a dryrun test of the object that freeze up and when repitier-host say communication time out , on the Lcd screen pop up waiting user a click it the knob and the printer resume the work till the end .. don't know why but it work it. got any idea why does that .. i am lost with this marlin firmware 1.0.2

Hi, sorry for the late response.

I bought a LCD+SD card unit for the printer, and I've done almost 10 prints of 2-5 hours without any issues. My PC is no longer connected to the printer at all; I do everything using the LCD interface and print from the SD card.

In my case the problem seems to have been the USB connection, so one of the following:
1. USB port or related on the arduino
2. USB port on my PC
3. USB drivers for my motherboard

thx fort the reply, for some reason it works again and not hangs anymore. but the lcd screen every few second blinks .. don't know if thats normal. well works for now, i can 3d print again.

I have heard, but not sure I believe, that sometimes the USB problem can be caused by a ground loop- if the laptop is plugged into the wall, make sure it's plugged into the same outlet as the printer.

FDM printing is not a reliable process to start with- too many variables can affect success/failure. Eliminating those variables is a smart way to improve reliability. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to eliminate multiple causes of failure is to switch to SD cards. After one of my first prints failed almost 3 years ago because my laptop went to sleep during a print, I switched to printing from SD cards and eliminated ALL computer associated problems. Yes, I know you can set the computer not to sleep. But there are so many other ways a computer can cause a print failure (especially if it runs Windows) and eliminating the computer fixes all of them at once.

But what about monitoring the temperature, tweaking print settings on the fly, etc.? The LCD display shows everything you need to know about the temperature. If you find yourself tweaking print settings on the fly on a regular basis, you're not using the slicer properly and you should study the slicer software a little more. The LCD panel does allow you to make some tweaks if you absolutely must adjust things during a print, but who wants to babysit a print? Are you going to sit and watch it through a 2 hour print in case you need to tweak something? How about a 12 hour print? It's a machine - it should be able to run unattended.

Actually, there is one computer related problem that crops up occasionally. When you slice with Slic3r, if you save the gcode directly to the SD card, and the card is full, Slic3r won't warn you that it only saved part of the gcode. I discovered this when a print just stopped dead part way through. I checked the gcode file on the SD card and found that it too, stopped part way through. There are two ways to deal with this situation: 1) check your SD card regularly to make sure you're not going to run into its storage limit, or 2) save the Gcode to your computers HDD then copy it to the SD card after. The computer's OS will warn you if the SD card is too full for the complete file.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Hey guys, haven't read thru the whole thread yet, getting late.... I have a similar problem but different circumstances,

Repetier-Host 1.5.6
Velleman K8200
Some kind of "Brown out error"

Here is my thread:
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,589386,589396#msg-589396

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2015 03:30AM by danielchow.