Hi All,
I've had my printer, and Anet A8 for a while now and it's been fine. But recently it started randomly stopping halfway through a print. I hadn't updated the firmware recently (or at all to my recollection...) so I thought it was maybe time to upgrade. I finally managed to install Marlin 2.0.8 and got it working again. I use Repetier Server to drive the printer.
So I tried a new print and found the same thing happening. The print would just stop half way through or so I thought. It did it while I was staring at it, and I was contemplating what I could try next, when it printed a line and stopped again. I kept on watching, and it printed another line.
I looked at the log and noticed a couple of things. First there was a warning message saying "Warning: Communication timeout - resetting communication buffer". Then I noticed that commands were still being sent to the printer about every thirty seconds. I found a timeout setting in Repetier, and it was set to thirty seconds, so maybe it's hitting the timeout and then sending the next command. I also noticed that the printer was no longer sending an ack ("ok") back after a command had been executed, so I'm guessing this is the source of the problem. Repetier is not getting an ack, times out waiting for it and then sends the next command anyway.
Does this sound right? Happy to be corrected if I'm off the beam.
If so, why would it be happening and is there a way to fix it?
I use Prusa Slicer to create my gcode files, Onshape.com to create the stl files.
Thanks,
Ian
