Unresponsive and stops halfway

Hi there!

Just got my new printer and was tinkering around with the software/hardware and encountered a few problems that stumped me and would like to seek some advice from everyone here.

I am using a durbie prusa mendel with a Gen6.d board on a Macbook OS X version 10.6.8.

1. Unresponsive connection
When I try to connect the printer, it will start to connect and I will end up with "1 commands waiting" and the printer would not respond to any commands from me. Instead I would see the commands i sent being queued up behind the 1 mysterious command. I have to push this small button on the board to sort of like get myself out of this "1 commands waiting" problem and some time, I got disconnected after pushing the button. This is my connection setup:

PM 11:55:16: Attempting to connect to printer
PM 11:55:16: Connection opened
< PM 11:55:21: start
< PM 11:55:21: echo:Free Memory:799 PlannerBufferBytes:1168
< PM 11:55:21: echo:Using Default settings:
< PM 11:55:21: echoteps per unit:
< PM 11:55:21: echo: M92 X40.00 Y40.00 Z2078.72 E514.00
< PM 11:55:21: echo:Maximum feedrates (mm/s):
< PM 11:55:21: echo: M203 X250.00 Y250.00 Z3.00 E25.00
< PM 11:55:21: echo:Maximum Acceleration (mm/s2):
< PM 11:55:21: echo: M201 X4500 Y4500 Z40 E5000
< PM 11:55:21: echo:Acceleration: S=acceleration, T=retract acceleration
< PM 11:55:21: echo: M204 S1500.00 T1500.00
< PM 11:55:21: echo:Advanced variables: S=Min feedrate (mm/s), T=Min travel feedrate (mm/s), B=minimum segment time (ms), X=maximum xY jerk (mm/s), Z=maximum Z jerk (mm/s)
< PM 11:55:21: echo: M205 S0.00 T0.00 B20000 X10.00 Z0.20
< PM 11:55:21: echoID settings:
< PM 11:55:21: echo: M301 P22.20 I1.25 D99.00
< PM 11:55:24: echoD init fail
< PM 11:55:24: workDir open failed
< PM 11:55:24: FIRMWARE_NAME:Marlin; Sprinter/grbl mashup for gen6 FIRMWARE_URL:[www.mendel-parts.com] PROTOCOL_VERSION:1.0 MACHINE_TYPE:Mendel EXTRUDER_COUNT:1ok

2. Printing stop halfway
On rare time, I managed to get it thru and able to get the printer to respond to me, When I load the file in to run, it will print smoothly till it reach a point where the printer will just stop printing and the software become unresponsive. I also realised the temperature graph stop updating when the print stop halfway. Its very weird because I tried with other design and it will stop at one point during the print and the stopping layer seems to be random. Sometime, it could be 220+ layer out of 260, sometime it could be 25 out of 60.

I'm sorry if I left out any system info. let me know if I do so I can provide the necessary information.



Thanks!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2012 11:26AM by wilsonli_86.

First, I saw your unusual connection speed. 256000 baud? Witha 16MHz 250000 baud has a proper timing, so I would prefer that one.

With marlin you can increase the receive cache size to 127 byte if I'm right. It doesn't use the arduino serial library any more.
I'm not sure with send ok after resend, but I think it does not send the ok.

These ok responses are important and the line must start with ok to be recognized. In your log I see

< PM 11:55:24: FIRMWARE_NAME:Marlin; Sprinter/grbl mashup for gen6 FIRMWARE_URL:[www.mendel-parts.com] PROTOCOL_VERSION:1.0 MACHINE_TYPE:Mendel EXTRUDER_COUNT:1ok

Not sure if it is a copy error, but it should have the ok in a new line! If you get such misplaced ok messages, the print can stop because the host waits for the ok that never came and will come. In that case, go to manual control and hit "Fake ok" telling the host it has overseen the ok.

The same is if you get a resend and the ok never comes. At some point the buffer is full and the print stalls. Fake ok helps again, but changing the "ok after resend" option is better if you now it never comes (not sure about that with marlin).

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Hi there!

I have tried setting the baud rate, and the cache size.

The ok is indeed on the same line and not a copy error. I have tried the "Fake Ok" method as suggested and I am able to send out one instruction before it goes back to the 1 commands waiting, but instead of 1 commands, there will be 4 commands waiting. :/

I tried the fake ok again and it will just bring me back to 1 commands waiting.

Is there anything that I am doing wrongly? Do you need the log from the prints?