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Now randonly during prints, Mattercontrol throws up 'semaphore timeout period has expired' and disconnects from the printer.

Reinstalled all drivers. Reinstalled all USB drivers.

Still does it

Tried slowing the comms speed. Re-installed Rambo drivers.

Just randomly died again after 2 hours.

How do you print from the SD card? Do you set up your print in Mattercontrol and then save it to the card?

You export the G-code to the SD card, then select the file from it once it's in the printer. So select the printer and object as usual, then hit export -> export as G code, or if you want to export a bunch of things, queue, export to folder or SD card. The go to the printer, click the knob, find the SD card menu (or select file I believe is another option), and then find the one you want.

...or use Repeiter Host, AstroPrint, or OctoPrint.

g.

Matter control sucks the big one... I recently switched back to simplify3D and an SD card and couldn't be happier...


I'm debating going duet wifi with panel due and ir or keeping the Rambo and adding octoprint and the v3 hotend...


The first option costs about $300 havnt price the second option but if it's close to half the cost it will be given signicant consideration...

Just printing straight off the SD card.
So far... its still going.

One day.

One day....

I will get a full correct print

I must say Steve, I admire your persistence and tenacity. Even through all of the posts saying how much you want to get rid of your printer, you've stuck with it and are so close to having a functioning setup!

NOBODY can say I have not stuck with this thing. Its taught me patience I never thought I had

Amazingly... its kinda behaving today. Maybe I have turned a corner?

Printing from the SD card is working far better.

I know I moan about it a lot... but I have put so much time into this thing that some return really would be nice.
Its never going to actually be any practical use for what I intended, but it appears I hate to be beaten.

I have however, moved my hammer away from the printer.... just in case I snap

What... its.... printed.... something.... correctly

I am sure it could be better, but finally.... something that actually goes together and works (servo operated release valve)
Its the best quality I have had out of it by far

Now just need to get off Tinkercad (oh so easy to use) and then I might actually start getting round prints, rather than stepped circles.

Looking good!! Printing off a SD card eliminates a lot of potential problems.
I haven't played with Tinkercad,,,, but other cad programs have resolution settings you can change when you save your model as a stl file. It makes for a larger file, but smaller flats.

You know it is possible that the entirety of your problems could have been caused by one bad usb cable.

Qdeathstar wrote:You know it is possible that the entirety of your problems could have been caused by one bad usb cable.

Having looked through a lot of his problems, I'm going to doubt that things like too short of bed screws can be caused by a USB cable I will admit that his approach with a port on the side and an internal cable, then an external disconnectable cable is more vulnerable to a bad cable, but he has had a hell of a lot of issues that weren't just weird software glitches.

As far as CAD stuff goes, I'm learning to like fusion 360, and find it only slightly harder to learn than Tinkercad (And a lot easier to do complicated stuff with, or dimension well) and it's free for hobby use and business's with less than 100K in revenue a year. Plus the built in CAM (I'm not liking that as much as I could, yet. It's very different in feel from the CAM i used before, and more basic than a 5 axis capable one, but I've only just started with it) may let you go from a single design to the printer for a quick fit+feel part, and then to your mill, with minimal changes and no screwing about with random software to convert or massage it.

'semaphore timeout period has expired' is a windows error result that tends to result from a resource lock or overflow of some kind. Often associated with hardware resources such as USB and hard drives.

A marginal USB cable could be a possible cause if it was causing a large number of errors/retrys to the point that buffers fill up or transmission timeouts expire. Or the cause could be something else entirely.

Tried new usb leads - wasn't that. It just randomly started doing it after probably nearly a year of being fine.
I am suspecting my Sony Vaio.
Most of my previous issues are not down to the lead

and spoke too soon.....

as the print randomly stops from the sd card after 3 hours

What bit was it printing, and how did it stop?

Stevolution wrote:and spoke too soon.....

as the print randomly stops from the sd card after 3 hours

do you have the usb cable attached while printing off the SD?

It was printing standalone - no USB lead attached. Printing the file off the sd card.

Was printing very well and then the print head just stopped with no warning. Just sat there. Hotend stayed at full temp, it just seemed to grind to a halt.

Is there a limit to the G-code size that can be read off an sd card? I checked the slicing before putting it on the card and it sliced fine.
Just seemed to lose the G-code commands.

(edit - just checked the G-code slicing in an online viewer and it seems fine and complete)

SO frustrating

Perhaps my missus altered to the code to stop just short of her boobs

Just had a Google (the time I have spent on Google over this thing....._).

Looks like the sd cards they supply with the printer are only class 4 and not up to spec - causing failures (WHY SUPPLY THEM THEN - bangs head on wall).
Apparently a class 10 sd card is a much better option.

Hopefully that is the issue.

Oh good, off to buy something else for the printer. Goody

Be very careful with SD cards, they don't all work on the arduino based readers like RAMBO.
They are required to support an SPI interface and not all cards do, and there is no way to tell from the cards themselves.
The interface to the cards on the Rambo is pathetically slow (it's 1 bit serial) so I would surprised if the card speed makes any difference.
Generally larger more modern cards will not work, I'e yet to find a single Kingston Branded card that works, some Sandisk cards do and some don't.
I think I'm using 4x Sandisk 4GB cards, I have some 8GB SandDisk cards that don't work.

FWIW I would doubt the issue is the card if you are also getting failures over USB, but it's worth a shot.
The fact your failing hours into a print in both cases would take me look at temperature in the electronics bay, run with the door ope and point a desk fan at the opening to see if it makes a difference.

Mind posting the G code? I'm curious as to if it's parking the head for a minimum layer time issue, considering it's stopping at full temp and sitting. I've managed to get through a 15MB print on the Rambo, so I'm not thinking it's a size issue. then again, that is a very smooth model, so it may be very large code.

Mmm... OK.
I read that people were solving sd card stopping issues by getting better sd cards. I think I will get a 4gb class 10 card anyway - just to rule it out.

Temps... think we should be OK on that front. I have LOADS of extra cooling in the rambo bay. A 12cm side fan pulls the air out of the electronics bay and vents out the cabinet, an extra fan on the PSU and a 12cm fan under the printer pushing cool air up into the printer from outside.

I have added the G-code as a .txt file. Its pretty large and I have no idea what I am looking for.

Its a shame there is no way of calling up 'where' it stopped in the g-code, and then a 'resume' function to carry on from that point if you had an issue.
Could that not be achieved? That must be possible.

I have a full cold and patience it running low today.... so best I leave it alone

simplify3d has a function to start from a certain z height... i tried it once and it sorta works.... but I had a lot of support that had fallen and so my print did not complete

About how tall is the part? ~79 MM?

Your code looks fine when I open it in Simplify 3d.