Printhead freezing at random

[Bandy 0]

Hello,

I'm looking for some help/advice. When using my UM3 the printhead just stops moving in the middle of a print job. The fans on the printhead stay on, the head keeps it's temperature, motors still on, but no movent. The display is still responsive, I can navigate and choose pause/tune/abort, however the hardware does not move. I currently do a reboot to get the printer to initial state.

 

I'm having the problem since a long time (1 year), but I always restarted the job, now I want more reliability to do longer print jobs.

It happens quite often, but since I'm an 'occasional' user, I lived with the issue. If I remember correctly, the issue started after a major Cura and firmware update (at that time I didn't realise it would be a repeatable long-lasting problem)

Printer firmware: 4.3.3.20180529

 

any help/ideas? somebody with similar issues? (Also, is there official support from ultimaker? or only community?)

[Smithy 1,141]

I have currently no idea about the root cause, but maybe your print head pauses to get temperature, which is normally not the case. Do you print with Dual heads or only one? 

 

Do you print via network or USB stick? 

 

Offical UM support is done by the UM resellers. You can check the UM website for a reseller in your area.

[Bandy 0]

Thx for the response,

 

Most of the time I'm printing with single extruder (also the last failure, but had same issue in past with dual extrusion-print). I don't think it's temperature, because it there is a blob on the partially printed object on the location where the head was stuck, so filament should be hot enough (at least temperature is good when I detect the failure). And I guess the printer should respond on cancel/abort/pause commands through the printer itself.

 

I used printing over wired LAN (currently wireless LAN), but couple of months ago I also tried to print from USB (in order to rule out network issues) and I encountered the same issues.

Since the printer is upstairs, I often have some camera feed open. But I supect that should not interfere. Once the printjob is started everything is 'onboard' and network-connection is not needed any more I guess. Although I still didn't rule out the video-feed as the possible cause.

 

I'll contact the dealer I bought from, meanwhile other suggestions are welcome.

 

Is there somewhere an option to receive notifications when a print 'freezes' (I guess some watchdog during g-code processing should be doable :-))

[tinkergnome 926]

11 hours ago, Bandy said:

meanwhile other suggestions are welcome

 

well - the printer writes log files that you could copy to the USB drive right after a "freeze". There's a function in the maintenance menu on the printer for that.

Perhaps the log entries gives some hints about the reason? If not you would have at least some data that you can send to the service team...

[Smithy 1,141]

11 hours ago, Bandy said:

Since the printer is upstairs, I often have some camera feed open. But I supect that should not interfere. Once the printjob is started everything is 'onboard' and network-connection is not needed any more I guess. Although I still didn't rule out the video-feed as the possible cause.

 

No, I cannot believe this is the problem. My printers are also upstairs and I have the camera feed open too very often.

[CarloK 202]

@Bandy I moved this question to the Firmware sub-forum.

The forum here is mostly user driven, but Ultimaker employees like me do scan the issues as well.

 

I'm one of the software engineers responsible for the firmware in the printer and the problem you describe is new to me but is something that we don't want to happen. Next time when this happens, can you dump the log files to a USB stick and mail them to me? (I see Tinkergnome is typing a bit faster than I am and responded as well since it is now in the right forum).  ☺️

For mailing me there should be a 'message' button in the top of my user profile page.

 

[Bandy 0]

Thanks for the feedback, I didn't knew the copy logs to usb functionm, next time I'll dump the logs. (since I started to pay attention to the problem it didn't occur any more). Meanwhile the reseller where I bought the printer told there are 2 other customers having similar symptoms. He proposes to replace the power supply.

[Bandy 0]

Some update: In the last couple of days I had 2 strange freezes (but this time only option on the printer was 'abort print' with the head still frozen in printing position (I think with cooled extruder, but with a small blob on the partially printed part).

I've sent some logfiles over to  @CarloK

I'll try to share any progress in this thread

[Bandy 0]

another update: I did a factory reset of the printer. After 1 successfull print, I tried to 'dump logs' but the system auto-rebooted while the dumping process was still busy. I've sent some more logging to @CarloK

[Bandy 0]

After another reset (cura connect, factory reset & FW reinstall, all after each other) the same problem persists. @Carlok suggested flashing recovery.img, but I don't want to loose warranty and the reseller insisted on returning the printer. So I'm looking forward for a message the issues were reproduced and resolved.

[sehyong 0]

 

On 12/27/2018 at 3:17 PM, Bandy said:

Hello,

I'm looking for some help/advice. When using my UM3 the printhead just stops moving in the middle of a print job. The fans on the printhead stay on, the head keeps it's temperature, motors still on, but no movent. The display is still responsive, I can navigate and choose pause/tune/abort, however the hardware does not move. I currently do a reboot to get the printer to initial state.

 

I'm having the problem since a long time (1 year), but I always restarted the job, now I want more reliability to do longer print jobs.

It happens quite often, but since I'm an 'occasional' user, I lived with the issue. If I remember correctly, the issue started after a major Cura and firmware update (at that time I didn't realise it would be a repeatable long-lasting problem)

Printer firmware: 4.3.3.20180529

 

any help/ideas? somebody with similar issues? (Also, is there official support from ultimaker? or only community?)

 

Hi, I will like to ask is there any updates in the aforementioned issues? 

 

One of the UM3 in our workshop has been experiencing the exactly same issues described above for the past ~1.5 yrs. We had sent it to the reseller for servicing twice but still the issues persist. 

 

Initially it really didn't bother us that much as the freezing was rather infrequent. Then it got so bad until the machine just freezes at the "Ultimaker" screen. That's when we sent it for servicing the first time. The reseller flashed the drive and it got back to working condition for a while before the issues surfaced again. Once again, it didn't bother us until it started to freeze on every print job. That's when we sent it for servicing the second time.

 

On both occasions when we sent it for servicing with the reseller, the reseller told us it's an issue with the "motherboard" (main board). On the second occasion, the reseller replaced the main board with a used one which, beside having a faulty power switch, was otherwise in good condition. The printer worked well for about a week before the freezing issue returned again. This is the current situation now.

 

We are now hesitant to contact the reseller, who would most likely advise us to purchase a new main board. We really do not think getting a new main board will solve the issue. Therefore, anyone who can offer any help/suggestion? Greatly appreciate it.

 

 

 

[Bandy 0]

After many tests (guided by an UM-firmware-engineer), UM kindly asked the distributor to get in touch with me.

The distributor provided information/software so I could do a 'firmware recovery flash' (ESD-safe!). After updating to latest firmware (via USB) and recalibrating the machine, the problem didn't happen any more.

(but the printer is 'idle' again since a couple of months)

The distributor claimed it happens more often when updating firmware over wifi. (so won't do that any more...).

Since you already received a new mainboard, I guess the issue is something else. My local reseller had a couple of units with bad power supply, but these mostly 'froze' pretty early during the print-job.

[sehyong 0]

Hi Bandy, thanks for the information.

 

Could you kindly share the procedure for this  'firmware recovery flash'? I updated the firmware via USB this morning, but it still end up freezing halfway through an 80 minutes print  (the printer was already installed with the latest firmware).

 

Elsewhere I only found the procedure for recovering a bricked UM3, but I probably want to find out more before opening up the machine. 

 

I do not think it is bad power supply though. I had swapped the power outlet and adapter of this printer with that of another one that is working fine. The printer still froze.

[Bandy 0]

Hello,

I don't know if I am allowed to publish the documents I received, but I'll try to help where possible. Please see PM