Best posts made by DougJones

@dc42

Okay, I have a new AP installed in the garage with the printer. Its a TP-Link Pharos with b/g/n @ 2.4 GHz. The printer now has its own SSID and its isolated from the DECO system. I'm at about 30 minutes with no disconnections. I am running channel 6 with WPA2-psk with AES and 0 db of antenna boost. This Pharos unit lets me control everything through its web interface.

For reference: I had a TP-Link DECO M5 system for years and it ran great. When we bought the new house a couple of months ago, I upgrade to the Newest, fastest DECOs that support wifi 6E (its an XE 75). The system works great, but this isn't the first device on 2.4Ghz that I have found a little flaky.

wifi section from M122:

= WiFi =
Network state is active
WiFi module is connected to access point 
Failed messages: pending 0, notready 0, noresp 2
WiFi firmware version 1.27
WiFi MAC address ec:fa:bc:2d:e2:de
WiFi Vcc 3.40, reset reason Turned on by main processor
WiFi flash size 4194304, free heap 23824
WiFi IP address 192.168.68.152
WiFi signal strength -36dBm, mode 802.11n, reconnections 0, sleep mode modem
Clock register 00002002
Socket states: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Regarding the M350 line:

I'm not sure why i am not using x16. I feel like there was a reason for this years ago when Initially set this up. I think that I might have been worried about the weight of the z-axis. At the time, I had 2 ballscrews connecting an aluminum plate x axis. I think I might have been concerned about the drop off in holding torque for x16 microstepping (maybe wrongly, but I think that was the reason).

Now my setup is 4 independent z-axis motors each controlling a ballscrew to do mesh leveling and remove some of the twist in the heated bed. That system works great.

If its okay, I might leave this alone for now, but I can test moving to x16 once I have everything moving again.

M350 X16 Y16 Z4 U16 E16:16 I1                  				; configure microstepping with interpolation

I think you are suggesting that I should do this:

M350 X16 Y16 U16 E16:16 I1                  				; configure microstepping with interpolation
M350 Z4 I0

Update: Well.....she is up and printing again..... Thanks for all the help. WIFI is infinitely more stable now. I'll do a few test prints, dial everything in real good and then I'll have a look at the z axis x16 settings

Background Info:

I've have the Duet Ethernet Duex 5 setup running for many months. This on my bigger printer, so I don't run it a bunch, but enough to know it was functioning fine. I was cleaning up the electrical panel a few days ago (adding some cooling fans to the boards because I was getting temp warning from the drivers and removing some unused hardware). In cleaning up the panel, I removed the Duet and Duex to remount them on some tall standoffs to get better airflow underneath the boards. I had also intermittently had issues with the ethernet module not starting (very intermittently maybe once or twice in the last few months, usually a power cycle or two would resolve the issue.

Once I restarted after cleaning up the panel, I have had some really flakey results from the system. I struggled for about 2 hours trying to get the ethernet working, I finally pulled the module and re-seated it and that seams to have done the trick. The only mistake I made was I connected a thermistor to the always on fan, thinking it was a fan. I blew the thermistor. After it was replaced, no issue, temp reads fine.

The Problem:

• Sometimes the board powers up and does not recognize the Duex. Under the settings screen, it does not say Duet Ethernet + Duex 5, just Duet Ethernet. A power cycle or two and unit will detect the Duex again. I cannot seem to get it to reliably detect the Duex. I have replaced the ribbon cable with a new one. Seemingly no change to the problem. Sometimes it is detected, sometimes not.
• The endstop for E2_Stop is not changing state. Although the lights on the board are changing state, the settings screen is not showing the endstop as changing state. This is when the Duex is being detected. The drivers on the Duex are functioning and the temp inputs on the Duex are working properly.
• I was having issues with my V and W Axis homing as the drives were not moving, but I think this was because the Duex was not being detected properly.
• The thermostatic control on the extruders is no longer working reliably. The fans on the 2 extruders on the main board (Duet Ethernet) are set to run once the hotend gets above 45deg C. This keeps the unit from making a bunch of noise in my office when it is not actively printing. Now, once the temp gets above 45 degrees, they turn on, but only for a few minutes and then cut out even though the temp is 245 deg. I have checked the meter going back to the board and no power from the board.

I am concerned that I have damaged the electronics in some way. I have ordered a new Duet and Duex5 last night. I have another printer that I would like to convert to these electronics. So, not a waste if the issue on the current ones can be resolved.

I have replaced the Duex5 and the unit fired up the first time.

See below for reset details from M122.

Software reset code 0x4033 HFSR 0x40000000 CFSR 0x00008200 ICSR 0x0041f803 BFAR 0x43910046 SP 0x2000464c Task 0x4e49414d
Stack: 00420831 00421220 21000000 20000168 200001c8 20004954 00000000 0000008d 20013da0 a5a5a5a5 00452ff7 200001c8 00000000 0000000a 00000035 2000ac10 004236cf 2000ac10 20004954 00000000 2000ac10 20009aa8 2000ac10

Update: I rebooted and the unit would not restart. The red Diag light just blinked. It took me 10 power cycles before the controller would boot properly and I could re-connect to the web interface.

Note that all the power leds come on but no interface lights on the rJ45 connector.

I have received a new Duet Wifi and I am going to pull this board off the machine and set it up on the bench until I can figure out what is wrong.

Update:

I have removed the Duet Ethernet and put in a brand new Duet Wifi. Everything seems to go fine, until I put in my config file. I could not get the web interface to start, similar to the previous board after I copied my old config files over. So, I wiped the config file down to basics and added line by line the config file items and traced the problem down to the chamber heater.

If I leave the code below out, the system boots up just fine every time. If it is included, it fails to boot. This doesn't seem like it should be an issue, but I have confirmed the problem about a dozen times. I can't see what about the chamber heater code could be the problem. Note: my chamber heater is a little underpowered, hence the long D value for the M307 settings. This was not previously a problem on prior firmware versions.

This new wifi board is 2.02 (RTOS) out of the box I had recently upgraded the Ethernet board to 2.02 (RC2) and I am wondering if this explains some of the booting problems on both boards (granted, I might still have an I2C problem on either the old ethernet board/old duex5 board).

By omitting the offending code below, everything seems to be running just fine. I've got the new unit powered up, homing and doing a small test print.

What are your thoughts? I do need to get the chamber heater running again.

; Chamber Heater
M141 H5                        ; heater 5 is the chamber heater
M305 P5 R4700 T100000 B3950    ;heater 5 is monitored by a 100K thermistor with B=3950 and a 4.7K series resistor
M307 H5 A21.5 C171.8  D60     ; Setup Heater PID Settings
M307 H5 B1                    ; setup bang-bang control]