Hi everyone,
TL;DR: Printer randomly stopping, not sure why. Send help.
I am having a rather odd issue and I was hoping someone could help me out.
First some back story:
Running a generic Prusa i3 with Simplify3D over USB. Last week, I had my Chinese Arduino Mega stop working for NO reason whatsoever so I decided to stick to the safe side and use a brand new original Mega and RAMPS 1.4. Uploaded the exact same firmware and everything. The Chinese Mega was not giving me this issue however I cannot narrow it down to the new Mega.
The issue that I am having is that the printer randomly stops printing. It literally stops movement however all heaters remain on. S3D does NOT disconnect from the Arduino at all and I can continue the print as if nothing happened if I FORCE NEXT or Pause and then Resume the print. Like I said earlier, the points that it stops seem to be random and I cannot anticipate where it will stop. It does it with any file that I print and I have no idea why.
I am currently using S3D v4 however I DID try it on S3D v3.1.1; both on Windows 10; one without the last month's worth of updates and one with. Both are having the same issue.
I have tried different USB cables, reflashed the firmware, rolled back Windows updates, tried different baudrates, profiles and Processes. I have also reinstalled my Arduino drivers and tried using a fresh process.
I constantly monitor my prints using the Machine Control Panel in S3D and it is always on Verbose so that I can see if there are any issues and I have noticed that when the printer stops;the following pops up:
SENT: M105
SENT: G1 X103.957 Y176.726 Z52.288 E16.7922
READ: k¢é250.1 /250.0 B:100.0 /105.0 T0:250.1 /250.0 @:96 B@:127
READ: ok
Now I have spoken to a friend of mine who works with these kinds of things and he said that the random k¢é characters are a result of interference. I changed the USB cable and plugged it into a different USB port and it changed nothing. I am not running any other serial devices on my PC either. I have also tried bypassing the USB extension that connects to the Arduino. I have tried using Repetier Host as well; with the same results.
Now I wouldn't mind if the printer randomly stopped for no reason and the prints still turned out fine; but the thing is that the filament oozes out of the nozzle and then creates these horrid zits on the side of the print that I struggle to get off.
Any help will be appreciated and thanks for reading this essay!