Simplify3D & Smoothie stalled print

[JoeJ]

S3D doesn't make identical gcode to the other slicers. They are all unique in their own way. But as far as I can tell, I don't see anything wrong with the S3D gcode that doesn't follow the gcode specifications. You could ask the same question, why does S3D gcode work on every other firmware out there just fine except for smoothie?

I've already read about several bugs in the smoothie firmware that they were working on fixing. Several of them created bugs with how it processes standard gcode, for example, there was an issue awhile ago with how smoothie handled G92 E0 commands. I think that may be resolved now, but that's a perfect example of a firmware bug that wouldn't affect all slicers, because not every slicer uses G92 E0 commands. So there could easily be other issues like that, which is why only one particular type of gcode is triggering the problem.

Either way, the fact that S3D's gcode works with every other firmware out there seems to make this a pretty easy argument.

And why do you say that S3D doesn't want to work with the smoothie team? I remember emailing with their team awhile ago and they had actually already purchased smoothieboards on their own to help make sure the software was compatible.

[CompoundCarl]

You may want to load the stable firmware for your board. I was having problems with multiple different STL files running on the current "edge" firmware. They always halted at the same spot. I rolled back to the stable firmware for smoothie tonight. I haven't had a problem so far.

This comment also makes it sound like a bug with the firmware, since rolling back to a different version solved the issue. Try using an earlier version. Since the problem is repeatable, you might also want to submit a bug report to the smoothie project with the firmware version and the specific lines in the gcode file that cause the print to stall.

[LeonMF]

We have a situation where:

* Smoothie works with every other slicer without this problem
* S3D works with every other printer without this problem

It's obviously an interaction between the two. It does no good to tell the Smoothie developers they have a bug, *they know that*. It also does no good to tell Simplify3D, *they don't care*. The Smoothie team asked for a test license to develop against and were denied and told they could pay like everyone else.

S3D is worth the money but I've never been fond of their less than awesome licensing policies and complete lack of trial software.

So, right now, we're largely at the finger pointing stage and I have software that I can't rely on.

[CompoundCarl]

Hold on. So the reason Simplify3D "isn't cooperating" is because they aren't giving their team free software licenses??! That seems childish. I've talked with people on the S3D team and they mentioned that they purchased multiple smoothieboards on their own for internal testing. They didn't ask for free boards, they bought them on their own because they wanted to make sure the software was compatible with the new firmware. So to say they don't care isn't true since they've obviously already invested time and money to make sure it works.

Anyways, we're getting off-topic. This is a pretty easy issue to diagnose. Personally, I've never seen the problem, but if you happen to be someone who has, then next time it happens just copy and paste the communication log into this thread. It will be quite easy to see what command caused the smoothieboard to stop responding.

[LeonMF]

Hold on. So the reason Simplify3D "isn't cooperating" is because they aren't giving their team free software licenses??! That seems childish. I've talked with people on the S3D team and they mentioned that they purchased multiple smoothieboards on their own for internal testing. They didn't ask for free boards, they bought them on their own because they wanted to make sure the software was compatible with the new firmware. So to say they don't care isn't true since they've obviously already invested time and money to make sure it works.

Anyways, we're getting off-topic. This is a pretty easy issue to diagnose. Personally, I've never seen the problem, but if you happen to be someone who has, then next time it happens just copy and paste the communication log into this thread. It will be quite easy to see what command caused the smoothieboard to stop responding.

The smoothieware guys are open source developers doing this on a volunteer basis. They do not make money off of smoothieboard sales. The S3D team is selling a product and are, presumably, making money off of it. It would cost S3D nothing to generate a temporary license for the smoothie developers to test with. I have offered to purchase a license for the smoothie team if they wish to take me up on it.

Unfortunately, it isn't an easy issue to diagnose as it only occurs on SD card prints and there is no known specific factor at play. The only real blessing here is that it happens at the same spot on a sliced file every single time.

[JoeJ]

What other info is needed then? If this is happening from the SD card, then I would think the gcode file would be all that you need to debug it. If it stops at the same line, just start stepping through how the firmware processes those few commands to find where it stalls.

[tenaja]

The smoothieware guys are open source developers doing this on a volunteer basis. They do not make money off of smoothieboard sales.

Somebody is making money off of sales, because the one I bought cost considerably more than the BOM.

[razster]

Somebody is making money off of sales, because the one I bought cost considerably more than the BOM.

Same here. Mine cost plenty more than the raw materials and reasonable manufacturing costs. I would imagine no one would be willing to manufacture hundreds of these boards unless they were making a profit from it.

But back to the topic, I don't think you need the software anyways. Just run the gcode file from the SD card. Sounds like it's really repeatable.

[LeonMF]

The smoothieware guys are open source developers doing this on a volunteer basis. They do not make money off of smoothieboard sales.

Somebody is making money off of sales, because the one I bought cost considerably more than the BOM.

Yes, the people manufacturing and selling the boards. Uberclock != smoothieware devs.

[LeonMF]

But back to the topic, I don't think you need the software anyways. Just run the gcode file from the SD card. Sounds like it's really repeatable.

I've uploaded my gcode files. I'm not sure why that is not good enough for the devs.