Have had my Taz 5 for a couple weeks now and getting to know it. Yesterday was my third attempt at printing the engine block for the Toyota 22RE engine. Cura says about 30 hours to complete. During my last two attempts, the print just stopped at exactly the same location, layer, etc… (this is after approximately 18 hours of printing). I am printing from the SD card on the machine (no computer connected). Almost like it runs out of memory or something… The nozzle just sits there (still on the print), with the nozzle and bed temps as per setpoints. Filament is not jammed. I can push it through and it flows… Any ideas?
Given that it stopped at the same location, start by checking the .gcode.
Open the .gcode file in Cura, then switch to Layer view. Scroll through the layers to see if there’s anything obvious at the problem point.
You can also use a .gcode viewer like http://gcode.ws/
I have experienced the same problem on a number of occasions. I have noticed that after the print stops I cannot read from the SD card anymore and I require a full cycle of the printer before the memory card appears to have content. I have loaded the gcode into various viewers and the layers look good. I suspect it is a memory card failure or a bug in the firmware.
It sounds like your model has geometry errors in it. Sometimes they are very hard to find, but try one of the web based repair sites like netfabb and see if that fixes the freezing. I run across alot of models that look fine and will print using some slicing programs, but another program has problems with it due to these ‘hidden’ errors/problems.
I ran this through several tools to check for errors and couldn’t find any. This part is part of the openRC project and thus the STL has been used by many successfully.
Upload the STL or provide link.
I since have downloaded netfabb and it indicates that my file has an error. Not sure what the workflow is to repair it. I was able to repair the file, but I think that Cura is messing up the file when I open it to be printed. Curiously enough, I was able to get this file to work on the mini, it just chokes on the Taz 5. In fact, I don’t think I have ever had a print stop on the mini, but it happens frequently on the Taz5.
One Rim.amf (143 KB)
It looks like there is a hexagonal void that is encapsulated in the model from 30 MM to 34 MM in the model center. I would expect that is an error of some kind.
Which tool did you use to check that?