Taz 6 / Octoprint problem

Love the new Taz 6, just getting going with it, but hit one snag right off when printing from the latest octoprint (1.2.11 via octopi).

It works fine, starting the autoleveling sequence, but then on the fourth corner it just stops, and the LCD hangs. Called support, so they’re aware, but would be curious to know if anyone else either is, or isn’t seeing it.

Cura prints just fine.

I found that my Z axis was off left to right, but my first and only Cura print worked fine. But when I set up Octoprint it also stopped on the last corner. When I looked at the reported heights for the corners from the auto level command they were off from each side. But after I adjusted the Z axis to bring the left and right side to the same heights I now can print without problems.

Hi,

I have been printing successfully with Octopi on the Taz 6. Standard Image, no adjustments. After the 4th auto leveling stop, there is a long pause while the extruder heats up from 150c to filament temp and the bed starts heating at that point too. This is normal

Not sure if that helps… but thoughts I’d mention it.

Rich.

Setting up My new TAZ 6 with Octoprint, and was wondering if any special procedures are needed to implement the bed leveling procedure.
Does the start.gcode and end.gcode from cura need to plugged into Octoprint settings>geode scripts? I’m planning on using Simplify 3D.

Hi,

I upload the GCode from CURA (v19.2) to OctoPi and it works like a charm… I will say I have not yet found a profile for Simplify3D for the Taz 6, so be very careful or you will have the print head smashing into everything. :slight_smile:

The profile from Clay (in a separate thread here) for S3D needs work still.

Rich.

I’m having the same issue. Opened a case with support this weekend and they have it identified as a known issue. Prints are perfect from Cura via USB (Mac v19.12) and gcode from SD. Consistent failure printing from OctoPi (0.13) always locking up after calibrating on the 4th leveling washer.

1 Like

Well the one I have works pretty good but is still a major work in progress. I am having more problems with Octopi than S3D.

I have one process for my Taz 5 and one for my Taz 6, and then select the proper one for the printer I am going to upload the print to.

Start script:

G26                          ; clear potential 'probe fail' condition
G21                          ; set units to Millimeters
M107                         ; disable fans
G90                          ; absolute positioning
M82                          ; set extruder to absolute mode
G92 E0                       ; set extruder position to 0
M140 S[bed1_temperature]; get bed heating up
G28 XY                       ; home X and Y
G1 X-19 Y258 F1000           ; move to safe homing position
M109 S170                    ; soften filament for z homing
G28 Z                        ; home Z
M104 S160                    ; wipe temp
G1 E-30 F100                 ; suck up XXmm of filament
G1 X-15 Y100 F3000           ; move above wiper pad
G1 Z1                        ; push nozzle into wiper
G1 X-17 Y95 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y90 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y85 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-15 Y90 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y80 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-15 Y95 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y75 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y65 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y70 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y60 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y55 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y50 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y40 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y45 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y35 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y40 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y70 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y30 Z2 F2000         ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y35 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y25 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y30 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y25 Z1.5 F1000       ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y23 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 Z10                       ; raise extruder
M109 S160                    ; heat to probe temp
G1 X-9 Y-9                   ; move above probe
M204 S100                    ; set accel for probing
G29                          ; probe sequence (for auto-leveling)
M204 S500                    ; set accel back to normal
G1 X0 Y0 Z15 F5000           ; get out the way
M400                         ; clear buffer
G4 S1                        ; pause
M117 Heating...              ; LCD status message
M140 S[bed1_temperature]; get bed heating up
M109 S[extruder1_temperature]    ; set extruder temp and wait
M190 S[bed1_temperature]; get bed temping up during first layer
G1 Z2 E0 F75                 ; extrude filament back into nozzle
M117 TAZ Printing...         ; LCD status message

end script:

M400                           ; wait for moves to finish
M104 S0                        ; hotend off
M107                           ; fans off
G91                            ; relative positioning
G1 E-1 F300                    ; retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle
 to release some of the pressure
G1 Z+20 E-5 X-20 Y-20 F3000    ; move Z up a bit and retract filament even more
M117 Cooling please wait       ; progress indicator message
G90                            ; absolute positioning
G1 Y0 F3000                    ; move to cooling position
M190 S50                       ; set bed to cool off
G1 Y280 F3000                  ; present finished print
M84                            ; steppers off
G90                            ; absolute positioning
M117 Print complete            ; progress indicator message

I’m having the same issue with Octoprint on the Taz 6.
It seems like the printer is not sending an ‘Ok’ after the last leveling washer touch.
It will sit there forever!

I had a couple of other issues with the printer, so I also mentioned this to them with the support emails.
They said they are looking into the problem.

It’s working!!!
All I did was remove the SD card from the printer. The only thing I can think of is all the files on the SD card might have overloaded something when it was read. There is a lot of stuff on the SD card!

You might want to give it a try!

I’ll be darned - that works. Simply removing the SD card before starting a print solves the problem.

Glad you found that…it could have turned into one of those never does it with tech support kind of things.

Can confirm. Removing the SD card lets Octoprint do its magic! Thanks guys

It’s working!!!
All I did was remove the SD card from the printer. The only thing I can think of is all the files on the SD card might have overloaded something when it was read. There is a lot of stuff on the SD card!

You might want to give it a try!

Like akent, I found that having a SD card in the slot that has a lot of data will strain the Raspberry Pi’s resources as OctoPrint scans all the files. If there are a few files you wont have the freezups.

In fact having a freshly formatted SD card in the TAZ 6 slot in combination with OctoPrint can prove useful. When an SD card is in the slot the Files area within OctoPrint will have an option to upload the stl or gcode directly to the Pi miniSD card, OR you can upload to the TAZ6 SD card. This way you can still print from the TAZ SD card while also being able to transfer the gcode to the printer over the internet. Octoprint will not be handling the print job in this case but this does help make the TAZ6 wireless in so many ways.

Note: In order to run the print through OctoPrint and have the features and control this gives you; the stl or gcode file must be uploaded to the Octoprint device storage and started from the Pi for best results. I found running a job from the OctoPi using a file stored on the TAZ6 SD card was slow and did not work 100% of the time. Be sure in OctoPrint to adjust the Files setting context menu to “only show files stored locally” This improved OctoPrint responsiveness.

As of 8/8/2016 I have been using the latest version of simplify3d with their TAZ 6 profiles that are now available within the program. With some adjustments this slicer tool does provide a very nice finished part, however, I have experienced some slight bugs. Prints using simplify3d gcode directly from the TAZ 6 SD card slot work great. When running the gcode using OctoPrint we see some strange things particularly with the ABS profile. On start, after calibration, just after heating, there is a filament retraction of around 15mm. Of course this makes the first layer a mess. I found making many skirt outlines (10-12 passes) helped with this issue, but when running the same code through the TAZ 6 interface the retraction does not happen, in fact we see a approx. 15mm extrusion. I will try and replicate the issue and find a solution. If anybody has any ideas all ears… Will be starting a new thread on this too.

\

CURA or simplify3D, > Raspberry Pi3, OctoPrint 1.2.15 > TAZ 6.

Isobront,

I am using the exact same setup (s3d, octoprint 1.2.15 on pi3 on Taz 6) and do not see the 15mm retraction. I usually do a 2 line skirt. my flow does not start for the first 10mm of the first skirt.

I am using the s3d abs profile, medium quality.

I will run a test again to make sure.

Thanks KozmoK for the reply, I can rule out S3D as the problem. With updated start and end gcode in S3D we have a nice workflow with a similar experience to using Cura. While the new S3D TAZ6 profiles are great, the supplied end gcode script can use an update. The extruder never makes a Z movement after finishing the print causing the print to graze the top of the completed print when moving the bed forward again after cooling. Here is what Cura provides and with some changes I can confirm working with S3D > Octoprint > Taz 6.

These are similar to another post earlier in this thread by user kmanley57. Scripts are adopted from Cura and modified for Simplify3D with some extra bits that I find nice to have.

Start Script S3D

G26                          ; clear potential 'probe fail' condition
G21                          ; set units to millimeters
M107                        ; disable fans
G90                          ; absolute positioning
M82                          ; set extruder to absolute mode
G92 E0                       ; set extruder position to 0
M140 S85                   ; get bed heating up
G28 XY                       ; home X and Y
G1 X-19 Y258 F1000           ; move to safe homing position
M109 S160                          ; soften filament for z homing
G28 Z                                  ; home Z
M104 S150                          ; wipe temp
G1 E-5 F100                        ; suck up XXmm of filament
G1 X-15 Y100 F3000           ; move above wiper pad
G1 Z1                                 ; push nozzle into wiper
G1 X-17 Y95 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y90 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y85 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-15 Y90 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y80 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-15 Y95 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y75 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y65 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y70 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y60 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y55 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y50 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y40 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y45 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y35 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y40 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y70 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y30 Z2 F2000       ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y35 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y25 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-17 Y30 F2000            ; fast wipe
G1 X-15 Y25 Z1.5 F1000    ; slow wipe
G1 X-17 Y23 F1000            ; slow wipe
G1 Z10                          ; raise extruder
M109 S150                    ; heat to probe temp
G1 X-9 Y-9                     ; move above probe
M204 S100                    ; set accel for probing
G29                               ; probe sequence (for auto-leveling)
M204 S500                     ; set accel back to normal
G1 X0 Y0 Z15 F5000      ; get out the way
M400                             ; clear buffer
G4 S1                            ; pause
M117 Heating...             ; LCD status message
M140 S[bed0_temperature]           ; get bed heating up
M109 S[extruder0_temperature]    ; set extruder temp and wait
M190 S[bed0_temperature]           ; get bed temping up during first layer
G1 Z2 E0 F75                                 ; extrude/retract filament back into nozzle (leave E at 0 for no extrusion action) (-#'s accepted)
M117 TAZ Printing...                       ; LCD status message

End Script S3D

M400                           ; wait for moves to finish
M104 S0                                ; hotend off
M107                                     ; fans off
G91                                       ; relative positioning
G1 E-1 F300                          ; retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle
 to release some of the pressure
G1 Z+30 E-5 X-20 Y-20 F3000    ; move Z up a bit and retract filament even more
M117 Cooling please wait             ; progress indicator message
G90                                 ; absolute positioning
G1 Y0 F3000                   ; move to cooling position
M190 S50                       ; set bed to cool off
G1 Y280 F3000               ; present finished print
M84                            ; steppers off
G90                            ; absolute positioning
M117 Print complete            ; progress indicator message
G4 P1200000                      ; keep bed warm for part removal (milliseconds)
M140 S0                              ; turn bed heat off
M117 TAZ 6 Ready              ; taz ready bed cool

gCode RepRap reference can be found here: http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code


With more playing around I have found there to be an issue with Pausing OctoPrint mid job. Once resumed we see the filament retracted until it has left the hot end. In this case I was pausing during heat up and after calibration, right before the print. I was manually extruding a few millimeters of filament to “prime” the extruder before printing. I realize increasing my skirt passes are a better option in the case of laying the first layer and getting material to flow.

A pause during a print will also have the same resume-retract effect. I was trying to pause mid job to swap filament colors. Having the retraction on resume pulls all the newly fed material out causing missed layers for a considerable number of passes failing the print. Another addition I would like to see with the OctopPrint pause function would be a Z movement on pause to at least move the hot end away from the work. On resume it would correct for any additional movements made by the user, then return to the work and continue printing. Currently if any movements are done in the Z direction within pause they are not recorded and we start air printing.

I see some other posts on this issue but have not found the solution. Do other users experience this OctoPrint/ TAZ6 pause resume filament feed issue?

CURA or simplify3D (S3D), > Raspberry Pi3, OctoPrint 1.2.15 > TAZ 6.

Just posting my solution in case anyone else comes across this thread. My issue was self inflicted, though my symptoms were the same. I have been slicing using the current cura (21.02) and then uploading the gcode to octopi to print. However, I copied the starting and ending GCode from the newer cura into the octopi settings and it appears that the set temperature lines for the hotend and bed were using variables that octopi was not recognizing causing it to hang up waiting for the nozzle and bed to heat up while they just cooled down. I’m guessing that if the variables were in the correct format it would have ended up doing the starting and ending steps twice since my GCode exported from cura had them already baked in.