1 Topic by heartless

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Topic: The importance of keeping a spare USB cable on hand...

I have recently been having some minor connection issues with my #1 printer lately... It would connect with RH ok to start out, but at some point during preheating, it would stop communicating... no errors showing up in the logs either...

This morning, I started it up as usual, set up for calibrating a new spool of filament and started preheating the bed... when I went to start the extruder and raise the bed back up - no response... (X commands waiting in the RH info window). Well, crap!

Shut it all down (as in completely turned off) and attempted to restart.... printer first... uhoh... the printer is not being recognized by the computer... this is not cool.

I have had a problem in the past with the USB chip on the controller board for this printer, and of course the brain went straight to that scenario again... But common sense took over shortly after that thought and said try a different USB cable first...

Pulled the cable from the #2 printer (same controller board, same type of cable) and swapped it in to #1. Started up again... and viola - connection is good and it is happily printing away as I type this...

I currently have one spare USB cable for these 2 printers - will be ordering a couple more today when I place a filament order...

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

2 Reply by Tin Falcon

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Re: The importance of keeping a spare USB cable on hand...

For a while dollar tree had usb and usb to mini and micro yess for a dollar I try to keep spares of all cables and have crimpers and a tester for cat 5 and phone . Big lots sometimes have cables and other electronic goodies.

Tin

Soliddoodle 4 stock w glass bed------Folger Tech Prusa 2020 upgraded to and titan /aero extruder mirror bed
FT5 with titan/ E3D Aero------MP mini select w glass bed
MP Utimate maker pro-W bondtech extruder
Marlin/Repetier Host/ Slic3r and Cura

3 Reply by heartless

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Re: The importance of keeping a spare USB cable on hand...

don't have a Big Lots nearby and the dollar stores around here only seem to carry i-phone compatible junk... hmm
even the "local" computer shops don't carry the mini-b cables anymore (what the Rumba board requires) so I get forced into shopping online a fair amount. (yes, we live that far out in the boonies, lol)

Spare cables have already been ordered. I should have them by next weekend, along with a couple more spools of filament. smile

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

4 Reply by SophiaL (edited by SophiaL 2021-08-26 04:52:16)

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Re: The importance of keeping a spare USB cable on hand...

Spare parts are always important. Especially when troubleshooting.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzGFs2 … yAV3lkVwUQ

5 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: The importance of keeping a spare USB cable on hand...

The only time I need a USB cable is if I am changing a firmware setting.  I print exclusively from SD card as the printer is on the opposite side of the room from my pc. I have a laptop for firmware changes.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

6 Reply by heartless

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Re: The importance of keeping a spare USB cable on hand...

Not all printers are set up to use SD cards, Carl.
In fact, out of my 5 current printers, only 1 has that capability, and I have yet to figure out how to use it. tongue

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

7 Reply by Tin Falcon

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Re: The importance of keeping a spare USB cable on hand...

related but not ,a couple weeks ago I was stopping by the local robotics club. They were banging there heads and wanting java help because they could not get a program to load into one of the cell phones used for robot control turns out .......... you guessed it bad cable connector.  IIRC a new cable at that but unfortunately new does not mean good Hmmm.
Tin

Soliddoodle 4 stock w glass bed------Folger Tech Prusa 2020 upgraded to and titan /aero extruder mirror bed
FT5 with titan/ E3D Aero------MP mini select w glass bed
MP Utimate maker pro-W bondtech extruder
Marlin/Repetier Host/ Slic3r and Cura