RAMBO losing serial connection at random

Mostly Printed CNC - MPCNC Troubleshooting
1

My RAMBO losing its serial connection at random and I am wondering if I need to update the RAMBO firmware.

I got the crown to draw and got the dual endstops and the Z probe working properly and I am in the middle of drawing a rectangle so I can check squareness and height. I bought “Mostly Printed CNC Parts Bundle - 6A / RAMBo Dual Firmware & Wire kit” which is reporting to Octoprint

Recv: start
Recv: echo:Marlin bugfix-2.0.x
Send: N0 M110 N0*125
Recv:
Recv: echo: Last Updated: 2018-01-20 | Author: (V1 Engineering, Ryan, 302)
Recv: echo:Compiled: Sep 21 2019

I tried using Estlcam from my Windows laptop but it never connected, so I went ahead with OctoPi on a Raspberry Pi (which is what I want anyways) and this seems to work. The video feed is cool. I’m connected using hardwired Ethernet into a 5 port gig switch so no WiFi issues.

Now I get random error messages every 20 minutes or so from Octoprint
" Error reported by printer

Your printer’s firmware reported an error. Due to that OctoPrint will disconnect. Reported error: Printer halted. kill() called!

I ssh-ed into the RPi and the octoprint log has some "echo:busy: processing messages

| Recv: T:170.00 /0.00 @:0
| Recv: echo:busy: processing
| Recv: T:170.00 /0.00 @:0
| Recv: echo:busy: processing
| Recv: T:170.00 /0.00 @:0
| Recv: Error:Printer halted. kill() called!
2021-01-14 15:44:00,202 - octoprint.util.comm - INFO - Changing monitoring state from “Operational” to “Error: Printer halted. kill() called!”
2021-01-14 15:44:00,207 - octoprint.util.comm - INFO - Force-sending M112 to the printer
2021-01-14 15:44:00,223 - octoprint.util.comm - INFO - Changing monitoring state from “Error: Printer halted. kill() called!” to “Offline (Error: Printer halted. kill() called!)”

Should I assume that it is the RAMBO that is busy?

The RPi is a version 3 model B which while not the latest should be overkill for this.

My best guess is that Estlcam and Octoprint are incompatible with the version of the RAMBO firmware. Do I need to update the RAMBO?

2

Some things to note:

  1. Estlcam can only connect to estlcam firmware, which isn’t supported on the rambo. You can use estlcam for making gcode, but don’t try to connect it.
  2. You have version 302, which is a bit old, but not anchient.
  3. Kill called is from the Marlin software when it has an error it can’t recover from. Some examples are if it senses a problem with the heater block or if the reset button is pressed on the lcd. It isn’t an issue with octoprint or estlcam, it is something with the rambo or its config.

Do you have an lcd connected? Try disconnecting it.

Do you have any plugins to octoprint? I am sure the normal install wouldn’t cause this, but there are a million plugins for octoprint.

Did you ever have an extruder connected to this? The extruder firmware could be upset.

Flashing new firmware isn’t that hard if you want newer stuff. But I don’t think there is anything in the core firmware that would explain this.

3

Thank you, I will leave the RAMBO firmware alone. There are no plug-ins nor extruder.

I just recalled that a few months ago I could not keep the raspberry Pi running if it shared an outlet with the space heater in my workshop. The machine is on its own breaker which fixed the Rpi but I wonder if it’s still not good enough for the RAMBO.

I will simply turn off the space heater and see if the problem goes away.