Danger: gcode getting corrupted in USBStick
A few days ago I printed a model in the morning and all was ok.
In the afternoon of the same day I printed the same model (using the same gcode in the usb stick) and something bad happened:
After 50 minutes the x-axis moved down squashing the model! I was there and I pressed the panic button.
After that I tried to open the gcode in the usb stick with Prusa Slicer and ... (see attached image)
I opened the gcode in text editor too and I found it was corrupted.
As someone has said yet, the usb stick gets hot during the printing.
Hypothesis:
- the high heat has corrupted the gcode
- the usb stick is too cheap and with an high heat it corrupts the files
- the buddy board has something wrong so it warm too much the usb stick
- the firmware has something wrong
Anyway, wouldn't it be better for the firmware to validate the gcode characters before running it? It could check the file integrity at start but I'm not sure it would be enough.
RE: Update
After a while I tried to copy the corrupted file to my pc and I tried to reopen with PrusaSlicer: the "corruption" was disappered so it seemed to be "temporary", maybe related to the heat. Opening the file directly from the usbstick in PrusaSlicer and in text editor gave the corrruption.
Anyway I used another usbstick (an old one, unknows brand, probably a promotional usbstick with marketing pdfs) and I used a usb extender cable (20cm).
So, to be sure I will not use the given usbstick anymore, maybe I will buy a Sandisk to this purpose.
Sandisk USB Stick
After a while I tried to copy the corrupted file to my pc and I tried to reopen with PrusaSlicer: the "corruption" was disappered so it seemed to be "temporary", maybe related to the heat. Opening the file directly from the usbstick in PrusaSlicer and in text editor gave the corrruption.
Anyway I used another usbstick (an old one, unknows brand, probably a promotional usbstick with marketing pdfs) and I used a usb extender cable (20cm).
So, to be sure I will not use the given usbstick anymore, maybe I will buy a Sandisk to this purpose.
I have a mini clone. The USB stick does seem like it gets warm, but I haven't had any problems with it. Ironically, I grabbed a Sandisk 16GB USB stick on amazon for about $8 this morning. I will switch to that and see how it goes.
RE: Danger: gcode getting corrupted in USBStick
When I got the printer several weeks ago, the first print I did was the Benchy with the Prusament filament that came with the print and it was printed very nice.
Today I tried to print the Benchy again, so I selected from the connected USB stick that comes with the printer (Which is plugged in to the printer from day one), started to print, and after ~10 minutes while printing, the printer started to move strangely printing outside range or moving the head and tried to print the infill from above(???).. until it got stuck.. that the only way to go out is reset...
This puzzled me, because it is the second time this happened, the first time was when I tried to print the sheep with a different filament (eSun PLA+) and the printer got stuck... so I blamed the filament and forgot about this...(this was my third or fourth print )
... But now It is the second time and this puzzled me, that caused me to see what the hell goes on.
I copied the 3DBenchy gcode to my linux box, opened it with a regular text editor and saw that I have some strange text in few parts of this huge text file...
Then I when to Printables and downloaded the official 3dbenchy_pla_150um_mini_2h.gcode from their site and did a file comparison... and walla... the file on the stick has several lines corrupted out of the thousand lines.... the same is in the sheep gcode. therefore Beware of the USB stick provided with the printer, Or the stick it is not reliable... or the printer is corrupting the stick.
Now I know it is the USB stick.
From the pic below, the left side is the content of the file in the USB stick, and the right side is the same file downloaded from Prusa...
Hope this helps.
I strongly suggest Prusa to check that the printer is not corrupting the USB sticks, because it can happen with the firmware and then you have a printer brick... or get a better reliable USB stick. (maybe read-only)
RE: Danger: gcode getting corrupted in USBStick
I just had the same issue, 12 hour print failed on Hour 11 because the USB suddenly corrupted the gcode (checked on the PC and gcode was corrupted, usb was still warm but it seemed to work. havnt checked since it cooled down).
Trying again on a new USB, lets see. I guess the one that comes with the printer looks nice but is not very reliable. This should be looked at, or maybe replace with ethernet?
RE: Danger: gcode getting corrupted in USBStick
Hey guys,
Same here. I've been having this issue quite randomly (sometimes it gets the print done and sometimes it doesn't). It's true that once the file has failed, it never get's it correctly afterwards. When it has failed I had to re-upload it again to the usb stick, then it get's it done.
I will try using another usb stick and see how it goes...
>>j