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Dio
 Dio
(@dio)
Active Member
Power Panic not functioning

My understanding was that when power was cut the printer would have a save of the current state and provide an option to continue the print.

 

After losing power I have no option to continue, no notification that power was lost or any errors. What gives?

Posted : 06/05/2020 2:43 am
JoanTabb
(@joantabb)
Veteran Member Moderator
RE: Power Panic not functioning

Hi Daniel, 

How did your power die?

It would appear that if you turn the Power supply power switch off, the power doesn't die, properly... no recovery... 

If you Pull the power cord out, the power dies immediately and all is well. 

If you have a power failure due to a catastrophic failure in the network, with a messy restart, I believe the the printer sees that as multiple failure, it saves the first restart details then these get corrupted...      

If you have a poor Uninterruptible power supply, the act of switching to battery or switching back to mains can sometimes invoke power panic unexpectedly...   (if you have one of these UPS's you can disconnect the Black and white Power panic cable, and rely on the UPS... )

Power panic seems like a good idea, that has not been thought out fully...   I didn't look into it too far

I bought a Powercool 1200va UPS and run my printers off that! (it doesn't trip Power Panic!)
It will not sustain a long power outage. (long Power outages are rare in these parts, and I would probably have other worries more important than a 3D print, if a long power outage were to occur) so I muddle along on what I have. 🙂

Joan

I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK

Posted : 06/05/2020 6:23 pm
unmade liked
towlerg
(@towlerg)
Noble Member
RE: Power Panic not functioning

@joantabb

"It would appear that if you turn the Power supply power switch off, the power doesn't die, properly... no recovery...

If you Pull the power cord out, the power dies immediately and all is well."

Joan you are obviously one of the "wise heads" on this board and far be it from me to question but it's pretty hard to see the difference. If I need to design a mechanism to detect the difference I can think of several ways, all of which increase costs but why would Prusa do that?

Posted : 07/05/2020 12:16 pm
bobstro
(@bobstro)
Illustrious Member
RE: Power Panic not functioning
Posted by: @towlerg

[...] it's pretty hard to see the difference. If I need to design a mechanism to detect the difference I can think of several ways, all of which increase costs but why would Prusa do that?

The difference is how the power fail sensor is wired in relative to the switch. I believe it's before the switch, so can't detect manual shut offs. As to why the difference, it's a bit of a toss up. If I intentionally hit the switch, I've consciously told the printer to kill the job. Power fail is intended to deal with unintended interruptions. If you just want to pause your print, there is a menu option specifically for that.

 

My notes and disclaimers on 3D printing

and miscellaneous other tech projects
He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

Posted : 07/05/2020 3:52 pm
Dio
 Dio
(@dio)
Active Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Power Panic not functioning

The power was pulled and the switch on the printer wasn't touched.

Firmware has been updated as well, so again this is pretty disappointing as it lost me 10 hours of printing.

Posted : 08/05/2020 4:34 am
towlerg
(@towlerg)
Noble Member
RE: Power Panic not functioning

@bobstro

"I believe it's before the switch, so can't detect manual shut offs" wouldn't that mean that live was always on the mainboard irrespective of switch? If so is that kosher?

Posted : 08/05/2020 11:19 am
JoanTabb
(@joantabb)
Veteran Member Moderator
RE: Power Panic not functioning

@towlerg

I have absolutely no idea why power panic is hit and miss .

Maybe the apprentice designed it...?

Nor do i know why the filament sensor jams on tightly curled filament either (which normally occurs at thecemd of the roll, just where the filamemt normally ends ) maybe the same apprentice?

... it looks like the mini sensor is easier to manage ...

I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK

Posted : 08/05/2020 12:05 pm
unmade
(@unmade)
New Member
RE: Power Panic not functioning

@joantabb

Thank you Joan, for summarizing the state of power panic. I’ll add my experience to keep others from searching.

We experience brownouts regularly. I just got my Mk3s, and during a brownout from this thunderstorm, power panic didn’t detect anything. However the Mk3s stopped in place and heaters shut off. No menu options, and no errors detected under last job. About 8 hours into a 16 hour print. Printer was directly plugged into wall, not a surge protector. (Does that make a difference?)

I’ll look into the UPS option. Thanks again.

Posted : 25/05/2020 12:02 pm
Olef
 Olef
(@olef)
Prominent Member
RE: Power Panic not functioning

It has always been my understanding that power panic is a last ditch attempt to save a print in case of power failure. I cannot imagine the system is anything like sophisticated enough to deal with voltage fluctuations and brownouts.

If you have such things regularly then I would imagine you will have to invest in a UPS that can supply your printer with clean correct level power. Do look into it though before purchase as I believe there are different designs of UPS and some are not suitable for 3d printers.

Posted : 26/05/2020 6:06 am
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