[Solved] Software disconnects during baking or reflow

[troy]

Thanks @HBijlsma.
I was able to read through the logs last night and again today. There were a couple of odd things in there and I've generated some tickets to follow up on them. I don't have an explanation for the issue yet. In your 0.7 log the printer reports an error saying that it was unable to heat to the target...but i saw another attempt to heat later that worked.

Another set of logs could help rule out (or in) a few things. For example, I saw a FW update, and some errors trying to connect just after that. After ~30s the software is able to connect. Another odd thing is that you were able to start a manual heating job during that 30s period. Not sure how because the start button should have been disabled. If you do this again can keep an eye on the connected/disconnected status in the upper right, knowing what that says would be useful.

ALL: Some logs from others could help. They will help narrow done the common steps needed...or reveal that there's more than one bug here.

Thanks again.

[ka911]

Just a update from me - tried my first print (from macOS) - and it hung about 7 minutes into the bake cycle. Software was still "responsive" but no time updates and no error messages. Pressed STOP - and got spinning wheel and "Please Wait" message and nothing else.

Printer is still baking - but it is a bit of an annoying problem.

MacOS latest
Voltera 0.8.0

[jazozaya]

Hi everybody.

We just rolled out software version 0.10.0.

Please let us now if your heating problems have been resolved or if they keep occurring.

[cborn]

Hi Jesus,

I just updated and ran a reflow cycle, and can confirm the fix works for me in the release as it did in the test version.

Thanks, David

[Knochi]

Hi there,

I ran into similar problems. We have the Voltera Application 0.11.2 installed to a 64-bit Win7 desktop machine.
After some minutes in the baking process the printer gets disconnected, i have the software in the background running.

how can i debug this? is tehre some kind of event logging? i already deactivated the energy saving option for USB, without success.

Thanks in advance
David

[mewertow]

Hi David,

If you're running into consistent disconnect issues, there are a couple steps you can take to debug the issue:

1) Try different power / USB cables
2) Try using the V-One with a different computer / laptop, if you have one available
3) Unplug or turn off other USB devices, as well as other devices on the same circuit as the V-One. We have seen that noisy environments can cause disconnect issues.
4) If all else fails, try using the V-One on a different outlet / circuit, perhaps in another room.

Some disconnect issues are caused by poor connection between the V-One and the computer, but others can be induced by other equipment. Let me know if any of the above suggestions help with the problem.

• Matt

[Knochi]

Hi Matt,

With a Laptop the V-One runs quite well. Must be something with the USB of the Desktop PC.
The USB Interface of the Voltera seems very sensible/unstable. Can we do something on Hardware site? We are an experienced hardware design team and able to modify circuits board on our own.

Thanks in advance
David

[Knochi]

Hi Matt,

update on the USB failures... we tried a different USB Cable (USB2.0 Premium) and it works now on the desktop machine as well.
Maybe you should put better cables to your deliveries.

Cu
David

[jazozaya]

Hi @Knochi,

I'm glad swapping out the cable did the trick.

We are taking your feedback seriously and am currently looking for a better USB cable supplier we can use for our next production run.

Cheers

[cborn]

This can be a real problem. A while back we had a batch which refused to charge the Lithium cells in our meters, and on investigation we found that each of the conductors, data and power, were around 6 Ohms end to end!

Charging a Lithium cell at 4.2V from a 5V USB supply over a total of 12 Ohms (6 Ohms each way) would leave us with <70mA charge current. The device draws around 200mA when running, so if left turned on when plugged in to charge they would be going backwards.

Finding good cables was a matter of looking for something which appeared to have a substantial thickness and then metering test samples. The ones we are using now have <0.2 Ohms per conductor and give us our full 500mA (or 1A depending on model) charge current.