3D Printers, Hardware, Tech Support
I’ve created a list of list of possible issues that can cause the Anycubic MEGA S and Chiron to randomly stop during printing.
- Loose connectors
- Bad thermistors
- Corrupted SD card file system
- Failing SD card reader board
- Broken wiring
Symptoms often include:
- A random (heartbreaking) print fail.
- Your printer will sound it’s power up chime. (Then you sing a four letter aria that would make Pavarotti proud.)
- When attempting to manually move the print head or build plate you get an error message, “The Machine is running, please try again later.”
- An inevitable power cycle to regain gantry control to unbury the print head from the 90% completed garden gnome sized baby yoda you were printing for your grandma.
- General disgust.
Loose Connectors:
You’ll notice most of the connectors on your Anycubic printer have blobs of hot glue on them.. this struck me as odd until I watched this YouTube video about similar random print fails. As it turns out Anycubic printers can create enough vibration to cause brief disconnects in any one of the many connectors found through out the printer. The hot glue acts as a lock minimizing the chance of connector back out. I was really surprised to see the temp sensor for the heated bed glued to the mother board. If you’ve purchased your Chiron recently, you’ll also see the hot end data/power cable is cinched to the cage using a zip tie locking it in place.
Loose connector resolution:
Pretty straight forward. You simply go connector to connector checking to see if they’re seated and tight. If you’re feeling frisky you can add reinforcing hot glue.
Bad thermistors:
Thermistors are used in the hot bed and heater block as part of the feedback loop that keeps the printer on task. If the thermistor fails, gives bad data, or gets disconnected the print head will halt immediately and the hot end cooling fan will kick on full speed. I think it does that so it can’t hear me cussing.
Hot bed thermistor Resolution:
To test if your hot bed thermistor is causing problems, you can turn off the heated bed in your slicer and run a few test prints. If the intermittent fail goes away, you’ve got your culprit (and hopefully a bunch of double sided tape). In the case of my Mega S, my print would fail at 3 hrs out (randomly), then 1 hour, then during the skirt, then it just wouldn’t start. Anycubic customer support recommended turning off the hot bed and sure enough it printed to completion. Anycubic will work with you to get the bed replaced or you can learn more about replacing the hotbed thermistor here: https://youtu.be/UEfxie6aVtw
Heater block thermistor resolution:
My recommendation here is to install the spare hot end that came with your Anycubic.
Corrupted SD card file system:
The file system on your SD card has become corrupt or you have a memory failure going on.
Corrupted SD card file system resolution:
Reformat your SD card using fat32 for the file system or try a new SD Card.
Failing SD card reader board:
So it’s possible the SD card reader daughter board is acting up and causing intermittent failures.
Failing SD card reader board resolution:
Remove the SD card from your printer and plug a USB cable from your Anycubic to your PC to run the print directly from your slicer. I’m literally 15min from completion on a 7hr Cura to Chiron test print (1 of 3) to determine if my SD card reader is flaking out. Just one of the reasons I decided to make this list.
Broken wiring:
In my experience broken wiring normally affects the hot bed where the power and thermistor wiring come off the bed and begin running down the Chiron frame. They really need a cable plug assembly mounted to the bed that reduces stress on this cable and allows you to simply unplug the connector from the bed to replace or service it. You could build it into the bed clamp assembly for added strength.
Broken wiring resolution:
Shoot a pic to Anycubic customer support and they’ll work with you on getting it replaced. OR if your handy with a soldering iron and heat shrink tubing, the fix is straight forward.
Tech Support
Anycubic Mega S and Chiron upgrades to make your printer a reliable workhorse:
Check out the JST XH 4P connector for creating crossover cables.
Upgrade the cheap stock plastic Titan Aero extruders to all aluminum.
Wear resistant 0.4mm Nickle plated nozzles
TMC2208 V1.2 Stepper Driver Module with Heat Sink
Upgrade stock fans to Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX
Tech Support
Lately Wordfence Two-factor authentication has been flakier than a country biscuit on my e-commerce site. The only suggestion from wordfence technical support I’ve found online is that it “might be a conflict with another plug-in”.
Here’s a quick remedy to get logged in.
FTP to your host account
goto /wp-content/plugins
rename your wordfence directory wordfence1. This will disable the plugin and allow you to log in.
Once logged in and back on your dashboard, rename your wordfence plugin back to wordfence via FTP. Reload your dashboard.
Goto Wordfence > login security and click disable two-factor.
Thanks to Metadata.mx Link
Raspberry Pi, Tech Support
Configuring a Raspberry Pi and VLC to act as a streaming audio server for your home or office is inexpensive and relatively easy to do.
The tutorial below configures your Raspberry Pi to autorun VLC on boot and play a pre-configured playlist of streaming audio sites (or any audio content you wish). You control the VLC web instance using a browser on your cell phone or home computer.
- Begin by installing VLC on your Raspberry Pi. Link to install VLC
- Download and extract this example playlist to your Pi desktop: Streaming-playlist or create one of your own.
- Open the terminal window interface in your Raspberry Pi and type in the following:
- This will tell you the local ip address of your Pi. Save it for later.
hostname -I
mkdir /home/pi/.config/autostart
nano /home/pi/.config/autostart/autovlc.desktop
- Note: the entry below should be 3 lines only. It may wrap depending on what you’re viewing this page on.
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=vlc -I http –http-password . –one-instance file: /home/pi/Desktop/streaming.xspf
- Hit ctrl-O then <enter> to save the autovlc.desktop file
- Hit ctrl-X to exit nano
- reboot your Raspberry Pi by typing:
sudo reboot
- Your Pi should reboot and begin playing music automatically. One thing to note however this launches VLC in the back ground with its only interface being the web interface so you wont see it come up on the desktop.
- To switch between streaming stations, you will need to connect to the VLC web instance on the Pi by entering http://<raspberry-pi’s-ip-address>:8080 in a browser on your home computer or cell phone.
A login prompt will come up. Leave the username blank and enter a “.” as the password (you can change to whatever you like). You’ll see the VLC Lua web control interface come up.
Software, Tech Support
This guide is to assist in configuring the legacy, per caller or group, custom voicemail greeting feature found in Google Voice. While Google limits custom voicemail greetings to 10, you can assign a greeting to one or many Google contacts.
Custom Voicemail greetings are routed to the intended caller or group of callers based on labels assigned in your Google Contacts. If you want a specific caller to get their own custom voicemail greeting then you would apply a custom label, ex. their name, mother, father, friend, etc, to just their contact record. For a group you would assign the label to multiple contacts.
While you can configure “some” of this guide using your android phone or tablet, certain configuration features are only possible via a browser.
Links you’ll need:
- Google Contacts: https://contacts.google.com/u/0/
- You’ll manage your google contacts labels here. Later you’ll be able to assign custom voicemail greetings you’ve recorded to these labels.
- Google Voice Settings: https://voice.google.com/u/0/settings
- You’ll record and manage your custom voicemail greetings here.
- Google Voice Legacy groups: https://www.google.com/voice/b/0#groups
- You’ll assign the custom greetings you’ve recorded to the contact label (called a group in the legacy Google Voice interface) thereby enabling a custom greeting for that contact or group of contacts. You’ll also be able to enable or disable call screening for specific contacts or groups.
Google Contacts labels
Step 1:
Visit: https://contacts.google.com/u/0/ The first step in configuring the custom greetings is to make sure you have a label assigned to anyone you want to receive a custom greeting. To create a custom label scroll to the bottom of your labels list on the left and click “Create label”. You can also edit, and delete unwanted labels here using the controls that pop up when you highlight a label.
Create as many labels as you’ll need to route the various custom voicemail greetings.
Once you’ve completed adding labels to your satisfaction, click the three little dots to the right of a contact record. This drops down settings for that contact. Click beside each label you want assigned to the contact.
Repeat this for all contacts you want to assign a custom message.
Step 2:
Visit your Google Voice Voicemail Settings: https://voice.google.com/u/0/settings Or at the top right of google voice, click Settings 
.
Record up to 10 custom voicemail greetings (not shown). When you click to save a newly recorded greeting it will allow you to name it. Keep the titles relatively short. Also Keep in mind each time you record a greeting, google voice is making it the default greeting for all callers. When you’ve finished recording your greetings, click “Manage all greetings” to set the correct default greeting. Click the three little dots besides the default greeting of your choice and click “Set as active”
Step 3:
Visit Legacy Google Voice Settings > Groups: https://www.google.com/voice/b/0#groups On the left you’ll see a corresponding group for each contact label you created earlier. Click edit beside the group/label you want to assign a custom voicemail greeting to.
Select the correct custom voicemail greeting from the drop down (Play button does not work in legacy google voice). This will now override the system default greeting with the one you’ve selected. To manage this contact’s greeting from now on you will have to do it from Legacy Google Voice > settings > groups.
Select if you want to disable Google Voice call screening for this specific group or caller and click Save. Anyone with this label will now hear your selected custom voicemail greeting
