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Troubleshooting

William Xie edited this page May 9, 2016 · 6 revisions

OctoPi and OctoPrint

The Raspberry Pi is not connecting to wifi

Check your octopi-network.txt file to make sure that the SSID and password are correctly. Multiple restarts of the Raspberry Pi may be necessary for the device to connect. If nothing else works, re-flash OctoPi onto the SD card and re-setup OctoPrint.

"503 Service Unavailable. No server is available to handle this request." for octopi.local

In OctoPi:

ps aux | grep oct

You should see a couple processes that look like this:

avahi     2248  0.0  0.4   3448  1668 ?        S    19:57   0:00 avahi-daemon: running [octopi.local]
pi        4060  0.5  3.7  45048 14320 ?        Sl   20:00   0:09 /home/pi/oprint/bin/python /home/pi/oprint/bin/octoprint --port=5000

Connection timed out when trying to connect to octopi.local

Make sure all devices are on and connected to the same local area network. Sometimes on slow networks, it requires a few tries to connect to octopi.local

This may also be due to the OctoPrint server not starting up correctly. Restart the Raspberry Pi or manually start OctoPrint in OctoPi if not running and try again.

API calls and requests are not going through to OctoPrint

Requests may not go through if sent right after a print job finishes. Wait about 10-20 seconds in between the print finishing and sending a new request.

Make sure the OctoPrint server is online. Restart the Raspberry Pi or manually start OctoPrint from OctoPi if needed.

Printer

Nothing is coming out of the nozzle

There may be an air bubble in the tube depending on your edible material. Wait a few minutes (run a few prints) for the air bubble to pass.

There may be a small, hardened piece of edible material blocking the nozzle. Use a needle or something similar to push into the nozzle to loosen it. You may also switch out the nozzle with a new one without needing to re-prime the tube.

If you just refilled or changed materials in the syringe, you will need to propagate pressure through the tube again by re-priming the tube.

Be aware of any signs that the Discov3ry is struggling to generate enough force to push material through the tube. Signs of this can include the syringe bending or collapsing under pressure, the tube connected to the syringe popping off its luer lock, grinding sounds from the Discov3ry, or the material not moving at all through the tube despite the Discov3ry applying a lot of force over time.

The material is taking a long time to prime through the tube

Depending on the viscosity of the material, it may take a while for the tube to be primed. If there is no movement after 10 minutes, then most likely the Discov3ry is not pushing the syringe up correctly.

Make sure the Allen wrench (the black L shaped tool) is securely fastened and through the hole of the base and the threaded rod. The wrench is secure if you cannot turn the threaded rod by hand. The threaded rod should not be turning during operation but moving upward.

If you modified the configuration settings of a 3D print and are using it to prime the tube, you may want to look into the flow rate to make sure it is high enough.

The Discov3ry is making a very loud and elongated beeping sound

We believe this is the alarm sound for when the Discov3ry is overheating. Cancel the print and wait a minute before starting up again.

The prints are coming out very thin

Usually the first print after priming the nozzle comes out thin because the flow rate is still increasing. After priming the tube, the first couple of prints should be used to reach that steady flow rate.

You might need to adjust the slicing configuration for your model. Perhaps raise the print density or slow the nozzle speed.

The prints are coming out too thick

You will need to adjust the slicing configuration for your model. Perhaps lower the print density or increase the nozzle speed.

The prints are not coming out as expected

This mostly points towards your slicing configuration. This was our slicing configuration for cake frosting. You may need to make many adjustments to various aspects such as the fill density, the first layer, and speeds.

You may also want to consider your edible material and compare it with your intended print. Is it able to withstand the complexity of the print? Some paste materials cannot hold its shape or tend to glob together.

The material continuously flows out the nozzle despite not being in a printing state

This is intended as the Discov3ry is applying and maintaining constant pressure into the tube. To avoid major messes and tedious cleanup, put down some wax paper or paper towels to catch the flowing material in a non-print state.

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