Flashforge Creator Pro working connection very random

Get Help
1

For a while now being able to control and print to my Flashforge Creator Pro from Octopi has been very random. One time when I power the printer and connect I can instantly jog the print head and everything works flawlessly, the next time there is no movement. If it was working and I send the M18 power down steppers I can power them up again but cannot control them again that session. The terminal shows an ok returned though for all movement commands.

Today I went to the octopi page (it is always running) and powered up the printer but no control, tried re-powering the printer, restarting octopi with printer on and off, rebooting octopi, all with no change.

If I try to print when I cannot jog first the head slams into the front left side of the printer, the opposite corner to the home switches. If it is at the home position it will try to home the Z axis at about 1mm per minute until it times out and will print in fresh air. Then it crashes the table down into the floor.

Gcode comes from Simplify3D and there is no issue if printing from SD card.

Of course, the second I finish typing I reset the connection to get clean startup text and it works.

Top text probably non working Bottom is the latest working extract

Changing monitoring state from "Offline" to "Error: Connection error, see Terminal tab"
Unexpected error while connecting to serial port: AUTO IOError: 'GPX plugin not able to discover AUTO port and/or baudrate. Please choose specific values for them.' @ comm.py:_openSerial:2478 (hook GPX)
Changing monitoring state from "Offline" to "Opening serial port"
Connected to: <GPX.gpxprinter.GpxPrinter instance at 0x6b9cb558>, starting monitor
Changing monitoring state from "Opening serial port" to "Connecting"
Recv: start
Recv:  Sailfish v7.8
Recv: echo: gcode to x3g translation by GPX
Send: N0 M110 N0*125
Recv: SD card ok
Recv:  T:22 /0 B:12 /0 T0:22 /0 T1:22 /0 @:0 B@:0
Send: N0 M110 N0*125
Recv:  T:22 /0 B:12 /0 T0:22 /0 T1:22 /0 @:0 B@:0
Recv: ok
Changing monitoring state from "Connecting" to "Operational"
Send: N0 M110 N0*125
Recv: ok
Send: N1 M115*39
Recv: ok PROTOCOL_VERSION:0.1 FIRMWARE_NAME:Sailfish FIRMWARE_VERSION:7.8 FIRMWARE_URL:http://www.sailfishfirmware.com MACHINE_TYPE:r1d EXTRUDER_COUNT:2
Send: M20
Recv: ok
Recv: Begin file list
Recv: DCIM
Recv: skyfan_front.x3g
Recv: dashcam mount.x3g
Recv: oculus sensor R.x3g
Send: <p>M72 P1<br>M70 P15 (Octoprint in control)</p>
Recv: nolan_test3.x3g
Recv: ok
Recv: // echo: (line 2) Syntax error: unrecognised gcode '<p>M72 P1<br>M70 P15 (Octoprint in control)</p>'
Recv: Rock_Lrg_04.x3g
Recv: desk hole.x3g
Recv: cam_mount3.x3g
Recv: desk hole covers.x3g
Recv: belt tops.x3g
Recv: flamingoKH.x3g
Recv: ocu_box_bottom.x3g
Recv: mth800-stand2.x3g
Recv: telematics cover2.x3g
Recv: blower holder.x3g
Recv: blower holder2.x3g
Recv: fibre pen.x3g
Recv: End file list
Send: M105
Recv: ok T:22 /0 B:13 /0 T0:22 /0 T1:22 /0 @:0 B@:0
Send: M105
Recv: ok T:23 /0 B:11 /0 T0:23 /0 T1:22 /0 @:0 B@:0
Send: G91
Recv: ok
Send: G1 X-10 F2500
Recv: ok
Send: G90
Recv: ok
Send: G91
Recv: ok
Send: G1 Y-10 F2500
Recv: ok
Send: G90
Recv: ok
Send: M105
Recv: ok T:22 /0 B:12 /0 T0:22 /0 T1:23 /0 @:0 B@:0
Send: G91
Recv: ok
Send: G1 X-10 F2500

Changing monitoring state from "Operational" to "Offline"
Connection closed, closing down monitor
Changing monitoring state from "Offline" to "Opening serial port"
Connected to: <GPX.gpxprinter.GpxPrinter instance at 0x6b9c5ad0>, starting monitor
Changing monitoring state from "Opening serial port" to "Connecting"
Recv: start
Send: N0 M110 N0*125
Recv:  Sailfish v7.8
Send: N0 M110 N0*125
Recv: echo: gcode to x3g translation by GPX
Recv: SD card ok
Recv:  T:23 /0 B:14 /0 T0:23 /0 T1:23 /0 @:0 B@:0
Recv:  T:23 /0 B:14 /0 T0:23 /0 T1:23 /0 @:0 B@:0
Recv: ok
Changing monitoring state from "Connecting" to "Operational"
Send: N0 M110 N0*125
Recv: ok
Send: N1 M115*39
Recv: ok PROTOCOL_VERSION:0.1 FIRMWARE_NAME:Sailfish FIRMWARE_VERSION:7.8 FIRMWARE_URL:http://www.sailfishfirmware.com MACHINE_TYPE:r1d EXTRUDER_COUNT:2
Send: M20
Recv: ok
Recv: Begin file list
Recv: DCIM
Send: <p>M72 P1<br>M70 P15 (Octoprint in control)</p>
Recv: ok
Recv: // echo: (line 2) Syntax error: unrecognised gcode '<p>M72 P1<br>M70 P15 (Octoprint in control)</p>'
Recv: skyfan_front.x3g
Recv: dashcam mount.x3g
Recv: oculus sensor R.x3g
Recv: nolan_test3.x3g
Recv: Rock_Lrg_04.x3g
Recv: desk hole.x3g
Recv: cam_mount3.x3g
Recv: desk hole covers.x3g
Recv: belt tops.x3g
Recv: flamingoKH.x3g
Recv: ocu_box_bottom.x3g
Recv: mth800-stand2.x3g
Recv: telematics cover2.x3g
Recv: blower holder.x3g
Recv: blower holder2.x3g
Recv: fibre pen.x3g
Recv: End file list
Send: M105
Recv: ok T:23 /0 B:13 /0 T0:23 /0 T1:23 /0 @:0 B@:0
Send: M105
Recv: ok T:23 /0 B:14 /0 T0:23 /0 T1:23 /0 @:0 B@:0
2

Hello @Stephen_Hall!

First I noticed the HTML formatting commands in your line

Anyhow, nothing critical happens there.

You powered on/off the printer and/or the Pi. Have you tried the Connect button on the left side?

grafik

When the print head crashes to somewhere of your printer, than the printers firmware should be to blame.

For connection problems to the printer, the serial.log is quite helpful.

3

Normally when the printer starts up it will auto connect, this successful time it was a manual connect after disconnecting. But I'm pretty sure I tried that before as well.

The formatting seems to be meant to change the text on the machine LCD but it never works. Maybe the command is not supported in the Flashforge firmware. I had the same issue with instructions on how to calibrate the extruder steps. also the M503 command to view firmware settings does nothing on Flashforge.

4

M503 seems not to known by the Flashforge.
Here is a good list of a lot of GCodes and their usage.

For the line to display the message you could try this instead:

M72 P1
M70 P15 <p1>(Octoprint in control)</p>

The GCode parser can not interpret the html commands, but the display routine may can.

For the Flashforge connects via the GPX plugin, maybe the author of the plugin has an idea. https://github.com/markwal/OctoPrint-GPX

5

Yep

M70 P15 (Octoprint in control)

works fine. Maybe unrecognised commands were throwing it off as it connected fine and worked when I tested this.