OctoPrint tells me that my printer's firmware lacks mandatory safety features, what does this mean?

geekkid · February 10, 2019, 9:47am

Sorry to side track but I feel like we ought to sort out the lack of thermal runaway protection aswell before any fires occur https://discourse.octoprint.org/t/octoprint-tells-me-that-my-printers-firmware-lacks-mandatory-safety-features-what-does-this-mean/350

Display · April 23, 2019, 11:02am

Hello, (I'm new to printing!) I've just setup my Anycubic Chiron (latest firmware 1.3.0) and connected it to OctoPrint (1.3.10 / OctoPi 0.16.0) via AUTO/AUTO which works fine and produces no warnings.
I wanted to try decrease the connection time by specifying the Baudrate manually to 250000 - it connects but gives me the scary red thermal Printer Safety Warning:

So does this firmware lack the safety feature set or should I be using AUTO instead (does the AUTO setting connect in a more reliable manner or something)?
Thanks for any advice!

Edit:
thermal_warning.log (4.6 KB)

foosel · April 23, 2019, 2:00pm

This has nothing to do with the baudrate you connect. Whether your printer's firmware has thermal runaway protection or not isn't determined by connection parameters but whether whoever build the firmware build that into it.

Your firmware's "Author" string hints at it being an unprotected firmware as also found on older stock Anycubic Megas. Chances are thus high that it doesn't have thermal runaway protection.

You should look into replacing that firmware either with a safe updated from your vendor - if one exists - or a stock current Marlin or Repetier.

Display · April 25, 2019, 11:22am

Thank you for the information! This was just the firmware it shipped with so I shall contact Anycubic and investigate some more!

sciaio · July 12, 2019, 3:43pm

I Updated to the newest version of Octoprint too, 1.3.11. But I still have the waring. Why still I have it? Anycubic team said the printer has all safety feature enabled (see first post)

Thanks @foosel

b-morgan · July 13, 2019, 11:37pm

It doesn't matter what version of OctoPrint you have. The warning exists because the printer firmware doesn't have the thermal runaway code.

Quoting @BerndJM:
Sending M115 through the Octoprint terminal should give back some lines of information, also about the thermal protection:
Auswahl_258

You can post the output of the M115 command if you wish.

sciaio · July 14, 2019, 6:29pm

As I mentioned before, according to the manufacturer, in version 1.1.2 they enabled all the feature version:

As a proof i personally checked:

I also checked in the source code, and personally the MINTEMP e MAXTEMP features, here:

sciaio:

In Anycubic i3 Mega I also want to mention that it has apparently the maxtemp and mintemp feature enabled too, for both hotend and bed, according to the source code in GitHub :
// The minimal temperature defines the temperature below which the heater will not be enabled It is used
// to check that the wiring to the thermistor is not broken.
// Otherwise this would lead to the heater being powered on all the time.
#define HEATER_0_MINTEMP 5
#define HEATER_1_MINTEMP 5
#define HEATER_2_MINTEMP 5
#define HEATER_3_MINTEMP 5
#define BED_MINTEMP 5

// When temperature exceeds max temp, your heater will be switched off.
// This feature exists to protect your hotend from overheating accidentally, but *NOT* from thermistor short/failure!
// You should use MINTEMP for thermistor short/failure protection.
#define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 285
#define HEATER_1_MAXTEMP 275
#define HEATER_2_MAXTEMP 275
#define HEATER_3_MAXTEMP 275
#define BED_MAXTEMP 150
edit:

I tested these features too, the MINTEMP feature by unplugging the thermistor and the MAXTEMP shorting out the thermistor's pins. Both these tests gave T0 senser abnormal message on LCD. When shorting out the pins, printer kicks in the cooling fan at maximum speed, that's adds a security level, I think that even at full heating power the hotend would not pass 285°C with the fan on.

Note: Display shows messages because it's not connected via USB to Octoprint.

Here is the proof: https://youtu.be/SMpFcDjTzcE

Hope that's helpful.

And @foosel finally said:

By the way the newest version of the firmware (1.1.2) shows both, the latest and the previous one:

sciaio:

It shows both 1.1.0 and 1.1.2 versions but also Compiled: Mar 15 2018 so, according to the email, the update was uploaded successfully. Here the detailed part:
Recv: echo:V1.1.2
Recv:  1.1.0-RC8
Recv: 
Recv: echo: Last Updated: 2016-12-06 12:00 | Author: (Jolly, xxxxxxxx.CO.)

[...]

Recv: Compiled: Mar 15 2018

So I think all the safety warning are solved in this firmware version.

P.S. I now checked there is a new official version: 1.1.3, I will try to understand what is the changelog and tell you

foosel · July 16, 2019, 7:50am

@sciaio Looks like a bug. The code should detect that it's a version > 1.1.2 and not warn in that case, but this doesn't seem to work for some reason. I know it worked when I last tested it but either a real printer behaves slightly differently somewhere there or something broke between implementation and release of 1.3.11. Could you please open a bug report and make sure to include a serial.log (not a copy of the Terminal tab contents but an actual log file) so I can test this again?

edit Never mind, found it. It's.... a really stupid bug.

sciaio · July 16, 2019, 9:58am

Thanks @foosel , really appreciate it. Hope that was helpful

joel_huebner · October 19, 2019, 4:30am

I have an Offensive printer, the Monoprice Mini v.1. I pushed the MP firmware upgrade at it. I see in OP 1.3.11 there are non-offensive (temperature safe) plugins. I'm trying these.

foosel · November 12, 2020, 4:56pm

@Charlie_Powell just saw elsewhere that you can confirm the Tronxy X8 to ship with thermal runaway protection disabled. Did OctoPrint already somehow detect this? If not I'd be interested in startup messages/M115 response to hopefully be able to identify it in the FirmwareCheck plugin and warn other owners.

Charlie_Powell · November 12, 2020, 5:01pm

I don't think it did warn me (since I wasn't aware until part of it melted), but then it was quite a long time ago that that happened - I remember flashing Marlin 1.1.9 on to a new motherboard they sent since I no longer trusted the firmware, I'm thinking maybe at least 2 years ago?

Either way, I'm not sure there is much I can do to help, since it now runs up to date Marlin (and actually isn't used anymore).

foosel · November 12, 2020, 5:09pm

Ah, ok. In that case, added to the OP in a new section "known to be faulty but unidentified by the plugin"

Dennis_Rohlfing · January 6, 2021, 12:07pm

Hey just got my first Printer: Anycubic Mega Zero 2.0

Here's an observation:

Octoprint reported me "Critical Warning: Firmware Unsafe" with a link to this post.

Then octoprint showed me to update octoprint to the newest version. So I did update it.

After the update octoprint showed me the "Critical Warning: Firmware Unsafe" again.

Yet, after restarting the printer, octoprint did not find the printer anymore. When I restarted the RaspberryPi the octoprint programme did not show me the warning anymore (even though the programme did connect to the printer again).

Laurelinwen · January 16, 2021, 8:30pm

Hello,

i do have a Geeetech A10T with a GT2560 4.0 Board.
It is a Marlin 1.1.8 Firmware.
I use Octoprint 1.5.2 OctoPi Version 0.18.0, running on Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.4 8GB.
I did send the M115 and this was returned in the Terminal:
Send: M115
Recv: FIRMWARE_NAME:Marlin 1.1.8 (Github) SOURCE_CODE_URL:https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin PROTOCOL_VERSION:1.0 MACHINE_TYPE:Printer EXTRUDER_COUNT:1 UUID:cede2a2f-41a2-4748-9b12-c55c62f367ff
Recv: Cap:SERIAL_XON_XOFF:0
Recv: Cap:EEPROM:1
Recv: Cap:VOLUMETRIC:1
Recv: Cap:AUTOREPORT_TEMP:1
Recv: Cap:PROGRESS:0
Recv: Cap:PRINT_JOB:1
Recv: Cap:AUTOLEVEL:0
Recv: Cap:Z_PROBE:0
Recv: Cap:LEVELING_DATA:0
Recv: Cap:BUILD_PERCENT:0
Recv: Cap:SOFTWARE_POWER:0
Recv: Cap:TOGGLE_LIGHTS:1
Recv: Cap:CASE_LIGHT_BRIGHTNESS:1
Recv: Cap:EMERGENCY_PARSER:0
Recv: ok

Does that now mean this Printer does not have the safety features?

So far the Printer did not show any Issues about over heating or Powerspikes or anything. Just the regular nonsense not necessary caused by Vendor may i add.

I also have a Anycubic Mega Zero 2.0. But not yet a Octopi ready to collect the Information. Will do so in a couple of hours.

So the Anycubic Mega Zero returns this for M115:
Send: M115
Recv: FIRMWARE_NAME:Marlin V0.0.2 (Github) SOURCE_CODE_URL:https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin PROTOCOL_VERSION:1.0 MACHINE_TYPE:Mega Zero EXTRUDER_COUNT:1 UUID:cede2a2f-41a2-4748-9b12-c55c62f367ff
Recv: Cap:SERIAL_XON_XOFF:0
Recv: Cap:EEPROM:1
Recv: Cap:VOLUMETRIC:1
Recv: Cap:AUTOREPORT_TEMP:1
Recv: Cap:PROGRESS:0
Recv: Cap:PRINT_JOB:1
Recv: Cap:AUTOLEVEL:0
Recv: Cap:Z_PROBE:0
Recv: Cap:LEVELING_DATA:0
Recv: Cap:BUILD_PERCENT:0
Recv: Cap:SOFTWARE_POWER:0
Recv: Cap:TOGGLE_LIGHTS:0
Recv: Cap:CASE_LIGHT_BRIGHTNESS:0
Recv: Cap:EMERGENCY_PARSER:0
Recv: Cap:AUTOREPORT_SD_STATUS:0
Recv: Cap:THERMAL_PROTECTION:0

I think the last Line gives a Hint. But when it comes to Firmware i have no clue. Is it possible to just change it to 1?
If i modify the Firmware, update or upgrade, would that allready help or does this say there is no physical Protection like a Safetyswitch?

Ewald_Ikemann · January 16, 2021, 8:48pm

Hello @Laurelinwen!

Maybe Thermal Runaway is missing...

b-morgan · January 16, 2021, 9:15pm

I think its Recv: Cap:THERMAL_PROTECTION:1

Dennis_Rohlfing · January 22, 2021, 8:28pm

update:
I reinstalled octoprint on my raspberry and updated it, as it showed up.
Now the warning is showing up again. But after reconnecting to the printer it does not show up anymore.

Only when turning off and on again the printer and the raspberry pi the message shows up again

Don't know, I will never let it print alone :'D

Charlie_Powell · January 22, 2021, 9:19pm

To fix the issue and make the warning go away you need different firmware on the printer. Reinstalling OctoPrint won't help the printer, you should try flashing your own firmware to the printer.

Laurelinwen · April 3, 2021, 3:55pm

Thank you Ewald_Ikemann. I am trying something new, for me, at the Moment. I am trying to create a new Firmware, since there is no configuration.h only the .hex from the Printer Vendor. But i am allready at a Dead End, mostly because i dont have any Experience with Firmware creation/manipulation. I am trying to create a Marlin Firmware for both Printer individualy. The Geeetech A10T has a Motherboard installed which is not in the board.h/pins.h Files (a Atmega GT2560 V4). Compyling and uploading is not working. I understand what to do for the Thermal Runaway, what it means to uncomment the Lines but i guess i have to subscribe to Marlin School