Part cooling does not work with Anycubic Chiron during/after print

My problem is really similar (same?) to one from sep 2019 found on this forum here:

Octoprint doesn't read M106 command

As my Octoprint version (1.7.0) is way newer then what was used then @Ewald_Ikemann asked me to open a new thread.

What is the problem?

When printing something via Octoprint (only when not printing a file on the printer's SD), the part cooling fan does not start at all.
If i send an M106 or M106 S255 command via the Terminal Tab it does not bring the fan to live during print.
When checking the printers own interface (Touchscreen of Anycubic Chiron) fan speed is correctly displayed (shows correct non 0 value as current fan speed), even when setting fan speed on the printers touch display interface to different value fan does not respond. But set value is correctly displayed and accepted.
This fan control works completely fine when idle ore printing with SD-card.
It seems that when not printing from the printer's SD somehow the M106 / M107 commands are somewhat different and somehow blocked even thou manual command line M106 commands during print return "ok" and also the information on the printers screen update to set value without actually turning the fan on.

What do i want?

I need a solution to bring the fan to the set values during print while using Octoprint.

What did i already try to solve it?

  • rebooted Octoprint
  • printed in Octoprint Safemode (no changes)
  • rebooted printer
  • used different models / g-codes
  • used terminal to send M106 S255 while printing (responding with "ok" but not turning fan on)
  • replaced part cooling fan (before i recognised that commands do not work, thought it was a dead fan)
  • checked voltage of fan with multimeter, no voltage is applied during print.

Have i tried running in safe mode?

Yes, safe mode did not produce a different result compared to non safe mode prints.
No printing differences where noticed and fan did not turn on.

Additional information about my setup

Software:

  • Octoprint 1.7.0 with plenty of plug-ins
  • Simplify3D 4.0.0

Hardware

  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2 with RP camera
  • connected via USB to Printer
  • Printer is a Anycubic Chiron, stock from factory (already with newest firmware available from Anycubic V1.3.0). Was sitting around for 1.5 years in original packaging unopened. Setup during last week. Prints fine with SD-card.

Problems with Anycubic Chiron common?

I found a thread her on the forum that also presents this Problem also with Anycubic Chiron!?
It was marked as solved but never responded if the replacement motherboard fixed the issue ore just believed it could fix the issue:

Part Cooling Fan, does not work while Printing

System info Bundle

octoprint-systeminfo-20211019122627.zip (46.9 KB)
I try to provide a better serial.log down the road as i just enabled logging.

Example g-code

DMA_Cooling test.gcode (835.5 KB)
Printed fine via SD-card
Fan will not turn on when file is printed with Octoprint

Update 01:

  • Flashed new firmware from Anycubic Website (from 1.3.0 to 1.3.0, so a re flash) did not help
  • Error description update: its possible to control the part cooling fan speed, but only BEFORE starting a print over usb. Once started, fan speed can not be set any more even when aborting the print and idling again. By simply reconnecting to the printer the basic BEFORE print fan control works again.
  • Tried printing with Cura over usb and exactly the same as with octoprint, fan does not work as expected! (therefore does not seam to be anything wrong with Octoprint, seems like a Anycubic Chiron problem?!) suggestions to fix this problem would still be really appreciated :slight_smile:

Update 02:

  • Fan control seems to work up to the homing point in the g-code script. So after starting print its possible to set fan speed during heat up (i used a different g-code then provided above, the above g-code will home immediately after start). After the heat up the printer starts homing and changing fan settings is no longer possible. (I need to further investigate the g-code script)

Update 03: (Fixed)

Took some time until i was able to flash new firmware (had things to print, power supply blew up and got replaced, etc...)

  • Fixed under voltage problems on Raspberry Pi (cable was not sufficient)

  • Flashed newest Marlin firmware (2.0.9.2) (Marlin Github) with the corresponding profile for the Anycubic Chiron (Marlin configs). I used the Visual studio Code plug-in to build and flash Marlin to my Chiron via USB-Cable (Installing Marlin).

  • Test prints now turn on the Part cooling fan and setting fan speed with the touch interface now also works while printing via Octoprint.

  • Now i just need to figure out how to mash bed level again with Marlin, as the build in sensor just crashes the bed and i have some Strange offset between nozzle and bed. But im shure i will fix this soon

I suggest contacting the printer manufacturer. If the firmware was derived from Marlin, then the Marlin license requires that the source files be available, so you should demand that they be supplied to you. These sources will have valuable configuration information.

Alternate plan B would be to just build your own firmware from the publicly available Marlin sources. Easier if you have the configuration files from the manufacturer, but still possible without them.

Thanks for the great suggestions, i already contacted Anycubic today (no response up to now) and i will keep this in mind. I also thought about building my own Marlin firmware (or copy sombody elses work on to the chiron).
I hope to get a god answer from them, parallel to that i think i will start working on custom Marlin and will keep this thread up to date.

There is already a configuration available for the Chiron from Marlin - so it should just be a case of building it.

If you haven't already found it:
Configurations/config/examples/AnyCubic/Chiron at release-2.0.9.2 Β· MarlinFirmware/Configurations (github.com)

The link takes you to the config for Marlin 2.0.9.2, make sure to select the right version if you try and go back to that page.

1 Like

Update 03: (Fixed)

Took some time until i was able to flash new firmware (had things to print, power supply blew up and got replaced, etc...)

  • Fixed under voltage problems on Raspberry Pi (cable was not sufficient)

  • Flashed newest Marlin firmware (2.0.9.2) (Marlin Github) with the corresponding profile for the Anycubic Chiron (Marlin configs). I used the Visual studio Code plug-in to build and flash Marlin to my Chiron via USB-Cable (Installing Marlin).

  • Test prints now turn on the Part cooling fan and setting fan speed with the touch interface now also works while printing via Octoprint.

  • Now i just need to figure out how to mash bed level again with Marlin, as the build in sensor just crashes the bed and i have some Strange offset between nozzle and bed. But im shure i will fix this soon

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