1.3 Less Stable than 1.2?

#1

I’ve encountered several issues with 1.3 that I never encountered with 1.2. I’m curious if others have noticed this release seems to be less stable than 1.2.

  1. Zim reverting to non-printing UI when it is actually printing. When in this state, there is no way to cancel the print, since the UI does not think it is printing. In fact, you can control the printer platform, temperature, etc while it is printing, potentially causing serious side effects (like jamming the extruder through mixed commands). This occurred when using a very complex model, that sliced correctly btw.

  2. Zim losing network settings, requiring it to be reconfigure on the 10.0.0.1 wi-fi network to be usable. This occurred to me when clicking “Restart Zim” and “Shutdown Zim” (not “Reset Zim”).

  3. Zim unable to cancel printing, instead reverting to the printing screen each time “Cancel” is pressed. This required reconnecting a web browser to overcome.

  4. Zim wedging after clicking “Print”, losing subsequent web connectivity, and requiring power cycling the Zim to recover.

With the exception of item 2, these are all new to version 1.3 for me. As an embedded software engineer, this is a bit disturbing. It indicates QA and software expertise is struggling to meet the requirements of this product, and that Zeepro is focusing more on features like YouTube integration than they are on defects resolution and prevention. I’ve reported these issues to Zeepro, but if anyone else has been encountering new issues since running the 1.3 version, I’d encourage you to do the same. At the moment, 1.3 software appears to be going backward not forward, and I’m not sure it is possible to easily revert to 1.2 until the issues are resolved.

#2

I just updated from 1.1 to 1.3u1 today. So far it was working until it jammed. See other thread :wink: The only gripe I have so far is that the zim/pronterface# menu changed significantly and is now found at zim/extrusion_control. Would have been nice to see this in the release notes (which at least there ARE release notes… that’s good).

I agree the Youtube stuff is not very useful at this point… I’m not trying to use it at all.

Another thing that has always been an issue is the video on my is VERY laggy anyway. You can do something by the Zim and see it on video like 30 seconds later. Not quite “live”. I haven’t complained yet because it’s not really something that I need right now. I need stable operation out of the printer, and it’s a beta unit… so it needs attention on the basics.

I really hope I don’t encounter the things on your list @jpod, but if I do I’ll report back.

#3

I haven’t seen 1.3 yet, although I also haven’t had my printer on today and most of yesterday due to traveling. When did you guys get it pushed to you?

#4

It was a couple of days ago. You need to restart the printer and then you will get a notification that there is an update available in the web UI. It’s functional, but certainly seems more buggy than the previous version. A couple of more issues I noticed:

  1. Never hit the platform up/down control after triggering a bed leveling procedure. If you do, the Zim doesn’t re-zero the Z axis and subsequent bed leveling will be incorrect.

  2. Wedged printer after performing a prime sequence and then immediately trying to print. As the temperature was dropping from the priming 220C to the printing 200C temperature, the Zim appeared to wedge and required physically pulling the power to get back to it.

#5

I kind of preferred to level with the old zim/pronterface menu because it had 5 points. I would pick a corner using the visual “buttons” which would locate the print head at that x/y location. Then I would hit the HOME-Z button. Adjust the level thumbscrew, then drop the Z axis 50 steps. Then pick an adjacent corner and repeat.

The purpose of dropping the Z axis 50 steps was so that if the print head would not drag against the build plate as it moved around x/y. The current 3-point leveling procedure does this and I don’t like it.