USB Connection Failures When Using KISSlicer

[garr...@gmail.com]

For a month I have been printing 6-8 hours a day on my Mendel90 using Slic3r and Skeinforge with perfect USB reliablity. I just started using KISSlicer and already twice experienced the USB connection being dropped during a print. The machine just stops and Pronterface reports it cannot communicate with the printer. I can re-connect to the printer right away through Pronterface. I checked all wiring and it's tight. I started printing items sliced with Slic3r and the connection is stable again.

I have no idea how USB connectivity could be related to a software program except if there is some data overload issue maybe???

Does anyone know what could be going on here? Thanks.

Garry

[toranarod]

All I can tell you is I have a LeapFrog creator here.   Not my printer its here on loan because it does the same thing using the same software.

I never thought it could be KISSlicer.

 I will need to test this now. thanks.

[toranarod]

Oh one other thing The Mendel uses Arduino? same as the Leap-frog.

On Sunday, 27 April 2014 17:25:56 UTC+10, garr...@gmail.com wrote:

[garr...@gmail.com]

Yes. Arduino. Marlin. 

[lonesock (Jonathan)]

KISSlicer uses all available cores for slicing, so maybe there just isn't enough CPU left for processing the USB communication in a timely fashion?  How many cores is your machine?  I will try to add a simple option to  KISSlicer to leave a core free, or something.  

Jonathan

[giovanni...@gmail.com]

and what about changing manually the priority of the task into Windows to see if it goes better ?

[lonesock (Jonathan)]

OK, try the attached Win32 version...under Settings->Misc.->Slicing Threads.  It can go from 1 to the number of cores your machine has.  The actual percentage CPU usage (as reported by Task Manager) will probably not be the exact fraction of #threads / #cores, especially if the CPU has HyperThreading or similar.  For example, on my setup using 4 threads on an 8-core machine (or technically a 4-core with HyperThreading) yields about 70% CPU usage.

Jonathan

EDIT: I removed the attachment, the latest build is on the main 1.5 preview thread.

[garr...@gmail.com]

Thank you Jonathan,

My machine's spec are:

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
Intel Core i5 4430 @ 3.00GHz
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 800MHz (9-9-9-24)
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1

I hope I can get time to test your build today. Do I just install it without un-installing the current version? They can exist on the machine at the same time?

Best regards,

Garry

[lonesock (Jonathan)]

They can co-exist in the same place...just rename one of them.  (And you probably only want to run one at a time, so they don't fight over the INI files and such.)

Jonathan 

[garr...@gmail.com]

Perfect. Thank you. I have errands to do now but hope to test this later. Garry

[garr...@gmail.com]

I have printed 4-5 objects and had no problems with the USB connection. I will report later if the same issue occurs in the future but I'm thinking the problem is solved.  Thank you for helping me Jonathan. 

I am really liking KISSlicer. My machine prints so smooooooooth printing parts sliced with it. The only thing stopping me from using KISSlicer for most of my work is the inability to set top and bottom layer thickness independent of each other and independent of the side wall thickness. I really hope to see this one day. But even without that this is one sweet slicer.

Best regards,

Garry

[lonesock (Jonathan)]

Thanks, Garry!  That's on my ToDo list.  [8^)

Jonathan