can't connect to the printer backend server

[laren76]

Hi there,

Found the freerange printer project, thought it was interesting and shouldn't be that hard to DIY, bought everything I needed and followed the "Making your own printer" tutorial step by step.
(FYI I have very little knowledge about electron and programming. ^^;; )

After everything was done,I tried to connected the printer backend server, well,"Sorry, I haven't seen any printers connect from near you."
So I loaded the sketch (https://github.com/freerange/printer/blob/master/printer.ino) again (already changed to the Ethernet Shield's MAC address when taught in step 2 of the tutorial)
When finished uploading the printer sketch,the 3 LED flashed for one second only, more than 20 seconds later,the red LED flashed 3 time then kept lighting all the way. what did I do wrong?? 
Any other information I can provide to help to solve the problem? Thanks in advance

Laren

[Alan]

Hello Lauren, I had exactly the same issue when setting up my printer for the first time yesterday. I first had it connected to the router via ethertnet, which had the red LED on constant, then I connected to may Mac via ethernet and turned on Internet and web sharing. This didn't work so I connected USB as well as Ethernet and reuploaded the Sketch - and Bam this worked.

But then it stopped working, I traced this down to the USB and ethernet both needing to be connected. I'm not sure why it needs the USB cable connected as well as Ethernet. If I disconnect the USB and do not click reset the yellow led flashes as normal until data is sent and the yellow lights up constantly but it never prints.

Maybe try with a USB cable connecting the Arduino and your computer.

My setup:
- Arduino UNO + Ethernet shield
- Adafruit thermal printer
- All components from Oomlout
- Power supply from google (link from components lit)
- 4GB micro SD (formatted to FAT 32)

[aideen]

A power issue?

Aideen

[Alan]

INPUT: 100 - 240V~

50-60Hz 0.5A

OUTPUT: 5V - 2500mA

The LEDs get brighter when the USB is connected.

[Alan]

Since reconnecting this morning, the Yellow LED is flashing every ten seconds and the "Printer Backend Server" is finding the printer but when I send a print test or use the registered print page for the printer http://printer-mail.herokuapp.com/send/Stumpy it doesn't pick up the data.

It also has an odd electric burning smell (not sure if that is normal) 

On Saturday, September 1, 2012 9:18:07 AM UTC+1, laren76 wrote:

[James Adam]

Hi,

Apologies, I think I might've caused an issue with the server last night. It should all be working again now.

- James

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[James Adam]

On 1 Sep 2012, at 09:18, laren76 <lar...@gmail.com> wrote:

So I loaded the sketch (https://github.com/freerange/printer/blob/master/printer.ino) again (already changed to the Ethernet Shield's MAC address when taught in step 2 of the tutorial)
When finished uploading the printer sketch,the 3 LED flashed for one second only, more than 20 seconds later,the red LED flashed 3 time then kept lighting all the way. what did I do wrong?? 
Any other information I can provide to help to solve the problem? Thanks in advance

Three flashes of the LED means that the Arduino didn't manage to get an IP address from your local DHCP server[1]. How are you connecting the Arduino to the internet?

- James

[1]: https://github.com/freerange/printer/blob/master/printer.ino#L130

[Alan]

That would explain it - just a note that the printer backend sample.html doesn't seem to be working it cannot find page - http://printer.gofreerange.com/preview/show/376dbcfcf0e4102bf9514ab7eca6a4f3

Not sure if this is also to do with it.

[James Adam]

On 1 Sep 2012, at 12:18, Alan <al...@saneandable.co.uk> wrote:

> That would explain it - just a note that the printer backend sample.html doesn't seem to be working it cannot find page - http://printer.gofreerange.com/preview/show/376dbcfcf0e4102bf9514ab7eca6a4f3
>
> Not sure if this is also to do with it.

Ah, I broke that too. Apologies! It should be working again now.

- James

[James Adam]

On 1 Sep 2012, at 11:13, Alan <al...@saneandable.co.uk> wrote:

Hello Lauren, I had exactly the same issue when setting up my printer for the first time yesterday. I first had it connected to the router via ethertnet, which had the red LED on constant, then I connected to may Mac via ethernet and turned on Internet and web sharing. This didn't work so I connected USB as well as Ethernet and reuploaded the Sketch - and Bam this worked.

I've seen our Arduino Uno + Ethernet shield setup be temperamental without the USB connected too, but I haven't figured out what causes that yet, or indeed if it's something wrong with the software or just with the unit.

Did you turn on the DEBUG flag in the sketch? Is there any output when you open the Serial Monitor in the Arduino IDE?

- James

[laren76]

Hi James,

I had a usb cable connected Arduino Uno with my desktop,an Ethernet cable connected Ethernet Shield with my ADSL modem(directly), power supply connected Uno and the thermal printer.

[laren76]

this time I tried connecting an ethernet cable to a wifi router. Again, when connecting the 3 LED blinked one second, afterward, the yellow LED flashed every few seconds.
still can't figure out why I can't connect to the network.

[James Adam]

The yellow light flashing ever 10 seconds is normal behaviour; the yellow LED indicates communication with the server. Is the problem that your printer is never appearing when you visit http://printer.gofreerange.com/my-printer ?

- James

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[Alan]

Hello James,

I have run with the DEBUG enabled:

With USB connected and serial monitor open it gave this:

1499: ID: 3e2q6f6v8q4w3q1i

3004: IP: 192.168.2.2

3013: Attempting to connect to printer.gofreerange.com

3110: Waiting for data

3110: Waiting for data

3111: Waiting for data

3118: Waiting for data

3173: Content length: 0

3187: Waiting for data

3193: Waiting for data

3219: Waiting for data

3244: Waiting for data

3268: Waiting for data

3294: Waiting for data

3318: Waiting for data

3343: Waiting for data

3368: Waiting for data

3393: Waiting for data

3419: Waiting for data

3443: Waiting for data

3468: Server disconnected

3520: Bytes: 0

3520: Duration: 515

When I just disconnected the USB it stopped, no error message but nothing more happened in serial monitor. Amber LED still keeps flashing every 10 seconds, until I send a message via printer mail, then the red LED flashes three times and stays on.

I then closed serial monitor, disconnected the USB and then tried reopening serial monitor and sketch gave this error (not sure how useful this part is).

processing.app.SerialNotFoundException: Serial port '/dev/tty.usbmodemfd121' not found. Did you select the right one from the Tools > Serial Port menu?

at processing.app.Serial.<init>(Serial.java:191)

at processing.app.Serial.<init>(Serial.java:92)

at processing.app.SerialMonitor.openSerialPort(SerialMonitor.java:207)

at processing.app.Editor.handleSerial(Editor.java:2447)

at processing.app.Editor$17.actionPerformed(Editor.java:665)

at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2028)

at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2351)

at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:387)

at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:242)

at javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(AbstractButton.java:389)

at com.apple.laf.ScreenMenuItem.actionPerformed(ScreenMenuItem.java:95)

at java.awt.MenuItem.processActionEvent(MenuItem.java:627)

at java.awt.MenuItem.processEvent(MenuItem.java:586)

at java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEventImpl(MenuComponent.java:337)

at java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEvent(MenuComponent.java:325)

at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:687)

at java.awt.EventQueue.access$000(EventQueue.java:85)

at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(EventQueue.java:643)

at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(EventQueue.java:641)

at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)

at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(AccessControlContext.java:87)

at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(AccessControlContext.java:98)

at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(EventQueue.java:657)

at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(EventQueue.java:655)

at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)

at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(AccessControlContext.java:87)

at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:654)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:296)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:211)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:201)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:196)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:188)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)

[James Adam]

The serial monitor won't work at all without the USB connected, so I'm not so worried there.

I can see your printer making regular requests to the server, some of them with content - is anything printing right now? With the USB and serial monitor running, when you try to print content do you see messages about "Content length" greater than 0?

- James

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[laren76]

Yeah, I know that yellow light flashing every 10 seconds is normal according to the tutorial. Nope my printer is never appearing when I visit the gfr printer url. :(
BTW when I first connected everything and uploaded the printer sketch again,the green,yellow,red LED flashed at the same time for one second,is it normal or just like you mentioned above "Arduino didn't manage to get an IP address from your local DHCP server" ?

[James Adam]

On 1 Sep 2012, at 18:54, laren76 <lar...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Yeah, I know that yellow light flashing every 10 seconds is normal according to the tutorial. Nope my printer is never appearing when I visit the gfr printer url. :(

Do you know what your printer ID is? And what IP address it has been given? You can find this out by uploading the sketch with the DEBUG flag on, and then opening the Serial Monitor in the Arduino IDE.

> BTW when I first connected everything and uploaded the printer sketch again,the green,yellow,red LED flashed at the same time for one second,is it normal or just like you mentioned above "Arduino didn't manage to get an IP address from your local DHCP server" ?

It's normal for all three LEDs to come on when the sketch starts; that's just a self-test to ensure that all the LEDs are actually working.

- James

[Alan]

Hello James,

Yes the printer is working fine (thanks for the tutorial), but only when connected via USB to the computer, which isn't a major issue it just means I have to have a computer always on for the printer to work.

The content length increased when data was sent to the printer see below:

143ting for data

3369: Waiting for data

3394: Waiting for data

3420: Waiting for data

34data

3319: Waiting for data

3345: Waiting for data

3369: Waiting for data

3394: Waiting for data

3420: Waiting for data

341499: ID: 3e2q6f6v8q4w3q1i

3004: IP: 192.168.2.2

3013: Attempting to connect to printer.gofreerange.com

3112: Waiting for data

3112: Waiting for data

3112: Waiting for data

3120: Waiting for data

3175: Content length: 0

3188: Waiting for data

3195: Waiting for data

3220: Waiting for data

3246: Waiting for data

3270: Waiting for data

3296: Waiting for data

3320: Waiting for data

3345: Waiting for data

3371: Waiting for data

3395: Waiting for data

3420: Waiting for data

3445: Waiting for data

3470: Server disconnected

3519: Bytes: 0

3519: Duration: 514

13543: Attempting to connect to printer.gofreerange.com

13636: Waiting for data

13636: Waiting for data

13637: Waiting for data

13646: Waiting for data

13704: Content length: 0

13717: Waiting for data

13725: Waiting for data

13752: Waiting for data

13777: Waiting for data

13804: Waiting for data

13830: Waiting for data

13855: Waiting for data

13882: Waiting for data

13907: Waiting for data

13933: Waiting for data

13960: Waiting for data

13985: Waiting for data

14012: Waiting for data

14038: Server disconnected

14092: Bytes: 0

14093: Duration: 555

24114: Attempting to connect to printer.gofreerange.com

24205: Waiting for data

24205: Waiting for data

24206: Waiting for data

24215: Waiting for data

24272: Content length: 0

24286: Waiting for data

24294: Server disconnected

24346: Bytes: 0

24346: Duration: 238

34370: Attempting to connect to printer.gofreerange.com

34464: Waiting for data

34464: Waiting for data

34465: Waiting for data

34475: Waiting for data

34501: Waiting for data

34527: Waiting for data

34552: Waiting for data

34610: Content length: 5441

34894: Waiting for data

34894: Waiting for data

34895: Waiting for data

34905: Waiting for data

34931: Waiting for data

34957: Waiting for data

34983: Waiting for data

36057: Waiting for data

36058: Waiting for data

36058: Waiting for data

36068: Waiting for data

36093: Waiting for data

36120: Waiting for data

36146: Waiting for data

36171: Waiting for data

36198: Waiting for data

36224: Waiting for data

36250: Waiting for data

36276: Waiting for data

36301: Waiting for data

36328: Waiting for data

36354: Waiting for data

36380: Waiting for data

36406: Waiting for data

36431: Waiting for data

36458: Waiting for data

36484: Waiting for data

36509: Waiting for data

36536: Waiting for data

36561: Waiting for data

36588: Waiting for data

36614: Waiting for data

36639: Waiting for data

36749: Waiting for data

36750: Server disconnected

36785: Bytes: 5441

36786: Duration: 2421

39934: Attempting to connect to printer.gofreerange.com

40030: Waiting for data

40031: Waiting for data

40031: Waiting for data

40041: Waiting for data

40097: Content length: 0

40112: Waiting for data

40120: Waiting for data

40146: Waiting for data

40172: Waiting for data

40198: Waiting for data

40224: Waiting for data

40250: Waiting for data

40275: Waiting for data

40302: Waiting for data

40328: Waiting for data

40354: Waiting for data

40380: Waiting for data

40406: Waiting for data

40432: Server disconnected

40488: Bytes: 0

40489: Duration: 574

[laren76]

Hi James,

Sorry, I don't quite understand how to have the DEBUG flag on when uploading the sketch, I saw this term in previous threads,tried googling it and searching Arduino official site, but got nothing.
Please tell me how to enable it.
thanks!

[Martin Daniel]

Hi,  you just need to uncomment the debug line in the arduino sketch.

Martin

On Sep 2, 2012 7:27 AM, "laren76" <lar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi James,

Sorry, I don't quite understand how to have the DEBUG flag on when uploading the sketch, I saw this term in previous threads,tried googling it and searching Arduino official site, but got nothing.
Please tell me how to enable it.
thanks!

On Sunday, September 2, 2012 2:02:57 AM UTC+8, James Adam wrote:

>
> On 1 Sep 2012, at 18:54, laren76 <lar...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

> > Yeah, I know that yellow ligh...

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/gfr-printer/-/7wc1ipE9p3kJ.

To post to this group, send an email to gfr-p...@googlegroups.com.

To unsubscribe from this grou...

[James Adam]

On 2 Sep 2012, at 11:12, Martin Daniel <martin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,  you just need to uncomment the debug line in the arduino sketch.

Sorry, I don't quite understand how to have the DEBUG flag on when uploading the sketch, I saw this term in previous threads,tried googling it and searching Arduino official site, but got nothing.

Please tell me how to enable it.
thanks!

As Martin says, it's simply uncommenting a line in the Arduino sketch:

https://github.com/freerange/printer/blob/master/printer.ino#L38

- James

[laren76]

yeah, thanks Martin. Just did it.

got the message.  (Ethernet Shield connected to my wifi router)

1499: ID: 6f6s8h7v1y5i8y0t
3300: IP: 10.0.1.4
3313: Attempting to connect to printer.gofreerange.com
3804: Waiting for data
3804: Waiting for data
3804: Waiting for data
3811: Waiting for data
3835: Waiting for data
3861: Waiting for data
3886: Waiting for data
3910: Waiting for data
3936: Waiting for data
3960: Waiting for data
3986: Waiting for data
4011: Waiting for data
4035: Waiting for data
4061: Waiting for data
4085: Waiting for data
4110: Waiting for data
4135: Waiting for data
4160: Waiting for data
4186: Waiting for data
4210: Waiting for data
4235: Waiting for data
4260: Waiting for data
4285: Waiting for data
4310: Waiting for data
4335: Waiting for data
4360: Waiting for data
4385: Waiting for data
4410: Waiting for data
4465: Content length: 0
4480: Waiting for data
4486: Server disconnected
4921: Bytes: 0
4921: Duration: 1621

[James Adam]

Is your printer active right now? I'm watching the logs to see if I can match up your IP with the printer's IP.

- James

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[laren76]

I was away,but it is active now.

[James Adam]

OK, now try to make some requests to both:

http://printer.gofreerange.com/my-printer

and

http://printer.gofreerange.com/archive/6f6s8h7v1y5i8y0t

- James

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/gfr-printer/-/g7kD2FGC5MgJ.

[laren76]

On Sunday, September 2, 2012 8:17:01 PM UTC+8, James Adam wrote:

OK, now try to make some requests to both:

http://printer.gofreerange.com/my-printer

still can't connect to it. server can't find my printer
 

and

http://printer.gofreerange.com/archive/6f6s8h7v1y5i8y0t

It was blank.

Could it be something wrong with my setting?? I only changed the MAC address in the printer.ino,the other hardware set up just followed the tutorial.

[James Adam]

Short answer: I've added some new behaviour to the server, and now you can visit http://printer.gofreerange.com/my-printer/<printer-id> - i.e. http://printer.gofreerange.com/my-printer/6f6s8h7v1y5i8y0t

Longer, better answer:

So, here's the problem. Your printer and your computer appear to the server as coming from different IP addresses:

114.47.86.139 - - [02/Sep/2012 13:29:41] "GET /printer/6f6s8h7v1y5i8y0t HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0027

125.230.208.207 - - [02/Sep/2012 13:29:44] "GET /archive/6f6s8h7v1y5i8y0t HTTP/1.1" 200 1348 0.1588

The first line is the connection that your printer is making; the software caches that IP, and when your browser makes a request, it looks for any printers that have connected from the same IP, but because your computer appears  (from the server's perspective) to come from a different IP, it doesn't think that you're in the same place as any other printer.

This "find a printer using the IP" was a quick solution to the hard problem of associating people and their printers, but it's not the best solution. At some point in the future, I'd like to add proper user accounts to the server, so that people can still see their printers even when they're not on the same network, but I can't say exactly when that will happen.

It's also worth noting that you can't really do very much from this printer page at the moment anyway - just adjust darkness and a few other settings. You can construct your print URL knowing just the ID.

Anyway - hope that helps!

- James

On 2 Sep 2012, at 13:08, laren76 <lar...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/gfr-printer/-/g7kD2FGC5MgJ.

[laren76]

Thanks for the help, James!  :)

[laren76]

Alan,

Just got a MacBook Pro,so I immediately tried your method, (well, Mountain Lion "hide" the web sharing function,but I found a tutorial how to turn it on) 

yeah, it works now! Just want to say thanks! Of course James helped a lot too, he explained all.

Laren

Alan於 2012年9月1日星期六UTC+8下午6時13分00秒寫道：

Hello Lauren, I had exactly the same issue when setting up my printer for the first time yesterday. I first had it connected to the router via ethertnet, which had the red LED on constant, then I connected to may Mac via ethernet and turned on Internet and web sharing. This didn't work so I connected USB as well as Ethernet and reuploaded the Sketch - and Bam this worked.

But then it stopped working, I traced this down to the USB and ethernet both needing to be connected. I'm not sure why it needs the USB cable connected as well as Ethernet. If I disconnect the USB and do not click reset the yellow led flashes as normal until data is sent and the yellow lights up constantly but it never prints.

Maybe try with a USB cable connecting the Arduino and your computer.

My setup:
- Arduino UNO + Ethernet shield
- Adafruit thermal printer
- All components from Oomlout
- Power supply from google (link from components lit)
- 4GB micro SD (formatted to FAT 32)

On Saturday, September 1, 2012 9:18:07 AM UTC+1, laren76 wrote:

Hi there,

Found the freerange printer project, thought it was interesting and shouldn't be that hard to DIY, bought everything I needed and followed the "Making your own printer" tutorial step by step.
(FYI I have very little knowledge about electron and programming. ^^;; )

After everything was done,I tried to connected the printer backend server, well,"Sorry, I haven't seen any printers connect from near you."

So I loaded the sketch (https://github.com/freerange/printer/blob/master/printer.ino) again (already changed to the Ethernet Shield's MAC address when taught in step 2 of the tutorial)
When finished uploading the printer sketch,the 3 LED flashed for one second only, more than 20 seconds later,the red LED flashed 3 time then kept lighting all the way. what did I do wrong?? 
Any other information I can provide to help to solve the problem? Thanks in advance

Laren

[James Adam]

Glad you got it working :)

- James

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[Ray Rahardja]

Hi James,

I've been wandering the group in search of a solution to a similar problem, everything works fine as i followed the instructions from the tutorial. I've also been instructed to activate the debug flag, what I'm left with is this message in the arduino serial monitor:

€ ~˜f f1499: ID: 1u4v1t6r6j7n3s4a

3022: IP: 192.168.3.2

3035: Attempting to connect to printer.exciting.io

3220: Waiting for data

3220: Waiting for data

3221: Waiting for data

3227: Waiting for data

3253: Waiting for data

3277: Waiting for data

3302: Waiting for data

3328: Waiting for data

3352: Waiting for data

3405: Content length: 0

3409: Waiting for data

3428: Server disconnected

3576: Bytes: 0

3576: Duration: 553

13584: Attempting to connect to printer.exciting.io

Does anybody know why this is happening? Does it have to do with not enough power? (I've had it plugged into the power supply as well as the USB. 

Thanks,

Ray

[James Adam]

Hi Ray,

In the case of the logging that you pasted below, that’s actually normal behaviour. The “Content length: 0” is telling us that the printer server didn’t have any data for your printer at this time.

If you’re having trouble seeing your printer when you visit http://printer.exciting.io/my-printer, you can also try http://printer.exciting.io/my-printer/1u4v1t6r6j7n3s4a which should work regardless of how your network is laid out (this was the issue in some of the messages earlier in this thread). That second URL is just the normal URL with your printer ID (which you can see at the top of the logging) added at the end.

Does that help?

— James

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