Printer randomly stops printing

AstroBox Troubleshooting
#1

Hi,

I have a k8200 printer connected to my raspberry pi 3 b, I use slic3r as my slicer.

Connected into my pi is the printer, creative labs chat hd camera, dongle for my rii i8s keyboard and a 3.5 inch touch screen.

The pi is powered using a 4m micro usb cable into a usb mains plug.

Now not on every print, it seems to be the longer prints, the printer pauses/stops printing during the print, sometimes I can press the pause and then resume and it carries on, the majority of the time when it happens I press pause and it tells me the astrobox has lost the connection to the printer.

I press the connect to printer button and it reconnects but I have to start the print again.

I tried a different mini usb cable to the printer and had the same issue.

The only other thing I can think is the pi isnt getting enough power using the 4m cable.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, everything is working great apart from this issue.

#2

Please read this guide: https://astroprint.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001797403-Why-does-my-printer-disconnect-in-the-middle-of-a-print-

That cable seems a bit long.

#3

Ive seen that guide, im going to try a dedicated power supply for the pi over a shorter distance, will also try a shorter cable to the printer…

From your experience would you say it is probably the cable length causing an issue.

#4

Insufficient power amperage and cable quality/length are the two leading causes of communications errors (which cause print stops)

#5

Ok, cheers, I will report back once I have tried the different cables.