Klipper random crashes without apparent cause

General Discussion
1

Basic Information:

Printer Model:
Sidewinder X1

MCU / Printerboard:
SKR 1.4

Host / SBC
Pi 3b
Mainsail
OctoApp
Crowsnest with ustreamer

klippy.log
Nothing identifiable, just a normal klipper restart with no apparent cause (at least to my eyes)

klippy (2).log (49.9 KB)
klippy (1).log (1.8 MB)

Describe your issue:

Hi, I have a chronic issue with the stability of the Pi I use to host Klipper, ever since I switched from Octoprint two months ago. The problem manifests itself in totally random crashes during any kind of operation. Most of the time it happens during printing, probably since that is the state the system finds itself in, but also during idle. The system just freezes up completely, with sometimes the green status led either staying on or occasionally blinking. During that state, the Pi is completely unresponsive and cannot be accessed over network. I also haven’t caught it recovering from this state yet. Sometimes it enters this state directly after boot up. You can see the status LED blink a few times, then it turns unresponsive and never shows up in the network. Unplugging fixes this most of the time.
When looking at the logs, which i do most of the time this happens, there is absolutely nothing remarkable about any of them - not in Klipper, not in Mainsail, Moonraker, Crowsnest or in any of the Linux logs if looked at. They just stop, sometimes in the middle of a writing operation, which suggests to me a general kernel instability issue.
I am running the original 2.5A 5.1V Pi power supply, which never caused any issues like this until the day I switched to Klipper. Of course, I then checked using many different power supplies, all with the same result. I even checked using an oscilloscope set to 4.8V trigger, waiting for a voltage drop, and never caught any. The next thing I tested, was a clean Linux installation and after that did not work, I bought a new SD card - which did nothing. After that, I only could think of an issue with the Pi onboard power supply or DRAM. So I bought a new Pi 3b (same revision 1.2) - which again did nothing.

At this point, I am almost out of options and close to just reverting to Octoprint. Because of this, I would be very glad for any kind of suggestion you might have.

        • Solution - - - -

I added additional cooling to the voltage regulator IC and haven’t had any issues since. In case they reappear, I will update my post.

2

Crazy, did you try without camera?

3

I had the same idea as well but could not detect any significant change in the crash probability. However, I am currently trying using an additional cooling fan. Up until now, I had it cooled with just two aluminium heat sinks on the nic and soc which thus far didn’t cause any problems. The Pi is inside a small duct which redirects the airflow coming from the Mainboard fan of my printer.

Since I have the additional fan running, I haven’t experienced any further crashes within the span of a few dozen printing hours. It could be that the voltage regulator ic is getting way hotter than before, due to the continuous load imposed by klipper instead of the short bursts of octoprint.

Currently, I would say the issue is resolved by the additional cooling but in case it is not, I will provide further updates.

1 Like
5

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