MK4S Network Issues (on Wifi)
I just finished upgrading my 2 MK4's to MK4S's but I'm running into a strange issue with the network connection.
I'm only using Prusa Link. Both MK4Ss are connected via wifi. After I turn on the printer, I'll connect via the IP address and start to upload a bgcode file. When it gets near the end of the upload, around 90+%, it seems like the IP address gets refreshed with a new IP. So my upload never completes.
I've tried this over and over and it keeps doing the same thing. What ultimately appears to fix it is if I switch the network connection to "Eth"ernet and then back to "Wifi". Once it reconnects to wifi, I'll upload a bgcode file and it seems to finish just fine. This has happened two days in a row (I finished my MK4S upgrade 2 days ago).
The odd thing is, this happens, the same exact way, on both of my MK4S. They both get resolved the same way (switching to Ethernet and back to Wifi again). I've tried just resetting the printer using the reset button, but that doesnt appear to resolve the issue.
Has anyone seen similar behavior or anything close to this behavior?
Best Answer by Hesbas:
The latest alpha firmware refers to solving something like WiFi regression issues. May be that can help.
RE: MK4S Network Issues (on Wifi)
Did you ever get this resolved? I just finished my MK4S upgrade yesterday as well and I am having (similar?) network issues. I'll try your switch to Eth and back to Wifi solution. I noticed this first because my printer will not stay connected to Prusa Connect; pretty much always showing as OFFLINE.
RE: MK4S Network Issues (on Wifi)
The latest alpha firmware refers to solving something like WiFi regression issues. May be that can help.
RE: MK4S Network Issues (on Wifi)
The IP address is assigned by the WiFi router normally. Usually the router has a lease time of 86400 seconds or 24 hours. If smaller it could cause the problems listed. You need to set a static IP address for your printers MAC address in your router so it always uses the same IP address for the printer.
With the MK4 you can also assign a hostname to the printer via the network status screen. Example set it to Mymk4-1, Then you can address it with HTTP://Mymk4-1 for prusalink connection. This can also be used with PrusaSlicer when defining the physical printer.
I had failures loading files with PrusaLink and PrusaSlicer. Usually at the end of the file I got lost connection errors or file transfer errors. The cause was using a USB3 drive. I went back to a good quality USB2 drive and all the transfer problems went away. The Firmware supports USB2, but not USB3.
RE:
Yes, installing the new 6.3.0 alpha2 firmware did fix the issue with the WiFi.
For the record, here is what it was doing step by step:
1. Turn on MK4S printer
2. Wait for the WiFi icon to confirm it is connected to WiFi. I also double check the Network Status to make sure it had an IP address
3. Open up Chrome in my MacBook, connect to MK4S, attempt to upload a bgcode file via Prusa Link
4. Watch it as it gets near 100% before it fails and you get an error message at the bottom of the screen (can’t remember the wording at the moment)
5. Go check the MK4S and you can see its still on WiFi (the icon), but when you check Network Status you’ll see it got a new IP address for some reason
6. In my case this was very repeatable, every new attempt to upload a bgcode file would result in the MK4S disconnecting and getting a new IP address
But as I said above, the current alpha firmware resolves this issue