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Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print  

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michael.t28
(@michael-t28)
New Member
Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

Did a few prints yesterday with no issues and a few larger prints for a weather station today.

However, after printing for about 3-4 hours, the display showed a bunch of random characters and some odd "distortion" as if the display glitched out. Hit the red X to reset the printer but unfortunately that did not help.

All the display now shows are two lines with the block character.

I have done the following:

1) Checked the LCD wire (the one with the single black line on it. The cable is okay as I tested each individual wire with a multi-meter.
2) Checked all three fuses - all okay.
3) I can control the X-Y-Z motors using Octoprint (on a RPi 3 Model B connected to the USB port).
4) Did a factory reset (hit the X, release, then hold the control button down until the long beep then release)
5) Reflashed the firmware as noted here: https://help.prusa3d.com/l/en/article/vo6Ocztcs9-lcd-not-working

I did send an email to [email protected] for further support thought I post the same thing here in case somebody figured out how to fix this.

Mike

Posted : 09/04/2018 5:25 am
michael.t28
(@michael-t28)
New Member
Topic starter answered:
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

Did some further troubleshooting...

1) Swapped the two ribbon cables on BOTH ends, no improvement. Same beep on startup, etc.
2) Disconnected everything but the power and two ribbon cables, no change.

Posted : 09/04/2018 2:46 pm
Knickohr
(@knickohr)
Member Moderator
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

Have you zapped your display ?

ESD ?

Thomas

Posted : 09/04/2018 3:10 pm
michael.t28
(@michael-t28)
New Member
Topic starter answered:
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

Not that I recall.

I was wondering also if there was a way that I could test the display hooked up to an Arduino to confirm if it's the display or the board that is having the issue.

Posted : 09/04/2018 3:31 pm
Knickohr
(@knickohr)
Member Moderator
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

Such a display-board costs around US$ 10.

Search on ebay or other online stores : reprap lcd 2004 controller

But be carefull ! PRUSA has rotated the sockets on the board 180°. So the "nose" of the plug is upside down.

Thomas

Posted : 09/04/2018 3:38 pm
Nadim
(@nadim)
New Member
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

Hey, I just had the same thing happen on my new mk3 kit. It had been working for a week or two, plenty of successful prints with no problems at all. The printer was on and idle, just sitting there. I was working on something else, a few feet away, and I noticed a sudden flicker/change in the screen content... it went from a nominal readout to blocks. Similar pattern to yours, not identical.

I tried rebooting, resetting, re-seating the cable, nothing working so far. I was able to print through pronterface, so the printer seems to be functioning normally except for the LCD. Haven't tried swapping cables, that's next.

Did you hear back from Prusa, is this known issue with the LCDs (or I suppose it could be the EINSY board)?

Posted : 09/04/2018 11:54 pm
michael.t28
(@michael-t28)
New Member
Topic starter answered:
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

Never heard back from Prusa get. Yours looks like the display driver IC failing also. Fortunately the Smart Controller is pretty cheap and should be easy to replace and doesn't need to be the one from Prusa. Purchased the one from digimakers which works fine, there was another person that bought one off amazon.com and it too worked just fine.

https://www.digitmakers.ca/products/3d-printer-2004-lcd-smart-controller-display
https://www.amazon.ca/SODIAL-Display-Controller-Adapter-Printer/dp/B074FXT5GW

The other thing that probably got killed off by the static discharge is the filament sensor. Still getting 5V from the Einsy RAMBo board (and everything else tests just fine), I think I might try and hook up the filament sensor to an Adruino and see what's coming out of the clock/signal pins, probably nothing. Unfortunately it appears the only way I can get this part is from Prusa themselves but at least I can still use the printer.

Knowing how susceptible this is to static electricity, will need to sets up the printer to minimize the risk of damage from ESD.

Posted : 10/04/2018 4:39 am
Nadim
(@nadim)
New Member
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

I agree, that's what it looks like. I'm not sure how it would have been static that killed it though. I wasn't touching it when it failed, and the printer was idle, and had been for quite a while, so it wasn't building up charge due to movement of the bed or anything.
My filament sensor is still working properly, it was just the display. I'll try a new one, and see if lasts. If so, maybe just an infant mortality problem. If not, perhaps something is going on with the EINSY board that's killing the LCDs? Time will tell.

Posted : 11/04/2018 8:26 am
Nadim
(@nadim)
New Member
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

I agree, that's what it looks like. I'm not sure how it would have been static that killed it though. I wasn't touching it when it failed, and the printer was idle, and had been for quite a while, so it wasn't building up charge due to movement of the bed or anything.
My filament sensor is still working properly, it was just the display. I'll try a new one, and see if lasts. If so, maybe just an infant mortality problem. If not, perhaps something is going on with the EINSY board that's killing the LCDs? Time will tell.

Posted : 11/04/2018 8:27 am
Nadim
(@nadim)
New Member
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

I agree, that's what it looks like. I'm not sure how it would have been static that killed it though. I wasn't touching it when it failed, and the printer was idle, and had been for quite a while, so it wasn't building up charge due to movement of the bed or anything.
My filament sensor is still working properly, it was just the display. I'll try a new one, and see if lasts. If so, maybe just an infant mortality problem. If not, perhaps something is going on with the EINSY board that's killing the LCDs? Time will tell.

Posted : 11/04/2018 8:27 am
nuno.m2
(@nuno-m2)
Eminent Member
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

I'm having this same issue.
Just finished the assembly and on first power up the screen got the blank squares like the OP shows.

Updated firmware, swap cables, etc but nothing, nada, zero...
The printer works with Pronterface.

Reported on the chat, they're sending a new LCD next week.

Lucky me... 🙁

Posted : 20/04/2018 9:25 pm
nuno.m2
(@nuno-m2)
Eminent Member
Re: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

I guess it's not a "just change the LCD" issue.

Getting worried...

Posted : 20/04/2018 10:02 pm
tomatis
(@tomatis)
Active Member
RE: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

Printer: Prusa MK3S+ incl. MMU2S

Exactly the same effect here, it began to show garbage after/while it was printing (with no human intervention ;))
I walked too through all the above described (and suggested) procedures/tests with no effort/change with the time passed it got even worse: first the LCD showed the boot-screen and the firmware-flashing-screens fine but garbage on (more complex) init/info/menue-screens, now it's exactly as nadim.n ( https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/postid/76820/) posted
I contacted the support by the chat and after going through the verification steps (some videos, images, including the QR-code of the board the LCD is assembled on) they will send me a replacement.

Additional: Don't know if it has to do with: After the last firmware-update of the recently published firmware v. 3.11.0 I couldn't change to another language than english (when selected one and confirmed to upload it, it rebooted and showed the lang-selection menue again - "loopable" - till english was selected "as way to get out"). After some hard/factory resets and firmware down and upgrades finally one update did the trick and I could change to another language (german here). Well only some few prints later the above behavior began to "roll out" 😉

The printer generally still keeps working, XYZ-movements, (un)loading filament, heating etc. (well the Z-Alignment is set to zero as it is only adjustable with a working LCD, blindly I won't do that) so I hope it's really the lcd(/display-board/-controller) and not a memory problem or something worse on the main board or so.

Posted : 23/04/2022 4:26 pm
tomatis
(@tomatis)
Active Member
RE: Garbage displayed on the LCD after a print

Update: LCD replacement received and the problem is solved 😉

Posted : 29/04/2022 5:00 pm
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