Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?  

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Yes, I would recommend you upgrade it as soon as it appeared on the Prusa3d website. Some of the firmware releases are important because they add important and useful features to the printer. They are thoroughly tested and approved before they go on prusa’s website. It only takes a few minutes and i have never had anything break with a new firmware  release. 

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Prusa recommends it since they feel they fix more defects that they introduce; but I prefer the "wait and see" attitude along with a healthy "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Posted by: Tim

Prusa recommends it since they feel they fix more defects that they introduce; but I prefer the "wait and see" attitude along with a healthy "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.

Thanks Tim. 

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

You should at least stay out of the 3.5.1-3.7.0 range. That set had a boosted heat bed PWM frequency to reduce PSU clicking, but it also make parts on the einsy board overheat and fail. 

My rule is to read the release notes and see if what it fixes or adds as features. 

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Posted by: vintagepc

You should at least stay out of the 3.5.1-3.7.0 range. That set had a boosted heat bed PWM frequency to reduce PSU clicking, but it also make parts on the einsy board overheat and fail. 

My rule is to read the release notes and see if what it fixes or adds as features. 

Thanks. I am in the last chapter of building the printer from the kit (the pre-flight chapter). How can I tell which firmware is installed in my kit?

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

If you're building a new kit, then update to the most recent firmware is recommended. As far as I remember it's even a part of the building process.

I always check the change log and monitor the changes which are happening in the source code. Rule of thumb is if you have an older printer which is working fine for you, then keep it. Never change a running system. But if you're building something new or upgrading to something new, then the most recent firmware has usually less bugs/works better than older ones.

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

one of the first questions that Prusa Customer support  will ask, is whether you have loaded the latest firmware, as they don't want to be chasing issues that were resolved in the firmware updates

Regards Joan

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

While the fascination with the latest firmware sounds grand;  don't go flashing teh firmware until you have some time with the printer and know if there is some oddity.  The last thing you need or want to do is flash firmware as your first action.  If you do this, you have no clue if any issues are the hardware or software or simply a bad firmware flash.

Power up and run the printer.  Once you know the hardware is working, or even what part of the hardware is working, and you can identify some specific issue (which you probably won't find anything wrong), only then consider firmware.

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

I have a friend who belongs to the group that if it isn't broke done't fix it. And holds off of new firmware releases with his MK3 Prusa. He is currently two behind.  I used to believe in this policy. But now always update to latest firmware. Horses for courses.

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Posted by: peter.c20

Hi, for computer motherboards and some electronics devices, it is recommended not to upgrade the firmware unless there is something wrong because sometimes upgrading the firmware breaks the systems. How about PRUSA printers? Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware as soon as it is released, wait for awhile to see if there are some bugs or don't do it unless there is something wrong with the printer and the firmware addresses potential issues?

Peter,

First welcome to the world of 3D Printing and Prusa 3D.  Just wanted to make you feel welcome.  We are usually a happy bunch.  And we print a LOT of 3D parts.

When I built mine in March, I put the 1st update onto my MK3S after building a MK3 and upgrading to the MK3S.  My debugging wasn't bad and the printing was fantastic.  I followed the assembly instructions and read a LOT of the comments on the online assembly manual along with each step that I had questions about.  Especially the sections labeled MODERATE to COMPLICATED.  This helped with the assembly and the small bit of debugging that I went through.

The firmware installation wasn't difficult and I knew that if I had any trouble I could downgrade easily to test issues.  It is ALWAYS important to read the release notes and see if there are any early reported bugs in the code that might negatively affect your unique situation.  In the case of the LATEST release 3.7.2 there is a known bug that causes the printer to think that a power off is a power outage/disruption and makes a LOUD beep.

Should you not like that "feature",  you might not do the upgrade until it is fixed in the next release.  The same would be true if your printer came with the 3.7.2 release.  It's a matter of your choice as to whether the good outweighs the bad.

RAH

P.S. I have upgraded twice and currently run the 3.7.1 firmware release.

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

I am on 3.7.1, and seriously thinking of going back to a custom build of 3.6.2 ...

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Posted by: Tim

I am on 3.7.1, and seriously thinking of going back to a custom build of 3.6.2 ...

Tim,

I do use the custom start/end GCODE that you and Bob worked out.  It seems to satisfy my printing needs with 3.7.1.  Is there a REAL reason to go all the way back to 3.6.2?  Even custom?  Are you doing some SPECIAL materials?  Special circumstances?  MK2/MK2.5 upgraded to MK3/3S?  Old Einsy or even older controller?

Robin

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

There are some really annoying defects in 3.7.1 that drive me nuts.  But they are mostly avoidable.   Do NOT use Temp calibration; Do NOT use Bed correction.  These seem to corrupt mesh leveling.  And even 7x7 mesh leveling isn't as good as the defacto Marlin 7x7 that minout set up in his build of 3.6.x ... Prusa is doing something extra in their adoption of Lagranging interpolation that exacerbates edge errors to the point the firmware adjusts the rather good interp with a 35% factor; which reduces corrections where you need it for what I think is their way of managing the asymptotic behavior of a non-linear function when unknowns are included (the unmeasured offset outside the measured bed perimeter).  Back when I was doing real engineering I always accounted for this by adding linear estimates outside the measured area to keep the math at bay. 

Anyway - I am on a rant here and by no means encouraging people to follow me down that rabbit hole. 

But, my advice to not upgrade with new untested hardware is valid;  once you have sorted out the hardware is working to some nominal state, then if you encounter problems that ARE recognized as firmware caused, by all means do the upgrade as needed.  The "if it isn't broken" mantra applies, but sometimes, new features are also worth the price of admission.  

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

I heard from prusa that mine is 3.7.2. They said that there is no need to flash it now and new firmware will be out in a few weeks.

My printer can print the Prusa logo so I guess it is working. Thanks all, especially Tim and Joan for your help the past few weeks.

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Posted by: Tim

Do NOT use Temp calibration

I disagree; I have temp correction on/calibrated and it appears to be working fine.

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Posted by: vintagepc

Posted by: Tim

Do NOT use Temp calibration

I disagree; I have temp correction on/calibrated and it appears to be working fine.

Your bed must be extremely stable then, and not warp as the bed temp changes.  If the bed moves by a fraction of a mm, it corrupts the PINDA temp calibration.

Read this discussion for more info...

https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware/issues/1454

https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware/issues/1156

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Iiinteresting... Though in fairness I did inspect the results of the calibration and they seemed reasonable, within a small amount of each other. I did run it in an enclosure so that probably contributed quite a bit to thermal stability of the system.

But it sounds like I may as well turn it off and not bother waiting for the pinda to heat up at print start, saving some time now that we have 7x7.

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

How did you inspect the values. I've been lazy and not used Pronterface ... and the times I did try it for mesh level checks wasn't impressed with the variability of the numbers over time... felt like I was chasing unicorns.  But the commands for dumping EEPROM data must be around, and it seems Pronterface can do that I/O ...

RE: Is it recommended to upgrade the firmware whenever a new one is released?

Yeah, Pronterface. Or any serial terminal, really.

M861 ?

dumps the offset table. I saved it to a text file so I could re-load it later without needing to rerun the calibration.