Network unstable timeouts and connectivity issues - Android iOS and SnOrca

U1 Toolchanger
1

Is anyone else having problems with what seems like network connectivity issues using the Android app, the iOS app, and SnOrca?

NO matter if I use the Android App, the iOS app or SnOrca,
I often get time out messages, network unstable messages, and other unstable features all related to the network.

It’s been happening since I first received my U1, and with three different versions of firmware (I’m now on version 1.2.0) and two different versions of SnOrca (now on 2.3.0), Android app is version 2.2.3.

My WiFi signal strength is excellent. I have a 1gbs connection to the internet.

This has been very frustrating and is one thing that makes use of the Snapmaker U1 very frustrating! It’s just not reliable.

It seems the 2.3.0 version of SnOrca seemed to make it a bit better in that it seems to reconnect ok. But I still see these messages. For example, I turn on the camera and see “Request timeout - try again later”. but then i click again and it works. Or sometimes the message comes and the camera starts anyway!

Other times in SnOrca when I go to load and start a print, the U1 is not selected, and I have to reselect it. Then it doesn’t bring in the current filament list from the printer, so I have to do it over again. Other times it connects but the filaments are not there. A different time it may just work as it should!

I haven’t been successful to find is the cause of this at all. I can’t reproduce it at will, which makes solving this difficult at best.

Note my printer is about 15 ft (4.5 m) from my WiFi router and has excellent signal strength.
The front panel of the U1 shows full WIFi signal strength.

My router says the U1 has great (full) signal strength of -47 dBm, and a TX/RX 72.2 Mbps connection.

None of my other cloud type printers have any issues at all, using the same router, even though they are further from my router.

My U1 is on my main WiFi network and not on any iOT VLAN, nor VPN or other such things that could possibly cause an issue. However, it’s a typical home network so everything is behind the usual NAT type firewall, as is everything else at home.

Who else see similar problems? I sure would like to get this nagging problem solved!

Where is the internal WiFi antenna, or WiFi module located? If many others are not having this issue, i wonder if I have a loose WiFi antenna connection or something related to the WiFi on my U1.

Thanks for any useful ideas!

1 Like
2

Being that close, it should be easy to try an Ethernet cable (using a dongle) and see whether the experience improves. This will at least demonstrate whether the WiFi stack is to blame or if it’s something else.

3

Good idea. I’ll have to get a dongle to perform some tests.

Is anyone else seeing issues like this?

I edited the title for more clarity to the main issue.

4

I now have tested with a dongle and hardwired Ethernet to the U1, same problems.

1 Like
5

I suggest changing the environment directly and running a comparison test using elimination.

For example, turn off your current Wi-Fi (to rule out Wi-Fi network issues), connect both the computer and the machine to your phone’s hotspot, and move them to a separate room farther away (to eliminate environmental uncertainties). This way, you might be able to rule out several factors at once.

What I can think of so far:

1. Network issues？

2. router problems?

3. Some kind of environmental interference?

4.machine issue？

You can submit a ticket at the same time in case the technical staff or fellow users in the forum don’t respond promptly.

6

I’ve been testing this…

I tried everything. My Wi-fi signal is very strong.

Everything else is good.

I even tried Ethernet hardware using a USB network dongle.

Today it seems surprisingly better as I was up at 3AM! I’m not sure if Snapmaker made a change on their end somehow? I haven’t tried a traceroute yet as I don’t have any IP addresses to check. Without the cloud services IP addresses, it’s hard to do some route checking.

I didn’t do anything different, so I’m not sure why it seems better this morning.

Maybe because I was awake early this morning before the USA wakes up and the problem is with the cloud services or network traffic?

I have a support ticket sent and have already sent the logs.

This is making the Snapmaker software environment very unstable and frustrating, the Android & iOS apps and also SnOrca!

Not to sound like ‘that guy’, but all of my other equipment (other vendors) work perfectly, even with their cloud services. Not a single glitch.

Actually, I was trying to see if it’s a printer hardware problem, possibly a loose Wi-Fi antenna connection or something? I haven’t found where the location of the U1 WiFi antenna is located to see if there is a loose connector or something else to check?

The U1 printer shows a full-strength Wi-Fi signal strength on the front panel.

Also, my router (an Asus GT-BE98 Pro) shows an excellent full-strength signal from the U1 to the router, and has a 72.2 Tx/Rx speed.

Nothing else in my environment has any problems, only the U1.

Asking online in the Facebook U1 forums, others say they see the same thing.

That’s why I thought to come here to see if anyone here is experiencing the same.

Thanks for your ideas!

1 Like
7

Understood. You can contact technical support directly; they may have more experience in this area.

9

Yo estoy teniendo exactamente los mismos inconvenientes con la conexión wifi, pareciera que estuvieses hablando de mi impresora en concreto, dudo que sean casos aislados.

I’m having the exact same problems with the wifi connection; it seems like you’re talking about my printer specifically. I doubt these are isolated cases.

1 Like
10

I suggest that everyone having issues like this open a support case.

They will ask for log files.

I’m not having results yet, but they have my logs.

11

I’m now testing with the printer in LAN mode.

So far, with less than one day of testing, it seems much improved! I haven’t seen any of the error messages at all yet (after a few hours).

This seems to prove that it’s the cloud services or network path that is causing the problems.

It also shows that my Wi-Fi signal to my printer is not the problem (I have removed the hardware Ethernet dongle).

3 Likes
12

I sent in my logs I got sent a Google drive link with a new firmware, didn’t fix anything still got same issue others have

13

I don’t know if Snapmaker made any changes to the Cloud mode infrastructure, but in the last day or two it started working for me!

I switched back to Cloud mode to preform some tests for my support ticket and now it’s working!

So if you have been in LAN mode to work around these Cloud networking issues, perhaps try Cloud mode again to see if your problems are gone.

Now, if they could only get SnOrca to start up faster, I’d bee much happier! It’s so much slower to get load and be usable than Orca Slicer or Bambu Studio, even used on the same PC and network.

1 Like