Form 4 Issue with sending print jobs to printer on network, printer is aborting and debris messages

I have been able to send two print jobs to the printer so far, but these were not without issue.

On the first use of the printer I was unable to send a print job. The printer would show the file was uploading but then on the printer screen after the progress bar would get to the end of the upload it would say the print was aborted.

Got onto the support chat and was not very helpful with feedback, giving me confusing information about a USB port that was not where they said it was. then they disconnected me on chat. Started a new chat and was told they would send me a support email, this was a couple of weeks ago now and still not got the support email.

ended up reverting the firmware to a previous version, then getting messages about the mother board not being able to communicate. updated to the latest firmware and then was finally able to send my first print via the network. was then able to send a second print, but was met with debris message. did a retry and it worked.

I have now been through the cleaning process, printer the cleaning layer, got resin filters 190 micron, poured out all the tank resin (grey V5) through the filter back into the bottle, removed the layer the tank screen, all looks good, no debris in the tank.

Went to send a print, and was unable to send it through the network (its connected to work network via ethernet), I can see all the printer info through the preform UI showing me the tank is installed, the bottle resin level, the build plate installed, but when I send the printer it fails. It shows on the printer screen as uploading the job, its gets to the end of the upload and shows an abort message.

I connected via the USB-C on the back and sent it locally, it uploaded first try, no issues.

Job started and again debris messages.

followed the cleaning guide and again gloved hand into the tank and cannot feel any debris at all, nothing under the wear strips, screen feel completed clean, can just feel the ripples of the lens surface.

Am I doing something wrong? Is my printer faulty? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The two prints I was able to send completed, with almost no imperfections, so very happy with the print quality, just seem to be having issues sending the print jobs and getting past the debris messages.

Hi @npilicencing
Thank you for getting in touch here on the forum.
I’m sorry that you haven’t received a message from us, maybe there was a mistake in taking your mail address and wherever we sent our outreach to, it didn’t reach you.

It seems like you already ticked off quite a lot of our guidance on the “Debris detected” message, but a few things I would still like to check are:
Power off the printer. Grip the mixer and slowly move it back and forth by hand, feeling for any changes in resistance. Are there any spots where the mixer moves easier/harder?
Run the Align Build Platform maintenance procedure.

For the firmware update error: It sounds like you already resolved this?
The error you encountered was likely a communications error, which can come up if the SOM and the Motherboard are not quite on the same level, this could also explain your issues when uploading files to your printer.
I’d recommend manually downgrading to an older firmware maybe something like 1.10.1 from December of 2024 and after this firmware was installed, to manually update to the most recent update 1.12.0 again.

Should you still get a lot of these debris errors and/or still having issues uploading files, I’d recommend you open a ticket with us in the services team, so we can go a little bit more in depth on these issues.

Kind regards
Jakob

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So i had this exact issue before and I was able to skip and keep printing but half of the build would fail until as Jacob said i ran the align build platform steps and it fixed all the issues.

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Thanks for the feedback. I will report back once I have time to implement your advice.

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Thank you. its good to hear that its not just my setup and there are reported fixes

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Just want to share our video for aligning the build platform on the Form 4 here. This will walk you through all of the steps to complete this process. I hope it helps!

Check it out here:

Please consider subscribing to the Formlabs Support Youtube channel so you can see our weekly uploads!

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