I got this issue (Error 216) months ago and have been struggling with it since then, the Print Watcher warning stops me from finishing any print jobs even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with the setting, I’m certain because in the rare 1% occasion when the error 216 doesn’t show up, the print is successful.
I reached out to the support team and they just simply asked me to wipe clean the camera lens and window glass. I told them cleaning was done properly, and proved that the error was not caused by dirty camera lens/window by removing the entire optical window panel (the error persisted).
Then Formlabs’ response is: either I purchase another refurbished Fuse 1 printer, or pay over 3,000 USD to replace the camera because it’s a “non-standard component” without any guarantee of resolving the issue (yes, they don’t even know if replacing the camera will solve the problem or not, and have the guts to charge me 3K USD for a single camera lens).
I was astonished to see such absurd proposal coming from a mature business. They seem to really believe that a beta tester who paid 40K USD for a single Fuse 1 deserves to be treated as a lab rat without considering any ROI. Imagine how you would feel when you bought a vehicle with a faulty igniter, and the sales person told you to pay 1/10 the vehicle price for replacing it, or “go buy yourself another car”, this is pure arrogance.
I even submitted a feature request through their support to add an option to disable the print watcher during printing so I can bypass that error, at least I can make this expensive money-eater to print something, and no response.
So I want to make the request here again publically to see if it makes any difference:
I want to add an option to disable the Print Watcher.
Alternatively, I want to add an option to fine tune the brightness/contrast of the camera feed so I can get rid of the false alarm of Error 216.
Hi @facfox, we’re sorry that your Fuse camera issues are persisting, and appreciate your feedback on the feature request for dismissing the print watcher.
Looking into this with the team, it looks like we had an active case opened that started on the 18th about this, so the best thing you can do is either jump back in there to share more info with our teammate so they can pick up the thread again or if you prefer, we’re happy to reach back out to you to move things forward. Thanks!
It’s not solved yet, just went back from holidays and waiting for the field maintenance to investigate the issue, will keep you updated of the final result.
So here’s the final result:
The camera too dark issue is caused by the darker color of the 3rd party powder (I have the OML of course), when I switch the powder to the official formlabs PA12, the problem was gone, but this is not a “solution”, the camera brightness check should have been optimized when Open Mode is on so that 3rd party powders can really be used.
To me it’s a bug, and Formlabs seems not to be willing to apply a patch for it till now. They did switch the cameras for me for free but it didn’t solve the issue.
LOL, maybe you can consider sticking a film with darker color onto the camera window glass and see how it goes. I’ve also thought about tweaking the camera window brightness to make it lighter but couldn’t find a way, making it darker is obviously easier
Interestingly, if i run a print using formlabs nylon 12 white profile, with no changes, the print proceeds just fine. It doesnt make anything useful because the settings arent compatible but the machine operates as expected. Its only in open material mode that it doesnt function.
I dont know if youre willing to do the same test with a fromlabs profile but that would eliminate the possibility of it being a camera hardware issue, not that there is any doubt for you.
